Ecc Sermon Week 9

Intro/Welcome

Good morning, my name is Justin

Welcome // online

We are continuing in our Ecc series

And today, Solomon is going to explore one of the most perplexing realities of our world.

He says:

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.

Why does someone who is righteous, that lives rightly, a good life, why do they die young?

while the wicked and despicable person lives to old age?

Why does the young devout Christian mother die young while the wicked and violent Sex trafficker enjoys long life?

he’s asking “why do bad things happen to good people?”

Also, “why do good things happen to bad people?”

It’s exactly what the psalmists wrestles with in Psalm 73

Psalm 73:12–14 (CSB)

12 Look at them—the wicked! They are always at ease, and they increase their wealth. 13 Did I purify my heart and wash my hands in innocence for nothing? 14 For I am afflicted all day long and punished every morning.

— or —

Psalm 73:3–5 (CSB)

3 For I envied the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4 They have an easy time until they die, and their bodies are well fed. 5 They are not in trouble like others; they are not afflicted like most people.

We see this play out in the story of Job, who was righteous yet suffered greatly.

What do we make of this? Solomon says.

It is perplexing.

Maybe for you its:

I’ve followed Jesus and done everything right, yet God hasn’t given me a spouse, while many who are far from God are enjoying married life right now.

Or for some of you, you have prayed and prayed to Jesus and tried to live rightly, but you still can’t conceive a child…while others who hate God seem to sneeze and get pregnant…and some don’t even keep their children.

Or maybe you have done everything right in your job to succeed and yet your passed over for a job or position and it is given away to someone less qualified.

Kids die in tornadoes, cyclones and earthquake all over the world — why?

What do you do with these perplexities of life?

This is the question that Solomon is asking.

It is a question we all ask at times.

What do we do when life doesn’t make sense?

Let’s see what Ecc has for us today

we’ll be in Ecc 7:15-29

go there in your bibles.

Let me pray

Pray

find you

Two Responses

He points out to responses:

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?

Overly Righteous

What does he mean by excessively righteous?

Surely he’s not saying don’t pursue righteousness — that is right living in accordance with God’s instruction

Only to not be ‘overly righteous’

In that day, since the Israelites understood that righteousness prolongs life, therefore the conclusion would have been that the answer is to pursue more righteousness

This seems to go against common logic

Even God’s Law in the OT

Moses teaches “if you obey God it will well with you and you will have long life”

Even the ten commandments promise long life in the land if his law is followed.

Basically their answer is we must ‘try harder’ at being righteous.

This is what Solomon is cautioning against:

that by thinking you can be righteousness enough to FORCE God to give you long life.

the quest of perfect righteousness is beyond us for he says in Ecc 7:20 “that there is no one that is righteous and never sins.”

We simply cannot prolong our lives by working harder at right living.

When life doesn’t make sense to us...

some of us resort to just doubling down and trying harder

thinking that we can somehow achieve our desires result.

Solomon says that path will lead to destruction

he says it will destroy you.

This was the sin of the Pharisees in Jesus’ day

They thought that they could be righteous enough to secure eternal life.

This is what ‘excessive righteousness’ leads to

a blinding of our own sin — Also known as Pride

And pride leads to destruction (Proverbs 16:18)

If we don’t fall prey to just ‘trying harder’ then we may slip into the equal and opposite error.

Overly Wicked

We simply give up and give in.

If living rightly, if following Jesus doesn’t guarantee that it will go well for me then what is the point?

Why not just give up on Christianity and indulge in all that life has to offer?

Why not simply give in to sin?

This is what he means by

Ecclesiastes 7:17 (CSB)

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

But what does he mean by ‘excessively wicked’?

Doest that mean we can be a little wicked?

It does not mean that.

Solomon is writing from the understanding that all people are sinners by nature and choice, as we’ll see in a moment

He’s saying, given that we are all sinful...

do not choose sin

do not deliberately sin.

He says to do so is to be a fool

And will likely lead to an early death.

Person who uses drugs

Gangs

So if the response is not

to just try harder — or —

to give up and give in

What is the response?

Solomon tells us next.

Third Response: Fear God

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.

What does this mean?

What does he mean by ‘grasp the one’ and ‘do not let the other slip’?

What does he mean they will ‘end up with both’?

He’s referring to what he has just said.

to not grasp the one — that is to be ‘overly righteous’

and not let the other go — that is don’t let go of right living and give in to sin — don’t choose sin.

The one who ‘fears God’ will have both.

meaning:

a person who fears God

will not try to ‘prolong’ his life by being overly righteous — by simply trying harder and trying to force God to do something.

they will see that perfect righteousness is beyond them — even the most righteous are sinners

and that it is God who has appointed the times and seasons (Ecc 3)

Secondly, that the person who fears God will surely walk in obedience to him, rather than choosing sin.

On Wisdom

Notice in v. 16 he also said don’t be overly wise.

