For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Eccles 9:1-6

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 one knows whether love or hate awaits them. 2 All share a common destiny – the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not.

As it is with the good,
    so with the sinful;
as it is with those who take oaths,
    so with those who are afraid to take them.

3 This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterwards they join the dead. 4 Anyone who is among the living has hope – even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

5 For the living know that they will die,
    but the dead know nothing;
they have no further reward,
    and even their name is forgotten.
6 Their love, their hate
    and their jealousy have long since vanished;
never again will they have a part
    in anything that happens under the sun.

A. Find out :

1. Of whom does he first speak? v.1a
2. What do they not know? v.1b
3. Whom does he then include? v.2
4. What is his concern? v.2a, 3b
5. What does a living person have? v.4
6. What is the apparent destiny of the dead? v.5,6

B. Think:

1. What is a basic difficulty for the righteous while on this earth?
2. What was the main concern of Solomon in this passage?
3. How is our outlook as Christians different from that of Solomon here?

C. Comment:

First the bad news, the news from the purely human standpoint, in fact two bad things. The first of those is that we don’t know what is coming in life, even if we are righteous and that can be worrying; the second is that death awaits us and nothing we can do will avoid that. For the non-Christian today these are two very real worries.

Now to the good news, the truth revealed by Jesus. First it is that He is always with us and will never leave us (Matthew 28:20 / Hebrews 13:5) and has promised to care for us (Matthew 6:25,32,33 / Matthew 11:28-30). Second, it is that He has promised an eternal future for us with Him (John 14:3 / 1 Thessalonians 4:17c / 1 Corinthians 15:51 ,52).

We should note here, therefore, that Scripture is progressive, that the New Testament brings additional revelation to that in the Old and therefore we do not take as truth, statements such as Solomon’s who had not had the revelation of Christ and who therefore was only living under partial revelation. The Old IS the inspired word of God but it is limited in as far as the revelation to men was only partial.

D. Application?

1. For the Christian, death is not the end but merely the gateway to eternity.
2. Christ has secured our eternity for us.

Passage: Eccles 9:7-12

7 Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. 8 Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. 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 labour under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

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 favour to the learned;
but time and chance happen to them all.

12 Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:

As fish are caught in a cruel net,
    or birds are taken in a snare,
so people are trapped by evil times
    that fall unexpectedly upon them.

A. Find out :

1. When does God bless what we do? v.7
2. What appearance does he recommend? v.8
3. What does he recommend we do? v.9
4. How are we to live? v.10a
5. Why? v.10b
6. What is uncertain? v.11,12

B. Think:

1. What does Solomon continue to maintain about life?
2. What are his recommendations in respect of how to live it?
3. What is missing from his deliberations?

C. Comment:

Previously we considered again Solomon’s assertion that everyone has the same destiny and now he enlarges on the consequences of that. At the end of the passage he asserts that life is just chance and therefore you cannot guarantee how things will work out or when they will come to an end.

Before that, therefore, he recommends the way to live on the premise that everything is meaningless. First, enjoy your eating and drinking; it is pleasurable so make the most of it. Second, put on a good appearance in life (because that often helps how we feel). Third, enjoy life with your wife, presumably addressing men (because she is to be your lifelong partner). Fourth, whatever work you have before you do it with all your might (for in that comes a sense of achievement).

In all this there is wise counsel but for the Christian there is the added dimension of knowing the Lord and knowing the sense of working out His purposes with Him (see Ephesians 2:10 / Philippians 2:13), which can bring a sense of excitement to each day, so we are not merely waiting for death to come, but are actively involved in working out specific things throughout life at God’s leading.

D. Application?

1. Do I have a sense of the purposes of God being worked out in and through me?
2. Perhaps it’s time to seek the Lord.

Passage: Eccles 9:13-18

13 I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me: 14 there was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siege works against it. 15 Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man. 16 So I said, ‘Wisdom is better than strength.’ But the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded.

17 The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded
    than the shouts of a ruler of fools.
18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war,
    but one sinner destroys much good.

A. Find out :

1. What had impressed Solomon? v.13
2. What bad situation had occurred? v.14
3. But what had happened? v.15
4. What had concerned Solomon? v.15c,16
5. What are better than what? v.17
6. What is wisdom also better than? v.18

B. Think:

1. How had wisdom seen to be good?
2. Yet how had men viewed it?
3. What is our temptation in a world of many voices in the media?

C. Comment:

Solomon in this book seems to go backwards and forwards between considering the meaninglessness of life and the wonder of wisdom. Here he goes back to considering wisdom again.

He has seen something which has stayed with him: a dangerous situation where the people were saved by the wisdom of a poor and probably inconsequential man. Despite his wisdom having saved the city, after it was all over, the man was forgotten. The warning here is quite clear: we can disdain and easily forget wisdom.

Solomon warns us not to be led astray by the shouts of fools in power. Merely because people say many words and repeat them loudly, and hold public positions, that does not mean that they are wise. The words of the wise are more likely to be quiet and we can easily miss, disdain, or forget them.

Solomon also gives the benefits of wisdom and says it is better than strength (v.16) and better than weapons of war (v.18). In other words, the knowledge of what to do in difficult circumstances is far better than being strong or having mighty human resources. James 1:5 tells us who is the source of wisdom and encourages us to go to Him without hesitation.

D. Application?

1. The absence of wisdom means foolish men’s hearts prevail.
2. God has promised to give us the wisdom we need for any situation.