Sunday January 13, 2008
First Church of the Brethren
H. Kevin Derr
Ecclesiastes 7:1-8:1
“Wisdom”
1 A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth. 2 It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart.
3 Frustration is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart. 4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure. 5 It is better to heed the rebuke of a wise person than to listen to the song of fools. 6 Like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of fools. This too is meaningless.
7 Extortion turns the wise into fools, and a bribe corrupts the heart. 8 The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. 9 Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools. 10 Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is not wise to ask such questions.
11 Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing and benefits those who see the sun. 12 Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: Wisdom preserves the life of its possessor. 13 Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked? 14 When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, you cannot discover anything about your future.
15 In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these: the righteous perishing in their righteousness, and the wicked living long in their wickedness. 16 Do not be over righteous, either be over wise— why destroy yourself? 17 Do not be over wicked, and do not be a fool— why die before your time? 18 It is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other. Whoever fears God will avoid all [extremes]. 19 Wisdom makes one wise person more powerful than ten rulers in a city. 20 Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins.
21 Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you— 22 for you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others. 23 All this I tested by wisdom and I said, “I am determined to be wise”— but this was beyond me. 24 Whatever exists is far off and most profound— who can discover it?
25 So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly. 26 I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare.
27 “Look,” says the Teacher,” this is what I have discovered: “Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things— 28 while I was still searching but not finding— I found one [upright] man among a thousand, but not one [upright] woman among them all. 29 This only have I found: God created humankind upright, but they have gone in search of many schemes.” 1 Who is like the wise? Who knows the explanation of things? Wisdom brightens the face and changes its hard appearance.
Prayer:
I. The teachers walks us through a series of hard sayings, truths that we find disturbing. Often it is not in the pleasant days that we find growth and maturity. Rather, we find maturity in the hardships of life, in the trials and pains that help to shape and form us. This is not to say that easy days do not have their place, and that they do not help to shape us, but if you would consider a working with a piece of wood, will a sponge be as effective as a saw in shaping a piece of wood? No!
a. So the hard days shape us in a similar fashion. The teacher speaks to this, he says, 1 A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth. 2 It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart.
i. A good name is of more value than the rarest of luxury goods.
1. What does it take to get a good name, a lifetime of righteous living, dealing honestly with people, earning their trust and respect.
2. How long does the value of a rare luxury item last, until you use it or until food becomes more valuable than it.
3. A good name is something that you can use, like a good credit score today.
ii. Then he says something completely unrelated, or so it seems, the day of death is better than the day of birth?
1. A good name goes on long after you die, people remember you, talk about you. The upright will live on long in the minds of their friends and family and those who knew and respected them.
2. A child, does not have a good name, it all must be earned and built up but the day of death brings rest.
a. Everyone with a good name will be remembered and honored, but not everyone who is born will be remembered and honored.
b. The hard edge here is that we are mortal, we will all die. We cannot control the manner in which we die, but we do have a measure of control over how we live, or at least how we will react to the circumstances of our lives.
iii. This is followed by some rather simple and basic instruction in life.
1. The hose of mourning is better than the house of feasting
a. It really is a simple proverb here, which is better to go through life drunk and foolishly or sober and wisely?
b. The house of mourning invokes images of death, reflection and a realization that we will all die
c. The frat party on the other hand suggests no foresight, no thought, just excess and indulgence.
2. The reminder that we will all die, and that our time is actually rather limited, should be sobering and should cause us to ask questions about how we will live and what we will value and hold in esteem.
3. As the teacher moves forward, we are still working with the same images, he writes, 3 Frustration is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart. 4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure. 5 It is better to heed the rebuke of a wise person than to listen to the song of fools.
a. The Teacher says, “Frustration is better than laughter”
i. I’d rather laugh and be frustrated, but which is more useful for me in the long run?
ii. He says, that “A sad face is good for the heart.” This is why frustration is better than laughter.
1. If you are wise, frustration will lead you to ask questions, it will lead to knowledge and understanding, but laughter will never take us to a point of deeper understanding, of living from a place of wisdom.
2. This is not to say that frustration will not cause you to do stupid things, but there is the potential for growth and wisdom in frustration, but laughter does not have that same hope.
3. He then details this wisdom for us, He says, “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning”
a. We do not seek sages in funeral homes
b. What he is saying, is that the path to wisdom is not found in foolishness, but in reflection and wisdom and ask questions of those who are wise.
4. He sets the other path in this light, “the house of pleasure.” This is where the foolish reside.
a. Celebrities with lots of money, doing stupid things, just because they can.
b. When we make our goal pleasure, our pleasure, we make sating our destructive desires the goal. We see the path of the addict.
4. Verse five sums this up rather nicely, the teacher says, 5 It is better to heed the rebuke of a wise person than to listen to the song of fools.
a. The wise person will rebuke us and lead us to life, to a good name, but the song of fools will lead us to our own destruction.
b. In the end we all die, but do we wish a good name or to be known as a shortsighted fool?
c. If that were not enough, verse 6 reads, 6 Like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of fools. This too is meaningless.
i. No one listens to the fire crackling under the cooking pot for advice, no one listens to the hum of the microwave for sound advice, so is the laughter of fools. Meaningless, useless, like seeking wisdom in the hum of your microwave.
ii. The teacher speaks harshly to us, but how else will he get our attention.
II. We now move through a series of examples of all of this: The Teacher writes, 7 Extortion turns the wise into fools, and a bribe corrupts the heart. 8 The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. 9 Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools. 10 Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is not wise to ask such questions.
a. What are the pitfalls for the wise? What temps the wise to stray from a life that leads to a good name?
i. Money will, thus, Extortion turns the wise into fools, a bribe corrupts the heart.
