Today's Bible Reading April 8 2025

[digthemup]

Starting a new book today and one of my favorite ones, which gives us a great inside into what the Preacher, the man with the greatest wisdom ever, thought of life experiences.

Old Testament: KJV

Ecclesiastes
1

1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
3 What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?
4 One generation passes away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abides for ever.
5 The sun also arises, and the sun goes down, and hastes to his place where he arose.
6 The wind goes toward the south, and turns about unto the north; it whirls about continually, and the wind returned again according to his circuits.
7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
8 All things are full of labor; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.


9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.
11 There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.
12 I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
13 And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.
14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
15 That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.


16 I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
17 And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
18 For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow.

[bassfishinglawyer]

Question I've always pondered - was Solomon the wisest man that ever lived during his life or only at the end? Or was he the wisest, but especially wise at the end?

[sdbrison]

Question I've always pondered - was Solomon the wisest man that ever lived during his life or only at the end? Or was he the wisest, but especially wise at the end?

I believe God granted Solomon the gift he asked for, which was wisdom. early on. My understanding is Song of Songs was early Solomon, Proverbs mid-life, and Eclcesiates toward the end of his life. Will take a fact check on that.

Edit to add, I listen to "The Word of the Lord Endures Forever" podcast weekdays on my short commute to work. It has been in Ecclesiastes since mid-March. It's a good 15 minute verse by verse bible study.

[digthemup]

I believe that many of us, who are capable of understanding and discernment, become much wiser with age, which somewhat validates that hind sight seems to clarify our vision. Solomon gives us some very good warnings in Ecclesiastes with his final chapters of life, so even though God granted him his request for wisdom to govern Israel, through Scripture, we know that he was not a good stewart of God's gifts during most years of his life. However, I believe Christ would look at all of us and pose this question, when we try to stand in judgement of Solomon's life, "who among you is without sin?". Amen

[digthemup]

To all those that would like to enjoy, here is the link to the podcast Scott Brison was referring in post #4 which goes with this chapter.

https://thewordendures.org/2025/03/1...eedon-3-14-25/
https://thewordendures.org/2025/03/1...eedon-3-17-25/
https://thewordendures.org/2025/03/1...eedon-3-18-25/

[bassfishinglawyer]

Not addressing anything else he did, I have just always found it interesting that such a wise man could have so many wives/concubines. I guess you can be wise and still go against what your wisdom is telling you, as I seem to do that daily.

[digthemup]

I lost count of the women in my life during the years of doing security at various venue, and 3 of them, I have called wives. However, my children are from 3 different mother, though only 2 of them were my wives.
Now, if you think that is confusing, imagine having 1000 wives and unknown amount of concubines, in which case, it make me look really good; yet, even with my mess of a life, GOD has forgiven me because of Christ's works and His blood on the cross, having me serve Him in ways I could have never imagined.

With GOD all things are possible. Amen