WWUTT 1709 Who Can Straighten What God Has Bent (Ecclesiastes 7:1-14)

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It is more likely that you're going to reflect upon the meaning and the purpose of life in difficult circumstances than in good circumstances.

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And in those trials we hold fast to Christ when we understand the text. This is

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When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature

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New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday and our Q &A on Friday.

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Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the book of Ecclesiastes and we're up to chapter 7 this week.

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Now we've been going through Ecclesiastes at a pretty steady pace. We got through an entire chapter last week, but chapter 7 is a little bit longer.

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So we're going to divide this up into two parts. Verses 1 through 14 is more poetic in the way that it's laid out.

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It looks a lot more like the book of Proverbs. And then verses 15 to 29, that's a section we'll look at next week.

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So let's read Ecclesiastes 7, 1 through 14. I'm reading from the Legacy Standard Bible.

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This is the word of the Lord. Better is a good name than good oil, and better is the day of one's death than the day of one's birth.

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Better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, because that is the end of all mankind, and the living puts this in his heart.

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Better is vexation than laughter, for when a face is sad, a heart may be merry.

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The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, while the heart of fools is in the house of gladness.

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Better to listen to the rebuke of a wise man than for one to listen to the song of fools.

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For as the crackling sound of thorn bushes under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool, and this, too, is vanity.

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For oppression gives a wise man over to madness, and a bribe destroys the heart.

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Better is the end of a matter than its beginning. Better is patience of spirit than haughtiness of spirit.

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Do not be eager in your spirit to be vexed, for vexation rests in the bosom of fools.

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Do not say, Why is it that the former days were better than these? For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.

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Wisdom along with an inheritance is good, and an advantage to those who see the sun. For wisdom is a shadow of protection, as money is a shadow of protection, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the lives of its masters.

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See the work of God, for who is able to straighten what he has bent?

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In the day when there is good, be of good cheer. But in the day where there is evil, see,

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God has made the one as well as the other, so that man will not find out anything that will be after him.

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Now, it would be really easy for us here to look at these 14 verses and think of each one of these verses as their own proverb, kind of like the way that we're used to reading the book of Proverbs, right?

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But there is a particular theme going on here. And in fact, this theme carries through all of chapter seven.

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So we'll need to keep this in mind when we come back to this lesson next week. Look at verse one, because this sets the tone for the entire chapter.

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Better is a good name than good oil, and better is the day of one's death than the day of one's birth.

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Now, what are we talking about there? Well, a good name is a reputation that a person develops.

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That does not happen easily. It does not happen quickly. It takes a long time, right? You are diligent to do good.

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You are diligent to pursue justice and pursue righteousness, to do what

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God has said is just and what he has said is right. You show patience.

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You show kindness to others. You pursue knowledge and wisdom. You don't be a know -it -all. You are willing to admit when you don't know so that you may learn from others and that you may grow in wisdom.

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You show charity to others. You consider the needs of others ahead of yourselves. You are a person of your word.

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You say something and you do it. People know you as somebody that they can trust.

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You don't tell lies. You will tell somebody the truth. You will even correct a person in error and do so in love, not to be overbearing, but because you are careful and compassionate toward that person.

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These are just examples of developing a good reputation, and you see as I go through those things, how long that takes.

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You can't do that in a day. Can't even do that in a week. It takes time to develop a good name and for people to know that they can trust that name.

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They have a good opinion of that name when they hear it because you are a person who has shown themselves to be trustworthy.

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So better is a good name than good oil. Why compare that with oil? Well, specifically, ointment may be the better word here.

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The legacy standard Bible translators will make this word oil, but more accurately for us, it would be better to understand this as ointment or a fine perfume.

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It's very, very expensive and it's fragrant and it is pleasing to people. So just as when somebody hears your name, your name is pleasing to them when they smell the good perfume, that smell is pleasing to them, right?

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It's a good aroma. It has a good sense. It fills the room with good things.

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So likewise, that's the kind of reputation that your name has. And the reputation of your name is better than having this fine, expensive perfume.

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And now consider this next line of Ecclesiastes 7 .1, okay? The next line, and better is the day of one's death than the day of one's birth.

