The Enduring Reward of Wisdom

Scripture Reading

Ecclesiastes 4:13–16 NKJV

Better a poor and wise youth Than an old and foolish king who will be admonished no more. For he comes out of prison to be king, Although he was born poor in his kingdom. I saw all the living who walk under the sun; They were with the second youth who stands in his place. There was no end of all the people over whom he was made king; Yet those who come afterward will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and grasping for the wind.

We saw last week Solomon’s principle that it is better to have nothing and to be wise, then to have everything and to be a fool.

Wisdom, here, is knowing the right thing to do in every situation, the one that will bring God the most glory. Folly, therefore, is not lacking in intelligence, but believing that the wrong thing will ultimately be more helpful to you than doing what is right.

Solomon’s classic example of wisdom is when he had to decide between a two prostitutes who had recently given birth. One prostitute had accidentally laid on her son and sufficated it. The other mother had switched children. There was no evidence beyond she said/she said. Obviously the right thing to do is to give the real mother the child, but how to figure that out is not at all clear. That’s why it takes wisdom - How do you know which mother deserves the living child?! Solomon’s keen understanding of human nature allows him to discern the real mother, and ensure that justice is done.

Another example - A couple of winters ago my furnace went out. Now does “wisdom” apply to something as mundane as getting your furnace fixed? yes, it does. In my case, I lack the know-how to fix it myself, so I called someone who did have the expertise. It is wisdom to know your limitations, and it isn’t reasonable for me to become an expert in HVAC equipment, so it’s safer, and in the long run, cheaper to pay someone to do it for me. Someone that was more handy than myself has a more complex decision to make - when can he fix it himself and when is he out of his depth and must ask someone else for help? A fool has an exaggerated sense of his own abilities, so will attempt to fix what he cannot, and end up costing himself much more by paying someone else to fix his mistake, or worse, will put himself and his family in danger by his arrogance. But someone who is fully trained as a HVAC expert, will probably choose to use his knowledge to fix it himself, and then he has even more complex decisions, as he diagnoses the problem and creates a plan to get the right parts and make the necessary repairs.

Today we have two more examples of Solomon’s thesis - it’s better to have nothing and to be wise than to have everything and be a fool. But there’s also a twist - though it’s better to be wise, yet he concludes that those who came after didn’t respect the poor wise youth, and that this also is vanity. So if it’s better to be wise than foolish, what should we make of Solomon’s gloomy conclusion?

That, again, though wisdom is better than folly, still, everything, even the rewards of wisdom, fade with time. Now we can qualify that just a little. Even the rewards of wisdom, as great as they are, don’t last. However, whatever God does lasts forever, so in whatever way the poor wise youth contributed to God’s work on earth, that part of what he does will stand the test of time; however, no matter how wise he might be, his own efforts will eventually fade to nothingness, just like everyone else.

We will look at two examples of poor wise youths. We will again ask a series of questions.

Why was he Poor

How was he Wise?

What was the Result of his Wisdom

How did these benefits eventually fade?

What did Last?

I. The First Wise Youth:David

Why was he Poor?

The first poor, wise youth we will examine is David.

While his father Jesse was not necessarily poor, as a young man David himself admitted that he was poor 1 Sam 18:23

1 Samuel 18:23 NKJV

So Saul’s servants spoke those words in the hearing of David. And David said, “Does it seem to you a light thing to be a king’s son-in-law, seeing I am a poor and lightly esteemed man?”

How was he Wise?

He demonstrated early that he was a wise man 1 Samuel 18:30

1 Samuel 18:30 NKJV

Then the princes of the Philistines went out to war. And so it was, whenever they went out, that David behaved more wisely than all the servants of Saul, so that his name became highly esteemed.

From the beginning he demonstrated courage that derived from a trust in the Lord based on a sound theology 1 Sam 17:45-47

1 Samuel 17:45–47 NKJV

Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.”

He also showed mercy toward his enemies and a deep understanding of the authority of God’s Anointed. 1 Sam 26:9-11

1 Samuel 26:9–11 NKJV

But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him; for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed, and be guiltless?” David said furthermore, “As the Lord lives, the Lord shall strike him, or his day shall come to die, or he shall go out to battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lord’s anointed. But please, take now the spear and the jug of water that are by his head, and let us go.”

