Today, I am reading and commenting on Ecclesiastes 7-12.

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I think I am pretty good at looking at the way the different Bible writers used idioms and word structures and understanding at least part of their meaning, but in today’s passage there are a lot of places where I have no idea what the writer is getting at.  And there are other places where I think I understand what the writer says, but do not understand how it fits into what other parts of the Bible says.  Nevertheless, I also understand how some of this applies to us today.

At one point the writer tells us that we should be joyful when we prosper and turn our faces to God when we see adversity.  Both come from God and we should see each as a way to come closer to God.  He goes on from there and tells us to not put too much focus on being righteous or wise.  There are times when we should allow ourselves to have fun, even if it is not the wisest thing, or the thing which others would view as righteous.  But, he continues by warning against being outright wicked, or a complete fool.  On both sides of this, fear the Lord.

Now I saw something I have never seen or heard anyone comment on.  In verse five of chapter 11, the writer says, “As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.”  When I read that it struck me that is sounds a lot like something Jesus said to Nicodemus when He was explaining what He meant by telling him that unless someone is born again they cannot see the kingdom of God.  In John chapter three verse eight, Jesus said, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”  I do not think the similarity in phrasing is an accident.  Just as we do not know the way in which our spirit entered our bodies while we were in our mother’s womb, so we do not know the way in which the Holy Spirit transforms us into a new born in Christ.

I want those who read this to do the same thing I asked you to do with several of the passages in Proverbs.  Read this passage and pick out a few phrases to meditate on.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ecclesiastes 1-6.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Also, here is the link for my Patreon page

I have always found the Book of Ecclesiastes slightly depressing, but as I have read it over again each year I am starting to see a more positive message in it.  The base message actually connects quite well to my story of how I truly came to faith.  The writer tells us that everything is pointless.  No matter what we do the world will go on as it always has, and in the long run nothing we do will last, not even the memories we create in others.  Yet, just to stay alive requires toil, toil which does nothing except keep our bodies alive for a few more years.  Those who live wisely may live a few more years than those who live foolishly, but in the end they both end up in the grave.  The author concludes that there is nothing better for a person that he should seek a relationship with God.  Eat, drink and find enjoyment in the toil which God has placed before you.  God has made a time for everything and if we willingly submit ourselves to God and toil at the business which God has given us, we will see that everything is beautiful in its time.  What Gd has done, and only what God has done, endures forever.  If we enter into a relationship with Him, we can be a part of that which endures forever.  If we reject God we condemn ourselves to seeing everything for which we work crumble into dust repeatedly for all eternity.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ecclesiastes 1-6.

I generally find Ecclesiastes a bit depressing.  However, the writer makes some great points that we need to remember.  He writes that there is nothing new under the sun, everything that is has been and that which has gone away will come back.  When he writes that he is not referring to things like airplanes or computers.  Rather, he is talking about human behavior and motivation.  I have heard it argued that certain biblical passages do not apply today because the writers did not understand how people would behave, or think, or feel, today.  They claim that people today are different than they were two thousand years ago.  The writer of Ecclesiastes told us that such thinking is mistaken, and a careful study of history (and a closer examination of how people behave today) shows that he was correct.  A little further in he writes:
“What is crooked cannot be straightened;
what is lacking cannot be counted.”
I never really thought about what that meant until this morning.  This morning it hit me that this reminds me of something I have been asked from time to time by people overseeing me when I am planning a project. “What haven’t we planned for?” I always struggle with that because if I knew the answer to that question, I would have included it in the plans, which is the point the writer is making here.  We cannot say, “Well, there are seven things we haven’t included in our plans because we don’t know what they are.”  The only way we can know there are seven things is if we know what they are.  We cannot know what we do not know.  The writer is referring to the things which Donald Rumsfeld referred to as “unknown unknowns” in one of his famous quotes. “Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tends to be the difficult ones.”  People made fun of that quote, but to me it made a lot of sense.  There are things we know, there are things we know that we do not know (for example, I know that there are apples at the grocery store, but I do not know how many apples are there, or even how many types of apples are there), then there are things we do not know that we do not know.  I cannot give an example of that last one, because if I could it would move into the category of “known unknowns”.  The writer is referring to those things we do not know that we do not know when he writes “what is lacking cannot be counted.”  

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ecclesiastes 7-12.

