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#Post#: 3033--------------------------------------------------
Solomon's World View
DIR By: Olde Tymer
Date: January 1, 2019, 10:23 am
---------------------------------------------------------
.
Hello; and welcome to the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes.
This book is actually kinda fun because it's chock full of
normal thinking instead of religious dogma. Ecclesiastes
requires very little interpretation as anybody who's been around
the block a time or two can easily relate to its thoughts.
I decline to spiritualize this book; preferring instead to quick
draw and shoot from the hip; so to speak.
Buen Camino
_
#Post#: 3034--------------------------------------------------
Re: Solomon's World View
DIR By: Olde Tymer
Date: January 1, 2019, 10:25 am
---------------------------------------------------------
.
● Ecc 1:1 . .The words of Koheleth son of David, king in
Jerusalem.
Koheleth is apparently a transliteration rather than a
translation. The Hebrew word is qoheleth (ko-heh'-leth) which
means: an assembly gatherer. A qoheleth assembler isn't a
mechanic on a factory assembly line, but rather, someone who
assembles a group together for a speech, a seminar, a sermon, or
a classroom lecture.
Christ was a koheleth. Just about everywhere he went, Jesus set
up a soap box and drew crowds.
The lecturer obviously isn't female because Koheleth was a son
of David and a king in Jerusalem. Sons and kings are eo ipso
male.
Tradition accredits Ecclesiastes to David's son Solomon, the
brightest intellectual of his day because of the abundance of
his God-given wisdom. None of the other descendants of David
ever matched Solomon's intellect. He may not have been much of a
soldier, but Solomon had no equals in matters of scholarship.
"Yhvh endowed Solomon with wisdom and discernment in great
measure, with understanding as vast as the sands on the
seashore. Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all
the Kedemites and than all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was
the wisest of all men: [wiser] than Ethan the Ezrahite, and
Heman, Chalkol, and Darda the sons of Mahol. His fame spread
among all the surrounding nations.
. . . He composed three thousand proverbs, and his songs
numbered one thousand and five. He discoursed about trees, from
the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall;
and he discoursed about beasts, birds, creeping things, and
fishes. Men of all peoples came to hear Solomon's wisdom, [sent]
by all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom."
(1Kgs 5:9-14)
Solomon's education would most likely be categorized as Liberal
Arts in our day; which is a pretty broad field of study
consisting of a variety of subjects.
● Ecc 1:2-3 . . Utter futility!-- said Koheleth --Utter
futility! All is futile! What real value is there for a man in
all the gains he makes beneath the sun?
He has a point. What does it benefit people "beneath the sun"
(viz: in this world of ours) to amass a fortune, build an
empire, accumulate knowledge, possessions, education, accolades,
achievements, and experience when they're only going to die and
lose every last bit of it? Here's a humorous epitaph that quite
says it all:
Here lies John Racket,
In his wooden jacket.
He kept neither horses
Nor mules.
He lived like a hog,
And died like a dog;
And left his money to fools.
_
#Post#: 3043--------------------------------------------------
Re: Solomon's World View
DIR By: Olde Tymer
Date: January 2, 2019, 7:46 am
---------------------------------------------------------
.
● Ecc 1:4 . . One generation goes, another comes, but the
Earth remains the same forever.
The Earth is permanent while humans are transient.
It's quite humiliating to realize that a mindless lump of
granite with an IQ of zero, and whose personal accomplishments
amount to absolutely nothing, will easily outlive the finest
minds and the most energetic movers and shakers who ever
existed. The rock of Gibraltar, for example, was here before
Plato, Alexander the Great, Darwin, Beethoven, Einstein, Eli
Whitney, Edwin Hubble, Jonas Salk, and Steve Jobs; and the rock
of Gibraltar was still here after they all died. It will still
be here after you and I are dead too. Shakespeare once said: All
the world's a stage. He was so right. Actors come and go, but
the stage is always there; ready for a new cast.
