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Dripping Springs Weekly Bulletins
Bored With Life?
Yes, life does go on, even when some would like for the world to stop for them. Did you see the newspapers last week? Same old stuff. Gasoline prices going up fast. Another nation obtains nuclear possibilities. Election returns noted. Controversy over land development. A baseball player gets a new multi-million dollar contract. Income tax returns due soon. No rainfall expected in the near future.
About 3,000 years ago Solomon came to the same conclusion: that life keeps going on and on and on.
“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after,” Ecclesiastes 1:9-11.
The things that happen today will likely happen again, and people will say, “same old, same old . . .”
Do you ever get bored with life? Does every day seem the same to you? Was this in Solomon’s mind as he wrote the previous words?
Different opinions exist over the words of Ecclesiastes. Most believe Solomon wrote those words in his later years, Proverbs in his middle years and Song of Solomon even earlier. By the time Ecclesiastes was written he had abandoned much of the wisdom God gave him when he became king, 1 Kings 3. Taking seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines led to the grossest forms of idolatry. Solomon was in deep trouble, and he did not come to himself until his last years when he finally discovered this eternal truth:
“Hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man,” Ecclesiastes 12:13.
Until he finally learned the real meaning of life, he had at his beck and call anything he could want. He had the answer to the question, “Why do the seas not overflow?” He spoke of things not considered until centuries beyond his day, 1:7, 11:3.
He spoke of the sun rising and setting, using the accommodative or “phenomenological” language still used today. Scientists claim that to be “scientific”, instead of the sun “rising”, Solomon should have said:
“The earth revolves until its tangent plane coincides once more with the solar azimuth.”
The weatherman never says that!
To keep from being bored, Solomon tried every means at his disposal to enjoy life, to find peace and fulfillment. Though he had access to any “thrill” available, he concluded it was all “vanity and vexation of spirit,” 2:11. That means “empty,” and as Johnny Ramsey explains it, “trying to catch the wind in a paper sack.” Try that some day and understand “vexation of spirit.”
Just reading Ecclesiastes, we see that Solomon had women, science, gardens, architects and buildings, singers and songs, comedians, vineyards, servants, cattle and sheep, silver and gold, orchards, pools of water, musical instruments. He even said, “Whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy,” 2:10. But he was still bored.
What happened to the wisdom God gave him? Had it been only a temporary form of wisdom that God removed when Solomon abandoned His law? Or – did Solomon find “wisdom” from the priests of his wives’ idols? Whatever it was, his own people cried out for relief from the taxes that built the idols’ altars, 1 Kings 11-12, 2 Kings 23.
Bible Prescription for Boredom
- “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going,” Ecclesiastes 9:10.
- “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart,” Jeremiah 29:13.
- “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil,” Ephesians 5:15-16.
- “Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men,” Colossians 3:23.
- “Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and true before the Lord his God. And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, in the law and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart. So he prospered,” 2 Chronicles 31:20-21.
- “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's,” 1 Cor. 6:19-20.
- “I am crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me,” Galatians 2:19-20.
My own experience reveals that when I get bored it is because I have been thinking of myself, my own wants and wishes, and that I have forgotten the task Christ has set before me: to take the gospel to those who are lost, Matthew 28:18-20.
Solomon had a leadership responsibility to God’s people, but he wanted his own pleasure. When we serve the Lord with all our hearts, we will be too busy to be bored.
Carl B. Garner
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“Leisure is time for doing something useful; this leisure the diligent man will obtain but the lazy man never.”
“He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul’s estate.”
“Work keeps at bay three great evils: boredom, vice, and need.”
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Seven Things to Remember
During the Lord's Supper
What a great privilege it is to assemble around the Lord’s table each week to commemorate the death of Christ! But, staying focused on the Lord’s death during the Lord’s Supper is sometimes challenging. Remembering the seven things below will help us stay focused.
One Lord. There is “one Lord” (Ephesians 4:5). No one else could have qualified as Savior. Only Jesus, the sinless Son of God, was worthy to take our place on the cross.
Two Thieves. “And there were also two other, malefactors, led with him to be put to death” (Luke 23:32). Crucifixion was reserved for those who were guilty of the most heinous crimes. The thieves crucified with Christ were worthy of punishment, but Christ was innocent.
Three Crosses. The day Christ was crucified, three crosses were situated on Calvary. One cross was for Jesus, the other two for the thieves. The thief on one cross reviled Christ; the other thief repented. But Jesus, the One of the third cross, redeemed us from sin (Luke 23:39-43; Eph. 1:7).
Four Parts to His Garments. “Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat” (John 19:23). Scripture reveals that the soldiers, in a cold-blooded fashion, gambled for Christ’s garments at the foot of the cross.
Five Wounds. His hands were pierced; His head crowned with thorns. His back was scourged, His side riven, and His feet pierced with nails (John 19-20). What suffering He endured for us!
Six Hours of Agony. Christ was crucified at the third hour and died at the ninth (Mark 15:25-37). Can you imagine being tortured for six long hours? This, Jesus willingly did for you and for me (Galatians 2:20).
Seven Sayings on the Cross. The following are statements Jesus made while on the cross: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do”; Today shalt thou be with me in paradise”; “Woman, behold thy son…[then to John] “Behold thy mother!”; “I thirst”; “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”; “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit”; “It is finished” (Matthew 27; Luke 23; John 19)
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