Advancement Is Meaningless

Night_Owl said:

What I would like to know about this verse, is what, if anything does it say of soceity today. For instance it seems like the goal of the world (North America) anyway is to obtain wealth and advancement at almost any cost.

Click to expand...

All human beings desire, naturally, to obtain wealth and advancement. They want comfort and security for themselves and their families. I'm not from North America, and I guarantee you, where I grew up in Africa, they want the exact same things as any American.

Christianity teaches that these things are shadows -- a chasing after the wind -- they'll never bring you deep and lasting joy. The teaching of Ecclesiastes is that only fear of God (understanding how small you are, how you are at the mercy of so many things, how you are not in charge of the universe, or even of other people) can bring lasting peace.

In an atheistic worldview, this is equated with accepting that you can't control everything, and that try to do so will drive you insane. In Christianity, it's realising God is in control of all things, that all things will work themselves out for the good eventually, and getting worked up over your misfortunes means you're working against things working out for the good (if that makes sense).

Most people realise this on some level, but of course, the fear of poverty and want keeps them from ever changing the way they behave/think. (I include myself here.) Not letting go of material things and learning to find joy even in want means a lot of people (myself included) are enslaved to their "things". Which is sad, and damaging both psychologically and spiritually. (If you go in for the whole spiritual thing). And on a global level, in the form of ecological disasters, etc.

Night_Owl said:

(Ecclesiastes 4:13 through 4:16 NIV)

Advancement Is Meaningless


What I would like to know about this verse, is what, if anything does it say of soceity today. For instance it seems like the goal of the world (North America) anyway is to obtain wealth and advancement at almost any cost.

Click to expand...

I don't think advancement is always meaningless. There are countless examples of God blessing and individual with prosperity. In fact, if you are a honest, faithful, diligent, responsible, loving and unselfish person, I don't see how you couldn't advance. A King who knows how to take a warning could life an entire nation.

However, prosperity/advancement without a thankful/humble/graceful heart is what God is warning us against.

Night_Owl said:

(Ecclesiastes 4:13 through 4:16 NIV)

Advancement Is Meaningless

"13. Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to take warning.

14. The youth may have come from prison to the kingship, or he may have been born in poverty within his kingdom.

15. I saw that all who lived and walked under the sun followed the youth, the king's successor.

16 .There was no end to all the people who were before them. But those who came later were not pleased with the successor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind."

What I would like to know about this verse, is what, if anything does it say of soceity today. For instance it seems like the goal of the world (North America) anyway is to obtain wealth and advancement at almost any cost.

Click to expand...

You need to understand the context of the book.

It was written by King Solomon towards the end of his life. He is describing himself as the foolish king. God had given him wisdom and riches, but instead of following Gods commands he had gone his own way and followed other gods. Ecclesiastes is his lament about the state of his life and how he had got to where he was.