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The Bible Breakdown
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The Bible Breakdown
Ecclesiastes 01: A Dark Rain Cloud Kind of Guy
Is life really just a series of meaningless events, or is there a deeper purpose to our existence? Join us as we explore the profound insights of King Solomon in the Book of Ecclesiastes. In our latest podcast episode, "A Dark Rain Cloud Kind of Guy," we introduce you to the unique and sometimes controversial perspectives found in this ancient text. We unpack Solomon's stark and candid reflections on life, revealing his ultimate conclusion that everything centers on God. You'll learn how the SOAP method (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer) can enhance your personal Bible study and prepare you for a 12-day journey through Solomon's timeless wisdom.
Moving forward, our chapter "Living a Life Full of God" emphasizes the importance of grounding your life in divine purpose. Drawing from Solomon's teachings, we discuss how investing in eternal values and positively impacting others can lead to a truly fulfilling life. Despite the imperfections and challenges we face, Solomon encourages us to make the most of what God has given us. We conclude the chapter with a heartfelt prayer for guidance, urging listeners to open their hearts as we delve deeper into Ecclesiastes. Reflect on Ecclesiastes 12:13, "Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone's duty," and discover how Solomon's wisdom can transform your life perspective.
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The More You Dig. The More You Find.
Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today Ecclesiastes, chapter 1. Today's title is A Dark Rain Cloud Kind of Guy. A Dark Rain Cloud Kind of Guy. And, as always, what we do when we start a new book of the Bible is we're going to take a few moments, I'm going to give a little bit of background, kind of tell you where this is in the context of the history of the Bible and the history of just the world in general, and I'm going to go ahead and make a prediction.
Speaker 1:I think that, for many of you, when we are finished with Ecclesiastes, there's going to be no one in between. There's either going to be people who say this might be my favorite Old Testament book, or you're going to be like, no, not interested, because it's just a dark rain cloud kind of a guy. And I don't mean that, as in there are some of you who are dark rain clouds. What I mean is the one who wrote this is just very matter of fact. This just is what it is, and you're either going to love it or you're not. And we're going to get all of that in just a moment. I cannot wait for the Ecclesiastes. It's been one of those I've been looking forward to for a while.
Speaker 1:But before we do that, as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you are giving us a five-star review on the podcast. You will forever and always be my favorites. Also, make sure that you're leaving comments on the YouTube videos. I will go ahead and tell you that not all the comments, for whatever reason, actually make it to me. So if you don't get responses, make sure that you're going to some of the social media that we do at the Bible Breakdown Discussion and ask your question again. There's been some problems with YouTube, where some of you are putting information out there, but there's no way for me to respond to it. I don't understand. So make sure if you're not getting responses, it's because we just simply don't see it. We're not able to respond. So make sure you go to the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook, where you should be anyway, because the more we dig, the more we find, and they do an amazing job there. Okay, all right.
Speaker 1:Well, if you have your Bibles, want to open up with me to Ecclesiastes, chapter one? You want to get your coffee ready because we're going to jump into this in just a moment. Give a little background about this. First of all, other than Deuteronomy, ecclesiastes might hold the record for being one of the most misspelled books in the entire Bible. It's not very easy to spell, but it means preacher or teacher, the teacher, ecclesiastes, the teaching, and it is being taught written down by Solomon, taught written down by Solomon.
Speaker 1:So the third king of Israel first king was Saul and then David, and then Solomon is David's son, also thought to be one of the best kings, maybe the second best king underneath David himself. Probably the third best would maybe be Hezekiah, but he's definitely the second, and he was known to be the wisest man to ever live, other than Jesus, of course. Ii, and he was known to be the wisest man to ever live, other than Jesus, of course, but Jesus cheated because he's half man, half God, of course, fully God, fully man, and so, other than, literally, god in human form, solomon's supposed to be the wisest man to ever live, and what this is is this is during his lifetime, so it's around 935 BC, somewhere in there. He's writing this as a letter to his people, and the big idea is him saying, literally, I have surveyed all of life, been there, done that. I started the club, I'm the club captain, I've done it all and I really have realized it's all about God. Even like the stuff you wouldn't expect, I did that too right and honestly he has kind of a some would say a pessimistic view of the world. I think it's more of a realistic view of the world and he ends up saying I just have noticed it really is all about God and so some of the kind of interesting things. You're going to be kind of surprised at some of the stuff that Solomon's going to say yeah, been there. Yep tried that. If you think about it, he was a very wealthy king, so he had the capacity to try a whole lot of stuff.
