What Is Good in Life

Transcript

GR 2130
06/23/19
What Is Good in Life
Ecclesiastes 7:1-14; Psalm 90
Gil Rugh


We are studying the book of Ecclesiastes together, so I invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Ecclesiastes. It is God's wisdom for us and how to live skillfully, wisely in this difficult and sin-cursed world, if I can put it that way. As a result of the rebellion against God, the world was placed under God's judgment. That means it can be a very unpleasant and difficult place to live, not always. There are the ups and downs, the ins and outs, what we would call the good times and the bad times, the hard times. But it takes skill, wisdom to navigate through life in a way that enables you to deal with all that comes before you correctly, wisely, satisfactorily, and yet in all of it the good times, the bad times, to experience the joy and satisfaction that God intends.

We just looked through chapter 6 in our previous study. There Solomon dealt with the reality that life is often disappointing, frustrating, even unfair. You remember chapter 5 ended saying, in verse 19, “Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor…” It's a gift of God. Sometimes God blesses, provides abundance, riches, wealth. And then He provides the enablement for a person to enjoy that. But don't think that is a fixed pattern, because chapter 6 begins with Solomon saying, I've seen something that seems unfair and evil that takes place in our life on this earth. Verse 2, “…a man to whom God has given riches and wealth…” You'll note that God is sovereign in all this. Remember Solomon writes with the background and context of what God has revealed to the nation Israel. He had the Mosaic Law, he was the instrument that God used to build the temple, which would be the center of Israel's worship. So here is a reminder, “…a man to whom God has given riches and wealth.” Similar, to what he said in Ecclesiastes 5:19, but “He has also empowered him to eat from them…” to enjoy them. So sometimes life seems unfair, unjust. A person has acquired much, as the sovereign God has determined that they will not have opportunity to enjoy it and reap the benefits of it. You say, God is unfair. No, that's part of the consequences of sin, that God would bring labor and toil into our lives, pain and suffering. And believer and unbeliever alike endure that, and we are being instructed by Solomon how to do that wisely.

There is a repeated emphasis through the book of Ecclesiastes on the fact that we are but a breath, our life here is temporary, we are transitory. Our time on earth is brief, short. We die. The wages of sin is death. God said to Adam and Eve, if you disobey Me and eat of the tree you will die. And death is a reality for us. We know the truth of that, we experience it. All of us have been impacted in one way or another by death—parents, loved ones, friends, even children. Death is a reality. The suffering and difficulty, the unfairness of life, we are reminded. The word in our Bible is vanity or futility, the Hebrew word as we have talked about is a word that means a breath. It denotes not something that is meaningless or worthless, but something that is brief and passing.

Solomon has talked about the unfairness that goes through the difficulties. At the end of verse 9 he says, “This too is futility”, or literally a breath, transitory and striving after wind, better the desire of the wind. In other words, life is brief, and it is out of our control. This is the end of chapter 6.

It will be the end of our section in chapter 7 as well. We are here for a relatively brief time, and we are not in control of what went on before us, what will come after us, nor the events that take place that we need to work our way through in this life. Verse 10 reminds us, “Whatever exists has already been named, and it is known what man is; for he cannot dispute with him who is stronger than him.” God is the creator, He is sovereign over all. He created us and with the coming of sin, He is the One who has determined the judgment that would be meted out on His creation. It is a judgment that is being experienced right down to our day. We've been studying Romans together, and Romans 1 says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men...” We see the manifestation of God's wrath all around us. He doesn't cause men to sin, but He has turned them over to the consequences of their sin and the enslavement that sin brings.

Look at Ecclesiastes 6:12 as a lead-in to chapter 7, “For who knows what is good for a man during his lifetime...” You may ask, what is good for a man during his lifetime, “during the few years,” literally the few days “…of his futile life?” There is that word translated futile, hebel, means brevity, his brief life. “He will spend them like a shadow. For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?” I want to just draw your attention again. I think translating the Hebrew word hebel that we have talked about, I've shown you slides of, as futile or empty or meaningless gets you off track on Ecclesiastes. I put up a translation of verse 12 that several commentators promote and favor. This is from Ecclesiastes 6:12 and you can see, “For who knows what is good for a man,” I have left out a word there, good . . . for a man. That just was the Hebrew word for good that they had in there that I didn't think you needed, tov. They had transliterated it and had it in brackets. So, who knows what is good for a man in life, during the few and meaningless days he passes through like a shadow.

