Ecclesiastes 9

If you are in the midst of difficult times, feeling hopeless and seeing all your inadequacies at the moment, today’s chapter may be of some encouragement to you like it is to me.   

Bible Passage: Ecclesiastes 9

Life = Hope

But for him who is joined to all the living there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. (Ecc 9:4)

We have often come across the saying ‘when there is life, there is hope’ in songs, movies and books. Did you know that it is actually from the Bible?

Although the comparison in the verse above is not the most elegant, it does get the point across doesn’t it? As long as one is alive, no matter how miserable one’s circumstances are, there is still hope because being alive implies a possibility of change. Furthermore, are we really in such bad circumstances that we liken ourselves to dogs?

Therefore, as we wake up each morning only to face challenging times and seemingly hopeless circumstances, let us thank God for giving us another day worth of hope and more importantly, use the life that He gives to us wisely so that this hope is fulfilled according to His will.         

Good conditions ≠ good outcome

I returned and saw under the sun that-
The race is not to the swift,

Nor the battle to the strong,
Nor bread to the wise,
Nor riches to men of understanding,
Nor favor to men of skill;
But time and chance happen to them all. (Ecc 9:11)

Remember what I said in the beginning about how I am seeing all my inadequacies?

Besides my inadequacies in the moral and spiritual sense, I’m also seeing my inadequacies in terms of intelligence and other academic abilities. The more I try to make sense of what I’m writing in my papers, the more rubbish I seem to be writing. The more I try to understand what my obscure texts are saying, the more their meanings elude me. In other words, the more I studied, the more stupid I felt.

Just as I was down in the dumps because of this, the above verse in today’s chapter comforted me.

Although I may not be the swiftest, strongest, wisest or most skilful, I know that the God who controls ‘time and chance’ is also the God who lays out my path before me. Just like the people with the best qualities and circumstances may not necessarily meet with favourable outcomes, people who are not very smart (i.e. me 🙂 may not necessarily fail.

For this reason, even as I continue seeing all my inadequacies, I do not give up and expect to fail because I know all these human qualities cannot supersede the outcome that God has determined for me.