June 24, 2026 - Ecclesiastes 1-12

You just can’t read Ecclesiastes a bit at a time, you just can’t.  In chapter after chapter, Solomon struggles with the realities of life and wearies himself with the thought that all is vanity.  If we work hard, we die, and our work is given to others.  We are like the animals in that we live, breathe, then die.  Life is full of injustices:  the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer.  And on and on he goes, that is, until he reaches his final conclusion:  “When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is:  fear God and keep His commands . . . for God will bring every act to judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil” (12:13,14).  This is good, i.e., that we can rest our lives and all our works, ultimately, in the hands of God.  He will do with us, and with our works, that which is right and wise.  He will bring everything to a good conclusion, and we will be able to rest happily and secure in him.  I’ve often wondered, I guess especially as I have gotten older, how people find any comfort and joy at all in the belief that this life is all there is.  It is here, then it’s gone.  If that’s it, then we’re nothing more than blips on the screen, here, then gone.  But to know God!  To rest in him!  To entrust ourselves and our families to him, to him who is wise and good and loving and who does all things right!  To know the hope of heaven beyond this life!  That’s good!

There’s a land of delight, where the angels dwell,

Beautiful home, beautiful home;

The joy that is waiting no tongue can tell,

Beautiful home above.

Beautiful home, beautiful home,

Sweet is my haven of rest;

Beautiful home, beautiful home,

Home of the pure and blest.

There’s a joy which eternally fills my heart,

Thinking of home, thinking of home;

It wakens the music in every part,

Thinking of Christ above.   -- Barney Elliott Warren (1893)