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SATISFIED
`As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness:
I shall be Satisfied
when I awake, with Thy likeness' (Psa. 17:15).
`The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing' (Eccles. 1:8).
`We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery ... Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us
by His Spirit' (1 Cor. 2:7-10).
What connexion is there between these two passages? There is the background of wisdom mentioned in
1 Corinthians chapter 1 a number of times, and the well-known wisdom of Solomon; there is also the failure of
`seeing' and `hearing' when it comes to the deep things of God. Against this background is the word `satisfied' and
this term we desire to explore somewhat carefully, as it pertains to the age-old question `If a man die, shall he live
again?' for that is the baffling problem which provides Ecclesiastes with the remark:
`The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing'.
The Preacher, the son of David, King in Jerusalem, places in the forefront of his investigations the conclusion
arrived at in the closing chapter:
`Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity' (Eccles. 1:2, see also Eccles.12:8).
In view of the fact that one generation passeth away, and another generation cometh, he asks `What profit' is
there in all the labour done under the sun, and when he returns to this theme in verse 8, he says:
`All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with
hearing' (Eccles. 1:8).
The closing words of the investigation are:
`Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God Who gave it. Vanity of
vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity' (Eccles. 12:7,8).
Between the opening and closing chapters, Ecclesiastes ponders the problem raised by death. He realized that
wisdom excelled folly as light does darkness, yet he observes:
`... one event happeneth to them all ... As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I
then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity ... And how dieth the wise man? as the fool'
(Eccles. 2:13-16).
`One event' (Eccles. 2:14; 9:2,3).
`One place' (Eccles. 3:20; 6:6).
`Not satisfied' (Eccles. 1:8; 4:8; 5:10).
`Not filled' (same word as `satisfied') (Eccles. 6:3).
These references sum up the dissatisfaction, the sense of vanity, the never ending circle (Eccles. 1:4-11) that
baffled the wisdom of the wisest.
`Where is the wise?' ... `The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain' (1 Cor. 1:20; 3:20).
`But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, Who of God is made unto us wisdom ... ` (1 Cor. 1:30).
`We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery' (1 Cor. 2:7).
`Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost
teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual' (1 Cor. 2:13).