It's just not fair. People are much smarter, more sophisticated,
and far more valuable than anything on the planet. But the
planet itself-- mute, ignorant, and impersonal --endures
forever; while its superiors die and drop off all the time. In
the grand scheme of things, Man's tenure on the planet is but
for a fleeting moment; then he's gone and forgotten; washed
away. For the vast majority of people, it will be as though they
were never here at all. The planet was doing just fine before
they got here, and it will go on doing just fine after they're
gone. In point of fact the Earth would do better if everyone
were gone so that nature could be given time to rectify all the
damages that humans have inflicted upon it.
● Ecc 1:5 . .The sun rises, and the sun sets-- and glides
back to where it rises.
Sounds like Orphan Annie-- "The Sun-ull come owwwwt too-maw-row.
Betcher bottum doll-ler that too-maw-rohhhhh, thair-ull be Sun."
(chuckle) Annie has it pegged. Maybe clouds block the Sun from
view now and then, but the clouds can never stop the Sun from
coming up; nor stop it from going down either. The Sun always
comes up, and it always goes down-- there's always day, and
there's always night
● Ecc 1:6 . . Southward blowing, turning northward, ever
turning blows the wind; on its rounds the wind returns.
Solomon perceived that winds are cyclonic; and he's right. The
Earth's air currents don't move straight ahead like waves
roaring in on the beach. No, they circulate. High pressure areas
move air into low pressure areas. And the winds never blow just
once. They keep coming back to blow all over again.
● Ecc 1:7 . . All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea
is never full; to the place [from] which they flow the streams
flow back again.
Solomon was pretty doggone savvy about hydrology. It's true. All
streams flow towards the sea (duh! gravity makes water flow
downhill, and most landmasses are above the level of the sea),
but the water doesn't stay there. It returns to the land masses
again via evaporation and snow, and rain, and hail, in a
perpetual cycle.
● Ecc 1:8 . . All such things are wearisome: no man can
ever state them; the eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear
enough of hearing.
Science is fun. But there is just too much for one man to learn
in his lifetime. Even those who specialize in only one branch,
like astronomy, or biology, or chemistry, never really get it
all. They are ever grasping for more knowledge, but it eludes
them. Then they die and someone else comes along to pick up
where they left off and continue the search.
A new 8.7 billion-dollar space telescope, said to be many times
more powerful than the Hubble, dubbed the James Webb Space
Telescope (a.k.a. JWSP) is on track for launch in 2020. What
for? Only because Man's eyes never have enough seeing, and his
ears never have enough hearing. He presses on for more and more
knowledge because he just has to know. The quest for knowledge
becomes the entire reason and motivation for missions like the
JWSP. It's being built and launched simply for the purpose of
discovery.
Nobel Prize winner, author of several best-selling books, and
recipient of at least a dozen honorary degrees, Physicist Steven
Weinberg (who views religion as an enemy of science), in his
book, The First Three Minutes, wrote: "The more the universe
seems comprehensible, the more it seems pointless. But if there
is no solace in the fruits of our research, there is at least
some consolation in the research itself . . The effort to
understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts
human life a little above the level of a farce and gives it some
of the grace of tragedy."
_
#Post#: 3055--------------------------------------------------
Re: Solomon's World View
DIR By: Olde Tymer
Date: January 3, 2019, 7:37 am
---------------------------------------------------------
.
● Ecc 1:9 . . Only that shall happen which has happened,
only that occur which has occurred; there is nothing new beneath
the Sun!
Solomon noticed that nature has yet to reinvent itself; and yet
to break it's own habits. The tide always comes in, and it
always goes out. The Sun always rises and it always sets--
there's always a day followed by a night. The wind blows past
us, and eventually returns to do it again. In the Spring, leaves
appear on trees, and in Autumn, they die and drop off-- every
year. In the Winter it's cold, in the Summer it's hot-- always.
It rains one day, it clears; and another day the rains return to
do it all over again. Every year in the woods, little frogs lay
eggs in vernal pools. Their pollywogs grow into more frogs who
in turn will lay their own eggs in the very same vernal pools
the following year. Birds fly south for the Winter, and birds
fly north for the Summer
Every 27.3217 Earth days the moon completes one of its own
sidereal days, and every 29.5307 Earth days it completes one of
its own lunar months; the meanwhile always showing us pretty
much the very same face; very little of the other side. For
twelve months, the Sun appears to travel along the ecliptic
through each of the constellations of the Zodiac. When it gets
back to the Vernal Equinox, does it then change course and take
a new path? No. It will go right back through every one of those
very same twelve signs all over again.
