Ecclesiastes 6-8 - Outline

[Jim Watt]

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

May 29, 2013


 *NOV 9 - ECCLESIASTES 6-8 - QUEST BY PRACTICAL REALITY*


 *1. 6:12 (6:1-12, ESV) VARIOUS VANITIES: ATTEMPT AT UNDERSTANDING. “For
who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain
life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be
after him under the sun?” *Man apart from God lives in frustration and
apprehension. There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked. Father, this
is *not* the testimony of the man in Jesus! O teach us to submit to Your
Son’s mild reign. *Hallowed be your :name!*


 *2. 7:2 (7:1-14) VARIOUS PROVERBS AND ADVICE. “It is better to go to the
house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end
of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.” *Unadvised festivity
can be a snare. Life apart from trust in God is meaningless. Father, we
will take these insights to heart. *Your :kingdom come!*


 *3. 7:20 (7:15-22) VARIOUS VANITIES: TEMPERED BY MODERATION. “Surely there
is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.” *In our
flesh dwells *no good thing*! Only *You* in us is good, Father. We choose
to have no confidence in the flesh, only in *You*, and the wisdom You give.
*Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.*


 *4. 7:29 (7:23-29) VARIOUS PROBLEMS: SOLVED BY WISDOM. “See, this alone I
found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.” *It
seems Father, that man purposes to wander from You from the moment of his
birth. There is an innate rebellion in our heart that finds difficulty in
submitting to Your Kingdom and the rule of Your Christ. Purge us from this
spirit of rebellion. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.*


 *5. 8:1 (8:1-5) VARIOUS WISE COUNSELS REGARDING LEADERS. “Who is like the
wise? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man's wisdom makes his
face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed. *Our wisdom Father, is
submitting to Your Kingdom and Lordship, whether heavenly or earthly.
Blessed is the man who has this truth written on his heart. Purge us from
the spirit of rebellion. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have
forgiven our :debtors.*


 *6. 8:8 (8:6-8) VARIOUS PURPOSES: THEIR OWN TIME AND JUDGMENT. “No man has
power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. There is no
discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it.”
*How weak and powerless we are in our humanity, Father! Even the strong
rebel is weak before You. Blessed who understands these things and submits
to Your wise rule. *And bring us not into temptation.*


 *7. 8:11 (8:9-17) VARIOUS VANITIES: THEIR UNDERSTANDING UNSEARCHABLE. “Because
the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of
the children of man is fully set to do evil.” *The fear of JEHOVAH, that is
wisdom, and knowledge and understanding. The heart right with You Father,
is better than the head full of facts. We turn to You in our complete
trust! *But deliver us from the evil one!*


 *NOTE**: 7:8 (7:1-14) AN INSIGHT IN WISDOM. **“Better is the end of a
thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the
proud in spirit.” *This is a strange but important book. Father: may we
seek out till we understand Your purposes in it for us. May we walk in the
truth of this verse!


 *C.H. Spurgeon Quote: “Christians are sheep” - *“Some Christians try to go
to heaven alone, in solitude; but believers are not compared to bears, or
lions, or other animals that wander alone: but those who belong to Christ
are sheep in this respect, that they love to get together. Sheep go in
flocks, and so do God’s people.”


 *Our Psalm for the Day: 129:1-2 (129) THEY HAVE AFFLICTED ME FROM MY
YOUTH. “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth” - let Israel now say
- 2 “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not
prevailed against me.” *Father, *rightly* we place our trust in You, for in
*Your* right time you *always* deliver us! We may not always understand
You, but we can *always* trust You!


 Title: *“A Song of Degrees.” *I fail to see how this is a step beyond the
previous Psalm; and yet it is clearly the song of an older and more tried
individual, who looks back upon a life of affliction in which he suffered
all along, even from his youth. Inasmuch as patience is a higher, or at
least more difficult, grace than domestic love, the ascent or progress may
perhaps be seen in that direction.


 129:1. *Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now
say. *The song begins abruptly. The poet has been musing, and the fire
burns; therefore speaks he with his tongue; he cannot help it; he feels
that he must speak, and therefore “many now say” what he has to say. The
earliest years of Israel and of the church of God are spent in trial. Babes
in grace are cradled in opposition. No sooner is the manchild born than the
dragon is after it. “It is,” however, “good for a man that he bear the yoke
in his youth,” and he shall see it to be so when in after days he tells the
tale.


 129:2. *Yet they have not prevailed against me. *Cast down, but not
destroyed,” is the shout of a victor. Israel has wrestled and has overcome
in the struggle. Who wonders? If Israel overcame the angel of the covenant,
what man or devil shall vanquish him?


 129:4. *He has cut asunder the cords of the wicked. *Never has God used a
nation to chastise His Israel without destroying that nation when the
chastisements has come to a close: He hates those who hurt His people even
though He permits their hate to triumph for a while for His own purpose. If
any man would have his harness cut, let him begin to plough one of the
Lord’s fields with the plough of persecution. The shortest way to ruin is
to meddle with a saint: the Divine warning is, “He that touches you touches
the apple of His eye.”


 129:5. *Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion. *Study
a chapter from the *Book of Martyrs* and see if you do not feel inclined to
read an imprecatory Psalm over Bishop Bonner and Bloody Mary. It may be
that some wretched nineteenth century sentimentalist will blame you: if so,
read another *over him.*


 129:6. *Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withers afore
it grows up. *One of the fathers said of the Apostle Emperor Julian, “That
little cloud will soon be gone”; and so it was. Every skeptical system of
philosophy has much the same history; and the like may be said of each
heresy. Poor, rootless things, they are and are not: they come and go, even
though no one rises against them. Evil carries the seeds of dissolution
within itself. So let it be.


 129:7. *Wherewith the mower fills not his hand; nor he that binds sheaves
his bosom.* Easterns carry their corn in their bosoms, but in this case
there was nothing to bear home. Thus do the wicked come to nothing. By
God’s just appointment, they prove a disappointment. Their fire ends in
smoke; their verdure turns to vanity; their flourishing is but a form of
withering. No one profits by them, least of all are they profitable to
themselves. Their aim is bad, their work is worse, their end is worst of
all.


 129:8. *Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the Lord be upon
you: we bless you in the Name of the Lord. *We dare not use pious
expressions as mere compliments, and hence we dare not wish God-speed to
evil men lest we be partakers of their evil deeds. See how godly men are
roughly ploughed by their adversaries, and yet a harvest comes of it which
endures and produces blessing; while the ungodly, though they flourish for
a while and enjoy a complete immunity, dwelling, as they think, quite above
the reach of harm, are found in a short time to have gone their way and to
have left no trace behind. Lord, number me with Your saints. Let me share
their grief if I may also partake of their glory. Thus would I make this
Psalm my own, and magnify Your Name, because Your afflicted ones are not
destroyed and Your persecuted ones are not forsaken. *(From “The Treasury
of David” by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)*



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