Is this saying about the concept of “original sin.”? It may signify the whole of human devices, imaginations, inventions, artifice, with all their products; arts, sciences, schemes, plans, and all that they have found out for the destruction or melioration of life. God has given man wondrous faculties; and of them he has made strange [...]
Archive for the ‘Ecclesiastes’ Category
Ecc 7:29: “God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices” Leave a comment
Eccl 11:2: Give portions to seven, yes to eight, for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land. Leave a comment
This could be speaking to the subject of benevolence of sowing, but, realizing that we do not know what could come up in the land. So, dont set your heart on riches. We do not know what the future may hold. God will hold to his promises in season, but we dont know what each [...]
Eccl 1:3-18: What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Leave a comment
Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow. I, the Teacher, was king over [...]
Eccl 3:2: A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which was planted Leave a comment
The farmer or gardener is not wholly free. The climate, the nature of the soil, and the seasonal factors limit his selection of crops. He must sow in the springtime and reap in the fall, and no amount of effort on his part can alter these dictums of nature.
Eccl 1:2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” Leave a comment
The beginning of hopelessness. Also translated “vanity of vanities…all is vanity.”
Eccl 11: 5: As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things. Leave a comment
Sell explanatory scripture.
Eccl 2:16: For there is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever, Since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come. And how does a wise man die? As the fool! Leave a comment
Solomon found that knowledge and prudence were preferable to ignorance and folly, though human wisdom and knowledge will not make a man happy. The most learned of men, who dies a stranger to Christ Jesus, will perish equally with the most ignorant; and what good can commendations on earth do to the body in the [...]
Eccl 2:3: I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life. Leave a comment
Apparently Solomon thought that under the influence of wine he might obtain deeper insights than those which come through sober reflection, but again he was disappointed. The stimulation afforded by alcohol did not give him the flashes of awareness he was seeking. He did not let himself become slave of drink during the time, however, [...]
Ecclesiastes 4:6 Leave a comment
Ecc 1:3-4: What profit has a man from all his labor In which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earth abides forever. Leave a comment
The word for WORK is the Hebrew ‘AMAL and looks at hard work. No easy job is being described here but the hard toil that has been the lot of man since the fall: A persons time on earth comes to an end so quickly that one wonders if the effort to accomplish anything is [...]
Eccl 5:2: “Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven and you on earth: therefore let your words be few.” Leave a comment
When we make a commitment, unless we find it to be a sinful one, we are to carry out that commitment. The great example we have is God’s commitment to sinners.
Ecclesiastes Leave a comment
The Book of Ecclesiastes, written by inspiration of God, contains many of mankinds most serious reflections. These are not necessarily God’s truth, but they stimulate the minds and hearts of men by forcing them to confront the hopelessness which is the logical result of facing life without God. Eccl 9:3: “…the hearts of the sons [...]
Eccl 11: 1: Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again. Leave a comment
When the Nile overflows its banks the weeds perish and the soil is disintegrated. The rice-seed being cast into the water takes root, and is found in due time growing in healthful vigour. One has also interpreted it: The expression “cast your bread on the surface of the waters,” is taken from the custom of [...]
Eccl 11: 3: If clouds are full of water, they pour rain upon the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there will it lie. Leave a comment
It is God who controls the fall of the tree out in the forest; whether it falls to the south or the north is within the scope of divine providence to determine, but where it falls, that is where it is to be. This is Solomon’s way of saying, “Where God has put you that [...]
Eccl 3:1-9: To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth? I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. Leave a comment
The scope of these verses is to show, 1. That we live in a world of changes, that the several events of time, and conditions of human life, are vastly different from one another, and yet occur promiscuously, and we are continually passing and repassing between them, as in the revolutions of every day and [...]
Eccl 11: 3: If clouds are full of water, they pour rain upon the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there will it lie. Leave a comment
It is God who controls the fall of the tree out in the forest; whether it falls to the south or the north is within the scope of divine providence to determine, but where it falls, that is where it is to be. This is Solomon’s way of saying, “Where God has put you that [...]