You see they take that word hebel, we have it translated futile in the New American Standard Bible, and they translate it meaningless. Now I looked in the dictionary to see what does the word meaningless mean? It means without meaning. I spent a lot of time in school. Significance, without significance, without purpose, without value. Those are the words that they give in the dictionary. Synonyms for meaningless would be empty, pointless, senseless. So, what they really take verse 12 to be, who knows what is good for a man in life during the few and meaningless, valueless, senseless days of his life. I think that leads us off track. Solomon is not saying our life is meaningless, the days of our life without purpose. That gives you the sense of futility, worthlessness. But he says who knows what is good. Now a day is just a block of time. You can look at a calendar for a future month and you have 30 or 31 days. There is nothing in the calendar. Those aren't good days or bad days. You come home from work and you say to your spouse, “How was your day?” They say, “It was a good day.” Oh, it was profitable, you accomplished what you wanted, things went well. Or if they say it was a bad day, things didn't go well, you weren't able to get done what you wanted, certain things went wrong in the day. It is what takes place during that period of time called a day, that makes it good or bad in our thinking.

Now if you went home and your spouse asked, “How was your day?” and you said, “It was a good, meaningless day.” That bad, huh? Because it doesn't make sense, a good meaningless day. You say it must mean that day was about as bad as it could be. Doesn't make sense, it's an oxymoron, a good meaningless day. A good day is a day that accomplishes something, that is worthwhile. A meaningless day is the opposite.

And when he asks the question, “Who knows what is good for a man during his lifetime, during the few and brief days of his life?” So, if you translated that the few and brief days he passes through like a shadow, that is different. My day is a brief time in the overall scope of things, but it doesn't mean it is meaningless, it doesn't mean it is worthless, it doesn't mean it is without value. I just bring that up because I think the failure to consider what a breath is in the book of Ecclesiastes leads us off track to think that Solomon is just frustrated and can't find any purpose in life and it's the writing of a cranky old man who has wasted so much of his life. That is not the case. As he says at the end, I am writing words of truth given by the Shepherd of Israel, God. And this is wisdom in how to navigate. But there is a constant reminder, a relentless emphasis. Look how many times we had it in verse 12. “…during his lifetime, during the few years…” Well, that just reminds you, the few days, as you have in the margin that word translated years. The translators didn't do us a favor by calling it years because we think our life is measured in years. He wants us to measure it in days. That reminds us it is going by.

I saw an advertisement for a T-shirt on a secular news site on the internet and across that T-shirt you could get printed what you want. But on this one was printed, “I didn't know old age would come so soon.” That's what we are talking about in Ecclesiastes. Some of you, I look around, I can see white hair, old age has come. Sometimes we old people forget it, that old age comes soon. It's amazing. Life is brief. Now even the world knows that. That's what Solomon is talking about.

There are two questions in verse 12. They will be addressed in chapter 7. “For who knows what is good for a man during the few days of his brief life?” He's going to start out chapter 7, “A good name is better…” We'll say more about that in a moment. Then the second question in verse 12 is, “For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?” When your physical life is over. Death. So, who can tell what is good for a man? He's going to talk about life and what will be after him? He's going to talk about death.

We come into chapter 7. Remember Solomon didn't write this with chapter divisions, they are artificial. They help us, chapters and verses, but this was flowing. So, when he says, “For who knows what is good…” That word good is used 11 times in the first 14 verses of chapter 7. Ecclesiastes 7:1-14 has that word we have translated good, 11 times. So, we are going to talk about what is good in life. And he is going to do it in a comparing way. You will see verse 1 opens up, “A good name is better than a good ointment...” Now if we wanted to be able to connect in that with our word good, literally it says a good name is more better, more good than a good ointment. A good name is more good. But we don't talk that way in English, although we do with some words. It can be great, greater, to compare it, or greatest. That's the superlative. But to make our language a little more difficult, we don't always do it that way. We use this is good, this is better. We don't say gooder or goodest. It's the best. So, part of any time you are coming to another language there are changes, but just keep in mind when we see that word better, he is talking about something that is more good. It is that word good.

