Ecclesiastes: What’s The Point? Pt. 8

Wisdom is Expressed in Humility

Practical application: The nitty gritty…it is a blessing…not so great at the time. This is at the heart of the Discipleship Process; refinement and shaping. Teachability born of Humility is the essential attitude of the Serious Disciple, for us, Jesus Christ’s Body, it is true Wisdom.

This Book & today’s passage , define wisdom from Human & Heavenly standpoints: Big Picture and Daily Picture (Eternal Perspective creates Relationally Skillful Living)

Big Picture of Humility & Teachability: Salvation: The necessary humility to surrender. Daily Picture: Embody the Humility Christ modeled & taught to bless others and ultimately glorify God!

So is Wisdom about Skillfully living relationally with Humility & Grace here ‘Under The Sun? Or is Wisdom express in being teachable and humble before God and surrendering your life to His purposes and ways focused on eternal things? Yes! Both and Each!

At the core of Wisdom is humility because the enemy of Wisdom is Pride. Pride destroys Wisdom & Pride is the father of all sin. The denial of Pride is the crucial mistake you and I can make: “I am not being proud, I’m just right”

Pride keeps us from being who God wants us to be; under the sun and eternally. So we can choose to value and intentionally pursue humility & teachability. Our text today points us in God’s direction and gives us practical ways to: Recognize Pride / Surrender Control of our need to be right & ‘Know It All’ / Let the reality of God’s sovereignty drive our value of being meek & teachable / Focus on problem areas to watch for Pride leading to lacking wisdom.

Ch. 10

1 As dead flies cause even a bottle of perfume to stink, so a little foolishness spoils great wisdom and honor. 2 A wise person chooses the right road; a fool takes the wrong one. 3 You can identify fools just by the way they walk down the street! 4 If your boss is angry at you, don’t quit! A quiet spirit can overcome even great mistakes.

  • The application of wisdom includes the exclusion of ALL foolishness
  • There is no wisdom in false bravado: Wisdom is about being teachable!
  • Humility is necessary for teachability

5 There is another evil I have seen under the sun. Kings and rulers make a grave mistake 6 when they give great authority to foolish people and low positions to people of proven worth. 7 I have even seen servants riding horseback like princes—and princes walking like servants!

  • It is a lack of humility that clouds the judgement of people in power
  • Kings and Rulers are known for their lack of humility & teachability
  • Arrogance in leadership is the norm ‘Under the Sun’

Arrogant Leadership is Rejected in Christ’s Kingdom

But Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:25-28

8 When you dig a well, you might fall in. When you demolish an old wall, you could be bitten by a snake. 9 When you work in a quarry, stones might fall and crush you. When you chop wood, there is danger with each stroke of your ax.

  • There are inherent risks associated with whatever you undertake
  • The wise approach is a humble approach: realistically accessing the situation

10 Using a dull ax requires great strength, so sharpen the blade. That’s the value of wisdom; it helps you succeed. 11 If a snake bites before you charm it, what’s the use of being a snake charmer?

  • Utilize the skill and resources that you have to minimize risk and danger
  • Success is good…are you humble enough to glorify God with it?

12 Wise words bring approval, but fools are destroyed by their own words. 13 Fools base their thoughts on foolish assumptions, so their conclusions will be wicked madness; 14 they chatter on and on. No one really knows what is going to happen; no one can predict the future.

  • What are wise words?
  • Your ‘World View’ colors your analysis of events and circumstances
  • Foolish Assumptions: A ‘World View’ that doesn’t recognize the ‘World Maker’
  • Bad data in = bad conclusions
  • The less than humble desire to predict the future: foolishness!

15 Fools are so exhausted by a little work that they can’t even find their way home. 16 What sorrow for the land ruled by a servant, the land whose leaders feast in the morning. 17 Happy is the land whose king is a noble leader and whose leaders feast at the proper time to gain strength for their work, not to get drunk.

  • A basic definition of a fool is one who doesn’t value work
  • Worthy leadership knows the right time to do things
  • Doing things at the right time is about giving your emotions and time to others
  • Are you teachable about how you set priorities and manage your time?

