Making the Most of Our Time (Ecclesiastes 2–5)

If pleasure promises the world yet leaves you empty, Solomon’s journal feels uncomfortably current. We walk through Ecclesiastes 2–5 and trace a journey from chasing laughter and wine to discovering why contentment, friendship, and sincere worship hold more weight than any quick fix. The heart of the message is simple and searching: without God at the center, good things fade into noise; with God, ordinary moments become gifts that carry real joy.

We start with Solomon’s candid experiment—testing comedy, drink, and self-focused achievement—and the stark verdict of vanity. Then we widen the lens to time itself: the small dash between our first and last day, with seasons to plant and to harvest, to mourn and to dance, to keep silence and to speak. Rather than slip into cynicism, we lean into the claim that God makes everything fitting in its time, even when we cannot map the threads. That clarity awakens an ache for forever—eternity set in the human heart—which explains why our biggest wins still feel incomplete and points us toward meaning that outlives the moment.

From there, we turn practical. Better one handful with quiet contentment than two hands clenched with toil. Two are better than one, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken—friendship, prayer, and shared resilience beat lonely ambition every time. We close with a sober word on worship: guard your steps, keep your vows, and trade self-made dreams for God’s will. When we receive our work, daily bread, and limits as gifts, God grants the power to enjoy them. That kind of joy doesn’t erase hardship, but it steadies the soul and brightens the dash.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Solomon’s Early Drift And Emptiness
• 1:56 Pleasure, Laughter, And Wine Tested
• 3:27 The Vanity Of I Me And My
• 4:19 The Dash And The Seasons Of Time
• 6:14 Eternity In Our Hearts
• 7:15 A Survival Guide For Life’s Frictions
• 8:17 Contentment And The One-Handful Life
• 9:26 Two Are Better Than One
• 10:32 Guard Your Steps In Worship
• 11:34 Receiving Joy As God’s Gift

