Old things New Podcast

Pray Read: Ecc 3:16-18. Meditation Let’s face it, the last two meditations have been heavy going. And yet, even in this seemingly grim passage, Solomon gives us a spark of hope. As we consider this spark in light of the gospel, it bursts into full flame. Solomon has already shown us that injustice exists, that judgment is coming, and that none of us are innocent. But here is where he wants to take...

Pray Read: Ecc 3:16-18. Meditation In our last meditation we faced up to the hard reality that injustice exists. Now, if the average western person was writing the script, our next play would be this: injustice needs to be dealt with. Makes sense. But if we want justice, we need to realise things might not turn out how we expect. Qohelet does take us on a next step, and it seems counter-intuitive...

Pray Read: Ecc 3:16. Meditation One of the most common objections to Christianity you will ever hear is this question: If there is a God, why does he allow suffering? Nobody likes it when things hurt. Perhaps people have raised this question with you before. There are unbelievers who deny God, and then the reason they give is because they think he should not or would not allow suffering if he real...

Pray Read: Ecc 3:9-13. Meditation Solomon says in verse nine that the deepest pulse of the human soul is the desire for beauty and joy and goodness. We long for it. We want to see it, and taste it, and touch it, and hear it. We want fulfillment and laughter, and wonder, and beauty, and joy. There is an insatiable, ravenous desire in every heart, longing to be satisfied with goodness and beauty. We...

Pray Read: Ecc 3:9-11. Meditation Solomon has challenged our perception of the good life, showing us that life as a gift from God is itself a goodness to be thankful for. And yet, the question stubbornly persists, doesn’t it? Is there any good in life? We still want and desire what is good, and with the brokenness of the world around us, the question is pressing. And Solomon has more to say to us....

A new perspective on finding joy (Ecc 3:10). Pray Read: Ecc 3:9-11. Meditation One thing we must always remember, says Solomon, is who is running the show. Take a look at verse 10: “I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.” Stop for a moment. Do you see what he did there? Solomon’s very first response to the bigger question he’s asking here (i.e. is there...

Pray Read: Ecc 3:9. Meditation In the spirit of Ecclesiastes, let me pose a very un-cheerful question to you: If there was nothing good in life, would you really want to be alive? If misery was your only companion, would you want to be here? I think our honest answer to that question would have to be no. If there was no good, no beauty, no satisfaction, peace or joy, if there was only pain, and su...

Pray Read: Ecc 3:1-8. Meditation There is a time to weep and a time to mourn . What we see here is that we must be prepared, because days of sadness will come. The goal of this life is not to be always happy or always comfortable, because there is a God-appointed time to mourn. Living in a fallen world means that we should expect tears and mourning at times. As Solomon says elsewhere, there will b...

Pray Read: Ecc 3:1-8. Meditation There is a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted. There will be seasons of hard work in life. Planting is by definition a time when you invest rather than gain. You work hard, and you give of your resources. This runs counter to the right now mindset of many Australians, who would rather spend in advance than work hard at the grind-stone and save. Y...

Pray Read: Ecc 3:1-8. Meditation There are particular seasons of life that Solomon brings to our attention in verses 2 to 8, and he starts with the big guns. There is, he says in verse 2, “a time to be born, and a time to die.” These are the great realities of time, the bookends of life. There is a time to be born, and this reminds us straight away that we are not in charge. When we were born, we...

Pray Read: Ecc 3:1-8. Meditation “Time flies,” we often say, don’t we? And probably it would be a cliché, if it weren’t such a constant and powerful reality. Time really does fly by. As children, we don’t tend to notice it. I distinctly remember waiting for my parents to stop talking after church on Sunday; five minutes felt like an eternity. In our twenties, we feel invincible, and existence stil...

Pray Read: Ecc 2:24-26. Meditation We see a change in Solomon starting at verse 24, because in God’s plan of redemption our labour may become fruitful again. So let us take a quick look at verses 24 and 25: “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have...

Pray Read: Ecc 2:18-23. Meditation Ecclesiastes is like a labyrinth, a giant maze. One of the things Solomon does in this maze of life under the sun is show us which paths not to walk down, the dead ends, and which paths we should walk down, the paths that lead and instruct us in the fear of the Lord. Remember, that is where Solomon wants to take us ultimately. This book is designed to teach us to...

