Ecclesiastes 9 Summary - 5 Minute Bible Study
Ecclesiastes 9 Short Summary:
Solomon was frustrated by the seeming randomness of life’s events. It wasn’t clear to him why God allowed similar events to befall the righteous and the wicked. At the end of the chapter, he described the value of wisdom using a story about a poor wise man who saved a small city.
Ecclesiastes 9 Bible Study
ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER SUMMARIES
Ecclesiastes 1 - Solomon declares that life on earth is vanity. Earthly pursuits are largely meaningless. Men are born and men die in the endless cycle of the earth’s spinning. History is forgotten and repeated generation after generation.
Ecclesiastes 2 - Solomon tested the offerings of the world and found them empty. Physical pleasure, wine, laughter, entertainment, accomplishing things, riches, making a name for himself, they were all vanity. Solomon discussed the fate of the wicked vs. the foolish, and lamented the short-term value of hard work.
Ecclesiastes 3 - The cycle of the earth repeats continually, and everything happens at its appointed time according to God’s design. God created mankind with knowledge of eternity, although much of His work is still hidden from them. Injustice is prevalent on the earth, but a time for judgment is approaching.
Ecclesiastes 4 - In Ecclesiastes 4, Solomon expands on his reasons for calling all of life “vanity.” Life is oppressive, and the weak are victims of the powerful. There is vanity in hard work and in laziness. Companionship is preferable to solitude, even high-achieving solitude. Fame and power are fleeting.
Ecclesiastes 5 - Solomon continues his discussion on vanity, bringing up at least 3 areas of life where vanity is observable. Solomon saw vanity in the way some people worshipped, when they offered empty words and promises to God. He goes on to describe the vanity of greed and the vanity of wealth.
Ecclesiastes 6 - Solomon contemplates the vanity of a life of riches, wealth, and honor when the possessor never gets to enjoy them. Solomon warns men that their life’s work could all be meaningless, because nobody knows what will happen to their work after they die.
Ecclesiastes 7 - Solomon concludes that wisdom is a benefit to men living “under the sun.” It can give a man advantages on earth, but that man will also have to come to grips with the reality that all of life is meaningless. Wisdom can be pursued, but it will never be fully grasped.
Ecclesiastes 8 - Ecclesiastes 8 begins by describing a man of wisdom. A wise man obeys his king and knows the inevitability of death. Solomon lamented injustice on the earth, how some men who deserve punishment are blessed and visa-versa. He declared God’s ways to mysterious to find out.
Ecclesiastes 9 - Solomon was frustrated by the seeming randomness of life’s events. It wasn’t clear to him why God allowed similar events to befall the righteous and the wicked. At the end of the chapter, he described the value of wisdom using a story about a poor wise man who saved a small city.
AUTHOR:
Ecclesiastes was almost certainly written by Solomon (Ecc 1:1), the son of David, the 3rd king of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah.
His palace and the Temple of God were located in Jerusalem.
Solomon became king in approximately 1015 B.C and reigned for 40 years.
OUTLINE:
THE SAME EVENTS HAPPEN TO EVERYONE (9:1-12):
Writing from his “under the sun” perspective, Solomon said that he had considered the actions of men, and it was unclear to him how God looked at the deeds of the righteous, whether He loved them or hated them (this is a continued thought from chapter 8).
This confusion about God came from his observations of how the world worked. He noticed that the same events happen to the righteous and to the wicked.
It wasn’t always the case that the righteous were blessed and the wicked were cursed.
What’s more is that if everything ended in the grave, the righteous got no reward for their goodness and the wicked got no reward for their badness.
In light of this truth (truth from the “under the sun” perspective), the best thing a person could do was to enjoy their food, wine, spouse, work, and blessings while God permitted them to live on the earth, because in Sheol (in the grave) there was no thought, no knowledge, no wisdom, just blackness.
Men and women are the victims of time and chance. Sometimes the fast don’t win the race, sometimes the battle is lost by the strong, and sometimes the smart people aren’t the ones who get rich.
Sometimes bad happens to good people and good happens to bad people.
The events of life are unknown to us. Nobody knows the day of their death. Like fish caught in a net on a random afternoon, our lives might end tomorrow or in 30 years, nobody can predict the seemingly random selection of death.
THE POOR MAN’S WISDOM (9:13-18):
Solomon described a scenario where a great king besieged a small city.
When all hope was almost lost, a poor wise man within the walls found a way to deliver the city.
The poor man was later forgotten, but the effects of his wisdom lived on.
Solomon said that wisdom is better than the weapons of war!
APPLICATION
It’s always a good idea to look up the context of often quoted Old Testament passages.
I’ve often heard Ecc 9:10 quoted by preachers who told their congregations that God desires, “Whatevery your hand finds to do, do it with your might.”
While the principle is true, God wants us to work hard in His service, that isn’t really the way Solomon is using it in Ecclesiastes.
Solomon’s viewpoint was a pessimistic one. He was telling people to spend up all their energy before they met the blackness of Sheol.
You’ll notice that the second half of the verse is almost never quoted along with the first part.
I don’t think it’s wrong to use Solomon’s statement in a positive way, but it’s always good to know the context in which a quotation exists, because the original meaning may have been different than the popular modern usage.
