James H. Cagle
“So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: . . . Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? . . . Therefore I hated life; . . .” (Ecclesiastes 2: 9, 15-17 KJV).
King Solomon was a great man. He had great wealth, great wisdom, and great power. He was the most powerful king of his time. All the kings of other nations honored him.
King Solomon was a great man that lived a poor life. He was so poor the only thing he had was money. He was a rich poor man. He had a high standard of living, an extravagant lifestyle, but a false sense of security, for in spite of all his wealth he felt insecure.
Solomon did not hate living. He hated the life he was living. He actually hated the spiritual state he was living in day by day. The poor spiritual state Solomon was in resulted in a poor quality of life. He was living in luxury and could buy anything he wanted, but he was miserable. Wealth cannot give us life. It can give us a grandiose lifestyle, a high standard of living, but not life.
Solomon’s life was full but not fulfilled. His treasuries were full of gold. His house full of women, and ivory, and the finest of furniture, but his heart was empty and unfulfilled. Solomon looked at all his greatness and because it brought no satisfaction said it was “vanity and vexation of spirit.”
Living for wealth makes us poor. If Solomon could buy a life full of meaning and purpose, he would have. We must live for something greater than wealth to have a life worth living.
Every life has value, but it is the value system we live by that determines whether our life is of any eternal value. Is what we’re living for going to matter two seconds on the other side of eternity? We determine the life we’re going to live by deciding the moral and spiritual state we’re going to live in. Living holy and in close fellowship with God is the best life anyone can live.
Solomon did not begin hating the life he was living until he walked away from the presence of God and broke fellowship with Him, because of his idolatry. He then began living in a sinful, rebellious state in which he was alienated from God.
We would be surprised to find how many people, including great people that hate the life they’re living. They’re sad and miserable but have to pretend to be happy. Life for them is just an empty show. Jesus Christ offers them His life freely, but they won’t give up the temporal for the eternal.
Excellent!
When a believer has Christ in them as their hope of glory and is armed with truth holiness becomes their most blessed reality.
Nothing and no one on earth can fulfill like Jesus and the riches of His great glory!