DRAWING FROM THE WELLS OF WISDOM

Putting Wisdom to Work in Our Lives

 

ECCL. 7:15-29

            You have chosen as your theme for this women’s conference “Drawing From the Wells of Wisdom” and selected Ecclesiastes Chapter 7 as your major text.  Some view the Book of Ecclesiastes as very depressing because Solomon, its writer, declares from the very beginning to the end that “all is vanity. In Eccles. 1:2 we find “ Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity and in chapter 12:8 he repeats this same statement “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; all is vanity”.   The Hebrew word used here is hebel which is translated as meaningless, having no advantage, or causing nothing to be gained.  Today we would say unsubstantial or without real value.  What activities does Solomon declare to be meaningless? Man’s labor under the sun (1:3), personal pleasures (2:1-3), riches and glory (2:7-9), wisdom and knowledge (1:15-18) and life itself (11:8).

            A casual reading of this book will lead one to falsely label Solomon as a pessimist, when in actuality he is a realist. He is not trying to say that a man's work, his riches, his wisdom and even his righteous living have absolutely no value, but rather that doing these things did not provide an absolute guarantee that one would be always happy and successful in this life.  In the verses we will discuss, Solomon looks at man's righteousness and his wisdom

 

Righteous (15-18)

 

      Solomon begins by stating that in his brief lifetime he as seen exceptions to the doctrine of retribution (God rewards and punishes people based on their actions).  He has seen those who live righteously perishing. While he has also seen the wicked lived long lives in spite of their wickedness.  Since there are exceptions to the doctrine of retribution, Solomon warns in verse 16, “be not over righteous or over wise: why should you destroy yourself?”.  The word here translated as destroyed, tissomem comes from the verb samem which means to destroy.  However the verb in this from, tissomen, is normally translated to be appalled or astounded.  Solomon is urging people not to depend on their righteousness or wisdom to guarantee them God's blessings blessing they might become confused or disappointed.  If we stop and really look at life, we know that Solomon is right.  We can make all of the best plans.  We can make good decisions and good choices as we proceed through life, but still find at some points in our lives all is going wrong.  We can go to college, get the best and highest degrees, go to work and get very good jobs were we can advance and make good money, to wake up one day and find that they economy has shifted, our services are no longer needed and our degree has little value.  You can marry a good Christian brother or sister, do all you know to make the relationship work and still end up divorced.  You can live upright, exercise and watch your diet and still end up with cancer.  The fact that bad things happen to even those who are trying to do all that they believe God would have them do, has confounded mankind through out the ages.  (Look at Job’s friends.  They were convinced that Job had to be a sinner. Job 8:6 - If  thou are pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous).  However, just because there are some exceptions to the doctrine of retribution, or because God does not always judge swiftly, one should not take that as a license to sin.  This might lead one to die before his time.  (Ps. 55:23)  We all know people who were hanging out in clubs or bars, who get in a fight generally over something trivial and end up getting killed. Solomon closed his argument in this section in verse 18 by noting that it is good to follow both
warnings and by recommending that one who fears God should avoid all or both extremes.   The two extremes to avoid are (a) depending on one’s own righteousness and (b) becoming loose in one’s living (being overly wicked).

Solomon’s advice should not be taken to imply that he believed in halfhearted obedience to God’s commands or advocated a little wickedness and a little folly. Though he believed that complete righteousness is unattainable and that some folly is unavoidable, he never advocated folly or wickedness. Instead he advocated living life in the light of God’s judgment (11:9; 12:14). Though he had observed exceptions to the doctrine of retribution, he nevertheless believed that God would judge (3:17; 8:12-13). Solomon’s only uncertainty about God’s judgment was its timing. So people should avoid folly and wickedness as much as possible and live as wisely and as righteously as possible.

 

Wisdom (7:19-24)

            Man can not trust in his might because one man with wisdom is stronger than 10 mighty men.  Man can not trust in his righteousness because there is no one who is completely righteous (Is. 64:6).  You can not trust in your reputation for you can never really know what others are saying about you.  But don’t get overly sensitive he says.  Though you may hear your servant curse you, remember that you have at time cursed others.  In other words, though you may hear of others talking about you, don’t get all bent out of shape, because you yourself are guilty of having talked about others.

Though a man with wisdom is much stronger than one with physical strength, Solomon added that wisdom also has its limitations. Though he had applied all his great wisdom (1:16) to understanding God’s distribution of prosperity and adversity and though he was determined to be wise, he acknowledged that true wisdom was far beyond him.  Even with all his wisdom admits that he could not understand the deep things of God.  No one in his own knowledge and wisdom can understand the deep things of God (I Cor 2:9-12).

