‘For all this I laid to my heart, even to explore all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hatred, man does not know it. Everything is before them. All things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked, to... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER 9 THE SAME THINGS HAPPEN TO ALL WHETHER THEY BE RIGHTEOUS, WISE OR SONS OF MEN. AND IN THE END ALL DIE IN THE SAME WAY. SO LET THE RIGHTEOUS LIVE LIFE AS THEY MAY AND ENJOY IT FOR GOD HAS ACCEPTED ALL THAT THEY DO. BUT LET THEM NOT LOOK FOR ANYTHING BEYOND. After seeming to be making progre... [ Continue Reading ]
‘This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one event to all. Yes also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.' ‘The sons of men' appear to be a new class first introduced in Ecclesiastes 8... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For to him who is joined with all the living there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any more a reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. As well their love, as their hatred and their env... [ Continue Reading ]
THE RIGHTEOUS MUST THEREFORE FIND JOY IN THEIR PRESENT LIFE FOR THERE IS NONE BEYOND THE GRAVE (ECCLESIASTES 9:7). The Preacher is still considering the facts on which he is to make his final decision, and he has just reiterated his great problem, that God does not differentiate between the treatmen... [ Continue Reading ]
THINGS DO NOT ALWAYS GO AS WE EXPECT (ECCLESIASTES 9:11). His first lesson is that men do not necessarily succeed because of their advantages and their abilities, because in the end success is largely a matter of chance Ecclesiastes 9:11 ‘I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to t... [ Continue Reading ]
SAYINGS ABOUT THE WISE (ECCLESIASTES 9:11 TO ECCLESIASTES 10:12). His philosophy having come up with the fact that all a man has to look forward to is the life just described, the Preacher now recognises that he is a wise man and must therefore give some advice on living that life. Thus he proceeds... [ Continue Reading ]
A PARABLE OF WISDOM AND INGRATITUDE (ECCLESIASTES 9:13). Ecclesiastes 9:13 ‘I have seen also wisdom under the sun like this. There was a small city and few men in it. And there came a great king against it, and besieged it and built great bulwarks against it. Now there was found in it a poor man,... [ Continue Reading ]