A road not traveled

Gentle Reader,

It is possible to live our entire lives from the wrong perspective. Believing that we are right we can be wrong. Thinking we are hitting the target, we can be missing the mark by miles.

There is a legend among Native Americans in the west about a brave who found an eagle's egg and put it into the nest of a prairie chicken. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them.
All his life the eagle thought he was a prairie chicken, so he did what the prairie chickens did. He scratched in the dirt for seeds and insects to eat. He clucked and cackled. And he flew in a brief thrashing of wings and flurry of feathers no more than a few feet off the ground. After all, that's how prairie chickens were supposed to fly.
One day he saw a magnificent bird far above him in the cloudless sky. Hanging with graceful majesty on the powerful wind currents, it soared with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings.
"What a beautiful bird!" the eagle exclaimed to a prairie chicken who was his neighbor. "What is it?"
"That's an eagle — the chief of the birds," the neighbor clucked. "But don't give it a second thought. You could never be like him."
So the eagle never gave it another thought. And he lived and died thinking he was a prairie chicken.

I find that when we come to and end of a wee study some misgivings. For one things I know that I haven’t done a real justice to what we have studied, if I were just passing through (and I suppose we all are just passing through) then a short word or two would suffice. But I am in for the long haul (as you should be). And as a teacher, I appreciate Solomon, because in all the Titles that he could use he calls himself "A Preacher which is his primary task is to teach [not to entertain, or amuse to teach and we are place here to learn] As a wise man he was to teach his people knowledge [from God]! "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge . . ." (Hosea Chapter 4 verse 6)

In Chapters 10-12 we find that Solomon’s quest REVIEWED and CONCLUDED. Looking back over the way he has come the Preacher/teacher now says in Chapter 9 verse 1 "For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: With these words he commences a review after which he submits his final conclusion.

First he presents us with the fact that "All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; (9:2) Then in view of this fact (death comes to all) he reaffirms that the true good is not found in pleasure or the absorptions of this present life (9:3-12); nor in human wisdom (9:13-18 although wisdom is better than folly (To be foolish or a fool). Nor is the true good to be found in expedient behaviour (10:1-11: because of the many anomalies which exist (10:5-7), and because of the inevitable end (11; .

What then, Why this -the highest good at present open to man is a wise, temperate, grateful use and enjoyment of the present life (11:9,10) combined with a steadfast faith in God and in the life to come (12:1-7). This is what the Preacher says " Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them...Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.;

"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil."

And so we have finished with the mini study of the Wisdom book of Ecclesiastes of Solomon.

Solomon suggest that in his search for truth, he attempted to find just the right words. And did he ever! " A time to be born, and a time to die...a time to mourn, and a time to dance;" who will ever forget those words? Why go to all that trouble? Solomon says the reason is that the preacher is seeking acceptable words. Words or goads that will arrest your thinking and make you stop and consider the Spirit of God who gave those words to Him and to you and me. Why? Because you need to KNOW HIM!

Everything, Gentle reader, works together for GOOD! For you and for me.

There is just a bit more but we’ll finish up next time.

Love, Denis