Ecclesiastes 4:1-6:12, 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:7, Psalms 47:1-9, Proverbs 22:16
Today is the 3rd day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today. Yeah, we’re moving toward the end of the week still getting moved into a brand-new month working our way through a new book, the book of Ecclesiastes, which we talked about yesterday as a part of the grouping of books known as wisdom literature. And Solomon in Ecclesiastes is kind of giving us the lay of the land from the perspective of a person who has lived their life with no boundaries, going after and having access to whatever they could dream of and what that perspective brings when you’re older and looking back. So, Ecclesiastes 4, 5, and 6 today.
Commentary:
Okay, as we continue our journey through the book of Ecclesiastes, we are receiving cautionary wisdom. The book is articulating some things where we could be like, this is in the Bible? This is being said out…out loud out of the Bible? And it’s not that it’s so foreign or strange. It’s our experiences. We have experienced many of these things and come to these conclusions of, what am I doing all this for? What is the point of all of this? Where is all of this going? Where does this lead to? Why am I killing myself to do this? Those kinds of questions are things that we arrive at in exhaustion and frustration at times in our lives. It…it's…just…just that when we…we do encounter those kinds of situations we have friends around us that are giving us…feeding us Bible verses of encouragement and we’re doing the same thing to ourselves, which is fine, it’s just that Ecclesiastes is doing that. It’s letting it be kind of what it is so that it can be a cautionary offering of wisdom. So, let’s just look back at a couple of points of wisdom coming from the book of Ecclesiastes today. And I quote. “I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” Right? So, this idea that we can one up or we need to stay in competition with each other, it does propel us forward, it does drive us but unto what? What do we get if we win? More stuff and less life? Ecclesiastes is saying this is kind of a…a pointless attempt. It’s meaningless. It’s like chasing the wind. Or “a dream comes when there are many cares, and many words mark the speech of a fool.” Right? So, restless sleep when there is anxiety, and many many cares and obligations and responsibilities that they…they just keep being churned in our mind, even while we’re asleep. And, so, we wake up tired. I am a person…I have definitely experienced this in my life plenty of times. And it goes on to say, “many words mark the speech of a fool.” Right? So, the one that’s always gabbing, the one that’s always talking, the one that never listens, the one that never understands the value of silence, that marks the speech of a fool. Or this, “whoever loves money never has enough. Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.” In other words, enough will never be enough. And that is cautionary and important wisdom because we’re hearing this wisdom from someone who had it all. And, so, this idea, if I could just achieve this place, if I could just arrive at a certain level of security, if I could just have this much than that will be enough because then the things that I want to do I can do. What we’re being told is once you get on that treadmill, it’s never going to be enough and in the end you accumulate a lot of stuff and chase the wind or miss life. Or this one. When God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them to accept their lot and be happy in their toil, this is a gift from God. They seldom reflect on the days of their life because God keeps them occupied with gladness of heart. So, in other words, a person who is satisfied is a person who understands what they have has been given from God and accepting and appreciating that, having the ability to just enjoy where you are in the process. This is a gift of God. And those who have found that place, they’re not always out in front of themselves and they’re…they’re not always living in the past mistakes because they’re occupied with gladness of heart in the now. Wow! Could we…could we use that lesson. So, what we’re seeing is wisdom being dispensed and given to us in such a way that cautions us about the natural tendencies…tendencies we have to try to create an identity that when we reach the conclusion the closing chapters of our lives, we will look back and feel like we wasted so much time, that there was so much meaninglessness. This is wisdom being given to us in a cautionary way so that we get off that treadmill so that we don’t follow that path so that we find meaning in where we are right now instead of the hope for meaning in a future that we envision, that will still be in adequate when we get there because we will just need to go on to the next thing and never actually really truly and fully appreciate the gifts that are bestowed upon us by God that have less to do with accumulation and more to do with actually living.