1. The teacher calls us to consider the effects of ill gotten gain, It is not only a bigger bank account, but a destruction of what matters, the character of a person, the heart.
2. Two things are better than others, the end of a matter is better than its beginning and patience is better than pride.
a. A completed project does not allow for corruption like one in progress does
b. Patience can allow one to wait, pride causes us to act
3. A warning about our tempers and quick reactions to things, being quickly provoked brings us to the point of being fools sooner rather than later.
4. Then we are called to reflect on the good old days, and ask why were they better than now, he says this is not a good question.
a. When we focus on what was, not what is, we end missing much, it does no one any good to live in the past in the glory days
b. In fact, the glory days typically were not as good as we want to realize, we often romantic the past and make it much nicer than it was.
b. The examples continue, 11 Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing and benefits those who see the sun. 12 Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: Wisdom preserves the life of its possessor. 13 Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked? 14 When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, you cannot discover anything about your future.
i. Why bother with wisdom?
1. Wisdom has some very specific values
a. It is like money a shelter, a means of taking care of you and yours, but here is the difference wisdom preserves the life of its possessor.
b. People will kill you for your money, but wisdom will help you survive, in ways that money never can
2. Now he says, consider what God has done… God had done many things, he then pushes the example, “Who can straighten what God has made crooked?”
a. Who can undo what God has done?
b. God will use circumstances to shape you, good days as well as bad.
3. So, the teacher says, enjoy god days, be happy, but consider that the same God who has brought you a good day will also bring you bad days.
a. If both are from the hand of God, there is something worthwhile in them all
b. Don’t try to undo what God has done, there is something for you in the difficulty that you are in, pay attention.
ii. No matter how hard we try we cannot find out what our future is to be. So, we must embrace what God has given us. This is not passive, but active, both come from the hand of God.
III. The teacher now calls us to live rightly. Listen to his words, 15 In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these: the righteous perishing in their righteousness, and the wicked living long in their wickedness. 16 Do not be over righteous, either be over wise— why destroy yourself? 17 Do not be over wicked, and do not be a fool— why die before your time? 18 It is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other. Whoever fears God will avoid all [extremes]. 19 Wisdom makes one wise person more powerful than ten rulers in a city. 20 Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins.
a. He tells us that the righteous die young and the wicked live long. In other words the ancient notion that the righteous will live long in the land and the wicked will die young, is not true, it might be a nice thought, but it is not true.
b. So, he says,
i. Don’t be over righteous or over wise on the one hand
1. Don’t be self-righteous, don’t be holier than thou
2. Don’t assume that you know it all and others have nothing to offer you
ii. Don’t be over wicked on the other
1. We often miss life because we have had and fast boundaries that God does not
iii. Rather, wisdom says grab hold of both of them, one in the one hand and one in the other
1. Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes.
2. Wisdom will bring a person more influence than the rulers of a city
iv. If you want another way to think about his, be genuine, honest and don’t put on any false modesty or success.
1. As Jesus said, “Let your yes be yes and your no be no, anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
c. As the teacher wrote, he spoke truly, but in passing time this point came to be surpassed. He said, 20 Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins.
i. Jesus was sinless, but there were many religious folks of his day that felt he was evil, they would be the over righteous the over wise.
ii. Jesus redefined humanity in many ways, this one included.
d. The next few lines is hard to hear in the modern context, 25 So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly. 26 I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare.
i. In the day of the teacher, Women were powerless, there only power was their femininity.
ii. It may also speak to the Teachers besetting sin, the lust of his eyes
iii. This should also be read the other way around about the way that men ensnare women too
iv. In the end, it speaks about which will ensnare us all:
1. A besetting sin, something that is tempting especially to us, powerful, a mere thought or image can become almost overwhelmingly powerful
2. The only escape, other than to be dominated by this besetting sin, is a life of righteousness, being a man or woman of God, nothing else will stop this deadly thought.
IV. The end of this passage also reflects a bit the teachers besetting sin and the nature of the times in which he lived. He writes: 27 “Look,” says the Teacher,” this is what I have discovered: “Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things— 28 while I was still searching but not finding— I found one [upright] man among a thousand, but not one [upright] woman among them all. 29 This only have I found: God created humankind upright, but they have gone in search of many schemes.” 1 Who is like the wise? Who knows the explanation of things? Wisdom brightens the face and changes its hard appearance.
a. At the end of the day, wisdom is worthwhile, it brightens the face and changes its hard appearance
i. The wise are thoughtful and desirable to have in a community, there are none others like them, they understand.
ii. They know how the world works, and who to live in the world, and to do so righteously
iii. There are not many who are wise and righteous in the day of the Teacher, neither are we likely to find many today who are wise and righteous.
1. The state of humanity is thus, that while God created us righteously, we have sinned and continue to do so, both men and women.
2. God created us righteous, but we go looking for schemes, ways to appease God for our lack of righteousness
a. In the end, it is not we who save ourselves with our scheming
b. But rather it is God who has saved us through his sinless son, the Messiah, the Christ, Jesus who is our Lord.
Thanks for spending the time in explaining this chapter. You’ve answered my question on verse 3.
However, a sad face is only good for the heart up to a certain point; when life feels like one frustration after another with no end in sight, there’s only so much learning, reflection and trying you can do before getting the feeling that you will never be happy, that all you’ll ever know is sadness. But I guess the verse was talking about wisdom and I’m taking it out of context. Still this issue remains…