Adversity and Prosperity

Scripture Reading

Ecclesiastes 7:1–14 NKJV

A good name is better than precious ointment, And the day of death than the day of one’s birth; Better to go to the house of mourning Than to go to the house of feasting, For that is the end of all men; And the living will take it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, For by a sad countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, But the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise Than for a man to hear the song of fools. For like the crackling of thorns under a pot, So is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity. Surely oppression destroys a wise man’s reason, And a bribe debases the heart. The end of a thing is better than its beginning; The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry, For anger rests in the bosom of fools. Do not say, “Why were the former days better than these?” For you do not inquire wisely concerning this. Wisdom is good with an inheritance, And profitable to those who see the sun. For wisdom is a defense as money is a defense, But the excellence of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to those who have it. Consider the work of God; For who can make straight what He has made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, But in the day of adversity consider: Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other, So that man can find out nothing that will come after him.

This passage as much as any other is the reason for Ecclesiastes’ reputation as a gloomy book, what with all this talk of sorrow, death and sadness being better than feasting, birth, and mirth. Solomon talks about how God has ordained both adversity and prosperity, and man cannot predict what will happen on earth after he is dead.

But as before, this impression disappears when we look at it carefully. Solomon isn’t a killjoy who thinks your life should be constant and unending sadness and misery. Rather, we need to pay close attention to the verse that heads this section - a Good Name is better than precious perfume. By a good name he means your reputation. Both your reputation and perfume helps to give people a good first impression. However, perfume is a very shallow impression, just makes you smell nice; a good name is far deeper and therefore way more important.

The Second half of the proverb begins the apparently gloomy section - I’ve been at the bedside of Christians who lay dying. The details are different, but it usually goes fairly similar. The relatives of the dying person awkwardly make small talk and try to pretend that they are doing OK, but everyone is miserable, because they don’t want to say goodbye to the dying one. Depending on how the dying one is doing, it is more or less distressing to watch them, even for one who isn’t a family member and so doesn’t have the sense of loss of everyone else in the room. In any case, nobody is having any fun, nobody wants it to happen.

But to witness the beginning of a new life is an awesome experience. You know what I mean if you’ve seen it. A brand new person enters the world, full of potential and cuteness. Everyone is happy. So how can Solomon say that the day of death is better?!

He is extending the logic of the first half. Solomon wants your reputation to be earned - that is, a good reputation because that’s who you really are, not because you are good at deceiving people. At birth, the baby hasn’t earned any reputation, since he or she hasn’t done anything yet. Nobody knows what this new life will turn out to be. At death, who you really are is usually pretty obvious. Whatever reputation you have to your close family is because of what you’ve become. So at death, if you’ve conducted yourself with Biblical wisdom and lived a life that pleases the Lord, you’ll have that good name, and everyone will know exactly what you made of your life.

What he’s saying is that it’s better to finish your life well, than to start it well. Everyone should desire to conduct themselves so that they finish well. Solomon is saying that since you should want to finish well, then you should prioritize the kind of thinking that results in finishing well. Thinking about the brevity of life is an important part of that.

In addition, the theme throughout this section is on adversity and prosperity. But Solomon isn’t trying to give you a way to cope with adversity, but to reorient your thinking towards desiring to finish well. You need to take into account the brevity of life. Since finishing well is so important, adversity is valuable because it improves you as a person. A better you means a better reputation, and it means a better life in the long run. Prosperity, on the other hand, while very nice, doesn’t usually do much to change you for the better. Rather, prosperity reveals who you are.

Thus, the title of my sermon - Adversity, Prosperity, and Self-Improvement - highlights that we ought to desire character development, because your character will determine whether or not you finish well. Adversity develops character, prosperity reveals the character you have already. Let’s look at the various ways we can use adversity to help us finish well.

I. The Advantages of Adversity

We already looked at the first thing - When you’re born, you have not earned any reputation; when you die your reputation is usually fairly obvious. But the logic spirals outward from there. If we should desire to finish well, then we ought to think about the “finish line” of life - death.

A. So you can Ponder the Brevity of Life

Now Solomon isn’t saying that feasting is bad or wrong. In the Law of Moses, several feasts were commanded by God; God wouldn’t order them if it hurt the Israelites to feast every now and then. Israel’s feasts were meant to help them remember their heritage - Passover recalled the Exodus; the Feast of Booths (Succoth) recalled the Wilderness Wanderings; Pentecost recalled the reality that all our prosperity comes from God; Even the Sabbath was given to allow people and animals to rest.

Even in the New Testament, God wants us to feast sometimes - the Lord’s Table was originally a full meal, one that Jesus himself commanded us to observe. Jesus wouldn’t do that if it was wrong. And he gave us the analogy that the Kingdom of God is like a Wedding Feast Matt 8:12

Matthew 8:12 NKJV

But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Rather, Solomon is saying that Parties don’t make you better; funerals do. The living should remember that life is short, and Eternity comes afterwards, and at a funeral people are more likely to remember that. Moses put it this way Ps 90:12.