Answering the question, who knows what is good for a man during the few days of his brief life under the sun. Well, let's talk about what is good for the man during those days. It is not meaningless days, it is not a meaningless life. There are good things. We need to recognize those and that helps us navigate through life, through the difficulties of life, the injustices of life, the pain and so on. There is good. When God finished His creation, He pronounced it all good, and all the good things have not been removed, as we have talked about. He didn't suck all the joy, all the good out of life. But the consequences now of sin have brought suffering and pain and injustice and all of that.

So, we pick up with Ecclesiastes 7:1, “A good name is better than a good ointment…” Proverbs 22:1, “A good name is to be more desired than great wealth…” That's what he is saying here, “A good name is better than a good ointment.” In those days, we are aware, things like ointment, spices, perfumes were things of great value, marks of wealth. Remember when the Queen of Sheba came and learned something of the wisdom and wealth of Solomon, she brought him the perfumes and the spices in amounts that hadn't been seen before. A sign of wealth and riches and so on. So, a good name, your reputation which reveals and is a reflection of your character, is more important than wealth. And that's consistent because the beginning of wisdom, remember, is the fear of the Lord.

Wisdom and knowledge begin with the fear of the Lord. It is the recognition of God, who He is, who I am, in light of who He is, what He says about me, my bowing and acknowledging Him, placing my faith in Him and what He has said, what He has provided for my salvation and so on. But we need to be concerned as we go through life about our reputation. That's a reflection of our character, we want to conduct ourselves honorably. That should be true of God's people, it should have been true of Israel. God gave them His Word. He told them that their life was to be shaped and controlled by His Word, Deuteronomy 6, their homes, their families by His Word. And conducting myself that way, each of us, we ought to be concerned about our reputation, our character that is honorable. That is more important than wealth.

So, there is something good in life. In Ecclesiastes 6:12, first is a question, “For who knows what is good for a man during…” the few days of this brief life? It's good that he conducts himself in a way that is honorable, to be of good reputation. That is more important than acquiring wealth. Now the second question at the end of verse 12 was, “For who can tell a man what will be after him…? He addresses that in the second part of Ecclesiastes 7:1, “And the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth.” We talk about the ending of our life, death, and we have already seen in Ecclesiastes we don't control what comes after us. But why is the day of one's death more good, better. Each of these will be comparing—this is good, and this is better.

We sometimes talk, you don't want to sacrifice what is best for something good. You want to do that which is better, or even the best. So that comparative is what Solomon is doing in how we learn to skillfully navigate life. The day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth. So that is another good to consider, a proper perspective on death. And why would it be better? Well, if we have earned a good reputation, that would be a good way to end your life. We have talked about life; life can be oppressive, can be bitter, can be painful. At times it can seem it is unbearable, but when you come to the end of your life, death brings an end to that. No more suffering, no more pain, no more dying. It's done.

As believers we often say, I'm ready to die. The process of dying can be intimidating, you don't look forward maybe to the pain that might be involved. But let's face it, no matter how difficult your life is or what it entails, death ends it. They can't do anything else to you, there is no more pain. When you have that corpse lying there, there is nothing you can do to it. You can't inflict pain on it. You stick a needle in it, it doesn't move, there is no response. And that is true of all the difficulties and trials of life, they are over. Paul could say at the end of his life in writing to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have finished the course, I have kept the faith…” What he is saying is my life is at its end. He'll go on to say the process that will culminate in my death has begun. In the trial and so on he knows the outcome, I'm going to die. But I have finished the course. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, I can look at what God has prepared for me. But life here is over. Read 2 Corinthians 11, all the sufferings he went through—the pain, the hunger, multiple shipwrecks, persecutions, imprisonments. I have finished the course, done.

