Wisdom Wednesday

[Ecc 1:1-11 KJV] 1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 

Interesting how Solomon describes himself.  Let's try it:  The thoughts of a middle age woman, the daughter of Linda, secretary in Lone Jack, Mo...ha ha!

2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all [is] vanity.

Kind of a dramatic statement to start off.  He seems bored or depressed.  Must be tough to be a king. 

3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? 

God made us to work.  Yeah, it can be drudgery sometimes but its up to us what attitude we have about it.

4 [One] generation passeth away, and [another] generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. 

People come and people go...circle of life kind of thing.

5 The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. 

The sun is a constant.

6 The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. 

Apparently, the wind is a constant too...who knew?

7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea [is] not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. 

The waters remain constant as well.  (Sidenote:  how do we know when a sea isn't full?)

8 All things [are] full of labour; man cannot utter [it]: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 

Here we go.  Nature of man is never content.

9 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. 

As I have gotten older, this has become glaringly apparent.  What is hyped as a new idea is usually just an old idea repacked to be "better and shinier."


10 Is there [any] thing whereof it may be said, See, this [is] new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.

Nope, there really isn't.  It is just a case of it is new to us. 

11 [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.

Yep.  One generation remembers very little of the previous generation.  Each generation thinks they have been far more innovative than all previous generations and that they are the truly enlightened ones.   What hubris!