Sermon Tone Analysis

Why are we studying Ecclesiastes?

The Dream of Prudence is Meaningless Apart From Jesus (Eccl 2:12-17)

Prudence is another word for wisdom and knowledge.

To be prudent is to be wise, to be skillful and use discernment with ones resources.

A prudent person is a shrewd person.

Keep in mind that Solomon is doing a series of experiments to find the meaning of life.

Previously, he experimented with pleasure-he sought a life of hedonism, and he found hedonism to be worthless in the end.

In verse 12, Solomon turns his attention toward wisdom, madness and folly.

There is a part of this text that is notoriously hard to translate from Hebrew to English: “For what will the man be like who comes after the king?

He will do what has already been done.”

What does he mean here?

Solomon is instructing his son to learn from his experiments and his mistakes.

In other words, as Jonathan Akin says, “Son, don’t try to outdo me because you can’t.

You will only wind up coming to the same result.

Be wise and listen.

Seeking a life of prudence has the same result as seeking a life of pleasure.

it’s a meaningless endeavor.”

In verses 13-14, Solomon says

Solomon realizes,

Wisdom has its virtue… (v13-14)

When God created the world, he ingrained wisdom into its fabric.

Wise people learn how to live and have their being inside the fabric of God’s creation.

For example, a good and wise farmer knows how and when to grow crops.

He studies the land, observes the seasons, and works hard to fertilize the soil.

He knows that if he plants corn in the Spring the ground will be soft enough to till, the rain will provide enough water, and the heat will help the corn mature.

He also knows after a few weeks he will need to harvest the corn before it dies.

Farmers have tapped into the way the world works, which is why prudent farmers don’t plant corn in December.

Wisdom is also in the fabric of society and life.

Even in a broken world, God has provided wisdom for how societies flourish.

When communities live inside of that wisdom, such as loving your neighbor or obeying the Ten Commandments, society flourishes with life.

Think about how the Proverbs describes the fool: lazy, quarrelsome, adulterer, and mis-handlers of fortune.

All of these character traits bring about ruin for the fool and the society that lives that way.

Solomon contends that wisdom brings light, and the wise person walks in the light.

That is a good thing because wise and prudent people are skillful and good at discerning right and wrong, good and bad.

Foolishness brings darkness and the fool walks in the dark, stumbling round bringing ruin (Proverbs 4:10-19).

Fools do not do the right thing.

Fools lack the ability to foster prosperity.

Fools plant corn in December.

Society does not want fools leading the clergy, the courts, or your colleges.

(consider our own society for a moment.

Where do we see the most foolishness?

What happens when fools take over the colleges, the courts, and the church?)

Wisdom, prudence, has its good place in society.

Solomon, however, contends that at the end of the day both are meaningless because both the fool and the wise person share the same fate.

Wisdom has the same end as foolishness…(v15-17)

Look at Ecclesiastes 2:15-18

No matter how prudent one may be, death comes for both the fool and the wise person.

Furthermore, the wise person, as one commentator points out, cannot even count on having a legacy that outlasts the fool (v16).

Old Testament Scholar Duane Garrett puts verse 16 in this light, “If we live a wise life and leave the world a better place than we found it, then people will at least remember us.

Solomon says, “Nope.

Even the hope of lasting fame is an illusion” (Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, 294).

Philip Grahm Ryken wrote, “Many years ago, when I heard Dr. Haddon Robinson preach from Ecclesiastes, he recounted what it was like for him to stand at the graveside of a man who had a working knowledge of thirty-four languages.

Most people know only one or two languages, at the most, but here was a man who understood nearly three dozen.

Yet in the end it didn’t matter how smart he was—he was still as dead as could be.

“Even the wise die,” the psalmist says; “the fool and the stupid alike must perish” (Psalm 49:10).

(Philip Graham Ryken, Ecclesiastes: Why Everything Matters, Preaching the Word 62.)

Solomon seemingly says to himself, “Why deny myself the pleasure of being a fool in this life if being prudent does nothing to help me avoid death or sustain my legacy?”

Do you fell the tension of skepticism in Solomon’s words?

Seeing that prudence fails him, he says in verse 17

Prudence is meaningless apart from Jesus (v17)

Every morning I tell my children to be wise today.

Make it a great day by working hard, doing the right thing, obeying your teachers, be kind to your classmates, love your enemies, and make your school better today than it was yesterday.

Do these things and you will have a good day, even set yourself up for a good life.

A prudent life is a good life.

But even as the words come out of my mouth, I have a sick feeling in my stomach that I am not being completely honest with them.

I know the world we live right now.

I know that they can be prudent and still be sinned against.

They can act wisely with the classmates and it will still cost them relationships.

They can work hard on their school work and still fail.

They can do the right thing and still suffer a bad outcome.

Some times the fool wins.

Think about Antonio Brown.

He is a talented wide receiver who played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

A couple of weeks ago, he became so enraged that he was not getting the ball enough in a game that he threw a fit on the sideline, took off his pads and shoes and shirt, and jumped up and down making a spectacle of himself as he ran off the field, on an ankle he said was hurt.

He committed the unpardonable sin in sports.

He quit on his team during a game they were losing.

The Bucs cut him from the team that day.

Crazy thing is, he had already done similar things to the Raiders and the Steelers.

Why was he even playing football for a professional ball club?

He had a record of acting the fool, being unwise, to the point he was cut by two other teams.

Why would he get so many chances, while someone like Tim Tebow, who is a man of greta character and ability gets cut from Jacksonville?

It could be argued that Brown is a much better athlete than Tebow.

Fine.

But how is that working out for the Bucs?

Sometimes, in this life, the fool gets what the prudent deserves.

What gives prudence its place in this life?

What gives Tim Tebow hope for being prudent in this life?

Jesus.

When you repent of your sin and ask Jesus to be your Savior, he gives you his Holy Spirit.

You become a new creation.

Paul says

You are no longer enslaved to sin.

You have been crucified with Christ and you no longer live, but Christ lives in you.

The life you now live in the body, you live by faith (Galatians 2:20).

Jesus transforms your heart and your mind, and it can be said of you, “Behold, I make all things new.

(Rev 21:5).”

Jesus gives you his wisdom to live by so you can enjoy God now in this life.

He renews your mind to live wisely so you can enjoy abundant life now.

A life so fruitful that your wisdom right now will pay huge dividends in heaven.

Jesus gives your prudence meaning because your wise living now bears fruit for heaven.