Topic: Not The Ultimate Goal [Sunday December 27, 2015]
Text: Ecclesiastes 12:8-14
Key Verse: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
Epicurus, the ancient Greek philosopher, founded the school of thought that proclaimed the pursuit of bodily pleasure as the greatest good. He claimed that the absence of pain constituted the highest form of happiness that should be the objective of man.
He and his followers believed that this ideology would lead to a state of tranquility and freedom from fear. How sadly wrong they were! Because more than 600 years earlier, a king of Israel who had swum in wanton affluence and pleasure proved the tragedy and futility of life without holiness and God. According to Jewish tradition, King Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes during his last years of life, after he had seen the worthlessness of materialism as a way to happiness. The son of the great King David, Solomon inherited massive affluence. He went on to experience power, honour, fame and sensual pleasure, marrying 700 wives and keeping 300 concubines. But it was all empty existence and disillusion. He did not derive any joy in all these carnal possessions. This explains the occurrence of the word “vanity” 37 times in the book of Ecclesiastes. Yet, despite the underlining pessimism of this intensely personal book, Solomon concludes by foreshadowing the crux of Jesus’ teaching about 1000 years later.
We should not store up treasures on earth (Matthew 6:19-21,24). It is senseless to gain the whole world and forfeit one’s soul (Matthew 16:26). A man’s life is not weighed by materialism (Luke 12:15). We should not trust in riches if we are believers in eternal life which comes through Jesus (1 Timothy 6:17).
Thought for the day: A life apart from Christ is a life torn apart.
Bible Reading in one Year: Ezekiel 36-38
DCLM Daily Manna was written by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.