The day of one's death is a good day, it is better than one's birth. And we say that about our kids. Parent, grandparents and so on say I'm concerned, what kind of world are our children going to grow up in? What are our kids going to have to deal with? We have two beautiful, wonderful, awesome great-grandchildren and we look at them as starting out. They haven't even gotten to kindergarten yet, then grade school, then junior high, then high school, then more school or job. Anybody here want to go back? I don't think so, no. It's a lot easier to say “…the day of one's death is better than the day of one’s birth.” I'm glad that's behind me. And he'll have something to say about glorifying the good old days before we are done in this section in chapter 7. But there are advantages, I'm glad where I am, I don't want to go back. So, the day of one's death. Recognize death. You know the world hides from death, that's what he is going to talk about. A person with wisdom does not, the one with wisdom faces death as a reality and has properly prepared for it and lives life knowing that we have these days that we are to use wisely.

Look at verse 2, “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting.” Why? “Because that is the end of every man.” How many times has this been repeated? If you are wise or you are a fool, do you know what? We have the same ending. If you are rich or you are poor, you have the same ending. “It is appointed unto man once to die and after this comes judgment.” “The wages of sin is death.” “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to a house of feasting, because that is the end of every man...” You know hiding from reality is not a solution, pretending it won't happen to me, or just ignoring it. Part of being able to live is being prepared to die. If you haven't prepared for death, you haven't prepared for the one certainty of life, and it could hit you at any time. In the news, we used to do motorcycle trips, I see there were seven motorcyclists killed in one accident. They were out for a joy ride, they didn't expect this was their day, the day of their death. That's the way death is, any age, any time, any place, unexpected.

So, “…that is the end of every man, and the living takes it to heart.” That's why you should spend time with the dying. And some of the older writers will make that point. We live in a world that tries to wall off death. It's more unusual for people to die at home. We die in the hospital, we die in seclusion. People don't want to talk about death. You want to go out afterwards and have lunch and you sit down with some friends you have met for lunch and you say, have you thought about the day you are going to die? I thought we got together for lunch, to relax and enjoy.

Who wants to talk about death? And that's not to say that is the subject of every conversation. But ask a person, have you thought about what will happen to you when you die? People don't want to talk about it. He says it is good, it is better. That is comparative, that is one of the better things to do, more good things to do in your life. Face death. That's better than going to a house of feasting. That doesn't mean you can't have a birthday party, can't celebrate an anniversary, but the world wants to live a party, they don't want to talk about death, don't want to talk about those things. Just celebrate.

I was watching a house program, I've shared that Marilyn and I do that. You can put your mind in neutral and watch what other people are doing with their money. And they are selling these expensive, multimillion of dollar places, so they put on a big party. I'm talking about a big party. They said it cost $70,000 for this party, so you know what this house cost, if that's the party to sell it. We are going to bring in 100 people because we want to show this is the kind of house you can live in, have parties in, bring all your friends in for a good time. That's what life is about.

I read in that connection on a news site, a person, a well-to-do designer, committed suicide a little while back now. Their apartment in New York is for sale. Some of you probably saw it. It is $6.3 million. A person with a $6.3 million home, who was wealthier than most people would ever hope of having as their home, and that was one of the homes, but committed suicide. You have to face life.

So that's the end. “…And the living takes it to heart.” But it is easier to get across the truth of the gospel at a funeral than it is at a wedding, because at a wedding people are distracted with the good time, the celebration. When you are having a funeral it's easy to get to the point of the matter, it's easy to present the realities of life and death. You ask a person, where would you be if it was your body in this casket? There is a seriousness, a somberness. Some of you may remember a man saying, “Who wants to go to work?” His wife had just died. Who wants to go to work? What's the purpose? It's a good reminder that this is life, it ends in death. That's what he is saying, “…And the living takes to heart.” You should be thinking about death, it ought not make you a gloomy person, but I've planned. More than making a will. Prepare to meet your God in judgment, as Solomon will take us to in chapter 12.

