Eccl 7_15-18
A Christian teenager on his way home from the youth group is killed in a car accident while a mafia boss lives into his 90’s in the lap of luxury.
A Christian is thrown in prison in one country and a godless man sits on the throne in another.
An honest, hardworking, Christian looses everything in tornado and a corrupt businessman living next door is spared any damage whatsoever.
Situations like this can leave us puzzled. Something in our heart says this isn’t right. This isn’t fair.
Basically we wonder why bad things can happen to good people? And sometimes it seems like good things happen to bad people?
When you see these situations in life, when you experience them personally, how should you respond? Solomon wrestled with this question in Ecclesiastes 7:15-18. (READ)
I. Let’s look at the Perplexing Situation that Solomon Observed
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.
A. We know how Solomon is feeling about this situation by the wording he used.
· He talks about his live being vain. It doesn’t make sense at times and this situation adds to that feeling.
· The phrase I have seen everything it’s like the expression we use when we encounter a frustrating situation. Now I’ve seen everything!
· When Solomon says: There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness we can insert the words in spite of his righteousness.
This man died earlier than expected in spite of living a righteous life. The wicked man lived a long life in spite of his evil doing. In other words, it ought not to be this way.
Solomon’s readers would have shared in his frustration. Maybe you do as well.
B. Why did Solomon find this situation so perplexing?
1. The common belief in Solomon’s day was that righteous people live long and prosperous lives and wicked people are cut off before their time. I would say that is still the common belief held today. And it is held with some justification.
Psalm 1 says the righteous man is a like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all he does he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
In Deuteronomy 4:40 Moses said: Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”
Solomon Himself said: The fear of the Lord adds length to life, but the years of the wicked are cut short. Prov. 10:27
That is the general pattern that God follows but there are exceptions. God may choose to break this pattern to accomplish His purposes. It’s those breaks in the pattern that we have a hard time dealing with.
2. (ILL) Job’s friends could not understand why he was suffering. Their formula for a blessed life went like this. A=B. With A being righteous living and B being God’s material blessings.
When Job did not receive God’s material blessings for a season they assumed there was some unrighteousness in their friend’s life.
Sometimes that is the case. When David sinned, God withheld many blessings from Him. Israel forfeited blessings like protection when they rebelled against the Lord. We lose blessings in our life when we drift from the Lord.
But this was not the case with Job. He was called on to serve the Lord through suffering. Stephen’s life was cut short even thought he was right in the middle of doing God’s will.
3. An understanding of life that says God must always bless good people in material ways is at best, too simplistic and at worse, it questions God’s right to do as He deems best.
(ILL) Television is full of what are called health and wealth preachers. One thing you will notice is that they never preach on Job, or Paul’s throne in the flesh or Stephen’s martyrdom or Silas being thrown in prison or John’s exile or the many other examples in the Bible of when bad things happened to good people.
They say God will cure all your illnesses and He will make sure your finances are overflowing if you just live a faith filled, holy, life.
The problem with this teaching is that it leaves sincere Christians confused and discouraged if the Lord sends them a Job-like experience. Like when the death of a child occurs or a business venture goes under.
Preachers have a responsibility to teach the whole counsel of God so that Christians are prepared to handle both the joys and trials of life. That’s what Solomon is seeking to do in verses 16 – 17.
II. Solomon shows us two extremes to avoid when we encounter life’s perplexing situations. (READ 16-17)
These verses need some explanation so that we don’t get the wrong message. Solomon is not telling us to aim for the middle by not being too good or too bad. Instead he is calling on us to avoid two extremes when we encounter perplexing situations.
We are to avoid legalism on one side and license on the other.
A. In verse 16 Solomon tells us to avoid legalism.
16 Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself?
(ILL) Let’s say a difficult trial comes into your life. Maybe you lose your job and the bank is going to repossess your home. At first you can’t believe this is happening.
Then you search your heart to see if the Lord is pointing out some sin that is causing these troubles. But when you can’t think of anything obvious you might be tempted to think that God is punishing you because you are not trying hard enough to live for Christ.
