The Distillery Church

Eat, drink and be merry…Really?

Everything has a time and all activities have a season under heaven…

This is the conclusion of Solomon in chapter three of Ecclesiastes. Yet he seems less than satisfied with this and wants more (at least it seems like this to me). He says that “there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil — this is the gift of God (Ecc. 3:12-13)”. Yet throughout the chapter and the book he seems distressed at the temporary state that life is; what does it all mean? Why do we live? Is doing good enough? Perhaps enjoying your toil and labors is the best you can hope for, but shouldn’t there be more?
He states in chapter 3:11, “… He [God] has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” So our hearts feel eternity, but our minds fail to grasp the forever. Is this not the definition of frustrating? The gift of God is to eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die…? That seems cruel – eternity rests within our hearts, yet we fail to understand it. There must be more to this puzzle.
Indeed there is much more! Unfortunately for Solomon his kingdom lacked one critical part – he was king and God was a side note at best. When Jesus came to the Earth, He revealed that the Kingdom of God was the real place to be – not this earthly kingdom. What we lack is the understanding of eternity, which after all, resides within our heart. Earthly kingdoms pass away, but God’s kingdom last forever! This is where we will pick up the discussion this week.
In Luke 9:23-27, Jesus talks about the way we save our lives and that is what Solomon really wanted to understand (so much for his wisdom)! The meaning of life is not a mystery; we just may not like the answer.