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Well, that took a dark turn. Why is the day of one's death better?

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Now, you might be tempted to read that and go, well, because when I die, I go to heaven. That makes the day of my death better than the day of my birth.

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I was born into a wicked world, but when I die, my soul goes to be with God forever in glory.

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Isn't that better than the day of one's birth? Yes, but that's not what's being talked about here.

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We don't really have much of a concept of heaven in the book of Ecclesiastes. I do believe there's something there, but it's not explicit.

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It's often not explicit in the Old Testament, way more explicit in the New, because those things have not been revealed yet.

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Christ has not come to talk about where he's come from and that we can join him in glory if we believe in his name, in his good name, his name greater than every name, right?

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At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is

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Lord. He has the name that is above every name. But in the scheme of Ecclesiastes here, this is a thousand years before Christ.

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He has not yet come to talk about heaven, to fill our minds and hearts with the hopefulness of that eternal kingdom that we have in Christ Jesus.

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So we don't have those things talked about in the Old Testament as explicitly as we have them in the New. That's not what the wise man here, the preacher here is getting at when he says, better is the day of one's death than the day of one's birth.

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The person who is dying, the person who he is referring to as dying in chapter seven, verse one, is someone else, not himself, but someone else dying.

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And he's almost he's musing about this. He's thinking about a man of good reputation.

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When he dies, better is the day of his death than the day of his birth.

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Why? Why is it good to lose somebody who has a good reputation?

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The world is better with them in it. So why is it better for the man of good reputation to die?

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Why is that day, the day of his death, better than the day of his birth? Well, because on the day of his birth, you don't know anything about what that man is going to turn out to be.

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He doesn't have a reputation. There's no character. And so you rejoice in the birth of this new life that has come into the world, but you don't yet know what kind of man that person is going to be.

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Then over the course of his life, develops this great reputation, becomes a man of good character, and then he dies.

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And the world is a less better place now because the good man is no longer in it to bless the world with his wisdom and charity and friendship, fellowship, so on and so forth.

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So why now is the day of his death better? Because it causes you to reflect upon that.

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You're not reflecting in wisdom on the day of his birth, because, again, you don't know anything about the man.

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Certainly, that's a great day. You know, we're not saying that the birth of a baby is not as good as the death of that baby.

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We're talking about wisdom here. We're talking about seeking wisdom. And in the previous chapter, what were we talking about?

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How life is vanity. All of these pursuits in life are vanity. There's nothing about them that is inherently beneficial.

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So here you have a person who, over the course of their life, has done good and developed a good reputation, and then they die.

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And this is not the preacher talking about himself. He's reflecting upon the life of another person, the life of a man who develops a good reputation.

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And then on the day of his death, we gain something from that because it causes us to reflect upon the fact that we're going to die as well.

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What is life about? What is the meaning of life? What do we get out of this?

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What is my purpose for being here? What am I supposed to do next? We think about those things when a person dies.

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We don't really think about those things when a person is born. I mean, we rejoice. Yay, happy.

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I can tell you on the day of all of my children's births, those were exciting, happy days.

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But there's not really a lot of philosophical or even theological reflection on the day of one's birth.

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But when somebody dies, man, it really causes you to have to think about life, doesn't it?

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You think about that more so on the day of a person's death than on the day of one's life.

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And so you pursue wisdom. What do

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I need to know? What is the meaning of this? How does this affect my life? How does this change things?

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How now do I live in light of this? And you reflect upon the life of a good man and all the good things that he did in life.

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And then he dies and the world is a less better place without him. And that causes you to look back over his life.

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And you're going, what what is it about that man that people loved and now they mourn that he is gone?

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And you reflect upon life. You're looking back at things that have been done.

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Whereas when a person is born, you can't see what's going to happen. You don't know what they're going to do.

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So there's nothing to reflect on regarding the future. You can't reflect on the future. You reflect on the past.

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And so this is a gaining of wisdom. And that's what's talked about here, because go on to the very next verse.

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Better to go to a house of mourning than a house of feasting, because that is the end of all mankind.

