Bible in 90, Day 48: The conclusion of the matter

Ecclesiastes 3 – Song of Solomon 8

*image courtesy of gnmills at stock.xchng

I MET a traveller from an antique land
Who said:—Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter’d visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock’d them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.   Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley at http://www.bartleby.com/106/246.html

I hope the first half of today’s reading didn’t get you too depressed.  It sounds like Solomon is saying that all of life is useless, a pointless, endless cycle of give and take. If you leave out the last few verses of the book, you’re left with nothing but a hopeless look at the grave.  Better eat, drink, and be merry, cuz you gon’ die!  However, we’re missing something if we stop here:

The conclusion of the matter.

The whole book is Solomon’s reflection on his experiment to find life’s meaning.  Every good experiment has some failed attempts, right?  If we don’t read Solomon’s conclusion, we don’t get the point of his experiment.  We don’t benefit from his research and findings.  So, what does he conclude?

“Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” (12:13)

Without God, life is vain and meaningless.  If this life is all there is, then I can see where Solomon’s desperate tone in the rest of the book comes from.  The best results of my hardest work will be passed on to other people I might not even know, maybe last a little while after I’m forgotten, and then crumble.

But those of us who are in Christ have a greater hope.  We know that everything we do has an eternal impact, whether for good or bad.  Unlike Ozymandias, our deeds will not crumble into the sands of time, but will precede us into eternity, and last there with us forever.

Let’s live lives that reflect this knowledge.  Let’s do all things as unto our Lord (1 Corinthians 10:31), knowing that there is more life after this one, and that this life will impact the one to come.  Let’s not despair, but put our hope in Christ!

*originally at Words of Reason