Enjoying the Life with Provisions of God (Ecc 9: 7- 10)

ENJOYING THE LIFE WITH PROVISIONS OF GOD (Ecc 9: 7- 10):

After writing about how the living is better than the dead, the author asks his recipients to go and eat their bread with joy, and drink their wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what they do. God had made man to rule over everything and utilize everything in a constructive way. The act of eating and drinking should be joyful as it is one of the providences which satisfies a person’s appetite physically. God wishes that the men should be with a merry heart and he designed everything well, for the same. But when there is no perception of the purpose of God regarding the things around and when a person tries to go beyond what has been approved by God, it makes things complex and the happiness could be no more joyful.

The author then writes that the garments shall be always white and let not oil be lacking on the head. The people in the culture wore white clothes on the joyful and happiest occasions with oil on their heads which helped them to have a bright look. The author tries to point out that people can be happy every day while living on earth. Then the author writes to enjoy the life with the wife whom a person love, all the days of his vain life that God had given him under the sun because that is the portion of life and the toil at which a person toil under the sun. In the beginning, God created the humans as male and female, not just for procreation but also to endorse and embrace one another that gives pleasure. The author quotes to enjoy life with their wife to whom the person committed his entire life throughout the days of the vanishing life. It is one of the best parts and comfort that man has, in the earth under the sun, according to the author.

The talents and the skills help the person to be engaged in something and utilize himself and his time. The author writes that whatever a person’s hand finds to do, the person shall do it with all the might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom that exists in the grave, to which a person is going. Putting the best efforts with right values help a person to achieve something which further satisfies a person in the face of the earth. The author helps his recipients to explore the joy in the things approved by God, as he already quoted that the living is better than dead, he continues to remind that there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom that could be possible in the grave, after the point of death which everyone has to face.

Stimulations for Self-Reflection:

1.    What a person ought to do with a merry heart? Why?

2.    How does a person have merry in the heart in eating or drinking?

3.    How do you think God has approved things?

4.    Why does the author say that the garments are always white and let not oil be lacking in the head?

5.    With whom does the author want to enjoy life? Why?

6.    How long one shall enjoy life with his wife? Why?

7.    What a person ought to do?

8.    How a person ought to do things that his hands find to do? Why?

9.    How can we be with a merry heart?