Issues worth thinking about

ISSUES WORTH THINKING ABOUT
BY GLENN PEASE
CONTENTS
1. GOD LOVES TO SING Based on Zeph. 3:14-20
2. LAND OF LIBERTY Based on Jer. 34:8-22
3. THE MEANING OF MEANINGLESSNESS Eccles. 1:12-18, 2:1-11
4. TAKING LAUGHTER SERIOUSLY Based on Eccles. 2:1-11
5. A TIME FOR EVERYTHING Based on Eccles. 3:1-8
6. EVERYTHING AT THE RIGHT TIME Based on Eccles. 3:1-8
7. GOD AND BEAUTY Based on Eccles. 3:1-11
8. WHAT IS BEAUTY Based on Song of Songs 1:15-16
9. TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE Based on Eccles. 4:9-12
10. THE KEY TO FREEDOM Based on Judges 6:1-16
11. MARCHING FOR A MIRACLE Based on Josh. 6:1-21
12. INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE based on Numbers 12:1-15
13. DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE Based on Deut. 24:1-4
14. A JEWISH SERMON Based on Ezek. 47:1-12
1. GOD LOVES TO SING Based on Zeph. 3:14-20
Knowing the Bible is the best education life has to offer, for not only is it
the light by which we come to see our Savior and enter into His salvation, it is
by its light that we get insights into all areas of life that other books cannot
give us. If you do research on the origin of music, you will be taken back to
the ancient world and told of instuments on Egyptian hiroglyphics and in
caves. Gen. 4:21 will be quoted about Jubal, the father of all who play the
harp and flute. All of the books will assume that music had its source in man.
Even so scholarly a book as The Guinness Book of Music will tell you that
the earliest surviving hymn text goes back to the 8th century B.C. to a poet in

Corinth. All authorities stop far short of the Biblical record that tells us that
music is eternal because it is a part of the nature of God. It did not have its
origin in man, but in the God who made man, and made him to love music
and singing, for God has enjoyed it for all eternity.
Music and song are as timeless as the nature of God. If you consider God's
singing as sacred music, then sacred music has no beginning, for it is just as
eternal as God is. It was a surprise to me when I first discovered this text in
Zeph. 3:17 which tells us clearly that God delights and rejoices over His
people with singing. I guess I never thought about it before. Man made in
God's image could hardly live without music. It is so basic to His joy and
happiness. But I never considered whether or not God has delight in singing.
When I found this text and gave it some thought, it seemed a very logical
thing to assume that God would love music. He is the source of all music, for
He created man with the gift of creating it, enjoying it, and using it to praise
Him. If He did not enjoy music, it would be a strange thing to want it used in
the worship of His people.
We should know that God loves music, and that He has been singing for
all eternity, even if this text was not in the Bible. But I am delighted it is here,
for it opens up some exciting windows into the nature of our Lord, whom we
praise in song. This text about God singing led me to search the Bible to see if
there is any other evidence that God enjoys the same things that we do. What
I discovered is that all three persons of the Godhead are very happy persons,
and they delight in singing, and in all that is joyful.
We have a terrible misconception about Jesus because of the great
suffering He had to endure to atone for our sin. He was called the man of
sorrows and one acquainted with grief. This label stuck to Jesus, and most of
the artists of the ages pictured Jesus in His agony, and this has been the image
people have had of Him. The larger portrait of the Bible has been ignored,
which is the portrait of Jesus as the happiest man whoever lived. The Lord of
laughter; the life of the party, and the lover of singing. Joy was the dominent
emotion of His life, and it was the joy of eternity that kept Him going to the
cross. Jesus was spirit-filled, and joy is a fruit of the Spirit, which He
displayed constantly.
We are blinded to the bright side of His joyful life by a focus on His tears
and blood, which is truly a vital focus. We can never forget the blood He

sweat in Gethsemane, and that which He shed on Calvary. Our salvation
depends on that shed blood. But let's not lose the life He died to give us-the
life of joy and abundant living-the life He lived Himself. The book of
Hebrews makes it clear that Jesus was histories happinest man. Heb. 1:9
says, "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness, therefore God,
your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of
joy." Jesus was anointed with the oil of joy, and was set above all others by
this unique anointing. In plain language, Jesus was the most joy filled person
to ever walk this planet.
Spurgeon said, "I suppose there never lived a happier man than the Lord
Jesus. He was rightly called the man of sorrows, but He might with
unimpeachable truth, have been called the man of joys." It would seem to
follow, that if singing is one of the key ways by which joy is expressed, that
Jesus would, like His heavenly Father, be a singer. And sure enough, the
book of Hebrews reveals Jesus to be just that; like Father, like Son. Just as
God rejoiced over His temple in the Old Testament, and sang songs of joy, so
Jesus in the New Testament sings the praises of His heavenly Father to His
bride the church. We see this revealed in Heb. 2:11-12. So Jesus is not
ashamed to call them brothers. He says, "I will declare your name to my
brothers in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises." Just
before Jesus went into the garden of Gethesmane He sang a song with His
disciples, but this text tells us He sang the praises of God on a regular basis.
James makes an interesting distinction between praying and praising.
Praying tends to be for the negatives of life, and praising for the positives of
life. Listen to James 5:13-14. "Is anyone of you in trouble? He should pray.
Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise." Singing songs of praise is a
sign of a happy heart, and thus, we know God the Father and God the Son are
happy, for they both sing songs of praise. But what about the Holy Spirit?
There is no question about the joy of the Holy Spirit, for He is the spirit of
joy, and the one who produces the fruit of joy in our lives. He is the one who
inspired all the joyful songs of praise in the Bible, and to be filled with the
Spirit is to be filled with joy.
Paul wrote in I Thess. 1:6, "You welcome the message with the joy given
by the Holy Spirit." In Rom. 14:17 he wrote, for the kingdom of God is not a
matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy
Spirit." Joy is actually another name for the Holy Spirit. In Acts 13:52 we

read, "And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit." All
the songs of praise and joy through history are songs inspired by the Holy
Spirit.
Jesus was a man of joy because He was filled with the Spirit. In Isa. 61 we
see the passage Jesus quoted and fulfilled in His life when the Spirit of God
came upon Him to preach good news to the poor; to bind up the broken
hearted, and to set the captives free. Then it says in verse 3 what He came to
do for those who grieve: "To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of
ashes, the oil of gladness instead of morning, and a garment of praise instead
of despair." The work of the Holy Spirit was to, through Jesus, eliminate the
negative and accentuate the positive, that God's people might be clothed in a
garment of praise. The Trinity is a trio of praise singers. All three persons
of the Godhead are happy, delighted, and joyous singers.
This explains why the Bible is so full of praise. Praise is God's signiture.
No wonder the Psalms have the entire creation singing praises. Everything
God made was made to praise. When anything or anyone ceases to praise
God, it is no longer what God made it to be. It is broken and not functioning
for the purpose for which it was created. When man ceases to praise God, He
is broken and doesn't work. Being saved is to repair that brokenness and
renew the ability to praise.
There is no praise in hell, for hell is the junk yard where all go whose
praise compacity is broken beyond repair, because they did not call upon the
only one who could repair it-the Lord Jesus. By the power of the Holy Spirit
the praise compacity is restored so that men can again be praisers of God.
Men are never more like God wants them to be then when they are praising
Him. The goal of this life is to get into God's choir which will sing praises
forever. The only way to qualify is to let the Holy Spirit into your life by
opening the door to Jesus Christ. He will give you a song that will never end.
Joy is the emotion that leads to singing, and this is an emotion that we see
in Jesus who was filled with the spirit of joy. When the 72 came back to Jesus
all excited about their power in His name to cast out demons, Jesus said, "I
saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven," but He urged them not to rejoice
that the demons submitted to their power, but that their names were written
in heaven. Then Luke 10:21 follows immediately: "At that time Jesus, full of
joy through the Holy Spirit, said, 'I praise you, Father, Lord of Heaven and

earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and
revealed them to little children.'"
We get a picture here of the disciples here like little children finding a
room full of new toys. They are so excited and full of joy at the victory of
good over evil, and Jesus is feeling like you and I feel when we see our
children tickled with delight when they receive the gift of new games. Jesus
knows the joy of the parent and grandparent, and He praised God for that
joy. Jesus is a joyful praiser of God. When you have the joy of Jesus you
have the ultimate joy. All other joy is partial, but His is complete. Jesus said
in John 15:11, "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that
your joy may be complete." There can be no joy higher than that of Jesus,
for He was the joyest man whoever lived.
The Shepherd who finds the lost sheep calls his friends and neighbors and
says, "Rejoice with me, I have found my sheep." Jesus said there is rejoicing
in heaven over every sinner who repents, but He was doing plenty of rejoicing
on earth as well. It is the same story with the woman who finds her lost coin
and is rejoicing. The Prodigal's father threw a great party with a feast,
music, and dancing because he was so full of joy that his son was restored.
Jesus is joyful beyond words over every person who is saved and restored to
fellowship with God, and this happens hundreds of times everyday. This
means Jesus is in almost perpetual praise inspite of a fallen world. But we
must get back to the first person of the Trinity-the Father. Our text tells us
He is also full of joy, and in that joy He sings over His people.
This is the basis for the great love song called the Song of Songs. The heart
of God is full of love songs for His bride. There is no escaping the reality that
all of life, as we know it, is one great romance. God is the hero and man is the
damsel in distress. Satan is the villian that seeks to spoil the relationship of
God and man. It is a long hard struggle, but the story ends with the wedding
feast of the Lamb. God wins His bride, and the feasting, celebration, and the
songs go on forever. Every story has three parts: a setting; the setting is
upset; and the setting is reset, either successfully, and then there is a happy
ending, or unsuccessfully and there is a sad ending. God's story has a happy
ending with love and singing that lasts forever.
There is so much unfaithfulness on the part of the bride, and thus, so much
judgment that we tend to miss all the joyful scenes of God's delight in His