While my wife and I were gazing at a planetary alignment of
Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mars, and Mercury some time ago, it
occurred to me that I was looking up at a universe virtually the
same as the one that the Egyptians looked up at during
construction of the Pyramids. They saw the very same stars, and
the very same five naked-eye planets more than 4,000 years ago.
Political climates, wars, disease, economic ups and downs, death
and life-- none of that has influenced the circuits of those
five planets. They methodically, silently, and religiously go
about their business indifferent to Man's problems; constantly
circling the Sun and haven't changed their behavior one single
bit since the day their creator hung them out there.
Through our Nikon FieldScope, we saw four of Jupiter's largest
moons: Io, Callisto, Europa, and Ganymede. Those very same four
moons were circling Jupiter on the night that Galileo discovered
them with his crude 20x telescope in 1609 AD. Can you guess what
those moons were doing 400 years ago back in Galileo's day? The
very same thing they are doing now: orbiting Jupiter. And can
you guess what Jupiter was doing in Galileo's day? That’s right;
the very same thing it does now: orbiting the Sun. Nature is
truly in a rut.
● Ecc 1:10-11 . . Sometimes there is a phenomenon of which
they say, "Look, this one is new!"-- it occurred long since, in
ages that went by before us. The earlier ones are not
remembered; so too those that will occur later will no more be
remembered than those that will occur at the very end.
When Man discovers something new in nature, it’s best to keep in
mind that the new thing he discovered didn't come into existence
the day he found out about it. No, it was there all the time. He
just didn't know about it yet. Like coal and uranium. Did Man
invent those? No. Did he invent petroleum? Did he invent
tectonic plates? Did he invent galaxies? Did he invent quasars?
Did he invent genes? Did he invent DNA? Did he invent
electromagnetic waves? No. Did he invent electricity? No. Did he
invent gravity? Did he invent magnetism? Did he invent
molecules? No, No, No, No. All those things are discoveries, not
inventions.
It’s true that Man often manipulates nature to invent things
like super sweet corn, lasers, penicillin, plastic, cardboard,
aluminum foil, gasoline, and nitroglycerine. But left to itself,
nature rarely produces anything new because if there’s one thing
nature dearly loves, it's routine; and when those routines are
disturbed, we get things like E.coli 0157-H7, global warming,
Chernobyl, air and water pollution, habitat destruction, and
endangered species, etc.
_
#Post#: 3063--------------------------------------------------
Re: Solomon's World View
DIR By: Olde Tymer
Date: January 4, 2019, 7:22 am
---------------------------------------------------------
.
● Ecc 1:12-13a . . I, Koheleth, was king in Jerusalem over
Israel. I set my mind to study and to probe with wisdom all that
happens under the Sun.
The phrase "all that happens under the Sun" is limited to
exactly that. Ecclesiastes is an accumulation of worldly
observations; viz: one man's philosophy of life.
Your philosophy of life may not be on a par with Solomon's in
eloquence; but then it doesn't have to because one's philosophy
of life is their own outlook derived from their own personal
impressions, experiences, and observations. What I'm saying is:
there is no one correct interpretation of a book like
Ecclesiastes. Though I offer mine for your intellectual
enjoyment; you could probably write an interpretation of
Solomon's composition of your own that's just as useful.
● Ecc 1:13b-15 . . An unhappy business, that, which God
gave men to be concerned with! I observed all the happenings
beneath the Sun, and I found that all is futile and chasing the
wind: a twisted thing that cannot be made straight, a lack that
cannot be made good.
From a practical point of view; it's futile to attempt to assign
any real meaning to life-- just as there are some things that
simply cannot be remedied; such as a tree twisted and gnarled so
badly that it's lumber is beyond hope for use in a new home, or
a five-foot man trying to meet a six-foot height requirement.
