Wisdom, Heavenly and Under the Sun (Eccles 7-9)
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Readings: Ecclesiastes 7:11–29; 8:14–9:12; 1 Corinthians 1:18–31
Coverage: Ecclesiastes 7–9
People sometimes speak about reaching a level of expertise where they begin to understand what they do not know. The beginner thinks they know a great deal because they have learned a little. But the expert begins to see how vast the field is and how much lies beyond their understanding. They realise that there are great areas of knowledge that nobody fully understands. Some things only God knows: perhaps only God will ever know.
That is where Solomon has arrived.
Earlier in Ecclesiastes Solomon reflects on his life and concludes that his pursuits have been hebel—vapour, a chasing after the wind. He sinfully sought satisfaction in achievements and possessions: buildings, parks, palaces, gold and silver, horses, and his thousand-woman harem. He accumulated wealth and power beyond anyone before him.
Yet at the end of his life he sees that these things cannot satisfy. The wealth that once looked so promising is deceptive. He worked hard to gather it, yet he must leave it to others. His efforts have not given him the lasting meaning he hoped for.
Trying to salvage something from the wreckage, Solomon proposes that the best a person can do is to eat, drink, and find enjoyment in their work. Life is short, so he counsels that people should enjoy the moment while they can. That is his thesis.
But in chapters 4–6 Solomon interrogates his thesis. He examines this idea in the light of evidence to the contrary. Even this limited goal, this mitigation, proves difficult. The poor cannot enjoy their labour because they are oppressed. The wealthy cannot enjoy it because their desire for more never ends: “Whoever loves money never has enough.”
Solomon wonders whether a middle path might exist, the path of neither poverty nor riches: “better one handful with tranquillity than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.” But even this ‘goldilocks approach’ is beyond him and most. The rich are enslaved by their wealth, and the poor are trapped in oppression.
Despite all this, Solomon still believes that wisdom is better than folly, and wise living is worth pursuing. In chapters 7–9 he affirms that wisdom, though limited, is the best we’ve got. Wisdom cannot guarantee success or happiness in life, but it is still better than foolishness. In an uncertain world, wisdom offers some protection.
In the chapters we’ve had read today, Solomon praises wisdom. In Ecclesiastes 7:11–12 he writes:
“Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing and benefits those who see the sun. Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: wisdom preserves those who have it.”
Wisdom functions like a kind of protection. It does not remove every danger, but it helps us avoid many unnecessary hardships. Foolish decisions bring pain and destruction, but wise choices often prevent suffering.
Solomon says in 7:19: “Wisdom makes one wise person more powerful than ten rulers in a city.” And in 9:16 he concludes: “Wisdom is better than strength.” Again in 9:18: “Wisdom is better than weapons of war.”
Throughout these chapters Solomon offers practical observations about wise living, particularly in relation to the king.
One area where wisdom matters is our relationship to human authority and government. In Ecclesiastes 8:2 Solomon advises: “Obey the king’s command, I say, because you took an oath before God.”
In the ancient world the king held absolute authority. Challenging him could easily lead to disaster. Solomon knew how this power worked. At the beginning of his reign, he conducted a number of square-ups that David asked of him. David had not eliminated some enemies and rivals: so Solomon did it for him (1 Kings 1-3). Solomon had his brother Adonijah killed because he was a rival. And Solomon made it his policy to quickly punish wrongdoers, lest others copy their example. So Solomon counsels, his hearers to not pick a fight with the king, because they are not going to win. And in the New Testament, Jesus, Paul and Peter all pick this teaching up: obey the government, honour the king, give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, pay your taxes, obey authority. Otherwise you will feel pain. If you obey the law and honour authority, most of the time you remove one major source of suffering.
Solomon also offers a series of practical observations for wise living. These aren’t guarantees, because God is sovereign over this, and no one can tell him what to do. However, there are some wise habits in this chapter, and also in chapters 10 and 11. They serve to enable us to avoid most sources of pain and frustration and to live wisely.
