The Vanity of Wisdom

Call to Worship: Psalm 96:11-13 // Prayer

Adoration: O God, our hope is in you. In you is all righteousness, faithfulness, and truth. And when your Son returns, we know that he will judge the earth in righteousness and the peoples in faithfulness. We look forward to that day when we see him face to face, and you will finally defeat evil for good, and by your eternal power and wisdom you will defeat even our last enemy: death himself

Confession: And yet, that day has not yet come. You have saved us and made us your children, but we still sin in many ways. Even this past week, we have turned our hearts away from you. And we have put our trust in many other things: we have trusted in wealth, in pleasure, in impressive people, in our own righteousness or cleverness or strength—in many things aside from you. Forgive us, Father, for we have sinned against you.

Thanksgiving: But we remember that you have redeemed us, forgiven us, and saved us. You have wiped our guilt away. With us, salvation is impossible; but with you, it is possible, and you have done it. We praise you for forgiveness undeserved, unearned, and freely given: your mercy is beyond measure.

Supp: And we ask, this morning, specifically for the women in our congregation. You know the times we live in: how your beautiful design in womanhood and manhood is so often rejected. So we ask for our sisters in Christ, that they might be filled with wisdom and faith; that they might cling to the gospel of your Son with joy; and that they might also rejoice in your good design for womanhood, and might embrace their design as life-givers in whatever situation you’ve placed them; especially we ask that you would empower them to give and nurture spiritual life among us as a congregation, that you might be glorified in us // and we lift up Damascus Community Church to you: we ask that they might grow in the knowledge of the love of Christ, and be empowered for every act of faith and work of love and word of witness // and we ask for the church in France: that they might also grow in the love of Christ, and be equipped to live for you and to spread your gospel in that country // and we ask for our everyone serving in the Oregon state house and senate: that you would bless each senator and congressman, and guide the actions of those chambers toward justice and righteousness, that our community might flourish and that no law would hinder the spread of the gospel // and now, as we open your Word, we ask that you would shape our hearts to greater humility and hope in you...

Family Matters

To help the music team: we request a list of your top 10 most familiar/easiest-to-sing hymns; a few lists received already, but a few more would be helpful as we try to gauge what the congregation is most familiar with. Please email the lists to: [e-mail], or you can hand me or Walter a copy in person

This Friday, we’ll have our first Scholls Family Picnic of the summer in the back field. You are highly encouraged to come, and welcome to bring friends, family, and neighbors as well. Here’s what to bring:

One main dish, and also one side, dessert, or drink

Camping or folding chairs or picnic blankets

Any lawn games, frisbees, squirt guns, nerf guns, or anything else you’d like to enjoy together.

We’ll probably be lighting a fire in the fire pit, and putting up the small awning for a little bit of shade, and might do some singing toward the end of the evening also. You’re also welcome to bring any awnings of your own, any BBQs if you decide you’d like to BBQ for the picnic, or anything else like that. If you have any questions, let me know!

Finally, don’t forget that two weeks from now we’ll be back into our ‘First Sunday potluck’ and congregational meeting

Benediction

Romans 16:25–27 ESV

Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.

Sermon

Read: Ecclesiastes 7:13-24

Intro

Have you ever heard of the “Texas Chicken?”

It has nothing to do with cattle or snakes or anything else you might naturally connect with Texas. It’s actually something ships do coming into Houston harbor. There’s a narrow channel they have to travel through to get pier-side, and so, many times each week, massive container ships have to pass each other at extremely close range—risking a collision on the one hand, and an over-correction which would run them aground, on the other.

How do they manage? A maneuver called, “The Texas Chicken.” They point directly at each other, traveling full channel speed, until the last minute. Then, both ships point away from each other just enough to pass safely, port side to port side. And the funny thing is, just the way water works in a narrow channel like that, IF they pointed away from each other any earlier, they would be sucked back in and collide. And so, multiple times a day, in Huston Harbor, pilots point giant ships straight at each other in a maneuver that seems to defy all rules of maritime safety—but is actually the only wise way to proceed.

Does it seem strange to you that the Bible contains a verse telling you not to be too wise or too righteous?

