"Chasing the Wind"

“Chasing the Wind”

 

A person can-do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil.  This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without Him, who can eat or find enjoyment?  To the person who pleases Him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner He gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God.  This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.           Ecclesiastes 2:24-26

 

The wind is one of God’s mysterious parts of creation.  You can’t see the wind, only the effects of it.  It is not tangible, you can’t reach out and touch it or hold it in your hand.  You don’t know where it comes from or to where it is going.  It is elusive and no matter to what extremes you go to trying to chase after it, is IMPOSSIBLE.

 

King Solomon set out to investigate life and all its different facets, which includes; work, or toil, wisdom, righteousness, wealth, prestige, pleasure, youth, and vigor.  And this is what he discovered.    He felt that work produces nothing of lasting value.  It is often brought about by motives to gain wealth.  Yet it brings no lasting pleasure.  No matter how hard one works, their accomplishments and rewards are sometimes done in vain and go unnoticed.  The harder one works and the more he accumulates and stores up, will eventually end up as someone else’s possessions, because he can’t take it with him when he leaves this world.  And that individual who receives the hard-working one’s possessions may squander the wealth and all the hard-working one’s efforts will be of no effect.

 

Solomon also, saw that man’s wisdom and righteousness had a similar deficiency, there is no absolute guarantee to their success.  Wisdom does have an advantage over foolishness, and is more successful even in hazardous situations, but it can be debased by the littlest sin, or even wrong timing.  Any advantage in wisdom is obliterated by death.  Wise men die and are forgotten, the same as foolish men.

 

King Solomon learned that even righteousness was sometimes unrewarded.  Yet he affirmed that with God, righteousness was rewarded and wickedness was punished.  But with man, that was not always the way things worked for the just and righteous person.  Sometimes even in the courts the rights of a righteous person was denied.  At times some of the righteous ones might falter and bring trouble on themselves, due to the fact that ABSOLUTE righteousness is impossible this side of Heaven.  And the righteous are subject to the same misfortunes of this life, as the wicked, and die the same as the wicked.  The difference is that the righteous will spend eternity in Heaven, but the wicked is destined for Hell. 

So the King comes to the conclusion that life on earth with all of its accomplishments, is meaningless and is like chasing after the wind.  Therefore, one can do nothing better than to make the best of life, by eating and drinking and finding satisfaction in their work or toil.  Yet ALL of this is from the hand of God, and without Him, how can we find enjoyment? 

To those who please God, He gives them wisdom, knowledge, and happiness, but to the sinner, He makes them struggle for a living, and all they own will go to one who pleases God.  And King Solomon reaches the conclusion, after much investigation, that this makes no more sense than chasing the wind. 

Are you ‘chasing the wind?’ If you have not given your HEART and LIFE to God, then you are doing just that.  And you are gambling with your destiny, which will be an eternity in Hell.  You have the opportunity  NOW to change your destination by:  CONFESSING your sins to God and asking Him for His FORGIVENESS, BELIEVING, with ALL your HEART, that Jesus died for YOU, and is ALIVE in Heaven, making intercession for you, before God, then ACCEPT His gift of SALVATION and STOP chasing the wind and come to Him.  Do it NOW, while you still can.  He’s waiting, and coming SOON!!!