His deep trust in the Lord resulted in his ability to discern the right actions in complex situations

He recognized the evil of Joab’s cold-blooded ruthlessness, but also recognized his own limitations prevented him from bring Joab to justice. His repudiation of Joab’s actions both humiliated the arrogant commander and separated his own administration from Joab’s murders in the eyes of the people.

He had the confidence to punish his enemy’s assasins

He is a model of a merciful appeal to an enemy for reconciliation without giving in to naivete or to hate.

He consulted God in the decision-making process, and not merely when he was stuck

His love of the Lord is what motivated him to want to build a temple for Yahweh.

He heeded a warnings

From God after his sin with Bathsheba

From Abigail which prevented him from executing vengeance on Nabal

What was the Result of his Wisdom?

It is his trust in the Lord that gave him the courage, mercy, and wisdom to rise in prominence from a poor nobody to Ruler of Israel. At no point did he seek the Kingdom, he rather just kept doing what God wanted him to do, and God gradually exalted him until he was an even greater King than Saul.

It is his desire to build a temple for the Lord that formed the impetus for the Lord’s prophecy of the Davidic Covenant. This Davidic Covenant ensured his posterity would eternally have the right to rule the Israel, and if Israel truly followed God as they ought, then Israel would be dominate over the world. Thus the Davidic Covenant gave his posterity the right to rule the world.

It is his mercy toward his enemies that eventually preserved Mephibosheth, and quite probably this mercy is what kept the tribe of Benjamin with Judah.

his genuine repentance preserved his life and his kingdom, even after his disastrous sin with Bathsheba. Because he truly heeded Nathan’s warning, he later formed a home that truly honored God, out of which came Solomon. Thus, it is because he heeded warnings and repented that allowed him to have a son that also followed God and went on to even greater success.

How did these benefits eventually fade?

Since David maintained his wise behavior throughout his life, with the only exception being his disastrous sin, he maintained the benefits of wisdom for the entirety of his life. He did suffer severe consequences for his lapse in wisdom with Bathsheba, but the consequences were mitigated somewhat because he did repent and change. Thus, the suffering caused by his folly did not last beyond his own lifetime.

His Son Solomon got a great start. Even when Solomon went off the rails at the end of his life, it was the rewards of David’s wisdom that kept the country together until after Solomon’s death.

However, the tangible benefits of David’s wisdom did eventually fade, with the coronation of his grandson Rehoboam. The folly of Solomon’s lavish spending habits combined with the folly of his later years, and the breathtaking mismanagement of the people’s concerns by the newly crowned Rehoboam erased all of the considerable goodwill that David had built up in his lifetime toward his descendants. Thus, when the Northern Kingdom seceded from David’s Grandson, they said 1 Kgs 12:16.

1 Kings 12:16 NKJV

Now when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying: “What share have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Now, see to your own house, O David!” So Israel departed to their tents.

The remainder of David’s legacy was eventually erased by the sins of the Southern Kingdom of Judah, when God exiled Judah in 586BC. From that day to this, the land of Israel has never had a divinely authorized King. Of course, Jesus is coming someday and is the prophesied Son of David, but more on that later.

What Did last?

Solomon has already told us that whatever God does will last forever Eccl 3:14

Ecclesiastes 3:14 NKJV

I know that whatever God does, It shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, And nothing taken from it. God does it, that men should fear before Him.

Thus, however God used David to accomplish his purposes, we ought to expect that to endure.

We ought to remember when discussing Bible characters that the only reason that we can still talk about them thousands of years later is because something that God has done - he has inspired people to write Scripture, and that Scripture includes stories about things people did. We still remember David not because of David, but because God wanted us to know about him.

The rest of humanity, that God did not choose to write about, is generally not remembered by anyone within about four or five generations of their death. Often much less time than that.

God did accomplish eternal things through David

The Davidic Covenant is not something David did, but something God promised him, however, it was in response to David’s own heart for the Lord.

David’s wisdom, therefore, ultimately paved the way for David ultimate Son, Jesus Christ. Only because Jesus is of David’s line can we say that David’s line is forever. The Son of David will reign forever. That endures from David’s legacy, only because of what God did.

Most of the things that people would have noticed during David’s lifetime - his wisdom, his great success as Israel’s King, his wealth, his battles and victories - none of these things lasted. God had a place for them, for it is God who elevated David to become King, because God had a plan. And God did that precisely because David was a man after God’s own heart.

The Second Poor, Wise Youth: Joseph

How was he Poor?

Well, he wasn’t born poor. By the time Joseph was born, his father Jacob was a wealthy man. In his day, wealth was measured by the number of flocks and herds you had, and Jacob had got quite a bit from his uncle Laban.