Verse 3, “Sorrow is better than laughter, for when a face is sad a heart may be happy.” And the most important thing is the condition of the heart, and we know that. Believers grieve, but as Paul said, even facing death and dealing with the death of a loved one in 1 Thessalonians 4, we grieve but we don't grieve as those who have no hope. Of course, there is sorrow when a loved one dies, there is pain. But even in that the Spirit can produce that peace of heart, that joy of knowing that that loved one is with the Lord, that someday we will see them again. So, sorrow is better than laughter. Then again, the context, the unwise, the fool, as he will go on to call them, covers life up. Let's just celebrate. And you'll see things, you'll see famous people or celebrities and they die. I'm sure they are having a party in heaven now. And cover it up with laughter. That's not real, that's make-believe, that's living in a make-believe world. They say we'll never forget them, but the weeks and months go by and they are forgotten, they are a distant memory at best.

“The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning, while the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure.” In other words, the wise person has taken into consideration the brevity of life, is navigating life accordingly, and has prepared for what Solomon says at the end of this account in Ecclesiastes 12, God will call us into judgment, for everything. It is appointed unto man once to die and after this comes judgment. So, the wise person is prepared.

Come back to just one passage in the book of Psalms, Psalm 90. Psalm 90 was written by the man Moses. Now Moses lived quite a few years before Solomon, we'll round it off, 1500 years, 1600 years before Solomon. But he writes the same thing. What he writes in Psalm 90 could be taken as a summary of what Solomon expands on in the book of Ecclesiastes. In Psalm 90, you'll note the title, A Prayer of Moses, the Man of God. “Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” See where he starts. You talk about life, let's start with God. He is the One who created it all, He is the Creator of life, He's the One in whom we dwell and have life. “Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” Remember what Solomon told us when you come to worship God? Remember, He is in heaven and you are on earth. Close your mouth and open your ears, let your words be few, let God do the talking, come to hear what He says.

And what does God say now to man? We have established God is eternal, “…from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” Verse 3, “You turn man back into dust and say, ‘Return, O children of men.’” Remember what God said to Adam? You are made from the dust, you will return to the dust. That's what Moses is saying, that's what Solomon is saying. Verse 4, “For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it passes by, or as a watch in the night.” What is he saying? Our life is brief, we won't live a thousand years. But a thousand years, for an eternal God, that's like yesterday when it is over. It's gone, nothing. That's a thousand years in God's sight. Or like a watch in the night, as they would have different schedules of the watch, watchmen of the night, brief. Comes and goes.

“You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep; in the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew. In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew; toward evening it fades and withers away.” That's our life, even if you lived a thousand years, we could call it a breath. Just like the flower of the field, here in God a thousand years are nothing on the scale of eternity, the everlasting God. So, Solomon didn't make this up when he said life is a breath, it's a few days. I'm 76, I didn't figure out those days but multiply them out. That's a lot of days. They are a few days, they come and go quickly and in a hundred billion trillion years how we even measure, we can't. That's what we are, we are temporary.

And you'll note verse 7, “For we have been consumed by Your anger and by Your wrath we have been dismayed.” This is what sin has done, brought the creation under the judgment of God and His wrath. That's why there is difficulty in life, there is pain. That's why there is death, that's why there is injustice. “You have placed our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence. For all our days have declined in Your fury; we have finished our years like a sigh.” I mean, this is life. It sounds like Solomon. Solomon didn't make up something new, he is just expanding, giving us more detail on living life with wisdom. This is what Moses said 1500+ years earlier, it's the reality.

Verse 10, “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years...” You know we get to talking about how we are going to extend life. Well, Moses is writing this 3500 years ago. Not made great progress. I think I read here recently the average age is 77 or 78, we're still in the 70-80. We aren't making much progress, 3500 years ago it was 70-80. “…yet their pride is but labor and sorrow…” That's what Solomon brings in the reality of life. Moses is writing about the reality of life because the whole world is under that judgment of God for sin.

And so, it brings labor and sorrow. “…for soon it is gone and we fly away.” That's not depressing and discouraging, it is reality. You can't live life wisely, skillfully and experience the good that God has provided and the joy, if you don't have a real view of life. It's like raising our kids that everything is going to center around them, and we want to protect them from any bumps and bruises, and they are the most important and you need to have self-esteem, and everybody ought to know you are the most important. And then they get to be adults and they can't face life. It's not real, and yet adults try to live that way, thinking that life ought to be all good and nice and pleasant and happy.

