Wednesday, August 14, 2013

THE MEANING OF LIFE: PART 6 OF 12

                         A CHAPTER BY CHAPTER STUDY OF THE BOOK OF
                                       ECCLESIASTES......CHAPTER 6
                                                    "Robbing God"
How do we rob God? This is one of the more unique themes I gleaned from studying Chapter 6 (see below). Robbing God stems from the wrong view of the Life He gave us and disobeying His statutes. Robbing God stems from the incorrect classification of the "futility of life"; work; temporal possessions etc.

Check out both the entire chapter 6 here, and then watch the brief teaching on it!

Ecclesiastes 6

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

The Futility of Life

6 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun and it is prevalent [a]among men— a man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor so that his soul lacks nothing of all that he desires; yet God has not empowered him to eat from them, for a foreigner [b]enjoys them. This is [c]vanity and a severe affliction. If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, however many [d]they be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things and he does not even have a proper burial, then I say, “Better the miscarriage than he, for it comes in futility and goes into obscurity; and its name is covered in obscurity. It never sees the sun and it never knows anything[e]it is better off than he.Even if the other man lives a thousand years twice and does not [f]enjoy good things—do not all go to one place?”
All a man’s labor is for his mouth and yet the [g]appetite is not [h]satisfied. For what advantage does the wise man have over the fool? What advantage does the poor man have, knowing how to walk before the living? What the eyes see is better than what the soul [i]desires. This too is futility and a striving after wind.
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 [j]years of his futile life? He will [k]spend them like a shadow. For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?

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