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A Spiritual Lesson In Toon Language: Lesson 34

Topic: Pleasures Are Meaningless Without God In One's Life

Series: The Super Mario Bros. Super Show

Episode: Mario's Magic Carpet

Lesson PDF link: 34.pdf

Introduction

This lesson is about just what pleasure means and its rightful place in one's life. Most kids probably don't remember the series that I am using for this lesson. I am using The Super Mario Bros. Super Show for this lesson. I will show a clip of the episode entitled "Mario's Magic Carpet" to show what pleasure means to some people. Then, we will discuss King Solomon's take on the subject.

Scriptures Used Include: Ecclesiastes 2: 1-11

Today, we have a lesson on the meaning of pleasure in one's life. What is pleasure in your opinion? What do you do for pleasure? How much importance does it have in your life?

I am going to show a clip from an episode of a cartoon series that you may not have seen before. It is from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show. We will have a Bible study and discussion of things seen.

Cartoon: The Super Mario Bros. Super Show: "Mario's Magic Carpet":

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show: "Mario's Magic Carpet": Direct link for video/webm

Our Bible study today is from Ecclesiastes 2: 1-11. What did you think of the king's (Sultan's) swimming pool trap? Do you think he really cared about his subjects and harem?

The Bible States:

Ecc 2:1 I thought in my heart, 'Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.' But that also proved to be meaningless.

Ecc 2:2 'Laughter,' I said, 'is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish?'

Ecc 2:3 I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly'my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.

Ecc 2:4 I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards.

Ecc 2:5 I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.

Ecc 2:6 I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees.

Ecc 2:7 I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me.

Ecc 2:8 I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well'the delights of the heart of man.

Ecc 2:9 I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.

Ecc 2:10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.

Ecc 2:11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.

I may need to define the word 'harem'.

The Dictionary States:

Harem

noun

1. the part of a Muslim palace or house reserved for the residence of women.

2. the women in a Muslim household, including the mother, sisters, wives, concubines, daughters, entertainers, and servants.

3. Animal Behavior. a social group of females, as elephant seals, accompanied or followed by one fertile male who denies other males access to the group.

4. Facetious: Sometimes Offensive. a group of women associated in any way with one man or household:

I really resent it when our boss refers to us as his harem, though he's trying to be funny.

We are looking at the first two definitions specifically. In short, it means that it's a group of women that are owned or belonging to one man. This is of course in various forms of service. As the dictionary says, this word can be offensive so be careful how you use it.

Usually it is a term used for the Islamic religion. However, the word harem applied to a lot of Jewish kings as well in Biblical times including Solomon and David. It looks to me like King Solomon was perhaps doing an experiment to see if worldly things would make him happy. What do you think of this kind of experiment? What was King Solomon's conclusion?

It looks like the king may have put God on a lower priority than he should have during this time. Of course, Solomon's wisdom stayed with him. Wisdom was God's gift to Solomon. This being true though, Solomon found out that doing things that won't please God didn't please him. Without God eventually, things aren't very satisfying. If we get satisfied without God we need to look out because we will have God in the end to answer to. That would not be pretty. What have we learned and how do we apply it to our lives?