Going To The Extreme
Ecclesiastes 7:15-18 "In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these:
a righteous man perishing in his righeousness, and wicked man living long in his wickedness.
Do not be overrighteous,
neither be overwise-
why destroy yourself?
Do not be overwicked,
and do not be a fool-
why die before your time?
It is good to grasp the one
and not let go of the other.
The man who fears God will avoid all extremes."
What do you think of this passage?
Share your thoughts?
posted by preacherman @ 10:14:00 PM
22 Comments:
is't that like going down the middle of the road, if you stay in the middle your going to crash! your with Him or not it's that simple !
have a great day preacherman :)
Great advice. as my grandpa told me "Son you can run anything into the ground"
Be thoughtful, remember the fragility of our humanness, and remember that God is in control.
Without God, everything is meaningless. We can't walk along this road of life and stay the same. We need to jump off the fence and join God.
First, you might want to compare that passage in several translations.
Ecclesiastes is a little like Job. A significant part of the book is devoted to experimental thought that turns out to be wrong in the end. It's a little risky to place too much weight on isolated phrases in any scripture, but especially this type of passage.
Note what he says a couple of verses later:
Ecc 7:23 I have examined all this by wisdom; I had said, "I am determined to comprehend this"-but it was beyond my grasp.
Ecc 7:24 Whatever has happened is beyond human understanding; It is far deeper than man can fathom.
And of course don't forget his bottom line in the last chapter:
Ecc 12:13 The end of the matter, having heard everything: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
Jel,
great point.
And I hope you had a great day as well.
Laymond,
Your grandpa sounded very wise. :-)
Nancy,
Excellent remind that we we are human and that God is in contorl. thanks for adding that thought.
Liz,
You are so right on the point that so many people miss out on. Everything is meaningless without God. God makes everything meaningful, Solomon as Alan points out in his comment that Solomon makes that clear in the last chapter. Thanks for adding to the discussion. I like how you put it, "We need to jump off the fence and join God."
Alan,
I love your the way you compare the passage with other chapters in the book brother. I am so glad that Solomon finally came to his the conclusion that he did in Chapter 12:13 "The end of the matter, having heard everything:Fear God and keep His commandment for this is the whole duty of man."
Kenny, If anyone does not understand what my grandpa was saying, I will be glad to explain. I had to ask what he meant also.:)It came from this very part of the bible.
The LORD knows the thoughts of man; he knows that they are futile.
Laymond,
Wow, that's great! :-)
Nancy,
Amen. You are so right. Knowing that God knows my thoughts keeps me humble and understand my part in the relationship with Him.
Morning Preacherman!
may you and yours have a blessed day!
Hi there preacherman, so glad you stopped by and encouraged me. You've got an interesting discussion going on in here.Interesting way to learn the Word of God. I like this approach.
You are always welcome to my blog.
Thank you once again for visiting.
I am with Alan--I think the writer of Ecclesiastes is chronicling the forming of his worldview.
As far as being extreme--I have never met anyone who is overrighteous unless they were self-righteous. It would be truly refreshing to meet a christian who had allowed the blood of Christ to make them righteous to the extreme.
Peace
Neva
hope you are doing well.
godzheart,
I am glad you stopped by my blog as well. I am glad you like this approach to learning about God. I would for comment on any discussion that we may be having on this blog. Thanks for welcoming me to your blog.
Neva,
Yes, I too agree with Alan about the world view. I agree with you that we must avoid the extremem of being self-righteous. Self-rightousness is an extreme that we should avoid as Christians and in the Church because it is not what God wants from us as His Children and it is also a turn off to the world who needs Jesus Christ. Good point you make about the blood of Jesus making us righteous to the extreme...I hope extreme enought to look beyond ourseleves and give our testimonies, share the good news of Jesus with those who need Jesus. :-) Great comment as always Neva!
Nancy,
I appreciate your concern. I have been having good days and bad days. I try to lean on God during the bad day. I thank and praise him for the good days. God is good in that he cares about our needs if we trust in Him. I needed a church that was going to care and love me. God blessed has bless me with that kind of congregation. I need a congregation that would understand and be patient and give me time to heal. God has supplied that need. I needed a couple of days off to go to a weeding this past few days. God provided, so my family could attend the wedding. It is easy for us to not see the blessing that God lays before us day after day, but he does. I count my blessing and it helps me deal with the pain that I am in. Nancy, thanks again for being so thoughtful as to wonder how I am doing. You don't know how much that means.
As I have meditated on the passage I have thought about many things. We go to the extremes on many things in life. Polotics. Morality. Stock Market. Gas Prices. Economy. Churches even go to extremes don't they? We see one church going far to the right so one church over reacts going to the extreme left. I believe when it come to Authentic Christianity, there should be balance. Jesus balance, law and grace. He told the woman caught in the act of adutary in John 8, "You who are without sin, cast the first stone." Later in the passage..."Woman where are those who condemn you?" "Nowhere the women replied." "Neither do I condemn you. Go and leave your life of sin." See Jesus didn't go to the extreme. He wasn't like the self righteous pharasee's. He balanced law and grace. He saw past the grace that was bigger that the womeans sin. He offered her forgiveness. "Neither do I condemn you." Yet, he tell her to change her life. "Go and sin no more." Basically, "Don't commit adultary again." Balance. It is healthy to have balance.
God I pray that we not be self-rightous. That we not go to the extreme and bind the law of man like the pharasee and go to the other extremem and abuse the grace of God like the Corinthian church. May we appreciate that precious gift. The gift of grace that saves us all. In your sons name, Amen!
it was good to read your last comment of reflection and prayer...and your reply comment to me. both are very helpful to me. i thank God. God Loves you, brother.
I have been trying to understand ecclesiastes, and now it makes a lot more sense. Thanks again preacherman! I enjoyed your final thoughts on this topic.
PS
I'll be praying for your recovery, and I thank God for the miracle healing that He is doing within you!
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2017.6.13
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