He encourages teachability. In Ecclesiastes 7:5 he says it is better to heed the rebuke of the wise than to listen to the song of fools. Wise people accept correction though it is humbling. He praises patience. In 7:8–9 he writes: “The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.”
Anger can feel powerful. It gives us a sense of strength and righteousness. But anger can easily become intoxicating. Anger in focussing the mind for action and the fight stops us from thinking clearly. In our self-righteousness, we then think that harming others is justified. On rare occasions it is, but frequently it is not. Wisdom therefore calls for patience and self-control when anger is aroused.
Solomon also encourages cultivating a thick skin. In 7:21–22, he writes: “Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you—for you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others.” If we listen to every criticism or insult, we will constantly be offended. We also forget our own criticisms of others. Wisdom recognises human weakness and learns not to take every word to heart.
Now we must be careful of Solomon’s observations about women, because of his sample set. Solomon shares his own experience with women in 7:26-28: “I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains”. Solomon is speaking from his own experience: “I find”. He had a thousand wives, but I’m not surprised that he could not find one upright women in a thousand—because he ignored the command of God about sex and marriage. He married many foreign women, worshipped their gods, and set up his harem as a hot house of competition and envy. Solomon’s experience shows us the terrible consequences of ignoring God’s commands, and the great damage sinful disobedience causes everyone, including the wrongdoer. Solomon’s finding shows the dead end of transgressing God’s commands.
Even while praising wisdom, Solomon acknowledges its limits. Two major limitations of wisdom stand out. First, the future is unknowable even to the wise. Second, ultimate wisdom remains beyond human reach, unless God were to reveal his mind to humans. .
The Future Is Unknowable
People often long to know what lies ahead. We consult doctors about our health, and a prognosis, or financial advisors about investments. We seek expert advice to tell us what the future holds. But under the sun wisdom provides no guarantees. As the superannuation ads say with their quick voice overs and asterisks, “past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance”. No plan of battle survives contact with the enemy. It takes only one to start a war, but both parties have to agree to end it. No matter how big and strong and wise and smart we are, we cannot tell the future, whether success or failure lies ahead, whether good times or bad are around the corner. The fact is that bad times will come: that was the song about ‘time’ in chapter 3, that the Byrds put to music. Ecclesiastes 7:14 says:
“When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore no one can discover anything about their future.”
Likewise in 8:7–8:
“Since no one knows the future, who can tell someone else what is to come? As no one has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has power over the time of their death.”
And in 9:1–2 Solomon observes that both the righteous and the wicked ultimately share the same earthly destiny.
And we also know that faith in Christ does not guarantee an easy life: while most of the time, walking in God’s ways enables us to avoid many causes of suffering, sometimes allegiance to Jesus attracts terrible suffering and martyrdom in this life.
Sometimes the talented fail while the ordinary succeed. Sometimes tragedy strikes unexpectedly. Illness, disaster, and loss can come without warning.
From our human perspective, events appear random or accidental. From God’s perspective nothing is outside his knowledge or power. Yet from where we stand, the future remains uncertain.
Chapter 9 verses 11-12 bear this out. Here is Solomon’s observation:
11 I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favour to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.12 Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so people are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them. (NIV)
Old Testament wisdom literature usually grounds its wise observations of the world on the predictability of the created order (e.g., Ecclesiastes 1:1-11). This predictability is a consequence of the orderly God being its creator and sustainer. However, "under the sun" life also includes the phenomena of "chance". Sometimes Forrest Gumps go through life, accidentally succeeding in everything they touch. And sometimes geniuses end up paupers.