Ecclesiastes 7:16 “Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise…”

Wait: Isn’t wisdom supposed to be the greatest treasure you can find? And aren’t we supposed to fight hard against sin in our lives, to be righteous for the glory of God? So, wouldn’t a verse of Scripture telling you not to be too righteous or too wise — wouldn’t that defy all rules of what Scripture says everywhere else about these things?

At first, yes. It seems to defy everything we’re used to Scripture saying. But really, It’s like those massive ships in Houston Channel: it seems wrong at first, but it turns out to be the only wise way to move forward.

But how so? How can it be wise to avoid making yourself too wise?

Solomon will start his explanation of this strange truth by pointing out that wisdom comes through sorrow—through meditating on the crookedness of the world. Those who are wise know that the whole world is crooked in this age.

And then he’ll show us that wisdom itself—human wisdom—is limited by that same crookedness. And it’s limited in two ways: first, human wisdom doesn’t have the power to undo the crookedness—to fix the world. And second, human wisdom can’t actually be perfected in this life: the wisest folks in the world are still very far away from perfect wisdom.

In other words, Solomon will show us that even wisdom is vain. Wisdom is a good thing. But it’s not something that we can grasp, control, or perfect in this life, and we can’t use it to escape the world’s corruption.

But what happens if you forget that? When you count on wisdom to fix everything around you? You either become frustrated when wisdom fails to fix everything, or you despair when you realize how far you are from being truly wise, even though you’ve been seeking wisdom for so long.

Or, to say the same thing positively: the key is to remember the limits—the vanity—of wisdom, even as you pursue it. That itself IS wisdom. In fact, recognizing the limits of wisdom is some of the most important wisdom for life in this age: it may save you from a great deal of frustration and despair. And so, the main point is this: The wise are blessed by seeing the vanity of wisdom. (x2)

Wisdom (Wise Joy) Comes Through Sorrow

***But to get there, we have to start where Solomon starts, which is this: recognizing that wisdom comes through sorrow.***

Certainly, wisdom has many sources: Scripture, parents, teachers, books, nature. Solomon isn’t saying that sorrow is the only source of wisdom. But he is saying that you can’t be wise without it. Look at vs. 1

Ecclesiastes 7:1 ESV

A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth.

Think about that. Precious ointment would have been very attractive to anyone in Solomon’s day. You see it, and immediately you think about how nice it would be to have. You could compare it with your dream car: a precision-tuned super car, or a rugged off-road machine. You see a picture of it, and you think about how much fun it would be to own. Or you could think about a giant lego set, or a first-edition copy of The Hobbit, or an eight-thousand-dollar saddle, or whatever it is that would grab your attention.

The point is this: there are things, like precious ointment, that immediately grab our attention, and we think about how wonderful they’d be to have. But then, there are things which are not nearly as flashy, but are worth a lot more: like a good name. And by the way, “a good name” is the Bible’s way of talking about a good reputation: so a good reputation is actually worth a lot more than any of those flashy things. A truly good reputation can’t be bought with any amount of money… at it can be lost in an instant.

And any ancient Israelite reading this would be familiar with that idea, and would easily agree. It was a common proverb in Solomon’s day.

So then Solomon moves to his real point: you already know that something boring, like a good reputation, can be worth a lot more than something flashy, like expensive ointment. So listen to this: the day of death is better than the day of birth. Something which is filled with sorrow, like the day of death, in a certain way, is actually more valuable than the day of birth—even though that one often has so much joy.

Why? Solomon gives two reasons: He starts in verse 2:

Ecclesiastes 7:2 ESV

It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.

So, again, a funeral is more valuable than a feast. But why? Because life is short, but we love to forget that fact. Death is the conclusion of everyone’s life, but we try to mostly not think about that. But when you are at a funeral, it’s right there, in front of you.

You might remember the person with fondness, and celebrate many good things in his or her life… but still the fact of death is right there with you, reminding you of the curse and of the sin which caused it—the crookedness of the world we live in. Causing you to have to recon with that crookedness, and so grow in grasping the reality of your world.

Now, someone might say: “What good does it do to remember these negative things? I think I’m better off just forgetting them, as much as I can.” That’s a very natural way to feel. But consider Solomon’s second reason, in verse 3:

Ecclesiastes 7:3 ESV

Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.

