IS THAT ALL THERE IS?
Life is like an evening shadow that turns into night. The shadow may be no more than a day or it may be a month or years. Plato, the great philosopher, said that life is but a shadow which we mistake for a real existence because it is what we see, hear and feel. We are deceived by the senses into believing that real life is in the body, and the physical objects around us. Solomon, because life seemed to him to be but a ‘chasing after the wind’, grieved over all his life’s work for he knew that all he had laboured for would be left to someone else to control and who know what kind of man that would be.
To imagine, as Solomon did, that life is birth and death between which there is vanity and futility, is perhaps what must people feel, whilst grasping at dreams and illusions to quell the truth. Solomon is credited with being very wise and it is not without exaggeration that kings and queens from all over the world came to hear his wisdom. The queen of Sheba came to question him with hard questions but returned to her country satisfied that what she had heard of Solomon was nothing compared with meeting and listening to his wisdom.
Of course, we all want to know the truth. We don’t want to be told lies do we? If we do it is because we don’t want to hear the truth. The wisdom of Solomon was built on misfortune. Misfortune is really adversity. It is often associated with bad luck but it is much more than luck for misfortune is made up of those things that are opposed to happiness and well being. It is a misnomer to call misfortune bad luck for nothing is accidental or coincidental. Solomon knew that adversity was at the root of life’s futility and vanity, our chasing after the wind.
Nevertheless, he was wrong. He missed the mark by a lifetime, perhaps a thousand lifetimes, because a greater than Solomon was waiting to reveal to us what Solomon could not possibly know. Solomon was not at fault here. He admitted that his wisdom was incapable of knowing the mind of God or the meaning of life. Solomon’s philosophy is still believed in like a bible of life expressed very succinctly in the song ‘Is that all there is?’ Here are some words of the popular song.
‘Is that all there is, is that all there is? If that’s all there is my friends, then lets keep on dancing, lets break out the boose and have a ball if that’s all there is.’
And it was St Paul who said, ‘If with merely human hopes I fought with wild animals at Ephesus, what would I have gained by it? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”’
The wisdom of Solomon is eclipsed by the good news of Christ. ‘I have come that you might have life,’ he said, ‘and that more abundantly.’ (John 10:10) Death of the body is not the biological end of life, nor is the mind and spirit touched by biological death. The good news is this, ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that all who believe on him might not perish but have everlasting life.’ (John 3:16)
Being born, living and dying is not all there is. We are born to know and love God, our creator, to be loved and saved from sin and death by the Lord Jesus Christ and to be certain of this because the gift of the Holy Spirit is given to all who believe in him.
Real life is not in the body or the senses. It is an illusion to imagine that this is so. It is in our mind and spirit that we live, which truly, if we believe that the body is the life of man, we will suffer in mind and spirit, for the presence of mind, cannot identify with death since the soul is immortal. That is the contradiction Solomon could not unravel for he had no Saviour from sin and death. Sin, in this life and the next, will have its way if we are not rescued from the bitter cycle of living and dying.
Life is like an evening shadow that turns into night. The shadow may be no more than a day or it may be a month or years. Plato, the great philosopher, said that life is but a shadow which we mistake for a real existence because it is what we see, hear and feel. We are deceived by the senses into believing that real life is in the body, and the physical objects around us. Solomon, because life seemed to him to be but a ‘chasing after the wind’, grieved over all his life’s work for he knew that all he had laboured for would be left to someone else to control and who know what kind of man that would be.
To imagine, as Solomon did, that life is birth and death between which there is vanity and futility, is perhaps what must people feel, whilst grasping at dreams and illusions to quell the truth. Solomon is credited with being very wise and it is not without exaggeration that kings and queens from all over the world came to hear his wisdom. The queen of Sheba came to question him with hard questions but returned to her country satisfied that what she had heard of Solomon was nothing compared with meeting and listening to his wisdom.
Of course, we all want to know the truth. We don’t want to be told lies do we? If we do it is because we don’t want to hear the truth. The wisdom of Solomon was built on misfortune. Misfortune is really adversity. It is often associated with bad luck but it is much more than luck for misfortune is made up of those things that are opposed to happiness and well being. It is a misnomer to call misfortune bad luck for nothing is accidental or coincidental. Solomon knew that adversity was at the root of life’s futility and vanity, our chasing after the wind.
Nevertheless, he was wrong. He missed the mark by a lifetime, perhaps a thousand lifetimes, because a greater than Solomon was waiting to reveal to us what Solomon could not possibly know. Solomon was not at fault here. He admitted that his wisdom was incapable of knowing the mind of God or the meaning of life. Solomon’s philosophy is still believed in like a bible of life expressed very succinctly in the song ‘Is that all there is?’ Here are some words of the popular song.
‘Is that all there is, is that all there is? If that’s all there is my friends, then lets keep on dancing, lets break out the boose and have a ball if that’s all there is.’
And it was St Paul who said, ‘If with merely human hopes I fought with wild animals at Ephesus, what would I have gained by it? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”’
The wisdom of Solomon is eclipsed by the good news of Christ. ‘I have come that you might have life,’ he said, ‘and that more abundantly.’ (John 10:10) Death of the body is not the biological end of life, nor is the mind and spirit touched by biological death. The good news is this, ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that all who believe on him might not perish but have everlasting life.’ (John 3:16)
Being born, living and dying is not all there is. We are born to know and love God, our creator, to be loved and saved from sin and death by the Lord Jesus Christ and to be certain of this because the gift of the Holy Spirit is given to all who believe in him.
Real life is not in the body or the senses. It is an illusion to imagine that this is so. It is in our mind and spirit that we live, which truly, if we believe that the body is the life of man, we will suffer in mind and spirit, for the presence of mind, cannot identify with death since the soul is immortal. That is the contradiction Solomon could not unravel for he had no Saviour from sin and death. Sin, in this life and the next, will have its way if we are not rescued from the bitter cycle of living and dying.