So you set out to really work at it:
· You get up at 4:00am to have two hours of devotions.
· You witness to every single person you meet even if they are already saved.
· You attend church meetings every night of the week.
· You begin memorising all the Psalms in the original Hebrew.
You hope that doing all these good things will make God love you and that He will bless your life again. This type of thinking can quickly lead you, in a number of sinful and unhelpful directions like legalism.
· Legalism says: God loves and accepts me because I am doing the all the right things.
This is actually relying on self-righteousness to be right with God rather than relying on Christ’s righteousness.
· It can lead to spiritual pride. Look how righteous I am I’m way more spiritual than you. Solomon may be hinting at this attitude when he says don’t make yourself too wise. As in don’t make yourself out to be too wise.
· It can also lead to hypocrisy like what we see in the Pharisees. No one can be totally righteous so they ended up just focusing on outward behaviour.
When you go down the path of legalism you’re falling into the same error as Job’s friends. You’re thinking that God always blesses good people and only withdraws blessings when people are bad.
This is not always the case. There are times when God does allow something difficult to happen to His beloved children. The trial is always measured, and there’s always a reason for it, but disciplining sin may not be one of them.
By all means seek to live a righteous life but do it out of love for the Lord. Act with wisdom because it brings joy to your Heavenly Father.
But when you start thinking that material blessings are a right or an automatic reward for holy and wise living then you will be confused and dejected if the Lord does send a trial your way.
In the words of Solomon you will destroy yourself. You will have inner turmoil.
B. The other extreme is found in verse 17 where Solomon says avoid license
17 Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time?
If legalism is drifting away from the Lord into self-righteousness then license is drifting from the Lord into sinfulness.
The thinking may go like this. I’m trying to live for the Lord and all I seem to have are troubles. I give up. Who cares how I live.
In this verse you can see that foolishness and wickedness go together. Do you really think that you will be better off by sinning? By being overly wicked?
(ILL) We have all known Christians who have back-sliden. Sometimes the slide started when they encountered a perplexing situation in their life. They might have been walking closely with the Lord and all of a sudden a tragedy or an illness comes upon them.
If they would have remembered that the Lord has a good purpose for the trail, and if they would have relied on His grace, then they would have gotten through it stronger and more full of joy.
Instead they allowed the trial to become an excuse to drift into sin. This in turn left them to contend with a guilty conscience on top of the trial.
With legalism Solomon said why destroy yourself. With license he says Why die before your time. The Lord never turns a blind eye to sinfulness and He will judge it. Solomon said in 3:17 God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter.
According to Solomon this judgment may even be the cause of a premature death.
III. Conclusion
A. In these verses there are the two extremes Solomon wants us to avoid. Legalism and license.
· Both cause you to drift further from the Lord.
· Both of them will bring God’s discipline into your life.
· and neither one of them will help you deal with the perplexing situations you will encounter in life.
B. In verses 18 Solomon urges us to remember these warnings. 18 It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, Be not overly righteous as in self-righteous and be not overly wicked meaning don’t give into sin.
C. for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them. NIV reads: The man who fears God will avoid all extremes.
The fear of the Lord is the way to avoid slipping in either wrong direction. Q: What does it mean to fear the Lord. It means to revere Him, it means you bring his character and Word to bear on every situation you face.
When a perplexing situation comes up the first thing a person who fears the Lord does is remind themselves of God’s character.
You might begin with the fact that God is sovereign. Therefore He has allowed this situation to come up.
God is also just, wise, loving and good so that means He is doing what is best for me in this situation.
Then the person who fears the Lord will look in God’s Word for the most God-honouring way to think and act in the situation. Maybe the only thing you need to do is be still and know that He is God.
Fearing God is basically doing what Solomon said in Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.
He will direct your path through all the perplexing situations of life!
I want to close by reading Psalm 73 because Asaph encountered the same perplexing situations in life and he modelled how we can put Solomon’s teaching into practice.
Psalm 73 (READ)
For me and you it is good to be near God.
Let’s pray!