Day 248

Ecclesiastes 10:1–12:14; 2 Corinthians 8:1-15; Psalm 49:1-20; Proverbs 22:20-21

ECCLESIASTES CAN SEEM full of pessimism and cynicism, so it’s helpful to look at what Solomon wrote from a subtractive perspective. Solomon looked back over his life with all its pursuits, challenges, injustices, and pleasures and found mainly useless activity. He had applied enormous amounts of energy to pursuing beauty and wisdom. He’d searched far and wide for answers to unanswerable questions —but still, he could not find what he was looking for (Ecclesiastes 7:28). So Solomon took a sobering look at it all and began subtracting everything from life that he found meaningless, concluding that without a fundamental awareness of a sovereign God, nothing makes any sense.

What can we learn from a man who had done it all and then had the wherewithal to step back and subtract everything that had no meaning? We find those conclusions in the final words of Ecclesiastes:

That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.

Solomon’s conclusion is essentially the same conclusion that the Bible reaches: Give your heart in surrender and reverence to God. Offer yourself in faithful and loyal worship and relationship. Honor God and do what He says to do. This is what everyone is supposed to do —and it is the only way we will find meaning.

Sit with this conclusion. This is coming from a man who had done everything a person could do and ultimately arrived here. As he considered the sum of a meaningful life, all that remained was an instruction that is just as stark today: We must fear God and obey Him.

How can we know if we are following this instruction? We have to observe ourselves. We have to slow down enough to ask ourselves, “Can I worship God in this?” “If I name what I am trying to do, can I find God in it?” “If I subtract everything else from my life, can I find God in it?” Because, if the great and wise King Solomon —and the Bible —come to this conclusion, we will never find meaning any other way.

And now that we have reached the ending of Ecclesiastes, we should notice something beautiful that the Bible has given us through Job and Ecclesiastes: some time to grapple with the hard questions that don’t have tidy answers without belief in the goodness and sovereignty of God. The Bible doesn’t shy away, because we need to grapple with the ways we are trying to find meaning, and we need to challenge what we think we know.

MEDITATION:

Why should I fear when trouble comes, when enemies surround me? They trust in their wealth and boast of great riches. Yet they cannot redeem themselves from death by paying a ransom to God.