"I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity. I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it?"
(Ecclesiastes 2:1-2).
In chapter one of Ecclesiastes and in the previous post about that chapter we saw that Solomon had broken fellowship with the Lord. He was backslidden. (Ecclesiastes 1:1 , Ecclesiastes 1:2 ). We saw that he had shifted his focus and lost sight of the Lord. (Ecclesiastes 1:3-11). We found that Solomon had given his heart to the world. (Ecclesiastes 1:12-18 ). A couple of post explored the results of all this a bit closer. (Ecclesiastes 1:10 , Ecclesiastes 1:18).
Now we come to chapter two and what do we find? We find a man who has shifted his focus to the world and given his heart to it now going completely against what he knows to be true. Solomon starts right off here, "I said in mine heart".
"I said in mine heart" is a long way from "He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered" (Proverbs 28:26). Of course we know "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? " (Jeremiah 17:9). Solomon did not have the benefit of Jeremiahs councel which despite being the wisest man who has ever lived, he probably could have used.
"I said in mine heart" one time, "God has failed me!". I had just gotten divorced. I was upset.
I said to myself, "Let's go for it--experiment with pleasure, have a good time!". Click This For Testimony . Have you ever turned yourself over to having a good time? Did you notice that trying to have a good time away from the Lord takes twice the effort for half the reward? It is no wonder that Solomon says, "and, behold, this also is vanity". I too came to the conclusion that what I was doing was pointless, there was nothing to it, nothing but smoke. It was all a fading wisp with no meaning and empty promises of things unattainable.
"I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it? " (Ecclesiastes 2:2). Do you know why the term "the pursuit of happiness" is called a pursuit and not a capture? No one ever will have it! Laughter? Sure, we may laugh. People may carry on outside the Lord. It's not real. Lost people do not know JOY!. Lost people do not have "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, (that) shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7).
You know what? Neither do we if we have shifted our focus from the Lord. Neither do we if we have taken our heart away. Neither do we if we are worldy and fleshy and walk after our own desires. The peace of God will be lifted from us.......but you know what else?........
........GOD IS GOOD!
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9). Solomon knew this too. "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." (Proverbs 28:13).
The problem with Solomon was he said in his heart and thus corvered his sins. How about you? What are you saying in your heart? Where is your joy today? Are you in "hot pursuit" or are you at rest in the Lord?
4 comments:
Often when we speak of the heart we are not speaking of the heart at all ... that is generally why I like to talk about the inner and outer man. Most believers (me included) really live their faith from their intellect - the outer man ... they confuse intellect with wisdom. I think that wisdom is an issue of the inner man. At some point in Solomon's life pride entered in and he began to live from the outer man ... small wonder he was discouraged.
What I love about wisdom is that you do not have to be smart to have it ... it is not about being intelligent. Don't you love it that God uses things foolish to man to confound those who think that they are wise?
Good thoughts on wisdom. I think of wisdom as being the character of God in action in our life.
Hello, I'm back. I'm really blessed with your blog and your desire to just glorify God with it. I share the same desire with you too. By the way, faithprints.com doesn't load on our browser and I don't know what happened. But if you wish to contact me, just open my friendster blog instead. Please pray for me, I feel like I don't have the peace of God, and so I think I'm starting to stray from Him. He just used your blog to convict me, and this just shows that your blog is really for His glory alone. God bless you and your internet ministry always! :)
"What are you saying in your heart?"
Good question. Even if we dont want to answer it, there is One who can, and He will also Judge us according to what He finds.
MDM
Post a Comment