Observations of Life

Transcript

GR 2131
06/30/19
Observations of Life
Ecclesiastes 7:15-29; Psalms 73
Gil Rugh

We’re in the Book of Ecclesiastes together, right in the middle of your bibles, the Book of Ecclesiastes just after a little bit the Book of Psalms that large book that we’re familiar with and before that large prophetic book, Isaiah. There’s a couple of other books there but you’ll find Ecclesiastes in about the middle of your bible between Psalms and Isaiah if I can give you a general location. This is a book about life. It’s a very practical book. We call it part of the Wisdom Literature, being wise living life skillfully. Dealing with life as it is not as we wished it would be, not as we hoped it would be, realizing we don’t have the power to change the basic things of life, but God intends that we live wisely, skillfully, and experience the joy in life’s different circumstances and situations. Not everything is going to be pleasant.

Solomon is the writer. He’s writing under the direction of the Spirit of God. We have a true picture, life is sometimes unpleasant, sometimes unfair, sometimes totally different than we wanted it to be or hoped it would be. Yet in it all God is sovereign, and we have the assurance God is working. The key theme in the Book of Ecclesiastes is the word breath, the simple word breath, like we take a breath, we breathe. It’s translated, not accurately in our English bible as futility, sometimes a breath, sometimes something brief, something short. It can be relatively meaningless, worthless, but that is not what Ecclesiastes is about. It is about the brevity of life. Life is transient, it is temporary, and all the things associated with it take place in that kind of context. We come in having had no say, no control over anything that preceded our birth, and after a few short days, we will exit in death and have no control over what happens after we die. So, he’s guiding us in facing life’s realities and the significant events, the controlling events, the things of scale they’ll go on. They were going on before we got here, they will go on after we got here. It’s not to be discouraging, it’s not to be depressing. It is just reality.

Were in about the middle of chapter 7 and we had the warning in verse 10 of chapter 7. “Do not say, ‘Why is it that the former days were better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.” Because the fact of the matter, is the former days weren’t better, in the overall sense. People living a hundred years ago had to deal with certain problems they dealt with. But life was basically the same. People were born, they went through childhood, getting married, struggling to establish a home perhaps, getting a job, working, having children, paying the bills, getting a house. All those things went on, the weather changed. Life was basically about like this. Now we look back and day-by-day some days of ours are more pleasant, some are less. But the reality as we look back on life, it is life; so, don’t get stuck living in the past. The good old days. As we old folks talk about and remind our kids and grandkids about—when I was your age. I just wanted to tell you when I was your age; it was just like it is for you today. Oh, there are external things, but the reality of life was basically the same and the struggles were the same.

The reminder in it all and this keeps coming up in Ecclesiastes, verse 13 of chapter 7, “Consider the work of God, for who is able to straighten what He has bent?” The point is the difficulties, the trials that come, recognize the sovereign God has brought those. Now I realize there are people who say, I don’t think that God would want anything bad to happen. God does not cause sin, but everything that happens in the world happens under His sovereign control and authority. He doesn’t cause the sin, but He uses the sinful desires and activities of men to accomplish His purposes and it was part of His plan.


We want to be sure that’s fixed in our mind. You can’t change what God does. If He bends the road, you can’t straighten it. You just have to go down the road as He has set it. In the day of prosperity, be happy. We should enjoy the good things when things are going well, but even in the day of adversity when things take a turn for the worse. God has made the one as well as the other, so I recognize the hand of the God that I serve, in all the activities of the days of my life, the good days and the bad days. Well, why would God want bad days in my life?

Now remember and we’re going to come to this at the end of chapter 7. God created us, but man rebelled against God and this has brought the judgment of God. And we live in a world under the judgment of God. And even as believers who have been redeemed by His grace, we experience the consequences of sin, we still die. We mentioned the passing of one of our number from our own local fellowship of believers, not spared death because being a believer. Now the trials and difficulties of life come to us like everyone. This is life, on this earth, as a result of sin. We cannot fix it. Be careful there are people that have the solutions. It cannot be fixed. We cannot change it. That will await God’s intervention when Christ comes and establishes His kingdom. For now, we need to learn to live life skillfully, wisely, navigating, as we should.

