VANITY OF VANITIES
“The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity,”Songs 1:1,2.
The word vanity indicates something that doesn’t do anything. It doesn’t accomplish anything. It’s not worth anything. It’s a waste of time.
Now, with that in mind, notice that Solomon, this wisest of all men, says, “Vanity of vanities, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” He says it over and over. Everything is worthless; nothing does anything; nothing accomplishes anything; everything is a waste of time. If ever there was a text that requires some rightly dividing this one does.
The book of Ecclesiastes is, at one and the same time, the most optimistic, and the most pessimistic, of all books—depending on which part of the book you happen to be reading. I don’t know any way you be any more pessimistic than Solomon is in this passage. “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity,” i.e. everything is a waste of time. And that brings us to the main theme of the book.
The main theme of the book of Ecclesiastes is that, regardless of what you do, or where you look, if you are looking for happiness and fulfillment in any other way than in your relationship with your Maker, you are wasting your time. More than that, it demonstrates that the harder you look in all the wrong places, the more miserable you are going to be.
Everything you do is a waste of time if you are not are not doing it with an eye on how best to please God. Everything you possess is worthless, if you do not realize you hold it as a trust from him. The life of Solomon, and the book of Ecclesiastes teach us in the most powerful way that nothing is more important than that we “fear God and keep his commandments” (ch. 12:13).
In order to get the lesson from what Solomon is saying, we need to know where he is coming from. Solomon identifies himself as the son of David, king in Jerusalem. He became king when his father David died.
Solomon became king at a very young age, and he recognized he was totally inadequate to the task. I never have been the king over anybody, but I believe God did once, many years ago, lay his hand on me and say, “Son, you’re going to have to preach.” That is a responsibility as great as the burden of any kingdom, and I might add, that anybody who does not realize that, has never learned what is involved in the gospel ministry. So, in some small way, I can relate to how Solomon felt. I am convinced that Solomon never felt any more inadequate to the task than I did.
It reminds me of the old boy who was making a speech about six months after he had taken a new job. He said, “Six months ago, when I took this job, I didn’t have any idea I could handle it; and now, six months later, sure enough, I was right.” Well, I can tell you, I was totally inadequate to the task, and Solomon was inadequate to his task.
Then, one night, God appeared to Solomon in a dream, and invited him to, “Ask what I shall give thee (I Kings 3:5).” That is about as open-ended an invitation as anybody could make. Bear in mind, this is God speaking. He owns everything there is. He created the heaven and the earth; it is his property, and he can dispose of it in any way he wishes. He can do whatever he chooses to do, and he did not place any restrictions on his invitation. He invited Solomon to just tell him what he wanted.
Solomon asked God for wisdom, for judgment. He did not ask to become the wisest of all men. He asked God to, “Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad; for who is able to judge this thy so great a people (vs. 9).
God gave him wisdom; he made him wiser than all the men of that age. We are told that he was wiser than Ethan and Heman and Chalcol and Darba (ch, 4:31). We don’t know much about those men, but I doubt they were four dummies. If I really tried, I think I could find four people in my home town, who are not quite as bright as I am. I have a few good candidates in mind. It wouldn’t mean much to compare him with four dummies. But these were not dummies. These were, no doubt, four of the most brilliant men. Solomon was wiser than any of them.
He didn’t ask to be wiser than all men. He asked, “Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can judge this thy people, that is so great,” 2 Chron. 1:10. He asked for just enough wisdom that he would not mess up on the job.
Paul tells us God is “able to do exceedingly abundantly about all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20). Sometimes we insult the Lord with some of our little requests. We ask for so little, when God is capable of doing so much. He did far more than Solomon asked for; he made Solomon the wisest of all men. Because he had not asked for wealth, or riches, or honor, or the life of his enemies, or long life for himself, God promised to give him all that, and much more.
Solomon conquered all the kings from the River Euphrates on the East, to the Mediterranean Sea on the West, to Egypt in the South. He subdued those kings, and as long as he lived, they were subject to him, and paid him tribute. Paying tribute means those kings collected from their own people, in order to subsidize Solomon and his people. He made gold and silver like stones in Jerusalem. His drinking glasses were made of gold.
