Ecclesiastes... After surviving Open Heart Surgery...

Life's cutting-edge Ironies

All, it is the six-week anniversary of open-heart chest surgery for a triple bypass and the seven-week anniversary of the heart attack that almost killed me. Therefore, today is the first day I’ve felt up to posting on Substack.

In the PBJ on June 2, we will step into Ecclesiastes. This existential book is for today, but we need to carefully examine its framework.

The Book of Ecclesiastes is a dramatic autobiography of King Solomon's life when he was away from God. As the Book of Proverbs reveals Solomon's wisdom, the Book of Ecclesiastes reveals his foolishness. I believe the Song of Solomon reveals the Queen of Sheba as his greatest love and the context of his broken heart and fall away from God.

2Ch 9:12 Now King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all she desired, whatever she asked, much more than she had brought to the king. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants.

Back to Ecclesiastes, this is not a book without rhyme or reason—not just a bunch of verses stuck together. It begins with the problem stated: All is vanity in this world. Then we will find that experiments are made. Solomon will seek satisfaction through many different avenues, in many different fields. He will try science, the laws of nature, wisdom and philosophy, pleasure and materialism, as well as living for the “now.” He will explore fatalism, egotism, religion, wealth, and morality. Then in the final verses of the book he will give us the result of his experiments.

Keep in mind that the conclusions in each experiment are human, not God's truth. This is man under the sun.

My dad once quoted:

Ecc 1:17 And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind.

Ecc 1:18 For in much wisdom is much grief,
And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

That bugged me until my grandfather revealed that Solomon’s perspective for those words occurred when he was away from God. The perspective for TRUE Wisdom and Knowledge happens within the Joy of the Lord. You see, that makes our wisdom and knowledge God’s wisdom and knowledge. When it’s just us in our own minds, it becomes pointless madness and folly.

Laying there on the OR table as darkness closed in, my mind went to:

Psa 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

Left to myself, fear (madness and folly) would have been overwhelming because I was not sure if I would wake up from open heart chest surgery. Instead, as darkness closed in, I had incredible peace and calm because HE was with me. My wisdom and Knowledge were not mine… But were from the Creator of the Universe who saves us through His Son.

Jay