What Can You Do?

As we have seen in the past when we have looked at the Book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon is a bitter old man. His life has been wracked with sin – sin of his own choosing. Solomon allowed his life to be affected by the seven hundred wives and 300 concubines that he had and they drew him away from the LORD.
The Book of Ecclesiastes is Solomon’s look back at his life and his realization that a life apart from the LORD God of Heaven is nothing but vanity. Rather than seeking his joy in the LORD, Solomon tried to make himself happy through many different means – building projects – wine, women and song – intellectual pursuits – madness – folly – and he found no joy in any of those things.
Solomon reached a point in his life where he believed in what is called fatalism. Fatalism is “the doctrine that all things are subject to fate, or that they take place by inevitable necessity.” A Fatalist is “one who maintains that all things happen by inevitable necessity.” In today’s language: “It is what it is” is fatalism. Essentially, it is the thought that there is nothing that you can do – what will happen today – will happen, and there is nothing that you can do about it. Take life as it comes is fatalism.