How to Suffer Wisely
For Meditation
Like a shadow lurking in the background, the theme of suffering has been hovering throughout the chapters of Ecclesiastes as we have worked through the book week by week. After all, the reason the world is a world of hebel is because of the presence of pain and suffering. But this week we turn to address the topic of suffering directly. Specifically, how does a person suffer wisely?
We all know people who have gone through significant suffering and have come through it better, wiser, stronger, kinder people. But we also know poeple who have come out of suffering as angry, bitter, resentful people. If pain and suffering is evitable in a world of hebel, how we might go through hard times in a way that makes us more beautiful and whole?
In this section, we'll look at the temptations of escapism and moralism, both faulty ways of handling suffering. But we'll also look at what Qohelet recommends, which is the fear of the Lord (3:18). And we'll peek beyond Qohelet to the bigger biblical story, to see how we might live in hope as we walk through the hebel of the world.
Ecclesiastes 7:8–15
8 The end of a matter is better than its beginning,
and patience is better than pride.
9 Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit,
for anger resides in the lap of fools.
10Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?”
For it is not wise to ask such questions.
11 Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing
and benefits those who see the sun.
12 Wisdom is a shelter
as money is a shelter,
but the advantage of knowledge is this:
Wisdom preserves those who have it.
13 Consider what God has done:
Who can straighten
what he has made crooked?
14When times are good, be happy;
but when times are bad, consider this:
God has made the one
as well as the other.
Therefore, no one can discover
anything about their future.
15 In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these:
the righteous perishing in their righteousness,
and the wicked living long in their wickedness.