The Greatest Good

 

Gentle Reader,

We continue to consider the book of Ecclesiastes as we take a wee survey of the thots of the wisest man who ever lived. I say this with trepidation.

That a survey is just a short cliff note . There is so much that one could leave out just to squeeze in the salient points, and then you have only just a brief perspective.

I knew a man who spent over 40years just studying one particular book of the Holy Bible and then he said at the end of his life "I have just begun to scratch the surface and to understand dimly what I have studied"! Yours truly Gentle Reader, when it comes to really studying am just a kinder Gardner even after some 30+ years I learn something new ever day. So if your expecting a definitive perspective on this wee book you will be sadly disappointed. I look back at my notes from 1988 (how about 10 years ago) When I taught the book of Ecclesiastes in my last church Grace Memorial Church in Edinburgh Illinois. And teaching once a week (Sunday Mornings) I had over 500 pages and 50 parts to explain (Of course I teach verse by verse, and that doesen't account for the rabbit trails that we go down in the course of getting a handle on the subject at hand).

So here we are looking at another 3 chapters. Chapters 6, 7 and 8 , The "preacher, teacher or Koheleth" is still looking for what is the "Greatest Good". He now looks in the realm of PRACTICAL MORALITY. The secret must lie surely in the "the Golden Mean", in finding the true balance, the centre of conduct, between things. The proper poise in behaviour, the middle-course of Expediency.

In Chapter 6, He points out that though a man/woman have riches, welth, and honour (fame), he/she cannot enjoy it unless God permits him to do so (verse 2); HollyWood has never figured this out yet have they Gentle Reader? Moreover all the labour of man for his mouth cannot satisfy his soul (not "appetite " as in your KJV)

Please Note: Soul is used in the Hebrew Bible for the whole person some teach that you have a soul, but in fact you do not have a soul you are one. You have a body and a spirit which together make up a whole person a Soul if you will.

 

"For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?" (Verse 12) Surely the answer is to be found he reasons in an expedient course of behaviour. So beginning withe the aphorism [ a short saying stating a general truth] "A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth" (Chapter 7 verse 1) The preacher begins to examine that facts "just the Facts Solomon, just the facts" and lo and behold he finds that righteous men perish in their righteousness, and wicked men life long in their wickedness Chapter 7:15); the best of men are still sinners (7:20); the best are still spoken againts 7:21,22) and ther are more equally discouraging anomalies (read chapter . More and more the preacher is being driven to see the necessity for God read Chapter 7;13,14, 18 and Chapter 8:12, 13, 17) yet once again he comes and concludes that " Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun"

But let me ask you Gentle Reader, before we close for today What really, really, (2 really’s serious stuff) will make you completely happy? Money, Fame, Prestige, Power, etc.

I do hope that you are more mature than to think that "you only go around once in life, so grab for all the gusto you can. For gentle reader, we have only begun to see " But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath PREPARED for them that love him."

The best is yet to come Gentle Reader, until next time,

Love,

Denis

The Greatest Good