What is Good? – Ecclesiastes 6:10-7:14
Sermon Questions
- If you were asked the very simple question “what is good?” how would you answer it?
- The Preacher is going to ask the question “What is good?” but in 6:10-11 he starts somewhere else first. What is the basic point of vv 11-12? Why does that matter?
- Respond to this quote from Calvin “we cannot imagine any certainty that is not tinged with doubt, or any assurance that is not assailed by some anxiety.” How does this fit into our passage?
- Why is the day of death better than the day of birth? What is the key to understanding that verse?
- How would you take the teaching of 7:1-6 and put it in your own words?
- Verse 7 is unsettling: wisdom doesn’t always keep the wise person from being a fool. Why not? What are some of the various things this teaches us about wisdom?
- Verses 8-10 are closely related. What is the teaching here? How is that a kind of good?
- What does it mean that God has made things crooked? What can’t it mean? How should we interact with this reality?
- Verse 14 could be read in a few different ways. if you have a high view of God’s sovereignty and his work, what would be the right way to read this verse? How does it affect your life?
- Remember, Ecclesiastes is looking mostly at life under the sun. How does an “above the sun” perspective help us think about what is good here?