Well; that's Mr. Koheleth's preface to Ecclesiastes; and from
here on, he will elucidate his reasons for being so negative
about all that goes on in this life.
● Ecc 1:16 . . I said to myself: Here I have grown richer
and wiser than any that ruled before me over Jerusalem, and my
mind has zealously absorbed wisdom and learning.
Solomon wasn't what might be called a warrior king like
Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan. He was more like Jacob (who
had far less concern for outdoor adventure than his brother
Esau). Solomon enjoyed a peace-time economy and generally good
relations with his political neighbors. War was rare during his
tenure on the throne, the state-of-the-union was tolerable, he
was financially independent, comfortable, and had plenty of
opportunity to devote himself to self improvement in the study
of liberal arts; which are defined as: the studies (such as
language, philosophy, history, literature, abstract science) in
a college or university intended to provide chiefly general
knowledge and to develop the general intellectual capacities
(reason and judgment) as opposed to specific professional or
vocational skills.
Webster's defines "wisdom" as: sagacity, insight, sagaciousness,
sageness, sapience, shrewdness, sound judgment, and good sense.
"Learning" is defined as: knowledge, information, education,
scholarship, erudition, science, and facts.
Obviously, learning does not eo ipso make one wise or we
wouldn't have so many educated people doing so many dumb things.
Solomon's desire to improve his mind isn't uncommon among the
idle rich; after all, who better can afford higher education
than they? They say a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Well,
plenty of poor and middle class minds are going to waste simply
for lack of funding. Some have managed to break the chains of
ignorance through scholarships or great personal sacrifice on
the part of themselves and of their families.
But not Solomon. No, he was born with a silver spoon in his
mouth and inherited all the money one could ever possibly need,
and then some. Finding the money for an education was the least
of Solomon's concerns; and so, having nothing better to do with
his time, he went to school; but anon discovered there is no
guarantee education will bring people things like peace of mind
and less stress. Solomon realized that he had expected too much
from the pursuit of knowledge; in other words: education made
him neither happier nor better off than before.
Many a privileged youngster has thrown away four perfectly good
years of their life in college. They typically enroll in a
liberal arts program, not really knowing what they want in life,
often change their major, and come out of school four years
older than when they first enrolled with no marketable skills,
and no idea on earth how they will support themselves. All those
tuition dollars, and all that time out of their life-- puff! . .
up in smoke, frittered away; gone.
Adults seem obsessed with telling young people not to worry too
much about things like career, marriage, family, and retirement
because they have their whole life ahead of them yet. No. They
don't have their whole life ahead of them. By the time a
youngster is out of four-year college, more than twenty of the
best years of their life are gone forever and they are in a
third decade; rapidly approaching an age when they will be old
enough to die of natural causes.
Time and tide wait for no man; with time being the one asset men
can least afford to liquidate at bargain prices. You can always
catch another tide, but no one yet has caught another youth.
_
#Post#: 3069--------------------------------------------------
Re: Solomon's World View
DIR By: Olde Tymer
Date: January 5, 2019, 7:53 am
---------------------------------------------------------
.
● Ecc 1:17-18 . . And so I set my mind to appraise wisdom
and to appraise madness and folly. And I learned that this too
was to pursue the wind: For as wisdom increases, vexation
increases; to increase learning is to increase aggravation.
Knowledge can be likened to the pieces of a very large, very
complicated jig saw puzzle. In order to see the big picture,
it's necessary first of all to have all the pieces, and then to
assemble them in their correct location in respect to the other
pieces. Well; it seems that the more someone knows, the harder
it is to fit all the information together in a coherent unity,
i.e. the more we know, the more burdened we become with the
difficulty of fitting it all together; and there's probably
little more frustrating than a jig saw puzzle with a number of
its pieces missing; which of course we don't find out till we've
already assembled large portions of the puzzle.
Sometimes it just doesn't pay to be too smart. People who never
ponder the mysteries of life-- existing in obscurity day to day
--seem far more content than sages and philosophers who vex
themselves trying to justify the human existence. Live and let
die is the motto of the simple person. But the philosopher just
can't let it go that easily. He agonizes, he ponders the
mysteries of life over and over again for the Nth time, and
sometimes can't sleep because of it.
