Ecclesiastes Bible Study - Week Four

Week 4

Word

Ecclesiastes 7:1 – 8:17 (NRSV)

7A good name is better than precious ointment,
   and the day of death, than the day of birth.
² It is better to go to the house of mourning
   than to go to the house of feasting;
for this is the end of everyone,
   and the living will lay it to heart.
³ Sorrow is better than laughter,
   for by sadness of countenance the heart is made glad.
⁴ The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning;
   but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
⁵ It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise
   than to hear the song of fools.
⁶ For like the crackling of thorns under a pot,
   so is the laughter of fools;
   this also is vanity.
⁷ Surely oppression makes the wise foolish,
   and a bribe corrupts the heart.
⁸ Better is the end of a thing than its beginning;
   the patient in spirit are better than the proud in spirit.
⁹ Do not be quick to anger,
   for anger lodges in the bosom of fools.
¹⁰ Do not say, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’
   For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.
¹¹ Wisdom is as good as an inheritance,
   an advantage to those who see the sun.
¹² For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money,
   and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to the one who possesses it.
¹³ Consider the work of God;
   who can make straight what he has made crooked?

14 On the day of prosperity be joyful, and on the day of adversity consider; God has made the one as well as the other, so that mortals may not find out anything that will come after them.

15 In my vain life I have seen everything; there are righteous people who perish in their righteousness, and there are wicked people who prolong their life in their evildoing. ¹⁶Do not be too righteous, and do not act too wise; why should you destroy yourself? ¹⁷Do not be too wicked, and do not be a fool; why should you die before your time? ¹⁸It is good that you should take hold of the one, without letting go of the other; for the one who fears God shall succeed with both.

19 Wisdom gives strength to the wise more than ten rulers that are in a city.

20 Surely there is no one on earth so righteous as to do good without ever sinning.

21 Do not give heed to everything that people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you; ²²your heart knows that many times you have yourself cursed others.

23 All this I have tested by wisdom; I said, ‘I will be wise’, but it was far from me. ²⁴That which is, is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out? ²⁵I turned my mind to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the sum of things, and to know that wickedness is folly and that foolishness is madness. ²⁶I found more bitter than death the woman who is a trap, whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are fetters; one who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. ²⁷See, this is what I found, says the Teacher, adding one thing to another to find the sum, ²⁸which my mind has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found. ²⁹See, this alone I found, that God made human beings straightforward, but they have devised many schemes.

8Who is like the wise man?
   And who knows the interpretation of a thing?
Wisdom makes one’s face shine,
   and the hardness of one’s countenance is changed.

2 Keep the king’s command because of your sacred oath. ³Do not be terrified; go from his presence, do not delay when the matter is unpleasant, for he does whatever he pleases. ⁴For the word of the king is powerful, and who can say to him, ‘What are you doing?’ ⁵Whoever obeys a command will meet no harm, and the wise mind will know the time and way. ⁶For every matter has its time and way, although the troubles of mortals lie heavy upon them. ⁷Indeed, they do not know what is to be, for who can tell them how it will be? ⁸No one has power over the wind to restrain the wind, or power over the day of death; there is no discharge from the battle, nor does wickedness deliver those who practice it. ⁹All this I observed, applying my mind to all that is done under the sun, while one person exercises authority over another to the other’s hurt.

10 Then I saw the wicked buried; they used to go in and out of the holy place, and were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity. ¹¹Because sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the human heart is fully set to do evil. ¹²Though sinners do evil a hundred times and prolong their lives, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they stand in fear before him, ¹³but it will not be well with the wicked, neither will they prolong their days like a shadow, because they do not stand in fear before God.

14 There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people who are treated according to the conduct of the wicked, and there are wicked people who are treated according to the conduct of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. ¹⁵So I commend enjoyment, for there is nothing better for people under the sun than to eat, and drink, and enjoy themselves, for this will go with them in their toil through the days of life that God gives them under the sun.

16 When I applied my mind to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how one’s eyes see sleep neither day nor night, ¹⁷then I saw all the work of God, that no one can find out what is happening under the sun. However much they may toil in seeking, they will not find it out; even though those who are wise claim to know, they cannot find it out.

Information

·       The teacher goes through a series of proverbs about wise choices and making wise decisions.

·       The teacher is trying to understand God's perspective, and acknowledging that it is extremely hard for humans to do so.

·       There is an interesting play of images with wisdom being “an advantage to those who see the sun” and the Teacher’s repetitious thought about everything being vanity “under the sun.”

·       The teacher feels that life is more of a marathon and not a sprint, which is something disaster response teams learn to counsel others, and is something we can all understand right now. What we originally thought was going to be a sprint in the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic took way longer than we could ever have imagined.

·       Numerous Christian authors have written through the ages about the way suffering leads to wisdom more than easy living. The Teacher speaks of this through the proverbs.

·       The Teacher alludes to human sin in saying that God made humans straightforward, yet we devise many schemes. We do have a tendency to create our own drama and small evils and hates.

·       "whose face has shone in scripture" Moses, Jesus - both of whom were wise by God and not by human standards

·       The teacher is only one of many who have told people to let their light shine, Jesus does as well

·       Authority versus wisdom, we can see how this plays out on the political stage, authority does not always exhibit wisdom and sometimes wisdom is not listened to by authority.

·       God is mostly unknowable. We know many things about God, but we still cannot find the fullness of God or what God is doing in the world. This is both comforting and fear inducing. Even in being wise, or more so in being wise, one knows one cannot know everything about God.

Silence

Wait for a minute

Discussion

1.     Which is your favorite proverb from chapter 7 and why?

2.     How do you know when you are making wise decisions?

3.     How is patience playing a role in your life right now? Do you feel like patience makes you wiser?

4.     the teacher is struggling with anger, nostalgia, and forgiveness, do those go together for you?

5.     How do you tell authority and power apart? What influence do you give either in your life?

6.     Who have you seen who has a "shining face"?

7.     The Teacher keeps concluding that it is best to enjoy your work, your eating and drinking, and your life, and that this is God's purpose for people in the world. Do you agree with the Teacher or not? Why?

Orans (Prayer)

39. For those who Influence Public Opinion
Almighty God, you proclaim your truth in every age by many voices: Direct, in our time, we pray, those who speak where many listen and write what many read; that they may do their part in making the heart of this people wise, its mind sound, and its will righteous; to the honor of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP 827)

Motivation (Art)

Bible Art – picture

Has anyone else done any Bible art? Would you be willing to share a picture?