Study 5 – Ecclesiastes by Neville Clark

Study 5 – Ecclesiastes by Neville Clark

 

The quest pursued by mature reflection

 

Reading Ecc Ch 9

 

Divine Wisdom – the words of King Solomon

Once again we come to the divine wisdom as it is recorded in the pages of Ecclesiastes in the words of the great King Solomon. You will remember in our last class on the subject we concluded the end of Ecclesiastes Ch 6, with Solomon having concluded his great experiment in general observation, with the realisation that there are many things which are done in this life that we can do ourselves or have done to us in this life which will reduce the satisfaction we have in life, and perhaps even remove from us the very blessing that God bestows upon us. We may be oppressed, for example, as he describes in Ch 4. We may be envied, we may be idle, we may be greedy, we may be lonely, we may be wilfully disobedient, all of which things will conspire against us to remove from us even the simple blessings of God and the satisfaction with the simple things of life. And so as is very common to man, Solomon then shifted his gaze to the subject of wealth, because often it is found, or believed to be found, one more dollar will solve the problem, just a little more money and things will be all right. But as he found money was a very fickle and a very uncertain commodity. It never delivers as good as it promises, and of course, it feeds a lust which can never ever be satisfied.

 

Who can tell a man what shall be after him

As we concluded that experiment we found in Ch 6:12, “Who knoweth what is good for man in this life all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow. Who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun.” This is where Solomon got to after the conclusion of the second great experiment, and where he begins now with the last and final phase of his quest.  This of course, is the quest pursued by mature reflection. This is a very large section in Ecclesiastes. You will notice that Ecclesiastes begins and ends with an introduction and a conclusion, and in between the first verses of Ch 1 and last verses of Ch 12, we have these three great quests. Chs 1 and 2 are the personal experiences which you will remember are the episodes where Solomon built and planted and bought and sold and accumulated things, and all the way through that section, you’ve got the conspicuous phrases, “I did this, I did that,” Ch 4, 5 and 6, the quest by general observation. When he found he couldn’t be satisfied by things that he did with his own hands, he looked around, so I suppose you could say the first quest was what Solomon did, the second quest is what Solomon saw, the third quest, of course, is going to be what Solomon concludes, because now having found that nobody has got any more answers for him, and having looked at all these snapshots of life in Chapters 4 to 6, and finding only more and more problems, he now begins to put everything together here in  Ch 7-12.

 

What should a man do in this life?

Now tonight we are only going to consider up to the end Ch 10. Ch 11 and 12 are as we will find the conclusion, it is the verdict of his reflection after he has put all this information together. Now you consider just what Solomon is now going to do in these chapters. What is the thing that man should do in his life, he says, in Ch 6:12, because so much of life is uncertain. One minute man is fighting against the forces of creation. The next minute he is fighting against his fellow man. The wicked are prospering and they shouldn’t prosper. Wisdom is useful, but it’s got its own limitations. Time and chance is happening over here and, of course, death is knocking a the door over there. All of these things are problems that come upon man and Solomon’s now going to marshall really, all of these together, and distil a conclusion that begins to answer some of the fundamental questions that he has been struggling with all the way since Ch 1.

 

The Structure

And this is the structure and I will show you why I have broken it up like this and hopefully when I have finished tonight I hope you will agree that this isn’t really too bad. It is very, very hard when you’ve got Ch 7 down to Ch 12 here, many things repeated, they seem to go round and round in circles, it is very hard to see what he is saying, why is this a logical distillation of the facts? Well, this is what I think Solomon is doing in these last chapters. As you know, Ch 7:1-12 are the “better things.”We looked at them one Sunday ago. He concludes, as you will remember, in Ch 7:11-12, with wisdom. Wisdom is better than wealth. It is the best of the better things, I suppose you would say. So then we have a section where Solomon describes wisdom, and explains all about wisdom, that wisdom is best and this is why. I want to draw your attention to two points in that first section, this section here. The first point is that this section begins and ends with the same subject. Life is uncertain, life’s not fair, God has created it like that so that man depends upon God. Man has to understand that, therefore, and make the best of life. Don’t expect too much, but live life as it is meant to be lived. Wisdom is the means of doing that, to make the best choices, to make the best decisions, you need wisdom, Ch 7:23. The problem is, Solomon says, ‘All this have I proved by wisdom. I said I will be wise, but it was far from me. That which is far off and exceeding deep,’ or ‘deep, deep, who can find it out.’

