Wisdom Is Better Than Folly

Ecclesiastes 2:13-19 - I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness. The wise man has eyes in his head, while the fool walks in the darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both. Then I thought in my heart, "The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?" I said in my heart, "This too is meaningless." For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered; in days to come both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise man too must die! So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.

Psalm 49:10 - For all can see that wise men die; the foolish and the senseless alike perish and leave their wealth to others.

Ecclesiastes 9:11 - 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.

Ecclesiastes 3:21 - Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?"

Application:

· Have I obtained my wealth through foolish wisdom?
· I do not ultimately control events!
· I know the spirit of a righteous man rises upward because the gospel tells me so!

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Pleasures Are Meaningless

Ecclesiastes 2:2-12 - "Laughter," I said, "is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish?" I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives. I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well—the delights of the heart of man. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly. What more can the king's successor do than what has already been done?

Ecclesiastes 8:15 - So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 1:15,18 - What is twisted cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted…For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.

Application:

· Do I enjoy life?
· Does my wisdom (without God) lead to grief and sorrow?
· Do I accept things the way they are and accept my divinely appointed lot in life?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Wisdom Is Meaningless

Ecclesiastes 1:3-12,15,18 - 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. 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 Israel in Jerusalem…What is twisted cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted…For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.

Mark 8:38 - If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."

Application:

· Am I more concerned about fitting into and pleasing my own generation than about following and pleasing Christ?
· Do I happily accept things the way they are and accept my divinely appointed lot in life?
· Does my wisdom without God lead to grief and sorrow?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Teacher

Ecclesiastes 1:1-2 - The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."

Ecclesiastes 7:27-28 - "Look," says the Teacher, "this is what I have discovered: "Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things-while I was still searching but not finding—I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all.

Ecclesiastes 12:8 - "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Everything is meaningless!"

Application:

· Does my human wisdom and understanding always yield to revealed truth?
· Is my life based on God and His word?
· Is my life rightly related to God? (If not, life is meaningless, useless, hollow, futile and vain)

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Restore Us

Lamentations 5:21-22 - Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may return; renew our days as of old unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.

Isaiah 60:20-21 - Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end. Then will all your people be righteous and they will possess the land forever. They are the shoot I have planted, the work of my hands, for the display of my splendor.

Application:

· Christ's presence will be the light of joy and salvation!
· Am I evidence of God's redemptive work?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Hung

Lamentations 5:8-18 - Slaves rule over us, and there is none to free us from their hands. We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the desert. Our skin is hot as an oven, feverish from hunger. Women have been ravished in Zion, and virgins in the towns of Judah. Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders are shown no respect. Young men toil at the millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood. The elders are gone from the city gate; the young men have stopped their music. Joy is gone from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning. The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned! Because of this our hearts are faint, because of these things our eyes grow dim for Mount Zion, which lies desolate, with jackals prowling over it.

Nehemiah 5:15 - But the earlier governors—those preceding me—placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God I did not act like that.

Deuteronomy 21:22-23 - If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse. You must not desecrate the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Application:

· Do I abuse my authority?
· Christ accepted my sins and became a curse for me!

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Land of Uz

Lamentations 4:12-21 - The kings of the earth did not believe, nor did any of the world's people, that enemies and foes could enter the gates of Jerusalem. But it happened because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed within her the blood of the righteous. Now they grope through the streets like men who are blind. They are so defiled with blood that no one dares to touch their garments. "Go away! You are unclean!" men cry to them. "Away! Away! Don't touch us!" When they flee and wander about, people among the nations say, "They can stay here no longer." The LORD himself has scattered them; he no longer watches over them. The priests are shown no honor, the elders no favor. Moreover, our eyes failed, looking in vain for help; from our towers we watched for a nation that could not save us. Men stalked us at every step, so we could not walk in our streets. Our end was near, our days were numbered, for our end had come. Our pursuers were swifter than eagles in the sky; they chased us over the mountains and lay in wait for us in the desert. The LORD's anointed, our very life breath, was caught in their traps. We thought that under his shadow we would live among the nations. Rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom, you who live in the land of Uz. But to you also the cup will be passed; you will be drunk and stripped naked.

Jeremiah 19:4 - For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned sacrifices in it to gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.

Psalm 16:5 - LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.

Obadiah 1:16 - Just as you drank on my holy hill, so all the nations will drink continually; they will drink and drink and be as if they had never been.

Job 1:1 - In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.

Application:

· Do I combine worship of idols with worship of the one true God?
· Has the Lord offered me a cup of blessing or a cup of wrath?
· Have I profaned anything the Lord has proclaimed as holy?
· Am I spiritually and morally upright?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV