Contrast Between Solomon and Christ

Thank you, Mr. Wallach, for the introduction. And now that we have returned, at least most have, from Marvelous Feast, wherever that was, the feast is one of the main, we can call it, quote, foot festivals, because it is one of the three that you have to walk, travel, in order to keep. I thought this was interesting that in Exodus 23, verse 14, because we're always learning about God's Word. That's why we're here. We're not here for entertainment. We're not here to just feel good. Yes, God is a God of love, joy, peace, patience. But here we are to be instructed and grow in grace and knowledge. And so God's Word should be the central focus on Sabbath services. We can certainly enjoy good hymns, special music, but let's never forget that. In Exodus 23, verse 14, Moses is here before God, and God is instructing him. Verse 14, it says, three times you shall keep a feast to me in the year. You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. You shall eat unleavened bread seven days as I commanded you at the time of appointed in the month of Abib. For in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty and the feast of the harvest, the first fruits of your labor. Talk about Pentecost. And then, and the feast of ingathering at the end of the year when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field. So here we're text, and then it repeats three times in the year. It's interesting, the Hebrew term here is a little different than the one in Deuteronomy 16, which has to do here, Deuteronomy 16. I'll just read it real quick. It's a different Hebrew term, which is pa'am. It means stroke, foot, footstep. Well, here's another Hebrew word. This one specifically means foot. And so what you have are these foot festivals, the ones that you have to take a pilgrimage. This is something that you can't do around your house. They kept their Passover until they set themselves up in Jerusalem, but before that they could do it in their home. But this was the time, three times in the year, when you were supposed to present yourself before God to keep the seven different feasts. You had to leave home. It's interesting that the term pilgrim comes from a Latin word, and it's peregrine, peregrine, which means walking through a field. You have to go out of your house. You have to cover fields. Because most people, those days, they didn't have highways. They didn't have big cities. No, people had to cross many times. Many fields to get to the feasts of God. And so that's the origin. In Spanish, it's even closer because of the Latin word peregrine, which ours is peregrino. So we have a very similar word, and pilgrim is derived from that Latin word. Notice in 1 Peter chapter 1, 1 Peter chapter 1, in verse 17, talks to us about our pilgrimage, something we just did for eight or nine days at least. 1 Peter chapter 1 in verse 17, it says, and if you call on the Father who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay. And the term here is pilgrimage. That's what it means. It means where you have traveled. The Wycliffe translation has it as your pilgrimage. And in my footnote, it says sojourning, dwelling as resident agents or aliens.

So again, we are to go to a pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is very different than just going on a leisurely trip. This isn't something about just enjoying ourselves and having an adventure. It's always a religious journey. It's a journey to arrive at a religious destiny. If you look up the word pilgrimage, it has to do with a trip for religious purposes. It's not there for leisure or for any other reason than that. In 1 Peter 2, verse 11, it says, Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims. There's the term. Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. So again, there's this analogy throughout the Bible that once a person is baptized, they're committed to God, their life is not just a stroll in the park. It's not some leisurely trip. It's a pilgrimage toward God's kingdom. Why do we go to the feast? Because it's a commandment of God that pictures the coming kingdom of God. God doesn't want us to forget that vision of His kingdom.

And just like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they confessed there were pilgrims in the land. Notice in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 8, Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 8, it says, By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. He had to take a pilgrimage. He had to leave his home for spiritual purposes to reach a certain religious destiny. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. They didn't inherit the land while they were alive, but they trusted in God. One day everything was going to become a reality. He says, verse 10, For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Talking about the kingdom of God, the Jerusalem that Jesus Christ will one day reign. And then the new Jerusalem, where God the Father, will eventually come. That's what they were looking at. He goes on to say in verse 13, These all died in faith, not having received the promises. They didn't inherit the land at that time, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. Yes, they were citizens of another kingdom. They were strangers in the land. And truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But they desire a better that is a heavenly. And here the word country is not really in the Greek. As you can see, it's in italics, which means a heavenly. Talking about the kingdom. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. Yes, the kingdom of God that is coming to the earth. So as we look back after a feast that pictured the kingdom of God, now we got to go forward. This is just like having stayed in a big spiritual oasis for several days. We have drunk of God's word. We have fellowshiped. We have glimpsed into that coming kingdom. But now we have to continue our trek. That spiritual sand in the desert that we have to trek, this society, that's not a welcoming place for us. It's a different world than what God has pictured for us. And each Sabbath is like an oasis where we drink of God's word. And each feast is, of course, a great oasis to strengthen us. But as we look back at the feast and the lessons that we have learned, we have committed ourselves to putting them into practice during our long walk, our pilgrimage toward that kingdom of God. It's always good when we contrast what we believe and what is out there in the world. A contrast is a very powerful tool to be able to appreciate what we have. A person doesn't know what hunger is until he has fasted or he has been deprived of food. Then you really appreciate what it is. You don't take it for granted. You don't know that a thing is truly sweet until you've tasted something quite bitter. And so with the contrast, you're able to appreciate what we have, what the world doesn't have. And so I'd like to contrast it with two personages in the Bible. One of them walked through that pilgrimage. He went to many of the feasts, and yet he strayed off course, and he became cynical. He became pessimistic. He lost sight of that coming kingdom. He lost the spiritual dimension in his life.