There's really nothing intrinsically wrong with searching for a
meaning to life. But when people limit their search parameters
to the natural world of personal experience and empirical
evidence --then they end up perplexed; and life seems futile and
makes no sense.
In my opinion; leaving a supreme being out of one's quest for
the meaning of life leaves a key piece out of the puzzle. In
mathematical formulas, there is usually at least one constant
from which a solution can be derived. Well; to me anyway, the
existence of a supreme being is just as valid a constant in the
meaning of life as the values of pi and the speed of light; and
I think it's an oversight to look for a meaning without it; but
hey; that's just me-- others may be just as content with a
philosophy of life that's minus a supreme being as I am with a
world view that includes one. Suum Cuique.
_
#Post#: 3080--------------------------------------------------
Re: Solomon's World View
DIR By: Olde Tymer
Date: January 6, 2019, 11:51 am
---------------------------------------------------------
.
● Ecc 2:1-2 . . I said to myself: Come, I will treat you
to merriment. Taste mirth! That too, I found, was futile. Of
revelry I said: It's mad! Of merriment: What good is that?
The only problem with a natural high is that it's so transitory.
Joy and excitement are emotions, and emotions can't be sustained
for very long before they need rest. Sometimes after a very
pleasurable experience like a big night on the town, a great
victory, an exciting movie, a day at Disneyland, or a wedding;
we feel run down because the merriment wore us out. It's not
uncommon for people to actually feel very depressed and let down
after a round of excitement. They don't have a mental problem;
no, their emotions are just fatigued.
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with entertainment and
excitement. Solomon's focus isn't upon the morality of fun-- his
focus is upon the value of it. Unfortunately, fun has no lasting
value. It's value is temporal. Fun is only good for now, not for
later. And things that are fun for the moment, often become
boring after a while. I mean, picnics are fun, but who wants to
do them every single day? And movies? I love movies like Matrix,
Lost in Translation, Love Actually, Moonstruck, Inception,
Avatar, Margin Call, and School Of Rock. I've watched them at
least six times each. But you know what? I can't watch just
those same eight movies all the time. I need variety because fun
things lose their fun value when you do them too often.
From a practical point of view, entertainment is only profitable
for an entertainment vendor. The patron derives no profits from
fun. Take a chess game. Chess for some people is very
entertaining, and quite relaxing. But there is no profit in a
friendly game of chess; only a temporal pleasure. That's
Solomon's point. Fun is good if you keep it in perspective. Have
fun for fun's sake; but don't expect it to gain you anything of
long lasting value-- and for pete's sake, don't let yourself
feel guilty about having fun because amusement has a legitimate
place in the human existence. Though fun has no eternal value,
there's really nothing of eternal value to gain by asceticism
either.
● Ecc 2:3a . . I ventured to tempt my flesh with wine, and
to grasp folly, while letting my mind direct with wisdom,
The word for "folly" is from cikluwth (sik-looth') and/or
sikluwth (sik-looth'); which mean: silliness. Late night comedy
like Saturday Night Live, Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Fallon,
would fit into that definition.
Late night comedy isn't for everyone. Solomon, for example, was
just far too sophisticated to enjoy something crass like that.
He did give it an honest try though and thoroughly analyzed
comedy's potential just in case there might be something he was
missing. But comedy bounced right off Solomon. He could
recognize humor, but couldn't enjoy it. He was one of those guys
who can sit through episodes of Jerry Seinfeld, the Simpsons,
and/or watch a romantic comedy like Made Of Honor and wonder
what people see in them.
What Solomon was searching for was something to cheer himself
up. He was an incredibly brilliant man, but his intellect only
made him melancholy. So, along with comedy, he tried alcohol.
But alcohol presents its own problems because your body gets
used to it. Pretty soon, you have to imbibe larger and larger
doses to get a buzz. And then when it wears off, you might have
a headache and a hang-over. Same with narcotics. Users need
larger and more frequent doses, and when they come down they
often become blue and irritable; and sometimes so ill that they
die.
