Death Comes to All
9:1 But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. 2 It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. 3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. 4 But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.
Enjoy Life with the One You Love
7 Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.
8 Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head.
9 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.
Wisdom Better than Folly
11 Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. 12 For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.
13 I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me. 14 There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siegeworks against it. 15 But there was found in it a poor, wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man. 16 But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not heard.
17 The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools. 18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good. (ESV)
12 Moreover, no man knows when his hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.
This verse tells us that all men will face tough times, we just do not know when they will come. It made me think of 1 Peter 4:12…”Do not be surprised at the painful trials that you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.” When we expect that we will face trials and suffering they are so much easier to handle. Knowing that trials are a normal part of every Christian’s life can help us do what 1 Peter 4:13 says we should do when tough times hit…”Rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ.”
10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.
This verse stood out to me because it reminded me to put everything i have into the task that is in front of me. Many times i find myself doing things half bait when i know i should be putting all my effort in. We should be doing everything to give God glory, no matter how big or small He will appreciate the hard work we put in.
7 Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do.
We have a very limited time here on Earth, and we need to make the most of it. Every day that we waste is a day that we will never get back, and since every day could be our last, we cannot afford to waste the time that God allots us. Likewise, whatever we do, we need to do it with joy and the goal of glorifying God. The meaningless things of this world will soon pass away, but whoever makes sacrifices in this life will be rewarded in eternity.
17 The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools.
Solomon is giving a good point here. He is saying that the whispers from a wise man are better than all of the shouts from fools. As christians, we live among a ;ot of foo;ish people, so we need to be on gaurd to he the quiet words of the wise around us.
18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.
It’s so important that as Christians we are being careful to obey the commands of the Lord. God’s commands are meant to protect us and others. When we disobey Him, we bring others down with us. I certainly don’t want to be the sinner that “destroys much good”!!
Ashlyn, your comment is so true! It was encouraging to me, thanks :)
4 Anyone who is among the living has hope —even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!
Salvation is the ultimate deciding factor. If we lived life so well that we became strong, powerful, rich, and popular people, but never realized that we were sinners and needed salvation from God who is Jesus Christ than we are to be pittied! On the other hand if we are just average people that work a honest 9 to 5 job and are just getting by but have salvation and the hope of eternal life than we are way better off than being powerful but not saved. Death comes to everyone; the only thing that will ever matter is if we repented of our sins and put our faith in Jesus Christ as God.
12 Moreover, no man knows when his hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.
This verse just shows us that no one will know the time that God will return. It says that we are trapped by evil times so we must warn others because we don’t know when God will come to judge.
9 Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun— all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun.
Solomon concludes that there is no purpose or meaning in life. He encourages enjoyment of life because he knows that one day everyone will die and there is no way to prevent it. Meaning in life comes from hope that someone has in the future. We should rejoice because we who are Christians have a hope and a reason to live because we know that we are saved from eternal separation from God. Therefore I am encouraged to live my life even more for Jesus.
10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.
I love this verse. It tells us that whatever we do, we need to be doing it with all our might. When people look at the things we do and accomplish, they should see the work of God, not meaningless work. I need to be hardworking and bring glory to God through the way I do things. And it’s always encouraging to know that we’ll be greatly rewarded for these things that we do on earth.
12 Moreover, no man knows when his hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.
I like this verse because it really shows that we have no idea what is coming our way. Only God knows our future. It makes me think of 1 corinthians 10:13 talking about that we will be tempted by evil but its encouraging to know that God will always have a way out for us and will never put to big of a temptation on us that we cant handle.
Just like Jeff, verse 12 really stood out to me.
It reminded me of what we(sophmores small group) talked about on wednesday at the beach night. We never know when the Lord will return or when we will die so it is crucial that we take advantage of the time we have. Furthermore; we should be greatful for the time that we are given and understand that the time given to us is not to be spent for our own pleasure and satisfaction but rather to be spent glorfying God!
Along with Matt and Jeff, we don’t know when Jesus will be returning. I was in Matt’s group wednesday and I remember saying how we always say to ourselves, “ya I could evangelise today but I’m too tired so I’ll wait till tomorrow.” The problem is we never know if tomorrow will even come. Jesus could come back while we’re asleep. We need to live each day as if it was our last and make sure we do everything for God’s glory.
1 So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no man knows whether love or hate awaits him.
This verse is so comforting to me in that no matter what happens, I am in God’s hands. There may be love or hate awaiting me in tomorrow, but I know that all I do is committed to God and that He is in control and will work it out if I submit it to Him. I never have to worry about tomorrow because I know He’s in control.
10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.
This verse gives a seize the day mentality. Life is short, so while we are alive let us live for the Lord will all that we have, before our time is up.
verse 12 also goes along great with what bobby said. We never know when our time will come, so we need to keep in mind that our time is short compared eternity… So I think we should use our ims more carefully.
11 I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.
This verse is saying that no matter how smart we are or how much money we have we don’t get everything that we wanted. We get what we need and that is what we need to be thankful for. We also need to make sure that we are always looking to God for everything we need. He will never leave us alone or without.
18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.
Wisdom is truely what wins a battle. No matter how many men you have a good plan or a wise compramise is what will win, and those all come from wisdom.