Do you see that? It’s a contrast of two joys. One is the joy you might have while trying to pretend that nothing’s wrong with the world. Laughing, telling jokes, escaping reality.

Solomon says: sorrow is better than that kind of joy. But why? Because it makes the heart glad. Or to put it another way, dropping the facad of happiness, allowing yourself to see and acknowledge and process the evils of the world, is an unavoidable stepping-stone to the kind of joy which can hold up when your own life gets knocked down by some evil.

So Solomon concludes:

Ecclesiastes 7:4 ESV

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

And now that he’s made this point, Solomon applies it to a slightly different situation:

Ecclesiastes 7:5 ESV

It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools.

Think about that. What’s more pleasant, someone telling you that you’re wrong? Or listening to beautiful music? The answer is obvious...

But here, Solomon’s turned it around: the rebuke, if it’s coming from a wise person, is better than all the pleasant music in the world that avoids these negative things.

The music of fools just helps you to drown out the things that you need to be hearing or thinking. It’s like putting a piece of tape over your check engine light. Now you don’t have to worry about it.

But the much better path is to hear the rebuke, the words of correction, the warning—to listen to it, and to take it to heart. Because as Solomon explains:

Ecclesiastes 7:6 ESV

For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fools; this also is vanity.

The laughter of fools is vanity. So also is any attempt to be wise apart from the path of sorrow.

OK. So to sum all that up: the wise meditate on the crookedness of the world by spending time in the ‘house of mourning’ => results in greater wisdom + a more steady joy. Fools, on the other hand, studiously avoid the house of mourning. And so, they remain comfortable in their foolishness.

But if that’s the case, then we have to ask ourselves: What are the ways that we attempt to avoid the path of sorrow, and so miss out on its wisdom?

A very obvious example is funerals that avoid the topic of death. I don’t know if you’ve been to one like that… but there is this superficial air of happiness… a willingness to celebrate a person’s life, but an unwillingness to grieve over his death or in any way acknowledge that the loss is a proper time of sorrow.

The fact of human mortality is not a pleasant thing to stare in the face. And so—in our modern culture especially, and Christians are not exempt from this—we avoid thinking about it as much as possible, and so, we miss the path of wisdom.

But it’s not just death: it’s also other forms of sorrow that would grow our wisdom. And so, there’s other ways of escaping. Solomon says that fools stay in the ‘house of mirth” to avoid funerals, and are constantly laughing to avoid rebukes and warning. In other words, they spend a lot of time trying to escape reality. In our day, that can include:

Entertainment—when you binge on you tube or Netflix or Instagram or whatever to avoid facing something difficult—or even to avoid facing yourself.

Or substance abuse to escape life’s sorrows; or even something which can seem innocent, like choosing a church based on what makes you feel good, as opposed to what is built on the Word of God.

But instead of these things, where is the heart of the wise? As Paul would say, not just rejoicing with those who rejoice, but also “Weeping with those who weep.”

There is a form of Christianity which looks a lot like the house of mirth, where fools hang out.

It’s a place where folks are willing enough to talk about how God helped them through this life situation or that, or to acknowledge various ways that he has blessed them. But they’d rather avoid cross. They’d rather not spend too much time thinking on the sorrows of Jesus in his passion and crucifixion.

And if we’re honest, probably none of us are clear of that. Probably all of us are guilty of that at some point.

I think about our practice of music. It’s not just modern music that fails the test, but even our hymnal. Compare either to the book of Psalms. The psalms are about 1/3 lament or confession of some kind—the psalms spend a lot of time in the house of mourning. Neither modern songs nor hymns come close to that amount.

And the point here isn’t that Christians are supposed to be only sorrowful, with no joy. But what did Solomon say?

Ecclesiastes 7:3 ESV

Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.

Any number of hymns and praise songs can give you some degree of joy. But the joy that will be yours when you have contemplated the sorrows of Christ—when you’ve really seen all that he suffered for you—that will be the kind of Joy that lasts, and that can withstand the painful blows that life will deal you.

And so, over the next few years, we plan—Lord willing—to add a lot of songs which do exactly that—which help us to spend time in the spiritual ‘house of mourning’—not to make us miserable, but to form us into the kind of worshipers that will be able to take joy in God and his grace, no matter what happens.