 

Ultimate wisdom is unattainable

Man’s capacity cannot sustain the degree of wisdom that God has. And therefore there are two key phrases in this section and the first one occurs in the first and last section, the uncertainty of life. The one right in the middle here, God’s wisdom is unattainable. Ultimate wisdom in this life is unattainable and that’s exactly what Solomon says here in the middle of Chapter 7. As smart as he was, he really couldn’t grasp some of the answers necessary to answer the difficult questions of life. However from God’s position, everything is very straight forward. God is not bound by what just might happen in this life. There will be a settling up of all issues. The wicked seem to prosper, that won’t happen for ever. The injustices that are apparent now will be resolved ultimately and eternally. Don’t worry if you can’t answer all the questions of life because ultimate wisdom is unattainable, you see? God will solve the problems that bother you in this life, the iniquities, the injustices of life, but you will never ever get all the answers, you will never ever get to the bottom of why things happen as they do, because you just can’t understand ultimately. Everyone dies, whether they be righteous or wicked, everybody dies, wise, fools, they all die together and the exhortation is in this section that life is uncertain by design, and what you should expect from life is that time and chance happens to everyone. Life is uncertain, and he resolves the uncertainty of life and resolves the fact that ultimate wisdom is unattainable because you don’t need it. You just need to trust and it won’t matter, and then, of course, back to wisdom again. He starts now to explain wisdom in a practical sense, what you should do and he explains it in all different ways through all different lenses if you like, the practical application of it. And he comes to the verdict, and this is what the verdict is all about. The first portion of Ch 11 he describes wisdom amidst uncertainty. He says, ‘What should you do, given that life is uncertain? Judgment’s coming, enjoy life, do what you may, but remember judgment is coming. What would a wise man do with his life? Well, the answer is, whatever he is going to do, he would start young. That’s what he would do, you see? That’s going to be Solomon’s great conclusion.

 

Who is as the wise man?

Let’s just recap a couple of things from Ch 7. You will remember we looked at Ch 7 in our exhortation, that Solomon was frustrated in Ecc Ch 7 because he wasn’t equal to the wisdom he sought. Ch 7:19, “Wisdom strengthen’s the wise more than ten might men who are in the city,” he says, “but there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not,” and so as wonderful as wisdom is, it is contradicted by man who in his illogical manner, he just doesn’t live it. Even if he knows a portion of it he doesn’t live consistently what he knows. As a result of that in v 25, Solomon set about searching for the person who did have wisdom, and the more he looked, the more frustrated he became because of the enormous gulf between what man should be and what man was, V 29 Ch 7, “Lo this only have I found, God made man upright but they have sought out many inventions.” He’s not upright any more. He needs a redeemer, he needs that one among ten thousand, he needs the ‘better’ man to save him, is as we have found, what he concludes here in Ch 7. But as much as man is able to apply wisdom, it does have an affect upon him which is what we find now in Ch 8:1. The chapter division here is quite meaningless. Ch 8:1 now he is talking specifically about who that wise man might be. “Who is as the wise man, and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom maketh his face to shine and the boldness of his face shall be changed.” And you will notice here, brethren and sisters and young people, that he says, “Who is as the wise man,” He doesn’t say ‘Who is the wise man.” ‘Who is as the wise man’ who  is like the wise man?’ Because of course, there is no truly wise man, he’s proved that in V 23, apart from the redeemer, but other than him, there is no truly wise man. But inasmuch as man does approach wisdom by degrees, his face shines, he says, his face shines. That is to say, wisdom illuminates the countenance, it sharpens the intellect, it gives personality to a person, and that is reflected physically by his countenance, by his disposition. The boldness, he says, of his face shall be changed. The word ‘boldness’ means ‘hardness.” There is a softening, there is a softening of the expression, a softening of the disposition. You know in Ch 1:18, Solomon said that wisdom merely increased grief and sorrow, he said, because by thinking about the problems of life, you realise just how big the problems of life really were, and when you come to Ch 7:14 which he has explained by now, he says, ‘Ah there are solutions, there is the divine answer, so ‘be calm,’ he says, ‘be joyful, enjoy the good times and don’t despair over the bad times, it is actually not as bad as we thought in Ch 1, but only because we inject the divine solution.’ For the man and the woman of God, the greatest illumination, brothers and sisters, must spring from the answer of a clear conscience, surely. But even though man has sought out many inventions in V 29 of the previous chapter, there is a solution, and therefore everything we do in our lives in the truth, has an eternal dimension, so the shining of the face must ultimately relate to someone who is at one with their God. That must be ultimate shining of the face, like Stephen in Acts Ch 6:15, about to die for the truth, his face, it says in the record was as it had been the face of an angel, which Matt 28:3 tells us, shines.

