To all members of PaRD.
Grace and peace to you from CPK001. Tonight is the sixth series of the book of Ecclesiastes that we are studying at Church. I have been taking notes and I am going to try and portray what I heard at Church onto here.
When we think of the book of Ecclesiastes what do we think it is about? "Vanity of vanities/everything is meaningless". We shall look into this book and ask: What's the point of WISDOM?
Ecclesiastes 7:1 - 8:1
7 A good name is better than fine perfume,
and the day of death better than the day of birth.
2 It is better to go to a house of mourning
than to go to a house of feasting,
for death is the destiny of everyone;
the living should take this to heart.
3 Frustration is better than laughter,
because a sad face is good for the heart.
4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.
5 It is better to heed the rebuke of a wise person
than to listen to the song of fools.
6 Like the crackling of thorns under the pot,
so is the laughter of fools.
This too is meaningless.
7 Extortion turns a wise person into a fool,
and a bribe corrupts the heart.
8 The end of a matter is better than its beginning,
and patience is better than pride.
9 Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit,
for anger resides in the lap of fools.
10 Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?”
For it is not wise to ask such questions.
11 Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing
and benefits those who see the sun.
12 Wisdom is a shelter
as money is a shelter,
but the advantage of knowledge is this:
Wisdom preserves those who have it.
13 Consider what God has done:
Who can straighten
what he has made crooked?
14 When times are good, be happy;
but when times are bad, consider this:
God has made the one
as well as the other.
Therefore, no one can discover
anything about their future.
15 In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these:
the righteous perishing in their righteousness,
and the wicked living long in their wickedness.
16 Do not be overrighteous,
neither be overwise—
why destroy yourself?
17 Do not be overwicked,
and do not be a fool—
why die before your time?
18 It is good to grasp the one
and not let go of the other.
Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes.[a]
19 Wisdom makes one wise person more powerful
than ten rulers in a city.
20 Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous,
no one who does what is right and never sins.
21 Do not pay attention to every word people say,
or you may hear your servant cursing you—
22 for you know in your heart
that many times you yourself have cursed others.
23 All this I tested by wisdom and I said,
“I am determined to be wise”—
but this was beyond me.
24 Whatever exists is far off and most profound—
who can discover it?
25 So I turned my mind to understand,
to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things
and to understand the stupidity of wickedness
and the madness of folly.
26 I find more bitter than death
the woman who is a snare,
whose heart is a trap
and whose hands are chains.
The man who pleases God will escape her,
but the sinner she will ensnare.
27 “Look,” says the Teacher, “this is what I have discovered:
“Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things—
28 while I was still searching
but not finding—
I found one upright man among a thousand,
but not one upright woman among them all.
29 This only have I found:
God created mankind upright,
but they have gone in search of many schemes.”
Who is like the wise?
Who knows the explanation of things?
A person’s wisdom brightens their face
and changes its hard appearance.
What has the theme been so far when the writer of Ecclesiastes has gone to look for meaning at every aspect of life? Meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
Is Wisdom any different?
Ecclesiastes 1:17
17 Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.
Ecclesiastes 7:3
3 Frustration is better than laughter,
because a sad face is good for the heart.
Ecclesiastes 8:1
Who is like the wise?
Who knows the explanation of things?
A person’s wisdom brightens their face
and changes its hard appearance.
This is a bit weird isn't it? Frustration is better than laughter? A sad face is good for the heart? What's happening here is the writer is taking us on a journey from 7:1 to 8:1. Let's go on that journey. What is Wisdom? Wisdom is how we interact with our world.
There are 3 things that Wisdom must be.
1 - Wisdom must accept reality.
Ecclesiastes 7:1
A good name is better than fine perfume,
and the day of death better than the day of birth.
Is a funeral better than a Birthday? Let's look at the first half where it says "A good name is better than fine perfume." Wisdom must interact and encounter the day of death.
Ecclesiastes 7:4
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.
Ecclesiastes 7:8
The end of a matter is better than its beginning,
and patience is better than pride.
As humans we love to rejoice at the possibilities. There is a way of living that denies one but embraces another. As humans we typically avoid the topic of death. We love the idea of possibility and not reality.
Ecclesiastes 7:10
Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?”
For it is not wise to ask such questions.
In this day and age "We've got to have the latest stuff". There's a term for this and it's called Escape.
Escape our world through Holidays? Escape through Alcohol? Escape through games? Escape through parties?
For all the joy we fill ourselves there is an end that must be faced or reconciled.
2 - Wisdom must accept human creaturehood.
Ecclesiastes 7:11-12
11 Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing
and benefits those who see the sun.
12 Wisdom is a shelter
as money is a shelter,
but the advantage of knowledge is this:
Wisdom preserves those who have it.
This is weird, did the writer say that money, like wisdom is a shelter? What we can draw from this is that wisdom preserves but it also has a flaw. We do not have the ability to change tomorrow. God is in control.
7:14
14 When times are good, be happy;
but when times are bad, consider this:
God has made the one
as well as the other.
Therefore, no one can discover
anything about their future.
God is Sovereign and in control of all things.
Can we run and shape our world?
James 4:13-14
13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
Ecclesiastes 7:15
15 In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these:
the righteous perishing in their righteousness,
and the wicked living long in their wickedness.
We see a world where the world is flipped. The crooked people succeed while the honest people fail.
Matthew 6:27
27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
3 - Accept human Sinfulness
Ecclesiastes 7:16-17
16 Do not be overrighteous,
neither be overwise—
why destroy yourself?
17 Do not be overwicked,
and do not be a fool—
why die before your time?
Do not be overrighteous? How can one be overrighteous? What if we put a word in front of that? Do not be self-righteous. Now the meaning has changed.
James 4:16
16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.
That which seeks to control is in defiance of the living God.
Ecclesiastes 7:20-22
20 Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous,
no one who does what is right and never sins.
21 Do not pay attention to every word people say,
or you may hear your servant cursing you—
22 for you know in your heart
that many times you yourself have cursed others.
Do not eavesdrop to make yourself look good, it will not work.
Ecclesiastes 7:23-24
23 All this I tested by wisdom and I said,
“I am determined to be wise”—
but this was beyond me.
24 Whatever exists is far off and most profound—
who can discover it?
Do you know everything? Are you God? We cannot understand all things. When we try we show ourselves to be fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:26
26 I find more bitter than death
the woman who is a snare,
whose heart is a trap
and whose hands are chains.
The man who pleases God will escape her,
but the sinner she will ensnare.
Fools are suckers for the abuser as they look for pleasure and forget God.
Ecclesiastes 7:27-29
27 “Look,” says the Teacher, “this is what I have discovered:
“Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things—
28 while I was still searching
but not finding—
I found one upright man among a thousand,
but not one upright woman among them all.
29 This only have I found:
God created mankind upright,
but they have gone in search of many schemes.”
Here is the issue we have with human wisdom. Each one of us go in search of many schemes. We are wise, we did it ourselves. We are self made and self saving.
Romans 3:22-24
22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Yet God has answered our stupidity by doing something very wise.
What is Wisdom?
1 - Accept reality - Death is part of the world.
2 - Accept creaturehood - We cannot know all things.
3 - Accept sinfulness - Only hope is outside of us. Our sin needed answering. Jesus is the answer.
Fix your eyes on Jesus.
Next time we will explore and ask: What’s the point of JUSTICE?