Ecclesiastes 2:4-6

    4 I undertook great projects:
        I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. 
    5 I made gardens and parks
        and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. 
    6 I made reservoirs
        to water groves of flourishing trees. (NIV)

Solomon goes into detail now about some of the other pleasures he undertook. In verses 4-6, the pleasures are bright and done in full view for all to see. Verse 7 will show us a darker side of Solomon's culture and of Solomon himself.

Solomon would have needed houses, many houses, to provide for his vast harem of a thousand women (1 Kings 11:3). We are told in the Bible that he also provided his many foreign wives with shrines and temples for their detestable gods and goddesses, like Ashtoreth, Milcom, Molech and Chemosh.

The Hebrew word for "garden" is common to several languages. It's the word paradise, which occurs in Assyrian, Babylonian and Aramaic. The Greeks also borrowed it. It's usually a reference to an enclosed garden with shrubs, trees and a water-source; what we would think of as a park. In the Bible, the Hebrew form only occurs here, in Song of Solomon 4:13 ("orchard") and Nehemiah 2:8 (a reference to "the king's forest"), although the Greek word paradise is of course on our Savior's lips on the cross ("today you will be with me in paradise," Luke 23:43), on Paul's mind when he describes his own vision of heaven (2 Corinthians 12:4), and it's the word that comes to John's mind when he, too, see a vision of the world to come (Revelation 2:7). In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the word paradise is used more than a dozen times to describe the Garden of Eden.

Finally in verse 4 Solomon refers to "reservoirs" and "groves." Perhaps these are the same reservoirs Solomon calls "the pools of Heshbon" (Song of Solomon 7:4).

Solomon's parks and gardens were a wonderful undertaking; Israel bloomed and became green under his leadership. Perhaps his public works resembled the ideals of President Roosevelt in the days of America's recovery from the Great Depression. But notice that he keeps saying, "I made...I undertook." Solomon did these things for himself, in his own interest.

But making the world a better place, as noble as it sounds, is not our main goal in life any more than enjoying wine or having fun. Solomon is systematically weeding out his garden of pleasures to see what will remain when he finally burns away the last of his vanities. It shouldn't surprise us at all to find our relationship with God standing there alone, with all of our pleasures and all of our good works missing, and nothing at all besides.

What counts for us in eternity is our Savior. And his forgiveness surrounds us on every side like new flowers blooming in an early spring. The nightmare of our sinfulness is ended in the dawn of Christ's resurrection.