“Wisdom is good with an inheritance, and profitable to those who see the sun. For wisdom is a defense as money is a defense, but the excellence of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to those who have it.” Both money and wisdom are desirable and powerful. It is not ideal to just have money; more »
Even though I took verses 8 and 9 individually, I think I need to include those verses again with verse 10 when I look at it. The entire excerpt of Ecclesiastes says, “The end of a thing is better than its beginning; The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Do not more »
“Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of fools.” So I’m wondering if Solomon is saying this from his database of wisdom or if it comes from a reflection on a life full of anger. I’m not sure. Of course he wrote similar things in Proverbs, but more »
I wasn’t planning on looking at only this one verse, but it has so much meaning in it that I decided to meditate solely on it today. It says, “The end of a thing is better than its beginning.” Now when Solomon says that, I immediately recall all the times when he talked about death more »
After taking a break from Ecclesiastes for two weeks to focus on missions-related passages (leading up to and during Missions Conference here at Faith), I’m ready to jump back into this book. I left off at Ecclesiastes 7:4, so I will pick up right where I stopped… Today I’m focusing on verses 5 and 7: more »
“Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, For that is the end of all men; and the living will take it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by a sad countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the more »
“Whatever one is, he has been named already, for it is known that he is man; and he cannot contend with Him who is mightier than he” (v.10). We know so much about man and his tendencies. Virtually nothing man does is really a surprise anymore, neither to God or man. Nor can man argue more »
I can’t quite seem to figure out this passage: “All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the soul is not satisfied. For what more has the wise man than the fool? What does the poor man have, who knows how to walk before the living? Better is the sight of the more »
Better is a stillborn child than a man who lives long and has a hundred children. What?! How can that be? According to the Preacher, the prosperous and well-aged man “is not satisfied with goodness, or indeed he has no burial.” Sounds like a depressed Solomon again. In many words he is simply saying, “There more »