Ecclesiastes 11:7-10 says,...Bible reading week 13, day 3

Today's verses are Ecclesiastes 11:7-10, which read,

v.7 - The light is pleasant, and it is good for the eyes to see the sun.

I am hoping today is like what Solomon is describing here.  May it be a day when the sun is shining and we can walk and see the new life coming up out of the ground.  We long for days that we describe at the end of the day as "a good day."   Those good days have their purpose because if you have good days then you are also going to have some bad days.

v.8 - Indeed, if a man should live many years, let him rejoice in them all, and let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many.  Everything that is to come will be futility.

To know it is a good day is to have a bad day to compare it to.  Solomon brings us back down to earth that if you live a long time then you are going to experience some of them.  But the bad days also have a purpose in remembering them.  Maybe you remember them and that you got through those bad days.  Maybe you remember them and the transition into the good days.  Maybe you remember them in light of how many years you have been given to not only have a bunch of bad days but also a bunch of good days.  Solomon ends with the fact that you will have some good days and some bad days but an end is coming.  Having more good days than bad days or having more bad days than good days will not erase the futility of life.

v.9 - Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood.  And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes.  Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things.

Solomon wants us to marry together the words of what is pleasant and God's judgment.  It is ever before us that we will be judged by God for what we do and what we say.  In the face of that judgment do what is pleasing to Him and it will also be pleasing to you.  There will be all kinds of pleasing things to do and especially when you are young and think you are invincible and will live forever.  There are also things that are pleasing to God that are aided by your youth.  Because of your youth you can expend energy and time that might not be there for someone older and tied to other responsibilities.  Your freedom of youth can offer you to please yourself and the Lord by remembering His judgment in light of those pleasures.  You can act on impulse that this old married man has to wade through responsibilities before responding and then the responding might be to send in the young guy.

v.10 - So, remove grief and anger from your heart and put away pain from your body, because childhood and the prime of life are fleeting.

Solomon can sometimes leave us on such a downer.  The principle is to deal with grief and anger and pain biblically.  These things which would be perceived as happening on those "bad days" which we will all experience are to be removed and replaced with a God focus on life, as fleeting as it is.  We are to be active in dealing with these things and not let them hang around because they consume us and constrain us from pleasing the Lord.  

I have seen this in my Christian friends who have died of cancer and others who are Christians and living with debilitating conditions.  Instead of focusing on the grief and anger and pain, these were dealt with over and over to keep their eyes focused on the One who gave them their life.  Many great things were done and said by these who it seemed were having more bad days than good days.  They were able to see the condition they were in as not a time to be consumed with self but to show God through it to others.  When you see someone do that, it is another evidence that God is real.  Us humans complain but when a human doesn't complain when we think they have a right to but rather proclaims a purpose greater than the pain, we have to attribute that action to another and that other is God.  Even our fleeting life can have impact if we keep God's judgment in sight while we make decisions on how we live for Him.  To please Him is a pleasing life even on the bad days.  Let us pray.

"Lord, another chapter of Ecclesiastes has ended and we are coming to the same conclusion.  We are all going to die but how we live before You is important.  May we take our good days and our bad days and continue to do pleasing things in Your sight.  May our youth use their vitality for Your glory.  May we see Your purpose in the light of our pain.  Amen."

Pastor Adam