18 Laziness leads to a sagging roof; idleness leads to a leaky house. 19 A party gives laughter, wine gives happiness, and money gives everything!

  • Wisdom is about doing what needs to be done when it needs to be done
  • Ecc. 3: For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven
  • These are all things that have value: ‘Under The Sun’

20 Never make light of the king, even in your thoughts. And don’t make fun of the powerful, even in your own bedroom. For a little bird might deliver your message and tell them what you said.

  • It is wise to stay humble regarding those who have power over you
  • You don’t know what might be repeated…(lots of ‘little Birds’ out there)
  • Wisdom expressed in humility is not saying things you don’t want repeated

Ch. 11:1-6

1 Send your grain across the seas, and in time, profits will flow back to you. 2 But divide your investments among many places, for you do not know what risks might lie ahead.

  • Branching out into new markets & diversification of your investment (change)
  • It is wise because it recognizes our lack of control & builds ‘God Dependance’
  • The ultimate humility of being ‘The Created’ under the authority of ‘The Creator’

3 When clouds are heavy, the rains come down. Whether a tree falls north or south, it stays where it falls. 4 Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.

  • It rains when it wants to, trees fall where they want to…nature is beyond control
  • As we are able to manipulate nature more we are drawn to more pride
  • Mystery is a good thing
  • Deal with what you have instead of expecting things to be perfect / ‘your way’

5 Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things. 6 Plant your seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon, for you don’t know if profit will come from one activity or another—or maybe both.

  • There is so much that is beyond us, if we are humble enough to admit it
  • Do we have a clear picture of God / Good Theology based on Scripture?
  • A proper appreciation for God’s all encompassing power (World & Word)
  • The awe and wonder of God / The ‘Fear of God can and will make us humble

Application Questions:

How much do you value being humble & teachable?

How well and often do you recognize pride in your life?

What is the connection between foolish over-talking and teachability?

It what ways are humility and doing things at the proper time connected?

Why should you pursue Humility?

/by

Ecclesiastes: What’s The point? Pt. 7

The Ultimate Equalizer

Do you spend much time thinking about death, specifically your death? The old saying is there are two things you can count on: death & taxes…

Everyone must face death, no matter your socioeconomic status Death is the ‘Ultimate Equalizer’. What is God’s purpose in making us all face death? How can the reality of death shape this life? How does death help us come to trust in God’s sovereignty?

And how can a healthy understanding of our time being limited help us live the way God desires; with gratitude and consideration? And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. ~ Micah 6:8

Chapter 9

1 This, too, I carefully explored: Even though the actions of godly and wise people are in God’s hands, no one knows whether God will show them favor. 2 The same destiny ultimately awaits everyone, whether righteous or wicked, good or bad, ceremonially clean or unclean, religious or irreligious.

  • Writer seeks to be credible (I am an expert) God’s Spirit speaking thru him
  • BELIEF in the fact that who receives God’s favor is decided solely by Him
  • Admission that God is in charge of EVERYONE’S ultimate destiny
  • You cannot be good enough, clean enough or religious enough to avoid death

Good people receive the same treatment as sinners, and people who make promises to God are treated like people who don’t. 3 It seems so wrong that everyone under the sun suffers the same fate.

  • What we see VS what God sees
  • It seems like injustice to us…what makes us think we know what real justice is?

Already twisted by evil, people choose their own mad course, for they have no hope. There is nothing ahead but death anyway. 4 There is hope only for the living. As they say, “It’s better to be a live dog than a dead lion!”

  • God’s image is compromised by sin, and sin leads to death
  • It creates a hopeless situation we are without power to change

5 The living at least know they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, nor are they remembered. 6 Whatever they did in their lifetime—loving, hating, envying—is all long gone. They no longer play a part in anything here on earth.

  • When you are under the power of sin that is all you know
  • This life become the only thing (no perspective beyond this life)
  • And this life is finite

7 So go ahead. Eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God approves of this! 8 Wear fine clothes, with a splash of cologne! 9 Live happily with the woman you love through all the meaningless days of life that God has given you under the sun. The wife God gives you is your reward for all your earthly toil.