● Ecc 2:3b . . to the end that I might learn which of the
two was better for men to practice in their few days of life
under heaven.
Well, which is the better of the two-- alcohol or comedy --is a
matter of opinion. Some people would prefer not to make a choice
between them but to keep both. You could watch Leno with a
night-cap or a glass of wine just as easily as not. And
actually, those two are a pretty good way to end your day. Leno
makes you laugh at the world, and the booze is relaxing so you
can sleep better. The key to enjoyment in life is to do all
things in moderation. A little wine is okay, but a lot is bad. A
little silliness here and there is okay too; but a whole day of
it every day all day long would not be a good idea.
_
#Post#: 3089--------------------------------------------------
Re: Solomon's World View
DIR By: Olde Tymer
Date: January 7, 2019, 8:30 am
---------------------------------------------------------
.
● Ecc 2:4a . . I multiplied my possessions.
Even the poor have this opportunity— to multiply their
possessions —and some are pretty good at it in their own way.
It's not unusual to see a homeless person with a shopping cart
or a bicycle piled high to the sky with things they've
accumulated. And many low-income folk here in America have at
least two television sets and one car; and sometimes a gun too.
Here in Oregon we have a colloquialism that goes something like
this: When the weather gets bad, it's time to go shopping.
(chuckle) Who doesn't enjoy buying something new? A new
possession can cheer you up; even little doo-dads and trinkets
that cost only 49 cents. Whenever we go to the mall, I stop by
the LEGO store and check out the key rings; and sometimes I buy
a small kit to assemble. No doubt Solomon would just shrug and
wonder why I was buying that stupid stuff.
I'm always thoroughly amazed at how lifted my wife's spirits
become whenever she buys herself a trendy new lipstick or nail
polish at Sephora's. Multiplying possessions is good for the
mood; like Godiva chocolate. True, it's only a temporary high,
but it's a good high and I always enjoy buying things, even if
it's only second-hand at Good Will or Salvation Army.
● Ecc 2:4b . . I built myself houses
The filthy rich never seem to be satisfied with just one home.
No; they have a house in Bel-Air, and another out on The
Hamptons. They have Summer cottages, and they have Winter
cabins. They build custom homes costing in the millions of
dollars and when they tire of those, they sell, move out, and
build another custom home.
● Ecc 2:4c-6 . . and I planted vineyards. I laid out
gardens and groves, in which I planted every kind of fruit tree.
I constructed lakes of water, enough to irrigate a forest
sprouting with trees.
It isn't unusual for governments to build parks and initiate
beautification programs in their cities. What the heck, why not
when you can use someone else's money and don't have to pay for
it yourself? Solomon received tribute from all his neighboring
kingdoms: from the borders of Egypt clear on over to the
Euphrates river. It was actually a time of great peace and
prosperity in Israel according to 1Kgs 4:20 and 1Kgs 5:5.
Of course Solomon himself didn't do a lick of the work. He
purchased slaves and conscripted his own citizens to accomplish
his expensive ambitions. David his father conscripted
foreigners, but Solomon went him one better with a national
draft board that inducted his fellow Jewish men into government
service. There was no danger of war at the time. He just needed
manpower in the labor camps.
30,000 were conscripted to work with Hiram's axe men up in
Lebanon logging for the new Temple, and he had another 70,000
general laborers, plus 80,000 men working in stone quarries— and
not to forget 12,000 horsemen. All his construction projects
were very labor intensive because of the lack of machinery and
power tools in those days.
● Ecc 2:7a . . I bought male and female slaves, and I
acquired stewards
The Hebrew word for "stewards" is ben, which means sons; viz:
children born of slaves he already owned. So the bens cost him
nothing all the while that his purchased slaves multiplied among
themselves since in that day, the children of slaves were born
into slavery.
People like Solomon, born with silver spoons in their mouths,
typically don't take into consideration the feelings of others
less privileged than themselves. They are often totally self
absorbed. Those below them exist only as cannon fodder; lackeys
to serve their every wish as if that were somehow the natural
order of things.
