4-15-03

7a

Just a short Bible study today� Not too many comments� Still half asleep.

Ecclesiastes 1,2 and 3

Wow, I was talking about this just the other day� the short-sightedness of mankind. We simply have a very short memory. History is quickly forgotten and we don�t often apply what we�ve learned from our mistakes� as a whole.

These chapters discuss the foolishness of amassing wealth and possessions, of working in order to acquire status and position, and focusing your efforts on bettering yourself� not because bettering yourself is wrong, but because thinking that you can change the course of history by making yourself something special is, in a word, meaningless.

The writer is talking about how no matter what you do on earth, your end is the same as everyone else, you�re going to die and the generations which come after are going to inherit your stuff. Whether or not you amass great wealth won�t matter to future generations because you�ll be dead and you can�t take it with you. Whether or not you lived a spotless life doesn�t matter because the future generations will go through the same things. History repeats itself indefinitely, according to the writer.

The conclusion that he draws at the end of chapter three is that the best a man/woman can hope for is to enjoy the work they do � enjoy their time on earth � because mankind simply can�t know what�s beyond death. He even states that we don�t know if, upon death, the spirit of mankind rises while the spirit of animals descend to the ground. We truly don�t know if there is a heaven where people go after they die� why? Because we�re alive and not there. We can guess about it, fight about it and wonder� we can extrapolate whatever we want to from scripture, but until we experience death, we won�t know. We can�t know.

I agree. I have long held the idea that we simply can�t fathom � as it says in Ecclesiastes 3:11b He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. � the plan and depth of God. We, as humans, attempt to pigeon-hole God, describing Him and His plan in terms we understand, yet God is so much bigger, so much more than we can ever fully describe that to limit Him by our physical understanding is simply� meaningless.

It just makes me think that perhaps we should concentrate more on loving each other, being nice whenever we can and following the old maxim: If you can�t say something nice, don�t say anything at all. We should focus on doing our work well and efficiently. We should focus on finding satisfaction in what we can do for others. The rest will take care of itself.