Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 says,....Bible reading week 10, day 3

Today's verses are Ecclesiastes 9:7-10, which read,

v.7 - Go then, eat your bread in happiness and drink your wine with a cheerful heart; for God has already approved your works.

Solomon has told us repeatedly that all will die.  There is a benefit to hard work and also to wisdom but it doesn't erase the fact that even those who we would say are following what is good and right also die and sometimes die before those who are following bad and wrong.  He gives us the encouragement to continue in our wisdom which is the fear of God and also our hard work and respect and love for others in light of this fact about death.

While we are living this way we can eat our bread in happiness and drink our wine with a cheerful heart because we are following after our God who sees and knows our activities.  We really enjoy life when we are following after the One who has given us life.  Obedience brings a peace that disobedience can not produce.  When God is God in your life and you are following after Him, you begin to truly enjoy life as He created it to be enjoyed.

v.8 - Let your clothes be white all the time and let not oil be lacking on your head.

White clothing could indicate someone living a life of purity or someone who is not working.  Oil to the head would seem to indicate maybe the pure life because oil was for anointing those who made a vow to God.  Let's go with someone who is living a daily life under the anointing of God but we know that Solomon can get sarcastic at times.

Do others see a person whose life represents holiness?  Just as we wear clothes and they observe what we are wearing do they see that we are wearing Christ?  They also used oil to manage their hair and it was a part of their hygiene so do others see us attending to ourselves in relationship to our God?  Our movements and our actions reflect something to others that they can observe.  What do they see and hear in relationship to our walk before God?

v.9 - Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which He has given to you under the sun; for this is your reward in life and in your toil in which you have labored under the sun.

Another aspect of life that can be observed is our marriage to another if we are in that position.  As we live after God and we are married then that marriage should also reflect those same values.  When it does then we do truly enjoy life with the one we deem given to us by God as a reward or blessing to this time we have on earth.  We get to share this joy of following after God with another.  

Being married going on 33 years has been a highlight of my life.  I have had the privilege of walking more of my life with Stephanie than without her.  I have enjoyed life with her.  Together we have had the opportunity to see others coming into this world physically and spiritually.  This toil has been a blessing to me with the bonus that I was able to share those times with a marriage partner who follows after God also.

v.10 - Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going.

Solomon throws a ringer in here.  It seems he is talking about good things and then he gives us a verse that talks about Shoel, hell, and we are going there.  Could Solomon be talking now to the fool, the unwise, and doing a side by side to those who don't follow after God?  Instead of bread and wine which are staples of life; instead of clothing representing purity and oil representing an anointing in a vow to God; and instead of a godly marriage he addresses the one who does "whatever."  The "whatever" could signify the one who goes to the pleasures of life beyond the bread and wine to find happiness and cheerfulness.  The "whatever" could signify the one who wears clothes of sin and does things outside any type of vow or commitment to God.  The "whatever" could signify the one who violates a holy relationship that God has given us.  

Solomon could be speaking to the one who is rejecting the good God has given us and stating the fact that no other way devised by man is going to lead to heaven but rather to hell.  No human activity, no human planning, no human knowledge, and no human wisdom will keep you out of hell, Sheol.  I will go with this reading and understanding of this passage and see what Friday brings.  Let us pray.

"Lord, what blessings You have brought our way and they are truly blessings when we see that they have come from You and we are living our lives in light of You.  Help us to truly live because we are following the One who gave us our very lives.  May my enjoying life be a reflection of obedience to You.  Amen."

Pastor Adam