With all who live, there is hope

Ecclesiastes 8:1-9:6

A person’s wisdom brightens their face and changes its hard appearance. 

Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm, and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.

As no one has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has power over the time of their death. As no one is discharged in time of war, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.

So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them.

Anyone who is among the living has hope[b]—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even their name is forgotten.

there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad.

Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.

Faith cannot resolve the problem of evil: good people getting what the bad deserve; wicked people admired and having a cushy time. The people of God can only assert what they know is true, though all the evidence is against it. Enjoyment is the best thing in life, says 'Qoheleth'. Yet he applies his own energy to wisdom, even though God has concealed from us the answer to life's mysteries.

Why?

Reverence the king and the Lord is a wise man for our fate is under their please.

Obey his command will come to no harm.

No one has power over the time of their death, so there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad.

When we are living we are afraid of the dead, but when people are dead he did not know anything.

Only the Lord is beyond the time and all of us.

[b]With all who live, there is hope

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作者勸人順服地上的政權，不要急躁！智慧的人知道什麼時機，適合的方法來行事。否則只會徒增無謂的苦難。有智慧面對這個世代的問題。

不要擔心，無論君王權利如何大，也不能掌管一切，未來要發生的事。也不能掌管生命，靈魂。可以決定人的死，卻不能決定人的不死。

在不公義的社會當中，人在神裏面可以享受福樂！義人所做的神都紀念，無論是否待人稱讚或是忘記。

許多事我們不明白，只要活著，有生命，我們就有盼望。活著的人必知道死，所以知道好好活著，死了的人就什麼也不知道了。活的狗比死的獅子更有盼望。獅子比喻國王。

以斯帖向國王求生命，哈曼求權力、富貴！

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How?

Fear the Lord and it is the beginning of wisdom.