NORTHSHORE CHURCH OF CHRIST

Solomon paints us pictures of the wise man and the foolish man in the 10^th chapter of Ecclesiastes. As we take trip after trip around the sun, we can start to wonder what we are supposed to be doing and if we are doing it right. Solomon nods along beside us. He, too, has wrestled with all those thoughts, and God granted him wisdom to understand man’s place and purpose under the sun. God grants man wisdom so we can walk rightly, honorably, justly in this world, thus gaining the precious rewards of healthy consciences, happy lives, and inner peace.

According to Ecclesiastes 10…

The wise man takes care in his life, takes care of his tools, works hard despite less-than-optimal conditions, uses his words skillfully, does not curse rulers but controls himself, feasts at the proper times, and brings home the bacon to his thriving, healthy family. His words give grace and return to him with favor. He can calmly sit while his master rails at him because he knows his place, knows he is in the right, and knows that to rise against the ruler would be shameful and foolhardy. His steps are established by the Lord in wisdom. “Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility, and your princes feast at the proper time, for strength, and not for drunkenness!” (10.17).

The fool demonstrates his lack of sense through laziness, silly speech, incompetence, and lack of moral judgment. He spouts unhelpful words. He makes excuses and does not work. “It might rain,” he says, and stays inside to play video games instead of doing what needs to be done today. With a super-inflated ego, he “educates” others and believes that wisdom resides with him, but everyone around him realizes he doesn’t even know what road he’s on and he certainly can’t guide others! “The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is evil madness” (10.13).

This is not just dealing with social issues or things that are “worse vs. better.” Solomon speaks here of morality, of the way a man orders his steps before the Lord, of righteous living vs. wicked living.

Paul’s Similar Admonitions

Paul similarly commented on wise living in Ephesians 5.6–21. Some will attempt to deceive Christians with empty words, but Paul wants us to carefully discern and not become partners with those “sons of disobedience” who are “darkness” (5.6–8). Those fools will perish in their folly. Paul charges us to “walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord” (10.8–10). Paul continues:

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Sprit addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (5.15–21)

Walk in the wisdom of the Lord! His paths are straight and level, our foot will not slip, our lives will be established come what may. What confidence, what joy, and what peace you will find!

(Thoughts from our Wednesday Ecclesiastes study)

God has made both the day of prosperity and the day of adversity (Eccl. 7.14). We don’t know from day to day what we will find. Will a friend call to tell us someone we love just died? Will the book deal come through we’ve been working so hard to land? Will our son win the big game with a three-point fading jump shot? Will our spouse get into a tragic car accident?

Solomon says we cannot know anything of what will be after us. In other words, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring…or even later today, for that matter. So we should be joyful in the day of prosperity and when days of adversity come, just sit and think about it. Ponder the brevity of life and the reality that we are not in control. Only God knows. Only God controls.

One crooked thing is that sometimes righteous people die early, and sometimes wicked people live long and prosper in this adventure under the sun.

The trick is to remember we are really all in the same boat. “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins” (Eccl. 7.20). No matter how righteous you are, you will never work your way out of being a sinner! Solomon does not say to abandon the righteous path, throw caution to the wind, and be as wicked as you want. Rather, he still says, “Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time?” (7.17).

He encourages the path of humility: “Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others” (7.21–22). Your own heart is crooked; therefore, don’t be surprised and don’t get bent out of shape when others around you have crooked hearts. It is true, “God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes” (7.29). Humility comes when we can think rightly of ourselves. Pride comes when we gloss over our own failings, shortcomings, and sins. If someone calls me a moron, I should halfway agree with him and not take to heart. He’s also a moron, but I don’t need to go there, do I? I should welcome him as my fellow moron in this adventure under the sun.

Another crooked thing is that our rulers are sinners, too, and they have power over us. Solomon encourages us to “Keep the king’s command, because of God’s oath to him…for the word of the king is supreme…” (8.2, 4). The wise man submits to earthly authority, not because they are good, but because they are appointed by God.