There was a church, that was in, I believe Denver. I don't know if it is still going or not, but it is very large, and the pastor was very well known, and the name of the church was The Happy Church. The Happy Church. And people go to church and they want to be uplifted. There is a well known, popular preacher on the TV, and makes his living through his books and everything. He says, I don't preach about sin, I don't preach about the negative things. People have enough negative in their life, I just try to build them up. That's not life to tell them that it is going to get better, it's all going to be good. No, I come to the Scripture and it tells us 70-80 years, labor and sorrow.

Psalm 90, verse 10, “For soon it is gone and we fly away. Who understands the power of Your anger and Your fury, according to the fear that is due You?” Remember we have seen this expression in Ecclesiastes, fear God. Fear God. The beginning of wisdom and knowledge is the fear of the Lord. Looking around us and seeing sin, the consequences, the anger of the Lord manifested; a reminder, we need to prepare to meet our God. So, verse 12, “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.” That's the goal. Verse 12 could be in a nutshell, the book of Ecclesiastes. “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to you a heart of wisdom.”

Come back to Ecclesiastes. So that's what he is talking about, we ought to go to a funeral. That doesn't mean you can't go to a party, a house of feasting, but don't try to paper life over, that it is one big party, that everything will be good, that God doesn't want you sick, He doesn't want you poor. Verse 5, “It is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise man than to listen to the song of fools.” Again, you see parties, songs. When a wise person rebukes, we ought to listen. The “song of fools”, come from those who don't have wisdom, they try to tell you about life. There are a number of verses that go along with this in Proverbs, but we won't take time for that because of time.

Look at verse 6, “For as the crackling of thorn bushes under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. And this too is futility.” It is a breath, it is temporary. What is “the crackling of thorn bushes under a pot”? A pot to cook something, but you put the thorn bushes under, there is the crackling and they burn up quickly, they are brief. They are not like the logs you put under that burn for a time and so on. No, they are brief. That's the laughter of the fool because life is short. The laughter of a fool doesn't mean that Christians should be the somber, serious people who never smile, never laugh, can't have fun. No. But Christians are serious, we are serious about life, the days of this life. Life is serious. You go through playing the fool through life and it is brief. So, the comparison of the brevity of a fool's laughter.

“For oppression makes a wise man mad, and a bribe corrupts the heart.” Now here we have a balance and a warning. We need to be careful, even a wise person can get off track. Oppression makes a wise man mad, his thinking gets twisted. Oppression, that which is unfair, unjust, bears down on him. Solomon talked about seeing the unfair oppression of a poor man. Sometimes you know that pressure, and we no longer are thinking wisely, we let that turn us away. “…a bribe corrupts the heart.” This becomes the issue.

In the book of Proverbs, I think it is Proverbs 4:23 but don't hold me to it, we are told to watch over our heart with all diligence, for out of the heart come the issues of life. That inner person. Be careful, concerning life with wealth and its brevity and so on. Somebody offers us enough, a pundit told a story, said sitting next to this woman, had a very nice dinner. And he said to her, would you go to bed with me tonight for $10,000? He said she blushed and said yes. He said then I asked her, would you go to bed with me tonight for $100? And she said, what kind of woman do you think I am? And he said, we have already established that, we're just negotiating the price. And that reveals the heart, doesn't it? If the bribe is great enough, I'll do it. We need to be careful, we live in a world that magnifies success, riches, wealth, but I don't want to be bribed by the world.

I have to guard my heart, that it doesn't get inside, that the oppression doesn't begin to twist my thinking, my mind, my heart. Usually the wrong actions are a result of the heart having gotten off track and then when the heart gets turned by something, pretty soon I find myself pursuing that course. So be careful. Ecclesiastes is just not for the fool and he ought to become wise and then once you are wise, you have it made. No, it's how the wise know how to keep navigating through life. That's why the day of my death is better than the day of my birth because I've done it, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. That's what I want it to be. So I have to be careful of these things. Many believers, Paul writes in Timothy that some by being deluded and chasing after wealth have made a wreck of their Christian faith. It's not something I can say, I've made it. Maybe on my deathbed when they tell me I have 10 minutes to go, I'll be able to say, I made it. But until then the temptations come. Be careful.

