Archive for month: October, 2023

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Ecclesiastes 9:13-18.  Let’s go!

Ecclesiastes 9:13-18 (NIV)
13  I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me:
14  There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siegeworks against it.
15  Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man.
16  So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded.
17  The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools.
18  Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.
 
On verses 13-18:  Qohelet recounts this story of how a poor wise man saved his small town from a powerful king’s invasion.  The lesson here for us is:  Wisdom can beat brute strength.  Likewise, when we were being attacked by a more powerful enemy, in His wisdom Jesus became poor, lived among us in our town, and by His wisdom saved us.  The gospel is the story of how Jesus, the wisdom of God, beat Satan’s brute strength.   

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Ecclesiastes 9:1-12.  Let’s go!

Ecclesiastes 9:1-7 (NIV)
1  So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no man knows whether love or hate awaits him.
2  All share a common destiny–the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not. As it is with the good man, so with the sinner; as it is with those who take oaths, so with those who are afraid to take them.
3  This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead.

On verses 1-7:  While Qohelet believes that the righteous, the wise and what they do are in God’s hands (v1), Qohelet also has no idea what awaits him or anyone else after they die (v1).  For Qohelet, death is the great equalizer and eliminates every person without discrimination, regardless of how nobly or wickedly they lived (v2).  For Qohelet, the great evil in this world is that everyone dies (v3a), and since Qohelet has no idea what awaits him or anyone else after they die (v1), it sounds like all of Qohelet’s hope is in this life.  That is why Qohelet says it is better to be alive and kicking than dead and gone (v4-6).  And that is also why Qohelet recommends that people make the most of the life they have now – “Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do.” (v7)

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Ecclesiastes 8:11-17.  Let’s go!

Ecclesiastes 8:11-14 (NIV)
11  When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong.
12  Although a wicked man commits a hundred crimes and still lives a long time, I know that it will go better with God-fearing men, who are reverent before God.
13  Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.
14  There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: righteous men who get what the wicked deserve, and wicked men who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless.
 
On verses 11-14:  Here we see a bit of Qohelet’s struggle.  On one hand, as king of Israel, Qohelet believed that it was important to carry out sentences for crimes quickly; otherwise people will be emboldened to do wrong, thinking, “nothing’s going to happen to me anyway” (v11).  On the other hand, Qohelet noticed that wicked men sometimes live a long time (v12) and life goes well with them (v14) while other more righteous people seem to get what the wicked deserve (v14).  To Qohelet, this is absurd, “meaningless” (v14).  Still, Qohelet hangs onto the belief that it is better to fear God than to be wicked (v12) and that ultimately it will not go well with the wicked, though Qohelet does not clearly describe how or why he believes that.