There are several pieces of probing wisdom in today’s reading. “Do not give heed to everything that people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you; your heart knows that many times you have yourself cursed others” (Ecclesiastes 7:21-22). Ouch! “The lover of money will not be satisfied with money; nor the lover of wealth, with gain. This also is vanity” (5:10). Ouch again.

Then we find this astute observation: “In my vain life I have seen everything; there are righteous people who perish in their righteousness, and there are wicked people who prolong their life in evil-doing” (7:15). Our intuition might tell us that surely God will always bless the righteous and punish the wicked, and so Job and other sufferers must be secret sinners if they find themselves in great distress. But our intuition on that is wrong. The text is quite clear: There are righteous people who perish in their righteousness. There are wicked people who prolong their life in evil-doing.

As to all our ambitions and the things we say about them: “With many dreams come vanities and a multitude of words; but fear God” (5:7). The harsh words we hear and speak, our eagerness for more money, the judgments we offer about other people’s sinfulness, and our own long-winded ambitions: what if instead of these we simply stepped back from all of that, and set our hearts in reverent awe before our Lord?

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You are the Almighty One, Lord of all things in heaven and earth! Help us, we pray, for so much of our lives is emptiness and vanity. Save us from our love of money; save us from our judgmentalism; save us from giving heed to every random thing people say about us: and instead teach our hearts to tremble in worship as we bow before you.

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