And while no one minds receiving a windfall, or a lottery win, or receiving an inheritance, no one wants to be a fish caught in a cruel net or a bird taken in a snare. Even Queen Elizabeth had her annus horribilus, her horrible year. Your life might turn into a ruin and disaster. You don’t know what lies ahead. From our perspective, under the sun, it is a matter of “chance” (v 11): it comes upon us and we don’t know why. From God’s perspective, there is no chance: God is omniscient and omnipotent, and nothing is chance from his perspective, and all things work for good for those who love God and called according to his purposes. But undoubtedly, we look at misfortune as tragedy and grieve over it.
The prosperity gospel tries to control the future. It serves to justify and sanctify incumbent wealth: I am blessed because God approves of me. It promises that you can know the future and harness the omnipotent God to your purposes and for your comfort. But God never submits to such human demands. He is free.
Ultimate Wisdom Is Unattainable
And following on from the future being unknowable, another limitation is that ultimate wisdom lies beyond human reach, unless God reveals it. In Ecclesiastes 7:23–24 Solomon writes:
“I am determined to be wise—but this was beyond me. Whatever exists is far off and most profound—who can discover it?”
Similarly in 8:17:
“No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun… Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.”
God's ways this side of glory, "under the sun", are beyond human finding out. Job, a righteous and wise man who came before Solomon, had already been given this hard-won insight in the midst of his suffering. All Solomon had to do was read Job chapter 28: ultimate "wisdom" and "understanding" are "hidden from the eyes of all living" (Job 28:20-21). Even if you dig the deepest shaft to mine wisdom, you cannot find it: it is nowhere on earth. The Righteous Job would never know why he suffered as he did: all he could do was to fear God, keep his commands, and trust God’s goodness (Job 28:28). That is the only derivative and secondary "wisdom" open to humans under the sun: fear God and keep his commandments. And that will be where the Book of Ecclesiastes ends up, too.
As the poet and hymn writer William Cowper wrote in his final hymn:
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm
Deep in unsearchable mines
Of never-failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sovereign will
Human wisdom therefore reaches a limit. We can observe patterns and make wise choices, but we cannot fully grasp God’s purposes, which have embraced and involve human suffering in this world. The most profound wisdom available to us is simply this: to fear God and keep his commandments. That is also the conclusion of Ecclesiastes.
Although the future of our lives is uncertain, one thing is certain: death, unless Jesus comes back very soon. Ecclesiastes repeatedly reminds us that death comes to everyone. In 7:2 Solomon writes:
“It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart.”
Thinking about death helps us live wisely. It reminds us that life is short and that our decisions matter. Ecclesiastes 9:3–4 says:
“The same destiny overtakes all… Anyone who is among the living has hope—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion.”
At least we are alive at the moment! It’s better to be you than Steve Jobs or Kerry Packer or Princess Diana or a whole raft of once beautiful and famous people now dead. Despite all their riches and power, they are dead. You and I aren’t, yet. Now they have to face judgement from the God that they seem to have denied and walk with. And there’s nothing they can do about the stuff that they lived for. You are richer than them, because you are alive.
Consequently, living life now in light of the reality of our death is wise.
But after you die, then what? In 9:5, Solomon says that the dead know nothing. That is an “under the sun” evaluation. Even Solomon says in other places that there is a judgement after death. So an “above the sun”, God in heaven evaluation, would be different, even on Solomon’s own principles.
The New Testament clearly teaches that there is a conscious existence after death, either with Jesus, which is better by far, or apart from God. Jesus’ parable of the rich man suffering in hades, the realm of the dead, and the poor man Lazarus who begged at his door, suggests that the wicked person’s torment begins in Hades, the place of the dead, after they die (Luke 16:19-31). And as so far as this world is concerned, the dead are dismissed. Their contribution is over. Steve Jobs now can’t do anything about the problems with your latest Iphone or Mac. Kerry Packer cannot get the cricket back on channel 9. They play no part in life under the sun now that they are dead. In fact, under the sun, the dead are forgotten. In the main, we don’t even know the names of our great grandparents. Nor do we really care. Their loves, hates, and jealousies have since vanished.
