November 17, 2023
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Ecclesiastes? Here’s today’s reading:
Ecclesiastes 7 (NIV)
Wisdom
1 A good name is better than fine perfume,
and the day of death better than the day of birth.
2 It is better to go to a house of mourning
than to go to a house of feasting,
for death is the destiny of everyone;
the living should take this to heart.……Continue Reading
Solomon’s statement that death is better than birth is one of faint truth at least for a believer. Upon death we spend eternity with our Father, however, He did create us to also live here on earth. He did expect us to be in relationships, experience joys, and of course the hurts He didn’t expect us to just muddle through it feeling it had no purpose or point.
He created us to gain in knowledge and help one another with that knowledge. And while solomon explains a life where we tip toe through a balance of everything in moderation mentality that knowledge of Christ should motivate us toward righteousness not to dabble in “just enough” sin to stay out of trouble.
I do fear Solomon’s experience with women had left him with quite a negative point of view and while sex can cloud the judgement of men (and sometimes women) God provides wisdom to both men and women but it is in wisdom that we fight the temptation of sin and practice relationships that are pure the way God intended.
“And I find more bitter than death The woman whose heart is snares and nets, Whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God shall escape from her, But the sinner shall be trapped by her. Here is what I have found,” says the Preacher, “Adding one thing to the other to find out the reason, Which my soul still seeks but I cannot find: One man among a thousand I have found, But a woman among all these I have not found.”
Ecclesiastes 7:26-28 NKJV
I think Solomon was choosing the wrong women. He was caught in their snares and did not escape. I think he was complicit. God thought so.
“But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites— from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, “You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, as did his father David. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon. And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. So the Lord became angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the Lord God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not keep what the Lord had commanded. Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. Nevertheless I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However I will not tear away the whole kingdom; I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.””
I Kings 11:1-13 NKJV
5 It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
6 For like the crackling of thorns under a pot,
So is the laughter of the fool.
This also is vanity.
Ecclesiastes chapter 2 we waste precious time searching for pleasure.
Chapter 2 Ecclesiastes
Money can’t buy happiness
Seems to me that Chapter 7 is a chapter about moderation: “Do not be overrighteous”; “Do not be overwicked”; The end of a matter is better than the beginning.” Seems to me we live the Christian life in the middle of these statements doing the best we can to attain a level of wisdom.
With respect to the section on women, I don’t think Solomon was operating in his wisdom when he was choosing his women. I don’t think wisdom has a sex. As far as “snares” go, I don’t think they have a sex either.
Ecclesiastes 7
Well said Kelly and Amy. Really good insight. There are some key statements that stood out to me in this chapter. In verses 5,19 he refers to wisdom. It is a good thing when we are rebuked by a wise person for they are probably looking out for our best interests. We just need to listen. While fools don`t care about you but only their own selves. Than latter in verse 19 he says that the wise are stronger than ten mighty men. Also in verse 26b that it pleases God to escape from a woman that is trying to insnare you. To bad he didn`t listen to his own advice. But then you have in the Bible, Joseph who fled from Potiphar`s wife. She pressed him daily to lie with her but he was walking with God and fled. Gen. 39;7-12. Then in verse 9 he says that we are not to be hasty in our spirit to get angry. Anger resteth in the bosom of fools. It is not necessarily wrong to get angry for our Lord did when he dealt with the religious leaders of His time. But with us it is often too easy to sin when we get angry. Therefore becoming fools and damaging our reputation and our Lord`s. We are to walk as wise men redeeming the time. Ephesians 5;15,16 [ See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. Redeeming the time because the days are evil.] Then in verse 29 he states that God has made mankind upright and then mankind will find a way to follow their sin because of their sinful nature. In the beginning of Creation God made everything very good. But then Adam sinned. And then in verse 20 he states that there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not. It reminds me of Isaiah 64;6a [ But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.] Or of course Romans 3;23 [ For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.] God bless us all.
Ecclesiastes 7
Ecclesiastes 7
What a mixed bag we find here in this chapter: things I see as true, others I see as not and some I get the perspective that might protect us from another extreme, but don’t see the principle applying to all cases. Patience is better than pride, and it is good not to be quickly provoked in your spirit, and wisdom is a good thing. And God is above all things and no one can come against Him but that leads to greater purpose and intention in following Him than hopelessness over our efforts. The rain does fall on the just and the unjust, as does difficulty as well, but that does not cause us to throw up our hands and say who cares. Once again I find myself finding more peace and purpose in God’s economy than Solomon does.
One day we are going to die so if we want our life to be well spent, live it in a way that pleases God, making a positive difference in the lives of others. Stress, hardship, persecution, and difficulty stregthenes the character of a person and promotes wisdom, perserverence and courage. If we have God in our lives, when we are weak, then we are strong. Strive for balance in our lives; God will help us avoid all extremes. Don’t waste any of our energy being concerned about what others think about us. God’s opinion is the only one that matters, He loves us, protects us and makes us righteous by the blood of Jesus. We can find comfort in that truth when we are being persecuted.