Transcript

Solomon’s Early Drift And Emptiness

SPEAKER_00 0:26

We discovered in our last study that Solomon's journey with God began like a pilot sort of flying off into blue skies, heading in the right direction. But then because he took his eyes off the instrument panel of truth, which is God's word, he began to fly into the dark clouds of rebellion. Solomon himself describes this dark time in his life as empty and meaningless. Now, today in chapter two of Ecclesiastes, Solomon basically asks the question, How can I be happy? In verse 1 we read, I said in my heart, Come now, I will test you with pleasure. Enjoy yourself. Here in verse 2, Solomon turns to laughter. You could translate that comedy. He's trying to entertain himself with good times. That ain't going to last for long. In fact, he says here in verse 2, I said of laughter, it is mad. Now the word madness here implies that Solomon is laughing at morally perverse things. And let me tell you, what a man laughs at is a good indication of what kind of man he is. In verse 3, Solomon writes, I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine. One author said that this verse means that Solomon effectively leaves the comedy club and now heads over to the bar, where he hopes to find some kind of satisfaction apart from the Lord. In fact, he's going to do what millions of people are doing today, using alcohol to numb the pain of their problems rather than turn to God. Well, here through the rest of chapter two, he recounts his pursuit of pleasure without God. Now remember, this book is Solomon's private journal. So he uses personal pronouns here in this chapter like I and me and my and myself. He uses them, by the way, more than forty times. And at the end of this I, me, and my pursuit, this selfish pursuit, he writes here in verse 26, this also was vanity and a striving after wind. A poet I came across was struck by the fact that tombstones typically record a person's year of birth followed by the year of death. And those two dates are separated on tombstones by that little dash. That dash represents the length of that person's life. Well, the poem, which she entitled The Dash, simply contemplated the importance of how you live out the length of time, that dash, that amount of time you've been given. And Solomon is pondering this here in chapter three. You're going to read the word time twenty-eight different times. It begins here in verse one. For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven. So as Solomon considers the time we have in life, that little dash, he now composes fourteen pairs of opposites. This is a poetic device of coupling opposites in each phrase. It's called a merism. And Solomon writes here in verse two, there is a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to pluck up. Down in verse four, a time to mourn and a time to dance. Verse 7, a time to keep silence and a time to speak, and so on. So Solomon is focusing us on the totality of life, the entirety of the dash. He's not being pessimistic. In fact, he writes here in verse 11, God has made everything beautiful in its time. The word for beautiful refers to that which is suitable or fitting. God has made everything suitable for its time. You could say it's it's beautiful how God fits everything together. It might not suit you at the moment. It might not look all that beautiful, you know, right about now in your life, but God is weaving everything together according to his purposes, and it is all suitable. Well, there's another well-known line related to time here at the end of verse 11. God has put eternity in the man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. In other words, even though we can't figure out at times what God is doing, there's one thing we do know. We are wired for eternity. One author put it this way, if I if I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, well, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. Well, Solomon asks another question here in verse 22. Who can bring him, mankind, to see what will be after him? Well, of course, the answer is God alone. One of the reasons we anticipate the joy of heaven is because of the difficulties of life down here, you know, under the sun. They're finally going to be given a redeeming purpose and a glorious conclusion in that day. Now, as we travel over here to chapter four in this private journal, we get into a section that reads a lot like Solomon's book of Proverbs. These are short paragraphs, and they cover a lot of different territory. In fact, I think it sounds to me like a survival guide as you navigate the rough experiences of life. Solomon writes in his journal about encountering oppression, uh, envy, laziness, uh, blind ambition, and he provides some wise counsel too, by the way, throughout this passage. For instance, he writes here in verse six, Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil. That word quietness here is a synonym for contentment. So it asks the question, Are you content with just one handful? Well, Solomon is describing wise contentment that is able to say, you know, God has given me in one hand just enough. Now he shifts gears in verses seven to twelve, and he begins to show how our focus is going to impact the lives of others. He starts out here in verse eight with one solitary man who's working hard every day. He's never taking any time off for family or friends. Kind of reminds me of that fictional character Ebenezer Scrooge. You know, he's he's certainly not uh focused on the Lord, he's only focused on his bank account, and and it's bah humbug on everything and everybody else. Well, Solomon has some advice here for Ebenezer Scrooge, and the rest of us, he writes here in verses 9 to 12, two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. A threefold cord is not quickly broken. Well, Solomon's point here is that when you face personal attacks, when you when you're confronted with difficulties in life, you need reinforcements who have your back, who lift you up in prayer, who remind you of God's promises. And what could be better than a friend like that? Well, two friends. Solomon says here, a threefold cord is not quickly broken or defeated. Well, Solomon quickly changes his focus again, this time to the world of worship. We're here in chapter five now in verse one, where he writes, Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Well, Solomon is concerned here about treating God lightly, going to his house lightly, making promises, you know, you you know you're not going to keep. He writes here in verse seven about being motivated in life by your own dreams rather than God's desires. Let me say this, beloved. Worship is not demanding your dreams be accomplished in heaven. True worship is dreaming about God's will being done on earth. Well, now here in verses 18 to 20, we find uh two of the most spiritually minded entries in Solomon's private journal. This is now a rather God focused Solomon speaking to God focused believers. He writes here in verse 18. Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun, the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. He follows that here with verse nineteen. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil, this is the gift of God. For he, that is the person focused on God, will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. You see, beloved, God is calling us through Solomon's words here to be focused on him, God focused believers who will accept what God has given us, where God is leading us. And you know when we do that, a joyful heart is the result. Whether God gives you one handful or maybe two, whether you experience some peace and quiet or some days of trouble, you and I are being challenged here in this private journal of Solomon to recognize that everything we have ultimately comes from the hand of God. So let's become God focused today. Let's entrust our lives to Him today. We don't have long to live, do we? Our lives are just that little dash. Well, let's commit that little dash into his hands. And until our next wisdom journey together, beloved, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.