people. God is a happy God. He is a God in love, and He sings as a lover, and
He rejoices in His bride. I studied all the words for happy and joyful
emotions in the Old Testament, and I discovered that all of them apply to
God. God has a great deal of pleasure and enjoyment as He interacts with
people and His creation. It can be a lot of fun being God. Listen to some of
the evidence. God is always promising Israel He will make them prosper if
they obey Him, and in Duet. 30:9 He says, "The Lord will again delight in you
and make you prosperous just as He delighted in your fathers." The Hebrew
word for delight is the same word for rejoicing, being glad, making mirth,
and being joyful. It is used again in Isa. 62:5, "As a bridegroom rejoices over
his bride, so will your God rejoice over you." God has the same emotion as
the groom who feels he has the girl of his dreams for his own. The word is
used again in Isa. 65:19, "I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my
people."
There are others, but we want to look at just one more that gives us an
insight into the emotions of our Maker. In Psa, 104:31 we read, "The Lord
shall rejoice in His works." God said, after He made the universe, "It is very
good." He was happy with His works just like an artist who gazes on His
finished painting and says, "That is good. It is the best I can do." God was
happy, and no wonder all the angels sang at creation. God was no doubt
leading them, for God sings when He is delighted, and He was delighted in
His works. He will also be delighted in the final heaven when the story of
salvation is complete. So the point is, we will hear God's singing forever, and
we will sing with Him forever. Song will be a part of our eternal life. Music
is forever, for it is a part of God's very being.
Music beautifies sound, and singing beautifies language, and the purpose
of music and singing is to do just that: add beauty to life. It enables us to say
on a higher plain what we cannot communicate in words alone. Poetry is a
step above pros, and poetry to music is a step above that. There is no higher
step of communicating love, joy, and all the emotions, for when we reach the
level of song we are on the highest level, where even God is not revealed to go
any higher. The Song of Songs is saying by its very title, you cannot go higher
than a song to communicate love.
It is also Godlike to rejoice over our works. For all we know God whistled
while He worked, or hummed a tune as He said, "Let there be light." He
enjoyed what He was doing, and when you enjoy your work you have the

potential of singing over your work. The work itself can be a song we offer to
God as a sacrifice of praise. Galen, the famous second century physician, said
of his professional life that he regarded it "As a religious hymn in honor of
the Creator." Life is on the highest level when we can do all we do for the
glory of God. When we do, all of life is a song of praise to God, and this is
what leads God to sing over us.
Maclaren, the great English preacher, wrote in his Expositions of Holy
Scripture, "Zion is called to rejoice in God because God rejoices in her. She
is to shout for joy and sing because God's joy too has a voice, and breaks out
into singing. For every throb of joy in man's heart, there is a wave of
gladness in God's." God loves to sing, and we give Him reason to do so when
we sing and make our life a cause for praise. The Living Bible makes this text
come alive. "Is that a joyous choir I hear? No, it is the Lord Himself exalting
over you in happy song." The questions this raises are many, and we will
have to wait till heaven to have our answers.
1. Does God write His own songs?
2. Does He sing solo, or always as a trio of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
3. Does He have the angels sing backup?
4. Is it recorded so we will be able to listen to God's love songs for His bride?
It is so hard to imagine God singing that most never try for they never see
this text in Zeph. and never explore the joy of God in His people. Spurgeon,
however, usually discovers the gems of the Bible that others pass by. Listen
to his excited comments on this text. "Think of the great Jehovah singins!
Can you imagine it? Is it possible to conceive of the Deity breaking into song:
Father, Son and Holy Spirit together singing over the redeemed? God is so
happy in the love which He bears to His people that He breaks the eternal
silence, and the sun and moon and stars with astonishment hear God chanting
a hymn of joy."
It is interesting that Spurgeon would say the sun, moon and stars hear
God's song. The Bible and hymnology are full of this idea that the whole
universe listens to God's song, as if all of its orderly and beauty of movement
is its dance to God's tune. Psa. 148 says the whole universe praises God, and
other Psalms have the trees clapping and the mountains skipping to God's
tune. Jesus even said on Palm Sunday, if the people had not praised Him, the
very rocks would have cried out. That would have really been Christian rock
music had the literal rocks broken into songs of praise for their Creator. We

sing at Christmas, "Angels we have heard on high sweetly singing o'er the
plains, and the mountains in reply echo back their joyous strains." Do the
mountains really sing back in reply to this heavenly song? D.L. Moody, the
great evangelist, took it literally, and he preached a sermon on praise in
which he said, "Did you ever stop to think that the heart of man is the only
thing that does not praise the Lord? The heavens declared His glory, the sun
praises Him, the moon and stars praise Him; as rain falls from heaven it
praises God; all nature praises God-the ver dumb creature gives Him praise,
and it is only the heart of man that won't praise Him."
Now I know what it means when God says He looks not on the externals
but on the heart. God is looking inside man to see if their is a song of praise
there. That is what matters to God, for if there is praise in a man's heart, he
is alive to God and has great potential. When Samuel went to chose a son of
Jesse as the new king of Israel, he thought for sure the oldest son would be
God's choice. He was big and handsome and seemed a great follow-up to
Saul, who was head and shoulders above most all men. God however rejected
all of the older sons and chose the youngest, which was David. He was just a
mere shepherd boy, but God saw in David what no one else could see.
Everyone saw a mere lad, but God saw a king; a king who would be the
greatest leader of God's people in praise. He wrote most of the songs God's
people sang all through the Old Testament, and all threw the history of the
church up to the last couple of centuries. Many of the popular songs today
are going back to the Psalms, and many Christians have never ceased to sing
the songs of David.
The words of David have gone up in praise to God from all over the world.
God saw the heart of praise in David. He was a man after God's own heart,
for there was a song in his heart. That is what God looks for in all His
children. That is why Paul, who could sing a song even while in stocks in a
dungeon, wrote to the Ephesians and said in Eph. 5:19, "Speak to one another
with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart
to the Lord."
God has a musical heart, and He loves to see a song in the heart of all His
children. He intends to sing with His family of the redeemed forever, and so
one of the best ways to prepare for the heavenly culture is to fill your heart
with songs of praise. That is what God saw in David. Others saw a shepherd
boy, but God saw a king. Don Mcminh, in his book Entering His Presence

writes, "God sings! What a delightful thought! When God thinks about His
love for us, it impels Him to sing. When God wants to rejoice, when He wants
to praise, He choses music to express Himself. Music is a part of the eternal
existence of God; how wonderful that He has given us the joy of music as a
tool to express godliness in our lives." One of the major questions we need to
ask of ourselves is, Does God see a song in my heart? God loves to see a song
there because He is ever looking for partners to sing, for God loves to sing.
2. LAND OF LIBERTY Based on Jer. 34:8-22
Liberty is America's second name. We have such national symbols as the
Statue Of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, and the songs of liberty like My Country
Tis Of Thee-sweet land of liberty, of thee of I sing. The Preamble to our
Constitution says, "We the people...in order to establish justice, insure
domestic tranquility, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of
liberty for ourselves and our posterity, due ordain and establish this
Constitution. Our Constitution exists to secure for us the blessing of liberty.
Our Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag ends with, "With liberty and justice for
all." The Declaration of Independence says that we have the right to life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Why is liberty so important? It is because bondage of some kind is always
a battle. If we are not in bondage to some master or government, we are in
bondage to sin, and if not to sin, then to our past, or someone else's legalism.
We may be in bondage to family tradition, or social tradition. We are in
bondage to our culture and to our peer group. We are in bondage to fears,
anxieties, and guilt. We are always fighting to be free from some kind of
bondage. The biggest battle of the believer is in staying free as the Son has set
us free.
The battle never ceases, for the oppressor is always somewhere seeking to
bring you into bondage. The Judaisers sought to do this to the early
Christians. They tried to bring them again under the bondage to the law of
Moses. Paul had to shout in their ear, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us
free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke

of slavery." Liberty is the name of the game. Liberty is life. It is the
abundant life Jesus came to give. Liberty is the goal of almost all we do, or do
not do. To be free from sin is a goal of God for us. To be free from tyranny is
the goal of our government. To be free of all that robs us of God's best is
what it is all about, and so liberty is life.
In Isa. 58:6 God says, "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen-to loose
the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed
free and break every yoke." As Christians and as Americans we are, by our
very nature and heritage, a people committed to liberty. But why do we have
it when all men have always loved liberty, and yet have not achieved it? It is
because we have a piece of paper that prevents human nature from doing
what robs us of our liberty, and that is our constitution.
In our text of Jer. 34 we see human nature for what it is, and how that
man is the worst enemy of liberty. Here we see Jews who will not let their
fellow Jews be set free from bondage. It is to their benefit to keep them in
bondage, and so they enslave those who worship the same God. It is in direct
violation of the revealed will of God and leads to judgment. What we see in
this passage is an example of why it is a perpetual battle to secure human
rights and liberty. Christian history does not differ from Jewish history, but
reveals the same danger of power being used to rob people of liberty.
The Christians who came to America to enjoy liberty did not come here to
escape the bondage of atheists or humanists, but of other Christians. In our
Western history it has been Christians who have been the greatest opponents
of religious liberty. The people who fled to America were not coming from
non-Christian lands, but from England and Europe where Christians were in
control of the church and state. These state-church Christians came to
America as well, and so the battle continued in this land for liberty of
Christians from other Christians.
The Puritans were some of the most godly people to ever inhabit this
planet, but they were convinced that the church and state should be one, and
that the laws of the land should be laws that support the church. What they
failed to realize was that other Christians did not believe this was right. They
assumed that all Christians would benefit from the laws, but the fact is, the
laws hindered other Christians to be free to worship God as they were
convinced they should.