  • If there is nothing but this life, go ahead: PARTY UP!
  • The search for fulfillment in ‘Stuff’ & ‘People’ and ‘Status’
  • What God gives us ‘under the sun’ is meaningless when it is just about this life

10 Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.

  • Living under the sun is about thinking it’s only about this life, this world
  • Is this all there is? What’s The Point?

We have to come to grips with our finite, hopeless reality before we can fully surrender to God’s solution for us to be rescued from it: The Gospel of Jesus Christ!

11 I have observed something else under the sun. The fastest runner doesn’t always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn’t always win the battle. The wise sometimes go hungry, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don’t always lead successful lives.

  • We judge and assign value based on human / worldly perspective (bad data)
  • Our ideas of ‘Justice’ start with bad data then are influenced by sin
  • We are always looking at an incomplete story

It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time. 12 People can never predict when hard times might come. Like fish in a net or birds in a trap, people are caught by sudden tragedy.

  • Reality: We have NO CONTROL… How do we deal with that?
  • Our lives happen to us, without the ability to really control them
  • This reality, without a Biblical Relationship with God, can really wreck you

13 Here is another bit of wisdom that has impressed me as I have watched the way our world works. 14 There was a small town with only a few people, and a great king came with his army and besieged it. 15 A poor, wise man knew how to save the town, and so it was rescued. But afterward no one thought to thank him.

  • This is an example of ‘How the world works’…
  • People have always lacked gratitude (Jesus & ten lepers: Luke 17:11-19)
  • When something good happens it’s God we should thank, He made it happen
  • Our level of ‘Thanks-Living’ corresponds to our level of surrender to God

16 So even though wisdom is better than strength, those who are wise will be despised if they are poor. What they say will not be appreciated for long. 17 Better to hear the quiet words of a wise person than the shouts of a foolish king. 18 Better to have wisdom than weapons of war, but one sinner can destroy much that is good.

  • The injustice of how people treat others based on Socioeconomic Status
  • The World judges on a scale we do not have to use

My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism.Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in.If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,”have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? ~ James 2:1-4

  • Human nature is to discriminate, tolerance of oppression results
  • But there is an ultimate equalizer: Death
  • The wisdom to surrender to God is the only answer to the ultimate Equalizer

Application Questions:

How are you with this ‘Everyone’s actions are in God’s Hands’ declaration?

How at peace are you with the idea that this life will end soon?

Looking at your time, emotions and resources, what is the ratio of those things used for ‘Self-Fulfillment’ VS ‘Kingdom-Fulfillment’? (Time. 45 total hrs: 20hrs / 25hrs)

Who are the targets of your discriminating? What is at the root of it?

/by

Ecclesiastes: What’s The Point? Pt. 6

Eternal Vision Provides Meaning

The struggle for meaning is as old as humankind. Where meaning comes from in our lives, how our lives can have eternal meaning is what this Scripture is revealing. Eternal life gives us ‘Eternal Perspective’. This is where we discover meaning and purpose: in the person and work of Jesus The Christ.

Chapter 7:15-29

15 I have seen everything in this meaningless life, including the death of good young people and the long life of wicked people. 16 So don’t be too good or too wise! Why destroy yourself? 17 On the other hand, don’t be too wicked either. Don’t be a fool! Why die before your time? 18 Pay attention to these instructions, for anyone who fears God will avoid both extremes.

  • Extremes are meaningless to pursue or default to
  • A wise & healthy life begins with the fear of God and is expressed in balance

19 One wise person is stronger than ten leading citizens of a town! 20 Not a single person on earth is always good and never sins. 21 Don’t eavesdrop on others—you may hear your servant curse you. 22 For you know how often you yourself have cursed others.

  • Wisdom is better than position (Western Culture often values the opposite)
  • Wisdom leads to a real assessment of yourself (Romans 12:3)

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.

  • Don’t go in search of what you should not be exposed to
  • Recognize the capacity of others to sin based on YOUR capacity to sin

23 I have always tried my best to let wisdom guide my thoughts and actions. I said to myself, “I am determined to be wise.” But it didn’t work. 24 Wisdom is always distant and difficult to find. 25 I searched everywhere, determined to find wisdom and to understand the reason for things. I was determined to prove to myself that wickedness is stupid and that foolishness is madness.

