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CONNIE: What's the point, anyhow? Why go on living if life is just one series of trials after another? There is a good answer to that question, and we'll look at it today as we consider the biblical book of Ecclesiastes.
Giving God’s trumpet a Certain Sound for more than 70 years, this is the Voice of Prophecy.

CONNIE: Hello, I’m Connie Jeffery,

LONNIE: and I’m Lonnie Melashenko.
You know, friend, I think we all have days when we'd just as soon throw in the towel and call it quits. Days when we wonder whether we can keep on any longer. When we ask "What's the point of even trying anymore?"

If this just happens to be one of those days for you, I hope you'll stay tuned as we take a look at a biblical book that most people probably don't read very often, the book of Ecclesiastes.

CONNIE: You know, Lonnie, I noticed that there were quite a few teary eyes around our worship room one morning last week, when one of our staff members shared an e-mail from a friend we all know as Rochelle.

For the past seven months, Rochelle has spent many of her days taking her 15-year-old son to the hospital for chemotherapy treatments. We get e-mails from her regularly--some very encouraged, some a bit discouraged. In that day's message she told of some serious, disheartening setbacks, and in closing she wrote these words:

Please pray for our family right now. Each of us in our own way need some strength. Our strength bucket is very low! (I think mine has a hole in it!) Thanks for being there and for supporting us when we need it.

LONNIE: It was a touching moment as we tried to imagine what Rochelle was going through, and then someone brought up the fact that it had been just exactly a year since her father died--that poor family has gone through a lot, and believe me, we've been doing what we can to help out. Some of our staff members have been donating blood, others have donated vacation time to help. And of course we keep them in our prayers.

But the question this type of thing raises is much like what we saw in the book of Job, when Job asks the question, If life is just for suffering, what's the point of going on?

CONNIE: That question also comes up in the book of Ecclesiastes, which we're looking at today--but sometimes with a different twist. Solomon, the author of the book, looks at life and asks the question, "Even if my life is filled with pleasure--what's the point?"

LONNIE: It's a very good, important question for us to ask once in a while: What are we really here for? Solomon, by all accounts, led almost a charmed life--he was wealthier and wiser than anyone else in his day, yet he found that none of the things he had or his accomplishments really satisfied him.

CONNIE: He needed to dig a little deeper to find real satisfaction in life.

LONNIE: That's right, and he discovered that nothing could satisfy him except a deeper knowledge of God and relationship with Him. And I've invited a man to join us on the program today, who's had a similar experience of discovering what's really important in life.

LONNIE: Henry Martin is on the line with us today. Hello Henry!

HENRY: Greetings Lonnie!

LONNIE: Wonderful to hear your voice again, Henry. I think we met a number of years ago in Grants Pass, Oregon.

HENRY: That’s where our family business was.

LONNIE: The story of Henry Martin, with his precious wife Robin, really is an amazing one. For many of our listeners who of course are caught up into the television. In the world of glitz and pretension, they might think that we’re talking to someone from lifestyle’s of the rich and famous, because really you had a successful and prosperous Mercedes Benz dealership going there, didn’t you?

HENRY: Our family was involved in the automotive business for 55 years.

LONNIE: You found yourself putting 24 hours a day into that business, didn’t you?

HENRY: Oh really! Frequently we described it as a treadmill, worked for the banks in the morning, worked for the IRS in the in the afternoon, and whatever is left in the evening you get to keep------We enjoyed the good life. We were able to travel to many times Europe and Asia. We had credit lines in 7 different casinos in Las Vegas. We ate, drank and enjoyed the things that many other people think are important.

LONNIE: You really had an affluent lifestyle. This was a part of a process in your growing up experience. You were reaching out for different ways to fill that void in your life. Let’s go back a little earlier in your life and pick up from years in the military and the government.