Ecclesiastes 7:16 (CSB)

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

He’s said don’t be overly righteous and don’t give into sin

but also don’t be overly wise.

that is don’t think you can simply figure everything out

Don’t think that by thinking enough about you can understand the perplexities of life.

What does he mean by this?

Basically he means value wisdom, but know He wants us to know two things about wisdom

even wisdom can’t overcome sin

even wisdom has it’s limits

The Value of Wisdom

The first thing he says is that wisdom has great value.

Ecclesiastes 7:19 (CSB)

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

He says wisdom makes you stronger

Ten rulers of a city

Think about that

What can the president do that you cannot?

He can set policy with the stoke of a pen

He can speak and things happen

He can set the trajectory of an entire nation

He can send thousands of men and women to war in a few words

Wisdom make a person stronger than that, Solomon says.

Sin undoes Wisdom

But...

Wisdom can be undone by sin.

Ecclesiastes 7:20 (CSB)

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

he illustrates this in Ecc 9:14-18

Ecclesiastes 9:14–18 (CSB)

14 There was a small city with few men in it. A great king came against it, surrounded it, and built large siege works against it. 15 Now a poor wise man was found in the city, and he delivered the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man.

yet a few verses later

Ecclesiastes 9:18–10:1 (CSB)

18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner can destroy much good.

9:1 “Dead flies make a perfumer’s oil ferment and stink; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.”

Wisdom makes one strong, but sin can destroy much good

and the problem is even the wises of men is still sinful.

Trust: trust takes years to build but can be lost in a few seconds.

A truth that Solomon would have known all to well.

God made him more wise than anyone before or after

yet in the life of Solomon we see that he eventually gave into sin and worshipped other God’s

1 Kings 11:9–10 (CSB)

9 The Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. 10 He had commanded him about this, so that he would not follow other gods, but Solomon did not do what the Lord had commanded.

Something greater than wisdom is needed to overcome sin.

he illustrates his point that all are sinner by a pretty convicting proverb:

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.

ouch, anyone else guilty of that.

all of us are in the same boat.

Wisdom acknowledges one’s own sin

that there is no one righteous, who never sins.

So even though wisdom is advantageous, sin often can undo it’s benefits.

His second point is this:

there are limits to wisdom

The Limits of Wisdom

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?

I’ve tested this by wisdom

‘this’ meaning

why the righteous perish

the wicked live long

He says “I will be wise”

He resolved to be wise above all things

Yet, he found that in light of the perplexities of life,

they could not be understood

He says, “it” was beyond me

what is the ‘it’, the opening question.

How can it be that the righteous perish but the wicked live?

Why do good things happen to bad people? and bad things happen to good?

he says in the end, it is beyond me

He says the explanation is like the ocean:

it’s is ‘farther than can be reached’ like the horizon of the ocean

it is deeper than can be discovered ‘ like the depth of the oceans’

Wisdom recognizes that the ultimate answers are beyond wisdom.

This is the folly and pride of knowledge and understanding in our own day.

many claim to know, but do not know

and they deceive many.

all the self proclaimed experts in our day

parenting experts, life experts, dieting experts, medical experts.

You can do it all perfect and still tragedy could strike.

The nutritionist that dies in a hit an run

Those who parent by the book still have wayward children.

It’s the medical doctor who has saved thousands from cancer who get cancer himself.

Something is beyond human comprehension.

True wisdom knows the limits of wisdom and knowledge

it is therefore humble — it understands that something beyond wisdom is needed.

This is my particular temptation — to try and figure it out.

In my own story — thinking that if I could just understand my past — i could be free of it.

But it’s not true, even knowing everything won’t heal who, something more is needed

Yet even in its limits, wisdom has much to teach us.

What Wisdom can teach us

Solomon, turns to see what can be known

that is, what can be found out in this life under the sun.

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.

Even though, understanding is beyond wisdom, what can wisdom teach us.

Even thought we may not make sense of this life, he is what we can know.

Solomon finds 4 things in his question.

Finding #1: Temptation is real

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.

Many surely have used it as such

Solomon’s point is that ‘sin and seductiveness’ personified by a woman here as in proverbs is a trap and leads to death.

Proverbs 5:3–4 (CSB)

3 Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her words are smoother than oil, 4 in the end she’s as bitter as wormwood and as sharp as a double-edged sword.

Proverbs 7:21–23 (CSB)

21 She seduces him with her persistent pleading; she lures with her flattering talk. 22 He follows her impulsively like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding toward a trap 23 until an arrow pierces its liver, like a bird darting into a snare— he doesn’t know it will cost him his life.

Proverbs 9:13 (CSB)

13 Folly is a rowdy woman; she is gullible and knows nothing.

James 1:14 (CSB)

14 But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire.

Jesus say temptatoins are sure to come.

