Ecclesiastes 7:7-14 says...Bible reading, week 6, day 5

Today's verses are Ecclesiastes 7:7-14 which read,

v.7, 8 - For oppression makes a wise man mad, and a bribe corrupts the heart.  The end of a matter is better than its beginning; patience of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit.

There are things in this world that prick our conscience and especially those who are wise.  Those who fear God and revere who He is and what He says will see oppression, that bearing down on another, and recognize it as wrong and even stir up the emotion of being mad about it.  This would be a righteous anger about something that is wrong.  The taking advantage of another or a situation by taking a bribe does more than just get you what you want or out of a jam, it corrupts your heart.  You alter your moral compass and rely on what you think and maybe what is comfortable to you than following what is right in the eyes of God.

It is better to be patient and wait on the Lord than to take pride in oneself that you can alter His way and be okay.  You know better than God in this situation.  In the end, God's justice will prevail and it will be better than the beginning.  The world is taking advantage of itself and we see the effects of it in a negative way but in the end God will sort it out with His perfect judgment.  

v.9, 10 - Do not be eager in your heart to be angry; for anger resides in the bosom of fools.  Do not say, "Why is it that the former days were better than these?"  For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.

How do I solve the situation that is in front of me?  Do I solve it with anger?  Do I succumb to the thinking that the loudest voice wins?  If I try to solve the situation with anger then anger becomes a tool that used often will be treasured by me.  I might even hold onto anger longer than I should because it resides now in my bosom, in my innermost parts, to love and feed.  I relish in being able to be angry and to be angry at others.  I have become eager to be angry and speak against others as a form of communication that fills my conversations.

Another way to solve the situation in front of me is to always be looking back inside of looking and acting forward.  I talk about the good old days and complain about these days as some type of solution.  We will not solve the situations of this day by simply bringing up what was done in the past and probably glorifying it more than it was.  We can draw from the past but it needs to be married with some concrete action of the present and plans for the future.  "All talk, no action" I think is what Solomon is getting at here.  

v.11, 12 - Wisdom along with an inheritance is good and an advantage to those who see the sun.  For wisdom is protection just as money is protection, but the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the lives of it possessors.

Solomon now gives us the solution of wisdom.  Instead of solving the problem by anger or by just looking back he tells us to look at wisdom.  Wisdom helps us to see the future.  Wisdom has the advantage that we would rise to see the sun rise on another day that we are living.  Wisdom provides protection like money provides protection to meet the obligations that we might have or to help others in need.  Money is great and it provides a type of security.

Wisdom also provides protection to meet our obligations and also to help others in time of need.  We feel the security of wisdom that is applied knowledge but it is so different from money that can be here today and gone tomorrow.  Wisdom stays with us when the money is gone.  We need wisdom to be content as Paul says when in plenty and in want.  It provides a lasting and underlayment of principles that other lesser providers stand upon.

v.13, 14 - Consider the work of God, for who is able to straighten what He has bent?  In the day of prosperity be happy, but in the day of adversity consider--God has made the one as well as the other so that man will not discover anything that will be after him.

Don't go the way of anger and don't go the way of always looking back but consider God.  Consider that God is in control of it all.  We call Him sovereign.  He can take what is bent and make it straight.  What seems to be broken, He can fix.  Because He is in control we can be happy when things are going our way and we can be considerate of Him when they are not.  We have hope in this One who has things in His hands and in His timing and we are not to know all the details that He knows.  When things seem bent or broken don't yell at it or just look back to the good old days but consider God and look to His wisdom to how we should respond in the present.  His wisdom will give us the security to do what is right in His eyes and continue to bring glory to His name.  Let us pray.

"Lord, what verses that show us what we usually do and what we need to do.  How we put our security in those things that are temporal instead of considering You who are eternal.  Help us to consider You today in light of what is in front of us.  Amen."

Pastor Adam