You’ll note the end of verse 14, God acts this way “…so that man will not discover anything that will be after him.” A reminder that man is not in control. I’m often asked at this stage of my ministry, what’s going to happen at Indian Hills when you’re gone? I don’t know. What will happen to this after you die? You don’t know. Back up to chapter 6 and look at the last line of verse 12 of chapter 6. “For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?” In this physical life, we’re not talking about what happens to you after death, you go to heaven or Hades, and ultimately hell. We’re talking about what happens in this physical life, this world, after you’re gone. You don’t know, but you don’t have any control, and God has ordained it that way.

You know why the world can’t deal with it, because they will not bow before the authority of the sovereign God and give Him the fear due Him, place their faith in Him, the salvation He provides, and thus submit to the wisdom He gives. They always think they’re coming up with a solution that’s going to fix the problems. We’re going to control the environment, otherwise it’s all going to be over in 10 years, 12 years. Pick your number. But we have studied the Book of Revelation, we know how it ends. This is God’s intention, He intends that man does not know the course of events in this world.

How often do we have conversations in light of what’s going on in the world today. Well, we say this could happen. I wonder if this does, I wonder if that does, but we have no control over it. Oh, we vote, but God says He puts everyone in place according to His will. We come to verse 15 and we’re going to overview this chapter. I thought of breaking it into, but I want to get the overall picture and you know I repeat myself often, so we’ll come back to things we miss in our future studies. You have the first line of verse 15, “I have seen…” This is the 11th time Solomon has used this very expression in the Book of Ecclesiastes, “I have seen,” because he’s writing about his observations. Remember he’s the wisest man on earth. He’s the richest and he’s applying himself. He has the resources to put all of his energy and attention into this matter, and he has the wisdom, the intellect to evaluate and sift things out. The Spirit of God is directing him to write about life on this earth.

He says, “I have seen everything during my lifetime of futility…” And here’s where we have that translation that is confusing. That word “lifetime” is literally days. You have that if you’re using the New American Standard Bible. It notes, literally that’s the word days, “during my days.” The word translated “futility” is that word hebel, the Hebrew word. It means a breath (sound of a breath). That’s a breath and it really means something temporary. Now our translators have used the word futility because they have assumed that something temporary would be futile or worthless but that’s not what Solomon is saying. He’s saying during my brief days of life during the transitory days that I have. My fleeting days as one translator accurately had it, my brief days. There’s this constant reminder that our life here is brief. We don’t want to spend it trying to fuss over the past, nor do we want to try to live it in the future. It doesn’t mean we can’t make plans.

Probably everybody here one way or another has made plans for the coming holiday. Maybe get together with friends or family, maybe you have a time of quiet at home, off work, or whatever. We’ve made plans but we don’t know, something can come up and those plans will change. Our plans are contingent. Remember the Book of James tells us we can make plans, but make them with this recognition, that if the Lord wills, we will do this, because we don’t control it. We can’t know for sure. “I have seen everything during my brief days…” and here’s what he is going to observe.

“…there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his wickedness.” There’s no correlation, Solomon says. I’ve watched, I’ve observed, I’ve studied, and there’s no correlation. Between living a life of righteousness and having a long life and living a wicked life and having a long life. They don’t correlate. Some righteous people die young, some wicked people die old, so you can’t equate righteousness with a guarantee of a long life. We’ve had people, believers in Jesus Christ, members of our congregation who have died from young age to old age. Being righteous doesn’t guarantee you a long life, it doesn’t guarantee you a healthy life. It doesn’t guarantee you a successful life in the sense of material rewards. You can’t guarantee it and sometimes we’ll see people who are openly wicked. They don’t hide their rejection of God, they have no interest in Him. They’re open to say, I don’t think much about God, I don’t hold that, or they openly flaunt their rejection, and they seem to go on forever.

If we’re honest, all of us have thought, Lord, maybe it would be good if you just took them. Took their life and then it would show that righteousness pays. That’s what the health and wealth preachers you can turn on some of the TV programs tell you. Oh, God wants you to have a long life. He wants you to be healthy, he wants you to be rich, and some of them do live long lives. You say, Lord, it would have helped if you’d struck them down at forty, but here they are going on, and on, and on into elderly years. It seems to validate what they’re saying, but God is always right, so the truth of what he says is an observation of life. There’s not necessarily a correlation between the length of your life and righteousness or wickedness. You can’t earn a long life by trying to live a righteous life, nor does it necessarily mean your life will end more quickly. I realize there’s some sinful practices that can shorten life, drugs and alcohol and things, but the reality of it is that some very wicked people live very long lives.