The Puritans had all kinds of law that put Baptists in bondage. The laws
of the early colonies demanded that all babies be baptized, and that all
citizens be taxed to support the state church. As the nation became more
diverse, and people with different convictions came, there were more and
more laws passed to restrain their freedom. Laws were passed that said there
could be no preaching at night, and that none could preach without consent of
the authorities. No servant could be baptized without the consent of his or
her master, and that no one could vote unless they were a member of the
established church. America was fast on its way to becoming a nation where
one group of Christians enslaved all others.
Then God sent to these shores a man who changed the course of history
and helped America become the greatest land of liberty in the history of
mankind. His name was Roger Williams, and he was the Apostle of religious
liberty. The Puritans did everything they could to get rid of this fanatic for
freedom. They vanished him from the country, but he fled and started his
own colony. In 1638 he founded the colony of Rhode Island. It was the only
place on earth at that time where all Christians were free to worship God and
practice their religious convictions without persecution from other
Christians. The following year in 1639 he founded the First Baptist Church
in America. He laid the foundation for the Baptist being the denomination
most famous for its fight for religious liberty.
It was a long hard battle, for the state church was already deeply
embedded in America, and the other colonies were governed by Christians
who were convinced that their church alone represented the kingdom of God.
The Baptists demanded the right to worship and obey God in accordance
with their interpretation of the Scriptures. They did not want the ideas of
others imposed on them. Isaac Backus stood before the Massachusetts
legislature shortly after the famous Boston Tea Party, which was a protest
against taxation without representation. He applied this demand for liberty
to the religious realm, and he said:
"That which has made the greatest noise, is a tax of 3 pence
a pound upon tea; but your law of last June laid a tax of the
same sum every year upon the Baptists in each perish, as they
would expect to defend themselves against a greater one. And
only because the Baptists in Middleburo have refused to pay
that little tax, we hear that the first perish in said town had this

fall voted to lay a greater tax upon us. All Americans are alarmed
at the tea tax; though, if they please, they can avoid it by not buying
the tea; but we have no such liberty. We must either pay the little tax,
or else you people appear even in this time of extremity, determined to
lay the great one upon us.
But these lines are to let you know, that we are determined not to pay
either of them; not only upon your principles of
not being taxed where we are not represented, but also because we
dare not render homage to any earthly power, which I and many of my
brethren are fully convinced belongs only to God. Her, therefore, we
claim charter rights, liberty of conscience."
What we need to see is that the battle for religious liberty is not just a fight
for freedom of religion, but for freedom from religion. We need to be free
from the religious convictions of other people being imposed upon us. This
has been the battle of the Baptists. Nobody is more likely to rob you of your
liberty than other religious people. John 5:16 says, "Therefore did the Jews
persecute Jesus, and sought to slay Him because He had done these things on
the Sabbath day." Jesus had a different conviction about how the Sabbath
was to be used, and so they sought to eliminate Him. This is the way human
nature responds to new ideas, and that is why progress in the religious realm
is often so painful and costly for the pioneers who blaze new trails.
Who killed the prophets of God? It was not the Gentile kings, but it was
God's own people. Who killed Christ? Again, it was God's own people.
There is no freedom of religion until you have some means by which you have
freedom from the religious convictions of others. That is what makes
America so unique in the history of nations. We have freedom from religion
guaranteed by our constitution.
Sometimes we might think it would be great if Christians had the power to
eliminate all other beliefs. Historians are in agreement, however, that this is
the surest way to corrupt Christianity and make it ineffective. Everything
Protestants despise about the history of Catholicism began when Constantine
linked the Roman Empire and the church. Almost every bad thing you can
say about the history of the church has its origin in that marriage of the
church and state. The Church gained control of civil power, and it began to

write the worst chapters in its history of evil and corruption. Power does not
just corrupt the ungodly. The godly are also its victims, and history makes it
clear that Christians need protection from themselves. Our Constitution
limits Christian political power, and we need to be grateful that it does.
Christians who have had the power to persecute have done so, for they all
follow the same line of thinking that seems to be so reasonable. Lord
Macaulay put it into these words: "The doctrine which, from the very first
origin of the religious dissensions has been held by all bigots of all sects, when
condensed into a few words, and stripped of rhetorical disguise, is simply this:
I am in the right, and you are in the wrong. When you are the stronger, you
ought to tolerate me; for it is your duty to tolerate truth. But when I am the
stronger, I shall persecute you; for it is my duty to persecute error." That is
the way Christians tend to think when they get power.
In Virginia, for example, there was a fine of 2000 pounds of tobacco for
any parent who refused to have their child baptized by the state church. The
Baptists went through horrible persecution when resisting such laws, and
they were whipped and jailed by other Christians who did not want them to
have the freedom to do it the way they were convinced the Scripture taught.
But men of liberty who had the desire for freedom began to see the Baptists
position. A young lawyer by the name of Patrick Henry got three preachers
set free who were on trial for preaching the Gospel without the consent of the
state church.
As the Baptists were dragged to court for their violations of the
church-state laws their views were being heard by lovers of liberty. James
Madison, the father of the Constitution, came over to their side. Thomas
Jefferson became sympathetic, and George Washington became open to their
plea for liberty. In 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed, but
because of the Baptist fight, three years later in 1779 Virginia gave the
Baptists their independence from the state church. No longer did they have to
pay the tax to support the state church, and by 1786 the law established
complete separation of church and state. The Baptists had won a great
victory for religious liberty.
The Baptists were fearful, however, that the central government would
gain power over religious liberty and enslave them again, and deprive them of
the victory they had won from the states. So in 1788 a General Committee of

Baptists met in Virginia to discuss the new Constitution of the U. S. They sent
a delegation to George Washington, the new President. They persuaded him
to urge the congress to listen to the Baptist concern. The result was the First
Amendment of the Constitution, which says, "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof."
America was at last a land of full religious liberty like no other land ever
before. The First Amendment eliminated all of the dangers of a state church.
No body of religious people can now impose their conviction on any other
body of people. All are free to worship and obey God according to their own
convictions. This has been the major contribution Baptists have made to our
nation. The American historian Mr. Bancroft said, "Freedom of conscience,
unlimited freedom of mind, was from the first the trophy of the Baptists."
John Locke said, "The Baptists were the first propounders of absolute liberty,
just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty."
We need to appreciate just how much this liberty makes America the
unique nation that it is. The great leaders of the Protestant Reformation did
not believe in religious liberty for all people any more than did the Catholic
church. The majority of Christians in history have felt that liberty should be
limited to their convictions which they hoped could be imposed on others. In
England when a Catholic gained the throne there was persecution of the
Protestants, and when a Protestant gained the throne there was persecution
of the Catholics. The only escape from this abuse of power is in separation of
church and state, and it was only in America that this goal became a reality.
In our land the largest groups of Christians cannot impose any of their
convictions on the smallest group of other Christians. We are indeed a land of
liberty.
History and the Bible make it clear that the most godly people cannot have
power over other people and not abuse that power. That is why the only way
to secure religious liberty is by a Constitution like ours that makes it illegal to
impose your convictions on others by force. Our liberty does not depend
upon the goodness and kindness of those in power. They can hate us, but they
cannot deny our liberty, for it is written that they cannot do it. We have our
liberty, not as a gift from those in power, but as a right guaranteed by our
Constitution.

God demanded that the Jews give their fellow Jews liberty. It is not just a
good idea or suggestion, but it is an absolute obligation. Failure to honor
God's will in this regard led to great judgment of destruction. God takes
man's freedom very seriously. That is why it is essential to preserve the
separation of church and state. This does not mean they cannot cooperate, for
they are both a vital part of society. They just cannot have power over each
other to coerce each other into conformity. They are to be mutually beneficial
friends working together for the good of the people. The wall of separation is
to protect them from each other. It is like the wall between the men's room
and the women's room. But this is not to be interpreted to mean that the two
sexes cannot work together for the good of all. The wall is just protection so
that the temptation to abuse power is kept under control.
In the Cross of Christ I glory as a Christian, but in the Constitution I
glory as an American. In these we have the best of both worlds-a Lord of
liberty in a Land of liberty. Let us praise God for His providence that led this
nation to be the greatest land of liberty that has ever been.
3. THE MEANING OF MEANINGLESSNESS Eccles. 1:12-18, 2:1-11
Pastor W. Robert McClelland had to endure the painful experience of
hearing his grown son curse God and cry out in angry rebellion at Him. His
son had worked hard for congressman Jerry Litton in his senatorial
campaign. When the polls closed that Tuesday night and Litton come
through with an upset victory, it was an experience of great joy. But as is so
often the case with life, it suddenly switched tracks and the entire Litton
family was killed in a plane crash on the way to the victory celebration.
You can put yourselves in the shoes of a young man who has just poured
himself out for a cause, and then seeing it all come to an end just as it was
beginning. The absurdity of it; the futility of it, and the total nonsense and
utter waste of it is hard to swallow. He was a Christian, but he felt like
Solomon in his very sub-Christian mind in this book of Ecclesiastes. His
preacher father did not like to hear his deep negative expressions, but he
knew in his heart he had felt the same way on another occasion. He was a

