Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, & Isaiah

What I Read

Day 15: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs

Day 16: Isaiah

My Impressions

• We are fooling ourselves if we do anything apart from God, if we place our trust in anyone or anything other than God, or being prideful we forget God or think we don’t need Him.
• Reading Proverbs and Ecclesiastes back to back was interesting. Proverbs is full of the wisdom that King Solomon obtained and Ecclesiastes then laments the futility of wisdom, and all the pursuits of life. The last four verses of Ecclesiastes are his conclusion about how to reconcile these.
  

  And moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yes, he pondered and sought out and set in order many proverbs.  The Preacher sought to find acceptable words; and what was written was upright—words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd. And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh.

  Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:

  Fear God and keep His commandments,
  For this is man’s all.
  For God will bring every work into judgment,
  Including every secret thing,
  Whether good or evil.

• I’d always assumed King Solomon was the groom in Songs of Songs but this isn’t clear from the text. I started wondering if it was Solomon which of his hundreds of wives (1 Kings 11:3) would this one woman be.
• Aside from a few well known passages I felt pretty lost reading Isaiah. This is definitely one of the books I’ll be going back to for further study.
• Despite all of Israel’s failings God’s grace and mercy abound. He will bless them and not abandon them. The same is true for me because of Jesus.