Why Magufuli administration misses the point on Government splurge

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Ecclesiastes 1:1-3:22

Find purpose instead of meaninglessness

‘What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labour under the sun?’ (2:22). This expression ‘under the sun’ occurs twenty-eight times in this book. It is used to describe a search for meaning that never moves beyond this life and this world.
Ecclesiastes is a story of one person’s anxious search for meaning. The writer, in the shoes of King Solomon 3,000 years ago, searches in various areas.
Joyce Meyer writes, ‘Solomon was a busy man; he tried everything that could be tried and did everything there was to do, but at the end of his experience, he was unfulfilled and bitter... exhausted, disappointed and frustrated.’ Ecclesiastes expresses some of these frustrations about life.
Eugene Peterson writes, ‘Ecclesiastes doesn’t say that much about God; the author leaves that to the other sixty-five books of the Bible. His task is to expose our total incapacity to find the meaning and completion of our lives on our own... It is an exposé and rejection of every arrogant and ignorant expectation that we can live our lives by ourselves on our own terms.’
Solomon finds that ‘everything’s boring, utterly boring – no one can find any meaning in it’ (1:8, MSG). ‘So what do you get from a life of hard labour? Pain and grief from dawn to dusk. Never a decent night’s rest. Nothing but smoke’ (2:23, MSG).

Intellectualism
He begins by chasing after ‘wisdom’ and ‘knowledge’ (1:18a), but this only leads to ‘much sorrow’ and ‘more grief’ (v.18b). ‘The more you know, the more you hurt’ (v.18b, MSG). Accumulating wisdom and knowledge does not deal with the ultimate cause of anxiety – meaninglessness.

Hedonism
Hedonism is the doctrine that pleasure is the chief good or proper aim. ‘I said to myself, “Let’s go for it – experiment with pleasure, have a good time!”’ (2:1, MSG). He tries escapism through ‘laughter’ (v.2). He tries stimulants – ‘cheering myself with wine’ (v.3). He then turns to music, ‘men and women singers’ (v.8). He tries sexual pleasure, ‘and a harem as well’ (v.8b). Solomon in fact had 700 wives and 300 mistresses. All this still did not satisfy.

He concludes, ‘Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind’ (v.11). He experiences the paradox of pleasure – the law of diminishing returns. The more people seek pleasure, the less they find it.

Materialism
Materialism is ‘The tendency to prefer material possessions to spiritual values’. He tries various ‘projects’ (v.4). He obtains property (vv.4–6). He has many men and women working for him (v.7). He has many possessions (v.7b). He acquires money: ‘I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces’ (v.8). He achieves greatness, success and fame (v.9). He has a successful job and career (v.10b). Yet death makes this entire search ‘meaningless’ (vv.16–18).

Ecclesiastes raises the questions that the New Testament answers. Meaning is found not ‘under the sun’, but in the Son.

Lord, thank you that in Jesus, I find the answer to the anxiety of meaninglessness. Thank you that in him I find true peace and purpose to my life.

Pippa Adds

Ecclesiastes 3:1
‘There is a time for everything…’
I never have enough time, even for the Bible in One Year (even though I'm on holiday)!



Verse of the Day

‘When anxiety was great within me,
your consolation brought joy to my soul’ (Psalm 94:19).
 
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