Shiny, Happy People
- Wisdom can soften up your face, make you more easy-going, and give your appearance a nice healthy glow.
- Ecclesiastes stresses obedience to the king. Certain things are too powerful for humans to try to control: the command of the king, the wind or "breath of life," and the day when death will come. Wickedness can't help.
- Even though the wicked may get respect in this life and then be buried by admirers, ultimately those who fear God will get the all-around best deal. Even though the acts of the wicked seem to make their lives longer, somehow it's going to work out in favor of the good.
Waffling Wisdom
- But as things are, it's clearly true that the wicked often are treated as though they were good, and the righteous people are treated the way evil people ought to be treated. Ecclesiastes seems to be waffling a bit, here. Flip-flopper!
- He returns to his point about enjoying the good things in life and taking comfort in them as you go about your work.
- Again, he also goes back to the point about God being the only one who knows everything. Even the wisest people don't stand a chance of getting their minds around what's really going on in the world.