Okay, I’m going to come back to Psalm 73. We’re not going to do many Psalms or many passages because I would like to do the whole chapter of Ecclesiastes. Psalms 73, Asaph struggled with this. He says, in verse 2 of Psalm 73, “But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling, my steps had almost slipped.” I almost departed from the track and path of wisdom, “…for I was envious of the arrogant as I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pains in their death, and their body is fat. They are not in trouble like other men, nor are they plagued like mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace…and the imaginations of their heart run riot. They mock and wickedly speak of oppression…They have set their mouth against the heavens.”

Verse 12, “Behold, these are the wicked; and always at ease, they have increased in wealth.” That’s what Solomon is saying in a condensed way. Being righteous doesn’t mean you have a great life and a long life. And being wicked doesn’t mean you won’t have a lot of blessings or good things in life and live long. The “wicked” in verse 12 are “always at ease, they have increased in wealth.” Then I said I’ve kept my heart pure in vain. “…and washed my hands in innocence; for I’ve been stricken all day long and chastened every morning.” I’ve tried hard to be pleasing to the Lord. I’ve tried hard to live a righteous life. My life just seems to go from bad to worse. I lost my job and the wicked man got promoted. I’m having family struggles and their family seems to be picture perfect. I’m suffering with physical problems and I’m not going to live much longer, and they seem to go on.

Don’t get confused by what you see. That’s why Solomon thinks it’s important that we have reality in our thinking, otherwise we’ll go like Asaph. Now, Asaph caught himself down in verse 16. “When I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight until I came into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end.” And when we get to Ecclesiastes at the end, it’s a long the way but particularly in chapter 12, he reminds everyone, better remember someday you will give an account to God. You’ll stand before Him in judgment. That will determine your eternal destiny, so keep in perspective who is sovereign, the One before whom you must bow, the One to whom you must submit.

Come back to Ecclesiastes chapter 7. Just that one example and there are many, that this is the reality of life and it’s a true observation he makes. So, his summary in verses 16 and 17. “Do not be excessively righteous and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself?” Okay, but the next one, “Do not be excessively wicked and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time?” You say wait, wait a minute, it sounds like have a little mixture of righteousness and a mixture of wickedness and just let it all sort of wash out. Obviously, that’s not what he’s saying and as we go on you’ll see it’s not what he is saying. The point is as he stated here and then he’ll demonstrate it, don’t be excessively righteous and wise. Two conflicts, two positions, and only two. That’s consistent through the bible. There’s not this murky middle ground. Two positions. Remember Jesus said there’s a broad gate, there’s a narrow gate. There’s a broad way, there’s a narrow way, and one ends in destruction, one ends in eternal life. That’s the same thing here. Verse 16 we talk about the righteous and the wise in verse 17 we talk about the wicked and the fool so those are the two positions. Don’t be excessively righteous or overly wise.

Now you can’t decide, I’m going to withdraw from the reality of life and just concentrate on being the most righteous, godly person; fill my mind with as much wisdom as I can. I can’t just close myself off to that. The early monks of Roman Catholicism were going to withdraw from the world and all of its problems and vices and isolate themselves and just concentrate. That’s not the solution. Not saying that righteousness is not necessary. It is important. Wisdom is important. He’s going to say that in a moment, but you need to have a real view of life, and the reality is that we will not be perfectly righteous. I have to say sometimes as I sit and talk to myself and analyze things, I’ve said to myself, Gil I’m surprised you haven’t made more progress by now. I thought you would have been more, further along in your maturity than you are. You know, you do something, or something comes up and you don’t handle it. You think, I thought I was beyond that kind of thing. You can’t be, not facing reality, righteousness yes, wise. But that can’t be the answer, I’m going to withdraw from everything else. It’s not the real world. We’ll see that.

“Do not be excessively wicked and do not be a fool.” That has consequences too, negative. Now he’s not saying well, a little bit of wickedness. You know we want to go back and forth and this is going to come up in his explanation. If I can’t be perfectly righteous, I might just as well enjoy sin, so the solution is, go that way. No, that’s not the answer. The answer is to face reality and the reality is a theological reality that you don’t understand without it. So, the extremes are dealt with, keep those divisions in mind. Wisdom and righteousness on one side, foolishness and wickedness on the other. Those are the only two positions he’s going to go on and develop. Verse 18, “It is good that you grasp one thing and also not let go of the other...” Now what are the two things we just talked about in verses 16 and 17? They were brought up in verse 15, the righteous and the wicked, the righteous and the wise. The fool and the wicked, they go together, those two categories. “It is good that you grasp one thing and also not let go of the other.” We need to have a true perspective on righteousness, we need to have a true perspective on wickedness, sin. We have to understand them correctly.