Pray Read: Ecc 2:18-26. Meditation One very important question every Christian should ask is this: What are you supposed to do once you have become a Christian? What should or will change in our lives? Is it only our Sunday mornings that change, or does being a Christian shape our life during the week as well? Some imagine that it means becoming hyper spiritual. Perhaps it involves becoming discon...

Pray Read: Ecc 2:14-18. Meditation We find a most peculiar encouragement in Ecclesiastes 2:17. Look again at the end of verse 17: all is vanity and a striving after the wind . All is a breath. All is fleeting. All is insubstantial. The blessing I am speaking about here is this: that life is short. Now maybe that shocks you. Maybe you are thinking, short? I do not want life to end! I want to see my...

Pray Read: Ecc 2:12-14. Meditation Solomon’s point in this passage is not so much to highlight the value of wisdom, which we considered in the previous meditation. He does far more of that in the Book of Proverbs. No, his purpose here is to point out a certain frustration in life that seems to be at work in spite of wisdom: the reality of the suffering of the wise. You see, we may be living wisely...

The Goodness of Wisdom (Ecc 2:12-14). Pray Read: Ecc 2:12-14. Meditation If nothing under the sun can give us lasting joy, where do you go from there? It can feel as if there is nowhere else to go. So do you give up? Do you despair? In this passage Solomon tries something else. He asks the question: If “stuff” is not the answer, what about wisdom itself? Can you find peace and meaning in this life...

And so, at the end of all, Solomon looks back and realises that there is no hope for lasting happiness under the sun. Where does this leave us? Are we destined for disappointment? Is despair our only option? Is our desire and search for contentment a form of madness? We have seen the dead ends, have we not? Money, alcohol, music and the arts, industry, technology and grand projects, and sexual lov...

Pray Read Ecc 2:1-11. Meditation What about love? The pleasures and delights of sexual relationships? As Solomon looked around, he saw that this was an obvious candidate for satisfaction and joy. In verse 8 he says, “I got many concubines, the delight of the sons of men.” And there’s no doubt about it: sex can be a true delight. It is a gift of God, as we see in Proverbs 5:18 where Solomon says, “...

Pray Read Ecc 2:1-11. Meditation Do you listen to much music? I feel like I have a soundtrack for every season of my life, and the right music at the right time can touch the soul in profound ways. Some people live for music. Some devote the lives entirely to it. In verse 8 of our passage, Solomon calls us forward, because there are more dead ends he wants us to see in this labyrinth. There was no...

Money, money, money! (Ecc 2:7). Pray Read Ecc 2:1-11. Meditation Solomon has found that both alcohol and work are dead ends in the search for satisfaction. What else can we try? As he looks around, he notices that people seem to like money and possessions. They chase after it. They hoard it. That is still true today. There is a constant chase for a higher pay grade. People buy lottery tickets in t...

Pray Read Ecc 2:1-11. Meditation So there was no answer in drink. But surely, Solomon, his critics say, you just need to do something more meaningful. Drinking is such a base desire. You just need to look for pleasure in something more meaningful. “Alright,” says Solomon, “try me. Let’s go with projects and industry, with development and achievement. Let’s pursue something more noble. I will build...

Pray Read Ecc 2:1-11. Meditation In verse 3 Solomon begins with wine. People everywhere enjoy wine and alcohol, don’t they? That was true in Solomon’s day, and it’s still true now. I remember in high school, at university, and in the workplace, people looked forward to drinking on the weekend. For some of them, it was the highlight of their lives. You probably look forward to a good drink yourself...

Pray Read Ecc 2:1-11. Meditation The truth is that we’re all on a search for happiness. Contentment, enjoyment, pleasure, joy, satisfaction. You can see it in the way that we try to avoid pain. You can see it in the way that we prioritise the things we want. Football fans in Melbourne dedicate their time and money to the sport because they enjoy it. Travellers save their money and spend their spar...

Note: Sorry, no picture this time - I have run out of my monthly usage on midjourney :( Want to support an upgrade to my subscription and ensure this doesn’t happen again? Why not become a paid subscriber! :) “I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.” Solomon is speaking here about the pursuit of wisdom: “ I applied m...