However, Jacob’s family was extremely disfunctional, due to Jacob ending up with four wives. Laban tricked him into marrying both of his daughters, to get free wages out of Jacob. Because Rachel couldn’t have children for a while, she gave her servant girl to Jacob as a third wife. To keep up with her sister, despite her own fertility, Leah also gave Jacob her servant girl, so Jacob ended up with four wives.

The polygamous household had predictably disastrous effects on family life. The sisters were constantly at each other’s throats, and this fighting spilled over to the children. Jacob had at least 13 children - 12 sons and at least 1 daughter.

Another disastrous effect was that Jacob carried on the same favoritism that he himself was the victim of. Jacob had grown up as his mother Rebekah’s favorite, while his brother was father Isaac’s favorite. The favoritism split the household apart, and this fighting plus Jacob’s own shenanigans is why Jacob had to flee to Laban in the first place.

Joseph was the first son of Rachel, Jacob’s favorite wife. Rachel was the one he actually wanted the marry, the others he got by accident. Jacob therefore made Joseph a long-sleeved tunic. Now long sleeves weren’t much use for manual labor, so long-sleeved tunics were worn by the boss. Jacob was signaling to his other sons that Joseph was going to rule over them, despite the fact that all but Benjamin were older than him. This did not go over well.

In process of time, the relationship between Joseph and his brothers got so bad, they wanted to kill him. Jacob had sent Joseph to discover how his brothers were doing, and they used the secluded area to do him mischief. First, they planned to kill him, but Judah convinced them to sell Joseph to some passing Ishmaelite traders. The traders sold Joseph down in Egypt, which is how the young, rich, and powerful youth ended up poor and enslaved.

It got worse. Joseph distinguished himself by faithful, wise service. His wise administrative practices got him noticed, so that he ended up directing the entirety of his master Potipher’s household. But this got the attention of Potipher’s wife, who wanted to sleep with him. When he steadfastly refused to do that wicked thing, she had him thrown in prison in retaliation.

How was he Wise?

Early on, it was clear God imparted to Joseph the ability to interpret dreams. While he was still at home, God gave him two dreams that predicted he would eventually rule over his brothers and even over his mother and father. Later on, it was his God-given supernatural ability to interpret dreams that got him his ticket to freedom. He correctly interpreted the dreams of two prisoners, the cupbearer and the baker. They were both in prison because they were suspected of trying to poison the Pharaoh. The cupbearer was exonerated and given his position back, while the baker was convicted and executed, both three days later on Pharaoh’s birthday. It took two years before this paid off, when God gave Pharaoh a dream that no one could interpret because it came from God. Again Joseph interpreted the Pharaoh’s dream correctly, thus his wisdom was his ticket out of prison. More on that later.

Secondly, Joseph had clear administrative genius. The Lord was with him, and had clearly given him unusual skill at administration. This skill, given to him by God, is what kept promoting him repeatedly. Potipher noticed the young slave’s skill at organizing people, and promoted him to household manager. The owner of the prison noticed Joseph’s skill as well, and promoted him to manager of the prison. Finally, when Pharaoh promoted Joseph to second in command of Egypt, he wisely ruled the entire land, preserving many people’s lives and greatly expanding Pharaoh’s power to boot.

Third, Joseph was forgiving without being naive. When the famine he predicted came, and Egypt was the only country for some distance that was prepared for it, his brothers were forced to come to him and buy food (unbeknownst to them, he was effectively ruler of Egypt.). Most people in his shoes would have had his brothers boiled alive in oil slowly. However, since the last time he saw them they sold him and lied about it, he couldn’t yet trust them, so he put them through a series of terrifying but ultimately harmless tests. The tests revealed they had changed and he could trust them. So he forgave them completely and used his power to protect them and his father.

Fourth, and most importantly, Joseph was able to do all these things because he trusted in the Lord

He alone believed his dreams, when even his father was incredulous.

His reason for standing up to Potipher’s wife was first and foremost because it was a sin against God. This trust in the Lord was so firm that he was prepared to do right even when it brought him nothing but extreme shame and disaster. His loyalty to his master therefore was similarly due to his faith in God first. Gen 39:7-9

Genesis 39:7–9 NKJV

And it came to pass after these things that his master’s wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, and she said, “Lie with me.” But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my hand. There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”

His administrative skill was clearly stated to be due to the fact that “The Lord was with him Gen 39:2, 21-23

Genesis 39:2 NKJV

The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.