Now we’re not saying, we need to have a mix of both. We have to understand them both properly. “…for the one who fears God comes forth with both of them.” We have it together. When we fear God and that is recognizing the living God, Who He is, He’s the Creator. We’ll see that at the end of the chapter. He is sovereign. He is in control. He is the One in whom is found wisdom, because the beginning of wisdom and knowledge is the fear of the Lord. We saw that in Proverbs chapter 1 and chapter 2, the verses there. If you’re talking about wisdom, you’re talking about true knowledge, you begin with the fear of the Lord, the recognizing of who He is, the honoring of Him, and your faith in Him and His will. “…for the one who fears God comes forth with both of them.” Both a proper view of righteousness, a proper view of sin.

Look at verse 19. “Wisdom strengthens a wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.” There is an advantage to wisdom. It’s a wise man, better than ten rulers. Wisdom is better than ten rulers, because ten rulers who are fools can’t sort it out. Solomon writes as a king, a very effective and successful king. Other kings and queens came to learn from him and be in awe of his riches. But he’s clear, wisdom is better. We’re not saying righteousness and wisdom, it’s not important. We want to live life wisely. That’s the purpose of the Book of Ecclesiastes. “Wisdom strengthens a man more than ten rulers who are in a city.” So, we want to have a proper understanding as God gives us wisdom in His word.

Now note what he says in verse 20, “Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins. Now we talked about the excessive righteousness, the excessive wickedness in verses 16 and 17. Now he puts these two together. There’s not a man on earth who is so righteous that he never sins. First, we need to have a real perspective here. Otherwise, we bounce from one side to the other and we’re proud that we’re on one side and not the other. But a wise person has a clear perspective, righteousness yes, but when you become so righteous, in your self-evaluation that you’re proud, you are not where God is. I must constantly have an awareness.

I thank God for the grace that brought me righteousness in Christ. There’s no one here who has experienced God’s salvation who didn’t receive it the same way, by believing God and what He had provided in the death and resurrection of His Son. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” That’s the only way to life and because of faith in Christ and what God had provided in Christ. I was credited with God’s righteousness, but I must always maintain clarity of thinking. I am still but a sinner saved by grace. We compare ourselves to others we think are worse than ourselves, and we lift ourselves up, but wait a minute. There is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and never sins. That’s repeated often in Scripture. None of us leads a perfect life.

Come back to First Kings, Chapter 8. If you don’t want to go to 1 Kings, I’ll read it to you. What’s going on here if you just want to listen, Solomon has built a temple, a magnificent structure that will be the center of Israel’s worship of the living God, and yet as he says that he has built a place for God to dwell, he knows it won’t contain Him. He then enters in prayer with God and he wants God to “…hear in heaven Your dwelling place,” in verse 43. And then verse 45, “…then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.” Then note what he says in verse 46, “When they sin against You (for there is no man who does not sin) and You are angry with them…” Deal with them in mercy. That’s not to excuse sin, that’s not to make light of sin, but you understand God’s made provision for dealing with sin. You’re familiar with the Law and its sacrifices that would be carried on in the temple Solomon has built. You know what a key part of this is, sacrifice for sin. God’s people even are going to sin. There are no perfect people. I understand our positional perfection in Christ. We’re talking about our life under the sun as we live this physical life. There’s not one perfect person here. You note I point out there, (laughter) and you’re all looking at a sinner.

Now I must say, for years our family was part of a church system that believed you could lose your salvation. And going to bed at night, oh Lord, forgive me just one more time and I’ll never do it again. And then you go to church and they have to have the altar call for any of you who have sinned this week and need to repent and be restored and resaved, and oh, a miserable way to live. It wasn’t real because I couldn’t live that life and trying to make yourself walk that line only made it worse. Not that our desire is not to manifest the character of God in righteousness, but the real world is that we all sin. God even for His people who He said, “You are to be holy as I am holy” and here’s the temple in which You will be worshiped. Solomon acknowledges that there is no one who does not sin. We need mercy, we need grace God has provided for us. First John, John wrote in chapter 2, I write these things to you my little children so that you don’t sin. That’s the goal. We don’t want to sin, but “…if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He Himself is the propitiation (the satisfaction) for our sins...” Hebrews 7:25 says the reason you and I are sure of eternal salvation is Christ our high priest is seated at the right hand of the Father and He ever lives to make intercession for us. So, we are sinners.