  • You can’t make yourself wise, you can only cooperate with God doing it
  • True wisdom, God’s wisdom, is totally beyond us. It is His alone to give
  • Using our mental faculties to understand the mind of God will always fall short
  • You get stuck in a humanist / temporal perspective

26 I discovered that a seductive woman is a trap more bitter than death. Her passion is a snare, and her soft hands are chains. Those who are pleasing to God will escape her, but sinners will be caught in her snare.

  • The ‘Seductive Woman’ is often used as a metaphor for passions of the flesh
  • Illegitimate pleasures are traps, snatching us away from God’s will & fellowship
  • Not desiring to please God, doing ‘what we know to be sin’… it enslaves us!
  • ‘Sinners’ = Ongoing Unrepentant Rebellion (Living only for this life)

27 “This is my conclusion,” says the Teacher. “I discovered this after looking at the matter from every possible angle. 28 Though I have searched repeatedly, I have not found what I was looking for. Only one out of a thousand men is virtuous, but not one woman! 29 But I did find this: God created people to be virtuous, but they have each turned to follow their own downward path.”

  • ‘The Qoheleth’ concludes, from HIS observations: Serious lack of virtue!
  • Men only .1% better than women (one in a thousand vs zero in a thousand)
  • The search for virtue in fallen mankind is like chasing the wind… Hevel
  • We are made in HIS image but sin; ‘Unrepentant Rebellion’ destroys our virtue
  • This is all meaningless with solely temporal perspective,

Chapter 8

How wonderful to be wise, to analyze and interpret things. Wisdom lights up a person’s face, softening its harshness.

  • When we can interpret life from God’s / Eternal point of view it limits frustration
  • Eternal perspective gives joy & contentment; relieves stress, confusion & anger

2 Obey the king since you vowed to God that you would. 3 Don’t try to avoid doing your duty, and don’t stand with those who plot evil, for the king can do whatever he wants. 4 His command is backed by great power. No one can resist or question it. 5 Those who obey him will not be punished.

  • Obedience to the authority God has placed us under is the ultimate expression of Wisdom (Eternal Perspective)
  • God’s sovereignty is enacted though earthly authorities: God’s power thru them
  • Obedience to who you are placed under is obedience to God
  • The promise of obedience
  • Every knee will eventually bow… all will be made to obey, we get to choose to!!

Those who are wise will find a time and a way to do what is right, 6 for there is a time and a way for everything, even when a person is in trouble. 7 Indeed, how can people avoid what they don’t know is going to happen? 8 None of us can hold back our spirit from departing. None of us has the power to prevent the day of our death. There is no escaping that obligation, that dark battle. And in the face of death, wickedness will certainly not rescue the wicked.

  • Prioritizing what God prioritizes no matter the circumstances
  • Today is the time to obey…you don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow
  • We have no control over our mortality, this life is finite
  • It is scary business, totally unavoidable
  • Evil ways of manipulating circumstances in life are of no help
    • It is implied that SOMETHING (SomeONE) can rescue…just not wickedness

9 I have thought deeply about all that goes on here under the sun, where people have the power to hurt each other. 10 I have seen wicked people buried with honor. Yet they were the very ones who frequented the Temple and are now praised in the same city where they committed their crimes! This, too, is meaningless.

  • Hurting others while exerting power over them = Oppression
  • Being powerful enough to control public image of you
  • Powerful enough to fabricate a religious persona when you are a criminal
  • The injustice is depressing you have nothing but a temporal perspective

11 When a crime is not punished quickly, people feel it is safe to do wrong. 12 But even though a person sins a hundred times and still lives a long time, I know that those who fear God will be better off. 13 The wicked will not prosper, for they do not fear God. Their days will never grow long like the evening shadows.

  • The rule of law, applied equally as humanly possible, is important to humanity
  • A wicked 70, 80 years VS ETERNITY with God in Perfection & Glory?
  • What is forming your days? Here and now or Eternity?
  • He is not speaking of earthy prosperity but rather eternal prosperity (Heaven)

14 And this is not all that is meaningless in our world. In this life, good people are often treated as though they were wicked, and wicked people are often treated as though they were good. This is so meaningless!

