Regretting Foolish Pride

Part 10
Give me understanding.
Ecclesiastes 8:1-17

The Characteristics of Wise Leadership

Explanation

Ecclesiastes 8:1a
Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man’s wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed.

Illumination

Ecclesiastes 8:1b
Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man’s wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed.

Ecclesiastes 8:1b NIV
A person’s wisdom brightens their face and changes its hard appearance.

Communication

Ecclesiastes 8:2-4
I counsel thee to keep the king’s commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God. Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.  Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?

Proverbs 12:18
There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword:
but the tongue of the wise is health.

Proverbs 15:2
The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright:
but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.

Proverbs 18:21
Death and life are in the power of the tongue:
and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

Proverbs 25:11-12
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.12 As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear.

Proverbs 25:23
The north wind driveth away rain: so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue.

Discrimination 

Ecclesiastes 8:5-7
Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm, and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a person may be weighed down by misery. Since no one knows the future, who can tell someone else what is to come?

Limitation

Ecclesiastes 8:8
As no one has power over the wind to contain it, so[no one has power over the time of their death. As no one is discharged in time of war, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.

Frustration

Ecclesiastes 8:10
Then too, I saw the wicked buried—those who used to come and go from the holy place and receive praise in the city where they did this. This too is meaningless.

Ecclesiastes 8:11
Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

Ecclesiastes 8:14-15
14 There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless.  15 So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.

Application

Ecclesiastes 8:16-17 NIV
When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the labor that is done on earth—people getting no sleep day or night—  17 then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.

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