And the other one, of course, is the greatest of all spiritual personages in the Bible, Jesus Christ. And so I'd like to look at the two angles here in the Bible, the two stories. They parallel, but they contrast between Solomon and Jesus Christ. And it's interesting that the book of Ecclesiastes is found in the original order of the Bible in a scroll called the Megalot. And the Megalot had five books in them. Not going to go into each one of them, but the one that was for Ecclesiastes was to be read during the Feast of Tabernacles. Now, the Jews really don't have much of an idea why that is. If you study the subject, you find that there's all kinds of speculation because there's no direct explanation why the book of Ecclesiastes is read during the Feast of Tabernacles. Now, having the New Testament, having God's Spirit, and having that spiritual discernment helps enormously because at least we can draw spiritual lessons. And so we're going to go into these areas that Solomon explored in his life and his conclusions, and then we're going to go and see what Jesus Christ's conclusions are. Again, the contrast between the two.

Now, in Ecclesiastes 8 and verse 14, I'm going to read it from the New Living Bible.

Ecclesiastes 8, 14, and 15, it says, and this is not all that is meaningless in our world. This is what Solomon concluded. In this life, good people are often treated as though they were wicked, and wicked people are often treated as though they were good. This is so meaningless. So I recommend having fun because there's nothing better for people in this world than to eat, drink, and enjoy life. That way, they will experience some happiness along with all the hard work God gives them under the Son.

So how did wise King Solomon come to this conclusion?

It's a tragic story in the Bible because he started out having all the advantages. He had everything going his way. He had a righteous father who was a king, David. He had instructions of his mother, of those around him, and he started out very well. But he did not end well.

In 1 Kings 11 is the story of Solomon's downfall. Let's go to 1 Kings 11. It is a very sad story, but God does not gloss over. He does not overlook the sins and weaknesses of his own leaders and of his own chosen people. He tells it like it is. And so in 1 Kings 11, verse 1, it says, But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughters of Pharaoh, the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Cydonians, and Hittites. So these were unconverted people, many of them Canaanites, from the nations in whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love. So he didn't pay attention to that. He thought he could get away with it, with his wisdom and his riches. He thought, I can handle this. I'm not going to deviate from God's way just because I have some of these beautiful women that are not converted. Don't worry. I'll convert them. I'll change them to my way of thinking. That was his hope. And he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. It doesn't say Solomon turned his wife's heart. No, they eventually prevailed over him. And so one of the lessons is, don't be overconfident about how the strong influence of this world, if you're there long enough, you're going to get changed. Even Solomon couldn't withstand the temptation. Verse 4, For it was so when Solomon was old that his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. So he wasn't faithful anymore. He was compromising with God's commandments. He was setting up idols. He was worshiping other gods, probably, just because his wives were on him all the time. And each one wanted to have their own little shrine, and they badgered him and pastored him until he finally gave in. Like I've kiddingly say, can you imagine taking a thousand women with you shopping? I mean, it's bad enough, just with one, right? How would you like to have a credit card and have a thousand women go out shopping? Well, of course, it's going to blow most of that money. And so he got higher up in his neck. He just got a bit off too much. He just couldn't control this. And so it says, For it was so when Solomon was old that his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not loyal. Verse five, For Solomon went after Astorath, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milchon, the abomination of the Ammonites, Solomon did evil in the side of the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord as did his father David. Seems like he compromised. It says he didn't completely throw off the religion of God, but he wasn't fully following. So he had one foot with the false gods, and he had one foot with the true God.

