Text:\u00a0<\/strong>Ecclesiates 9:1-12<\/p>\n The Preacher concluded the eighth chapter with another of his oft-repeated observations that God’s ways are inscrutable to men, however wise (Ecclesiastes 8:17). Job, in his misery, twice asks plaintively: “But where can wisdom\u00a0be found? And where is the place of understanding?<\/em>” (Job 28:12, 20). He then answers his own question: “God understands its way, and He knows\u00a0its place<\/em>” (Job 28:23). What then are we\u00a0to do? He answers again: “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding<\/em>” (Job 28:28). Only to the degree God has revealed His plan to us can we understand. The rest is shrouded, and for that, we must trust Him. This, too, is Solomon’s unchanging answer to his repeated failures to grasp the nature of life under the sun fully.<\/p>\n One of the challenges in studying Ecclesiastes is the limited emphasis on God’s benevolent providence for the righteous amid all the pain and disappointments to which they are heir. There is a greater boldness in the New Testament on this subject (Romans 5:1-4; 8:28-39; Hebrews 12:5-11). In Ecclesiastes, this truth is more implicit than stated, but in chapter nine, it briefly surfaces. “For I considered all this<\/em> [life’s mysteries] in my heart<\/em>,” Solomon writes, “so that I could declare it all: that the righteous and the wise and all their works are\u00a0in the hand of God<\/em>” (Ecclesiastes 9:1). Heretofore the Preacher has simply stressed that divine justice will at last be done (Ecclesiastes 3:17; 8:12,13). Now, he stresses that through all the storms and stresses that beset the righteous, they are being carried in the gracious arms of an almighty God. As Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. ably summed it up: “Our quest for identity, meaning, and an explanation of the presence of evil, injustice, and inequities in life must end where\u00a0Solomon’s did — in the fact that God sits at the helm, ruling and overruling for good” [Ecclesiastes – Total Life<\/em>, p. 94].<\/p>\n Nevertheless, no matter how true\u00a0that is, the Preacher reemphasizes that such will not always be evident\u00a0in what we experience here: “People know neither love nor hatred by anything they see that is before them<\/em>” (Ecclesiastes 9:1). He illustrates his point by proving that “all things come alike\u00a0to all.” The same thing happens to both the righteous and the wicked, the good and the sinner, the religious and the non-religious, the committed and uncommitted. They all go to\u00a0the dead (Ecclesiastes 9:2-3). As a result, some heedless men fill themselves up with evil until they are crazy with it (Ecclesiastes 9:3; I Peter 4:3-5). And sin and madness surely do go together. We must be truly out of our minds if we think\u00a0we can push the God who created us out of our lives and practice all the things that dishonor Him and injure others. So mindless people waste the one life they are given and plunge headlong into the death they know is coming and which will offer them no opportunity to change their destiny. Whatever they were, it is done (Ecclesiastes 9:4-6). Solomon is not speaking here of annihilation (how could there be\u00a0a judgment?) but of the fact that\u00a0they will “nevermore have a share in anything done under the sun.<\/em>” The preciousness of life he has earlier stressed with a proverb: “But for him who is joined to the living there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion<\/em>” (Ecclesiastes 9:4).<\/p>\n So, if the righteous are not to be distinguished from the wicked in\u00a0their circumstances and their end, what should the righteous do? Should they allow their griefs and troubles\u00a0to consume them, to brood and\u00a0mope in pessimistic gloom? Solomon rejects this reaction as he has many times before (Ecclesiastes 2:24; 3:12-13, 22; 5:18-19; 8:15), and here his exhortation to joy comes to a rather powerful conclusion (Ecclesiastes 9:7-10). Don’t just hope\u00a0to live, he urges, live! Receive God’s gifts gratefully, and though you may not always have them, enjoy them when you do. Eat your food and savor it with gladness (Acts 2:46; the wine mentioned here is not a drug as in Proverbs 20:1; 23:29-35, but wholesome food as in Lamentations 2:11-12). Wear with gratitude the clothes you have been given and the soothing oil for your head, remembering that God has accepted your need for such things (Ecclesiastes 9:7-8). And even more importantly, live joyfully with the mate God has blessed you with and give yourself heartily to your work (Ecclesiastes 9:9-10).<\/p>\n And, how can we do that? Because, though the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, and death is certain (Ecclesiastes 9:11-12), we are in the hands of a gracious and all-powerful God who loves us.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Paul Earnhart via Biblical Insights, Vol. 15 No 2, February 2015 Text:\u00a0Ecclesiates 9:1-12 The Preacher concluded the eighth chapter with another of his oft-repeated observations that God’s ways are inscrutable to men, however wise (Ecclesiastes 8:17). Job, in his misery, twice asks plaintively: “But where can wisdom\u00a0be found? And where is the place of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[791,376,1287,182,188],"class_list":["post-67919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-ecclesiastes","tag-enjoyment","tag-joy","tag-suffering","tag-trials"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":56057,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/elihus-discipline-and-correction-of-job\/","url_meta":{"origin":67919,"position":0},"title":"Elihu’s Discipline and Correction of Job","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Pat Gates via\u00a0Our Hope Online Job 34 Elihu's Charge Against Job Speaks without knowledge Words without wisdom Answers like a wicked man Is rebellious and multiplies his words against God \"Job speaks without knowledge, His words are without wisdom. Oh, that Job were tried to the utmost, Because his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29079,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-is-the-one-man-among-a-thousand-and-why-couldnt-a-woman-be-found\/","url_meta":{"origin":67919,"position":1},"title":"Who is the one man among a thousand and why couldn’t a woman be found?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What does Ecclesiastes 7:28 mean? Who did Solomon refer to as the one upright man? Was it himself? Did Solomon manage to find a good wife, as some verses from Proverbs and Ecclesiastes seem to suggest not? If yes, how could he love them but not seem to trust\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47985,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-was-the-king-of-tyre-in-ezekiel-28\/","url_meta":{"origin":67919,"position":2},"title":"Who was the King of Tyre in Ezekiel 28?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Who was the King of Tyre in Ezekiel chapter 28? Thank you for maintaining your site it has been most helpful to me. God bless. Answer: The king of Tyre at the time Ezekiel was written was Ithobaal III (sometimes spelled Ethbaal III) who reigned from 591-573 BC. His\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9854,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-meaning-of-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":67919,"position":3},"title":"The Meaning of Life (Bailey)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Daniel Bailey originally published in\u00a0Gospel Power, Volume 13, Number 15, April 9, 2006 What is the meaning of life? That's a tough question. Millions of people all through the centuries have spent their lives pondering and searching to produce an answer to this fundamental question of human existence. Many\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/05\/scholar.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":27703,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-job-3626-saying-we-can-never-exhaust-the-knowledge-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":67919,"position":4},"title":"Is Job 36:26 saying we can never exhaust the knowledge of God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I would like to get your opinion to see if I am interpreting the Bible correctly on this one passage. Job 36:26 American Standard Version: Behold, God is great, and we know him not; The number of his years is unsearchable. Stated this way I believe it is telling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33401,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/becoming-wise-men\/","url_meta":{"origin":67919,"position":5},"title":"Becoming Wise Men","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Steven Harper When Job had suffered some great losses due to the devil's personal attack on him,\u00a0we are told\u00a0\"when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}He leadeth me! O blessed tho’t!
\nO words with heavenly comfort fraught!
\nWhate’er I do, where-e’er I be,
\nStill ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me.
\n[Joseph H. Gilmore, 1862]<\/blockquote>\n