Ep 477 – Ecclesiastes 11:1-16

Faith versus fear. That's a choice all of us face in this life, on a daily basis. As Christians, it can be so easy to verbally express our faith in God, all the while living with doubts that He can or will come through for us in the end. And the end is a big question mark for many of us. And by end, I mean the end of life. Death looms like a dark cloud on the horizon, and we wonder what it holds in store for us. In spite of all the promises in Scripture and the assurances given to us by Jesus Himself, we can still find ourselves doubting the reality of heaven and struggling with understanding just what eternal life really means. So, as a result, we end up concentrating all our time and attention on this life. Which is something Solomon would highly recommend. In fact, in Ecclesiastes 11:1-16, he will go out of his way to encourage a live-for-the-moment kind of attitude. For Solomon, the one thing we can know for certain is that this life exists and it can be full of joy and sorrow, good and bad, blessings and curses. We know from experience that life on this planet can be tough at times. But we also know that it can come with some incredible blessings. But for Solomon, death was a veritable unknown. He knew it was coming, but beyond that, he wasn't quite so sure of what came next. Which is what led him to seek fulfillment and satisfaction from this life. And while Solomon didn't have the whole redemptive plan of God spread out in front of him, he should have known that his God was a good and gracious God, who keeps His promises. But somewhere along the way, Solomon's faith in God had become just about the only thing in his life that had not increased in quantity or quality. Which left him fearing the future and living for the moment.