 

      In the last four verses of this chapter Solomon lets us know what his search for wisdom has revealed. In Proverbs, the term “folly” is synonymous with “wickedness”.  Solomon personifies folly as a women, who snares, entraps and holds one captive.  He found that, though folly was a fate worse than death, only those pleasing to God escape folly’s clutches. He also discovered in this same search that such people are rare—in fact they are nearly nonexistent.  He found that a man who pleases or, ‘is pleasing to’ God is  extremely rare; about one in a thousand  However, he noted that such a situation is not of divine but of human origin (v. 29).

 

Solomon said all this with one purpose in mind.  He intended to point out to people the inability of all human efforts to guarantee any real meaning, or significance to their lives on earth, and thus to drive them to trust in God alone.  Faith in God should be the controlling principle for our understanding of the world, our attitudes and our actions.  Such trust flows out of the ability to see life from God’s perspective and then to know the best course of action to take.  One writer says that this is the definition of wisdom.

 

Since our focus is to be on wisdom, this is a good place to offer a definition of wisdom.  In the lesson sent to me wisdom was defined as the God-given ability to see life with rare objectivity and to handle life with rare stability.  What this says to me is the ability to see life as it really is and yet remain stable and steadfast.  Wisdom is both the ability to discern what is best and the strength of character to act upon that knowledge.  Thus wisdom is practical discernment.  It begins with respect for God, leads to righteous living, and results in increased ability to tell right from wrong.  Ps 111:10 says that wisdom begins with a reverence for God.  James 1:5 says that God is willing to give us this wisdom.  Solomon also believed these two these ideas to be true (Prov. 2:6-7; Prov. 9:10).

 

Though Solomon pointed out that man cannot have absolute security in anything or anyone other than God, including man’s own wisdom, we know that he found great value in having wisdom.  In Prov. 4:7 he says that wisdom is the principle thing and encourages us to get wisdom.  Why does Solomon recommend that we pursue wisdom?

 

1.      It is more valuable that riches (Prov. 8:11; Prov. 16:16)

2.      It prolongs life (Prov. 10:21)

3.      It wins out over folly or wickedness (Eccl. 2:13)

4.      It is a protector (Eccl. 7:12

5.      It is better than physical strength (Eccl. 7:12; Eccl. 9:16)

6.      It is better than weapons (Eccl. 9:18)

 

In fact in reading Proverbs chapters 3 and 4 we can see a list of benefits of having wisdom that include a long and prosperous life, favor with God and man, a reputation for having good judgement, success, health and vitality, riches, honor, pleasure, peace and protection.  Who could ask for more on this side of Heaven.

 

With that in mind we need now to investigate putting wisdom to work in our lives.  The reading that was sent to me did a very good job of introducing how godly wisdom works itself out in our lives if we apply it.

 

1.      Wisdom gives balance.  Solomon encourages us in verses 15-18  not to go over board, thinking that our righteous will assure us total happiness.  He also lets the wicked know that excessive foolishness may bring their live to a sudden end.  This is similar to what Paul was saying to us (Phil. 4:11-13; I Tim. 8-10; Heb. 13:5).

2.      Wisdom gives us the strength to face ourselves.  Solomon pointed out that there is not one of us that always does right and never sins.  As followers of Christ, our enemy sometimes uses our failures against us (Zech. 3:1-7).  But wisdom teaches us not to wallow in our failures, but rather to face them through true repentance (Prov. 28:13) and move with our life in Christ (Rom: 7:15-8:1).

3.      Wisdom gives us the strength to go on with or without the approval of others.  What we say about others and what is said about us can bring death or bring life (Prov 18:21). What we say can either tear down or build up.  Unfortunately many things play a part in what is sometimes said; jealousy, bitterness, pride, fear, etc.  We sometimes have hidden motives in even a complement.  Solomon encourages us not to put a whole lot of stock in what is said. Don’t get the big head because others complement you, and don’t get depressed because some criticize you.  Those who complement you today may criticize you tomorrow and vice versa.  Wisdom teaches us to focus on what God says about us (Is. 43:1-4) and to admire God’s creation (Ps. 139:14).

4.      Wisdom teaches us to keep life in proper perspective.  There are so many things that we do not understand.  So many questions we can not answer.  If we take our eyes off of God we stand the risk of getting lost in our own efforts to bring clarity.  God is sovereign and the wise man learns to follow God blindly, trusting that His way is perfect.  Though we can not see the entire picture, the wise person will trust  that God is painting a beautiful portrait. (Prov. 3:5-7; Is. 26:3).

 

Trust in God at all cost is what wisdom cries out to us.  This is also the message  that Solomon is trying to portray.  With all his proclaiming of vanity he comes to but one conclusion. The duty of man is to reverence God and keep is commandments, trusting that He will perfectly judge every secret thing (Eccl. 12:13-14).