I want you to come over to Isaiah. Go back to Ecclesiastes and then keep going back and the next big book you’ll come to is Isaiah, the prophet. I am concerned sometimes that people slide, and sin is not so bad, and I can indulge sin and that okay. It’s not. We go to the other side and think we’re so righteous we can’t tolerate sin and sinners and so here, you see where Israel got and was in trouble. God is upset with Israel in Isaiah 65, and their sin and their religious activity is not acceptable to Him. And note what He says in verse 5 of Isaiah 65. These are people “Who say, ‘Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am holier than you!’” You see Israel now thinking we not only don’t see ourselves indulging in sin, we see ourselves so righteous we can’t be around people who have sinned. They’re telling everybody oh, don’t come around me. I’m too holy. Don’t be close to me, you’ll defile me because I’m holier than you. You know what God says, “These are smoke in My nostrils, a fire that burns all the day.” I mean it is revolting to God that we come to be righteous in our own thinking. We never want to lose the reality we are sinners saved by grace. That keeps our perspective on the wonder of God’s salvation. I am saved by grace and kept by grace. I’m not saved by grace and by my righteous godliness. I’m kept secure. I wouldn’t need a representative in heaven. I wouldn’t need an Advocate. Israel wouldn’t need a sacrificial system, but all of this reminds us.

Come back to Ecclesiastes and as you do let me just refer you to one verse. Don’t turn there, but you can read it. James chapter 3, verse 2 in the New Testament. “For we all stumble in many ways.” All in many ways. When we get to the point to think we have a pretty, perfect life, we are in trouble. The more we are growing in our relationship to the Lord, the more I realize I am to be holy as He is holy. Lord, it seems I have so far to go and this idea of we are the righteous, and you know we pick it up. We think if we go to work and stand next to an unredeemed sinner, we have to brush off our clothes because it just feels dirty being around them. Well, even though you are redeemed by God’s grace, you’re still a sinner.

Come back to Ecclesiastes 7:20, “…there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.” Then we begin to categorize our sins like the Jews did so that the Pharisee could say, I thank you Lord that I’m not a sinner like other men, like that man right there. Well, wait a minute. We’ve been through Romans 1 and so many other passages that lists the sins and God lumps them together because He looks inside and sees. And I realize the redemption has washed us, but I realize when I sin with my tongue I have sinned, and when I sin morally, I’ve sinned.

When I sin in any area, I’ve sinned. We tend to think that’s not so bad. That’s the problem with the Jews and that Pharisaical righteousness. Well, I’m not a sinner like others. Peter even got confused and wouldn’t eat with even believing Gentiles, because you know, they’ve just not been as cleaned up as me. We need to be very careful. I want to be sure that we understand Ecclesiastes. “…there is not a righteous man on earth…” Remember what he says in verse 19, wisdom is a wise man wiser than ten rulers that understand the importance of wisdom. Now, then he says, you understand about righteousness, you understand about sin. We are saved by grace. Solomon is a remarkable man. Read the opening chapters of 1 Kings and the relationship he had with God.

Then he gives some advice, some direction, in verses 21 and 22. Also, you recognize this about yourself because when he says there’s not a righteous man on earth, I don’t expect you to be perfectly righteous. I hope you would be, but probably not going to happen and that’s true of me. “Also, do not take seriously all words which are spoken, so that you will not hear your servant cursing you. For you also have realized that you likewise have many times cursed others.” We have spoken ill. He uses that as an example. You know I puff up my chest and look down my nose and think, how can I help that dirty sinner? I just am repulsed! I just can’t understand how they can be like that! Oh, it’s more than I can bear! When the bible says in, Galatians 6:1, “…you who are spiritual, restore such a one.” When a brother stumbles, that’s what it is about. It’s not like I don’t want them next to me, I’m holy. They’re dirty. Well, remember when you are pointing out the sin of that person, that you aren’t sinless.

