Every Wednesday, a few of us girls come together for a small dinner and Bible Study at Leah's place. Nothing fancy, just sitting in front of the heater enjoying both physical and spiritual food. Though we have only really just started, I am really enjoying it, and am looking forward to the rest of it. It's sweet-mid-week-fellowship.
We are studying Ecclesiastes and though it can be challenging, I always come away from it having learnt something new and finding truths in the Word that had previously been overlooked. And that's the way (a-huh a-huh) I like it.
For example, last night, this verse came up...
We concluded that when the righteous work, God gives them enjoyment. However, when the sinners work and gain riches while on earth, God will (through death - the great equalizer) take away the earthly riches from the sinners (because they can't take this with them when they die) and then divide this amongst the righteous. But does this mean that the righteous are given the inheritance of the sinners? I don't think so. Because the verse also describes what God will give the righteous as 'good in his sight'. This could mean that God will give material goods according to what He deems most appropriate, or it could simply be referring to heavenly riches - after all, why would God use earthly treasures for blessing when He can use heavenly ones?! So in the end, we can conclude that the work of the sinner is vanity (like everything else under the sun!), but the work of the righteous will be rewarded with enjoyment as well as real rewards in heaven.
May the learning and fellowshipping continue!
We are studying Ecclesiastes and though it can be challenging, I always come away from it having learnt something new and finding truths in the Word that had previously been overlooked. And that's the way (a-huh a-huh) I like it.
For example, last night, this verse came up...
Ecclesiastes 2:26 For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.After we first read it, we all paused and went back to dig around the verse to find out what it was actually trying to say. There were a few parallel verses and as we read these, the meaning became clear.
We concluded that when the righteous work, God gives them enjoyment. However, when the sinners work and gain riches while on earth, God will (through death - the great equalizer) take away the earthly riches from the sinners (because they can't take this with them when they die) and then divide this amongst the righteous. But does this mean that the righteous are given the inheritance of the sinners? I don't think so. Because the verse also describes what God will give the righteous as 'good in his sight'. This could mean that God will give material goods according to what He deems most appropriate, or it could simply be referring to heavenly riches - after all, why would God use earthly treasures for blessing when He can use heavenly ones?! So in the end, we can conclude that the work of the sinner is vanity (like everything else under the sun!), but the work of the righteous will be rewarded with enjoyment as well as real rewards in heaven.
May the learning and fellowshipping continue!
1 comment:
good conclusion.
In the OT, material riches are apparently considered as tangible evidence of God's blessings according to application bible study commentary. 1 Kings 10:23
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