AUGUST
4, 2013
HEADED TOWARD
DISHONESTY? (ECCLESIASTES 5:8-9)
8
If you see oppression of the poor and denial of justice and righteousness in
the province, do not be shocked at the sight, for one official watches over
another official, and there are higher officials over them. 9 After all, a king
who cultivates the field is an advantage to the land. NASB
·
Many
may feel that this verse applies to our government of today.
·
But
Christians know that God oversees all, and God will deal with it in judgment
according to His timetable.
HEADED TOWARD
LONELINESS? (ECCLESIASTES 5:10-16)
10
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance
with its income. This too is vanity. 11 When good things increase, those who
consume them increase. So what is the advantage to their owners except to look
on? 12 The sleep of the working man is pleasant, whether he eats little or
much. But the full stomach of the rich man does not allow him to sleep.
13
There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being hoarded
by their owner to his hurt. 14 When those riches were lost through a bad
investment and he had fathered a son, then there was nothing to support him. 15
As he had come naked from his mother's womb, so will he return as he came. He
will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand. 16
And this also is a grievous evil —
exactly as a man is born, thus will he die. So, what is the advantage to
him who toils for the wind? NASB
·
Now
we will see Solomon engage in wealth. He gave himself over to the accumulation
of gold, and he could buy anything that he wanted.
·
The
riches of Solomon was the factor that finally brought the downfall of the
nation.
·
The
greed of the surrounding nations was aroused.
·
When
Israel departed from God into idolatry, God allowed the nations to come into
Israel and help themselves.
VERSE
10:
·
Wealth
will not being satisfaction in life. Wealth is not wrong it itself.
·
To
accumulate wealth for wealth's sake is wrong.
·
The
only cure for greed, of course, is to have Christ in your heart.
VERSE
11:
“The author has not a miser in view, who shuts up
his money in chests, and only feeds himself in looking at it with closed doors;
but a covetous man, of the sort spoken of in Psa_49:12;
Isa_5:8. If the hattovah, the possession of such an one, increases, in
like manner the number of people whom he must maintain increases also, and thus
the number of those who eat of it along with him, and at the same time also his
disquiet and care, increase; and what advantage, what useful result…”
Keil and Delitzsch
Commentary on the Old Testament
VERSE
12:
·
The
rich man has to worry about his riches, which keeps him awake at night.
·
Riches
multiply anxieties.
·
Riches
actually hurt rather than help a great many people.
·
Sometimes
the poor man is happier than the rich man.
VERSE
13:
“…a deep hurtful evil; as a wound, not a common
one, but one particularly severe and scarcely curable,…”
Keil and Delitzsch
Commentary on the Old Testament
“A sinful disease in the person with whom it is
found, and very disagreeable to others to behold; it is enough to make one sick
to see it; and what he is about to relate he himself was an eyewitness of:”
John
Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“…for the use
and service of the owners of them; and which yet have been to their real
injury; being either used by them in a luxurious and intemperate way, so have
brought diseases on their bodies, and damnation to their souls; or not used at
all for their own good, or the good of others, which brings the curse of God
upon them, to their ruin and destruction, both here and hereafter:”
John
Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
VERSE
14:
“Those riches that have been laid up with a great
deal of pains, and kept with a great deal of care, perish by evil travail, by the very pains and care
which they take to secure and increase them. Many a one has ruined his estate
by being over-solicitous to advance it and make it more, and has lost all by
catching at all. Riches are perishing things, and all our care about them
cannot make them otherwise;”
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible
“He that thought he should have made his son a
gentleman leaves him a beggar; he begets a son, and brings him up in the
prospect of an estate, but, when he dies, leaves it under a charge of debt as
much as it is worth, so that there is
nothing in his hand.”
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible
VERSE
15:
“In respect of the body we must go as we came; the
dust shall return to the earth as it was. But sad is our case if the soul
return as it came, for we were born in sin, and if we die in sin, unsanctified,
we had better never have been born;”
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible
“The end of the man who has to go away from earth
naked and empty-handed acquires new tragic force when set against the lot of
those ‘whose works do follow them.’”
Expositions
of Holy Scripture (Alexander MacLaren)
VERSE
16:
"For riches,
which are empty and unsatisfying, uncertain and transitory, which no man can
hold or stay in its course, all which are the properties of the wind."
John Wesley’s
Explanatory Notes
HEADED TOWARD
JOY? (ECCLESIASTES 5:18-20)
18
Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy
oneself in all one's labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years
of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward. 19 Furthermore, as
for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered
him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this
is the gift of God. 20 For he will not often consider the years of his life,
because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart. NASB
VERSE
18:
“God gives
every man, in the course of his providence, the necessaries of life; and it is
his will that he should thankfully use them.” “...; without them his life
cannot subsist, and earthly blessings are as truly the portion of his body and
animal life, as the salvation of God is the portion of his soul.”
Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible
VERSE
19:
“…to have such power over his substance, and not be a slave to it, and
to enjoy the fruits of his labour, in a cheerful and comfortable manner; this
is as much the gift of God as riches themselves (s).
“
John
Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“I make no interruption in the reading of these
verses, for one general observation belongs to all; and the Preacher’s whole
design from them is to impress yet stronger upon the mind, the great subject he
hath in view. In everything short of Christ, Solomon finds vanity.”
Poor
Man’s Commentary (John Hawker)
VERSE
20:
“He shall either forget them or remember them as
waters that pass away; he shall not much lay to heart his crosses, nor long
retain the bitter relish of them, because
God answers him in the joy of his heart,”
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible
HEADED TOWARD
FRUSTRATION? (ECCLESIASTES 6:10-12)
10
Whatever exists has already been named, and it is known what man is; for he
cannot dispute with him who is stronger than he is. 11 For there are many words
which increase futility. What then is the advantage to a man? 12 For who knows
what is good for a man during his lifetime, during the few years of his futile
life? He will spend them like a shadow. For who can tell a man what will be
after him under the sun? NASB
VERSE
10:
“It is therefore folly to quarrel with that which
will be as it is, and wisdom to make a virtue of necessity. We shall have what
pleases God, and let that please us.”
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible
VERSE
11:
“...seeing not only man is a vain creature in
himself, but there are also many other things, which instead of diminishing, do
but increase this vanity, as wisdom, pleasure, power, wealth; seeing even the
good things of this life bring so much toil, and cares, and fears, with them.”
John
Wesley’s Explanatory Notes
VERSE
12:
“…seeing not only man is a vain creature in
himself, but there are also many other things, which instead of diminishing, do
but increase this vanity, as wisdom, pleasure, power, wealth; seeing even the
good things of this life bring so much toil, and cares, and fears, with them. …
He can no more please himself with the hopes of what shall be after him, to his children and family,
than with the relish of what is with him, since he can neither foresee himself,
nor can any one else foretel to him, what
shall be after him. Nor shall he have any intelligence sent him
of it when he is gone.”
Matthew
Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible
No comments:
Post a Comment