God allowed Solomon to build him a house. His father David wanted to do it, and God would not allow him. He told David, “You’re a man of war, you have shed much blood.” But God did allow David to provide some of the raw materials that went into the building.
The description of Solomon’s Temple tells us something about his wealth. Solomon’s Temple was sixty cubits long; that is ninety feet long. It was twenty cubits wide; that is thirty feet wide, and thirty cubits, forty-five feet, tall. It had a forty-five foot ceiling.
It was gold plated inside and out. It was incrusted with precious jewels, and situated on top of mount Zion, towering over the city of Jerusalem. Can you imagine what that building must have looked like from a distance? Gold doesn’t tarnish the way other metals do. That is one of the things that makes it valuable. Can you imagine a traveler approaching Jerusalem from a distance, and coming in sight of that gold plated building, situated on top of Mount Zion, and glistening in the hot Mediterranean sun? How it must have adorned the top of the mountain.
It took one hundred and eighty-three thousand, six hundred men, seven years to build it. There were thirty thousand men, who worked in the mountains by turns. There were always ten thousand in the mountains, and twenty thousand more at home, waiting to be called. There were another seventy thousand bearers of burdens, and eighty thousand hewers. And there were three thousand, and six hundred overseers of the work. Still it took those one hundred and eighty-three thousand men seven years to construct the Temple. What a building it must have been. Considering that it was not a particularly large building, and it took almost two hundred thousand men seven years to build it, what craftsmanship must have gone into its construction.
The Queen of Sheba came from her country to see Solomon. When she saw the wisdom of Solomon, the apparel of his servants, the apparel of his cup bearers, the setting of his table, and how happy his servants were, she said, “It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes have seen it; and behold, the half was not told me,” I Kings 10:6,7.
After he finished building the Lord’s house, he built a house for himself. It took thirteen years to build his house. Notice it took almost twice as long to build his house as it did to build the Temple. Granted, after the finished building the Temple, it may have taken him much longer to build his own house, because he laid off most of the men, and worked with just a skeleton crew, but I doubt that.
In the first place, nobody likes lay-offs. Can you imagine what it would have done to the economy of Israel, if he had laid off most of those one hundred and eighty thousand laborers. He would have had a rebellion on his hands. Once he got the momentum up, it is reasonable to think he kept most of those men working right on into the next project.
And then, after he built that, he built the house of the forest of Lebanon. We are not told how long it took to build that house, but we are told that it was almost twice as long and twice as wide as the Temple.
Solomon had wealth beyond calculation. He was the wisest of all men. He is one of the most famous men in the history of the world. Today, three thousand years later, his name is still legendary. People, especially Jewish people, still name their babies after Solomon. Sol is short for Solomon, and it is a very common nickname for Jewish men.
He reigned from an ivory throne. Sometimes a single ivory figurine can cost hundreds of dollars. His entire throne was made of ivory, and it was overlaid with gold. It was situated at the top of six massive steps. The throne had one lion on the right side, and another on the left. Solomon’s subjects approached his throne by six steps, and there was a lion to the left, and another to the right, on each of those steps. Those were probably ferocious looking carved lions. Their purpose was to intimidate anybody who approached the throne. There were fourteen lions in all, and they were intended as a reminder that when you were before this throne, you were in the presence of power. He had the power of life and death over you.
I am taking it for granted those were carved lions. From reading the text, we cannot be sure they were not real living, breathing, roaring lions. The principle is the same either way. When anybody approached his throne, Solomon meant for him to be intimidated.
He had everything anybody could want, and a lot I don’t know why anybody would want. We have pointed out several times that he was the wisest of all men, but for a while I want us to look at those areas in which he was (as we might say) as dumb as a post.
For one thing, I don’t know what anybody would want with a thousand wives. I have one, and wouldn’t take the world for her. I tremble to think where I would be today, if God had not provided me with her, but I don’t want another one. Why would anybody want all the problems that came with a thousand wives. For one thing, a thousand wives come with a thousand mothers-in-law.
