Ecc Sermon Manu Week 9

Intro/Welcome

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Why do good things happen to bad people?

Illustration or story

Pray

Text

Ecclesiastes 7:15 (CSB)

15 In my futile life I have seen everything: someone righteous perishes in spite of his righteousness, and someone wicked lives long in spite of his evil.

He says, life is perplexing — hevel

It often doesn’t make sense.

He says some thing similar in Ecc 9

Ecclesiastes 9:11 (CSB)

11 Again I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong, or bread to the wise, or riches to the discerning, or favor to the skillful; rather, time and chance happen to all of them.

Sometimes life just doesn’t make sense.

What matters then is how we respond to this reality.

You might respond by trying even harder

Or you might respond by just giving up and saying what’s the use.

This is what Solomon says next:

Ecclesiastes 7:16–17 (CSB)

16 Don’t be excessively righteous, and don’t be overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself?

17 Don’t be excessively wicked, and don’t be foolish. Why should you die before your time?

Here we see that he is using parallelism:

Thus righteous corresponds to wicked, and wise to foolish.

Overly Righteous

What does it mean to be overly righteous?

it means your response is to try harder at something.

Similarly to be overly wise — you might say you over think it.

If I could just figure this out then it would work.

We depend on our will and our knowledge.

Overly Wicked

What about being over wicked?

this phrase literally means ‘to be very wicked’

it’s the other extreme

to just go headlong into sin

Does this mean we can be a little bit wicked? is that what he is saying?

No, he basically saying ‘don’t deliberately choose sin’

He understands that we all sin as a result of the fall (Ecc 7:20)

He’s saying don’t pursue sin.

Summary

he’s saying when life is perplexing we tend toward on of two reactions.

to just try harder and harder

to just give up and say what’s the use.

What kind of person are you?

When things don’t work out — do you begin to try even harder?

or do you just give up and walk away?

Fear God

Is there a third option?

He says,

Ecclesiastes 7:18 (CSB)

18 It is good that you grasp the one and do not let the other slip from your hand. For the one who fears God will end up with both of them.

he says it’s good to have a balanced life, one that is not just trying harder, but also not just giving up.

but rather the one who fears God will have both — that is will avoid both extremes.

The advantage of Wisdom

he returns to the advantage of wisdom

Ecclesiastes 7:19 (CSB)

19 Wisdom makes the wise person stronger than ten rulers of a city.

Wisdom makes one stronger than rulers of cities and nations.

He says being wise is better than being president.

Wisdom realizes that we live in a fallen world, that all people are sinners

Ecclesiastes 7:20 (CSB)

20 There is certainly no one righteous on the earth who does good and never sins.

Wisdom says in light of this to not take it to heart if you overhear someone talking about you, for you have done the same thing yourself.

Ecclesiastes 7:21-22 (CSB)

21 Don’t pay attention to everything people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you, 22 for in your heart you know that many times you yourself have cursed others.

The Limits of Wisdom

Yet Wisdom, has it’s limits as well

Ecclesiastes 7:23–24 (CSB)

23 I have tested all this by wisdom. I resolved, “I will be wise,” but it was beyond me. 24 What exists is beyond reach and very deep. Who can discover it?

He says, yes wisdom is good, it is gain, yet complete understanding is still lacking

He’s tried to figure out the perplexity of life “why good things happen to bad people”

yet it is beyond him

it cannot be answered

Even wisdom has its limits — it is beyond me, beyond reach and very deep.

who can discover it? — the answer is no one can.

What I did find

Yet, even in not knowing the full picture there are things that he found.

this word found — shows up 8 times in there verses indicating it is a major emphasis.

Ecclesiastes 7:25 (CSB)

25 I turned my thoughts to know, explore, and examine wisdom and an explanation for things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity and folly is madness.

1st Find: Tempted to sin

Ecclesiastes 7:26 (CSB)

26 And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a trap: her heart a net and her hands chains. The one who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner will be captured by her.

What did he find?

more bitter than death is the woman who is a trap

This is the seductive woman in the book of proverbs

in particular sexual sin

“Yet the one who pleases God will escape”

what does this mean?

the one who — fears God — will not be taken in by the seduction of sin.

2nd Find: What i did not find

Ecclesiastes 7:27–28 (CSB)

27 “Look,” says the Teacher, “I have discovered this by adding one thing to another to find out the explanation, 28 which my soul continually searches for but does not find:

He says, i’ve tried to find out an explanation by exploring things

by logical deduction — adding one thing to another.

I’ve searched for the complete answer — the ultimate understanding

but I did not find it.

3rd Find: No one is upright

28 ...I found one person in a thousand, but none of those was a woman.

This verse is likely a proverb that was quoted in that day.

It is not meant to be taken…as some wrongly do, to say that men are better than women, or more righteous

It is saying that basically says ‘no one is righteous’ which he has already said in ecc 7:20

we know this b/c no where else in scripture are women called more sinful than men — so this can’t be the teaching here.

4th Find: God’s part and ours

The final thing he found was that God made man upright, it was men and women that screwed it up.

In other words. God is not what is wrong with the world, men and women are.

Ecclesiastes 7:29 (CSB)

29 Only see this: I have discovered that God made people upright, but they pursued many schemes.”

And in a play on words, he has sought to find the sum (or scheme) of things, but it was men and women who pursue all sorts of ‘schemes’

Conclusion

Life is perplexing

We cannot see the whole picture

in light of that don’t pursue just trying harder

nor should you throw your hands up and give up and walk away

rather, we should follow Jesus, b/c he promises not a long life, but an eternal one.

It is impossible for us to be so righteous that God simply must give us a long life, let alone, eternal life. But by believing in Jesus, we can be clothed with his righteousness… “Do not be too righteous” and “Do not be too wicked.” Rather, hear Jesus’ voice, follow him, and you will receive eternal life.