And that's not acceptable before God. Verse seven, Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab. These are some that sacrificed children to him on the hill that is east of Jerusalem. Here he had the temple, and now he had this pagan shrine. And for Molech, that's another one that was with child sacrifice, the abomination of the people of Ammon. And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. He finally just was overwhelmed. He was turned against the true God. And of course, God didn't like that. Verse nine, So the Lord became angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the Lord God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. You know what the privilege is of talking to God, of talking to God, as Solomon did. So you can start with a sterling and wonderful beginning, but that doesn't guarantee you're going to finish the race. Just like Solomon, he stumbled. He did not finish the race of faith. Solomon is not listed in the book of Hebrews chapter 11 as many of the faithful are. Verse 10, And had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods, but he did not keep what the Lord had commanded. And then God started punishing Solomon. Verse 11, Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, Because you have done this, and have not kept my covenant and my statutes which I had commanded you, I will surely fear the kingdom, or it shouldn't say, tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. Have a typo in my Bible. So I hadn't seen that before. Nevertheless, I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David. I will tear it out of the hand of your son.

And so this is what happened. And then God raised up adversaries all the way from verse 14 till verse 25. He was an adversary of Israel all the days of Solomon. And then Jeroboam rebels. And Solomon tries to kill him.

In verse 40, Solomon therefore sought to kill Jeroboam. He became one of these bloody kings with assassination plots. That's how low he had descended. But Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt. It's very ironic because the term Solomon has to do with man of peace. That's what it means. Well, he didn't end up living up to his name.

And also it means beloved of God. Verse 41, now the rest of the acts of Solomon, all that he did and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the Acts of Solomon? And the period that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was 40 years and Solomon rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David, his father. And Reoboam, his son, reigned in his place. Doesn't say about any repentance. Nowhere in the Bible do we see a change because God could have removed some of those curses. He did not have to tear the kingdom away, but everything was carried out as if Solomon never repented. And so in this book of Ecclesiastes, it's written during this time of apostasy when Solomon had turned away from God.

And he starts thinking like a worldly philosopher. And here Solomon had the most wisdom which was not taken away, but he had the spiritual dimension taken away. He could not discern spiritually like he had in the past. And so Solomon wrote this book of Ecclesiastes, and again, there are different interpretations. Some believe that he did repent because of the end of Ecclesiastes 12. It talks about keeping the commandments, but others say, well, that's not in the first person. That is in the third person, and that was added at the end of the book, called a postscript or an epilogue in literature when you add something to the end of the book. So the judgment is still out, but what Solomon wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes certainly is a big contrast to what Jesus Christ mentioned. And I'd like to now contrast the conclusions of Solomon with the conclusions of Jesus Christ so we can appreciate how much we have to share. So Solomon's life is a tragic story. I believe God placed the book of Ecclesiastes as a warning to all those who are converted that they're saved for the grace of God. Go I. I can turn from God's way. I can begin following the false teachings and start putting up Christmas trees and start doing all of the things that date back to the pagan sacred trees with little Easter bunnies and start with all of this paganism mixed in. It's very easy to do.

In 2 Peter 2, verse 20 through 22, I'm going to read it here from the New Living translation. It says, And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and that then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, as Solomon did, they are worse off than before. It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. Solomon did not finish, as far as the Bible says, in a holy life.

It continues on. It says, They prove the truth of this proverb, A dog returns to its vomit, and another says, A washed pig returns to the mud.

So today, if you study philosophy at the university, which is the study of man's thoughts and ideas about life, what dominates philosophy at the universities is today called the philosophy of despair, because it deals with these 20th century philosophers that set up this system based on what they call existentialism, which is, there's nothing more out there. Live for the moment, just for what exists today. Let's eat and drink and be jolly, because tomorrow we're going to die. And that's what you get.

It's a most popular philosophy. It goes back to the Greek hedonists. And then in the 19th century, to Marx, Schopenhauer, Hegel, Heidegger, a famous German philosopher who backed Hitler. And he was so influential in his classes. I read one time that he warned his students not to commit suicide after they finished his philosophy course, because it was so pessimistic. It was just based on, life is meaningless. And he warned them, please don't commit suicide after you finish my class. And yet Heidegger is taught and is a great philosopher today.