professor at a mid-western college, and the wife of one of his colleagues
became very ill. He and other Christian friends battered the gates of heaven
for her with prayer, and they spent hours at her bedside. The doctor said she
would not live, but she did recover and was home for Christmas celebration.
It was a great victory but she had a relapse, and on New Year's Day she died.
He was so angry at God that he refused to make excuses for God at the
memorial service. He said, "This is your doing God, you get yourself off the
hook. If this is your idea of wisdom, then you explain it."
He, like his son, experienced the deep dark feeling of meaninglessness. It is
that feeling that nothing makes any sense at all, and that life is a joke, but a
joke that isn't even funny. You feel like everything you do is as worthless as
rearranging deck chair on the Titanic. What's the difference when the ship of
life is sinking? This is not a pleasant experience, but it is a universal
experience, and at one time or another almost every Christian will get a taste
of this bitter stuff. Solomon had to eat it as a regular diet for sometime. Few
Christians will have to endure what he did, but the point is, his experience of
the meaninglessness of life is in the Bible because it is, was, and will be, as
long as history lasts, a very relevant issue.
Dr. Viktor Frankl, a leading psychotherapist in Europe for generations,
developed Logotherapy to deal with this very issue. He survived the Nazi
concentration camp experience, and he learned through it that those who
survived while others in as good health died, did so because they had meaning
to their lives. Logotherapy is healing through meaning. If you could get
people to see some rhyme or reason in the meaninglessness of life, they can
live happy lives, or at least survive. Meaninglessness is the number one
enemy of human happiness. Studies show that in both Communist and
Capitalist countries modern meaninglessness has multiplied. You might
assume that this is due to the masses of the poor who cannot get in on the joys
of affluence, but this is not the case.
This malady afflicts those who would feel right at home at Solomon's table.
A study of 100 alumni of Harvard who were successful doctors, lawyers, and
business men, 20 years after their graduation, made this clear. The majority
of them had the feeling of futility, and they wondered what the meaning of
their achievements was all about. The Bible deals with the real, and this
matter of meaninglessness is very real, and has been one of the major
struggles of mankind. Dr. Frankl calls it the existential vacuum. It results

from the frustration of not being able to find meaning even in those things
which are suppose to be the goals of life, such as wealth, fame, power, and all
the other things Solomon succeeded in gaining in great quantity.
The paradox is that the more man succeeds in getting all that life offers
under the sun, the more he questions the meaning of life. It is because when
he does not have them he can hope and dream that they would fill his need for
meaning, but when he has them he knows they do not, and he can no longer
delude himself. Success and progress, therefore, do not take away the
struggle for meaning, but they add to it. That is why the very successful often
battle with despair, for they have everything and yet they are empty of the
one thing they most need, and that is meaning.
Wood Allen says that his only regret in life is that he is not somebody else
expresses, with tongue and cheek, the dilemma of modern man. He writes,
"More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path
leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other to total distinction. Let us
pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly." Many feel that these are the
only choices. Solomon in this book is also a pessimist, and he experienced the
despair that comes with the search for meaning, but as we follow him we find
that though the road is rough it does reach a desirable destination and a
meaningful choice. We want to look at his journey in three stages.
I. HIS QUESTIONING OF THE MEANING OF LIFE.
This is the theme of chapter one where he asks, what is the sense of it all?
It is the striving after the wind and all is vanity. Dr. Frankl, who works with
those who suffer from meaninglessness, says it is a good thing for man to
question the meaning of life. Animals never do this, but it is a very human
experience. He says it is being honest and sincere to question life's meaning,
for to just take it for granted is to live on the level of the animal. As long as
there is food and comfort the animal does not care, for that is enough. It is
not enough for man, for he wants more because he is more than an animal.
Questioning the meaning of life is the first step in the quest to find that
meaning. Those who never take the first step never make the journey, and so
they add nothing to life's meaning. It is a fact of life that those who often give
us the most are those who question the most. God is saying to us by allowing
the book of Ecclesiastes to be a part of His Word to man. It is okay to

question. It is not out of God's will to doubt, struggle, and be skeptical about
life. In fact, it makes you more authentic and realistic if you can honestly face
up to the dark side of reality and not pretend it does not exist.
The Christian who goes through life always saying that God is in heaven
and all is right with the world may enjoy his isolation from the real world, but
he will not be enjoyed by the world. In other words, he will never be the salt
of the world making life taste better, for he will never get out of the salt
shaker into the meat and add to life's meaning. He will not be compassionate
and caring for a world that is hurting, because he refuses to acknowledge
that it is. He insulates himself from the world by denying that tragedy and
despair is real. It has to be of value to struggle with the meaning of life, or
this book has no business being in the Bible, and is itself meaningless.
We need to learn from this book to avoid extremes. There is the extreme
of never questioning life and its meaning, and this makes us superficial and
unrealistic optimists. Then there is the extreme of always questioning life and
being skeptical of all ultimate values, and this makes us hardened pessimists.
Positive pessimism questions life and its meaning, but always with the
assurance that in God there is an answer. Solomon questions everything, and
yet he never questions the reality of God. This is what keeps him from being
a pure pessimist.
Novelist Romain Gary in book The Ski Bum has an older man tell a
restless and alienated young person: "Your generation is suffering from what
for lack of a better word I shall call over-debunk.....the generation before
yours went too far with their debunking job. You went over-board...You
were so angry with all the dangerous phony piper's tunes that you ended up
by breaking all the pipes and hating all the tunes. You have reduced the
world to a spiritual shambles. God is ha-ha-ha. The soul is ho-ho-ho. Booze
is reality. Love is sex....But you don't seem to enjoy it. Something is still
missing, eh? You got rid of God and, isn't that funny, something is still
missing." It is tragically funny when you think about it. You throw out God
and then wonder why something is still missing. People do it all the time and
do not even realize how foolish it is.
II. HIS QUEST FOR THE MEANING OF LIFE.
This is the theme of chapter 2. This book could well be titled Solomon's

Search. He leaves no stone unturned in his quest to find that which gives life
meaning. I made a list of all the things Solomon tried and I can't imagine that
there is anything new under the sun that could be tried. He tried all of these
things:
1. Being a workaholic.
2. A nature lover.
3. A history fanatic.
4. Being an intellectual.
5. Pleasure seeking. He gave himself up to the trio of wine, women and song.
If life's meaning could be found in the good times with alcohol, sex, music,
laughter and fun, Solomon would have discovered it.
6. He tried creativity of all kinds, and he built marvelous buildings.
7. He tried possessions and had things from all over the world in great
quantity.
8. He tried power and being superior to everyone. He was number one.
9. He did not limit himself to what was wise, but gave folly and madness a
chance to prove their case, and he acted the fool to see life from all sides.
The one thing you have to give Solomon credit for was his thoroughness.
He covered all bases, and yet when the experiment was over he came up with
the same thing he would have had had he chased the wind, and that was
nothing. He could not find the meaning of life in any of these experiences, nor
in all of them combined. Two out of three ain't bad, but nothing out of
everything is really sad. This Solomon search is what characterizes the life of
most people.
One of the reasons we live in a world of constant change is due to man's
quest for meaning. Nothing can stay the same very long when it is not
adequate to satisfy this thirst for meaning. There is constant change because
there is constant dissatisfaction. Solomon tried everything, and the human
spirit in general is like that of Solomon. The answer must be just around the
corner in some new experience, and so life is a quest for meaning by seeking
endless new experiences. This means nothing can be stable for it soon gets old
and boring because it does not fill the emptiness.
Solomon's experience is being repeated over and over again as people
everywhere discover all of their achievements still leaves them unsatisfied.
This is what motivates people to do all sorts of foolish things. People throw

away good marriages because they think marrying someone new will bring
them happiness. One wife said, "I feel like an unfinished symphony."
Another said, "I feel like a column of figures that needs totaling. There
should be something that will sum things up and bring the various strands of
life together." This quest for meaning affects marriages, and it affects jobs.
Many men are constantly dreaming and scheming because their job does not
fill life with meaning as it ought. Change is the name of the game because it is
man's perpetual hope that change will lead to meaning. Solomon says forget
it, for going from one meaningless event to another does not add meaning to
life.
III. HIS QUINTESSENCE OF THE MEANING OF LIFE.
This is not a word we often use, but it fits what Solomon does for us as no
other word does. Quintessence means the essential principle of anything in its
most concentrated form. Quint, as we know, means 5, and so quintessence
means the 5th essence of something. This only makes sense when we go back
to the history of philosophy, and to the time when men said the 4 elements of
all reality are earth, air, fire, and water. These were the 4 essences-the 4
essentials. These represent everything under the sun.
But for those who recognize a higher reality, such as the celestial or
heavenly, there was a 5th essence. The quintessence of anything is what it is
from the heavenly or ultimate perspective. That is precisely where Solomon
finally comes to in his search for the meaning of life. He could not find it
anywhere under the sun, but he did find it when he looked beyond the sun to
the God who made the sun and all creation. He gives us the meaning of life in
a nutshell in the last two verses of this book. "Here is the conclusion of the
matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is whole duty of
man, for God will bring every deed into judgement, including every hidden
thing, whether it is good or evil."
You may not see it at first, but his conclusion is the very essence of both the
Old and New Testament. Solomon was one of the wisest men whoever lived
after all, for by his wisdom he was able to sum up the meaning of life with
these two principles-relationship and responsibility. Relationship to God by
fearing Him and obeying Him, and responsibility to man, for you will be
judged for everything you do as to its good or evil.