Well, Solomon was finding out that sometimes the natural order
of things works against those who are very intelligent, and
against those who are very rich, and against those who are very
powerful. Contentment and fulfillment eluded his grasp. No
matter how he exercised his advantages in life, Solomon couldn't
find peace of mind. He found that for men like himself, life is
pointless. The more he sought fulfillment, the more he felt like
he was wasting his time trying.
NOTE: An episode in 1Kgs 12:1-14 reveals that Solomon's people
sorely resented the labor camps. He delighted himself in the
public works that they accomplished with their own backs and the
sweat of their own brows while he laid back in his palace and
thought up more things for them to do.
_
#Post#: 3102--------------------------------------------------
Re: Solomon's World View
DIR By: Olde Tymer
Date: January 8, 2019, 7:45 am
---------------------------------------------------------
.
● Ecc 2:7b . . I also acquired more cattle, both herds and
flocks, than all who were before me in Jerusalem.
It's interesting Solomon should mention he was a bigger cattle
baron than all who were before him. What was he doing?
Competing? Can you imagine? He wasn't content with enough. No;
he had to have more than enough-- larger herds than all before
him so that he became the champion rancher; literally the King
Ranch of Israel.
For some people, it isn't enough to win; no, all others must
lose. Does being number-one really bring contentment? Well, it
might for some, but it didn't for Solomon. And you know: it's
only a matter of time before competitors like Solomon run out of
people to best; and then what?
● Ecc 2:8a . . I further amassed silver and gold and
treasures of kings and provinces;
Solomon's wealth was what's known as tangible assets as opposed
to assets on paper. The wealth off many of today's rich men is
tied up in investments like derivatives, stocks, bonds, and
funds: but much of Solomon's wealth was in precious metals--
actual metals that you could hold in your hand rather
represented by an on-paper, Wall Street trading account. Though
many of today's rich men can show you on-record that they own a
certain number of ounces of gold, silver, palladium, and/or
platinum et al; where is it? Not in their own hands that's for
sure; no, it's in somebody else's hands. Not so Solomon.
"The Queen of Sheba presented the king with one hundred and
twenty talents of gold, and a large quantity of spices, and
precious stones." (1Kgs 10:10)
"Moreover, Hiram's fleet, which carried gold from Ophir, brought
in from Ophir a huge quantity of almug wood and precious
stones." (1Kgs 10:11)
"The weight of the gold which Solomon received every year was
666 talents of gold, besides what came from tradesmen, from the
traffic of the merchants, and from all the kings of Arabia and
the governors of the regions.
. . . King Solomon made 200 shields of beaten gold-- 600 shekels
of gold to each shield --and 300 bucklers of beaten gold --three
minas of gold to each buckler. The king placed them in the
Lebanon Forest House.
. . .The king also made a large throne of ivory, and he overlaid
it with refined gold. Six steps led up to the throne, and the
throne had a back with a rounded top, and arms on either side of
the seat. Two lions stood beside the arms, and twelve lions
stood on the six steps, six on either side. No such throne was
ever made for any other kingdom.
. . . All King Solomon's drinking cups were of gold, and all the
utensils of the Lebanon Forest House were of pure gold: silver
did not count for anything in Solomon’s days. For the king had a
Tarshish fleet on the sea, along with Hiram's fleet. Once every
three years, the Tarshish fleet came in, bearing gold and
silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. King Solomon excelled all the
kings on earth in wealth and in wisdom." (1Kgs 10:14-23)
Solomon's personal fortune, in adjusted dollars, and counting
his property, his metals, and his livestock, must have easily
exceeded Bill Gates' in that day. But wealth and luxury just
didn't satisfy Solomon. I think many of us commoners would be
happy not to work another day for the rest of our lives. Or
would we? You just never know. Riches don't seem to protect the
rich from despondence, boredom, depression, and feelings of
failure and futility.
In 1997, Michael Hutchence, the lead singer of a really cool
rock group called INXS, had a pleasant dinner with his dad and
then went back to his hotel room and hanged himself with a
leather belt. He was 37 years old. What the heck was that all
about? Hutchence was young, healthy, wealthy, successful,
popular, and doing well on the music charts. At dinner with his
dad, he had expressed concern about the band's popularity and
its future.
