1. Ecclesiastes 10:2. What is “right” and “left” in this passage?

No offense is meant to the left-handed man, but the majority of folks are right-handed. Thus the right becomes the symbol for all that is good and normal and powerful etc. The left can therefore be conveniently made the opposite of all those good things. Recall even the words of Jesus about where the sheep are, and where are the goats, in his final appearance and division of mankind.

2. Ecclesiastes 11:2. How does “dividing a portion” allay misfortune?

This verse is simply meant to teach us to share our wealth with others. Trouble can come at any time, and they will need your generosity. Plus, God will bring back to you in your need, what you have shared with others in their time of trouble.

3. Ecclesiastes 11:9. Follow the impulses of your heart and the desire of your eyes?

Did not the apostle John counsel God’s people to avoid all that is in the world? Did he not say that the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not from the Father? Why does Solomon seem to suggest that these things are good?

“Seem” is the operative word here. Notice where Solomon goes with this: Go ahead, young man, do whatever you want to do… but know that there is a price to pay for it all! He’s in harmony with the apostle. Our human nature leads us one way, and the Spirit of God pulls us the other way. If we yield to our human desires before they have been submitted to the greater desires of God, only judgment can come.

This is the way of the world. The way of least resistance. The way of no discipline. The feel-good way. “Surely God wants me to be happy, no?” is the question of the day when Christians speak of the cross, and death on it.

4. Ecclesiastes 12:6. What is the imagery here? Is this about a funeral, death, as in the first verses?

A silver cord, a golden bowl, a pitcher, a wheel. All suddenly not functioning, and immediately the dust returns to the earth. Could it be, as some commentaries point out, that Solomon, in his wisdom and knowledge of the human body, is referring to parts of that structure here? The spinal cord, the bowl-shaped brain, the fountain of blood that springs from the artery pitcher and other stimulators of the blood cycle, metaphorically a “wheel”? Surely a unique description, if this is the case.

5. Ecclesiastes 12:7. What is the significance of dust and Spirit here?