  • More meaninglessness, really?
  • ‘In this life’ There is not perfect justice…not possible in our fallen world
  • People can be misjudged & people can misjudge…

15 So I recommend having fun, because there is nothing better for people in this world than to eat, drink, and enjoy life. That way they will experience some happiness along with all the hard work God gives them under the sun.

  • ‘Under The Sun’ …If all you care about is THIS life under the sun…
  • Unless you find some other purpose to live this life for: ‘Party Up!’
  • Your meaningless enjoyment will be your ‘some happiness’

GOSPEL

16 In my search for wisdom and in my observation of people’s burdens here on earth, I discovered that there is ceaseless activity, day and night. 17 I realized that no one can discover everything God is doing under the sun. Not even the wisest people discover everything, no matter what they claim.

  • Activity to relieve burden doesn’t work, ‘No rest for the wicked’
  • It is not about ‘figuring out’ God,
  • It’s about surrendering you life to Christ and the Gospel
  • The are things beyond our discovery

Application Questions:

What are habits / lifestyle choices that help you have more eternal perspective?

How can you get others to participate in your self-evaluation?

What authority Structures have you been placed under? How is your obedience?

Who do you know that has obvious meaning and purpose in their life? Why?

/by

Ecclesiastes: What’s The Point? Pt. 5

Nothing is Certain in this Life

Chapter 6

1 There is another serious tragedy I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily on humanity. 2 God gives some people great wealth and honor and everything they could ever want, but then he doesn’t give them the chance to enjoy these things. They die, and someone else, even a stranger, ends up enjoying their wealth! This is meaningless—a sickening tragedy.

  • Meaningless – paradoxical: seemingly absurd or contradictory
  • When you try to grab it, it slips through your fingers
  • Tragedy ” A protagonist, usually a person of importance and outstanding personal qualities, falls to disaster through the combination of a personal failing and circumstances with which he or she cannot control.”
  • Weighs heavy, the frequency

3 A man might have a hundred children and live to be very old. But if he finds no satisfaction in life and doesn’t even get a decent burial, it would have been better for him to be born dead. 4 His birth would have been meaningless, and he would have ended in darkness. He wouldn’t even have had a name, 5 and he would never have seen the sun or known of its existence. Yet he would have had more peace than in growing up to be an unhappy man.

Meaningless – temporary / vapor

  • The Teacher is saying: ‘nothing is what it seems’
  • No man who lived experienced more, accumulated more
  • ESV v3: “but his soul is still not satisfied with life’s good things” – lack of purpose – we all recognize this
  • Decent burial : “still depart unnoticed, unlamented and unfulfilled.”
  • Better to die in the womb than to spend your whole life dead

6 He might live a thousand years twice over but still not find contentment. And since he must die like everyone else—well, what’s the use? 7 All people spend their lives scratching for food, but they never seem to have enough.

  • We could live 2000 years and still end in the same place stillborn
  • This observation is lacking spiritual context
  • Some people work their whole lives, never able to stop to enjoy it.
  • We think we know what Justice is, but it doesn’t seem to be true all the time.
  • Ecc. 1:7 “All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full”
  • After winning the world series, do those guys retire? NO! They want more…

8 So are wise people really better off than fools? Do poor people gain anything by being wise and knowing how to act in front of others? 9 Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don’t have. Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless—like chasing the wind.

  • V 8, leaving God out, leads to a conflict (wisdom good or not?)
  • V 9 gets to envy, coveting
  • It is meaningless unless we can enjoy it!
  • The conclusion here is to adjust your expectations so your world view doesn’t shatter when horrible things happen for doing the right thing.

10 Everything has already been decided. It was known long ago what each person would be. So there’s no use arguing with God about your destiny. 11 The more words you speak, the less they mean. So what good are they? 12 In the few days of our meaningless lives, who knows how our days can best be spent? Our lives are like a shadow. Who can tell what will happen on this earth after we are gone?