What is that saying? Hutchence's happiness was all bound up in
music? So his concern over the band's possible decline in
popularity made him despondent enough to end his life? It just
doesn't make sense.
So what does it really take to make some people happy? Well, for
Solomon, it wasn't wealth and success; and, apparently for
Hutchence, wealth and success didn't do it for him either: nor
did youth, fame, nor popularity because real peace is
psychological, and nowhere else. When you've got stuff in your
head like bad memories, regrets, inner conflicts, a poor self
image, or low self esteem and feelings of failure, inferiority,
inadequacy, and futility; nothing on earth can remedy that: not
therapy, not pills, not dope, not anything-- nothing short of
starting life all over again can get that stuff out of your
head.
_
#Post#: 3114--------------------------------------------------
Re: Solomon's World View
DIR By: Olde Tymer
Date: January 9, 2019, 8:24 am
---------------------------------------------------------
.
● Ecc 2:8b . . and I got myself male and female singers,
Makes you wonder what kind of music a brilliant, sophisticated
guy like Solomon preferred. Rock? Jazz? Pop? Chorale? Rap?
Country? Classical? Folk? Blue Grass? Opera? Broadway? Ballads?
Spiritual? Barber Shop? New Age? Techno? Lady Gaga? Since
electricity had not yet been harnessed in his day, the music
available was somewhat primitive, and it was all live and all
natural: nothing recorded, nothing electronic, and nothing
amplified.
● Ecc 2:8c . . as well as the luxuries of commoners--
coffers and coffers of them.
"coffers and coffers of them" is apparently a colloquialism
similar to "oodles and oodles" or "a ton of 'em" or "a boat load
of them" Actually the phrase "as well as the luxuries of
commoners" is literally "luxuries of the sons of men." Which
could easily be paraphrased "every luxury known to man."
Webster's defines luxury as: 1) a condition of abundance or
great ease and comfort; 2) sumptuous environment; 3) something
adding to pleasure or comfort but not absolutely necessary; 4)
an indulgence in something that provides pleasure, satisfaction,
or ease.
No doubt a filthy rich guy like Solomon, seeking the meaning of
life, and seeking the best way to pursue life, indulged his
every whim in an effort to find out what truly makes life worth
living. The man was totally livin' large.
● Ecc 2:9 . .Thus, I gained more wealth than anyone before
me in Jerusalem. In addition, my wisdom remained with me:
That was fortunate; the part about retaining his wisdom. Some
people go so far overboard in Hedonism that they mess up their
minds. Curt Cobain, the driving impetus of the punk rock group
Nirvana, at the peak of his success-- wealthy, married, living
in a beautiful home, and everything going for him --ended his
life with a shotgun at age 27 because of deep emotional
problems. That's awful. If only he had kept his mind in all of
his success. They say a mind is an awful thing to waste. Well, a
mind is an awful thing to lose too.
● Ecc 2:10-11 . . I withheld from my eyes nothing they
asked for, and denied myself no enjoyment; rather, I got
enjoyment out of all my wealth. And that was all I got out of my
wealth. Then my thoughts turned to all the fortune my hands had
built up, to the wealth I had acquired and won-- and oh, it was
all futile and pursuit of wind; there was no real value under
the sun!
Some of us would no doubt be very pleased to obtain all the
enjoyments money can buy, but Solomon felt enjoyments aren't
adequate; something was missing. It would seem that wealth
should obtain for its owner more than just luxury, and
entertainment, and property, and homes. It should at least make
us feel content with life. But for some people it doesn't. So
you've got to wonder: just exactly what works? What's the secret
to contentment? What really does make life worth the living?
What really does make life more than just a pointless human
experiment? If only Hutchence and Cobain had known some
satisfactory answers to those questions, maybe they'd still be
here.
Curly, the tough 'ol leathered trail boss in the movie City
Slickers, said the meaning of life is just one thing. When asked
what that one thing was, he replied; "That's what you've gotta
find out."
You see; that one thing is not the same one thing for everyone.
You have to find out what that one thing is for you because
until then, your life-- a life with no purpose --is quite
pointless.
_
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