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And the living puts this in his heart. The end of all mankind is a day of mourning when somebody dies, somebody is left behind to mourn.

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And the living puts this in his heart. He takes it to heart. He thinks upon this and reflects upon it.

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Hence why it is better to go to a house of mourning than a house of feasting. Better is vexation than laughter.

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For when a face is sad, a heart may be merry. Now, I love the way that that's worded there.

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A person may be sad, of course, because they've lost a loved one, but their heart is merry.

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They think about what that loved one meant to them, and they are happy that we got to share life together.

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And then also gaining wisdom from the loss of that individual and thinking about how now shall

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I live reflecting upon the life of this person. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, it says in verse four, while the heart of fools is in the heart or sorry, in the house of gladness.

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Fools don't reflect on these things. Fools don't mourn over the loss of people that they cared so much about.

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They just kind of, well, and go on with life. Or they'll go get drunk, because that's probably the tie in to the house of gladness.

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They'll go to a place where they can get drunk and forget all of their mourning and their cares and the emotional pain that they are feeling.

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That's what a fool does. The wise cherishes the mourning and reflects upon those things and thinks about it.

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And it changes his life in the way that he goes forward. He recognizes that life is fragile, that everything that we have is but a moment.

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I am but a breath in the scheme of the existence of the world, of the existence of mankind.

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I'm just here for a moment. And just like a breath, I can be gone. And so what am

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I doing with the moments that I have? The wise reflect upon this. The fools are going to drown their sorrows and forget about all things as they get drunk or get high or whatever else.

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So verse five, better to listen to the rebuke of a wise man than for one to listen to the song of fools.

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Now the rebuke of the wise man here, it may be reflecting back on the good name of the individual that has died.

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And think about all of the good things, the wise things that he said over the course of life.

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There were probably things that he said that you didn't take to heart when he was alive. But now that he's gone, you're really thinking about those things and it convicts the heart.

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So better to listen to the rebuke of a wise man than for one to listen to the song of fools. These people who are not mourning over the loss of somebody, but they are rejoicing in foolishness.

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I think we see this also when a man of good character dies, a very public figure, but he has a good reputation.

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He did a lot of good things in life. He was a godly person. He pursued the truth. When that man dies, how does the public react to that?

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Well, the culture, especially the secular culture will dance on that man's grave, right?

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Oh, he, he hated LGBTQ people. He oppressed women because he was opposed to abortion.

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And I'm just so glad that he's gone and they will dance on his grave. So you have the, the song of fools, but those who knew what the godly man stood for in his life, they will reflect upon what it was that he said, what it was that he taught, and they will take it to heart and they will grow in wisdom and be better for it.

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Verse six, for as the crackling sound of thorn bushes under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool.

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And this too is vanity. It's just a good metaphor there of the laughter of fools.

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What do they gain from their, their laughter? What do they gain from mocking the man who is gone or what do they gain from ignoring the morning that they should be reflecting upon?

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They gain nothing. It's the crackling of thorns under a pot. Is that relevant to anything? No. So their behavior, their pursuits are vain.

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Their emptiness. They're nothing. The pot is empty. The thorns are useless. So is the laughter of a fool.

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Consider verse seven, for oppression gives a wise man over to madness and a bribe destroys the heart.

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Whenever a wise man goes through something difficult, he reflects upon that. He thinks about it to the point that it drives him crazy.

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What does this mean? What am I, what am I supposed to gain from this? Why am I going through this?

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Whereas if he just gets good things, a bribe, a gift, whatever else, it deprives him of his understanding.

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He doesn't really think about what's the meaning of this gift I'm being given. It just makes him happy.

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It makes him satisfied or complacent. But oppression really makes a person think about why things happen the way that they do.

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Again, wisdom is gained through these things. Verse eight, better is the end of a matter than its beginning.

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Better is patience of spirit than haughtiness of spirit. Better to get to the end of something and be reflecting upon it than the beginning of it when you're not really thinking much about it.

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And better to have a patient spirit as you endure those difficult trials than haughtiness of spirit as though to say,

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I'm above this. Why is this happening to me? This is unjust what it is that is happening to me.