Now I’m not talking about not telling a person about the salvation that is available in Christ and your experience of redemption, but I tell them as Paul told Titus in chapter 3. Remind those believers they were just like them. I don’t come as a holy righteous person to tell you how in God’s grace you can become like me. I come to tell you that I am one just as much a sinner as you. The only difference is I’ve experienced God’s forgiving, saving, righteous grace in Jesus Christ and you can too, and the reality of it is, I’m still not perfect. I’m growing. That’s why we come together to come into the word. Look at it like today, find out what would God have us do, hear His wisdom, how we live so when you see someone else sin you don’t go for the throat. You want to rebuke them, you want to be used to restore them, but that’s it. There he goes on; he’s going to say he tested wisdom. Before I leave this let me take you to one other passage.

Come to Luke chapter 17. My concern for Indian Hills is with our emphasis on the word of God and the righteousness of God and the importance of having the character God manifested in us, we may slide off the other end and become self righteous. I wouldn’t want anybody in here sitting thinking, well, that person next to me is not as holy as me; I don’t want to sit next to them. I’m sad to say I’ve had people come see me and tell me that. I don’t think that person should be allowed in this church. I would not want to attend a church where they attend and we begin to sound like the Jews in their righteousness. Please stay away from me. I am holier than you are. Wisdom does not bring us there.

Come to chapter 17 of Luke. This is Jesus speaking, you don’t want to cause stumbling blocks for God’s children. That’s what he talks about in verses 1 and 2. Be careful, if you don’t function in wisdom you may become the stumbling block. In verse 3, “Be on your guard!” Take heed, listen to Me, pay close attention, and Jesus said that we’d better do it! “…If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents,” you can read it, “…forgive him.” Okay I can do that. I’ve forgiven people who sin against me. Even if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, “I repent” you’ll have to stop and make sure his repentance is genuine. Not what Christ says, and I need to be careful about twisting God’s word to make it can say what I think it should say. Forgive him, literally, it says, “You will forgive him!” It doesn’t say you must forgive him it doesn’t say you should forgive him, it says, “You will forgive him!” Those are serious words in light of what Christ said about being careful you don’t cause a stumbling block. The recognition I never know whether it’s genuine or not. Maybe over time it’ll become evident. Somebody sins against me seven times, I’m beginning to think he’s playing me for a gullible guy. I’m just going to have to tell him I have no reason to expect your repentance is genuine and I don’t think you can be forgiven.

Well, wait a minute that’s not what God told me to do. Yes, but Lord I thought about it and it seemed to me… Well, since when did the Lord ask me to insert my opinions in His word? He says to me, did you read what I said? Did I tell you pay attention? What did I tell you to do when he comes and says he repents? Well, you said forgive him, but… We’re to forgive as God in Christ has forgiven us. How many times has God forgiven you since you became a believer? Been keeping a ledger for yourself, I don’t have enough rooms in my house to keep such ledgers. We all stumble in many ways. Yes, but Lord some of us don’t stumble as badly as others. We easily begin to push ourselves into that righteous position so that we can look down on others.

Come back to Ecclesiastes 7. I don’t want us to read this and just blow by it. I think well, yep yeah that was interesting in Ecclesiastes, and yeah I think we’re good. He’s telling us this for a reason. We are to pay attention. Look at verse 23. I was going to do two separate messages, but I spared you. But I will bring it all in before our study of Ecclesiastes is done. He says, “I tested all this with wisdom, and I said, ‘I will be wise,’ but it was far from me. What has been is remote and exceedingly (deep) mysterious. Who can discover it?” This is a difficult area. That’s why we need wisdom from God, sorting out these areas and keeping ourselves in perspective. Remember, we don’t want to get off track. Up in verse 7 of chapter 7, “For oppression makes a wise man mad, and a bribe corrupts the heart.” If we’re not careful, we find ourselves lured off the path of wisdom, with circumstances, situations.

Solomon doesn’t have complete wisdom to be able to understand it all and sort it all out, but the responsibility of how to conduct himself, is clear. We’re going to see, you’re going to say, we can’t put these things together, the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. I need to be careful. I want to understand the sovereignty of God, but I don’t want to step in and try to assume that sovereignty for myself. Paul said I don’t care what other people do to evaluate me. God will evaluate me someday along with everyone else and he’ll evaluate the motives. “I tested all this with wisdom… ‘I will be wise,’ but it was far from me. What has been is remote and exceedingly deep. Who can discover it?” I mean we can discover the history of the world so to speak, and see the course of events, and the sin, and godly people, but fit it all together. We can’t do it.

