Monday, April 24, 2006
Ecclesiastes 7:15-22
In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.
Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.
Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others. (ESV)
by Dale E. Rood
Life is full of perplexities. Surely long life for the wicked while the righteous seem to perish before their time is one of the greatest. It doesn’t make sense to be obsessive about anything. If we put all our energy into figuring out things we cannot understand, we will wind up being deeply disappointed. No, this is not an admonition to mediocrity. But let us not get so wound up in issues of this world that we get consumed by them. It is with heavenly things that our true passions should lie.
Copyright Information
Daily Bible Meditations are taken from The Helping Hand,a Sabbath School student quarterly for youth and adults. Copyright © 2008, Seventh Day Baptist Board of Christian Education, Inc.
Scripture quotations marked "ESV" are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Text provided by the Crossway Bibles Web Service .