This is indeed the quintessence of the heavenly perspective, for that is what
the Ten Commandments are all about. They are about relating to God as the
supreme Person in your life, and secondly of being responsible in your
relationships to your fellowmen. Jesus sums up the whole law with these two
great commandments: To love God with your whole being, and to love your
neighbor as yourself. Jesus said it simpler and clearer, but the fact is,
Solomon's conclusion is the same, for to love God is to fear and obey Him,
and to love your neighbor as yourself is to recognize you will be held
accountable for the good or evil you do in their lives, and so you must live
responsibly.
If one truly keeps the first table of the law and makes God supreme, he
will keep the second table and live responsibly toward his neighbor. If a man
truly prays the first part of the Lord's Prayer, "hallowed be thy name, thy
kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," then he will truly
mean the second part, "Forgive us as we forgive others, and lead us not into
temptation." If one keeps the first commandment to love God, he will follow
through on the golden rule and do unto others as he would have them do unto
him.
Solomon's quintessence of life's meaning is the same as all the rest of the
Bible. It is found in an obedient relationship to God. Life under the sun only
has meaning when there is a link to that which is above the sun. Augustine
said it in a sentence-"Our souls are restless till they find rest in Thee." A. J.
Cronin put it in a paragraph: "There comes a moment when man wearies of
the things he has won; when he suspects with bewilderment and dismay that
there is another purpose, some profound and eternal purpose, in his being. It
is then that he discovers that beyond the kingdom of the world there exists a
kingdom of the soul."
Solomon took a terribly twisted road to get their, but he did finally learn
that life only has meaning in relationship to God. This means that life
without God really is meaningless. They ultimate in meaninglessness is to be
without God and hope in the world. Will Durant in his book On The
Meaning Of Life was biblically accurate when he wrote, "The greatest
question of our time is not communism verses individualism, not Europe
verses America, not ever East verses West; it is whether man can bear to live
without God. The answer of Solomon is, no, men cannot bear it, for
everything minus God equals nothing, and men cannot live in a universe

without meaning, for his very nature, which is made by God, demands it.
Man has no alternative for he needs God to give meaning to life, and nothing
else will satisfy that need.
What this means then is that much of life is meaningless because it is life
without God. Solomon is not out of line at all by his pessimistic cry of vanity,
vanity, all is meaningless. Life under the sun that has no link to God above
the sun is, in fact, a life with no ultimate meaning. The despair of the man
without God is not superficial, but it is reality. Meaninglessness is a major
malady of our time because modern man is trying the same experiments that
Solomon did. They are trying to find life's meaning in everything but God,
and they are learning the hard way, just as Solomon did, that all is an empty
world without God.
Solomon is not all wet, but he is telling it like it is, all of the philosophers
who seek for meaning without God tend to come to the same conclusion that
life is futile search in a dark room for a black cat that isn't there. The
paradox of meaninglessness is that it explains so many things about life. If
everything has meaning, and every event and tragedy, and all brutal evil and
mindless folly are a part of some plan, then the mystery is indeed mind
boggling. If a man's dashing into a McDonald's and killing innocent people
by the dozens is meaningful, then we really have a problem. But if the
meaningless is real, then the problem is solved, for it is meaningless. You
don't need to find a meaning for the meaningless, for by definition it doesn't
have any.
This explains why the world is so full of things that do not make sense.
What else can you expect in a world where people reject the only way to
meaning? They reject God and Christ, who is the only way to God, and the
only alternative is the way of meaninglessness. They rob and kill helpless old
ladies; they rape and kill helpless young children, or do they a million and one
other less violent things, but equally meaningless. It is not part of a plan. It is
pure folly and rebellion against the plan of God. It is not part of a puzzle, but
is meaningless.
The more you grasp the reality of what Solomon is saying, the more you
realize that Ecclesiastes is a powerful introduction to the Gospel. It is the
darkness that makes the light of hope so glorious. Until men see the reality of
the meaningless they will never seek God and ultimate meaning, for they will

always be convinced they can find meaning without submission to God.
Solomon says it can't be done, but they do not know it yet, and refuse to learn
from him, but keep trying the same failed experiments that he did.
Jesus confirms the pessimistic truth of Solomon. Jesus said, "What shall
it profit a man if he gained the whole world but lose his own soul?" That is
Eccles. 1 and 2 in a nutshell. Jesus says that if a man gains everything life can
offer under the sun, but has not been saved by coming into a loving
relationship to God, that man's life is of no profit; it is empty; it is
meaningless. His life might just as well have been spent throwing pebbles into
the ocean, for the end result will be the same-nothing.
So often Christians resent the truth of Solomon, or they just flatly reject it.
Many who say they believe the Bible from cover to cover are not honest, for
they do not believe in meaninglessness. They do not see the powerful positive
purpose of pessimism. They say of all tragedy that some day we will
understand, as if it is really a meaningful part of some master plan. Solomon
says, and Jesus confirms it, you don't have to wait to understand many of the
mysteries of life. You can know all there is to know about them right now,
and that is that they are meaningless. They don't fit now, and they never will,
for they are not a part of God's plan. They are the consequences of the
rejection of His plan.
When God says thou shalt not murder, and a man does it anyway, that is
not a part of God's plan, but a rejection of it, and the result is a meaningless
loss of life. Can anyone believe that the millions of babies conceived by
immoral sex and then killed by abortion is meaningful? Neither the
beginning nor the end are a part of God's plan, and so the whole of it is
meaningless. The world is filled with illustrations of what is not a part of
God's plan.
If you are expecting that in heaven we will be able to take the mindless
massacre of millions of Jews by Hitler and fit it into a logical and sensible
picture, as if it was all planned by God, you are ignoring the clear revelation
of God. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. A kingdom divided
against itself cannot stand said Jesus. God is not on both sides of good and
evil. Evil will be eliminated precisely because it is meaningless, and it can
never fit into the ultimate plan of God.

Just as it is foolish to try to make the impossible possible, so it is foolish to
try and make the meaningless meaningful. So what do we do if we are wise
and accept the wisdom of Solomon? We accept the reality of the meaningless.
When we do we can experience the paradox of the meaning of the
meaningless. That's right! Even the meaningless has meaning to those who
have found the ultimate meaning in relationship to God.
Going into the ditch is meaningless usually, but not always, for sometimes
it is a necessity to save your life. As a way of life and pattern of driving,
however, I think we can all agree it would be meaningless to drive down into
the ditch. But because it is meaningless we are motivated to avoid doing it.
The meaningless helps us better define the meaningful. Being burned is not
as meaningful as not being burned, and so we avoid being burned. Being sick
is not as meaningful as being well, and so we seek health and avoid sickness.
If it was just as meaningful to drive in the ditch as on the road, there would
be no good reason to choose one over the other. The negative makes the
positive all the more positive, and the meaningless makes the meaningful all
the more so.
So if all of life is meaningful, and all life styles and philosophies are
meaningful, then there is no good reason to choose one over the other. All
roads, including the ditches, lead to the same place, and so if you choose
Naturalism, Humanism, Communism, or Hedonism, or any of the ways
Solomon chose to find meaning, you are always on the right road, for all is
good. If there is no distinction between the meaningful and meaningless, you
have no right to judge any road as of less value then another.
But if Solomon is right, and meaningless is real, and all roads that leave
out a relationship to God are dead ends, then man is left with only one major
choice: The way of meaning with God, or the ways of meaninglessness
without Him. Sometimes we are Christians want to have our cake and eat it
too. We want Christ to be the only way to God, and the only way to life with
meaning, but we also want everything else in life to have meaning. It can
when it is incorporated into our relationship to Christ, but so much of life is
not. We must stop being superficial and accept the truth of Ecclesiastes, that
much of life is meaningless. In fact, all of it is meaningless that is the result of
the choices of men that are contrary to the will of God. Even good and
innocent things are meaningless when they are cut off from God, for they
have no ultimate value.

Is this suppose to be good news? Yes it is, for it makes life very simple so
that one does not need to be a philosopher to understand it. You do not need
to be wealthy and powerful like Solomon to get in on the meaning of life, for
the way to meaning is available to all, for it has nothing to do with power,
possession, or pleasure. It is in a relationship to a Person-the Person of God,
revealed to us fully in Jesus Christ. When that relationship is the center of
your life, and all else revolves around it, your life and all of it events have a
basis for meaning. But even the Christian can get out of fellowship and do
what is not God's will, and that will lead to what is meaningless.
Jesus said that without him we can do nothing. We can do much without
Him, but the point is it will be meaningless, for it will have no ultimate
relevance to the purpose of God. When the Christian decides to disobey the
known will of God and do what is evil, it will be meaningless and of no value
for the kingdom of God, or for them as individuals. It is a going into the ditch,
and so we need to repent and that means getting back onto the road that leads
to meaning in all that we do.
The Bible rejects the idea that all is meaningful. It stresses the reality of
the meaningless, for the more we know of this reality, the more we will strive
to avoid it and stay on the road of meaningfulness. It is important to be
aware of the reality of the meaningless so that we can specialize in that which
is meaningful. Life makes a lot more sense when you do not have to figure out
how to make sense of that which makes no sense. We do not have to defend
God against the critics who blame Him for so much evil and tragedy. These
are the results of evil and are not a part of His plan at all. They are part of the
world of the meaningless. Do not waste your time trying to prove that driving
in the ditch is meaningful, or that many other such nonsense things have
meaning. Accept the reality of the meaningless and do what Solomon and
Jesus agree on- Make God the first priority in your life, and develop a
relationship to Him, which is best done by receiving Jesus Christ as your
personal Savior, and then you can find meaning in all of life, and even the
meaninglessness of life will make some sense and be helpful to your
development of meaning.
4. TAKING LAUGHTER SERIOUSLY Based on Eccles. 2:1-11

