SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON - 8-15-2021 - ECCL. 7:11-22 - WHERE'S THE BALANCE?
LAST WEEK: In Eccl. 4:13-5:7, we studied two broad topics: (1) The vanity of human leadership in government. There was really no point of personal application in this chapter except to say that all human government is inherently unstable due to the capricious nature of humans themselves, and we should put our faith in our never-changing God rather than our ever-changing governments. (2) And four important rules we must follow when we worship God in His house: (a) we must prepare our minds and heart with a right attitude; (b) we must keep our mouths under control at all times; (c) we must keep our minds focused on God; (d) and we should know that we will be held accountable by God for any vows/promises we make to Him or to others who are acting on behalf of Him.
THIS WEEK: In Eccl. 7:11-22, Solomon will give us sound advice about wealth, wisdom, and eternal purposes. In the context of American churches, we are all wealthy when compared to the rest of the world, do you agree? Because of this, there's much for us to learn from Solomon's words of wisdom for wealthy people in this chapter of Ecclesiastes. At the same time, however, it seems that wealthy people can produce more self-inflicted hardship on themselves than those of more modest means. The pitfalls that Solomon addresses in this chapter were issues he learned from personal experience.
Read Eccl. 7:11-12 - WISDOM IS BETTER THAN WEALTH
11 Wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun. 12 For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.
v. 11: "Wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun" - The main idea here is that having wealth is better when it's actively tied to wisdom. Whether you are rich in material possessions or in knowledge (i.e., education, training, talents, etc.), both of these attributes are protected when you combine them with wisdom. Wealth should be enjoyed, and when wisdom is applied to wealth, it can produce things that have eternal purposes, not just for living in the here and now. When our wealth and wisdom are combined to achieve eternal purposes, we truly find out what it means to live with joy.
v. 12: "For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it" - Wisdom tells us that all the good things that wealth brings can come to dominate our lives if we're not careful. In other words, we cannot allow it distract us from understanding and applying God's wisdom to the way we live. For Christians, wisdom can be defined as understanding and living-out the truths of the Bible. The more wealth we amass, the more time and resources we should be devoting to serving God. When Solomon says that, "wisdom preserves the life," he means that wisdom can protect us from spiritual and moral evils that can actually endanger our physical health and emotional well-being (joy and peace).
APPLICATION 1: Wisdom + wealth + eternal purposes = joy. Wealth should be enjoyed, and when wisdom is applied to wealth, it can produce eternal purposes, not just for living in the here and now. When our wealth and wisdom are combined to achieve eternal purposes, we truly find out what it means to live with joy. Wisdom is also good "health insurance" because it protects us from moral evils that can actually endanger our physical health and our emotional well-being (peace and joy).
Read Eccl. 7:13-14 - GOD MAKES BOTH PROSPERITY AND ADVERSITY
13 Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? 14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.
v. 13: "Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked?" - The truth here is that God oversees both the adversity and the prosperity we experience in life, and after adversity happens, it cannot be made "straight"-it's a fact in the past-tense. At the base of it, God is sovereign and we have no control over these events. This is a difficult truth to understand but one that we must wrestle with in our hearts and minds to accept and live with.
v. 14: "In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him." When adversity unexpectedly strikes us, we must endure it with God's wisdom. God's grace enables us to persevere with patience and the Bible will reveal to us the way of escape. We must search for it and pray for God's wisdom before attempting to change our circumstances. God allows adversity, but He never tempts anyone to sin (James 1:12-13). Well-known pastor, Bible teacher, and writer Warren Wiersbe explained it this way, "The Lord knows how much hardship to give you to keep you humble, and He knows how many good things to give you to keep you happy." The second phrase, "so that man may not find out anything that will be after him," alludes to the future: Solomon is confirming that it's beyond our ability as humans to know for certain what will take place in our futures. Like how long will my trial last? Or can I expect my prosperity to continue? Or when will Christ return? While it's okay to think about and plan the future, we can never know what's actually
going to come.
APPLICATION 2: God's wisdom is the key to dealing with adversity. First, we must accept that God brings both prosperity and adversity in our lives, and we cannot control it. When adversity strikes we must endure it with God's wisdom. His grace will enable us to persevere and His Word will show the way of escape. Well-known pastor, Bible teacher, and writer Warren Wiersbe explained it this way, "The Lord knows how much hardship to give you to keep you humble, and He knows how many good things to give you to keep you happy."
Read Eccl. 7:15-18 - DO NOT BE "OVERLY" ANYTHING
15 In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. 16 Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? 17 Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? 18 It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.
v. 15a: "In my vain life I have seen everything." - Solomon is saying I've already "been there, done that," and that it was all meaningless.
v. 15b: "There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing." Solomon is telling us that being righteous in no guarantee against enduring hard times or experiencing early death, while the evil man might live to be very old and be allowed to continue to engage in his wicked ways, though we can be sure that God will ultimately judge him and punish him for his deeds.
v. 16: "Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself?" - Solomon isn't advocating moral laxity here. The idea is that the man is self-motivated by his pride, which is really false righteousness. This man suffers from the misconception that he's always right about everything and is obsessed with winning every argument. Solomon's point is that this is ultimately self-destructive because people like this usually end up friendless and alone.