Psalm 90:12 NKJV

So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

B. So you can Change for the Better

Solomon takes another step back, to generalize to sorrow of all kinds. Again, laughter isn’t wrong, but it usually doesn’t change your character. This is why Paul could be glad that he made the Corinthians sad 2 Cor 7:8-11. He distinguishes between mere regret and repentance. Regret, like what Judas experienced after he betrayed Jesus, doesn’t benefit you. But true repentance does benefit. Repentance is changing your mind to admit that what God says about your sin is true. That’s never a pleasant realization, but it’s the only way to becoming the person God wants you to be. Since we will never be totally free of sin in this life, the need to repent and change never goes away completely. Now if you’ve been a christian for a while, the biggest changes in your life have hopefully already taken place - I’m saying that there is and should be progress so that you don’t need to change as much as you used to; however, you will not reach perfection until you see Jesus.

2 Corinthians 7:8–11 NKJV

For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

C. So you can Cultivate A Better Mindset

We take another step back, this time from the experience of sorrow, to the habit of thinking that this ought to form. Solomon isn’t saying that wise people are always miserable while fools are happy. He is saying that the wise person doesn’t just think about the brevity of life, and about the need for repentance when circumstances force him to do that, but that the wise person has cultivated a habit of mind so that even when he’s happy, and when he isn’t confronted with his own mortality, he still lives in light of the brevity of life, and is still able to repent even when life hasn’t beat him up to force him to change. The fool, however, tries not to think about those things, tries to forget and tries to ignore the need to repent. How successful he is about doing this depends on how foolish he is.

D. So you can Listen to Good Advice

The final step back is away from yourself entirely, and focuses instead on your ability to profit from the adversity of others. Again, Solomon isn’t a killjoy - he has nothing against songs and laughter, but the sound of fools having fun has exactly the same meaning as the sound of thorns crackling under a pot - none whatsoever. Now the “rebuke” of fools is obviously of no value either, as they will only yell at you and won’t have any good advice. But if a wise man rebukes you, that is not very much fun obviously, but it will be good advice. Otherwise they wouldn’t be wise at that moment. So to listen to the rebuke of a wise man will make you better; to listen to the laughter of fools will leave you unchanged.

To listen to rebuke is very much wiser than the previous things. A fool refuses to learn; a normal person will learn from his own experiences; a truly wise man will learn from the experiences of other. The value of doing this should be obvious. Why suffer adversity yourself when you can learn from the mistakes of others? You’ll make plenty of your own anyway, but the man who can learn from other’s mistakes will be many times wiser than someone who can only get it when they suffer from their own mistakes.

Of course, being willing to learn from other’s mistakes requires listening to them when they tell you that in their experience you’ll regret what you’re currently doing. That’s unpleasant, but considerable less unpleasant than finding out later that they were right. So facing the unpleasantness of the rebuke of the wise results in the much happier experience of avoiding the thing they warned you about.

II. Temptations of Adversity

But while Adversity often can make you better, Solomon isn’t blind to the dangers it brings as well. Adversity doesn’t automatically bring self-improvement, for you can be diverted into patterns of behavior or thinking that get you stuck without reaping the benefits of suffering.

A. When Others Distort Natural Rewards

Part of Adversity is when other people make your life difficult. This can come from two directions - when they oppress you and deprive wisdom of its natural rewards, and when a bribe deprives folly of its natural suffering. When oppression means that the expected rewards for good behavior actually requires suffering, then its the temptation of anyone, even the wise person, to give into the pressure and do what they know to be foolish to get along and avoid pain. That’s how oppression drives the wise man to madness and folly.

On the opposite side, a bribe incentivizes folly, because you are offered benefits for doing the unjust thing - that’s kind of the whole point of a bribe. Thus a bribe corrupts by paying people to do evil.

B. When there’s no light at the end of the tunnel

When you treat adversity correctly, the end of it brings peace and joy from the personal growth - thus the end is certainly better than the beginning. When undertaking any task, it’s at the end that the results are seen, while at the beginning there’s only potential. Results are real, potential isn’t, so the end of your task is definitely better.

But because getting the end takes time, the patient will see the reward because they wait it out. So how are the proud the opposite? the Patient end up being confident at the end of the thing, while the proud are confident at the beginning. Which would you rather be?

I don’t know anyone who would rather be proud than patient. In fact, maybe patience is such a good idea that you pray for it - Lord please give me patience. And would you hurry up? If that’s so, then why are people so impatient?

The solution to developing patience is to practice patience in exactly the kinds of situations you least feel patient. Remember that God knows what he is doing and wait on him. Identify the times and places you tend to lose patience, and think about a strategy to changing yourself.

Anger is the opposite of patience, and it is natural especially when adversity lingers. Only fools get angry quickly. It’s not that wise people never get angry, it’s just that it takes a lot to make a wise person angry. Getting a fool angry is easy - just look at them the wrong way and you’ve got an emotional explosion on your hands. What does it take to make you mad? How often are you angry because it inconvenienced or offended YOU, and how often are you angry at injustice for other people or for God’s name being dragged through the dirt?