Jesus: Luke 17:1 (ESV)

1 And he said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come!

Also, note that Wisdom is also referred to as a woman.

Why a woman? why not talk of a man?

The answer is likely cultural and in the fact that many women in that day could not read

so books like Ecc where written by men for men, yet the principles and truth taught are equally applicable to men and women.

This is true of all biblical interpretation.

We are doing the same in asking what principles or truths from Solomon’s day translate into our own.

In this case, he is saying that

Temptation to sin is real and it is ever present

and it’s end is death and destruction.

But he says ‘the one who pleases God shall escape her’

That is who follows God, fears God, does what is right

So what he first found was that:

There is a great temptation towards sin and wickedness.

Finding #2: We cannot know

The second thing he found is ironically what he could 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 tried to put it all together”

by adding one thing to another

I tried to follow the logical arguments

but what I discover was that I could not find the ‘sum of things’ — the explanation of things.

Wisdom again, taught him that he could not know the ultimate reason or explanation of things.

Finding #3: All are sinful

The third thing he found out is that no one is righteous.

Ecclesiastes 7:28 (CSB)

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

Ecclesiastes 7:28 (NIV)

28 while I was still searching but not finding— I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all.

Again, many have used texts like this to support unbiblical mysogynistic ideologies.

Solomon is likely quoting a well known proverb in that day.

it is not surprising b/c in Solomon’s day, and in fact, in many places around the world

women are seen as inferior and are treated as property.

Solomon’s point is not that men are morally superior to women,

his point is that all are sinful, both men and women alike

Which is what he already said in Ecc 7:20 “no one is righteous, meaning both men and women”

Furthermore, no where does scripture teach that women are more sinful than men,

so this cannot be the teaching here.

This is also supported by his last finding.

Finding #4: God is not the problem

God is not the problem, we are.

Ecclesiastes 7:29 (CSB)

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

He is thinking of creation here.

God made people upright and good

It is men and women who have sought our many schemes.

Beginning with Adam and Eve

Continued in Cain and Able

and on through the millenia into our own days.

We are all schemers

trying to scheme God to get what we want without going to him.

Three schemes we’ve noted today already:

pursing righteousness excessively

or choosing sin deliberately

or if we are just smart enough we will understand

They are schemes to get something from God that we want.

This is the most important thing he has found:

God is not the problem

We are

All the suffering, pain, injustice and tragedy in the world is due to man’s schemes not God’s.

Play on words b/c Sol was trying to find the sum of things (the explanation) lit. the scheme of things

but what he found is that we are all schemers.

Although this is AN ANSWER to the wickedness in the world

It doesn’t answer THE question posed:

why do the righteous perish in their righteousness

why to the wicked live long?

In the end his answer is: I don’t know.

he cannot figure it out.

Isaiah 55:9 (CSB)

9 “For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

so then, what do we do when life doesn’t make sense?

Jesus

Thousands of years later another righteous man would die young.

in fact, he was the ‘one perfectly righteous man’

his suffering and death were perhaps the most perplexing event in the history of the world.

the one who deserves most to live — died

and the ones who deserved most to die — lived.

What do we do when life doesn’t make sense?

What did Jesus do?

being greatly distressed at the thought of his crucifixion he prayed to the father

Matthew 26:42 (CSB)

42 Again, a second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.

From the Cross he called out:

Luke 23:46 (CSB)

46 And Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.”

Jesus entrusted his life to the Father.

This is Solomon’s message:

When we cannot make sense of our world, the only response is to entrust our life to God.

HOW?

the same way Jesus did

you choose to

by the power of the spirit

it means your stop and consider what you are doing?

it means consciously choosing your response when life doesn’t make sense

IT MEANS

Do not try to prolong life by being overly righteous

for it is impossible to be so righteous that God must give us long life.

Nor try to escape life by giving up and giving into sin.

don’t try to figure out life with endless learning

rather fear God and trust him.

Neither should the Christian simply try harder at being a christian

nor should they walk away from the Faith

nor should they try to endlessly understand God’s way

Rather than answer is to entrust your life to Jesus.

This was Jesus’ message when he

rebuked the pharisees of their ‘excessive righteousness’

and spent time with sinners and taught them to sin no more.

he taught people that something greater than Solomons’ wisdom was here.

When we believe in Jesus’ death for our sins

we are clothed in his righteousness

and forgiven of all our sin.

we are given faith to trust God’s wisdom.

you see Jesus fulfills / completes all of them

and by his spirit we are empowered more and more to entrust our lives to Him.

You see Jesus did not promise us long life, he promised us eternal life.

He says those who are mine will know my voice and follow me

So when life doesn’t make sense?

Don’t simply just try harder — be too righteous

don’t give up and give in — be too wicked

We don’t just try to figure it out — be overly wise

Rather, hear Jesus’ voice, entrust your life to him, follow him, and you will receive, not long life, but eternal life.

Let’s Pray