Vanity vs. Contentment

Well, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. Got an announcement for you today, or maybe a little bit more like an explanation, but it's so great to have you this morning. This is where every day we get together, we get into God's Word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2021, I promise you, we'll still make it through all the wisdom literature. Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and then I'll talk to you a little bit about what the plan for it looks like. Ooh, that's hot. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day, and we thank you for your word. We pray that as we read your word this morning, that you would care for us, watch over us, bless us. In Jesus's name, amen. All right, so we're at Ecclesiastes chapter two, Ecclesiastes chapter two, and we're at the first 11 verses, but I haven't been on here for a couple days, Monday and Tuesday, it's not Wednesday morning.
The reason for that is, honestly, I needed to read some. I needed to digest this. The Book of Ecclesiastes isn't like any other book in the Bible. It's part of the wisdom literature, but its syntax, its message, things are difficult. And there's lots of ways that you can make the book fit what you want it to say, rather than what the book actually says. And so we want to be careful not to distort God's Word, not to misunderstand it.
And so I've had to really kind of wrestle with some of these passages as I've been thinking about things and praying and reading. And so one of the things I've come to the conclusion about is this book really is similar to the book of Job in that it's not really wise to take it with one chapter at a time, but instead with chunks at a time. And so as we do that, it'll become clear to us more what the author himself was meaning. And so I just wanted to let you know that it might not be every day that we do this, because we're going to chunk things together by chapters. And so, just as a note that that's what's going on. But today we're just going to look at the first 11 verses of chapter 2. Let's go ahead and get into God's Word together now. Ecclesiastes chapter 2, the first 11 verses. I said in my heart, Come now, I will test you with myrrh, therefore enjoy pleasure. But surely this was also vanity. I said of laughter, Madness! And of myrrh, What does it accomplish?
I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold of folly till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives. He's on a quest to figure out, is folly good? Is wisdom good? Can I indulge in this world while also living by wisdom?
And so really what we're going to be getting in the next couple of chapters is him exploring folly, him exploring wisdom, him trying to do all these different things. And in reality, this most likely is Solomon writing at the end of his life, after he's lived a long life with some with a great deal of wisdom, But also if we read through the historical books, not all of it's good. And so what's this conclusion of the matter?
Well, I've made my works great. I built myself houses and planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. I acquired male and female servants. and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all those who were in Jerusalem before me. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and special treasures of kings and of the provinces.
I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men and musical instruments of all kind." This dude's saying, I'm living the high life. I got gold, I got silver, I got servants, I got music, everything that someone would want, he has. It sure sounds a lot like Solomon, doesn't it?
So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also, my wisdom remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my reward from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and all the labor in which I had toiled and indeed It was all vanity and grasping for the wind.
There was no prophet under the sun So it's interesting what he says here he he chased after his heart He did everything he wanted he went and he he got all the silver. He got all the gold He got all the servants. He got all the music. He got all the stuff. He enjoyed it to his heart's content but at the end of the day He found it vacuous, vanity, worthless, empty.
See, because our hearts are never going to be satisfied in the things of this world, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be content. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't enjoy the good things that the Lord has given us. But one of the things that the Qoheleth, the preacher, is going to find out here is, At the end of the day, we can be content with what we have, but it's never going to satisfy our souls. And so that's the theme we're going to find running throughout the book of Ecclesiastes. And it's leaving us with this question, with this desire, what will satisfy our souls?
Spoiler alert. It's not anything in this world, but it's the one who made this world. Let's go ahead and pray. Father, we thank you for the wise preacher. We thank you for the one who went down a path to seek out knowledge, to seek out wisdom, to find what was good and has told us these things. Lord, we pray that you would care for us this day in Jesus's name. Amen.
Oh, hey, Ellie, it's just coming in. Hey, you want to say hi to everyone? Look right here. I'm hitting the microphone. You want to say hi? Hi. Yeah, I'm just finishing up coffee and devotions. Can you say goodbye to everyone? Can you say goodbye? Bye bye. Well, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May your day be filled with his peace as you find satisfaction in him. We'll see you tomorrow. Bye. Wow, that wind really got your hair, huh? Yeah. Yeah.