Tom Mullen begins his book, Laughing Out Loud and Other Religious
Experiences with this story. An engineer, a psychologist, and a theologian
were hunting in the wilds of Northern Canada. They came across a isolated
cabin, and decided to check it out. When no one answered their knocks, they
tried the door and found it open. It was a simple two room cabin with a
minimum of furniture. Nothing was surprising about the cabin except the
stove. It was a typical pot bellied cast ironed stove, but it was suspended in
mid air by wires attached to the ceiling beams.
The psychologist was the first to speculate on this strange location for a
stove. He said, "It is obvious that this lonely trapper, isolated from humanity,
has elevated his stove so he can curl up under it and vicariously experience a
return to the womb." "Nonsense!" Replied the engineer. "The man is
clearly practicing laws of thermodynamics. By elevating his stove he has
discovered a way to distribute the heat more evenly throughout the cabin."
"With all due respect," interrupted the theologian, "I'm sure that hanging his
stove from the ceiling has religious meaning. Fire lifted up has been a
religious symbol for centuries."
As the three debated their theories, the trapper returned, and they asked
him immediately why he hung his stove by wires from the ceiling. He said,
"Because I had plenty of wire, but not much stove pipe." The answer to many
mysteries is much simpler than we think.
Reading commentaries on the book of Ecclesiastes is often like listening to
those three hunters speculate about the stove. They come up with complex
and confusing theories to explain this book, and the theories are more
difficult to grasp than the book itself. The simple and obvious, and
commonsense approach is the best. All we have to do is recognize that
Solomon is simply telling us how he really felt. He is not saying he should feel
this way, or that it is good to feel this way, but that it is how he really felt.
He had himself a ball, and laughed his head off, and then he examined the
experience afterward, and he concluded that laughter, like the rest of the
pleasures of life, is of no use.
You do not need any complex theory to explain this. It is simple. He is
depressed because laughter and pleasure are merely passing experiences, and
they are not permanent, and so they do not fill the human need for the
eternal. The merry monarch found his mirth of little worth, and it left him

melancholy. This is no surprise, for we have all had that kind of experience
where after a good time we become to some degree depressed simply because
the laughter doesn't last, and the pleasure of it does not persist.
This is an universal experience, and that is why it is in the Bible. It good
for all of us to know that even the man with everything goes through the same
experience we do. This releases us from the burden of envy where we think
we could escape this type of feeling if only we were somebody else, especially
somebody with everything life can offer. It also releases us from the burden
of loneliness when we feel we have emotions that the rest of the human race
does not have. Paul said in I Cor. 10:13, "No temptation has seized except
what is common to man."
What the Bible teaches is that the common man is the only kind of man
there is. Solomon was so great, wise, and unique in many ways, but he was
still a common man. That was the kind of man Jesus became as well, for there
is no other kind, and he entered into the same temptations and the same
feelings that we all experience. "He was tempted in all points like as we are,
yet without sin." Jesus understood what Solomon was saying in this book. He
had plenty of good times and laughter, but he also knew its limitations, and he
endured the experience of depression, and was a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief.
Solomon was right, for laughter is not enough to give life ultimate
meaning. But it is, nevertheless, a vital part of the meaningful life. Solomon is
himself one of the key authorities in the Bible for supporting the value of
laughter. Why then, if he sees the worth of mirth, does he stress the
worthlessness of it here? It is because, like all other values of life, if they are
sought as goal of life, and one becomes as obsessed with them that they push
God into a secondary position, they become sources of sickness rather than
health, when this happens, as it did with him, then it is true as he says in 7:3,
"Sorrow is better than laughter." Jesus confirmed this when He said,
"Blessed are those who mourn." In James 4:9-10 we see Christians who have
gone off the deep end in their search for pleasure, and they urged to, "Change
your laughter to mourning, and you joy to gloom. Humble yourself before
the Lord and He will lift you up."
The Bible makes it clear that there is a time to stop horsing around and
having a good time, and get down to the serious business of living for a

purpose in God's will. Those who never do, never discover the full value of
joy and laughter. So what we see in Solomon is both sides of the coin. We see
the futility of laughter, and the fruitfulness of laughter. In 3:4 he says there is
a time to weep and a time to laugh. Both are good and valid. Since we have
been looking at some heavy subjects in our study of this book, I thought we
should look at the lighter and brighter side, and reap some value from-
I. THE FRUITFULNESS OF LAUGHTER.
In Pro. 17:22 we read the most famous biblical precept on the value of
laughter. Solomon there says, "A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a
downcast spirit dries up the bones." Laughter is the lubrication of life that
keeps us from drying up and grinding to a halt. Drain your life of humor,
and it is like draining your car of oil. You will not get far before you lose
power and lock up the engine. Laughter keeps the engine of life running
smooth. It allows us to keep making progress down the road to God's goals.
What a blessing is the sense of humor for releasing of tension in times of
stress. I visited Vern Miller before his by-pass surgery. His room mate Virgil
was facing the same surgery. There was tension as they faced the unpleasant
prospect of being cut open, but they were easing the friction by using the oil
of laughter. Together we were experiencing healing by anointing the whole
situation with the oil of gladness. It was good medicine. The doctors have to
take out the whole vain in the leg for the by-pass. Vern was having five
by-passes, and the other man only three. So he commented that he could use
the extra he would have left over for bait. I could see the potential for his
practical mind, and I encouraged him to write a book on tips for what to do
with your spare parts.
Vern then told of another man who was going into surgery at the same
time as he was. He said I am assuming he has a different surgeon, or maybe
mine is ambidextrous, and will be doing one with each hand, and he stretched
out his arms to illustrate. We had a good laugh. Sure, it was nonsense, and
just a way to escape from the tension, but that is what medicine is for, and
that is what laughter does. I do not take aspirin because I like the taste, but to
escape the pain of a headache. Laughter can help us escape also, and it even
tastes good. The point is, laughter is appropriate even in the most serious
times because it is a medicine, and it lifts and lightens the load. It is God's
most natural drug. Thank God for laughter.

Sometimes when life is on a disaster trail, and everything seems to be going
wrong, you can be suddenly touched with a sense of humor, and it is like a
shot in the arm to revive your spirit. Bonhoffer, the theologian, who died in
Hitler's concentration camp could write, "Absolute seriousness is not without
a dose of humor." Abraham Lincoln was able to survive his responsibility
through the Civil War because of the aid of his sense of humor. Sometimes his
cabinet felt his humor was out of place, but he replied, "Gentlemen, why
don't you laugh? If I didn't laugh with the strain that in on me day and night,
I should go mad. And you need the medicine as much as I do." Laughter is a
life saver to many in times of unusual stress. My father lived in pain for many
years and said that his sense of humor was the only thing that kept him from
taking his own life to escape the pain. Laughter can be life saving medicine.
Jesus said that we should face life's worst without letting fear dominate us.
He said do not fear those who can kill the body, and that is all they can do. He
made it sound like martyrdom was a minor matter. After they kill you, he is
saying, the matter is out of their hands, and so don't worry. This can only be
experienced by those who have a sense of humor, and who can laugh even at
death. You have to be able to see beyond death, and see the joke involved in
men thinking they can win by killing you, when all they do is send you into
the presence of Him who has the keys of death, and who has a mansion
waiting for you to enter and enjoy forever. They think they are robbing you
of life, and what they are doing is sending you to the ultimate life of joy.
Faith in Christ and a sense of humor go hand in hand. Eugene O'Neill
portrayed this in his play Lazarus Laughed. He had Lazarus say, "I heard the
heart of Jesus laughing in my heart, and I laughed in the laughter of God."
the crowd joined Lazarus in his happy mood and laughed with him, for the
fear of death had been conquered. The play comes to a climax with Caesar
threatening Lazarus with death. It was a joke to him, and he responded like a
grandpa responds when his 4 year old grandchild threatens to pound him into
dust. He laughs, and he dies laughing. It is the laughter of God when we laugh
at the absurdities of life.
In Ps. 2 we see the folly of man as he plots to overthrow the plan of God
and take over the universe. Verse 4 says, "The one enthroned in heaven
laughs." God has a sense of humor, and it tickles him to laughter to see puny
men develop such delusions of grandeur. It is like a gnat organizing his fellow
gnat to take over a tank. You get the same funny sensation when a small child

in rebellion decides to defy the very powers that gave him life and sustain his
life. The most Godlike response you can have to those deluded by their pride
is to laugh. In Ps. 37:12-13 we read, "The wicked plot against the righteous
and gnash their teeth at them; but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he
knows their day is coming."
Oswald J. Smith, the great preacher and hymn writer, puts the scene in
poetry.
Methinks I hear God laugh, so let them rage.
He'll hold them in derision till the day
He rises in His wrath, and in His hot
Displeasure, vexes those who vainly seek
To tear Him from His throne for judgment set.
What folly if a sparrow hurl itself
Against a locomotive in its pride,
Expecting thus to check it in its speed!
As little hope have they who mock at God.
Is life a joke? Yes it is when man takes himself so seriously that he thinks
he can make it meaningful without God, and so sets out to dethrone God. It is
good for us to step back once in awhile, and see the dark side of man from
God's perspective, and join Him in a good laugh. Some people think the tower
of Babel was where Solomon kept all his wives, but what it is, is a monument
to man's silliness. He thought he could build a tower to the heavens and
become a power that was supreme. It was the Lucifer approach to life that
says, I will exalt myself to the throne of the universe. The funny thing about
life is not the psychotic who thinks he is Napoleon, but the normal people who
think they are God. History makes all of man's pride a laugh. One of the
ways you can divide up the human race in two camps is this: Those who
laugh at God, and those who laugh with God.
Jesus was a man of sorrows, but Jesus was also the Son of God, and the
express image of the Father. In Jesus we see the same sense of humor that we
see in the Father. Jesus saw the comical, the absurd, and the ridiculous side
of life. We are so brainwashed into thinking that Jesus was always serious,
and even sad, that we miss all of His humor. We refuse to give Him the
balance life in our thinking, and by so doing we rob the only truly ideal man
of what is vital to that ideal, and that is a sense of humor. Most students of