 

Wisdom Transfigures the face of him that hath it

Well the Lord, on the mount of transfiguration, in Matt 17:2, “His face shone like the sun,” it says, because he was speaking of his death, and the implications that would have for mankind. So you see, there’s the shining of immortality, and there’s the disposition in any truly wise man, and if we have that kind of wisdom, then it won’t just change our countenance, it will change our behaviour, v 2. We’ll keep certain commandments, we’ll be more refined in our manners, v 3, we’ll become more discerning in our conduct, v 4-5, you see. So he tells us in v 2, “I counsel thee then, keep the king’s commandment and that in regard to the oath of God. The NIV says, “obey the king’s command I say, because you took an oath before God.” Now in Bible times, the nation all took an oath before God of loyalty to a new king. In 2 Sam 5:3, the elders of Israel all made a leave with David at Hebron when David became king after the death of Saul. When David died, in 1 Chr 29:24, all the princes and the mighty men, and the sons of David, all submitted to the rule of the new King Solomon. You see, they actually made oaths, they made covenants with the new king in a national sense, and therefore, of course, they had to do what the king said. Well v 3 goes on “but be not hasty to go out of his sight. Stand not in an evil thing for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.”  And if you disagree with the king act with discretion. Don’t persist in a bad cause and certainly do not storm out of the presence of the king, because he does whatever he wants. He will catch you. The king is all-powerful, you see, v 4, “Where the word of the king is there is power and who may say to him What doest thou? Whoso keepeth the commandment of the king shalt feel no evil thing and a wise man’s heart discerned both time and judgment.” Now what are we saying? Look at this, As you will be aware, there is a commentary on this in Rom Ch 13 in the words of Paul, and he tells us very much the same thing as what we have just read in Ecc Ch 8. Rom 13:1-5, “Let every soul be subject to the higher powers.”

 

Be subject to the king

Well, we read in Ch 8:2, “Keep the king’s commandment.” Be subject to the king, because the king has a power. There is no power but of God, the powers that be are ordained of God. The King acts for God. “Who may say, What do you do, at the end of v 4, to the king. He acts for God, that’s what Ecclesiastes says. The ruler is not a terror to good works, but to evil. “Don’t stand in an evil work,” he says in v 3 of Ecclesiastes. “And if you do that which is good and you don’t contradict the king, you will have praise of the same.” And v 5 says, “You shall feel,” if you obey the commandment, “you shall feel no evil thing.” But if you don’t. “If you do that which is evil, you will be afraid, because he bears not the sword in vain.” He does what ever he wants to do, you see? “Wherefore then, ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but for conscience sake because you have taken the oath of God.” You see, so we have, these words applied to us in a very direct sense, brothers and sisters and young people, don’t we, because here we are, under commandment of Rom Ch 13, even if we are not living in the immediate vicinity of a king in this country. But, he says, at the end of v 5, “The wise man’s heart doth discern both time and judgment.” The NIV says here, that “the wise man’s heart discerns the proper time and the procedure,” because there may be times when it is just not the right thing to obey the king. The obvious reference you will know is Acts Ch 5:29 where Peter and John stood before the Sanhedrin and they said when they were questioned, they said “Surely we ought to obey God rather than man.” But, you see, there is a proper time and a procedure, so thing of this, 1 Sam 19, Saul wants to kill David. Jonathan goes into his father and talks to him about David, and Saul is so impressed by that discussion, that he made and oath that he would not kill David. What kind of a discussion was that that it so impressed his father that Saul of course made an oath that he later on tried to break many times, but he promised before God that he would not kill David. There was a right time and a right procedure, you see, 2 Sam 12. Nathan had to go and accuse David of murder and adultery. He had to go into the king and call the king a murderer and an adulterer and ensure that at the end of it that David not only agreed with that sentence but repented. That’s why he chose a parable. There is a right time and a right procedure, you see. Esther Ch 7, Esther took 24 hours in the presence of the king to finally tell him what was really on her mind, concerning Haman. There was a right procedure, you see.

