# 15 2024 Dev. Ecclesiastes 8:1. Wisdom! Read all of chapter eight first. We invite you into God’s space, to read His Word, to think on and interact with. This is God’s story. Do you believe that this may also be part of our story, in our time? All passages are taken from the NIV.
Ecc. 8:1 “A person’s wisdom brightens their face and changes its hard appearance.”
Ecc.8. Ecclesiastes is a difficult book and there are different ways to deal with it. One way is to look at the plain meaning of the text. Often the material is a foil to what is good and to what is meaningful. The “teacher” asks a question; “Who is like the wise?” Who can tell someone else what is to come? Again he says: “No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun.”
Vs.1-6 “Who is like the wise? Who knows the explanation of things?” The teacher ask two questions: Are you wise, can you explain things, life, death, finances, health, love, hate? Yes, we can. Do we know everything? No, but by living by God’s grace yes, we can know things more than those who do not. Those who practice wisdom are relaxed and assured by faith. They obey the rules, they know right from wrong and practice that in its time.
Vs.7-8 “Since no one knows the future, who can tell someone what is to come?” That is true, but there are predicable outcomes, for goodness, for wise choices, for choosing good or for bad, “so wickedness will not release those who practice it.”
Vs.9-13 We live in a broken world, as the teacher also sees the exploitation of others and the injustice of a long life for the wicked. “Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them”. Do not envy those who are rich and live a long life, it is all in God’s hands and he rewards those accordingly, “what is wealth if you lose your soul?”
Vs.14-15 “The righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve.” What is the difference between the wicked and the righteous? We all sin and “fall short of God’s glory.” By God’s grace we serve by faith and are righteous in Christ, Amen? But even the wicked serve God, unbeknown to them, but they benefit those who serve God! Thanks be to God. In faith we may rejoice, enjoy life, “all the days of the life God has given them”.
Vs.16-17 “No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun.” But if we see “all that God has done”, if we see life and the world in the light of the Words of God and in Jesus’s love we know more and understand more than one who does not have the light. Praise be to God. Let Your Light Shine!’
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