the life of Jesus see it, but it is seldom stressed, and the result is that most
Christians do not recognize the sense of humor in their Savior.
G. Campbell Morgan, that prince of expositors, sees it in the most serious
of setting even. After the resurrection when Jesus is walking with the two on
the road to Emmaus we see Jesus in this very serious setting playing the game
of hide and seek with His disciples. Morgan comments, "There is a tender
and beautiful playfulness in the way He dealt with these men. Humor is as
divine as Pathos, and I cannot study the life of Jesus without finding humor
there."
Tennyson said humor is generally most fruitful in the most solemn spirits,
and, "You will even find it in the Gospel of Christ." Elton Trueblood in his
book The Humor Of Christ gives numerous illustrations. We will look at just
a few. Jesus had a lot of fun with the humorless Pharisees, and often
described them in ways that would make the people chuckle. In Matt. 15:14
He calls them blind guides. The very concept is ridiculous. Who would ever
have confidence in a blind guide? Imagine a sign on the entrance to a cave
that says, blind guides available-reasonable rates. Jesus says, when the blind
lead the blind they both fall into a pit. Such is the folly of the Pharisees and
their followers. Follow me and I will make you fishers of men was the
message of Jesus. Follow them, and you will be pit filler.
This form of humor was typical of Jesus. He described them in all kinds of
humorous ways. They kept the outside of their cups shining and spotless.
They were germ free, but inside they neglected to clean, but let that fill up
with cobwebs, dirt, and dead flies. They would choke on a gnat showing that
they were super fussy with minute details of the law, but then they would
swallow a camel, hump and all, without batting an eye. That means they
could by-pass the major purpose of the law if it was in their self-interest.
Jesus pictured the Pharisees seeking sympathy in the pity party method of
looking dismal and pathetic because of their supposedly sacrificial fasting.
Jesus said that His followers were to have nothing to do with such sad sack
piety. They were to anoint their heads, wash their faces, and look presentable
rather than laughable. Jesus had a sarcastic wit that has tickled me many
times. My favorite, is in John 10:31-32 where we read, "The Jews took up
stones again to stone him." This sounds like a serious situation doesn't it? It is
no time for wise cracks, but Jesus responds, "I have shown you many good

works from my Father, for which of these do you stone me?" Jesus never did
any bad works, and so He knew they had to be stoning Him for some good
work that He did, and He was curious as to which of His kindnesses it was
that provoked them to such hatred. Jesus, just like His Father, saw the
absurdity of man's folly, and the utter ridiculousness of his rebellion.
Jesus came that we might have life and have it abundantly. He came that
we might be reconciled to God and experience life in its fullness, and enjoy all
that He has made, and especially the gift He has given uniquely to man-the
sense of humor. Animals do not have this gift, for it is part of the image of
God given only to man. Helmut Thielike, the greatest German preacher of
modern times, said of Christians, "When they lose their sense of humor it is
nothing less than a denial of their Lord."
What use is laughter Solomon asks, and the answer of the centuries is, it is
our link with our heavenly Father that lifts us above the mere earthly to the
heavenly perspective. Those who see the humorous built into life by God
enjoy life so much more. I certainly enjoy being a grandfather more due to
the constant laughter that comes from children. Many great Christians point
to the animal creation to show God's sense of humor. Dean Inge in one of his
many books wrote, "I cannot help thinking that the Creator made some
animals and some human beings just for fun. The elephant, the hippo, the
baboon with blue cheeks and scarlet stern are not ugly. They are figures of
comedy. Why should not the deity have a sense of humor?"
I personally feel that children are the greatest proof of God's sense of
humor. To me they are God's clowns in the circus of life. And they add more
laughter than all the comedians combined. Just the otheriew of God to the
world, and a view that is not consistent with God's revelation of Himself.
Take Devorah Wigoder for example. She rebelled against her Christian
heritage and married a Jew. In her book Hope Is My House she writes, "To
me, one of the most disappointing aspects in the life of Jesus was his lack of
humor." What a shame that her Christian heritage never exposed her to the
truth of Jesus' sense of humor. If she was only an isolated case, we could
brush it off as of no consequence, but she is not. As I study the lives of people
who have rebelled against the Christian faith, and have become skeptics and
cynics, and even atheists, I discover that they see no humor in the Christian
faith. A writer for Christianity Today for many years confirms this when he

writes, "I have learned that too many Christian people and organizations
can't laugh at themselves. They take themselves too seriously, and this makes
them stuffy. Some people are not serious enough about humor and this makes
them shallow."
The Christian who does not develop his sense of humor will not likely be
an attractive person to the world, like Jesus was. He could fit into most every
social situation, and bring joy to the guests because He was ever ready with a
story or some humor. One of the best things we can have up our sleeve is a
funny bone. Charles Aked said humor is a gift of God, and, "A face as long as
a fiddle and a voice like that of an alpine crow will not be imputed to us for
righteousness." Solomon said there is a time to laugh, and the time to do it is
when you want to make clear to a sad and hurting world that in Christ there
is really something to laugh about, for in Him life's blessings become all the
more enjoyable, and life's folly's become all the more ridiculous. Both good
and evil become causes for laughter in Christ. Tragedy and tears are only for
time, but in Christ laughter is forever. Martin Luther said, "If you're not
allowed to laugh in heaven, I don't want to go there." He knew he was safe,
for he knew of the laughter of God, and of the laughter of Jesus. If you do
not, then you need to take laughter more seriously and learn to pray-
Give me the gift of laughter, oh, I pray,
Though tears should hover near;
Give me the gift of laughter for each day,
Laughter to cast out fear.
5. A TIME FOR EVERYTHING Based on Eccles. 3:1-8
Art Linkletter tells of the young woman who married a wealthy old man. She was
apparently quite fond of him in the beginning, but then she started to focus on the demands
of maintaining a home. She told her husband that the garden looked shabby. All right
he said spend some money to take care of it. So she brought in the gardening crew,
and soon the grounds looked wonderful. Then she noticed that the cutting away of the
shrubs and hedges left the house looking shabby. So she called in the painters, and soon
the house looked just wonderful. But when she walked into the house, from this beautiful
exterior, it made the inside of the house look shabby. So her husband told her to get an

interior decorator, and she did. Finally, the entire estate sparkled and looked gorgeous.
But in the midst of all this splendor her husband looked shabby, so she got rid of him.
Linkletter did not say if this story was based on fact, but it could very well be. Here
was a woman who w anted a place for everything, and everything in its place. What did
not fit, she got rid of. All of us may like to follow such a plan, and keep in our lives only
those things which are pleasant, and which our design for the ideal life. Solomon is telling
us this is fairy tale dreaming, and does not face up to the reality that life is a mixture of
negative and positive. You don't get to pick and choose, and select only the good things
of life. You must also experience the bad things.
You cannot just be born, and skip the dying part. You cannot just go out and harvest
a crop, and skip the work of planting. You cannot just go through life laughing and dancing,
and bypass the weeping and mourning that comes with the package called life. As the
cliché goes, "We must learn to take the bad with the good." The key to being able to do
this, and still be happy and successful, is timing. Timing plays a major role in life. Part of
what it means to be w ise is in recognizing the importance of timing.
Amusing is the story of the Russian philosopher Nicolas Berdyaev who was pleading
passionately about the insignificance and unreality of time, when suddenly he stopped,
and looked at his watch with genuine anxiety, for he noticed he was late for taking his
medicine.
Solomon was right, there is a time for every matter under heaven. A time for taking
medicine, and a time for refraining medicine. This is not one of his 14 couplets, but it is
just as true, and w e could all come up with other couplets equally valid. These are just
key examples of his main point, there is a time for everything. If this is the case, then
it naturally follows that whether life goes smooth, or is rough, often will depend upon the
timing. We cannot choose when to be born, and often have little choice as to when we
die, but there is much of life where we do have choices, and wisdom is determined, not
just by the right choice, but by the right timing.
A good thing done at the wrong time can be a bad thing. That is, it can actually do
more harm than good. For example, take Lucy, who is playing out the field, and a ball
drops right beside her, and she makes no attempt to catch it. Charlie Brown, the manager
rushes out to her in anger demanding an answer for why she didn't hold out her glove.
Her reply was simply, "I was having my quiet time." Not even God could be pleased
with such timing for devotions. Spirituality of any kind can get a bad reputation if it is used
as an excuse for neglecting responsibility, or avoiding obligations. The student w ho fails
his history exam with the excuse that he was reading his Bible, will not impress God or
the teacher. Life demands balance. There is a time for devotions, and a time to refrain
from devotions. Peter w anted to stay on the Mt. of Transfiguration, but Jesus said, in
effect, there is a time to be on the mountain, and a time to be in the valley meeting the
urgent needs of men. Escape is good only when it is a means to prepare for more effective
battle.
It is good to go through an intersection, for if one does not he will never get anywhere.
All progress depends on doing it, so it is good and right, but if you do this good and right
thing at the wrong time it can be the worst thing you do. There is a time to go, and a time to sto p.
One epitaph reads, "Here lies the body of W illiam Jay, w ho died maintaining his righ t of w ay.
He was right-dead right-as he sped a long, but he's just as dead as if he was wrong."
There is a time to claim your rights, but wisdom recognizes there is also a time to give them up.
The importance of timing is the key to understanding much of the teaching of Christ in
the sermon on the Mount. There is a time for the Christian to mourn and be meek, and