But that is not true with God. All are living to him. God remembers everything: he remembers the miscarried foetuses and aborted babies and still born children. Whatever is assumed is redeemed. Those billions of little human babies will rise to have the life they were denied under the sun, as will every human who has ever lived, and nothing they’ve thought, said or done will be forgotten. And a heavenly perspective is given us at the end of Ecclesiastes. Chapter 12:13-14
Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the duty of all mankind.
14 For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil.
God’s final judgement and eternal reward gives all of our time, life, and our decisions, our works, and our sins, meaning and purpose. Solomon knows this, though he has not given it adequate weight.
Because life is short and uncertain, Solomon continue to offer a practical recommendation. Ecclesiastes 9:7–10 says:
“Go, eat your food with gladness and drink your wine with a joyful heart… Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love… Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.”
In other words: seize the day. Enjoy the simple gifts God has given—food, drink, family, and meaningful work. These are good gifts for this present life.
Even the New Testament affirms this perspective to a certain extent. God provides rain, crops, and food to fill our hearts with joy. Everything God created is good when received with thanksgiving.
This again shows the problem with translating hebel as meaningless. How we live our lives and use these gifts is not meaningless, it is temporary, it is ephemeral. As Paul reminds believers in 1 Corinthians 7, “the time is short.” The world in its present form is passing away. Therefore we may enjoy the gifts of this world, but we must not cling to them. Food, drink, marriage, and possessions are good, but they are not ultimate.
Ecclesiastes itself points to a future beyond this life. The final judgment described in chapter 12 implies a resurrection of the dead. The Old Testament points forward to this hope. Passages such as Daniel 12:2 and Isaiah 25 promise that God will raise the dead and defeat death forever. This hope finds its fulfillment in the resurrection of Jesus Christ the first Easter Day. His resurrection is the first sign of the future renewal of creation.
In God’s coming kingdom there will be no more death, mourning, or decay. The resurrection and God’s new world under his Christ is the ultimate solution to Solomon's perplexity and problem.
And even though we cannot guarantee what we are going to experience in our under the sun lives, we do know the mystery of God. For the wisdom of God Solomon could not find has been revealed to us, upon whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. Our New Testament reading, tells us that God has revealed himself in a way that the world in its wisdom cannot understand (v. 21: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31). The way God has revealed himself is in weakness and suffering, the cross of Jesus Christ—so different to the prosperity, hedonism, worldly wealth and under the sun success that Solomon found so unsatisfying. The gospel proclaims a ‘crucified Messiah’ (vv. 17, 18, 23; cf. 2:2; 2 Cor 13:4)—an apparent contradiction in terms. This is the wisdom of God, hidden for many ages, but now revealed: the humiliating death of Jesus Christ for our forgiveness.
To the ancient world, the idea of a crucified Messiah was absurd. Crucifixion was shameful and degrading. Roman writers said that the word “cross” should never be spoken among respectable citizens.
Yet the gospel proclaims that God’s wisdom appears in what seems weak and foolish. Through the crucifixion of Jesus, God accomplished salvation.
For those who believe, Christ himself has become for us the wisdom of God. Paul says that Jesus is our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption.
First, Christ is our righteousness. Humanity stands guilty before God. As Ecclesiastes says, “there is no one on earth who does what is right and never sins.” But Jesus lived a perfectly righteous life and died bearing the curse of sin. His righteousness is credited to those who trust in him.
Second, Christ is our sanctification. Through his sacrifice we are made holy, set apart from our sin and for God, and brought into fellowship with him.
Third, Jesus Christ is our ‘redemption’ (v. 30). By nature we are slaves to sin, death, and the devil. We needed to be bought back at a price (1 Cor 6:19-20; 7:23). Christ crucified was the price of our redemption (Rom 3:24; Heb 9:12). We are now freed to serve our redeemer.
That is the wisdom the God has made known through the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that Solomon lacked.
Let’s pray.