Actually he had seven hundred wives, and three hundred concubines, three hundred kept women. He is bound to have had wives he would not have recognized on the street, especially if he met one of them early in the morning, before she put on her going out in public face.
He had everything the carnal nature of man could conceivably want, but in this most pessimistic part of the book of the Ecclesiastes he tells how miserable he was. This part of the book of Ecclesiastes is so pessimistic that, as often as not, when I preach from the book of Ecclesiastes, I start at the conclusion, and work back to the beginning. I know you are supposed to start at the beginning, and work to the conclusion, but the beginning of this book is so pessimistic, and the conclusion is so much more encouraging, that I rarely have enough nerve to start at the beginning.
I’m like the little boy, who never could figure out why you should eat dessert last. He thought it made more sense to eat dessert when you were hungry, and had more capacity, and save all that other stuff for later. Well, usually, when I preach on this book, I do it that way, I start at the ending. That is where it gets more encouraging. But I want to start at the beginning, and notice how Solomons wealth, and power, and fame affected him. Here is this wisest, wealthiest, most famous, most powerful of all men, telling his experience.
“Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
The word all is never absolute; it is always limited to the entirety of whatever is under consideration. It never applies to things not under consideration. But notice all that is under consideration.
Chapter two, verse one, “I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity.” From listening to people talk, you could get the idea we were put here to be entertained. People are so concerned with entertainment. But God didn’t put us here to be entertained. He put us on earth to worship him, and he put us here to work.
One of my pet peeves is the way the people on television news are forever bringing out some entertainer to express his or her opinion on matters of great concern, as if that singer, or that actor, knew more about the subject than the rest of us. As often as not, I sit there and think, “Airhead, airhead, why don’t they bring out somebody, who knows what is going on.” I wish there was some kind of five year delay rule about interviewing celebrities. Require them to wait five years after the celebrity becomes so well known, before they bring him on television to tell us how we ought to handle the great problems of the day. Then, if they can still find him, and if there is anybody who still cares what he thinks, let him give his opinion. I believe that would cut way down on the celebrity interviews.
Solomon could not find happiness any other way, so he tried to find it in entertainment, but that did not help.
Verse two, “I said of laughter, it is mad, and of mirth, what doeth it? I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine.” He indulged in all the low and base activities of the flesh, and he gained no satisfaction from that.
He tried to find happiness in his work. He said, “I made me great works; I builded me houses,” (vs 4). He built one palace that took thirteen years to build. And he built houses, more than one; he did not just build the house of the forest of Lebanon.
Can you imagine Solomon in his beautiful palace. The Bible doesn’t give a detailed description of it the way it does of Solomon’s Temple. It doesn’t say it was gold plated the way the Temple was. It doesn’t tell us it was encrusted with precious jewels. It may not have been any of those things, but I think it probably was.
It took thirteen years to build that house, and I have an idea he probably built it on top of a tall hill. Solomon could live anywhere he wanted to, and it is reasonable to think he built his palace on a tall hill, so he could look out over his realm.
It, no doubt, took tens of thousands of people thirteen years to build this house, and listen to how he describes the grounds. He says, “I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruit.” I have an idea he had his house situated where that he could sit on his ivory throne, and look out over his property. What a sight those gardens and orchards must have been. The house was forty five feet tall, so the throne room probably had a forty five foot ceiling.
Can you imagine this wealthiest, wisest, most famous of all kings sitting on an ivory throne, in this beautiful palace on top of a very tall hill, surrounded by beautiful gardens, and orchards, and looking out over his realm. Can you imagine how he congratulated himself that he was the sovereign over all he could see in every direction, and for hundreds of miles beyond that.
He goes on to say, “I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits. I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees. I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house” (vss 5-7). He had servants at his beck and call; they were there to do whatever he wanted done.
He says, “I gathered me also silver and gold.” He had more money than anybody could possibly need. If you are looking for happiness in money, you will never find it. In chapter five he says, “ He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver,” (vs10).