“I directed my mind to know, to investigate and to seek wisdom and an explanation, and to know the evil of folly and the foolishness of madness.” How do I put these things together? You know, I sometimes say sin makes you stupid and there is not a good explanation. How many times has something happened? You lost your temper, you said something, and after you’ve said it, I don’t know what I was thinking. You do something, I don’t know why I would do that. I don’t know what I was thinking. Of course, but that’s what Solomon says. Why would he allow pagan women in his harem to lead him away from the worship of the living God? What was I thinking? This makes no sense, and I want to know wisdom and explanation. I want to know the evil of folly and the foolishness of madness. But you know what, there are things that come in and they impact us in such a way we have to be very careful? And here you have an example, pay attention. “And I discovered more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are chains. One who is pleasing to God will escape from her, but the sinner will be captured by her.” And that carries us back to Proverbs and he talks about the woman who lures the man away from faithfulness. But you know, there is something more going on here.

Come back to Proverbs chapter 9. The reality of this event becomes an illustration and chapter 9 puts it out. Remember there’s two ways, there’s wisdom and righteousness, there’s folly and wickedness. Now in chapter 9 of Proverbs, we have those two pictures, pictured as two women. Both have a house they’ve built and both women are trying to lure the people going by to come into their house. The first is woman wisdom. “Wisdom has built her house...” She’s portrayed as a woman. Hebrew like Greek and like some other languages has gender in their languages, masculine words, feminine words, neuter words. It happens that wisdom is a feminine word. It is natural when it is carried into poetry and other things. It would be referred to as she, but here it’s pictured as a woman.


Woman wisdom has built her house, prepared her food. I’m going to summarize this, jumping some. Set the table, then sends out her servants to call in people to partake of what she has to offer. Verse 4 “‘Whoever is naive, let him turn in here!’ To him who lacks understanding she says, ‘Come, eat of my food and drink of the wine I have mixed. Forsake your folly and live, and proceed in the way of understanding.’” So here, woman wisdom is calling people in so they can learn wisdom, they can increase in understanding. That’s what it is partaking of what she has to offer in her house.

Come down to verse 13 for time. “The woman of folly…” or literally woman folly, this is another woman. She has a house she “is boisterous, she is naive and knows nothing.” She’s going to offer knowledge, but she has no knowledge. This is folly, they think they know, but they know nothing, so woman folly. “She sits at the doorway of her house…” and note verse 15, “…calling to those who pass by, who are making their paths straight. ‘Whoever is naive; let him turn in here,’ and to him who lacks understanding…” Well, that’s the same thing that woman wisdom says in verse 4. “‘Whoever is naive, let him turn in here!’ To him who lacks understanding she says…” Come into my house, come into my house. The problem is, one is a genuine place to learn to grow, the other is a trick. This woman folly in verse 13, “she is naive and knows nothing.” But in verse 16 she says, “‘Whoever is naive, let him turn in here,’” to my house. “…and to him who lacks understanding…” come in here. One is genuine, one is false. “’Stolen water is sweet; and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.’ But he does not know that the dead are there, her guests are in the depths of Sheol (folly).”

And as Proverbs has done in these opening nine introductory chapters to the hundreds of subsequent proverbs from chapter 10 on, wisdom is pictured as a woman. And there is a development of the unfaithful wife and woman, and the divorce. But here he draws together what really is behind this. It is the thinking of the world, and its enticement, to get your knowledge from me, to get understanding from me. Now remember, Jeremiah. “They have rejected Your word.” What kind of wisdom do they have? Woman folly has no true wisdom. But oh, I have what you will delight in, I have what you will enjoy, and “stolen water is sweet.” You know the forbidden, drawn in, and “…does not know that the dead are there...” It’s a graveyard, it’s not a place of life. You can read the intervening verses 7 to 12 and they will explain, like verse 10, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

We want to be careful. Come back to Ecclesiastes chapter 7. He says in verse 25, “I directed my mind to know, to investigate and to seek wisdom and an explanation, and to know the evil of folly and the foolishness of madness.” Pictured here are these two women calling, and the “One who is pleasing to God will escape...the sinner will be captured…” Then go on to verse 27 we can wrap this up. “‘Behold, I have discovered this,’ says the Preacher, ‘adding one thing to another to find an explanation…’” I’m putting things together with the wisdom God’s given me, and His direction as he says at the end of the book God has given him, “…which I am still seeking but have not found. I have found one man among a thousand,” and that expression would be like our expression, one in a million. It’s used other times in the Old Testament; you know it’s just an infinitesimal number. One in a thousand men, “…but I have not found a woman among all these.”