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When in the reality of things, we are getting much better than we deserve.

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Verse nine, do not be eager in your spirit to be vexed. Like you're not looking for trouble.

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It just happens in the general course of life for vexation rest in the bosom of fools.

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It's the fools that cause problems or it's the fools that will go, woe is me.

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Why is all of this happening to me? I'm a victim here where in our present culture, that that victim mentality, that victim attitude is a sickness.

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A lot of people calling themselves victims that are fine, grow up and get over it.

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Verse 10, do not say, why is it that the former days were better than these?

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For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this. How many of us do this? I've done it. You've surely done it, right?

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It's pretty common for us, Western world, English speaking people to say something like, oh man, the, those days back then, those were much better days.

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I'm sure all of us right now are longing for the days when gas was cheaper, when the groceries were cheaper, when our bills were not as high, better, better the former days, they were better than these.

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So why is it unwise to say that? Why is it unwise to long for the days of old when they were better?

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Because it's to say that God is not sovereign and he is not in control of this situation. It's to say that those days we had better life than we have right now.

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This is life. What we're going through right now is it's life. You have to deal with it.

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Longing for former days does not make the present days better. We have to continue to trust in God, to rely upon Christ, to pray, to pursue holiness and righteousness.

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We needed to do those things when times were good and we have to do those things when times are difficult. These difficult times though really cause us to reflect more upon what we must do in our lives than when things are good and we were relaxing and just kind of chilling.

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Right? Maybe you thought times were tough back then. Well, now they look like a cakewalk compared to now.

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And the former days are always going to look easier than the current days, no matter how difficult the things you had to go through in former days, because you can look back on those days and you know that you made it through.

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You're still wondering how you're going to get through these days. So the former days always look better. It looks safer because we know we made it.

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These present days, how are we going to make it? So these days cause us to reflect on those things, but may the difficult trials that we go through draw us all the more to Christ who raises the dead.

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Verse 11, wisdom along with an inheritance is good and an advantage to those who see the sun.

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It is good to store up things for the future so that when difficult days come, you have those things to rely upon that you had been planning for.

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Verse 12 for wisdom is a shadow of protection as money is a shadow of protection.

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And the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the lives of the lives of its masters.

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So gain wisdom now, whether times are good or bad, gain wisdom now because a day is going to come in which things are going to be more difficult than they are now.

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You think things are hard now, they will get worse and you're going to want wisdom on that day, especially the wisdom of God, especially knowing that Christ is king and he reigns over all that by faith in him,

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I'm going to be rescued out of this plight into a kingdom where all of these things will have passed away and he is making all things new.

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Now, verse 13 reflects upon how even the difficult trials that we go through are given to us by God.

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Even these tough moments are God ordained. No matter how difficult the trial, verse 13, see the work of God, see the work of God in your difficult circumstance for who is able to straighten what he has bent.

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It is God's will that you go through this difficult time.

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Don't you dare say that something is happening here that God did not plan for me to go through.

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Yes, he did, but it's for your good. You may not see it now, but you continue to trust in Christ and on the day of glory, it's all going to make sense.

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You're just going to be in the presence of God and all the difficult times probably won't even matter to you, but we will be able to get to heaven on that day and look back and see where God was working in the midst of these things for our good and for his glory.

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Verse 14, in the day where there is good, be of good cheer.

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But in the day when there is evil, see God has made the one as well as the other so that man will not find out anything that will be after him.

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Job said, in the midst of all the loss that Job experienced, he said, naked

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I came from my mother's womb and naked will I return to the ground. The Lord gives and the

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Lord takes away. May the name of the Lord be praised. Heavenly Father, thank you for the good things you give to us.

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Even this difficult thing that we're going through right now is good for it develops in us an eagerness and a longing for Christ and for the heavenly kingdom, not for the things of this earth, but the things that are eternal.

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Help us to consider how we are seated above where Christ is and seek the things that are above until the day that Christ returns and we join him in glory.

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Grow us all the more in holiness, in sanctification, in his good name.

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It's in his name that we pray, amen. For more about our ministry, visit us online at www .tt