Scripture Daily

Context No. 1319 of 4322 · Ecclesiastes

Context · Reflection

Ecclesiastes 7:9-14: in context

9Don’t be hasty in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of fools. 10Don’t say, “Why were the former days better than these?” For you do not ask wisely about this. 11Wisdom is as good as an inheritance. Yes, it is more excellent for those who see the sun. 12For wisdom is a defense, even as money is a defense; but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it. 13Consider the work of God, for who can make that straight which he has made crooked? 14In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; yes, God has made the one side by side with the other, to the end that man should not find out anything after him.

The Preacher gathers a handful of sayings about how to meet the days as they come. Do not be quick to anger, for anger lodges in the heart of fools. Do not ask why the former days were better than these, for that is not a wise question. Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing, a shelter as money is a shelter, but better, because wisdom preserves the life of the one who has it. Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? And then the summary: in the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider, for God has made the one alongside the other, so that we cannot find out what comes after us.

Two of these sayings sit together as one lesson. First, do not say, why were the former days better than these; the Preacher calls the nostalgic question unwise. It is a common temptation, to look back and imagine some golden past when things were better, and to sour on the present by comparison; but he says this is not wisdom, because it usually romanticizes a past that was not as good as we remember and blinds us to the day we are actually in. Second, and this is the deeper point, in the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider, for God has made the one alongside the other. God is behind both kinds of days, the good and the hard, and he has set them side by side in a life so that we cannot see too far ahead or master our own future. The wisdom, then, is not to pine for a lost past or to demand only good days, but to receive each day as it comes from God's hand, glad in the good ones and thoughtful in the hard ones, trusting that both are woven into a life by the same God. Do not waste today mourning a better yesterday that may never have been; take the day God has actually given, whichever kind it is, from him.

Do I sour on the present by pining for a better past, and can I instead receive each day as it comes from God's hand, joyful in prosperity and thoughtful in adversity, trusting that he has set the two side by side?

Sources