If you ever get the idea it takes material things to make you happy, it will not take you long to discover that you cannot pile material things high enough to gain happiness? You’ll discover you’re a lot like the old farmer, who was buying up all the land around him. Somebody accused him of wanting to own all the land. He said, “I’m not guilty; I don’t want to own all the land, I just want to own all the land that joins my property.” If it takes material things to make you happy, you’ll never find happiness.
He says, “I gat me men singers and women singers,” (vs 8). Solomon didn’t have to buy the latest tape, or the latest CD, he could just send for the musicians, and dancers, and entertainers, and instruct them to give a command performance. And he could require them to stay, until he got tired of them; then he could send for somebody else.
“So I was great and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me and whatsoever my eyes desired I kept not from them.” That’s summarizes it, doesn’t it? He says, “If I wanted it, I got it.”
And then in verse seventeen he says, “Therefore I hated life.” Can you imagine anybody accomplishing all Solomon accomplished, and having everything he had, and saying, “I wish I was dead.”
He would get that wish after awhile. It happens to all of us, eventually. In verse fourteen he says, “A wise man’s eyes are in his head, but a fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.”
I read bumper stickers. Some of them will not do to repeat, but some of them are pretty good. I read one lately that said, “Eat right, exercise, get plenty of sleep—die anyway.”
He says, “Yea, I hated all my labor which I had taken under the sun; because I would leave it unto the man that shall be after me. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? Yet shall he have rule over all my labor wherein I have labored, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity,” (18,19).
He says, “I hate everything I’ve done, because I will leave it unto the man that should come after me.”
I am sure you’ve heard of the very rich man who died, and the next morning everybody was wondering how much he left. Some smart aleck spoke up and said, “I know exactly how much he left, he left it all.” No matter how much you accumulate, unless you spend it before you die, you’re not piling it up for yourself, you’re piling it up or somebody else.
Somebody says, “I’m laying up for my kids.” If you could come back ten years after you leave this old world, you would probably find out those kids were a lot better at spending it, than you ever were at putting it together.
Sometimes, inherited money can be a curse. For that matter, you would have probably left them better off, if you had just equipped them, and taught them how to earn money for themselves, rather than leaving them enough money that they don’t have to work.
“Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labor, which I took under the sun, for there is a man whose labor is in wisdom, and knowledge, and equity; yet to a man who hath not labored therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil,” (20, 21).
I sold life insurance for over twenty-four years. There was one objection that, perhaps, the majority of men had against buying life insurance. It was very rarely any man would have the audacity to say out loud, in front of his wife, why he would not buy the policy, but most of them had exactly the same objection, and every now and then one would have enough nerve to say out loud why he wasn’t going to buy it.
Once in awhile, one of them would say, “She’s an attractive young woman; she’ll marry again. If I were to die today, there’s no way she’s going to stay single. She will marry again, and do you mean to tell me you want me to pay my hard earned money to your company, so that, when I die, my wife can collect all that money, and spend it on some other man, that I probably wouldn’t even like if I knew him? There’s no way I’m going to spend my money, so she can live better with him than she ever did with me, and compare me unfavorably with him, because they’ve got my insurance money to make it easier for them to get along on.”
That’s nothing new. That’s exactly the way Solomon thought three thousand years ago. He thought, “No matter how hard I work, and how much I accumulate, I’m going to leave it to somebody who will come after me, and, who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool.”
But to go back to the beginning of the book, in chapter one, he says, “What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun,” (ch.1:3). Did you ever talk like that? Did you ever say, “I get up early in the morning, I work all day, I go to bed, I get up as tired the next morning as I was when I went to bed. I work and toil all day from early to late. I go to bed. I get up tired the next morning. I work and labor, and I’m just as bad off today as I was yesterday. I’m worse off today than I was a year ago. I’m not making a bit of progress. What is the use?” Did you ever feel that way? Did you ever wonder, “What am I accomplishing? I’m not doing a bit of good.”