to back away from his rights and turn the other cheek. Jesus said if you are offering your
gift at the alter, and remember that you brother is offended, go first and be reconciled to
your brother, and then come and offer you gift. Jesus is saying, there is an order in life
that makes things fitting, and if they are not in the right order, even though good, they
are not acceptable to God. Jesus gave us specific examples of the importance of timing.
He said the Pharisees failed by doing good things, and it w as because they timed their
alms, prayers, and fasting, so as to be seen of men. Jesus said the right time for these things
is when you are alone with God.
Jesus agrees with Solomon, timing is a key factor in the successful life that is pleasing
to God, and beneficial to men. Failure and mistakes revolve around poor timing. Robert
Morris was a wealthy merchant. He was so wealthy that his son Robert Morris Jr., who
was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was also the key financier of the American Revolution.
His money saved our government from bankruptcy. His father was also greatly honored; one might say,
overly honored. One day as he left one of his large ships on a small boat, which was taking him to sho re,
he was honored by the Captain by being saluted with the ships cannon. In this case they saluted him before
he was out of range, and the cannon ball killed him. He was only 39, and died because of poor timing.
The same thing done at a different moment would have been a pleasure.
"How did you get that black eye?" one friend asked another. "By kissing the bride
after the ceremony," he replied. "But everybody does that," he responded. "Yeah,
I know, but this was two years after the ceremony." Poor timing w as the cause of his
injury. Good and bad; right and wrong; wise and foolish; often revolve around this matter
of timing. Growing in wisdom, therefore, involves growing in your aw areness of what is
the proper moment. Arthur Gordon interviewed the well-known actor, Charles Coburn,
before he died. He asked him the stock question, "What does one need to get ahead in
life? Brains, energy, education?" He shook his head and said, "Those things help. But
there is something I consider even more important: knowing the moment." He then went
on the say, "O n the stage, as every actor knows, timing is the all importa nt factor. I
believe its the key in life, too. If you could master the art of knowing the moment in your
marriage, your work, your relationships with others, you w on't have to pursue happiness
or run after success. They'll walk right in through your front door!"
Arthur Gordon was deeply impressed by this interview, and he recognized it was an
idea that Solomon had stressed. He did some research on the subject, and discovered it
was one of the most practical truths that a person can grasp. He quotes a family relations
court judge, who deals with quarreling couples constantly. "If only they'd realize that
there are times when everyone's threshold of irritability is low. When a person can't stand
nagging or criticism, or even good advice! If married partners would just take the trouble
to study each other's moods, and know when to air a grievance or when to show affection,
the divorce rate in this country would be cut in half." I am convinced also that many
marriages are ruined not by the problems and the conflicts, but by the poor timing involved
in dealing with them.
There is a time for war says Solomon; a time when hostility and resentment has to be
dealt with in all human relations, but only when it is timed right will it be followed by peace
rather than pieces. Successful marriages are accomplished by two people who are aware
of the importance of timing. Arthur Gordon learned of his own weakness in this area when
he asked his wife, which of his failing annoyed her most. She responded, "Your tendency
to wait until we are about to walk into a party before telling me that my hair is mussed or
my dress doesn't look quite right." Even if it is true, it is better to leave it unsaid then to
speak the truth at the wrong time. Some feel that the truth is alw ays right to speak. This
is not so; even Jesus kept back the truth until it was appropriate, and the time w as right
for it to be received.

God's whole plan of redemption is based on this principle of proper timing. It was not
until the fullness of time, when all had been providentially prepared, that God sent forth
His Son into the world. Those who could read the signs of the time came to worship the
Christ child. Those who were prepared received the gift of God which was eternal life.
But, as is always the case, even a blessing can be a curse to those who are not ready for
it. For those who had no sense of God's timing, Jesus said His coming brought judgment.
The kingdom of God was at hand, but they missed it, because they did not grasp God's
timing.
The Prodigal Son got his inheritance at the w rong time. It was a blessing he w as not
prepared to handle wisely. The result was, it became a curse and cost him everything.
Had grace and love not entered the story, it would have ended as a tragedy of poor timing.
Many have found sudden wealth to be a curse. Take any other value, and the story is the
same. Power is good, but let it fall into the hands of one who is not prepared to use it,
and it will lead to tyranny and disaster. Fortunately, it works both ways, and we have the
story of Esther, of whom M ordecai said, "Who knows whether you have not come to the
kingdom for such a time as this?" Because she recognized the importance of timing, she
acted and used her pow er to save the Jew ish race. Mordecai knew the importance of
timing, and he told Esther that if she made this a time for silence she would parish. Esther
agreed, it was time to speak, and this gave her a major role in the plan of God.
History is constantly revealing tragedy or triumph based on timing. The French
Revolution set the masses free, but they were not prepared for freedom. It was bad
timing, and the result was great bloodshed from which the nation never recovered. This
same thing has happened in other nations, and almost happened in America. Booker
Washington in, Up From Slavery, told of the great day of Lincoln's Emancipation
Proclamation. He describes wild scenes of ecstasy as the slaves wept and danced, and
used every emotion they had to express their joy in being liberated. But Washington
goes on to describe the next day. Now they had to do something with their freedom, and
it became a burden, for they didn't know how to use it. Gloom took over, for they had
found freedom to be a very serious business. For some it became a tragedy, but thanks
to men of good timing, like Booker Washington, and the black colleges, it did not become
the catastrophe it might have been.
The point is, you can go through all of history and see that what makes things good or
bad is not just what happens, but the timing of what happens, and how aw are the people
are of the importance of timing, and being prepared to do what the time demands for
success. There is no end of examples. Sex is good or evil depending on the timing.
Before marriage it is called an evil, but after marriage it is a blessing. Sports almost
always depend upon timing. Even a pro will not be a winner if his timing is off. In warfare
courage and bravery are of great value, but the key to victory is in timing. Knowing when
to attack or retreat is the key factor. If your car engine is not properly timed there will
be loss of power and poor mileage. If your body does not get the proper nourishment at
the right time you w ill not be as effective. Timing is a vital part of life.
The implications and applications of this truth are so enormous and numerous that we
can only look at one of them right now. The one that impresses me most is this: If there
is a time for every matter under heaven, then it is evidently the will and plan of God that
the ideal life be one of great variety. Variety is indeed the spice of life. There is a time
for chicken, but also a time for shrimp. There is a time for study, but also a time for play.
There is a time for culture, and also a time for clowning. A balance life is a life where one
has a taste of diversity. When it comes to life we are made to be general practitioners and
not just specialists.
Let the life of Charles Darwin illustrate my point. As a young man he had a great love

for art, music, and literature. But as he pursued his career he lost his sense of balance
in life. He became obsessed with his scientific thinking. He rejected the idea that there
is a time for every matter under heaven. For him there w as only time for his specialty.
Variety vanished from his life, and with it the ability to appreciate the many gifts of God
that add pleasure to life. In his declining years, when he had time to enjoy the beauty of
life's variety, he discovered it wa s too late. He wrote,
To my unspeakable sorrow I cannot endure to read a line of poetry.
I have tired lately to enjoy Shakespeare, but I found it so intolerably
dull that it nauseated me. I have even lost my taste for pictures and
music. I retain some fondness for beautiful scenery, but it does not
cause me the exquisite delight which it formerly did. My mind seems
to have become a mere machine for grinding general laws out of large
collections of facts.
His problem was poor timing. He never used a portion of his time to keep balanced,
and filled with a variety of interests and experiences. He missed the boat as it passed
its dock, and later when it stopped again, he no longer wanted the ride. Jesus said work
for the night is coming when man should work no more. What this means is that if you do
not do what you can do when you can do it, you may never get another chance, for either
the time will cease when it can be done, or you will change and no longer care to do w hat
can be done. Darwin learned the lesson too late, but his failure is a powerful lesson to us.
He said again, "If I had to live my life over again, I would make it a rule to read a little poetry,
and hear a little music every week; for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would
thus have been kept active through use."
It is always the right time to be preparing to do the will of God. We do not always know what God's w ill
is, and what He may have in store for us, but w hatever it is we will be better prepared for it by sta rting now .
Don't be like the boy who was running to the bus just as it pulled aw ay. A man standing there said, "I guess
you didn't run fast enough." "O yes I did," said the boy. "I just didn't start soon enough." It is always the
right time to trust in Christ, and it is always perfect timing to start now obeying all that you know of
God's will.
6. EVERYTHING AT THE RIGHT TIME Based on Eccles. 3:1-8
Arthur Gordon tells this true story of one of the leaders in a Christian
school. He came from a very poor background, and was rather homely, yet
he was married to one of the most beautiful and popular girls in Boston. He
was asked how he managed to get her to say yes to him. He explained his
strategy. He knew he had many manly rivals, and so he could not compete on
that level. He had to appeal to her tenderness, and so on one snowy night,
when he had a date with her, he slipped on the steps and fell down to the
bottom of the porch. She came rushing to his side, and he stopped groaning
just long enough to ask her to marry him. He figured she would not have the
heart to add to his misery by turning him down. He was right, and she said

yes.
Timing plays a major role in most every marriage, for how people meet is
often a matter of timing. This is true for friendship, jobs, and even in the
matter of becoming a hero. President John F. Kennedy was asked how he
became a hero in the II World War, and he said, "It was involuntary. They
sank my boat." He was not looking for a way to be a hero. It was forced upon
him, and the point is, all of us may do heroic things if our life depended on it.
But if the time never occurs for us to be heroic we just never get the
opportunity. Time determines so much of life, and in our text we see many
examples.
In verse 2 Solomon begins with the two ends of life-the start and the
conclusion. The two major events for all people are birth and death.
Solomon says, "There is a time to be born." He is not saying that birth
always comes at the right time, as if all births are appointed. We know this is
not the case. The birth of Jesus was in the fullness of time, and was precisely
appointed, but there are many births that are not so appointed, just as there
are many deaths which are not appointed by God.
There are some who read this passage as teaching absolute determinism:
That every event of life is all planned, and the exact time and duration of it as
well, so that all of life is determined, and whatever will be will be. If this is
what Solomon is saying here, it is in total contrast to his emphasis on the
meaninglessness and vanity of life. If all is planned by God, and every detail
is just what He wants, then all has meaning, and all you have to do is just
accept everything as it is as the best of all possible worlds.
But Solomon is saying in this book, life if loaded with the meaningless
because so much of it is not a part of God's plan, and has no order, rhyme, or
reason. In a world where people are free to reject God and His will, you are
going to see a lot of births and deaths that are not a part of His plan. In
chapter 6 verse 3, Solomon speaks of an untimely birth. This is a reference to
being born so premature that one is born dead. There are millions of births
that are not rightly timed, and this leads to defects or death. Today doctors
can save children that once had no hope, but still these premature births are
not good. Poorly timed births are a negative reality. If there is a right time
for everything, there is also a bad time for everything.

Issues worth thinking about

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Issues worth thinking about