Post by Les on Mar 23, 2021 16:48:19 GMT -5
The Reason to Rest By: Kirsten Holmberg
Click here for the audio message
What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun?
Ecclesiastes 2:22
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Ecclesiastes 2:17–26
If you want to live longer, take a vacation! Forty years after a study of middle-aged, male executives who each had a risk of heart disease, researchers in Helsinki, Finland, followed up with their study participants. The scientists discovered something they hadn’t been looking for in their original findings: the death rate was lower among those who had taken time off for vacations.
Work is a necessary part of life—a part God appointed to us even before our relationship with Him was fractured in Genesis 3. Solomon wrote of the seeming meaninglessness of work experienced by those not working for God’s honor—recognizing its “anxious striving” and “grief and pain” (Ecclesiastes 2:22–23). Even when they’re not actively working, he says their “minds do not rest” because they’re thinking about what still needs to be done (v. 23).
We too might at times feel like we’re “chasing after the wind” (v. 17) and grow frustrated by our inability to “finish” our work. But when we remember that God is part of our labor—our purpose—we can both work hard and take time to rest. We can trust Him to be our Provider, for He’s the giver of all things. Solomon acknowledges that “without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?” (v. 25). Perhaps by reminding ourselves of that truth, we can work diligently for Him (Colossians 3:23) and also allow ourselves times of rest.
Reflect & Pray
How can you invite God into your labors? How might you allow Him to be your satisfaction even when your work isn’t “finished”?
God, You bring meaning and purpose to all my labors.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Ecclesiastes, penned by the “Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem” (1:1, 12), seeks to answer life’s greatest mystery. How can one live a meaningful and purposeful life? Trapped between birth and death (3:2), he explores area after area of life, all that humanity can pursue—intellectual pursuits, knowledge, pleasures, happiness, accomplishments, material possessions, work (chs. 1-3)—to show that a life without God—life “under the sun”—is “meaningless, a chasing after the wind” (1:14). In chapter 2, he discusses human labor, concluding that work without God is pointless, joyless, worrisome, insufferable, miserable, and grievous (vv. 17-26). K. T. Sim
Ecclesiastes 2:17-26
King James Version
17 Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
18 Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.
19 And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity.
20 Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun.
21 For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil.
22 For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun?
23 For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.
24 There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.
25 For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I?
26 For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Click here for the audio message
What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun?
Ecclesiastes 2:22
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Ecclesiastes 2:17–26
If you want to live longer, take a vacation! Forty years after a study of middle-aged, male executives who each had a risk of heart disease, researchers in Helsinki, Finland, followed up with their study participants. The scientists discovered something they hadn’t been looking for in their original findings: the death rate was lower among those who had taken time off for vacations.
Work is a necessary part of life—a part God appointed to us even before our relationship with Him was fractured in Genesis 3. Solomon wrote of the seeming meaninglessness of work experienced by those not working for God’s honor—recognizing its “anxious striving” and “grief and pain” (Ecclesiastes 2:22–23). Even when they’re not actively working, he says their “minds do not rest” because they’re thinking about what still needs to be done (v. 23).
We too might at times feel like we’re “chasing after the wind” (v. 17) and grow frustrated by our inability to “finish” our work. But when we remember that God is part of our labor—our purpose—we can both work hard and take time to rest. We can trust Him to be our Provider, for He’s the giver of all things. Solomon acknowledges that “without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?” (v. 25). Perhaps by reminding ourselves of that truth, we can work diligently for Him (Colossians 3:23) and also allow ourselves times of rest.
Reflect & Pray
How can you invite God into your labors? How might you allow Him to be your satisfaction even when your work isn’t “finished”?
God, You bring meaning and purpose to all my labors.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Ecclesiastes, penned by the “Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem” (1:1, 12), seeks to answer life’s greatest mystery. How can one live a meaningful and purposeful life? Trapped between birth and death (3:2), he explores area after area of life, all that humanity can pursue—intellectual pursuits, knowledge, pleasures, happiness, accomplishments, material possessions, work (chs. 1-3)—to show that a life without God—life “under the sun”—is “meaningless, a chasing after the wind” (1:14). In chapter 2, he discusses human labor, concluding that work without God is pointless, joyless, worrisome, insufferable, miserable, and grievous (vv. 17-26). K. T. Sim
Ecclesiastes 2:17-26
King James Version
17 Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
18 Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.
19 And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity.
20 Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun.
21 For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil.
22 For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun?
23 For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.
24 There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.
25 For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I?
26 For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.