the summation

I read through the book of Ecclesiastes over the past 3 days. It's awesome, it's always been awesome. This read-through, though, was different than previous reads. During this past Feast Mark read it daily. Somewhere he heard that Ecclesiastes was the book traditionally read at the Feast of Tabernacles. It takes on a different meaning when thought of in light of the Feast. I don't think I need to emphasize too emphatically how deep and spiritually meaningful the Feast is. But for those not familiar, there are a couple of traditional, and bibically commanded, guidelines:

a. save a tithe, referred to as second tithe (the first going to the church), and spend it during the 7 and one days at the Feast. One of the neatest things we've learned here recently is that if you save just a little bit every month, in one year you have more than enough money to do something crazy, like go to Hawaii or Barbados or NEW BRAUNFELS! Second tithe is that foreordained mechanism.
b. Eat, drink and be merry; have fun; spend your money on "whatever your heard desires."
c. go to church services everyday; get spiritually fed.

Basically, the Feast is designed to give you a break from the noise of the rest of world, to refocus on family, and to enjoy the fruit of your labors. But more than a God-ordained vacation, it pictures the Millenium. No more Satan, no more disease and suffering, no more broken families, abuse or financial woes. But peace.

What I learn every year at the Feast, and furthermore throughout the year, is capitulated in Ecclesiastes. So for your reading pleasure, a list of the scriptures that make me proud of being a Christian and keeping the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:14).

1:8 -- All things are full of labor; man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

2:13-14 -- Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness. The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I myself perceived that the same event happens to them all.

2:24 -- Nothing is better for a man than that he shoudl eat and dring, and that his soul should enjoy in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God.

3:10-15 -- I have seen that the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor -- it is the gift of God. I know that whatever God does it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it. God does it, that men should fear before Him. That which is has already been, and what is to be has already been; and God requires an account of what is past.

3:22 -- So I perceived that nothing is better than that a man should rejoice in his own works for that is his heritage. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?

4:6 -- Better a handful with quietness than both hands full, together with toil and grasping for the wind.

5:1 -- Walk prudently when you go to the house of God; and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice fo fools, for they do not know that they do evil.

7:8 -- The end of a thing is better than its beginning; the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

7:29 -- Truly, this only I have found: that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

8:14-15 -- There is a vanity which occurs on earth, that there are just men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. So I commend enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry; for this will remain with him in his labor all the days of his life which God gives him under the sun.

9:7-8 -- Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works. Let your garments always be white, and let your head lack no oil.

:9 -- Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which He has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity; for that is your portion in life, and in the labor which your perform under the sun.

:10 -- Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no workor device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where your are going.

12:6-7 -- Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the well. Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

12:13 -- Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this man's all.

What we've got now is awesome. Embrace the good things.