HENRY: After I finished 4 years in the University of Oregon, went to Mexico City college, I was invited to come home and join the draft board. I choose to enter in the security business and I was trained as a Krypto Linguist in the Korean language and ended up in Korea. While I was there, I had my dog tags changed from Protestant to Taoist. When I came home from Korea and went to work for the government, in the Washington D.C. area. I brought along a 2 foot high gold Buddha and brought that to my hometown after I completed my government service obligations.

LONNIE: And then of course you found yourself falling into the hiership of a family business, very prosperous, you and Robin, of course, built it up to be one of the most successful, for its size, in North America. These too weren’t so fulfilling and satisfying, but some major events happened to bring about some huge cataclasmatic and title changes for the Martins.

HENRY: By 1972 a series of tragedies started occurring. It made me realize that there had to be something more in life then just enjoying “life in the fast lane.” My mother was under treatment for acute depression, and she chose to take her life and jumped off a bridge in our hometown. Then, ten days later my father died of a heart attack in our living room. Then, our bank cancelled us, there was a money crunch going on. They cancelled 26 automotive dealers in our state, all of them respected businesses. Then, the Mercedes Benz sent us a telegram that we were restricted from doing the European delivery business, which lasted for 3 years. That stopped half of our net income, but I still hadn’t been brought to my knees. When my wife Robin said, “Our daughter is going to learn that her father is a drunk. As far as I’m concerned you can get out,” that brought me to my knees. I went to the hospital for 3 days, they told me I had stress. I fell to my knees and said “Oh God if you’re up there, let me do something for You or You do something for me.” The next morning a man called, he wanted to put a literature rack in our business, and it turned out to be a Christian literature rack. Shortly after that we were invited to neighborhood Bible studies, and my wife had been to Sunday school a handful of times with her friends, but her family was not interested in spiritual things. That neighborhood bible study made a world of difference in my life.

LONNIE: So your prayer to God was to turn you around, whatever it took, and these neighborhood Bible studies were one of those stepping stones in an entirely new world you never dreamed possible.

HENRY: that’s right.

LONNIE: Like our Discover Bible courses that we encourage you to sign up for in the Voice of Prophecy. Well, what happened then, what took place next?

HENRY: We gave our lives to Jesus Christ in 1975. We started looking for every way we could to make our business into an output of evangelism. Where we could introduce our customers, our friends and our business associates to our new best friend, Jesus Christ. We saw some real blessings from God through that. Then after a few years we a attended Larry B. Christian financial concepts seminar and discovered that we should be doing business based on additional biblical principles. Through that we were able to get out from under surety and out from under debt. Then, we were given a call to start serving---a call to humanitarian work. For the last 11 years we’ve been volunteers in Christian ministry. It has been a most fulfilling experience.

LONNIE: You know I have sat under your feet Henry, and your life has blessed mine as I’ve listened to your personal testimony. Whenever somebody asks you, “How you doing today” you have a traditional Henry Martin reply.

HENRY: Yeah, I tell them “I’m blessed.”

LONNIE: I’m blessed. That has been your experience as we’ve looked back at Solomon journey, for example. He came to the point after chasing the wind saying “vanity is vanity, all is vanity,” but you found out as did Solomon that there is something at the end of the road that is worth everything, far more then any human pocket book could purchase.

HENRY: That’s really true. Today we serve at a Christian Wellness Center, in the Sierras’, in northern California, called Wiemar Institute, where people come from around the world to reverse heart disease, diabetes, allergies, and arthritis. We work in Christian conference centers all over North America, helping people discover how they can take care of their body, how they can turn their back on the kinds of diseases, lifestyle related degenerative diseases’ that are so debilitating in today’s climate.

LONNIE: Thank you Henry Martin for sharing the courage to dispose of things and to open yourself to the Holy Spirit and what He wants and was going to do and full time ministry for Him.


CONNIE: Henry's story really illustrates the theme of Ecclesiastes, doesn't it? He did a lot of things, had a lot of success. It seemed at one point that everything was going his way, but in the long run, none of that was very satisfying.

