Ecclesiastes 11 - Cast your bread upon the waters

11:1-6

The ESV has !cast your bread upon the waters”, encouraging us to be generous in giving, whereas NIV has “ship your grain across the sea,”, encouraging us to invest in many ventures. Verse 4, however, is clear. If we want to find an excuse for doing nothing we will always find one. In line with the rest of Ecclesiastes, a key truth is that we do not and cannot know all that will happen, so we should try many things. Accepting the limits of our knowledge is a key to true wisdom. We do not know which will succeed, this or that (11:6). So we should do something;

11:7-10

We should enjoy the days we are in, the phase of life we are in, for it will only last for a time, then it will be gone. We should also live, knowing that God will bring all things under judgement. So there is a balance between being truly responsible, and living for the moment.