Our sin separates us from God and invites His judgment (Isaiah 59:1-2; Romans 6:23). An unrepentant heart makes us hide from God and everyone associated with Him. Our life becomes a ruse as we try to hide who and what we really are. None of this takes away our sin, helps us escape its consequences, or makes us a different person. It only takes us further away from God. We may convince ourselves that we are hiding because we are ashamed. But if we were really ashamed, we’d apologize and ask for forgiveness, knowing that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

We can only follow God if we listen to what He has to say. He speaks to us through the Bible, which is His inspired word to us, and through the Holy Spirit, which is His Spirit talking to ours. We must guard against deception by knowing HIs Word and testing every other word and internal voice against it. When the Bible is unclear to us or doesn't speak directly into our situation, then we pray and ask God to teach and guide us through His Spirit.

Instead of realizing God’s power to make him Israel’s king and being thankful for it, Jeroboam was so afraid he would lose the kingdom, that he tried to secure the kingdom for himself by creating his own system of worship contrary to God’s system. He should have trusted God more after seeing Him fulfill His word to him, but instead, he turned away from the Lord and tried to lead everyone else astray too. But the Levites were faithful to the Lord and they moved away from Jeroboam’s corrupt system of worship taking other faithful worshippers with them.

If we want to grow in our faith, we must be aware of God’s hand in our lives. And if we want to remain faithful, we must know God and follow Him closely.

This is the story of how the nation of Israel got divided into the the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, which was all part of God’s perfect plan.

In it we discuss what it means for God to fulfill His plans on this earth and how that practically plays out in people's lives. How do we reconcile the tension between God's sovereignty and our freewill.

Throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon has talked about how fleeting and uncertain our lives can be, how little control we have, and how unsatisfying the things of this world are, while pointing us to the eternal, sure satisfaction of a person who trusts in the sovereign God who loves them. Now, he ends by saying that we only get one life, and we don’t need to waste it. Instead, we should live every day to the fullest, appreciating the life God has given and loving and serving Him with everything we have while the opportunity is there.

So, how do God's promises and prophecies play out in real people's lives. At the end of this lesson, we discuss the tension between God's sovereignty and man's freewill.

Solomon debunks the idea of karma by saying that we are not guaranteed good results when we do good things or bad results when we do bad things. We are responsible for our actions, and it is certainly better to be wise and righteous than to be foolish and wicked, but God is in control of the outcome, and there are some common graces we all receive. So, we should always try to do what is right, not so we will receive a certain outcome, but because we love and serve a sovereign God. Focusing on Him helps us do what is right and enables us to enjoy the gifts He has given us in this life.

Submission is a dirty word in our culture today, but that is largely because it is misunderstood. Biblical submission is not blind or passive. It is wise, intentional, and measured. It values relationships over resistance, persuasion over pressure, and influence over control. It avoids both extremes of blind submission and reckless rebellion without being manipulative. That is what Solomon is describing in this chapter.

This chapter reads a little more like Proverbs than the previous ones. So, even though there is some logic to its structure, Solomon hits many different topics for us to examine – life and death, pain and pleasure, feeling and avoiding, listening and ignoring, patience and impulsivity, humility and pride, past and present, wisdom and wealth, protection and preservation, control and trust, righteousness and wickedness, humanity and holiness.

Solomon continues his search for meaning by examining worship, power, and wealth, showing that both careless worship and unchecked greed ultimately leave the soul dissatisfied.