Saturday, August 17, 2013

THE MEANING OF LIFE: PART 7 OF 12

                            A CHAPTER BY CHAPTER STUDY OF THE BOOK OF
                                         ECCLESIASTES......CHAPTER 7
                                                "A Good Name is...."
In 1987, former US Labor Secretary under President Ronald Reagan was a man named Ray Donovan. He was the first and only Cabinet official ever indicted for a crime and charged with fraud and more, along with several other construction officials from New York City. The jury took a relatively short time to find them all not-guilty on the first ballot. After the trial, Secretary Donovan made a statement, in the form of a question, which is still quoted today from time to time. He said "which office do I go to to get my reputation back?"

That is a great question in today's hyper-slanderous society, where social media and technology can take a lie half way around the world in 10 seconds and destroy a life time of integrity and honor, wisdom and right living. This is why a "good name is better" than Neo-sporin for that scraped knee or boo-boo from weeding the garden and hitting a rusty metal can deep under the tomato plant. That can be healed, but the damage to one's name is hurtful among other things. This proverb and others are the gist of this chapter of Ecclesiastes where the "preacher" Solomon is teaching many of Life's truth....read and listen, if thou willest....

Ecclesiastes 7

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Wisdom and Folly Contrasted

7 good name is better than a good ointment,
And the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth.
It is better to go to a house of mourning
Than to go to a house of feasting,
Because [a]that is the end of every man,
And the living [b]takes it to [c]heart.
Sorrow is better than laughter,
For when a face is sad a heart may be happy.
The [d]mind of the wise is in the house of mourning,
While the [e]mind of fools is in the house of pleasure.
It is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise man
Than for one to listen to the song of fools.
For as the [f]crackling of thorn bushes under a pot,
So is the laughter of the fool;
And this too is futility.
For oppression makes a wise man mad,
And a bribe [g]corrupts the heart.
The end of a matter is better than its beginning;
Patience of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit.
Do not be [h]eager in your heart to be angry,
For anger resides in the bosom of fools.
10 Do not say, “Why is it that the former days were better than these?”
For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.
11 Wisdom along with an inheritance is good
And an advantage to those who see the sun.
12 For wisdom is [i]protection just as money is [j]protection,
But the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the lives of its possessors.
13 Consider the work of God,
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