TEXT: Ecclesiastes 7: 19-29
THEME: Living between Wisdom and Foolishness
#2
DATE: 07/10/2012
We continue to listen to Solomon,
as he speaks about wisdom and foolishness in this 7th chapter. He is
speaking to believers. All believers
live between wisdom and
foolishness, since all of us are born in
a state of sinfulness. All of us are influenced by the sinful world
so manipulated by that arch – sinful being, the devil! Paul freely
admits this in Romans 7. Thankfully
however, believers are no longer
held captive by sinful
foolishness. The Lord Jesus Christ has
died to set us free from our natural
addiction to foolishness , so that every
believer is empowered to live a holy life
and gain true wisdom as we live under
the life giving Holy Spirit
and under sound of the wisdom of God’s Word.
We are no longer slaves, but it is very possible for Christians
to be enslaved by foolish living
once more - and in this sense we
continue to live between wisdom and foolishness. The fear
of God , or lack thereof, will dictate
the direction in which we move!
A true Christian will desire to live wisely.
Paul encourages us in Eph. 5:15 -17 to “look carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the
best use of the time, because the days
are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the
Lord is.”
Biblical wisdom challenges our
conventional thinking which is influenced by the flesh , the world and
the devil. Every time Solomon speaks about
wisdom in this chapter (13x) he formulates
aspects of this wisdom in an
utterly unconventional way: Here are
some samples:
·
The heart of the wise in
in the house of mourning (v. 4)
·
Better to hear
the rebuke of the wise than to
hear the song of fools ( v.5)
·
Why were the former
days better than these? It is not from wisdom that you ask this (v.10)
·
Be not overly
righteous, and do not make yourself too wise (v.16)
·
Wisdom gives strength
to the wise man more than 10 rulers
who are in a city (v.19)
·
All this I have tested
by wisdom. I said: “ I will be wise, but it was far from me.” (v.23)
Godly wisdom, as v. 23 indicates is elusive, and the Bible counsels us that
in this pursuit of
godly wisdom we must learn
to “ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be
given him.” (James 1:5). This wisdom is rooted in the
fear of the Lord (v. 18b) and it is life giving (Proverbs 9:6).
Human wisdom, expressed in being too wise in our own eyes cf. v.16; Prov. 3:7 “Be not wise in your own eyes ;
fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.”
) and being too self- righteous can be extremely damaging to us
- cf. v.17 “Why will you die before your time?”
With these few opening thoughts in
mind let us continue to look and learn
from Solomon’s wisdom in Chapter 7 : 19-29
V. 19: Godly wisdom is
profounder than conventional
political wisdom : “Wisdom gives strength to
the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.” One person with godly wisdom in any city has more
‘strength’ than a city that has
10 appointed rulers.(see also Ecclesiastes 9:17,18). The Hebrew word for “wisdom” (hokmah)
refers to “the skill of living”. It
relates to having emotional intelligence
which is derived from having a
godly perspective and a godly power to live life. The history of the world amply illustrates that most
political rulers, gifted as they may be with verbal ability and charisma
, very quickly get lost when they smell
the scent of power. “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts
absolutely “ said Lord Acton
(1834 -1902 ), an English
historian and politician. [1] And so,just because you have “10 political
rulers”, in a city or country does not mean that you are in good hands. Pray that you will have truly wise men,
informed by the Word of God and led by the Spirit of God in your city and country. There is a wonderful example of a wise woman
in 2
Samuel 20 :16-22 who saved her city by her wisdom.
The Word of God is the source
book of the wise. A man with a Bible
could stay in a cave for a year, (without TV and newspapers) and at the end of
that time, he could know from his reading what everybody else in the world was
doing, and what the answer to the world’s dilemma’s would be.
V. 20: Godly
wisdom is never found perfectly upon this
earth. “Surely there is not a
righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.” Whilst possessing wisdom is a wonderful thing, it is never perfectly possessed by any
righteous man. Solomon is our “Exhibit A”. He was the wisest man alive in his day. His wisdom was
legendary and known beyond the borders
of his own land (1
Kings 4:29-34; 1 Kings 10:7) and
yet we read in the Bible how he
made fatal mistakes and some very unwise decisions. It was
particularly his relationship with many
women that caused him to
be foolish (1 Kings 11).
So here is wisdom that we need to get. Don’t look for perfect wisdom in
any man on the face of this earth. Learn
that the wisdom of the most righteous man imaginable on
earth is mixed with
sin. “There is no one righteous …
not even one “ (Rom 3:10-12 -
see Psalm
14:1-4; Ps 53). We must not
overlook this humbling testimony to the universal and total corruption of the
whole race of man. It is indeed true
that this has been so often
overlooked. The general assumption of modern Psychology is that man
is essentially good, and given time, it is thought that man will improve and evolve into perfection.
This is of course a very naïve
view, and mankind in its records of
written history has shown
absolutely no promise into this direction.
Augustine in his “Confessions” maintained that the only reason why one might think a baby is good, is that the baby has not got the ability to
show of its evil nature. He said,
(jokingly) that if a baby had the strength when he emerged from
the mother’s womb, he would seize the mother by the throat and demand his milk!
The only good
that we can do is the good that
Jesus does in us and through us,
but apart from that fact the wisdom of
Solomon’s observation stands: “Surely
there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.”
