Ecclesiastes 7:13-22 - A balanced life

"Consider what God has done". This is very sound advice. We should consider what we have been told about God in the Bible, we should consider His creation, we should consider what He has done in our lives and in those around us. 

This is not a fairytale approach to life, for we are to consider both the good and the bad times. True wisdom comes by considering the whole of life and facing up to reality. We need to understand that the bad times are part of His plan as well. Now there are two mistakes we can make. One is to see the good things as the product of God and the bad times as the product purely of the devil. The other is to see everything purely as a product of God. I don't think anyone fully understands all of God's workings, but the bad times are both part of His plan, and a result of our sin and the devil's plans. We also need to recognise that we cannot predict the future.

Verse 16 is very enigmatic, but also useful. We can have a view life that says if I do right everything will go right, if I do anything wrong disaster will ensue. Now, how we live does matter and does make a difference. In general things will go better if we follow God's ways, and if we rebel then trouble will follow. However, there will be times when we cannot make sense of life in this way. Things will go wrong for no obvious reason. Also we must avoid becoming obsessed with getting every little thing right, checking every single motive and action we have. We will drive ourselves crazy doing this. There are situations where it is at least very difficult, if not impossible, to be "perfectly right".

So we are advised to avoid extremes. A little balance in life is a sensible thing. 

We should also beware of paying attention to every word that people say about us. With our mass communication systems today and social media this is very wise advice. If we worry about every little things that is said about us we will go mad. Also, as it says in v22, consider what we have said or thought about others! There is plenty that we are not proud of.