As we live our lives under the sun we need to know that our greatest obstacle and frustration in living this life is our inherited human sinfulness.
Although God has made us originally perfect, wise and upright, Solomon says that “they have sought out many schemes” (7:29).
That is who we are: schemers,
people wise in our own eyes, and always
in search of a plan apart from God! We
waver between wisdom and foolishness at the best of times, and the more we
detach ourselves from God, the more foolish we become. We struggle to make
sense of life, particularly when it comes to sickness and dying. We have a
sense of immortality in us and death and sickness don’t make sense.
We also have a sense of fairness in us.
Unfairness is repulsive to us.
In v. 15 Solomon expresses these frustrations when he says, “In my vain 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.”
Do you see the problem? How can a righteous man die an early death, while a wicked man enjoys a long life? According to our sense of fairness, a righteous man is not supposed do die early. A wicked man is not supposed to live long, and yet some wicked men do live to a ripe old age. Solomon says, “In my vain life I have seen everything. I have seen it all!” Solomon discovered, much to his agitation, that the length of a person’s life does not depend upon or godliness or spirituality.
It is against the greater background of this chapter (on living between wisdom and foolishness) and in particular against the background of v.15 then that Solomon now makes this very provocative observation in 7: 16-18:
“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.”
What does Solomon mean by being ‘not overly righteous‘ and by being ‘not too wise’ and by being ‘not overly wicked’?
There’s a real danger of misinterpreting these verses. Walter C. Kaiser, a respected OT theologian warns us that "few verses in Ecclesiastes are more susceptible to incorrect interpretations than 7:16-18."[1] So, what is the danger of misinterpreting this text?
Is Solomon discouraging us from being too holy or too righteous? Is he telling us that its OK to sin a little here and a little there - to be a little naughty here and there but not too wicked? If this be the case then we are faced with a massive theological problem.
Do we really believe that a holy God will leave an open door for us to indulge in ‘respectful immorality’ (don’t be overly wicked!)?
Do we really think that God will indulge us in a ‘lukewarm morality’ (don’t be overly righteous)?
Do we really believe that there is a safe middle ground, as we attempt to live between an extreme righteousness and an extreme wickedness?
And if that is so, can we determine where the boundaries are that would define what is ‘not overly righteous or wicked’?
(2) Accountability
to God was replaced by accountability to men.
(3) A person’s
ability to personally discern was reduced.
(4) It created
a judgmental spirit.
(5) The
Pharisees confused personal preferences with divine law.
(6) It produced
inconsistencies.
(7) It created
a false standard of righteousness.
(8) It became a
burden to the Jews.
(9) It was
strictly external.
(10) It was rejected by Christ.
So what thinking concerning righteousness is Solomon dealing with here?
Solomon is not dealing here with the doctrine of God’s imputed righteousness, so central to the Bible. According to this doctrine
(and with the hindsight of the NT), to
be right with God, and to have peace with God, and to enjoy
a true sense of the forgiveness
of sin(s) from God, and having
the hope of
eternal life in heaven,
we must have a Redeemer that
bears our sin. The NT teaches us that Christ bore the believer’s sins on the cross (1 Peter 2:24). The believer’s
sins were imputed to Jesus. His righteousness is transferred to the believer.
No one is justified by their own merits. NO one can be right with God simply by balancing their lives between the categories ‘being not overly righteous’ and ‘being not overly wicked‘. The truth is that no one achieves that perfect balance! In that sense “no-one is righteous, no , not one… no one is good not even one” (Ps. 14:1-3 cf. Rom. 3:10-12).
No one
will get to heaven by saying to
God, “Well I wasn’t perfect, but then
again … I wasn’t terribly sinful!”. This is
a very common and self -righteous assumption
by many!
The truth is that
God is so holy that all sin (even the tiniest) is reprehensible and damnable. For every sin you
deserve eternal hell, for
all sin flies in the face of a holy God. His perfect holiness means His perfect hatred of sin, and according to
that scale of perfect justice, none of us
are sinless and all deserve to be
cut off from God.
This is where the good news comes in. God, in Christ offers us salvation through His appointed Redeemer. He does two things for you: He atones (takes away) your sin, and He takes away God’s righteous anger towards sinners[3]. Only Jesus could do that! (Jude 24,25).
So what is Solomon referring to? This righteousness, and this wickedness which Solomon refers to here is not a question of being right with God. This refers to something within our life of faith. It is a question of our attitude within our life of faith in God.
With this in mind, let us revise what we have considered so far:
Generally speaking we may say that righteous living and obedience to the Word of God, prolongs a person’s life, while disobedience and wicked living generally shorten an individual’s life.
