Here’s a real uplifting passage from the Bible:
It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.
Ecclesiastes 7:2-3
Know anybody who says those are their favorite Bible verses? Me neither.
Lately we’ve had a lot of sad faces in our church. In fact, we’ve all had sad faces in the past few months, either because of something that’s happened to us, or something that’s happened to someone we love. I don’t like having a sad face. I bet you don’t either. Nobody does. So why would the Bible say, “Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad”?
Ecclesiastes can be a puzzling and troubling book for many people. The whole thing seems so…pagan. And that’s the clue. The writer of Ecclesiastes, usually identified as Solomon, kept what amounts to a journal about his attempts to find happiness in everything except God. The book of 1st Kings tells us how King David’s son Solomon turned away from the worship of Yahweh in his later years. Ecclesiastes seems to be the record of his search for happiness apart from God. So, the bulk of the book is, well, godless.
Read More