WISDOM SERIES Despair & Desire JULY 26, 2015
The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: Meaningless! Meaningless! says the Teacher. Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless. What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun? - ECCLESIASTES 1: 1-3
Solomon s Song of Songs. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for your love is more delightful than wine. Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the young women love you! Take me away with you let us hurry! - SONG OF SOLOMON 1: 1-4
Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. - ECCLESIASTES 12: 13-14
ECCLESIASTES 1: 12-14 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid
ECCLESIASTES 1: 12-14 on mankind! I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth. It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart. Frustration is better - ECCLESIASTES 7: 1-6
than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure. It is better to heed the rebuke of a wise person than to listen to the song of fools. Like the crackling - ECCLESIASTES 7: 1-6
of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of fools. This too is meaningless. - ECCLESIASTES 7: 1-6
Ecclesiastes has an eerily modern ring to it because we have not learned its most basic lessons. We too chase the allure of the visible kingdom. In one sense the restless, those who sense the world s disharmony, are closer to God than those satisfied in the world. - PHILIP YANCEY THE BIBLE JESUS READ
I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness. - ECCLESIASTES 2: 13
Better one handful with tranquillity than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind. - ECCLESIASTES 4: 6
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. - ECCLESIASTES 4: 9
Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to heed a warning. - ECCLESIASTES 4: 13
This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them for this is their lot. Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the - ECCLESIASTES 5: 18-19
ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil this is a gift of God. - ECCLESIASTES 5: 18-19
Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. Enjoy life with your wife,a whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given - ECCLESIASTES 9: 7-10
you under the sun all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom. - ECCLESIASTES 9: 7-10
Come away, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the spice-laden mountains. - SONG OF SOLOMON 8: 14
I slept but my heart was awake. Listen! My beloved is knocking: Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one. My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night. I have taken off my robe must I put it on again? I have washed my feet - SONG OF SOLOMON 5: 2-8
must I soil them again? My beloved thrust his hand through the latchopening; my heart began to pound for him. I arose to open for my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh, on the handles of the bolt. I opened for my - SONG OF SOLOMON 5: 2-8
beloved, but my beloved had left; he was gone. My heart sank at his departure. I looked for him but did not find him. I called him but he did not answer. The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. They beat me, they bruised me; they took away my - SONG OF SOLOMON 5: 2-8
cloak, those watchmen of the walls! Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you if you find my beloved, what will you tell him? Tell him I am faint with love. - SONG OF SOLOMON 5: 2-8
Let the king bring me into his chambers. - SONG OF SOLOMON 1: 4
My beloved is mine and I am his. - SONG OF SOLOMON 2: 16
Who is this that appears like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, majestic as the stars in procession? - SONG OF SOLOMON 6: 10
Do not stare at me because I am dark, because I am darkened by the sun. My mother s sons were angry with me and made me take care of the vineyards; my own vineyard I had to neglect. - SONG OF SOLOMON 1: 6
I liken you, my darling, to a mare among Pharaoh s chariot horses. Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels. We will make you earrings of gold, studded with silver. - SONG OF SOLOMON 1: 9-11
How beautiful your sandaled feet, O prince s daughter! Your graceful legs are like jewels, the work of an artist s hands. Your navel is a rounded goblet that never lacks blended wine. Your waist is a mound of wheat encircled by lilies. Your breasts are like two fawns, - SONG OF SOLOMON 7: 1-9
like twin fawns of a gazelle. Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your eyes are the pools of Heshbon by the gate of Bath Rabbim. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon looking toward Damascus. Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel. Your hair is like royal tapestry; - SONG OF SOLOMON 7: 1-9
the king is held captive by its tresses. How beautiful you are and how pleasing, my love, with your delights! Your stature is like that of the palm, and your breasts like clusters of fruit. I said, I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit. - SONG OF SOLOMON 7: 1-9
May your breasts be like clusters of grapes on the vine, the fragrance of your breath like apples, and your mouth like the best wine. - SONG OF SOLOMON 7: 1-9
For this command is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and correction and instruction are the way to life, keeping you from your neighbor s wife, from the smooth talk of a wayward woman. Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with - PROVERBS 6: 23-26
her eyes. For a prostitute can be had for a loaf of bread, but another man s wife preys on your very life. - PROVERBS 6: 23-26
Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. Cherish her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honor you. - PROVERBS 4: 6-9
She will give you a garland to grace your head and present you with a glorious crown. - PROVERBS 4: 6-9
MEGILLOTH ( FIVE SCROLLS ) Song of Songs Passover Ruth Weeks (Harvest, Pentecost) Lamentations Ninth of Ab (Destruction of Temple) Ecclesiastes Booths (Sukkoth, Tabernacles) Esther Purim (deliverance)
Ruth teaches us how to develop an identity as a person of faith in the context of God s covenant. Lamentations teaches us how to deal with suffering in the context of redemptive judgment. Esther teaches us how to become a celebrative community of faith in the environment of the world s hostility. - EUGENE PETERSON FIVE SMOOTH STONES
Ecclesiastes teaches us how to unmask religious illusion and pious fraud in the context of providential blessing. - EUGENE PETERSON FIVE SMOOTH STONES
Song of Songs teaches us how to love and pray in the context of salvation. - EUGENE PETERSON FIVE SMOOTH STONES
Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achora a a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up - HOSEA 2: 14-20
out of Egypt. In that day, declares the LORD, you will call me my husband ; you will no longer call me my master. I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked. In that day I will make a covenant for them with the - HOSEA 2: 14-20
beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety. I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and - HOSEA 2: 14-20
compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD. - HOSEA 2: 14-20