V.21,22: Here is
great wisdom to live by: “ 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. Most of us do not have ‘elephant skins’ when it
comes to gossip and criticism directed against us. “Words”,
says Solomon in his
Proverbs, “go very
deep” (Prov. 16:27,28 ). “The words
of a whisperer are like delicious
morsels; they go down into the inner
parts of the body.” (Prov. 18:8;26:22)
How do we deal with such a matter?
This requires wisdom. C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) offers
very good advice for
preachers, who like most public figures have to endure their fair share
of gossip, malicious speech and criticism. What he has to say on this matter in his book “Lectures to my Students” can be used by all sensitive Christians who have become victims of gossip and malicious talking. In a chapter entitled
“The Blind Eye and the Deaf Ear” [2] , which is essentially an exposition of this
text (Eccl. 7:21), he says that “you
cannot stop people’s tongues, and therefore
the best thing is to stop your own ears…”.
So don’t eavesdrop; don’t listen in
on every conversation. Public persons
like myself must learn not to take everything to heart that people
say.
Also remember this: If you get upset when
people talk about us, remember that you have been prone to do the same thing!
So how do you deal with gossip? The general rule
is that you should be quick
to defend other people’s
integrity and say, “Don’t talk about my brother or sister like that.” In
general make it your aim to stand
up for others and not to defend yourself. One man said, “I never worry about people who say evil things about me because I know much more about myself than they do, and I know that it is worse than what they are saying.”
REFLECTION : Can you
see how difficult it is to learn or
cultivate wisdom? It does not come naturally.
True wisdom comes only from God. You may wonder why Solomon could make such a statement about the failure
of his wisdom, when God had granted him apparently such an abundance of wisdom (1 Kings 3:9–12). However, remember that God gave Solomon wisdom primarily to discern
and administer justice in his kingdom. As he writes this
book Ecclesiastes, Solomon
realizes that his wisdom has limits. No human being (affected by the fall
v.29) possesses the capacity to understand God’s mind. And so
Solomon’s search for that kind of wisdom brings him to the same conclusion as those reached by
Job (see Job 28:12–13). The ultimate
wisdom “is not found in the land of the
living” (Job 28:13). Yes, such
wisdom “is deep , very deep ; who can
find it out ?” (Eccl 7:24).
That is why Solomon makes the next statement :
Vv. 23, 24
: The limitations of human wisdom : “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?
Here
is the next bit of wisdom that we may learn: It is wisdom to accept the fact that we cannot
understand everything that God is doing in the world! It is wisdom to accept the fact that the
corruption that sin has brought about makes life very confusing at the
best of times.
The
battle in Solomon’s mind is
clearly stated in v.26 : 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. Solomon’s search for wisdom was
sincere, thorough, and intensive. The desire
in us ‘ to know’ is probably
connected to our being made in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26-27). Again we need to be reminded
that sin has damaged and limited our ability to understand (cf. 1 Cor 13:12). For this we need the Lord to reveal His thoughts and ways
to us. We are
encouraged in this regard to ask , seek
and knock (Lk. 11:9 ; James 1: 5-8). The wise
man knows that he does not know, and this is what helps to make him wise!
Vv. 26-28
: 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.
This may be a disturbing
text for
our women, but I think that we
must be very careful to read this as a
general statement. Solomon is clearly speaking
about a woman who
seduces weak men like himself. Solomon
knew the powers of a woman’s seduction. This very fact eventually led to his downfall. His many
women collectively turned
his heart away from God (1 Kings 11).
Now it is significant that in his introductory chapters to Proverbs he speaks a lot about this type of woman, and
he associates her with folly (Prov
9:13–18). As you will remember, the
discussion of wisdom and folly form the
background to this passage, and so this interpretation makes sense.
Now remember that
Solomon is not running women into the ground. Elsewhere he has depicted wisdom as a woman (Prov
1:20–33; 9:1-6) and spoke highly of a number of good women (Eccl 9:9; Prov
18:22; 31:10–31).
There is no
justification to take the statement made
in v. 28 as a universal truth regarding all women.
So, what does
Solomon mean when he declares, “I have
found one man among a thousand, but I have not found a woman among all these”
(v. 28)? He was referring to his own situation, where he
was ill advised by all these women.Let’ s be honest; what godly woman would place herself willingly
in the midst of the jealousies, ungodliness, and politics of Solomon’s royal harem?
There was not one woman there that
captured his heart back to God. The
true wisdom that Solomon needed
her was this. Find yourself with God’s help that one good woman, and be
satisfied with her. Let her be your minister!
And, mind you, what is true for the
perceived deficiencies of women
is actually also true for men!
V.29 See,
this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many
schemes. God is not to blame for the absence of
wisdom— mankind is. From the Fall to the present, people have turned away from
God and away from wisdom. They have all walked the path of foolishness. Isaiah nailed the issue down so very powerfully: “All
of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way”
(Isa 53:6).
Thus, the chapter
concludes with the observation that all
people pervert the right way of God—they twist that which He had created
straight.
It is wisdom to see that, and thus in humility turn to God and to
seek His forgiveness in Christ and to walk from there in daily dependence with Him . For this you were created. Amen !
.jpeg)
No comments:
Post a Comment