Several years ago, an old Tennessean earned a lot of money singing about that. I don’t know if Tennessee Ernie Ford ever saw the inside of a coal mine, but he made a lot of money singing about it. Some of you remember the song, “You load sixteen tons, and what do you get, another day older, and deeper in dept.”
If you never felt that way, you’re different from the rest of us. Most every one of us, at one time or another, has said, “What am I accomplishing? I work, I struggle, I toil, I do everything I can. I don’t know anything I can do, more than I am doing, and I’m not getting anywhere.”
That’s the way Solomon felt about it. This was the man who made gold and silver in Jerusalem as plentiful as stones. He built houses, that took tens of thousands of people years to build. And he still says, “I’m not getting anywhere, I am not accomplishing a thing.” He had conquered all the nations around him. They all brought him presents, and paid him tribute, and he still says, “I’m not getting anywhere.”
He is not just sorry for himself; he feels sorry for all of humanity. In verse four he says, “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever.” “One generation is born, they work, they live, they die. Another generation is born, they work, they live, they die. Another generation is born, they work, they toil, they die, and what do they accomplish? How is the world any better off, than it was before any of us was born? He says it’s all a waste of time. He’s sorry for mankind.
I have been so down in the valley I’ve felt sorry for myself, but I never have been so distressed that I felt sorry for all of mankind, but Solomon felt sorry for mankind. He thought everybody else was in the same frame of mind he was.
He was sorry for the sun. He says, “The sun also riseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place to where he arose, (vs 4). He says, “The sun comes up, and the sun goes down. One day ends, another day begins, and what good does it do. The sun comes up and the sun goes down. One day ends, another day begins, and we’re right where we were before.” He feels like the sun is just going around in circles. It is not getting anywhere.
He is even sorry for the weather. “The wind goeth toward the south, turneth about unto the north, it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits (vs 6).” That is what the weather man calls the jet stream. He is sorry for the jet stream; he thinks it is just like the sun; it is just going around in circles. When a man gets sorry for the weather he’s in bad shape.
I don’t anyway anybody can get any lower than this man was. He had everything that ought to make anybody happy, and he was even sorry for the wind.
He is sorry for the river. He says, “All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come thither they return again,” (vs 7). I am very poor at remembering the words to songs, but most of you are acquainted with the song that goes, “Ole Man River, you just keep rolling along.” Can you imagine somebody standing on the river bridge that crosses the Mississippi River at Memphis, and saying to the river, “Ole Man River, you are just wasting your time; you been running and running for thousands of years; you have dumped all this water into the Gulf of Mexico, and you still don’t have it full; you might as well quit.”
I know somebody is saying, “Harold Hunt, you are just being silly.” No, I am just commenting on how twisted Solomon’s thinking was about this time. He was looking for happiness in all the wrong places, and there is no way he could be any more pessimistic, any more depressed. You couldn’t be any richer than this man was. You could not be any more famous. And you could not be any more miserable.
Let’s shift gears for a few moments. It gets better. In the very end of the book Solomon says, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep him commandments, for this is the whole duty of man,” (ch. 12:13). He says, “This is all that makes any difference.”
No matter what your lot in life may be, if you are born of the spirit of God, you are an heir to all that heaven is, heir to all that heaven means. Paul says we are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ,” Rom. 8:17.
We are joint heirs with Jesus Christ. We Old Baptist preachers love to point out the difference between being joint heirs and equal heirs. He didn’t say we are equal heirs. Somebody says, “Brother Hunt, I want to be an equal heir in the estate.” Well I don’t. Do you see, if we are equal heirs, every person owns an equal portion along with everybody else? And any person could conceivably forfeit his portion. But if we are joint heirs, nobody can sell until everybody sells. And no matter who might decide to sell out, we are joint heirs with Jesus Christ and Paul tells us, “He remaineth faithful, he cannot deny himself.” He’ll never sell out.
We’re joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. That means that every one of us owns the entire estate. We own it jointly with every other child of God, and we own it jointly with the Lord. If we are joint heirs with Jesus Christ, that means that by grace, being members of the family, we own everything the Lord Jesus Christ owns.