LONNIE: That's right, Connie. But it must have taken a lot of courage--a lot of faith I guess--to leave all that behind and say "For the rest of my life, my business is God's business." But that's where he found real fulfillment. Which is the point of the song we're about to hear, sung by none other than Connie Jeffery.

“Fill My Cup, Lord”, Connie Vandeman Jeffery, from It's Beginning to Rain

LONNIE: That was none other than Connie Jeffery singing a song that fits right in with our theme of finding satisfaction in the things of God.

CONNIE: That's right, Lonnie. It's found on a CD I did a few years ago called "It's Beginning to Rain." And now's a good time to remind our listeners that we post information about the songs they hear on the broadcast on our web page at VOP.COM.

LONNIE: And the web page is also a good place to contact us for information about programs or items we mention.

CONNIE: Also for prayer requests. When our staff meets for worship on Thursday mornings, we gather around the table and read through all of the requests that have come in during the past seven days--by mail, phone, and e-mail. That means that one of our staff members has your particular prayer request in hand and in mind as we pray.

LONNIE: And we always like to remind you that if you're interested in digging into the Bible and learning more about it and what it teaches, the Discover Bible Guides are available online too, at VOP.COM. These colorful, interesting lessons will help you make sense out of the Bible--and out of life itself.

CONNIE: Now, one thing I think many people don't understand is that if they do the Bible studies online, they aren't just interacting with a computer. The answer sheets are actually handled by a real person either here in our office, or in a branch Bible school. So if you have a question, you have a real person to ask it of--not just a computer!

LONNIE: You can enroll in the course online at VOP.COM, or you can take the course by correspondence, receiving your lessons in the mail. To do that, just call our toll-free number at 1-800-872-0055 and ask for the Discover Bible Guides.

CONNIE: That number again is 1-800-872-0055.

LONNIE: I know you'll enjoy digging into the Bible and gaining new insights into its teachings.

CONNIE: Now let's listen as Lonnie digs into the book of Ecclesiastes, with today's message "Ecclesiastes--Learning from Life's Lesson Book."

Ecclesiastes--Learning from Life's Lesson Book

In his book Man's Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl tells of his life in the Nazi concentration camps during World War II. During six long, hard years, he watched hundreds of men give up living--they'd just lay down one day and refuse to get up, no matter how they were threatened or beaten.

But others kept on keeping on. Somehow clinging to hope for a better future, hope that they would see their loved ones again, hope that someday their long night of suffering would be over.

By early 1945, the inmates in the camps had some inkling that liberation might come soon. In fact, one of Frankl's fellow prisoners had a dream, and in that dream someone revealed to him exactly when the deliverance would take place.

The man pulled Frankl aside one day and confided his most precious secret: "In my dream," he said, "I was told that we would be liberated on March 30."

With this hope in his heart, Frankl's friend began to go about his daily drudgeries with new enthusiasm, new hope.

But as the month of March began to wane and there was no sign that Allied troops were getting anywhere near their camp, the man began to lose hope. Then on the 29th of March, he fell ill. By the next day he lost consciousness. He died on Marcy 31.

After telling this story, Frankl--who was a medical doctor and psychiatrist--draws this conclusion:

Those who know how close the connection is between the state of mind of a man--his courage and hope, or lack of them--and the state of immunity of his body will understand that the sudden loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect. The ultimate cause of my friend's death was that the expected liberation did not come and he was severely disappointed. This suddenly lowered his body's resistance against the latent typhus infection. His faith in the future and his will to live had become paralyzed and his body fell victim to illness.

Hope is an extremely important ingredient in our lives. It's like yeast in bread--without it we hardly have the strength to rise up each morning and face the day.

So, how do we relate to a book like Ecclesiastes? On a quick reading, the book seems like a pure dose of pessimism. Here are a few verses from the first two chapters of the book that could just about take all the wind out of anyone's sails:

I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

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; nothing was gained under the sun.

So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. (Eccl 1:14, 17; 2:11, 17, NIV)

Talk about a downbeat look at life--I don't think there's another book in the Bible that packs such a potent punch of pessimism. Isn't the Bible supposed to be a book of hope? Why is this book in the Bible? Does it have even a glimmer of hope in it?

