Ecclesiastes 7:8-29

For Reading and Meditation:     Ecclesiastes 7:25-29

Wisdom was something very important to Solomon. It was this that he prayed for when God said to him: 'Ask for whatever you want me to give you' (1 Kings 3:5). In addition, Solomon had set out to discover all he could about earthly wisdom. When he put all his findings...

For Reading and Meditation:     Ecclesiastes 7:19-24

Wisdom provides us with an inner strength. That is the point Solomon is making in this passage. One who operates with wisdom possesses more strength than ten city officials. And those who have come up against officialdom and bureaucracy will know that this is some strength! When we have wisdom, we have the inner...

For Reading and Meditation:     Ecclesiastes 7:15-18

One perplexing situation for which wisdom and a divine perspective is needed, says Solomon, is when we see the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper. The psalmist struggled with this age-old problem (particularly in Psalm 73), and so have millions since. A tyrant...

For Reading and Meditation:     Ecclesiastes 7:2-10

We continue looking at the rest of Solomon's comparative proverbs. Third, "It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting" (v. 2). Remember, wisdom always sees beneath the surface of things. Solomon means that you are more likely to come face to face with reality in a funeral parlor...

For Reading and Meditation:     Ecclesiastes 7:11-14

Solomon now invites us to look at the benefits and advantages of wisdom. 'Wisdom is a shelter,' he says (v. 12). It protects us from pitfalls or from entering into foolish schemes and ideas. Wisdom protects us from being overtaken by an unexpected financial crisis, for example, by showing us the importance of...

CIRCUMSTANCES sometimes regulate duties. The Lord's people have to pass through many changes; they are strangers and pilgrims here. Sometimes prosperity calls for rejoicing, and sometimes adversity calls for consideration. If prayer appears to be shut out, our petitions seem to be denied, and we cannot enjoy the life and power of religion; it is the day of adversity. If providence frowns, and the heart contracts and becomes hard, it is a day of adversity; now we should consider, Is there not...

Look at David's Lord and Master; see his beginning. He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Would you see the end? He sits at his Father's right hand, expecting until his enemies be made his footstool. "As he is, so are we also in this world." You must bear the cross, or you shall never wear the crown; you must wade through the mire, or you shall never walk the golden pavement. Cheer up, then, poor Christian. "Better is the end of a thing than the...

There is none righteous, no, not one… There is none who does good, no, not one. § There is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. § How can he be pure who is born of a woman?Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me… Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.The Lord… has put away...