Think about that, we own everything God owns—we own it jointly with him.
I like an expression I borrowed from an old black preacher out of Texas. The old brother was commenting on the notion that God is dead. He said, “You tell me God is dead? Why did they not run the notice in the paper?” He wanted to know, “What funeral home handled the service? Where is the cemetery where he’s buried? And why was I not notified, I’m a member of the family?”
By grace, you and I are members of the family, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.
Now, if you live like a pauper, and dress like a pauper, and eat like a pauper, and think like a pauper, you might as well be a pauper.
But we don’t dress like paupers, we’re dressed with the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We don’t eat like paupers. We eat of that manna from on high. We don’t think like paupers. Being born of the spirit of God, we are of the seed royal, we are members of God’s family; and we are just waiting for that day when we can join all the royal family in that eternal home God has provided for his redeemed.
We are not going to be waiting nearly as long as I used to think we were. I used to think of the prospect of living seventy, eighty, ninety years or more, and that seemed like a terribly long time.
Now I do a little arithmetic, and I realize we are not here for long. I never will forget the day I turned thirty-five, I multiplied that by two, and it came out seventy, and I’ve not been the same since.
That didn’t have near the effect it did, when I turned fifty. When I turned fifty, the thought hit me, “Harold Hunt if you’re going to do any preaching, you had better get busy; you are not going to be here long.” I was flat broke, and that is not just a figure of speech. I was not the pastor of any church; I was preaching wherever I was sent for. Our entire family fortune was enough to live about ten days, but I quit my job, and I have spent virtually every waking hour since, either preaching, or getting ready to preach.
What is your life? It is just a vapor. We are not going to be here long. In a very little while, you and I are going to leave this world, and we are going to come into full possession of all God has, of all Jesus has. We are heirs with God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.
Somebody says, “Well, Harold Hunt, if I’m an heir to all that, I wouldn’t mind having an advance on it every now and again.” If you are not receiving regular advances on that inheritance, you are doing something wrong, because God does just that. He gives his children regular advances on all we are going to receive after awhile.
Every time you feel the Spirit of God stirring in your heart, you are receiving an advance. Every time you see evidence of the providence of God working in your life, you are receiving an advance. Every time you meet with the saints, and enjoy their fellowship, you are receiving an advance on the fellowship we will enjoy in that eternal city. Every time you hear the gospel preached in power, you are receiving an advance on the greater knowledge we will receive after awhile. Every time you see evidence of the Spirit of God in the countenance of those around you, you are getting a preview of the joy of heaven above.
No wonder Paul said, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for,” Heb. 11:1. Substance is that which you can lay hold on. Faith is more than the mental acknowledgment of certain Bible truths. Faith is the very substance of heaven itself. It is a foretaste of heaven itself; it is that part of eternal heaven we already have in our hearts.
“Faith is the substance of things hope for,” but bear in mind, that we are not hoping for eternal life. If we have been born of God’s Spirit, we already have eternal life. John says, “And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, (1 John 5:11.” We already have eternal life. Faith if the substance of things hoped for, and what we are hoping for is heaven itself. Faith is that part of heaven we already have in our hearts. It is an advance on better things to come.
Faith carries it’s own evidence. How do we know there’s a heaven? John tells us he saw “a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,” Rev. 22:1. How do we know that river really exists? How do we know we will ever receive any benefit from it? We know that pure river of water of life exists , because it flows through our hearts while we live down here. So long as we live in fellowship with him, we are able to drink from that crystal clear water that flows from on high.
Being of the see royal, being born of his spirit, and being members of the family, we are heirs of all heaven is, and all heaven means. Nothing else means anything.
All the rest of it, all that is out there, is “vanity of vanities, and vexation of spirit.” As long as we have fellowship with him, why should we worry about anything? Paul says, “For our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,” 2 Cor. 4:17. No matter what you and I may suffer here in this world, it is just light affliction.
Paul said, “For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live, therefore or die, we are the Lord’s,” Rom. 14:8. No matter what happens, we are his; he will take care of us, and one day take us home to be with him.
THE END