For a full description of the (Y3) reading plan, see the “About” page.
- What attributes of God’s character does this passage reveal?
- How does the passage point to Jesus?
- How should the truth of this passage change me?
- How do the events of today’s reading help you better understand the grand narrative of Scripture?
Ecc. 1-2
According to the Teacher, all of creation is stuck in the proverbial rut. Everything is cyclical, like one universal “Groundhog Day”. I feel the weight of that monotony often enough myself to see the truth in his assessment. Interestingly, I also see that cyclical nature in the Bible in so many different ways. Which got me wondering if there was a message for us in all of that. I come up with two thoughts.
The first and most obvious thought stems from the fact that the Teacher did a thorough search for satisfaction “under the sun”. He found none. So my thought is that he looked in the wrong place. I believe the satisfaction he was searching for is found only under The Son. The truth is that there is no point, no purpose, no meaning, and no substance to life outside of God. The rest is a gift from God. The purpose of the gift is not in the gift itself, but in how it helps us to know and enjoy God.
Which leads me into my second thought. The Bible, and much about creation as well, is not just cyclical in nature. It is also fractal. An over simplified definition of a fractal object is one whose parts are very similar to the whole. A head of broccoli is an easy example. Each individual floret looks like a miniature version of the whole head. The same can be said of each of the tiny sprigs that make up the florets. That is fractal. So the thought that comes to me is that we, as believers in Christ, are all parts of one body and are each made in the image of God. Furthermore, God reveals His nature to us in both His word and His creation. So that cyclical, fractal nature that we see in everything might be telling us that we are only whole in God.
Ecc. 3-4
Context. Nothing stands on its own. There is nothing in life that derives value from itself. Instead, its worth, whether good or bad, comes from its external context. Hence, “He has made everything appropriate in its time” (Ecc. 3:11a). This is why we are nothing apart from God. He is the external context that gives us value; that makes us whole. When we look at this life as the Teacher did, in the context of “under the sun”, we find the same things he found. We find injustice, futility, lack of substance, and despair. Note that the Teacher’s search stopped at the grave, “For who can enable him to see what will happen after he dies?” (Ecc. 3:22b). Context.
The truth is that we know the grave is not the end. Jesus showed us that in many different ways, not the least of which was His own resurrection. So when we consider our life and what we do with it in the context of eternity, we see things differently. When we look beyond ourselves, we can see beyond the grave. What is good in this life? What has substance and satisfies? A life lived loving God through loving others. This is how we, “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal.” (Matt. 6:20).