1 Kings 9-11:13
Ecclesiastes 1&2
Beer and Pizza
I worked in construction for several years. Construction is easy to get into, it pays well, and building things tends to feed a man’s ego. As a result, construction draws all kinds of people. There are people who are skilled at what they do and take pride in their work. There are others who are in it for the money and ego. They are the ones that promise to be on the job a certain day but rarely show up on time. They have a mentality of get it done and get away with whatever you can, so their work is sloppy. We would say those guys were working for beer and pizza. The mentality is eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die, was really a description of the people in Jerusalem surrounded by the Assyrians. They had no hope of defeating the Assyrians so they chose to party rather than pray. They chose to take the world’s thinking that if you are going to die you may as well live it up while you can. The Bible describes them as fools who don’t believe in God. The same is true for the beer and pizza crowd.
Ecclesiastes is a book for the beer and pizza, eat, drink, and be merry crowd. Though God appeared to Solomon a second time in 1 Kings 9 and warned him to stay the course in his walk with God, Solomon drifted away and tried to find fulfilment in this world. He found that life there was vain and empty.
There is wisdom in the book of Ecclesiastes but there is also warning. I have run into people who validate their lifestyle by quoting verses from Ecclesiastes that are clearly meant to be warnings and illustrations of what not to do.
When I want to go to the house next door I don’t go out my front door and turn the opposite direction and go down the street to the corner and turn again and go up the hill to the next street and turn again and repeat the process again and again until I have traveled two miles before reaching the next door neighbor. That is what reading Ecclesiastes feels like to me. It reaches its destination but it has been a long meaningless process full of disappointment and pitfalls. Still it does reach the end goal of a relationship and trust in God.
Proverbs was written for a godly man who would become king. Ecclesiastes was written for the beer and pizza crowd.
Two paths in life to take. Which one are you on?
Pastor Dave