You have Sartre, the French philosopher, and of course, evolutionists in general, telling you that man's just an animal. So if he acts like an animal, can't blame him. Then you have modern art, of course, modern music, media, TV, movies. They basically have the message, just enjoy life, have pleasure, get rich, have a good life. Nothing is beyond that. And this is the cult to meaninglessness, which is that there's nothing out there. But the Bible tells us, without God, life doesn't have much meaning.

And this life was not meant to be all. So we're going to contrast Solomon's conclusions with Christ's conclusions. And remember Matthew 12, 42, who is a greater. Matthew 12, 42, Jesus said, The queen of the South will rise up in judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And indeed, a greater than Solomon is here. Jesus Christ said he had more wisdom, and he was greater than Solomon because he was God in the flesh.

So we're going to focus on three major aspects of life that Solomon looked at. Time, work, and pleasure.

Now, according to Solomon, as he looked at time, he concluded, time governs absolutely everything. Nothing escapes it, nor lasts forever. Only generations come and go. So life is cyclical in nature. You're born, you reproduce, you die, the next generation born, reproduce, and die. He says we are governed by time since birth and have certain time allotted to each one of us. But it's going to be a short life. In Ecclesiastes chapter 1, Ecclesiastes chapter 1 and verse 1, Solomon says, the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

Vanity of vanity, says the preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. This is his conclusion. He starts with it. This is his premise. And the word vanity just means something fleeting. Actually comes from the Hebrew word for breath. Breath is very short. Doesn't last very long at all.

He says, what profit has a man from all his labor in which he tolls under the sun?

One generation passes away and another generation comes, but the earth abides forever. The sun also rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it arose. Everything is cyclical. The sun goes around. That's how we see it. Of course, the earth is actually turning and everything, but you look and you say, well, the sun rises from the east, sets on the west.

The wind goes toward the south, turns around to the north, and the wind whirls about continually, all comes again to its circuit. And we have found that's the way it is. The Gulf Streams here in the Pacific, we have the streams of winds that come and go just like a circle around the Pacific.

Verse 7, although rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. Have you ever thought of that? Think about all these majestic and powerful rivers flowing into the sea, and yet the ocean never rises. It doesn't move a bit. Why? Because, as we see in Puerto Vallarta all the time, where there's a little more heat, there was a kind of a, it was pretty hot right before the feast, and it got to where so much of the ocean evaporated up into the clouds, and then the clouds just got filled, and then it came a pouring waterfall of it, and then it cleared out, and we had wonderful eight days of the feast.

But this is what he's talking about, the cyclical nature of all of this. It says, to the place from which the rivers come, there they return again. The clouds drop the water on the mountains. And so he says things are cyclical. In chapter 3, verse 1, talks about time. Of course, there's a famous song about, to everything there is a season, a turn, turn, turn.

This is what it says, to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. So yes, it says at the beginning, a time to be born. And there's a time to die. There's a beginning point and an ending point.

A time to plant, which is when you begin to invest in your life. Many times through education, you lay the seed and you start fertilizing it. And then the time to pluck what is planted. You pull out what needs to be. Time to kill. There's a time for war and a time to heal, a time to break down, and a time to build up.

The things that tear down, even in a person's life. Many times you have to sort of begin anew, a new phase of life. Maybe something happened where you lived and you had to go somewhere else, like I did, where a whole civilization, a culture ended during my lifetime there in Cuba at seven. And then it was gone with a win. We had to leave because that society, as we knew it, had just completely been devastated. So we had to begin a new life.

Many have done the same thing. A time to build up, a time to weep, times of sadness, and a time to laugh, a time of joy, a time to mourn, and a time to dance. There are times like that. We certainly enjoyed the dances at the feast, a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones.

You sometimes have to tear down what you've done, and then you have to put it back up together, like Humpty Dumpty. A time to embrace, which is a time of marriage, and a time to refrain from embracing before marriage. A time to gain and a time to lose. You're never going to win everything. A time when things go well.

And there's times when you're just at the lost column. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to sow. A time to keep silence and a time to speak. A time to love and time to hate. A time of war and a time of peace. So again, Solomon here is talking about the cyclical nature.

Everybody goes through these experiences in life. That's what's been allotted to us. And yet, he doesn't see any larger purpose for all of this. He says in chapter 3, verse 9, What prophet has the worker from that which he labors? I have seen the God-given tasks with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in his time. Also, he has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from the beginning to the end.

