Ecclesiastes 3 – 4
Verse 3:1 opens with Solomon reflecting on time:
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
It goes on to compare the seasons to almost everything in life including birth and death. The phase “a time to die” I believe originated here and has in recent times been used as movie, album and book names. I am sure it’s been used other places but this was what Wikipedia had listed under “a time to die”, interestingly they did not mention Ecclesiastes in their list (I added it today).
We have to realize that we cannot all live in spring or summer, seasons have to happen. Granted we strive to live in “paradise” where it is an endless summer, but even in places like Costa Rica there are “seasons” of rain. This planet was not designed to be a static world, but rather dynamic. Think about how the shifting of tectonic plates causes massive earthquakes while at the same time being the reason for the “purple mountains majesty.” There is a time for everything and we must learn to accept it and “go with the flow” which may be literal in the case of a flood.
Verse 3:14 had Solomon laying the foundation of “conservation of energy”:
I perceived that whatever God does endures for ever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.
God IS and always was, in the law of “conservation of energy” which states that the amount of energy in an isolated system remains constant over time. The energy may change state and appear to be taken away or added, but in reality it’s just taken away from say the wood and added to the heat. The energy may leave or enter earth my just dissipate across the universe, never being destroyed. How cool is it that Solomon was saying the same thing that scientists “discovered” in the nineteenth century.
Verses 4:2 & 3 explore if life, death or never being born would be best:
2 And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. 3 But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.
Solomon is going deep into the true meaning of life and death and exploring if it would be better to not have existed at all. Now is Solomon exploring the innocence of the child or the fact it would be better not to have existed at all? Evil would not exist if there were no one to do it, but at the same time good would not exist either. I think he is more exploring the innocence of a new born having never seen evil as being good.
Solomon has written some depressing Psalms and books in his later life. Here a person of wisdom and having lived a life of privilege is writing some dark passages. If you study Solomon and the occult, I think you will see the root of his depression. Apparently in his later life when he allowed his wife to influence his relationship with God was the turning point. He went to worshiping other gods and have been said to have written many incantations in raising demons that are used today. Maybe Solomon is the Biblical link to these worlds and realizing that went into depression in his later life.
When we read about the lesser “gods” in the Bible, maybe they are actually true. Maybe these lesser gods are more demons of Satan? I think there is a difference between idols, which today take the form of cars, houses and expensive toys and the gods being worshiped then. I think they are still with us and are an issue today, we just ignore them and attribute them to being just statues and not actually being a real influence.