  • V 10 the human condition is what it has always been
  • We are made in the image of God, but sin has made it broken and dysfunctional.
  • Martin Luther said “As things have been, so they still are; and as things are, so they will be.”
  • V 11 is repeated from 5:2: the more we talk, the emptier our words become
  • Job argued with God, he discovered how that goes

Chapter 7

1 A good reputation is more valuable than costly perfume. And the day you die is better than the day you are born. 2 Better to spend your time at funerals than at parties. After all, everyone dies—so the living should take this to heart.

  • V 1 in Hebrew it is word play, translation that is closer: “Fair fame is better than fine perfume.”
  • Our reputation ties to our burial ch 6:3
  • All four things mentioned are good things, perfume is GREAT in the ‘smelly world of Solomon’
  • Thomas Boston on Followers of Christ: “In the day of our birth we are born to die, but in the day of our death we die to live.”

This is true for those who have surrendered to Christ as our savior. We find greater purity, deeper rest, better company than the world we entered on the day we were born, our death is our entrance into glory. Our desire for self-esteem shoves bad thoughts out, we don’t like to dwell on painful things. Our natural instinct is to hide in the vapor / meaninglessness. Our reputation is important: we represent Jesus Christ as His followers. Living for the reputation of Christ is what gives our lives meaning / purpose

3 Sorrow is better than laughter, for sadness has a refining influence on us. 4 A wise person thinks a lot about death, while a fool thinks only about having a good time.

  • The ESV renders V 3: “By sadness of face the heart is made glad”
  • Young people, those in college are not interested in significant things
  • The tendency is to stick to things that numb those thoughts. Superficial lifestyle
  • Without eternal perspective we live ignoring the reality that nothing is certain in this life

5 Better to be criticized by a wise person than to be praised by a fool. 6 A fool’s laughter is quickly gone, like thorns crackling in a fire. This also is meaningless.

  • We learn best from wise people
  • True discipleship includes aspects of personal rebuke ‘Kind Disapproval’
  • Hebrew words for thorn and pot sound very similar “crackling thorns under a pot”
  • Thorns don’t burn very long, no substance
  • In Luke 6:25 Jesus says: If you don’t take things serious, it’ll come to a bad end.
  • If we are wise we will deal with our own mortality

7 Extortion turns wise people into fools, and bribes corrupt the heart. 8 Finishing is better than starting. Patience is better than pride. 9 Control your temper, for anger labels you a fool. 10 Don’t long for “the good old days.” This is not wise.

  • The corruption of the powerful, it happened then, it happens now: timeless truth of the human condition
  • Pride has redeeming traits, but quickly turns to sin.
  • One’s prayer life is a good example; start small. But the end is better, when God molds/grows us
  • Looking back on old times, can be dangerous, you lose touch with the present
  • Live in the moment, enjoy where you’re at, make the most of today

11 Wisdom is even better when you have money. Both are a benefit as you go through life. 12 Wisdom and money can get you almost anything, but only wisdom can save your life.

  • How does wisdom save your life? It is only through God’s wisdom that we surrender to Christ
  • True wisdom is a growing focus on the eternal, moving away from focus on meaninglessness
  • True wisdom itself is eternal; it cannot be lost or lose it’s value
  • Wisdom is made greater with money – deploying resources to help others gain wisdom.

13 Accept the way God does things, for who can straighten what He has made crooked?

  • All of the things that God has made is crooked, (from our point of view) who are we to straighten them?
  • Avoid being too definitive in your statements about this world, a little humility goes a long way
  • When we view catastrophes, genocide, childhood death we should defer to ‘God Knows Best’
  • God has HIS ways and timing Ecc. 3:11 “Everything is beautiful in its time”
  • This includes the things we may think are twisted and ugly.

14 Enjoy prosperity while you can, but when hard times strike, realize that both come from God. Remember that nothing is certain in this life.

  • Enjoy what God has allowed us to enjoy, be content with your lot in this life
  • Remain somber, be reverent regarding the challenges He has given you.
  • Ageless Truth: Nothing is certain in this life! We may think we know…

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:

Who in your life gives you ‘wise criticism’? Have you given someone the license to do this?

Why shouldn’t you ‘long for the good old days’?

Do you think God is really sovereign over the bad things that come our way? Why?

/by