Ecclesiastes 7:27-29 – Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account: Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found. Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.
There are not many upright people. Solomon figured out through life that there was only one man out of a thousand he could trust and none of his thousand wives. Not a very good track record. When you get a lot of money like Solomon and you have a lot of wisdom, you figure out everyone is just being nice to you because of your wealth. You don’t have a lot of true friends that are upright and honest.
As Solomon states, man was made upright by God, but has a deceitful heart that is constantly seeking out some new invention or some new thrill for the flesh. Solomon was looking into people’s lives. When he started to look into someone’s character, he always found something that was not right. If only 0.05% of the 2000 people Solomon mentions in this verse are living right, where does that leave you and me. Not in a very good spot. If each of us had to do an inventory, or an account of our lives since we have been saved, we would all come up short in a lot of areas. Forget about before we were saved.
If you are with the 99.95% of us that come up a little on the short side of the account, why don’t you have mercy on me and I can have mercy with you. Brother Hank Thompson used to say
If you can put up with my sorry preaching, I can put up with your sorry living. – Hank Thompson
All of us have flaws and corruption. We are trying to work out as much as we can before we show up in heaven, but a thousand life times would not be enough. The one thing besides being forgiven yourself that should make you want to forgive others, is looking at your own corruption and seeing what God and the brethren put up with in you. All of us seek out many inventions and other things in life that get us off the path of God at some point. We just need to get back on the path and not dwell on the past. Forgetting those things which are behind you would do a lot of good. Try thinking on the things of God and heaven instead. There may not be many upright but there are plenty of sinners saved by grace.
0 Comments