v. 17: "Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time?" Solomon isn't saying it's okay to be a little bit wicked. He's talking about the stubborn pursuit of foolishness, which in and of itself is evil. Albert Einstein (not a proven quote) defined a fool as a person who keeps making the same mistakes over and over again, expecting a different outcome. Compulsive gambling is probably a good example of this. The fool, time after time, allows himself to think that the next roll of the dice is going to make his day, and some days it probably does. But the odds are stacked against him in the long run (as a fool, he refuses to see this) and he will end up losing all he has. We might consider that people who go to Tunica once or twice a year to play the slots or blackjack tables as being just "a little bit wicked," yes?
v. 18: "It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them." - The God-fearing person will avoid both extremes-righteousness or evil (yes, evil people can be wise in their own way)-and use God's instruction (the Bible) to lead a balanced and wise life.
Comments on Extremes: Extreme righteousness-legalism-and evil-liberalism-can and does assert itself in entire churches and denominations.
• Legalism: The most obvious examples of legalism are Christian cults like Mormonisn, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and Unitarian Universalists. But legalism-added spiritual beliefs or requirements that are not supported by Sound Doctrine-can be allowed to creep into any church. Sound doctrine can simply be defined as the Bible, both the OT and NT, according to apostolic interpretation and teaching, and our Baptist Faith and Message is basically just a restatement of Sound Doctrine.
• Liberalism: The flip-side of the extreme coin is "liberalism," which can be just as dangerous. We have to be careful about how we use this term. When our nation was established 245 years ago, all democratic forms of government were considered to be "liberal." And even before that, the Roman Church considered the entire Protestant movement to be liberal. But in more recent times, we've seen liberal ideas which have led many churches and whole denominations to cave-in to social pressure and adopt moral standards based on secular human principles rather than the Bible. The worst examples of this are the attacks on the Bible itself. Indeed, there are divinity schools in this nation today (e.g., Harvard, Yale, Princeton, University of Chicago, Vanderbilt, to name a few) which teach that the Bible is not the inspired and inerrant Word of God but the ancient writings of fallible men. According to their theology, traditional Christian teachings (the Bible) should only be applicable to the extent that they are consistent with recent secular human thought.
APPLICATION 3: A wise, God-fearing person knows how to lead a balanced life. The God-fearing person will avoid both extremes-righteousness (or legalism in this context) or evil (liberalism)-and use God's instruction (the Bible) to lead a balanced and wise life.
Read Ecclesiastes 7:19-22 - WISDOM GIVES STRENGTH
19 Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city. 20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. 21 Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. 22 Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.
v. 19: "Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city" - This verse is an analogy. The "ten rulers" are powerful men who provide both a stable system of government and the means to protect the city from outside attacks. So, by analogy the wise man uses God's wisdom to govern and defend himself, so that he can navigate around the many foolish pitfalls and uncertainties of life (i.e., adversities) of life that Solomon describes above in vv. 13-19.
v. 20: "Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins" - The fact is that we-every single on of us-are imperfect humans in a fallen world. And so our potential for wisdom is at best limited and even our most energetic efforts to achieve righteousness will sometimes fall short and be mixed with evil (i.e., sin). And we have to guard ourselves against any tendency toward legalism, which can produce a sinful obsession with righteousness.
v. 21-22: "Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. 22 Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others." - Solomon's advice in v. 21 pertains to not allowing ourselves to get too bent of shape when people say bad things about us. It's categorically unwise to trade insult for insult, even when what the person said about you was unkind or untrue. If the remark was simply unkind, it's usually best to simply tuck-it-in and ignore it; and if it was untrue, a measured response under control is always the wise choice. And yes, all of us have had weak moments when we have let slip derogatory comments about other people (i.e., gossip) that somehow got back to them. The wise course there is to make an apology, even when you are right. Being right and righteous are not the same thing. Righteousness (i.e., personal integrity) involves keeping your negative opinions of others to yourself.
APPLICATION 4: God's wisdom can give us the strength to deal with anything in life. In verses 19-22, Solomon reveals how God's wisdom not only helps us endure times of adversity, but also how to deal with the sinful (i.e., foolish) mistakes we make (v. 20) and how to wisely respond to criticism from others with civility, whether its fair or unfair (v. 21), and when you carelessly make unkind remarks about others (i.e., gossip), be prepared to apologize and seek forgiveness. Don't confuse being right with being righteous. Righteousness (i.e., personal integrity) involves keeping your negative opinions of others to yourself.
PRAYER: Lord God in heaven, we thank you once again for giving us the freedom to gather together and learn from the truth of Your Word. Father, as we continue to study Solomon's wise words today, I think we would all admit that they are a lot easier to hear than to apply to the realities of our lives. Especially during the times we face adversity. We all need Your help to endure these things wisely. with it wisely. Solomon also tells us that God-fearing people know how to lead a balanced life. In the confusing times that we live in, it's often hard to find the balance and avoid extremes, so help us us, Lord, to have Your discernment and Your understanding of the events around us. Finally, Dear God, I acknowledge that unlike us, You've got every situation in the world under Your sovereign control, so that we need to trust You, and only You, for the ultimate outcome. And I ask all of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, and it is for His sake, AMEN.
