Game of Thrones -- Part 2

Ok, here we go with the wrap up of, “Game of Thrones.” Chapter 12 of Ecclesiastes

The first section is verses 1-8,

“12 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; ² before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, ³ in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed, ⁴ and the doors on the street are shut—when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low— ⁵ they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along,^[a] and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets— ⁶ before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, ⁷ and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. ⁸ Vanity^[b] of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.”

Now, to really get the best idea of what this text is talking about, allow me to go to I Samuel chapter one...

Often over the years, where I pastored, we would have a special dedication time for children. The passage I would almost always use for these child dedications was 1 Samuel chapter 1. In it we find the barren woman, Hannah, grieving because she so desperately wanted children. Even so, year after year after year would go by where it seemed as though God simply wasn’t hearing her prayer.

But was this really the case? Or was something else going on with the Almighty?

Of course it was something else—the Lord hears all our prayers! What was going on was a refining and spiritual maturing within the heart of Hannah. True, she already loved and honored the Lord, but her reasons for wanting a child may not have been as holy and beautiful as God wanted. You see, Hannah wasn’t the only wife of her husband, Elkanah. There was also Peninnah—it was like an early version of HBO’s, Sister Wives—right there in the Bible.

Now, several things set these two women apart. First, verse five seems to indicate that Elkanah loved Hannah more than he loved Penennah—not a smart move when dealing with a couple feisty,redneck, hillbilly women.

“Whoa, pastor Rob, where do you get that?!”

Easy now, I just noticed where the text says they were from in verse one—Ramathaim-zophim of the hill country of Ephraim. See? You can’t make this stuff up! These were the Real Housewives of the Hill Country of Ephraim (That’s the redneck part). And you better not mess with them. However, according to the official Ephraim handbook of conduct, they could mess with each other all day long—and they did. Which brings us to the next thing…

Verse 2, “…And Penennah had children, but Hannah had no children.”

I know, I already mentioned that Hannah had no children. So I’m not repeating myself (actually, I am, but there’s a reason), I just wanted to add in that Penennah did have children—apparently a full quiver of them—Elk and Pen plus Ten—or something like that. And she didn’t mind bringing this up to Hannah 24/7.

Verse 6, “and her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the Lord has closed her womb.”  That’s the feisty part!

Verse 7, “⁷ So it went on year by year. As often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat.” That’s the 24/7 part!

So Hannah begins begging the Lord for a child and the Lord just seems to turn a deaf ear to her pleas—almost seems cruel at first glance. But a deeper look at the whole story makes it clear that the Lord desired something greater from Hannah then simply to get into a birthing competition with Penennah—something greater than to simply have a son to give to her husband—and something greater than to simply have God do her will. The Lord wanted her to realize that our children are really not ours—but His. The Lord wanted her to realize that while she only wanted to give a child to her husband, God wanted to give a prophet to a nation! For those of you who do not know the story—Hannah did bear a son and fulfilled her vow to give him to the Lord for service unto Him (v. 11). His name was Samuel and he was arguably one of the very greatest prophets Israel ever had.

“Um, pastor? Can I interrupt a second? Ah, we were talking about Ecclesiastes 12 and Game of Thrones and all of that…Remember?"

Click the 'read more' link to continue...

Yep, I haven’t forgotten. You see, as Solomon wraps up the grand experiment, he will do so with very simple truths—things like, “Fear God and keep His commandments,” (12:13). And most people will tend to just gloss over it because it seems too simple. But that’s just it. We complicate things! With God, it’s really rather simple and boiling the complex down into simple, easy to follow guidelines for His children is something we see God doing all through His Word.

How about this one…

When the religious leaders had developed upwards of 613 laws and regulations to follow in order to earn the good Christian seal of approval from God—Jesus told them they could sum it all up with just 2, 

Matthew 2:35-40 “ One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^{[c] 38} This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^{[d] 40} All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Simple, right?

So what’s the "simple" lead off for Solomon in this final chapter? Ready for it? Ok, here it is, “There’s nothing, absolutely nothing, you or I could ever do with our lives that would ever rival living in reverence and worship of Jesus Christ as the center of all we do, all we are, all we think! There’s no amount of money, sex, power, partying, leisure—NOTHING that can fill the void of the human heart like God. Therefore, live for Him and start today!”

“12 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; ² before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain,

 The only thing better than learning this and to start living your life all out for Jesus is to start living all out for Him while you’re still young!

The only thing better for Hannah than God's gift to her of a son was for her to give Him back to God to live ALL OUT FOR HIM...while he's still young.

That’s lesson number one from this final chapter.