“The end of a matter,” verse 8, “is better than its beginning; patience of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit. Do not be eager in your heart to be angry, for anger resides in the bosom of fools.” You see we are talking about the heart, and we understand something at the end of a matter. Remember we don't have control, it's the desire of the wind, it's out of our control. I can't control the future. So, at the beginning of something I don't want to be overly confident. Remember James? Don't say tomorrow I am going to do this, but if the Lord wills, I will do this tomorrow. Doesn't mean we always have to use the expression, but that always should be the condition I am operating on. Otherwise when tomorrow comes and my plans are frustrated, then I am frustrated, then I am upset. So, we want to take it carefully. The end of a matter is better than the beginning because I have worked through it. And I want to be careful, patience, don't have arrogance. We think at the beginning of a matter, I can handle this, I'll take care of it. There are things I may be responsible to take care of and need to handle, but I need to be careful of overconfidence.

Proper attitude. “Do not be eager in your heart to be angry, for anger resides in the bosom of fools.” You know how easily we get upset. You turn on the news, hear what’s going on, and we're on fire, ready to go. We need to be careful. People don't treat us right, we're ready to go to war. I do have rights. Yes, we do have rights, but Paul exercised his rights but always under control. He would appeal to Caesar, but he always did it with respect and honor, explaining why he would do. You don't find Paul losing his temper.

You say, I lost it, I couldn't help it. They did this. Remember, no one else ever makes me do, no one else ever causes me to sin, no one ever made me lose my temper. Some people can make it easier, but they don't make me do it. That was just an opportunity for me to develop patience so I wouldn't lose my temper. But I got more satisfaction with flying off the handle and telling them what I thought. No, don't be eager to be angry. Anger resides in the bosom of fools. You know God tells it like it is. He doesn't just say anger is not the best thing, anger is the characteristic of a fool. Stop being a fool, don't get angry.

Moving right along here. “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.” We old people are good about talking about the good old days. I remember when I was a kid, we had our neighborhood and all the kids came and I got my friends. Butchie Davis came and Bobby Brown came, and all my old friends and we did this. The good old days. It's not like that today. Kids are always on their phones or whatever, they should be out like we were. Oh, the good old days. You know what happens, the days have always been like this. We read Moses.

Do you know what else was in those days? My parents were poor, we lived in government housing, the car never ran, I couldn't afford a bicycle, we ate Spam. That was life. The teacher spanked us when we didn't do what we were supposed to, and it hurt. Then my parents spanked us. Not my parents, other kids' parents spanked them when they found out they got spanked at school. We sifted out. I remember telling my dad when I had kids, Dad, you never let me do that, you're going to spoil my kids. I know, they are not my kids, they're my grandkids. But we sift it out.

So be careful, the former days were just like these. Days of labor, toil, unfairness, difficulty, death, sickness. I mean I'm glad of the improvements we have. I hated going to the dentist when I was a little kid. Couldn't afford a shot. You'd tell them, unless it is going to be very painful you won't need the Novocain shot. All right, you can't pay for it. Those good old days. I'm glad for the days we have now. So be careful, those days were like today. There are differences, we have conveniences today that they didn't have. Solomon, with all his wealth, didn't have air conditioning. We have air conditioning; he didn't have flush toilets and so on. So good days, bad days, painful things.

“For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.” You don't live in the past. My mother had a good reminder. One day when all of us kids were older, she had all the pictures spread out on the dining room table. I've shared this with you. She said, You kids can look in there, if you want any of your pictures, take them. I'll throw the rest away, I don't live in the past. There is a good thing about that. Why do I live back there, what you were like when you were little? Doesn't matter. This is how you are today. That's the way we live our life, so to speak.

