Silly Old Bear

[PART 4 OF 12]

King Solomon and the Oreos. Sounds like a 60′s doo-wop group!

Let’s review. As Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, he developed the entire writing around a central, recurring theme. Think of Ecclesiastes like an Oreo cookie with Double Stuff cream filling. The two parts of the central theme are placed at the beginning and the end, with a lot of stuff in-between.

OK, so let’s pull the Oreo apart. Wait! Don’t go for the Double Stuff just yet. Let’s look at the first part of the central theme, the first of the two outer cookies.

Now, remember, Solomon is one of the wisest me who ever lived. His wisdom was a direct gift from God. He is “the Teacher”. It’s like we are almost to the top of the sacred mountain and are about to sit at the feet of the wise man as he explains to us the meaning of life. I’m getting all tingly with excitement! What will he say?

Solomon doesn’t waste any time. He starts off immediately by giving us the first outside piece of the Oreo in Ecclesiastes 1:2. Get ready now, because this is going to be fully 50% of the world’s richest, wisest king’s philosophy of life. This is going to be like a compass to help you point your life in the right direction. This is going to be good! Are you ready?

“‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher.
‘Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!”

What?!

That’s it?!

You’ve got to be kidding!!

Here is the richest, wisest king of one of the greatest nations in the history of planet earth, and his outlook on life can be summed up in the statement, “Everything in life is utterly, completely meaningless.” This guy has got some serious issues.

But wait.  Remember, that’s only one piece of the Oreo cookie.  We’ve still got that second outside piece to get to, but we have to get through the Double Stuff filling before we find that second piece. So that’s what we will do next. We will spend a little time wading through the Double Stuff.

Let me warn you. Some of what we are about to see is not going to be a pretty picture. Remember, Solomon’s introduction – his thesis, if you will – is “Everything in life is utterly, completely meaningless.”  So just be prepared.

NEXT: “Something Worth Waking Up For”

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This entry was posted by Paul O'Rear on Friday, September 19th, 2008 at 4:28 PM. If you would like to keep track of Comments on this post left by other Silly Old Bear visitors, you can do so through the RSS 2.0 feed. You are invited to leave a Comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.