 

The Most High Rules in the Kingdom of Men

We have magnificent examples in the book of Daniel. Daniel Ch 4:17 says that “The most high rules in the kingdom of men,” he sets up the kings, so God appoints kings. They were ordained by God, Dan 4:17 says that, but Dan 1, Daniel wouldn’t eat the king’s meat, in Dan Ch 3, the friends wouldn’t bow down to the image. In Dan Ch 6, Daniel wouldn’t stop praying in public. Why? Because in Dan 4:35, God is also a king. In fact, Nebuchadnezzar in that verse, Dan 4:35, Nebuchadnezzar calls him the “king of heaven.” You see, so we have two kings, and one is greater than the other, and we serve the inferior king, insomuch as his commandments do not conflict with the superior king, but that’s a matter of time and judgment. And how you do that before the king, or before the authorities, is a matter of time and judgment, and a wise man will do the right thing. “Because,” he says in v 6, “to every purpose there is time and judgment, and therefore the misery of man is great upon him.” There’s always a right time, a right place, a right way. “Therefore” he says, the misery of man is great.” It should be “although the misery of man is great upon him.” No matter what the circumstances are, whether in misery or otherwise, there is a right time and a right place and a right way, and it is our wisdom to decide what that is, and when that should be.

 

Life is uncertain.

“For he knoweth not,” that is, man knoweth not  “that which shall be, for who can tell him when it shall be?” We don’t know the future you see, life is uncertain. This is a section now on uncertainty, this is the beginning, really of the section of wisdom. So V 8, he says, “there is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit. Neither hath he power in the day of death, and there is no discharge in that war, neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.” Four great maxims, he says concerning death. Four great limitations of mankind, in v 8. First, he has no power over the spirit, that is the spirit of life, life-force. Man can’t change the fact that we die. “If God chose to withdraw his spirit” there is nothing we can do to stop him. We have not control whatsoever over birth and death.  Secondly, he says, he can’t control the day of his death. Even if you know you are going to die and you resign yourself to that fact, when the day comes, you can’t delay it. If it is inconvenient, it is too bad, what will happen will happen. “And,” he says, “there is no discharge in that war.” The word ‘discharge’ here means ‘leave of absence.’ In a normal war, people do take leaves of absence. Soldiers will take leave during a war, but not in this war, not in the war of death. There is no discharge, you see, we are fighting a war. Listen to this commentator. “This is a realm in which every man must advance and advance alone. It is a single combat and every man in succession falls.” That’s the war. You only go one way. You never retreat, or take leave, and when it is your time to die, you die. That’s the war. “And” he says, “neither,” Number 4, “ shall wickedness deliver those who are given to it.” By fair means or foul, you cannot stop it, even the king will die. Death, you see, is the great leveller

 

There are many anomalies in life

And now, from v 9, we’ve just finished the end of a section. From v 9 to the end of Ch 8 we have this next section on God’s unattainable position, on the great oversight that God has on all of creation, and a resolution which he has placed upon man. You see, there are many anomalies in life, things that happen that shouldn’t happen, unfair things that happen that shouldn’t happen. Solomon tells us in Ch 7:13, “that life is designed like that, it has been deliberately made crooked,” he says, v 13 of Ch 7, and the reason for that in v 14 is that, well, God has put things in place to force man to consider his position before God. The problem is, the big problem is, that where anomalies occur in life, man exploits them, often at the expense of fellow man and often wickedly. And so in v 9-11 he gives us a picture. V9 he says, “There was a man who ruled other men to his hurt,” that is the ruler afflicts people. He rules over them to their hurt. In this case, it seems, that ruler is a priest, or associated with the temple somehow because in v 10 it tells us that this man used to come and go from the temple. Well then, he dies. And when he dies, he is buried and at his burial, every wicked thing that he has done was completely forgotten. “Every wicked thing he had done,” it says in v 10, was completely forgotten and of completely forgotten, and of course there would be great eulogies, you could imagine, how much he had done for this cause or for that cause, how good this man was in life.. he was an out and out criminal, but he was buried in peace. Where’s the justice. There is no justice in life for that man, he had got away with everything, but not quite, because v 11 says, “Just because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” The implication? Sentence will come. The wicked eventually will be judged. Don’t worry about injustice now, it will not go on forever, eventually the wicked will be judged. Then in vv 12-15, he gives another picture. There are two wicked men in this picture. One is extremely wicked, he does evil 100 times the record tells us, he lives to a good old age, events happen in his life and come upon him as though he were completely righteous. He lives a life of unmixed good and the other man is righteous, one that fears God and events come upon him in his life as though he was wicked. V 14, Solomon calls that “a great vanity,” he says this is a travesty, this is unjust, it is unfair, but v 13 says, “and judgment will come, and the wicked shall not prolong his days.”

