Over the summer I read an article about Markus Persson, the developer of the popular video game, Minecraft. In the article it stated that Persson had sold his video game company in the last year to Microsoft and amassed a fortune reaching well into the BILLIONS. Using some of the money from the sale of his company, he recently purchased a 23,000 square foot mansion in Beverly Hills for $70 million dollars! Yet despite his recent fortune, in a tweet this past summer, he confessed he wasn’t happy.
Reading through the article, I thought of King Solomon and many of the things he shares in the book of Ecclesiastes.
Life without God is vanity.
Now King Solomon, of anyone, should know the truth of that statement. After all, God blessed Solomon with wisdom and fortune. If money, success, fame and power could bring happiness to one’s life…well the book of Ecclesiastes would read a little differently.
But that’s what I LOVE about this book…it points directly back to the values of our world and claims…it’s all vanity. Anything apart from God is vanity.
And Solomon, the author of Ecclesiastes, should know. He had it all.
Though the book of Ecclesiastes was written thousands of years ago, the wisdom shared in it is relevant today.
After living a life where he denied himself nothing, Solomon writes Ecclesiastes with the hope and purpose to show the next generation that living a life apart from God is meaningless.
All this world has to offer is an empty life.
I can almost hear the sorrow through Solomon’s words as he looks back on his life and declares his heartbreak and disappoint in the choices he made and eternal investments he didn’t.
It’s almost as if he cups our faces in his hands, looks us square in the eyes and says,
“Don’t waste your life! Let me share with you what I’ve learned and spare you the heartache and disappointment I’ve felt over my poor choices…life without God is vanity.”
Though Solomon had it all, choice by choice, day by day, compromise by compromise…over time he drifted away from God. Learning from Solomon’s mistakes, we don’t have to repeat them. Where Solomon sought fulfillment from everything “under the sun”, we can choose to live our lives with an eternal purpose and thus live lives for “what’s above the sun.”
In the book of Ecclesiastes, we are going to read some of Solomon’s “stinkin thinkin.” Because Solomon took his eyes off of God and lived for himself, he regretfully came to the conclusion that chasing after the things of this world: power, position, pleasure and prestige leave one feeling empty. He had all the world had to offer and yet he didn’t have the one thing he wanted most…satisfaction from a life well lived. Because of his choices and living far from God, Solomon became pessimistic and skeptical as he aged. Sadly, he viewed life from the world’s perspective rather than God’s.
But sweet friends, we don’t have to make the same mistakes Solomon did! Ecclesiastes provides us with a wealth of lessons to focus our minds and hearts back on what truly matters…God.
Ohh I’m so excited you are joining us for these next eight weeks as we dig into Ecclesiastes together! What a powerful and timely study this will be!