Speaker 1:The second thing is is I want you to think about this as one long sermon it's 12 chapters, but it's one long sermon that he preaches and the phrase under the sun, or a variation of that, is said about 28 times and what that means is it means under the whole earth. And so what Solomon is going to say is I really surveyed it all and at the end of surveying everything, this is what I've come out to find so kind of knowing that we're going to jump into this. And here's one of the things I want you to really think about is I want to challenge you to do your own soap Bible study, if you're not already doing this and I know that a lot of you listen to this on your way to school or way to work and all of that, and so you may have to go back and listen to this again or read it on your own time. There's so much in each one of these chapters there's simply no way to cover it. So over the course of the next 12 days, you need to make sure you are going to the Bible breakdown discussion and digging in, and I want to encourage you that you soap through this. And if you don't know what soap is, it's S-O-A-P. It means that when you're reading through, you're asking the Holy Spirit to let at least one scripture stand out to you and then, when you find that scripture, you write it down and then you O observe what was it that stuck out to you? Then you apply, figure out how you're going to apply that scripture and then you pray over that. So S-O-A-P scripture, observation, application and prayer, because there's so much here that you just want to ask the Holy Spirit, can you make something stand out to me? And then you can read it the next day and ask for the same thing. And so we're going to stop along the way. But let's dive into this. Remember, we call the title of this A Dark, rain, cloud Kind of Guy, and you're going to understand why pretty much from the jump. You ready, here we go.
Speaker 1:Ecclesiastes, chapter 1, verse 1 says this these are the words of the teacher, king David's son who ruled in Jerusalem. That's his way of saying yo, it's me, solomon, all right. Verse 2, everything is meaningless, says the teacher, completely meaningless. What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. The earth rises and, excuse me, the sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. The wind blows south and then turns north. Around and around it goes blowing in circles. Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are never content. History merely repeats itself. It has been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. Sometimes people say here is something new, but actually it's old. Nothing is ever truly new. We don't remember what happened in the past, and in future generations no one will remember what we are doing now. So, like I said, he's a dark rain cloud kind of guy. But if you think about it it's kind of true and that is, everything is on repeat. If you've lived for a little while, you kind of notice that that you find yourself doing the same things your parents did, and then you see your kids doing the same things that you do, and then, on a macro level, you see it as well. So Solomon, he's kind of got a point right.
Speaker 1:Verse 12, I, the teacher, was the king of Israel and I lived in Jerusalem. I devoted myself to searching for understanding and to explore by wisdom everything being done under heaven. I soon discovered that God had dealt a tragic existence to the human race. I observed everything going on under the sun and really it's all meaningless, like chasing the wind. What is wrong cannot be made right. What is missing cannot be recovered. I said to myself look, I am wiser than any of the kings who ruled in Jerusalem before me, basically saying I'm smarter than Saul and I'm smarter than David. I have greater wisdom and knowledge than any of them. So I set out to learn everything, from wisdom to madness and folly. But I learned firsthand that pursuing all this is like chasing the wind the greater my wisdom, the greater my grief. To increase knowledge only increases sorrow. So once again, a dark rain cloud kind of guy. But one of the things I love about Ecclesiastes and what I would consider to be the overall theme, is that the key To a life well lived is a life full of God. Let me say that again. I think the overall theme of Ecclesiastes you can already kind of see where he's going in this A key to a life well lived is a life full of God, because what he's already saying is life itself is pretty meaningless. He's saying everything just repeats.
Speaker 1:I heard someone say one time I never realized how expendable I was until I retired, and this guy was talking about how he was the CEO of a large corporation and it was one of those where he was constantly having to kind of drive the ship, as they say, just kind of moving things forward and he just seemed like he was so indispensable. And then when he retired he said for about a week people would call him and ask about different things. But after about a week, he said, the phone call stopped. It was amazing how quickly they moved on and he was like all of a sudden I realized, wow, they didn't really need me that much after all. And for him he just said, it was a realization that I really better dig into something, because my identity cannot be attached to what I do, because that can change and I think what Solomon's already starting.
Speaker 1:What I want to kind of leave with us today is the key to a life well lived is a life full of God. To look around us and to say there's got to be more than this. But that doesn't necessarily mean that you need to change jobs or change families or change anything like that. What it means is you need to invest your life in things that are eternal, in making a difference in people's lives, in making a difference in how you pursue God and realizing that in this life things are not always going to be perfect, and that's okay. That doesn't mean that we don't try to do the very best we can with what God has given us. It's just to realize that, ultimately, god is the one who gives life meaning. And so over the course of the next several chapters, we want to dig into all the things that Solomon says. He goes to look and see Is there virtue there? Is there life there? And I'm going to go ahead and give you kind of a spoil. The ending he finds out the key to a life well lived is to enjoy the life God has given, but make sure that your life is full of the God who gave it.
Speaker 1:Let's pray together and I look forward to hearing in the comments what you know about Ecclesiastes and some of the excitement you have about taking this journey together. You ready? Let's pray, god. Thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, for your word. Thank you, God, that you warn us that in this life there's going to be things that are difficult and that are hard, but I'm so thankful that you're above it all. I pray, as we start this journey into the book of Ecclesiastes, you'll be with us, you'll open our eyes and you'll open our hearts only to you. In Jesus' name, we pray amen. And then, with the theme verse of Ecclesiastes, is Ecclesiastes 12, verse 13, when he says here now is my final conclusion Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone's duty. He's saying a life well lived is a life full of God. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. For Ecclesiastes, chapter two.
