Ecclesiastes Part 3

Ecclesiases 2:1-11
Teaching Pastor: Rob Sweet

Life under the sun is the fallen world.  The phrase is repeated many times in the book of Ecclesiastes and exemplifies the fallen world we live in.  This makes sense to me, because the phrase, maybe because of it's repetition, sounds tired to me...It makes me feel exhausted, as does/should life after the fall.

All of us living in the 21st century have a huge access to pleasing things or pleasure in this life.  We have access to more pleasures than any other group of people in any other time or place.  My day for example:

I woke up in a King sized bed, in a house cooled by AC, turned on electricity, laced up my running shoes and headed out for a run.  Upon my return I fed my dogs and my baby, then loaded my child up to go to swimming lessons in heated pool so he can safely enjoy the water.  I returned home, had a cup of coffee, looked up my daily Bible reading passage from a group of women reading through the Bible on facebook.  My husband is now grilling hamburgers as my child naps and I record these notes on Ecclesiastes.  Later we will enjoy said hamburgers, bratwursts, and coleslaw, potentially followed by swimming with our son. 

Talk about blessed and inundated with pleasure.  Even those of us most destitute have many more pleasures than most people in the grand scheme of people groups in all time in the world.

All that to say, Solomon does a great job pointing out that while we have huge access to pleasure, we take them for granted and they do NOT bring us true fulfillment.  Temporary happiness, perhaps, True Joy and Fulfillment...NO.

Ecclesiastes 2:2  What does pleasure accomplish? Is there meaning to pleasure? We live in a frivolous society and pleasure can be associated with laughter, also with addictive behaviors What is there to be gained "under the sun?"

Ecclesiastes 2:4-7  speak of work...Solomon increased his achievements, made parks, gardens, reservoirs and vineyards for himself.

Like us, he desired to create his own Garden of Eden.  We all, deep down, long for utopia, that which is missing in the fallen world. 

Under the Sun, in a fallen world, our instinct is to insulate ourselves from outer pain and live in a cocoon.

There is much to say of our pleasure, as well as Solomon's. 

in v. 8 it is clear that wealth is attractive for what it can buy as well as security and status.  Solomon lived in the world before recorded music, but he has singers.  If I want to enjoy music I turn on the radio, play from a variety of apps on my iPhone or television...Solomon had to, and did, keep singers to provide music for him.  He also had an abundance of concubines.  700 wives and 300 concubines.  The wives and concubines were status symbols that likely meant little more to him than his money.

Our strategies to gain our own pleasures often robs life from others.  What must have it felt like to be in Solomon's concubine?

As always, in v.11 The end result is always vanity...a striving after the wind.

We were meant to enjoy life's pleasures and recognize them as gifts from God.  We must think of pleasure in light of all 66 books of the Bible.

THEOLOGY OF PLEASURE

The world often leads us to believe that pleasure is wrong and to equate it with sin.   This is false. Pleasure is not sinful.  It is created by God.  Often we indulge in pleasures in a sinful manner (ex. addiction, substance abuse, pornography, etc.) but the pleasure itself is not sinful.  It is the way we wrongfully engage in such pleasures that lead us to sin.

In Genesis 1, before sin entered the world, everything mankind experienced was pleasure.  Even work was pleasure.  We were designed to co-run this world with the Lord.  The deep yearning we have to work is because, pre-fall, that too was pleasure. 

In a fallen world pleasures are deadened and we have been separated from God.

God did not intend for us to use pleasures for selfish gain.  The only way life's pleasures can be redeemed is if something is done about our selfishness and sin problem.  Thankfully we have JESUS.  Something has been done, on our behalf, to atone for our selfishness and sin. 

Jesus engaged the pleasures of life and redeemed pleasure for us all.

In Revelation 21 and 22 The Garden of Eden is restored and paradise is regained.  None of this is at all possible without the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord.

The good things in life, when rightly enjoyed, are the truest things in life.

We instinctively try to create paradise and when we do it with the blessing and presence of our creator, it points to paradise. 

We must walk cautiously in the Lord's grace and redemption. Even as a redeemed people, it is so easy to abuse the pleasures of life.

We must strive to worship God as we experience all life has to offer, even and perhaps especially, life's pleasure.

We should invite God into the experience with us, praise him for his good creation and anticipate the fulfillment that is yet to come.