Daily Devotions
Ecclesiastes
"He cannot contend with Him who is mightier"
Text: Ecclesiastes 6:10
THE PRIDE OF MIGHT
Man can be very caught up with power too. Some find power to be very intoxicating. Solomon pricked and burst this purple bubble.
“Whatever one is, he has been named already,
For it is known that he is man;
And he cannot contend with Him who is mightier than he.”
Ecclesiastes 6:10
1. “Whatever one is”
a) This may be a reference to a status, like a title.
b) One may desire to be “the first” of its kind.
c) This desire drives some people.
d) Things that drive some people:
i) Power
ii) Greatness
iii) Contention to be the greatest
2. The deeper problem
a) Man has always striven with Fellow-Man.
b) Sometimes, the arrogance of Man makes him contend with God.
c) In this task, Man is greatly frustrated.
3. “He has been named already”
a) Man thinks he can do something that has never been done.
b) He finds that God is a step ahead of him.
c) He finds that “he” (or “it”) has already been named (or done).
d) This frustrates the person who calls himself, “a self-made man”.
4. “For it is known that he is man”
a) Man is simply man.
b) He cannot be deity.
c) He cannot be what belongs to God exclusively.
5. “And he cannot contend with Him who is mightier than he”
a) He certainly cannot contend with God.
b) The Lord is far mightier.
6. The wisdom of the Psalmist David
a) David contemplated what it is to be man.
b) He was a mighty and wealthy king in his own right.
c) He had this to say about Man.
“When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.”
Psalm 8:3-5
i) What is man?
When he is compared to the heavens.
ii) What is the son of man?
He is “a little lower than the angels”.
(This is called a literary device called a “litotes”.
It is called “an understatement”.
The meaning of this phrase; man is much lower than angels.)