Sermon Tone Analysis
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What God Do You Worship?
Ecclesiastes 5:1-7
*Actions Betray True Belief*
Please use your imagination for this next part.
I want you to think about the situation we are talking about.
Solomon is now an old man, looking back on his life.
Perhaps sitting in a room with many scrolls writing down what he knows.
He was the wisest man in the ancient near east therefore, being wise, he wishes to write down what he knows.
The key to wisdom is learning from what others have discovered.
And he is sitting with scroll on the table, quill pen in hand and as he looks back over his life he begins to write.
He writes about what he knows to be true - life is fleeting.
It passes quickly.
He says that it is all Hebel - just a vapor.
He's struggling; he wants to leave behind a legacy of wisdom but all that he sees, all that he remembers is that its hebel.
He writes using his reasoning.
This is a frustration for such a wise man.
This is all he has.
Vapors.
A breath.
And then it is gone.
He has completed the temple, which his father never got to see.
A grand structure covered in gold.
Tens of thousands of workers, both citizens and slaves were required to complete.
Yet he knows that this too will pass away.
Yet he continues to write.
He can't help himself.
Maybe it was over the course of the night or maybe over the course of years.
But he wrote what he knew the wisdom that God gave him.
But why this wisdom?
Why not happiness?
Why not satisfaction?
Why is it hebel - a vapor?
I mean he hasn't been denied anything and he has had everything.
He denied himself nothing in the search for meaning.
He was wealth was almost incomprehensible - listen to these numbers
*
* Solomon - here are examples of his wealth
* 1 talent of gold was worth =
* 23,940 sheep
* 1596 slaves
* 399 houses
* The queen of Sheba gave Solomon 120 talent of gold
* 2,872,800 sheep
* 191,520 slaves
* 47,880 houses
* Or $4,788,000,000
* Solomon brought 420 talents of gold from Ophir
* 10,054,800
* 670,320 slaves
* 167,580 houses
* Or $16,758,000,000
* Solomon's annual tribute 666 talents of gold a year for 39 years
* 15,944, 040 sheep per year
* 1,062,936 slaves per year
* 265,734 houses per year
* Or =$1,038,960,000,000 from 39 years of annual tribute, this does not account for any additional wealth
His wealth was so great that 2 Chronicles 1:15 says:
2 Chronicles 1:15 (NIV 2011, Zondervan)
15 The king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones,[1]
And he has found, even with this wealth, at the end, looking back over his life - the great accomplishments - he has found that it is like trying to grasp smoke.
Everything disappears.
It becomes someone else's.
His life is slipping away and he realizes he can't even hold on to any of his accomplishments.
His wealth won't go with him.
And his wisdom does him no good.
Part of the problem is what he has done.
Even though he was brought up knowing God and he was granted wisdom by God; he has not followed God.
He has not followed God's instruction.
He has violated the law -
Listen to Deuteronomy 17:16-17:
Deuteronomy 17:16-17
16 “the king moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them.…
17 He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray.
He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold” (Deut.
17:16–17).[2]
And what did Solomon do: He dealt in horses with Egypt and had a great number of them, he had 300+ wives (+700 concubines), and he had so much gold and silver that it was like stones.
All against the clearly written law for the king of Israel.
Ink and scroll, line after line devoted to a vapor…and that’s where it ends or does it?
God granted Him wisdom and therefore this is what wisdom can be like.
It can be a hard lesson.
Maybe it is not comfortable.
And he keeps writing…and there is wisdom in this writing.
But in this writing it is limited.
Remember what he says, "I've examined everything under the sun."
That means everything limited to what he can see, think, and feel.
His experiences, his reason.
So is it all meaningless?
Is it all a vapor?
And Solomon pens the first verse of chapter 5; This is so much different than the previous chapters.
Wisdom, pleasure, work, advancement, all hebel - meaningless.
But God has granted him wisdom and if all other things under the sun are meaningless, this is what is important.
It is all about God.
Ecclesiastes 5:5
*5 Guard your steps when you go to the house of God.
Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.
*
This is what he knows.
At the end of his life, his reign as king, he has strayed far from God.
But he knows that when you go to the temple it is about God not about man.
Walk carefully.
Watch your words.
Listen for God, listen to God.
Because the sacrifice of a fool is one who thinks he can cajole God into granting a request.
They think that it is about what their actions 'buy' God's acceptance.
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