There is so much discussion and explanation and maneuvering, why does he say I didn’t find a woman among these? At least he found a man. But the point is, there’s almost no one. And there may be a man, and men are responsible in the Book of Proverbs to take the leadership in providing a godly setting for their home, for their wife, for their children and so on. But that’s for another day. You know what? Those who understand this are exceedingly rare. We can leave it at that point. I call zero men and no women. That’s not a compliment to anyone. “Behold, I have found only this…” and here’s the solution, nobody can put it together. “…I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices.” You want to know what the answer to all this going on, God made men upright, righteous, good. I mean that’s back to Genesis 1 and 2. He created them and it was very good. God didn’t create them evil, wicked, sinful, He created them upright. He created man upright.

We’re back to Genesis. We’ve been there before in Ecclesiastes because if you don’t make that connection, you’re out here wandering around with woman folly. “…God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices.” Chapter 3 of Genesis, sin entered, rebellion against God, rejection of His wisdom, and now we come down to our day. The day that hasn’t changed since Solomon’s day, almost a 1,000 years before Christ, and here we are 2,000 years after and these truths are there. Men have gone their own way. That’s the problem.

We have sin in the world. God in His grace provides righteousness. Man decides I’ll do it my way. That song, one of our senators had it sung at his funeral, “I Did It My Way.” Yes, that is what most people are doing; they’re doing it their way. “There’s a way that seems right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Woman folly calls, the wisdom of the world calls. That’s why Paul writes in Romans 12, do not allow yourself to be conformed to this world, be transformed by the making new of your mind. We want to get our wisdom from God, woman wisdom, the word of God, to guide us and instruct us.

How do I find righteousness in this sinful world? I find it by coming to the sovereign God, the only One who can provide what I need. Find out that He has provided a Savior in His Son Jesus Christ. Through faith in Him I experience new life, forgiveness, cleansing. Not trying to do better, not trying to join a church, not trying to be baptized, not trying to do all these things, just be as good a person as I can and by my goodness. The problem is there’s not a righteous person on the face of the earth who always does good and never sins, and the wages of sin is death. The soul that sins will die. You can’t deny the reality, it’s all around us. We can’t just escape it and we don’t want to, so this is what Solomon is saying. Have wisdom, track your life correctly, be careful, be understanding. Don’t gloat in your righteousness, and don’t give up and pursue sin.

Submit to the living God. Accept from His hand what He has done, and when you have, you have a different attitude. I thank God for His grace that brought me salvation. Why me? I don’t know. Why that salvation is so great to keep cleansing me when I keep stumbling, such forgiveness, such grace, but it’s true. So, we want to be wise. We want to be wise as God’s people. Israel didn’t take this to heart. Solomon wrote it, but long after Solomon, you know what? Israel’s oh, I’m so holy, stay away from me. I don’t want you touching me. Where was Israel? They should have read this, applied it. Where’s the church today? We should understand it, we should apply it. We are a collection of sinners redeemed by God’s grace. Stumbling, but by God’s grace being picked up and being used that way in one another’s lives. Do I have the explanation of it all? Well, here’s the conclusion. God made us upright. We chose to reject Him, but in grace He reaches out and says, “Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden. I will give you rest.” I’ll wash you whiter than snow. We want to live day by day the days of our life with God’s wisdom.

Let’s pray together: Thank you Lord for the riches of Your word, where wisdom is found, true wisdom. Not the wisdom of the world, not worldly thinking, but Lord, truth from You the all wise God, who graciously gives wisdom. But it begins by a fear of You, a recognition of who You are. Lord, we don’t understand it all. We recognize you are the living God. We are sinners unfit to come before You, but in grace You’ve made provision. You’ve paid the penalty for our sin through faith in Jesus Christ and His death in our place. We can have life, we can have righteousness, we can have forgiveness. We experience loving grace. Bless us as we serve You today. May we walk through this day wisely, skillfully as a testimony to the God we serve. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.