Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked? (vs 13, NIV)
Wisdom makes one wise man more powerful than twn rulers in a city. (vs 20, NIV).
Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you- (vs 21, NIV).
Reading. Ecclesiastes 7:13-29
Ecclesiastes 7:13-29
[13]Think about what God has done. How can anyone straighten out what God has made crooked?
[14]When things are going well for you, be glad, and when trouble comes, just remember: God sends both happiness and trouble; you never know what is going to happen next.
[15]My life has been useless, but in it I have seen everything. Some good people may die while others live on, even though they are evil.
[16]So don’t be too good or too wise — why kill yourself?
[17]But don’t be too wicked or too foolish, either — why die before you have to?
[18]Avoid both extremes. If you have reverence for God, you will be successful anyway.
[19]Wisdom does more for a person than ten rulers can do for a city.
[20]There is no one on earth who does what is right all the time and never makes a mistake.
[21]Don’t pay attention to everything people say — you may hear your servant insulting you,
[22]and you know yourself that you have insulted other people many times.
[23]I used my wisdom to test all of this. I was determined to be wise, but it was beyond me.
[24]How can anyone discover what life means? It is too deep for us, too hard to understand.
[25]But I devoted myself to knowledge and study; I was determined to find wisdom and the answers to my questions, and to learn how wicked and foolish stupidity is.
[26]I found something more bitter than death — the woman who is like a trap. The love she offers you will catch you like a net; and her arms round you will hold you like a chain. A man who pleases God can get away, but she will catch the sinner.
[27]Yes, said the Philosopher, I found this out little by little while I was looking for answers.
[28]I have looked for other answers but have found none. I found one man in a thousand that I could respect, but not one woman.
[29]This is all that I have learnt: God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated.