How Shall We Then Live? (Eccl. 8:1-9:12)

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If you walk by sight – if you order your life according to what you can observe – then all you will find is that God made man upright, but man has sought out many schemes.

The Preacher could find Dame Folly by sight – but he could not find Lady Wisdom.

The autonomous quest – the self-governed quest for wisdom winds up in the house of Folly.

So what next?

Chapter 7 brought us to the climax of the Preacher’s investigation, so what more is there? If the autonomous quest for wisdom cannot find Wisdom, then what?

Well, you’re not dead yet, are you? You still have to continue living. You have to keep on going. But at least you know one thing!

You know that you will never find wisdom under the sun.

But you still have to live under the sun. God made man upright, but they have sought after many schemes. That may be the one thing that is proven by all history and experience – but that is not a satisfying conclusion. No one can live as a perpetual cynic.

I know. Some people try. Indeed, cynicism is the modern temper – especially in academic circles! It’s easy to be cynical – about the use of power and language – about the manipulation that exists in all human relationships –

God made man upright – but they have sought out many schemes…

So, if we live in a fallen world – a world that abides under the shadow of death – how then shall we live?