And so really, Solomon’s point here isn’t “Don’t feast. Don’t celebrate.” In fact, in the first six chapters he has told us repeatedly that one of the best things you can do is enjoy food and drink and all the blessings you’ve received from God in this world. But at the same time, there are things that feasts can’t do for you: wisdom requires that you spend time in the house of mourning also. As it turns out, feasts and fellowship between those who have passed through the house of mourning are much more meaningful than the kinds of feasts that fools attend in the ‘house of mirth’ — the feasts of the wise are an expression of that stronger kind of joy that can only be gained by passing through the house of sorrow.

And isn’t that more true of the wedding feast of heaven than of any other feast? Isn’t it true that Jesus’ scars—a reminder of his sorrow—are part of his glory? So even when sorrow itself is erased forever, the fact that our King passed through such deep sorrow to redeem us will forever be part of the joy that we have in our unbroken fellowship with him forever.

Because of the reality of our crooked world, true wisdom and true joy can only be found on a path which goes though the house of sorrow.

When the Wise are Bitter Because of Sorrow: Wisdom Doesn’t Remove Sorrow

***Now, with that understanding in place, we’re prepared to understand Solomon’s point here***

Look at vs. 7

Ecclesiastes 7:7 ESV

Surely oppression drives the wise into madness, and a bribe corrupts the heart.

What’s that about? So, you’ve gained some degree of wisdom. And you know how valuable wisdom is. But as you grow in wisdom, the world around you fails to improve. It’s still filled with injustice and corruption. It’s still a crooked place.

At that point, you can begin to feel as though wisdom itself has betrayed you. Isn’t wisdom supposed to be able to fix things? And if I grow in wisdom, shouldn’t I also become blessed? Shouldn’t my life improve? Shouldn’t I be able to improve the society around me?

But maybe these things don’t get better—instead, they actually get worse. And so, what do you do? Wisdom hasn’t “worked” for you, so you do a 180 into some kind of madness—a word which here means, extreme foolishness.

OR, you give up on the righteousness of wisdom since it seems like the wicked are running things anyway. And you yourself become corrupt. You begin to accept bribes, and the like

But Solomon’s point in these next few verses is that wisdom didn’t actually fail you—rather, you had unrealistic expectations about what wisdom could accomplish. Skip ahead and look at verse 13:

Ecclesiastes 7:13 ESV

Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked?

Do you see? The world is crooked by divine decree—no degree of wisdom, even godly wisdom, can change that. God has made it crooked. He has set a plan in motion to redeem it, but it will be redeemed by his power, not yours.

And so if you set about to become wise in order to fix the world around you, or in order to gain a perfect life, you will end up asking wisdom to do something for you that it cannot do.

App/story: woman at the playground

Think about that along with the “house of sorrow” that we just learned about. A vital part of true wisdom is understanding the limitations of wisdom itself. And you get that by sitting in the house of sorrow and so remembering the crookedness of the world. Wisdom is good, but it’s also limited. It’s vain. And so, the wise are blessed by seeing the vanity of wisdom.

And when you come to see these limits, it gives you patience in life’s sorrows, big and small. Here’s how Solomon describes this:

Ecclesiastes 7:8–10 ESV

Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools. Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.

So, patience knows that, in the end, God will work out all things for the good of his beloved children

And, patience is not quick to anger when it sees crookedness

And patience does not dwell pessimistically on the corruption of a culture—ouch!

And not only this, but when you’ve passed through the house of sorrow and gained this kind of patience, the wisdom you now have CAN do you some real good. Solomon says:

Ecclesiastes 7:11–12 ESV

Wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun. 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.

So, true, wisdom can’t fix what’s broken in the world. But it is still SO valuable. Having a decent amount of wisdom is roughly equivalent to being a multi-millionaire. Money can’t fix the world, as we learned last Sunday. But it can still be a blessing. Wisdom is so much more like that.

“Wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.” Wisdom can save you from so much unnecessary grief—including the bitterness of thinking wisdom will fix everything, and then feeling betrayed when it doesn’t. The wise are blessed by seeing the vanity of wisdom.