The writer tells us that the day of death is better than the day of birth and that endings are better than beginnings.  He also says that mourning is better than partying.  His point appears to be that when we die we know that there will be no more suffering.  Further, he tells us that we should be happy when times are good, but accepting when times are bad, because both good times and bad times come from God.  Out of these things grows the understanding that those who fear God avoid extremes.  They neither present themselves as especially righteous, nor do they seek to present the “bad boy” image.  They do not look down on those whose behavior society deems unacceptable, nor do they look down on those whose behavior society extols.  Enjoy the life which God has given you, understanding that every accomplishment worth achieving has risks associated with it.  Remember and serve God when your days are good and when they are bad.  God knows every deed, whether done in the open or in secret, whether good or evil.  Nothing is hidden from God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ecclesiastes 1-6.

The writer of Ecclesiastes begins by declaring that everything is meaningless.  Really, a large part of what he has to say can be summed up by what he writes in verse nine of his first chapter:
What has been will be again,
    what has been done will be done again;
    there is nothing new under the sun.
This counters the arguments of many who say that certain biblical teachings should no longer apply because things are different now than they were when the Bible was written.  I am not going to go into the different things where people make that argument, but a study of history will show that they are mistaken.  We may have different technology today than they had in the past, but human nature has not changed.  The author studied to expand his wisdom and knowledge.  He discovered that as he gained wisdom and knowledge he merely increased his sorrow and grief.  So, he chased after pleasure, which he found to be just as empty and meaningless.  That led him to pursue great projects, and after much toil those also led him to feel empty and unfulfilled.  He concluded that wisdom was better than folly, but that it still provided no meaning.  Ultimately, he says that we should toil at the work God has given us and strive to serve God and do good while we live.  Only that which is of God will endure.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ecclesiastes 7-12.

Solomon continues to write about the meaninglessness of life, while showing us that serving God gives it the only meaning possible.  He writes that it is better to go to a funeral than to a party because everyone is going to die and we need to face up to this fact.  If we recognize that nothing we do will keep us from dying at some point, he tells us that we will not over emphasize righteous and/or wise behavior nor will we become wicked and/or a fool.  Those who fear God will avoid extremes.  While we live, he writes, we should enjoy our lives, because the day will come when we will no longer be able to do so.  After discussing how everything is meaningless without God, Solomon concludes that we should remember our Creator, fear God, and keep His commandments.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ecclesiastes 1-6.

The Book of Ecclesiastes begins with a statement with which I have struggled, but which helps us deal with many arguments made today.  The writer, who tells us that he is King Solomon (and I have no reason to doubt him), says that everything is meaningless.  Solomon explains that everything that happens today happened in the past.  No one remembers what was done by those who came before, even if we try to teach people to record what they have done, those who come after them will forget them.   Truly learning the truth that this passage teaches us allows us to deal with those who claim that biblical teachings no longer apply because things are different now.  However, if you spend some time studying history you quickly find that things are not as different as people would like to think.  In fact, things have not really changed all that much, if at all.

So, the fact that things do not really change all that much is an important thing to learn from this passage, but how do we deal with the existential depression which the writer expresses.  Solomon writes that nothing we do really makes a difference, nothing we do changes things.  Whether we act wisely or foolishly, we are all going to die at some point.  And if we work really hard to acquire great amounts of wealth and build great monuments, when we die we will hand them over to someone who may not work to maintain them.  Even if they do, what difference does it actually make?  I could continue to write on this, but Solomon tells us “the more the words the less the meaning.”  So, I will conclude with what Solomon says in Chapter 3.  There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity.    There is nothing better than to be happy and do good while we live.  God made us for that and everything He has done will endure.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ecclesiastes 7-12.

Near the beginning of today’s passage the writer tells us that the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning and the heart of the fool is in the house of pleasure.  Yet later in the passage he also writes that there is nothing better for a person than to eat and drink and be glad.  This might seem to be a contradiction, but the writer also writes that we should not be too good nor too wicked.  The wording there seems to me to suggest being neither too concerned with doing what is right nor too willing to ignore the rules.  In light of that, I think he means that his teaching about mourning being better than pleasure means that we should keep everything in perspective.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ecclesiastes 1-6.

The writer tells us that everything is meaningless, but he also tells us that there is nothing better than to do what is good and be happy.  He writes that there is nothing new, that everything that happens has happened before.  One could argue that when the first man walked on the Moon, that was something new.  But that misses his point, he means that human nature does not change.  People today are neither better than they were in centuries gone by, nor are they worse.  Sometimes we look around and think that people today behave much worse than they did in the past.  But, if we study history, we will quickly see that there have been times in the past when people were every bit as depraved as they are today.  The same is true when we think that people are better today than in the past.  The writer tells us that nothing we do today really changes anything, which makes all of our effort meaningless.  Everything we do is only temporary and we will all die, sooner or later.  Yet, he sees that a part of us focuses on eternity which leads him to conclude that there is nothing better in life than to be happy doing what is good.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.