Ecclesiastes 4:13-16 & 5:1a

13-16a

Ecclesiastes 4:13-16a “Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice. For he went from prison to the throne, though in his own kingdom he had been born poor. I saw all the living who move about under the sun, along with that youth who was to stand in the king’s place. There was no end of all the people, all of whom he led.”

13 has some very good general wisdom in it. No matter how old you are, or what you thing you have learned or achieved, never stop listening to advice in your life. You may not want to act on it but always be open to take counsel from those around you.

Verses 13 through the first part of 16 are the tale of two kings, an older king who has become foolish in his age and no longer takes the advice of those around him and the also the tale of the man who is to replace this old and foolish king. This man who would replace the foolish old king started life poor, but wise in his youth. And even though he had been imprisoned, for what it is not said, he rose up in this kingdom and became the heir to the throne to replace the king who had become foolish. And the kingdom that he now reigned over was vast, very populous and probably very wealthy. That really is the extent of the information we get for this story, the last part of verse 16 deals with what happens after the reign of both kings. So the question is what do we have here with this tale of the two kings?

One king, the old and foolish king I think we can see him in power maybe from birthright and not heeding to the advice of those around him out of arrogance maybe. The other a younger and wiser king, working his way up from extremely humble beginnings and getting to what he may think is the top through what he may say as his own wisdom and will. Two different ways of seemingly getting to the top of human achievement, being a king of men. But for what?

16b

Ecclesiastes 4:16b “...Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a striving after wind.”

They made it to what they thought was the pinnacle of human achievement, to be a king of a vast populous kingdom, but after they were gone nobody remembered them.

5:1-7

Each one of these verses could be discussed and analyzed in great detail, each one of them contain good and wise counsel on our attitude and actions concerning our relationship with God. Worship seriously, think before you speak and pray, think carefully about what you promise of yourself to God and pay or do what you say, if you do promise something do not change your mind and say your were mistaken or not serious, and fear God. This section can be summed up quickly as listen first, speak second, honor and fear God, but while that may be an accurate summary it in no way contains all of the wisdom and aspects of this passage. Verses 1-3 are about listening and obeying God, in everything we do but especially in our worship. Verses 4-7 deal with what we say and promise to God and in general and ending with the last part of verse 7 telling us that God is the one we must fear.

1

Ecclesiastes 5:1 “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God.”

When this was written Solomon had built a new and fixed place for the presence of God to reside, the Temple. When it was built it was thought to be permanent but God knew it wasn’t going to be. But no longer was the ark of the covenant moved around from place to place in a temporary tent, or in a temporary house, His house was now built from His instructions to be the place His people could come and worship Him. There were sections in the temple that you could go and worship and sections that you could not, and the most holy, the holy of holy's, where the ark with its mercy seat were, only the high priest could enter and only once a year to offer atonement for the sins of the people. To say that the high priest had to guard his steps when he entered into this place would be a colossal understatement. He had to be ritually clean, physically washed, wearing the correct attire, he could not sit or rest while he was inside, he was to be constantly working, bells had to be attached to his garments so that the priest outside could hear him moving and a rope attached to him so he could be pulled out if the bells stopped because if he disobeyed any of the rules and requirements for entering this place the punishment was death. We know now that the physical temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, twice, and has been replaced by the sacrificial atonement of Jesus Christ so we all have access to God directly, and also that God has sent the Helper, the Holy Spirit to be in all of of the redeemed saints. The combined Awana lesson from this passed Sunday was on the Holy Spirit and was centered around this verse:

1 Corinthians 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,”

So I have two questions on guarding our steps when we go to the house of God.

One, since now all of the chosen, redeemed saints of God have the Holy Spirit in them and are now a temple, or house of God inside us, how do we need to guard our steps in our lives?

Two, when the houses of God here on earth gather together for the purpose of worshipping God, how should we guard our steps, our actions, and our thoughts?