Even though there are crooked events and crooked people, Solomon depends upon this rule: “Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him. But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God” (8.12–13).

And he always returns to this rule, as well: “And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun” (8.15).

Praise God. Depend on God. God will make the crooked things straight in His time.

Here are a few lessons we talked about on Wednesday night—thoughts drawn from Ecclesiastes 7.

STRANGELY BRIGHT

Joe Rigney wrote a little book called Strangely Bright in which he riffs off the song,

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

Rigney’s idea is just opposite—when we understand God’s grace and Jesus’ wonder and beauty, the things of the earth will grow strangely bright. The more we grow in godly wisdom, understand the character of God, see how He works, and trust His judgment, the more this earth means to us. It doesn’t become less real; it becomes more real. The colors are more vivid, the smells more wonderful, the sounds more musical.

10 Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?”
       For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.

THE HOUSE OF MOURNING

Pondering the day of our death is good. What do we have to look forward to after we die? We think about the end of all men…for what are we striving? Are we resting, even in our labor? Are we working from a platform of resting in God’s strength and promises? Or are we so narrowly focused on THIS LIFE that we miss the meaning of life altogether?

3 Sorrow is better than laughter,
    for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.
4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
    but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

DON’T BE SO ONLINE

This is getting harder and harder. What did the new President do today to make headlines and shake up the world? Is our country going to conquer the world or will it be overthrown in a few years? What are Taylor Swift and Kanye West doing at the grammy’s that is so important? Look at all the shiny pictures of my neighbors and acquaintances on FaceGram and X-book. We get so lost in all the madness, the churning and burning of a downright foolish world, and we get distracted from the gift of life that God has given us to enjoy right this very day and hour. Here we are. What blessings do we have to count today? What blessing can I be to the people around me today? How can I bless the name of the Lord right now?

5 It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise
    than to hear the song of fools.
6 For as the crackling of thorns under a pot,
    so is the laughter of the fools; 
    this also is vanity.

As I was reading my Bible this morning, I came across the seventh plague in Egypt, a mighty and terrible hailstorm. God gave Egypt plenty of forewarning, and it records, “Then whoever feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the LORD left his slaves and his livestock in the field” (Exodus 9.20–21).

Meditating on this, two truths spring to my mind.

Fearing the LORD Is Good

When we fear the One True and Living God, the thrice-holy God, the Holiest of Holies, we listen to Him! His word is not frivolous nor simply suggestive but rather emphatic and commanding. Just as balls of solid ice fell upon those dismissive Egyptians, so God’s word does not fall to the ground void—it always accomplishes what He intends with irresistible power.

When God said He would harden Pharaoh’s heart, there was no way his heart could not have been hardened. When God said He would deliver His people from Egypt, there should have been no question He was able to accomplish His purpose; Israel could trust His word. So many accounts are recorded in Scripture in which God proves Himself; we should be ashamed to ever doubt His faithfulness. Let God be true and every man a liar.

Fearing the LORD Means Acting in Faith

Also, in the text above, I saw Egyptians who acted upon God’s word because they feared His wrath and power. They believed. After all, this was the seventh plague! They had seen terrible things over the past few months, and even if their Pharaoh wouldn’t budge, some of them were convinced. They pulled their animals and their slaves out of the field and sheltered them because God had warned.

This is what it means to fear the LORD. Solomon said the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep His commandments (Eccl. 12.13), and in the next verse he explained we should fear God because God will bring every matter (everything we say, do, and think) out into the open in the Judgment. Do you believe it? Does your daily walk show it?

Fearing Man Is Bad

A few days ago, I read Luke 12, and Jesus there taught His disciples, “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!” (Luke 12.4–5)

Jesus’ disciples are frequently faced with enemies who push us to go against the word of the Lord, and we must decide whether we fear them or God. This choice comes before us more often than we would care to admit. Someone pushes the perspective of the enemy, preaches falsehoods in our face, argues for some corrupt cause, and we have a choice. Do we remain silent? Do we walk away? Do we go along to get along? We find champions of faith who we should imitate, like Daniel and David, Ruth and Rahab, who faced lies, temptations, and demands from God’s enemies and replied in word and deed: “We must obey God rather than man.”

