Passage of the Day - April 17, 2011

Ecclesiastes 2:1-11

 ¹I said to myself, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure. So enjoy yourself." And behold, it too was futility.

 ²I said of laughter, "It is madness," and of pleasure, "What does it accomplish?"

 ³I explored with my mind how to stimulate my body with wine while my mind was guiding me wisely, and how to take hold of folly, until I could see what good there is for the sons of men to do under heaven the few years of their lives.

 ⁴I enlarged my works: I built houses for myself, I planted vineyards for myself;

 ⁵I made gardens and parks for myself and I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees;

 ⁶I made ponds of water for myself from which to irrigate a forest of growing trees.

 ⁷I bought male and female slaves and I had homeborn slaves Also I possessed flocks and herds larger than all who preceded me in Jerusalem.

 ⁸Also, I collected for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces I provided for myself male and female singers and the pleasures of men--many concubines.

 ⁹Then I became great and increased more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also stood by me.

 ¹⁰All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor.

 ¹¹Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.

What if we got everything we ever wanted?  What if we chose not to neglect ourselves anything?  What would we be missing?  We make so many choices and sacrifices to be able to enjoy the pleasurable things of life, so what would be so bad about having it all all the time?

It’s all fun and games until somebody gets bored.  As the wise Dean Vernon Wormor once told a similarly deceived Kent Dorfman:

No I don't endorse this movie, but it is a classic line.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,
© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission." (http://www.lockman.org/)