Ecclesiastes 2:11-26

For Reading and Meditation:     Ecclesiastes 2:24-26

Oswald Chambers said: "No Christian makes much progress in the Christian life until he realizes that life is more chaotic and tragic than orderly." In other words, life in a fallen world can be tough! The sooner we face that fact and allow it to silence us, the fewer expectations we will have of the world, and...

For Reading and Meditation:     Ecclesiastes 2:17-23

When we face the fact that there is nothing in this world - no person, place or thing - that can meet the deepest ache in our soul is probably one of the most solemn moments of our existence. Many can't face that kind of reality so they escape into such things as fantasies, endless rounds of activity, drink,...

For Reading and Meditation:     Ecclesiastes 2:12-16

There are some who believe that the writer of Ecclesiastes had lost all objectivity when he wrote this book, and his pessimistic mood affected everything he looked at. As if anticipating that very argument, he says in verse 9: "In all this my wisdom stayed with me." Disillusioned though he was with the fact that...

For Reading and Meditation:     Ecclesiastes 2:1-11

If education, intellectualism and philosophy are not the routes to making life work - then what is? Perhaps life can be found in pleasure. Not so, says Solomon. Pleasure pleases, but it is powerless to quench the ache that exists in the soul. We are provided with a list of the ways in which pleasure can be gained,...

Eve … bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.” “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens.” … The Lord scattered them. § Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan … It was well watered everywhere … like the garden of the Lord … But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord.I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind. For in much...

There are many who say, “Who will show us any good?” § What has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun? For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest … All is vanity and grasping for the wind. § They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. § I will...