Genesis 39:21–23 NKJV

But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing. The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper.

His reason for forgiving his brothers was due to his clear understanding of God’s sovereignty. Gen 50:19-21 He knew God was in control, though doubtless he didn’t understand why God did that for many, many years. It was 13 years from being sold until he stood before Pharaoh, Nine years more before his brothers came. He didn’t get to start a family until he was in his late 30s. So for a large portion of his young life he had to simply trust that God knew what he was doing, when it looked for all the world that God was out to get him. Without this inner conviction of God’s sovereign, loving care, he would not have been strong enough to do all these amazingly righteous things. Without his fear of God keeping him from being bitter, he would not have been wise enough to get where he went.

Genesis 50:19–21 NKJV

Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

What were the benefits of his wisdom?

It was his wisdom - forgiving spirit, administrative skill, and ability to interpret dreams - that took him from the prison-house to instantly become, for all practical purposes, the supreme ruler of the most powerful country on planet earth.

The fact that he remained humble, while gaining instant success, is also remarkable. Very few people can handle instant success of that immense magnitude. It didn’t do Saul any favors, after all.

It was also his wisdom that allowed him to accomplish his greatest feats

He was a wise, capable ruler of Egypt that built up tremendous good-will despite being a foreigner in Egypt, a country that didn’t like foreigners.

His skillful administration and foresight due to prophecy of the famine allowed him to save the lives of countless people in Egypt and the surrounding countries.

Without his merciful forgiveness of his brothers, Israel would not have gotten sufficient start in Egypt to multiply into a nation.

Thus, he went from the prison house to one of the most powerful, capable men on the planet, and used that power to do enormous good. Most of all, God used him to preserve and multiply the People of God in Egypt.

How did these benefits eventually fade?

For several generations afterwords, the Egyptians thought very highly of Joseph, and therefore very highly of the Israelites. However, a change in regime meant that a Pharaoh arose that did not know about Joseph (Exod 1:8). This wasn’t because of ignorance, but because this Pharaoh was himself a foreigner, the Hyksos. These Asiatic peoples conquered Egypt, and because they weren’t natives, not only didn’t care what the previously native Pharaoh’s had done, but actively wanted to erase the memory of what came before.

Thus, after several centuries the efforts of Joseph no longer mattered, and in fact, the success of the Israelites was the impetus for a program of genocide against them - the babies thrown in the river thing.

What did Last?

What endured was what God was doing on earth.

It was God’s plan to get Joseph down to Egypt first, so that God’s people would have a place to grow into the nation God had promised. Israel in Canaan was so like the surrounding nations that they would have simply assimilated into the surrounding people and been lost. Because the Egyptians didn’t like foreigners, there the Israelites would have to retain their identity.

It was God’s plan to put Joseph into a position of power where he could help his brothers, and to mold the young man into someone who would use that power correctly, so that Israel would have several centuries of peace and growth.

It was God’s plan to reveal the dreams to the two prisoners so the Cupbearer would remember Joseph, and to reveal the dream to Pharaoh not only to put Joseph in charge, but to force a reuniting with them when they came to buy food.

It was God’s plan to use Joseph to give Israel a fertile, safe place to live.

It was God’s plan to allow the regime change that made Egypt uncomfortable for Israel, so they would want to leave Egypt when Moses came to deliver them. This was so God would keep the promise he made to Abraham, to give his descendants the land of Canaan.

All this endured beyond Joseph’s lifetime, and much of it was due to the wisdom God gave him. But Joseph’s actions didn’t endure because of his own efforts alone, but only because he was exactly where God put him and when in that position, he did what pleased God. Therefore he was used greatly in accomplishing God’s will on earth.

Conclusion.

The Wisdom of both of these poor youths is what took David and Joseph from poverty to great power and influence. However, while the benefits of wisdom were great and blessed them tremendously during their lifetime, most of those benefits did eventually fade. the only things that lasted was when they got to participate in what God was doing on earth. And they themselves couldn’t have predicted where and when God would choose to use them to accomplish his will on earth. Instead, they needed to faithfully do what was wise, so that they would accumulate wisdom over time. The habit of trusting in the Lord, and trying each day to serve him in whatever place they found themselves bought them a reservoir of wisdom that they could call on when it counted. God choose to use them in ways they didn’t see coming, and in some ways didn’t even fully realize during their own lifetimes.