But a fool doesn’t just get angry fast, a fool also holds on to his anger - it “lodges in his heart”. Do you nurse a grudge? how quickly do you let your anger go? God’s command to us is that we do not hold on to anger, don’t keep rehearsing the situation that caused it in your mind or to your friends.

C. When you long for the good old days

Apparently the rose colored glasses of nostalgia aren’t new. For thousands of years people have been longing for the “good old days.” Why isn’t that wise? because when we remember the good old days, we forget something else - the bad old days. Thus, it is human nature to see the past through rose colored glasses, imagining a past that was never quite as good as you remember, since you’ve forgotten or suppressed some of the bad things from back then.

But this “longing for the good old days” will be especially intense when you remember the former days in times of adversity. Job 29:1-2, 7-9; 30:1. There have been few people in history who can claim they suffered as much loss as Job. Yet, with the advantage of knowing the rest of the story, we can see that God actually planned to work good things by all this overwhelming tragedy. First of all Job gained a knowledge of God he couldn’t have had without the suffering Job 42:1-6. Second, God gave Job twice of what he had before and entirely vindicated him.

Job 29:1–2 NKJV

Job further continued his discourse, and said: “Oh, that I were as in months past, As in the days when God watched over me;

Job 29:7–9 NKJV

“When I went out to the gate by the city, When I took my seat in the open square, The young men saw me and hid, And the aged arose and stood; The princes refrained from talking, And put their hand on their mouth;

Job 30:1 NKJV

“But now they mock at me, men younger than I, Whose fathers I disdained to put with the dogs of my flock.

Job 42:1–6 NKJV

Then Job answered the Lord and said: “I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’ “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes.”

III. Benefiting from a Windfall

Solomon next moves to prosperity and wisdom. But he’s not contrasting wisdom and prosperity, rather, he’s giving you the conditions on which a windfall like an inheritance will benefit you. Now if you blow your entire inheritance, like the prodigal son did, then the windfall will not only not benefit you, it will positively harm you by giving you the power to do a lot of stupid things you simply couldn’t afford to do before, and once the money runs out, you’ll be in a worse spot than you were before.

But if you are wise with your windfall, then you will use the money wisely, and it will create a lasting impact and lasting wealth, in proportion, of course, with how much you inherited. Money is a security blanket, it protects you from financial ruin. But wisdom is itself also a security blanket, protecting you from doing stupid things that hurt you. But wisdom is better, for it also preserves your life.

So the point is that both money and wisdom profit, but to benefit at all from an inheritance, you must have a minimum level of wisdom in handling whatever sum of money you get.

But this principle applies to other unexpected windfalls besides getting an inheritance. The whole thing about an inheritance is that you don’t work for it, and you get it all at once. So any other time when you get a whole lot of money at once will have the same principle.

If you’re like most people, you’ve probably imagined what you would do with a huge windfall - an inheritance you didn’t expect, winning the lottery, etc. The danger with a huge sum of money is that most people don’t have experience with managing a life-changing amount of cash. That’s why the majority of people who win the lottery blow all their money in 5-10 years, and then end up going into debt to support their extravagant living, before having to declare bankruptcy and ending up worse off than before. So let’s indulge ourselves - what should you do with a huge windfall?

Patience is the operative word. Wait for several months to sort out what to do, more if the money comes via inheritance. Let yourself grieve first, so that your head will be clear to be wise with the money. By all means have a little fun, and pay off your debts, etc. But don’t go out and waste the whole thing on a bunch of nice stuff. Invest if you’ve got the money, but don’t invest until you clearly understand investing and can do it wisely. Jumping into to investing before understanding what you’re doing is a sure recipe for blowing all the money leaving you with nothing.

Depending on your friends and how much you inherited, you may also need to worry about people trying to take advantage of you. If you’re the sort who can’t be discerning about who you give money to, then you’ll again end up with nothing to show for your money after not too long. You should give something to God, but don’t do that in a rush. Think, make rational decisions, give yourself time to wisely handle a sum of money you’re not experienced with dealing with.

IV. Both are Divine Appointments

Solomon’s final piece of advice is to remember that God appoints both adversity and prosperity. Everything is under his control, so everything that happens, good and bad, is because that’s the way he wanted it. So what should we do about that? God will sometimes give you prosperity - so practice gratitude to maximize the blessing. God will sometimes send adversity - remember that even this comes from a loving God, so don’t be surprised. He’s already told you he’ll send adversity sometimes. Remember what Job said when he lost everything. His wife wanted him to curse God and end it all. But he replied Job 2:10.

Job 2:10 NKJV

But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

James goes even further. He declares James 1:2-4. Remember that when God sends adversity - even when it isn’t your fault - God send it to develop your faith and make you into the person God wants you to be.

James 1:2–4 NKJV

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Not only should we take pain and pleasure as from the hand of God, but we should also therefore remember that because God appoints both as it pleases him, we are unable to predict the future, so take a humble approach about what will happen. Make it your business to live a life that pleases God, and God will do something with that life. James 4:13-16

James 4:13–16 NKJV

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.