And so he says, God put that desire to live forever. And yet, man has that, but he still dies. He dies with that idea of what's going to happen afterwards. And then in chapter 8, he's talking about how time governs over everything. He says in verse 6, Because for every matter there is a time and judgment, though misery of man increases greatly. For he does not know what will happen, so who can tell him when it will occur? No one has a power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit. It's interesting that Walt Disney, after he died, they put him in this big urn and froze him completely. That one day they hoped to thaw him out. But guess what? He hasn't come back. Just because his body is not completely decomposed, it's still dead. It says here, you can't retain the power over the Spirit.

And no one has a power in the day of death. There is no release from that war.

And wickedness will not deliver those who are given to it. No matter how much you fight to live and how wicked you are, you have all these gangsters around you, you're still gonna die just like everyone else. And then in chapter 9 and verse 11, he says, chapter 9 and verse 11, I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift. He's saying here, it's not always to the swift. Nor the battle is always gonna go to that who is the strongest, nor bred to the wise. Some wise people just don't have common sense, can't really make a living, although they're so bright and intelligent, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill, but time and chance happen to them all. For man also does not know his time like fish taken in a cruel net, like birds caught in a snare, so the sons of men are snared in an evil time when it falls suddenly upon them. And we've seen that. We've seen sometimes perfectly healthy people get into some accident that they weren't even the cause of it, but they become victims. Maybe a drunk driver just happened to drive down that street where you were at. God has the final word on these things, but we are all made out of flesh and blood.

And so Solomon just says, time governs absolutely, but Jesus Christ has something different to say.

He says, with the spiritual dimension, talking about faith, time is temporary.

God is eternal and the master of time. And so we don't have to worry that time is this taskmaster that controls God's created time. He's over time. He can dissolve time any time he wants to. Notice in Matthew 10, verse 28, it says, and do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Talking about the lake of fire here. And so God is the one that ultimately controls our faith, not time. Time is temporary while we're here on earth, but God is the final determiner of what is going to happen to us. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, we see that the Apostle Paul doesn't think time is this absolute master over us. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 9, it says, but as it is written, I has not seen nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. If only Solomon would have remained faithful and loved God, he could have had that glimpse into the future. But he turned from God. He quit loving God.

Verse 10, but God has revealed them to us through his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of man except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Verse 14, but the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. Solomon began to doubt about the future because he had lost God's Spirit. It had departed from him. He had forsaken God, and so God had to remove his presence. And he no longer thought as a spiritual man, but as a carnal man. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 50, we see time being eventually defeated, just like death will be. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 50, it says, Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. Immortality means that time no longer governs you. You will live forever. There will not be any expiration date on your body as there is today. We will defeat time. Verse 54, So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass, the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory, the victory of being resurrected into an immortal body. O death, where is your sting then? O Hades, which is the grave, where is your victory? Or time that can no longer age someone, or afflict them through illness? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. It's not in vain. Time is not our master. God is. Time is temporary. It does govern us while we're humans, but that is not the end of our lives. We are destined for immortality. Now we go to the second area that Solomon explored, which is the great part of what a person spends doing in his life. Working. Work. That goes from children, as they begin in kindergarten, all the way to retirement. It's just all these hours. Either you spend them studying or working until you finally retire. And then, of course, you still have to work. You still have to take care of things. You're still busy. And so it's a major part of your life. What did Solomon conclude about work? Notice in chapter two in verse four of Ecclesiastes chapter two, verse four.

He says, I made my works great. I built myself houses and planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. So, I made myself... I acquired male and female servants, and that servant's born in my house.

And what was the conclusion? Verse 11. Then I looked at all the works that my hands had done, and on the labor in which I had toiled. And indeed, all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun. So, he was frustrated. He was frustrated because he thought, well, I've done all of this, but how long is it gonna last? How am I gonna enjoy it after I die? It's all temporary. And so, he was very frustrated, like he says in verse 18.

He said, I set in my heart concerning the conditions. Let's see here. No, in verse 18, he says, Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me. So, all this work hardly has any time to truly enjoy it. That happens to many people. They spent all their lives trying to build up something. And then, when they finally have what they wanted and all the luxuries, and then you find out you're about to die. You're not able to enjoy it. So many people end up with health problems because of that desire of just grasping and accumulating all you can get. Now, Christ had a different focus about work. He had where he says we should focus our attention. Solomon had it on physical things, and he was worried who was going to be his inheritor. Christ says in Matthew 6, verse 30, what really counts as far as our work here on earth. Matthew chapter 6 and verse 30, he says, Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or What shall we wear? For all these things the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. See, Solomon lost view of the goal. So he accumulated things, but he wasn't doing it to seek the kingdom and righteousness. He wasn't seeking righteousness. He wasn't seeking God's kingdom. He was building Solomon's kingdom, and then he realized it's not going to last very long. All this work, all this effort, for just such a short time that I get to enjoy it at the end.