“Wisdom along with an inheritance is good and an advantage to those who see the sun.” There are benefits to the good things in life. You inherit something from your parents, that's nice; if you have extra money, that's nice; it's an advantage living under the sun. Obviously. Things in life can be easier if you have extra, more than even you were able to work for but were provided through an inheritance. That's a good thing, there is nothing wrong with that. “For wisdom is protection just as money is protection...” So, both wisdom and money, but you'll note in the margin of your Bible that word “protection”, it's the word shadow. We had that word back in Ecclesiastes 6:12, “He will spend the days of his life like a shadow.”

Wisdom is a shadow, money is a shadow. That metaphor could be used of protection, we get in the shadow to get out of the sun. There is a kind of protection for that, and you could have that. But a reminder, it is temporary. Even the wisdom we have here, it can't control things. We are talking about wisdom, but wisdom doesn't mean we are in control. Wisdom is the ability to navigate skillfully in life that we don't control, and the wisdom is temporary, it will pass. We have skills but when this life is over those skills are done. These things are temporary, whatever advantage they provide. But wisdom is better than money because it enables you to deal with everything that comes. The person I indicated that had an over $6 million residence committed suicide. Having all this didn't help them navigate life. So, wisdom is better, it has an advantage.

“Consider the work of God,” this is the conclusion. “Consider the work of God, for who is able to straighten what He has bent?” You have to remember, in all these situations of life, you are not in control, God is. The road may be straight, God may bend it. You can't straighten what God bends. That's what he is saying about life, becoming a child of God when you trusted Christ. That doesn't mean now the road is straight. You still have to go through it, you still may get cancer, you still may be treated unfairly at work, you still may be ground down and oppressed, and on and on. All the different things that go on in life still go on. But consider the work of God, who is in charge.

“…for who is able to straighten what He has bent?” Wisdom is recognizing God is God, He is in heaven and we are not. “In the day of prosperity be happy, but in the day of adversity consider--God has made the one as well as the other…” Do you know what? My bad days have been ordained by God just as my good days have. I like to think they are all going to be good days, they are all going to be happy days, my kids are going to do well, my grandkids will do well, we'll all be healthy, everything will go well, the church will flourish. That's health and wealth preachers, but it's not real life. God ordains the times and He ordains the events of the times. In the day of prosperity, we say, thank you, Lord, for your blessings; in the day of adversity, Lord, what is wrong? This is not supposed to happen. Wait, wait, wait. Thank you, Lord, for the comfort of knowing you are sovereign. I count it all blessing when I fall into all kinds of trials, James 1. Count it all blessing, my brethren, when you fall into all kinds of trials. The trying of your faith produces endurance. Romans 5 does the same. So, I see life with wisdom, I see it in light of the God who is sovereign over life, the days of my life.

“…so that man will not discover anything that will be after him.” I realize all I can do is live this day as God would have me live it. If He brings adversity, I want to handle that adversity wisely, with a heart devoted to God. I accept it from Him, He is giving me what is best for me, at this time. It is not what I would have picked for myself, Job being the example. But in all that adversity, behind it all was the hand of God. Satan caused it, but only when God says go ahead. There is a comfort, there is a security, there is a confidence that we can face life. I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow. We have these expressions, songs that fix them in our mind. That's what matters. I don't have control of tomorrow, but the God who loves me and cares for me does. He has planned my tomorrow, and now I have the responsibility to walk through today. And walking through today with wisdom as He would have me will prepare me for tomorrow, if I have tomorrow. Because I'm only living a few days, and some day these days will come to an end. And when they come to an end, I realize I can say, I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith as Paul did. I can rejoice at the end of my life and hopefully I have conducted myself honorably and leave that as a testimony.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the simplicity of your Word, its clarity. Lord, sin is ugly, it has made life difficult. Lord, there are some here even this morning who are going through difficulties and trials. Each of us has to live the days that you have appointed for us. Lord, I pray for the grace that you provide, and for each of us to take hold of that grace. You have promised that you will not allow us to be overwhelmed by what you bring into our lives. You are working everything for our good. Lord, may we walk with trust in You, may we walk wisely, carefully, not being diverted from the path You have established for us so that we might have lives that are honorable, that are respectable, that reflect the character of the God we serve. Bless this day, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.