However, this does not mean that the
righteous will always live longer than the average person’s lifespan, or that
the wicked will live a shorter time than the average. This is what v. 15 observes. Ultimately, only God knows what the lifespan
is for each individual (Job 14:5; Eccl
3:1–2).
Now the way is clear to explore a very common problem in the life of any believer: self- righteousness and presumptuousness! Unfortunately there is a tendency among believers to become “overly righteous” and “overly wise”, while on the other hand we also find some believers who will always seek to live on the borders of “wickedness” and “foolishness”. One is never quite sure where they stand. To such Solomon has good advice:
(i) The “overly righteous” need to learn to think of themselves with sober judgement; not “more highly than they ought“ (Rom.12:3). Overly righteous believers generally lack spiritual humility. They are easily tempted to think of themselves as God’s appointed spokesmen and custodians of His truth on earth. Wisdom dies with them (Job 12:2). Think here of Job’s comforters. Many Christians think that they are the prime defenders of God and His Word.
In a 1886 sermon by C.H. Spurgeon’s entitled, “Christ and His Co-Workers” he says,
“Suppose a number of persons were to take it into their heads that they had to defend a lion, full-grown king of beasts! There he is in the cage, and here come all the soldiers of the army to fight for him. Well, I should suggest to them, if they would not object, and feel that it was humbling to them, that they should kindly stand back, and open the door, and let the lion out! I believe that would be the best way of defending him, for he would take care of himself; and the best 'apology' for the gospel is to let the gospel out.”
Spurgeon reminds us here that we
do not need to defend the Word of God
any more than we need to defend a lion.
Peter thought that he needed to defend Jesus when arrested. He drew his sword (Matt 26:51). Jesus rebukes him for this. He did not understand that this was the plan of God being executed. Peter was frequently overzealous and overbearing. In his younger days he was not always a careful listener and interpreter of Christ’s words. The ‘overly righteous’ try to tackle every social and moral and political issue, and have a nearly infallible opinion on everything. They are like James and John, the sons of Thunder[4]. They want to call down fire from heaven to destroy God’s enemies (Lk. 9:54). It is significant that Jesus also rebukes them for this! Some overly righteous Christians try to answer every enemy of the gospel. They want to die on every hill, and some zealous Christians do die, and they are burnt out or killed before they reach their allotted life span of 70 or 80.
(ii) The “overly wicked” and “foolish” Christian on the other hand lives close to the world, and so they easily destroy themselves. They do not flee temptation (1 Tim. 6:11), like Joseph did when tempted by Potiphar’s wife (Gen. 39:12). Examples :
David did not guard his heart, when looking from the balcony of his apartment at a careless, naked woman bathing on the top of her roof. He has not made a covenant with his eyes (Job 31:1), and before long he has committed adultery with her. His family history is a tragedy of many young deaths!
Noah is tempted when he loves alcohol too much, and in the state of drunkenness (which is a sin) he curses one of his sons (Gen. 9:21).
Lot (who had lived in the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah prior to God’s judgement) also became drunk, and in this state conceived illegitimate children by his daughters, thus producing the nations of the Moabites and the Ammonites (Gen. 19:37,38) who would later become bitter enemies of Israel, and in their wars leaving in its wake many deaths.
Conclusion
Verse 18: "It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fearsGod shall come out from both of them."
In humility we should take hold of the true righteousness that is ours in Christ, and from there seek Him and His strength alone and humbly learn from Him. The fear of the Lord is central to all this. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10). Jesus Christ is to the believer “our wisdom and righteousness” (1 Cor. 1:30). We need to learn to lean hard on Him. Solomon warns us against “self-righteousness and the pride that comes with that when we think we have “arrived” and know it all.
Solomon makes this also clear in v. 20: “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and who never sins.”
In Eccl. 7:15-18, Solomon discusses the value and balance of righteousness and wisdom. He has concluded that,
Our fallen human wisdom cannot really explain all of life nor the future (6:10-7:14)
the principle that righteousness brings prosperity is subject to exceptions. Thus, he notes in 7:15 that some righteous people die in spite of their righteousness, and some wicked people live long lives in spite of their wickedness.
In the light of that Solomon offers some helpful counsel. Don’t think that you know everything! Don’t strive for exaggerated righteousness. Don’t try to make yourself the wisest person on earth, for these are not really worthwhile goals. In the end such secondary ambitions will ruin your life. Likewise, do not become immoral; don’t flirt with sin and do not be foolish as a Christian, and think that you will get away that! God holds you accountable, and you may put yourself in danger of dying prematurely.
What then of righteousness and wisdom? Solomon answers that they are both of great benefit. Grasp them both. If you learn to fear God (which is the important thing to seek after), leaning hard on the imputed righteousness of Jesus for help and wisdom you will come out right in both areas.
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