Well, yes it does have hope--in fact more than just a glimmer of hope. But I'll admit, you have to look carefully for it to find it.

King Solomon was probably the author of Ecclesiastes. Many of the things the author says fit well with his story. He speaks of himself as a ruler in Jerusalem, and he says that he became greater than all who were in Jerusalem before him. He speaks also of how prosperous he was and the large number of slaves, wives, and concubines he had, and of the great works that he built--all things that match what we know about Solomon.

He goes on to say that he applied his wisdom to trying to figure out the purpose of life--he basically tried everything he could think of--from involving himself in a sort of workaholic flurry of activity, to trying out various types of drink to get himself drunk.

But after all of that, he became discouraged with life--questioning whether any of it had meaning--after all, he pointed out--we come into the world naked, and we leave the same way.

And you know, if that was the final conclusion of the book of Ecclesiastes, I guess I'd question whether the book really ought to be a part of a hopeful book like the Bible.

But that isn't the final conclusion. That isn't the way the book ends. No, listen to the last two verses of the book:

Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil (Eccl 12:13-14, NIV).

So, after looking at life, and dwelling at length on the discouraging aspects of it, Solomon closes his discourse with these two verses, and suddenly his whole perspective is changed. Suddenly he asks his listeners to reverse the way they have been looking at life. The first 220 verses of the book look at life from a purely temporal perspective, and finds it all meaningless--a chasing after wind.

But after Solomon has dragged us down through the depths of despair and driven the stake of futility fully into our hearts, suddenly he turns the tables on us, and tells us there's a different--and better--way of looking at life: Looking at life from the perspective of eternity--from God's perspective.

From a purely human, temporal point of view, nothing has meaning. But when you look at life through God's eyes--through God's intention to weigh it all in His balances, then it takes on meaning. Because there's more than just this life to consider. There's eternal life--a heaven to win and a hell to shun! That's where everything makes sense in the end, for if we give our lives to God and let Him work His way in us, we have the privilege of living with Him for all eternity--where the things we do last forever--they're not just "chasing after wind."

It's God who pulls it all into focus. His love, but also His justice, in assuring us that life has meaning because He has given it meaning.

In his book Loving God, Chuck Colson tells a story that brings the message of Ecclesiastes down to our day. Let me share with you, and I'm quoting Colson's words now:

If we would love God, we must love His justice and act upon it. . . . That was certainly one of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s greatest discoveries in the Soviet gulag.

Like other prisoners, Solzhenitsyn worked in the fields, his days a pattern of backbreaking labor and slow starvation. One day the hopelessness became too much to bear. Solzhenitsyn felt no purpose in fighting on; his life would make no ultimate difference. Laying his shovel down, he walked slowly to a crude work-site bench. He knew at any moment a guard would order him up and, when he failed to respond, bludgeon him to death, probably with his own shovel. He’d seen it happen many times.

As he sat waiting, head down, he felt a presence. Slowly he lifted his eyes. Next to him sat an old man with a wrinkled, utterly expressionless face. Hunched over, the man drew a stick through the sand at Solzhenitsyn's feet, deliberately tracing out the sign of the cross.

As Solzhenitsyn stared at that rough outline, his entire perspective shifted. He knew he was merely one man against the all-powerful Soviet empire. Yet in that moment, he also knew that the hope of all mankind was represented by that simple cross--and through its power, anything was possible. Solzhenitsyn slowly got up, picked up his shovel, and went back to work.

Friends, can be discouraging. Sometimes we feel like Solomon--that we're just chasing after wind. But in the light of the cross we see there is so much more. Because God has been willing to give everything so that our lives may take on real significance--eternal significance--eternal life, the gift of God in Christ to all who will receive it.

Will you take a moment just now to consider your life from that perspective--see it as a gift from God. Something He wants to last for all eternity? And will you give your life to him--with all its questions--and let Him be the answer?