Fear can be good, and fear can be bad. It depends upon the context. It depends upon the object of our fear.

Whom do you fear?

Warriors harden themselves against the reality of their own imminent death as they take the battlefield. They intend victory, but they understand their own mortality, and if their life should be taken by another warrior, they submit to an honorable death.

But no warrior wants to be killed by someone weaker than he. Recall Abimelech, the bastard king during the time of the judges:

“And Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. And a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head and crushed his skull. Then he called quickly to the young man his armor-bearer and said to him, ‘Draw your sword and kill me, lest they say of me, “A woman killed him.”’ And his young man thrust him through, and he died.” (Judges 9.52–54)

Abimelech the warrior didn’t want “A woman killed him” on his gravestone.

A few decades before Abimelech’s death, another warrior died at the hand of a woman:

“But Jael the wife of Heber took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand. Then she went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple until it went down into the ground while he was lying fast asleep from weariness. So he died.” (Judges 4.21)

Deborah wrote a beautiful song for Israel to sing about this event:

²⁴             “Most blessed of women be Jael,
the wife of Heber the Kenite,
of tent-dwelling women most blessed.

²⁵             He asked for water and she gave him milk;
she brought him curds in a noble’s bowl.

²⁶             She sent her hand to the tent peg
and her right hand to the workmen’s mallet;
she struck Sisera; she crushed his head;
she shattered and pierced his temple.

                ²⁷             Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still;
                                between her feet he sank, he fell;
                                where he sank, there he fell—dead.

Now isn’t that lovely? Not for Sisera! What a dishonorable, shameful epithet!

Many Warriors Have Fallen to Women

But many warriors have fallen to women—not so many physically killed, but many have fallen to the wiles and seductions of women.

Samson fell to the wiles of Delilah. Judah trotted along into the house of a prostitute (Tamar). Amnon succumbed to temptation and raped his half-sister.

The greatest warrior of all, King David, fell to a woman who wasn’t even trying to seduce him (as far as we know). He saw her bathing on his neighbor’s roof next door and fell to the temptation.

The wisest of all men fell into idolatry because he “loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, ‘You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.’ Solomon clung to these in love” (1 Kings 11.1–2).

Is it any wonder that Solomon wrote Proverbs 1–9 telling his son to flee from the “forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words” (2.16)? He explains, “for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed; none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life” (2.18–19). He heaps it on in Proverbs 5–9, especially.

What Is Man’s Defense?

What is a man to do to keep himself from being killed by a woman?

“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life… Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil” (Proverbs 4.23–27).

1. SET YOUR HEART towards righteousness before you begin your day. Intentionally decide what kind of person you are going to be today.
2. DON’T GAZE AT A WOMAN. You will see her for sure, but do not let your eyes or your mind dwell on her. Rather, set your gaze straight ahead; don’t get distracted.
3. GO WHERE YOU INTEND. When you find yourself stopping or swerving off your intended path to put yourself in a better place to view a woman, turn your foot away from evil, remind yourself of what you had set your heart to do, and get going.

But let us end on a good note. God created woman to be beautiful and attractive to men. It is no sin to notice that a woman is lovely, and it is no sin to find people attractive; this is a legitimate pleasure God has given mankind—beauty. Godly women are especially beautiful because they shine from the inside out with that gentle and quiet spirit God designed women to have (1 Peter 3.4). Godly women are strong of heart and spirit, and blessed is the man who finds a righteous woman!

“An excellent wife, who can find? She is far more precious than jewels” (Proverbs 31.10). A godly woman will not kill a man; rather, “the heart of her husband trusts in her, and she does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life” (Proverbs 31.11, 12).

Men, don’t give your strength to women (Proverbs 31.3). Don’t be killed by a woman.