Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.
Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.
All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?
I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness. And I find something more bitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things– which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found. See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.
Who is like the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed. – Ecclesiastes 7:19-8:1
The first verse in this section tells you what it is about. It’s like an editor’s section heading: “Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.” The wisdom that Solomon is saying gives strength is the wise man’s discerning knowledge of the depravity of man. Solomon himself knows: “I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness.” A father, mother, employer, pastor, or teacher who has learned what Solomon describes here has more strength than ten foolish rulers in a city.
The first point Solomon makes is that even the righteous will sin: “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.” We have to be careful that we don’t misread this as saying that there is no one who can be called righteous. Immediately before this passage in v. 15, Solomon speaks of a “righteous man” who dies young while doing righteously. It is rather commonplace, especially among reformed people, to quote Romans 3 glibly, “There is no one righteous; no not one,” and scoff at the idea that we’re all anything but totally depraved.
But let’s be careful because Solomon unapologetically speaks of a righteous man. What’s going on? When Paul writes that in Romans 3, he is quoting Psalm 14, which is speaking of Jewish evildoers and fools who say in their heart, “There is no God.” In Romans 3 he’s still talking about unfaithful Jews. Among them: there is no one righteous, no not one.
It’s possible to be so impressed with the depravity of man that you see sinfulness in the Bible when it isn’t there. True, we are all sinners, and everything we do is tainted with sin, but it is not the best way to read every text. In this case in Ecclesiastes, Solomon is not saying that there is not a righteous man on earth. He is saying that even of the righteous men on earth, all sin. No one is perfectly wise. Wisdom knows that it cannot understand much about human nature, but it must at least know that all sin. Know this and you’ll have the wisdom that leads to strength, perhaps even more than ten rulers who are in a city.
He goes on with another illustration about people talking bad about you behind your back, and then another about Madame Folly, “the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters.” The wise, knowing the depravity of people, avoid these traps and dangers. Still there is great mystery: “See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.” Sin makes the incomprehensible complexity of human nature even more mysterious.
This offers a great deal of insight into the coming of Jesus. As the Apostle John says in his first epistle, “You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin,” which then helps us understand with the writer to the Hebrews, “Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” For whom is Jesus going to return? For fools? No. For the wise who’ve had their sins borne by Jesus and pursue righteousness and wisdom. It’s obvious, for “a man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.” That’s the gospel.
Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked?
In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.
In my vaporous life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them. – Ecclesiastes 7:13-18
In my years as a pastor, I have watched and wondered about how to make a church grow without violating scriptural and theological ideals. Put another way, I know some things you can do to get more people at a church, but these things don’t often fit into “the faith once delivered.” Probably one of the strategies for growth that happens most is adopting a kind of sales and marketing posture: “We’ve got what you need! Come here to get it!” There are “relevant” and “practical” “messages” about how to do this and how to do that. If you just follow these principles—leadership principles usually—you find success. There aren’t many mysteries about family finances or training children. “We’ll show you how to raise kids God’s way.”
Solomon’s wisdom copied in above is terrible marketing. He could never have made it in the American church business. He suggests that God brings both prosperity and adversity into our lives. Righteous people die young, and wicked people live long. Not only that, but his wisdom warns against being “overly righteous” or “too wise,” which may cause you to “die before your time.” I mean, c’mon, who’s going to join that church!
Solomon suggests that most anyone can attribute one’s good times to God, but the true test of faith is found in the one who understands the times of trouble and disaster. Job, of course, is the wisdom book fully devoted to this same subject. As with Job, our future is hidden in God’s secret will: “that man may not find out anything that will be after him.” God answers to no one, shares His power with no one, and certainly has not relinquished His control to the randomness of chance, the whimsical natures of the human will, or the forces of nature. Considering everything Solomon has said in the first 6 chapters of Ecclesiastes, it would not be going too far to say that God frustrates our attempts to discover what He does or to try to predict what He will do. This is vaporous.
Solomon certainly has a meaningful life, but he says, “In my vaporous life I have seen everything.” In light of that, he offers two imperatives: “Be not overly righteous, and…be not overly wicked.” To try to be either are potential human responses to the righteous man dying young or the wicked man dying old. To “be not overly righteous” is to pursue piety in order to earn a reward, as though God would be in one’s debt. To “be not overly wicked” is not symmetrically aligned, as though he’s suggesting some wickedness is okay—just not too much. On the contrary, he’s saying, “neither be a fool.”
There is an answer on what to do: fear God, “for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.” Both of what? Both trying to build up a false righteousness or pursuing foolishness, even in despair. God cannot be manipulated by our behaviors. He is to be feared. God is as safe as He is manageable. He does not follow our ways or our thoughts or our rationalizations. Accordingly, because we trust God’s word, we know that He is a God to be feared.
Jesus is the full revelation of God. What did He evoke in His closest followers? Fear. But, how about when they were in distress and He displayed His absolute dominion over creation? Fear. When Jesus stood up and uttered a mere word, the storm calmed, but the disciples didn’t. “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” He is God, He can be trusted though He cannot be figured out. He has promised never to leave us or forsake us. And that’s the gospel.
Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fools; this also is vapor. Surely oppression drives the wise into madness, and a bribe corrupts the heart. Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools. Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. Wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun. For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it. – Ecclesiastes 7:1-12
Except for maybe one proverb per chapter thorough chapter 6, Solomon has written in the form of personal reflection and general arguments. That’s been his kingly style of communicating wisdom for kings. Now, in chapter 7, he makes an abrupt change in literary style for the first twelve verses. These are all proverbs. They are pithy, but profound. I tend to think that pithy means not only catchy, but easy—sort of like soundbites. But these are tough. They are comparative judgements rather than absolute judgments. We tend to like black and white, do this, don’t do that, but the wisdom books of the bible don’t usually work like that.
At the end of chapter 6 Solomon poses a question: “For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vaporous life, which he passes like a shadow?” Chapter 7 seems to begin a long answer that is more provisional than final, although a necessary part of the process to reach the conclusion. Because these proverbs are comparative (rather than absolute), he’s look at what is better than something else. These sayings are not haphazardly lumped together; neither are they meant to be understood without significant effort and contemplation, probably in discussion with others in the community.
Solomon has been honest about our suffering and death due to the curse of God laid upon us because of our sin. We’d rather live a trouble-free life without these things, but the wise know the pursuit of that life is like trying to shepherd wind. Instead, we should learn how to respond to such suffering in a better way. The Hebrew offers us insight into the structure of the passage. Each of the six sayings begin with the Hebrew word for good (tov). There are six, but they link together in duplets to form a threefold outline: 1. Death is a better teacher than birth; 2. Rebuke of the wise is better than empty praise (“the song of fools”); 3. Patient hope for the end of a thing is better than arrogant whining (a “proud” and quickly angered spirit).
The climax or summary statement is a seventh tov saying that wisdom has a relative better advantage. “Wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun. For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.”
So, back to the question in chapter 6, “For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vaporous life, which he passes like a shadow?” Here we’ve found at least a provisional answer: wisdom. Wisdom is good. Wisdom’s benefits are not always realized immediately (like an “inheritance”). Certainly, Jesus, the “wisdom of God,” knew this. He is, after all, the King of kings, thus Ecclesiastes is a book for him. He was patient in suffering for the joy before him, not falling for empty praise along the way, and exploiting death as a better teacher than birth into this present life. “Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” And that’s the gospel.
Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.