Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 - A time for everything (short video)

Ecclesiates Chapter 3  A time for everything

Ecclesiastes 9:11-18 - Wisdom is better than folly

9:11,12

It is not always the swift who win the race or the wise who get the food, or the brilliant who gain wealth. “Time and chance happen to all”, so we should just get on and do stuff. Trying to work out exactly what will happen, or thinking something is bound to happen, is futile, and can lead to a wasted life.

9;13-18

The teacher reverts to his common sense approach. Wisdom is better than folly. A small city was saved from a siege by the wisdom of a poor man. We are not given details, but the people did not appreciate the wisdom of the man, even though it had saved them. We will not always be properly appreciated, even so “wisdom is better than strength”. So we should continue to prefer wisdom and to do the right thing, even if we are not rewarded in this life. And we should all appreciate the value of wisdom. As an example, in elections we should vote for the party that has the greater wisdom, rather than the party that claims to offer us more, be it in taxes or hand-outs.

Ecclesiastes 9:1-10 - Everything is in God's hands

9:1,2

.Everything is in God’s hands, and no one has a complete handle on life. We can live life trying to have full control of everything, but such a course is futile, for none of us can have complete control. It just causes us stress to try and gain full control. The alternative is to live to please God and to trust in Him. At one level the good and the bad receive the same. God sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matt 5:45).

9:3-6

The teacher considers it evil that the same destiny overtakes us all. He also recognises that people’s hearts are full of evil. Having earlier said the dead are better off than the living, he now seems to reverse course saying “even a live dog is better off than a dead lion. Even complete cynicism/realism does not provide a satisfactory answer to life. He now argues that the living are better off than the dead.

9:7-10

So he reaches his usual conclusion.”Go, eat your food with gladness, drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do”. We are to make the best of life. “Enjoy life with your wife. “ A wife is a good thing, a good gift from God, so we should enjoy being together. \if we seek to fully understand everything we will just give ourselves grief. We are all heading for death, when we can do nothing more, so we should do what we can while we live.

Ecclesiastes 8 - Accept the limits of our wisdom

8:1-8

Wisdom brightens the face. For all his, what we might call cynicism, the Teacher is convinced that wisdom is a good thing. He also advocates respect for the king. “Since a king’s word is supreme, who can say to him “What are you doing?” The same can be said about God. The attitude the teachers advocates that we have toward the king, is much the same as should have towards God. We should live life knowing that God has everything in hand. “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps 46:10).

8:9,10

These instructions are the result of the Teacher having applied his mind, having thought about things.”Everything under the sun” means everything in this life. It might seem as if it will never happen, but there comes a time when the wicked are called to account. “Meaningless” here seems to have the sense of fleeting. It can seem as if the wicked will rule forever, but this is not so.

8:11-13

Justice needs to be done quickly. “Justice delayed is justice denied”. When justice is slow people are tempted to take the Law into their own hands. They should not do this, but at least part of the blame lies with those responsible for an inadequate justice system. The Teacher is convinced that it is better  to fear God, than to not fear Him.

8:14,15

We are now back to his cynicism, or realism if you prefer. There are times when it seems that things are upside down, the righteous getting what the wicked deserve and vice versa. The Teacher’s advice is just to get on with life.

8:16,17

The Teachers thinks that no one can work out everything that God does. We should use wisdom, but do so accepting the limits of our wisdom.

Ecclesiastes 7:10-29 - Do not be over righteous

7:10-12

We can often think that the old days were better. The thing is that we forget the negative aspects of the past. Wisdom is good. Remember that despite all the negativity the Teachers never forgets what is truly good, Wisdom and knowledge are good, but not if we make an idol out of it. Likewise, money is good, but not if we worship it.

7:13,14

“Consider what God has done”. We cannot make sense of life if we discount God. \we cannot undo what He has done. So in a sense we need to accept the times we are in. If they are good we should be happy and enjoy them. But when times are difficult we need to accept that as well.

7:15-19

“In this meaningless life of mine”, Om Mr Cheerful!. He then explains his statement, He has seen the righteous die young, and the wicked live long. He then counsels us not to be over-righteous or over wise or overwicked. Instead we should avoid extremes. Why? Going to an extreme is a sign of making an idol of whatever extreme we are going to, it is also a sign that we think we can save ourselves. Indeed he says that avoiding extremes is a sign that we are fearing God.

7:20

The Teacher then extols the value of wisdom, wisdom can make us very powerful, wisdom is good. We then get a very true statement, “there is no one who is righteous. If only the Pharisees had grasped this they may have reacted differently to Jesus. Realising that we are not, and cannot be righteous is key to understanding the gospel.

7:21,22

Verse 20 is also valuable for treating others well. We are now advised not to listen to every word people say, for we may well hear something bad about ourselves, and if we are honest we know that we have either said, or at least thought, bad things about others.

7:23-25

The teacher then decided to test things by wisdom, and so to understand the stupidity of wickedness. The Teacher is then trying to understand

7:26-29

Proverbs warns about the folly of falling for immoral women, this is a snare. Part of the fruit of pleasing God is to avoid sexual sin. Sexual sin is a trap that can ensnare and ruin a man. The Teacher then sums up what he has learnt. There are very few upright men, but not one upright woman. Such a sentiment does not go down well in our age! God created us upright, but we have all gone astray.

A short talk on Ecclesiastes Chapter 4

Ecclesiates 7:1-9 Mourning is better than feasting!?

7:1 -6

“A good name is better than perfume”. The writer is brutally honest, but also does not discard wisdom entirely. Earlier he has said wisdom is better than folly, and here he stresses the value of a good reputation. But then some might think he spoils it by saying “the day of death is better than the day of birth”, and goes on to say several things in  the same vein. It is perhaps useful to remind ourselves of his general purpose. One is that life without God makes no sense, and he is not prepared to put up with any fairy tale nonsense. The book also proves the need for Christ. “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting”. Christmas is near!  Why does he say this? The clue is in the end of v2, “death is the destiny of everyone, the living should take this to heart”. In a “house of feasting” we may for a while forget our state, and live in fantasy. It is better to have an honest and realistic view of life. To live properly, indeed to live well, we need to face up to our mortality. Also facing up to the reality of the problems we face is also important. This can even be god for the heart. The rebuke of a wise person is better for us than the flattery of fools.

7:7

“Extortion turns a wise person into a fool and a bribe corrupts the heart” This is the sort of statement that would be at home in Proverbs. Financial sin has a deep effect on us, diminishing the person. 

7:8,9

More proverb-like statements. Anger is not good for us, and to act out of anger is usually a foolish way to go. Patience is far better, and we should not let pride rule our lives.