Prayer:
Father, we invite You, of course, like every day, we invite You into what…what we’ve read, we invite and ask Your Holy Spirit to plant what we’ve read in our hearts and in our lives so that it will stick, so that it will become part of the fabric of who we are and so that the wisdom being offered to us can be heeded so that we can live an abundant life so that we can realize that what that looks like may be different than what our culture is trying to tell us. Come Holy Spirit. May we find satisfaction and contentment in You we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.
Announcements:
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Good afternoon Daily Audio Bible family my name is Josh from Omaha. I just wanted to call in today after attending a funeral of a young man a 53-year-old man. I was prompted to just call him the day before he passed away and I didn’t. Again, I was prompted two weeks ago to call in an I didn’t hear it and I’m doing it today. My daughter went to school at Creighton University and had an anxiety attack. And since then, we’ve gone…come to find out that so many young men and women are facing the same thing especially now in our nation today. And we just want to come against the spirit of fear and anxiety, and we want to cast that out. And if you want to join me in the prayer today, I’d really appreciate it. My daughter’s name is Emily and I just want to pray for anybody and everybody that’s in our nation today, that they would be free of anxiety. So, would you please join me in prayer? Dear Jesus, we just come against the spirit of the evil one today and I call out him and I ask in Your name Jesus would You just call out anxiety, fear, angst, depression, panic, pain, and suffering and that You would crush them underneath Your feet in Jesus’ name. And I just put a call in and say that you have no hold on our children or adults today or ever from this day on and I cast them out and I pronounce that the battle is won in Jesus’ name. Amen.
My name is Dora and I want…can you please pray for me because I…I am scared and I…I don’t want to be scared and I want to believe that God is with me every time I go…
Hello, DABbers this is God’s Chosen from Georgia. I’m calling in to ask for prayer for all medical workers in different capacities. Pray for God’s protection over them. Pray that God almighty would give them wisdom as to discharge their duties. Pray that God will give them compassion. We pray also, that in everything they do they will see the love of God and the peace that He gives. Pray also for all patients, those whose bodies are wrapped up with pain, those who are dealing with cancer, those who are dealing with terrible diseases and so many others whose conditions are beyond repair. Please pray that God will visit them in a divine way and pray for peace all over the world. We all need Jesus. So, come and save us from all the chaos, the uncertainty, and the decay of the society. Pray that peace would reign, that God will have compassion over all His children.
Hey DAB it’s Emmy from Illinois I’m just calling asking for prayer for my dad. He is a retired pastor about to turn 80 this week and has had COVID the last two weeks and was put on a ventilator yesterday. There are thousands of people that he has touched over the years that are praying for him but I’m asking for additional prayer support from my DAB family. I am 28 weeks pregnant and would really love for my dad to meet my baby. So, if you could just pray for that. Also, I’m on my way right now to get my glucose test done for pregnancy. And while I’m not concerned just based on my overall health, but still a little nervous about the idea of having to deal with gestational diabetes. So, if you could just pray. I know that you will get this long after the test is done but just pray for healing in that way as…well…not healing but that I be healthy with that as well. And then just lastly just continued prayers for my marriage and that this baby and just life would settle, and my husband would reach back out to God, find satisfaction and contentment in God. Thank you.
Hi DAB community this is Jeanette from Denmark I wanna send a great big thank you for this continuing DAB ministry. I’m in my 11th year of listening. I was originally from the States and when I began, I really wanted something for my faith also in English that would keep my heart going. It’s a little bit difficult when you’re an expatriate. My husband started listening about four years ago and right now he’s moved on to the chronological reading. He loves being able to listen in the quiet hours in the morning of the afternoon and we’ve been really blessed by the prayer time. We…we have a community of people who are strong believers here in Denmark. And you guys, we remember you in our prayers so much because there are strong heart ties between Denmark and the United States in the faith community. We love you so much and we want you to know that God is with you. No matter what is going on He is constantly with you and loves you so dearly. He loves us and He loves you and we are as the body of Christ with Christ at the head and Jesus a powerful God. He walked here He was resurrected from the dead and He indeed is coming for his people as well, the bride of Christ. We love you very much. Remember you are a part of something big and it’s going to be wonderful. We love you.