Now, there are two kinds of theology which we need to reject, based on what Solomon just taught us. The first is “prosperity gospel” the idea that God’s plan for your life is all riches and health, as long as you have enough faith to claim it. No, says Solomon: the world is crooked, and God blesses his people within the crookedness of the world—not by removing them from it.

The second is something called “theonomy.” Now I want to be gracious here: prosperity gospel is evil, peddled by false teachers. Theonomy, on the other hand, is often joined with the true gospel and a strong, biblical faith. But theonomy is the idea that the great commission includes Christianizing governments with the expectation that, eventually, all the world’s governments will be Christianized.

But compare that to the basic message of Ecclesiastes—and especially to what Solomon is saying here: no amount of wisdom or energy or accomplishment among God’s people is going to end the problems of oppression or injustice in our world. And what Solomon is pointing out here is that if you fail to acknowledge those limitations, you risk burnout when the crookedness of the world comes home to you.

If, on the other hand, you work for justice and righteousness in the world while knowing the limits of what your work can accomplish, you’re much more likely to be able to keep going, joyfully, even in the midst of discouragement. The wise are comforted by knowing the vanity of their own wisdom.

When the Wise Become Perfectionists: Wisdom Knows its Own Limits

***So the wise can get tripped up by expecting their wisdom to fix the world. But there’s a second way they can get tripped up also: by expecting to gain perfect wisdom, and then despairing when they fail.***

If you spend time in the house of sorrow, you’ll remember the crookedness of the world. And that crookedness has two parts: first, the more general crookedness of the curse: pain, suffering, and death; and second, the more specific crookedness of sin and foolishness in the human heart.

And from that, you’ll realize two things: first, your own wisdom can’t change the crookedness of the world. And Solomon reminds us of that in vs. 14-15. And second, you can’t actually perfect your wisdom or righteousness. You yourself are stained with sin and foolishness, and yes you can grow in Christ, but you’ll never be perfected in this world. And that’s where the confusing verse I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon comes in:

Ecclesiastes 7:16 ESV

Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself?

It is good to pursue holiness—the whole Bible makes that clear.

But there’s a way of pursuing holiness which says, “I will not allow myself any rest, joy, or satisfaction until I’m perfect.” Solomon says, “Cool. You’ll destroy yourself.”

Theologically, this attitude is called, “perfectionism.”

But even a person who technically knows that you shouldn’t think like this, can still fall into it. That’s been called, “spiritual OCD.” It’s a mode of thinking where you worry and fret about every detail of your life—was I wise enough? Was I righteous enough? Did I accidentally break God’s law somewhere?

Brothers and sisters, you SHOULD be concerned about honoring God with every detail of your life. But you must also remember that you will fail, often. And the blood of Christ covers those failures, too. You have a faithful and patient high priest in Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

In fact, his wisdom IS perfect, and WILL some day set the world totally right. In the cross, HE has passed through the ultimate house of sorrow, and some day he will turn that into unbroken joy for all his people. But he also remembers, with perfect compassion, that our wisdom is still very far from complete in this age. And he still means for his grace to bring us joy in this age, before our wisdom is complete. And so the wise are blessed by seeing the vanity of their own wisdom, and remembering the grace of Christ.

But again, Solomon wants to make sure we don’t think he’s dismissing the value of wisdom entirely. So he adds vs. 17:

Ecclesiastes 7:17 ESV

Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time?

So, a perfectionist approach to wisdom will destroy you. But, lapsing into wickedness and foolishness will do the same.

Wisdom can’t fix the world or be perfected in this life, but it still tends to give life to those who have it; wickedness and foolishness on the other hand, bring death.

Conclusion:

And so the point is, as Solomon says in verse 18, that you need to take hold of both of these truths to live well in our crooked world. On the one hand, wisdom is very good, and gives life to those who have it. But on the other hand, it is very limited—it can’t be perfected, and it can’t fix the world. But understanding wisdom’s limits is itself a powerful part of wisdom. So powerful that Solomon describes it like this:

Ecclesiastes 7:19 ESV

Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.

What does that mean? That if you’ve spent time in the house of sorrow, the wisdom and joy which come from that are much more sturdy than anything that can be had while avoiding sorrow—capable of withstanding the storms of this crooked world: and that is how it is that the wise are blessed by seeing the vanity of wisdom.