Prophetic Prospective Daily Devotional

The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

Our extended reading for today opens and closes with the same testimony of the writer, he is the "preacher" who was King of Israel in Jerusalem. I’ll have more on the significance of that testimony in a moment. But first, enjoy the poetic literature of the writer of Ecclesiastes, the "Preacher".

Solomon sets the stage for the entire book in verse 2 when he explains that all in this world is vanity, not foolish pride, but the emptiness that will be the final results of life apart from God. The writer then reveals that our labor in this world is of no profit. Only what is done for Him has eternal value.

Notice how Solomon describes the sun that rises, goes down and then hastens to its place to rise again, verse 5. All the rivers run into the sea and the oceans are not filled up. In fact, those waters return to the rivers only to return to the sea once again.

In the theme that all is vanity, Solomon tells us that our eyes and ears will not be satisfied with our seeing and hearing, with whatever we see and hear.

Now back to our key verse and the last verse of our extended reading, verses 1 and 12. Notice the testimonies of the writer of this book, the "preacher" is King Solomon, the third King of Israel. King
Solomon was the son of Israel's second king, King David. That is significant because of the covenant that God made with David.

The Davidic Covenant was the promise that there would be a "son of David" who would sit on his throne forever. Solomon, the first to sit on the throne, had to be the first, so that the last, Jesus Christ, could one day be the King of Kings and set upon the throne of David.

The Davidic covenant also promised that David's son Solomon would build the first Temple, and he did build the first Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, some 3,000 years ago.

The testimony of the "Preacher", King Solomon, is a benchmark in the fulfillment of God's covenant promise to King David and the Jewish people. The fulfillment of God’s promise to King David is an assurance to each of us who will be the "bride" to the coming King in Jerusalem, Jesus Christ.

PRAYER THOUGHT: Help me to see temporal things as vanity, eternal things as profitable.