Ecclesiastes 8

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Ecclesiastes 8:1-17 (KJV) 1 Who [is] as the wise [man]? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man's wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed. 

Wisdom makes your face shine.  You become a bright light to others.

When we speak boldly on behalf of the Word of God we respond differently based on how we are heard.

We are yet bold, but our hearts are often broken because we see so many religious people refuse the truth.

2 I [counsel thee] to keep the king's commandment, and [that] in regard of the oath of God. 

You will live obediently.

If we learn to obey the people we see, then we will please the God we've never seen.

3 Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.

 

Do not be disrespectful with the king's decision.  Don't carry an attitude when the king speaks.  The king does what he wants to.  Remember God is able to turn the heart of the king.

4 Where the word of a king [is, there is] power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou? 

Can you stop the king’s decision?

Listen and respond.

5 Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment. 

The king will not harm you if you obey.  A wise man knows what to do at the right time.

We will feel no evil-  Evil will not touch you.

6 Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man [is] great upon him. 

God times all things.  This is good to know when things are not happening as fast as we want them to.  Always at the right time, God will come through.  Trust God's timing.

When we move out of sync or our timing is off, it is because we made a decision at the wrong time.

7 For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be? 

Man does not know the future.  No one can tell a man about his future.  Every move of God is scheduled to arrive on time.  Enjoy your day, eat and drink well and treat people right.

8 [There is] no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither [hath he] power in the day of death: and [there is] no discharge in [that] war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it. 

No one can control the spirit of man.  No man can stop death.

No one can leave during wartime.

When wickedness is employed you can’t just walk away.  Wickedness has a grip: this is why you must walk away from it as soon as you recognize it.

9 All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: [there is] a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt. 

A man will be hurt if he does not treat people right.

10 And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this [is] also vanity. 

A man that leaves God is forgotten by those who once knew him.

11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. 

Delayed punishment multiplies sin.

12 Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his [days] be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him: 

If a man sins and lives long.

Surely a man that fears God will live.

13 But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong [his] days, [which are] as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.

 

The wicked promise is a life without Good.

14 There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just [men], unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked [men], to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also [is] vanity. 

Righteous men are killed by wicked men.  

Wicked men are killed by righteous men.  The purpose is why did we do what we did?; that will be how God will judge each of us.

15 Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun. 

People work to have money to spend on good times.

16 When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also [there is that] neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:) 

Sinners are too busy inventing devices to get proper rest.

17 Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek [it] out, yet he shall not find [it]; yea further; though a wise [man] think to know [it], yet shall he not be able to find [

God never told us to spend time figuring him out.  He told us to focus on His Word of treating each other right.

My focus Verse of the Day!

When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong.

 

As soon as you see wrong,

Don't let it carry on.

Put a stop to the sin

So the enemy won't win

When you see your brother wrong

Tell him then.