Christ also said in Matthew 16 verse 24, which would have been important for Solomon to have heard this. Matthew 16 verse 24. Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what profit is it if a man, if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward each according to his works. So again, he's saying, put your focus on the kingdom of God and his righteousness. God will bless you materially. He will provide, he'll make it the means for you to receive that, but have the right goal. Solomon lost sight of that true goal.

And then the last area that Solomon looked at was pleasure and leisure time. Now, time is what governs our lives. A great part of our lives has to do with work, and the rest is basically leisure and pleasure time. So what did Solomon conclude? Ecclesiastes chapter 1. Ecclesiastes chapter 1 and verse 8, he says, All things are full of labor. Man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. He just says, look, if you're pursuing physical things, you're never going to be fully satisfied. All is passing. There was a famous saying by one of these famous, it was Amy Vanderbilt, I believe. It was, I'm not sure, don't want to confuse, but of the Vanderbilt, one of the richest families, and she said, oh, you can never be too thin, or you can never be too rich. In other words, even if you have billions, somebody else will probably have more than you, so keep pursuing that. This is what the eye will never be satisfied with what you see, nor the ear filled with what you hear. You're never going to be fully satisfied.

In Ecclesiastes 2, verse 10, he says, Whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them, I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my reward from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done, and on the labor in which I had toiled, and indeed all was vanity, and grasping for the wind, there was no profit under the sun. So he realized it wasn't lasting. And if you just pursue pleasure and having a good time, eventually that's not going to be satisfying, especially if you don't do it God's way. You end up with a headache the following day. If you just want to have fun the world's way, you're going to end up with a headache the following day. Notice in chapter 5 of Ecclesiastes, verse 10, it says, He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver. But I mentioned about these rich people, nor he who loves abundance with increase will be satisfied. This is also vanity.

When goods increase, they increase who eat them. You have more people wanting what you have. So what profit have the owners except to see them with their eyes.

The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep. Why? Because they're always worried that they're going to lose their fortune. Somebody's going to come in and take it from them.

And so he says, verse 15, As he came from his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and he shall take nothing from his labor which he may carry away in his hand. So it's not lasting. And if you think of leisure and pleasure and go out there and do it through sin, once you bite into that pleasurable fruit, you find out. It turns into ashes in your mouth. There's a bitter taste afterwards, produces guilt, produces alienation from God. It doesn't truly satisfy. That's why the world is so desperate to find true happiness. Ecclesiastes 6, verse 1, he says, There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men, a man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor, so that he lacks nothing for himself of all he desires, yet God does not give him powers to eat of it, but a foreigner consumes it. This is vanity, and it is an evil affliction. And so pleasure and leisure are part of life, but the way Solomon looked at it as an end to itself, it's not going to be satisfying. Whereas Christ, he focuses on pleasure and leisure time, and he says in Luke chapter 13, verse 29 through 30, this is in the New Living Translation, he says, There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for you will see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you will be thrown out. And people will come from all over the world, from east and west, north and south, to take their places in the kingdom of God. And note this, some who seem least important now will be the greatest then, and some who are the greatest now will be the least important then. Christ tells us that he's preparing a bride. We're going to have our wedding feasts one day. That's going to be immense pleasure. It's going to be greater than anything experienced in this life by a bridegroom and his wife. Nobody will have that experience until we reach the kingdom of God. And in the meantime, the Bible tells us, Colossians 3, 18 through 21. I'm going to read it from the Amplified version. Wives, be subject to your husbands. It means be subordinate and adapt yourselves to them, as is right and fitting in your proper duty to the Lord. Husbands, love your wives. Be affectionate and sympathetic with them, and do not be harsh or bitter or resentful toward them. Children, obey your parents and everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord. Yes, we see a great contrast between the worldly philosophers and Jesus Christ and His apostles. It's a powerful teaching tool to contrast what this world offers and what Jesus Christ is offering us. We don't really know how sweet a thing is until we've tasted something bitter. The world is passing away, but never Christ's words. As He declared in Matthew 24, verse 35, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.