 

Judgment will come

Judgment will come eventually, and when it does, it will come eternally. The vindication of the righteous, the righteous one day will be vindicated. Psa 58:10 “The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance, he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked so that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous, verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.” And that’s the great problem of Ecclesiastes, you see, because there was no judgment, there was no, apparent, justice to come, certainly none that appears in this life. And Solomon wrings his hands trying to solve those sorts of anomalies, and can’t. And can’t. He has got to invoke the next life. He’s got to look beyond the grave to solve those sorts of problems, which of course he doesn’t. Similarly of course, Rom 8:18 “I reckon,” he says, “that the sufferings of this present time” which might be unjust, which might be unfair, those sufferings “are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us.” There is redress, but it won’t come in this life, not necessarily in this life. Ecc 8:12, “It shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him.” And that’s his conclusion, you see. ‘Don’t worry, God does count everything, it is all under control, even though injustice might not be dealt with in this life. And his conclusion, therefore is in v 15. He says, well, “knowing this, I commended mirth because man has no better thing under the sun than to eat and to drink and to be merry, for that shall abide with him of his labour of the days of his life which God gives him under the sun.” The same conclusion, of course, we’ve met a number of times in Ecclesiastes.

 

Do not look for justice now

But now we have the definitive answer. ‘Don’t try and look for justice and equity in this life, you won’t find it,’ he says, ‘because God doesn’t plan to settle the score until the next life.’ So if you look for justice now, if you look for the solution to all the anomalies of life now, you will be eternally dissatisfied, you will be upset and depressed, because things aren’t going to be solved in this life. ‘But there is a God of judgment,’ he says, and so therefore he commends mirth. The word ‘mirth’ here means ‘happiness.’ ‘Be happy,’ he says, ‘be positive, enjoy the blessings that life brings, and don’t try to understand everything that happens, and why it happens.’ V 16, he say, at the end of the verse, “Look,” he says, “for also there is neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes.” He says, ‘I have worried myself sickle about this issue. I have stayed up night and day trying to resolve this issue, trying to fathom the nature of the problem and the solution to the problems of injustice, of iniquity, of anomaly in this life, it can’t be done. Remember Ecc 2:23, he said there “that a man’s days are sorrow and travail, his heart taketh not rest in the night. Solomon must have spent many, many nights on this quest, trying to investigate the problems of life, what caused them and what possibly can be done to rectify them. The problem is, that for some of us, it is just not in our power to rectify the problems of life. We might be in an unjust situation but there may be nothing at all that we can do about that. And he spent night after night trying to work out how to answer that question and couldn’t do it, there is no answer to that in this life. The problem is, as he goes on in V 17, “Well look,” he says, “I beheld all he work of God that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the son, because though a man,” that is, me, “labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it, yea, more than that, though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.” You just don’t have the facts. Ultimate wisdom is unattainable in this life.

 

There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked.

Well we we come to Ch 9 we investigate the next big issue, the second big issue now that Solomon has to try and wrestle with as he explains things in terms of wisdom. V 2 of Ch 9, he says, “Listen all things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good, the clean and the unclean, to him that sacrifices, to him that doesn’t sacrifice, to the good to the sinner, he that swears and he that fears an oath. There is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all, yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil and madness, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that, they go to the dead.” They go to the dead, he says.  And if the previous section can explain the ultimate the ultimate control that God has and the ultimate oversight that God as over everything, here is the ultimate helplessness of mankind. Whether we be righteous or wicked, we all suffer the effects of mortality. Whether we are godly or ungodly, we all suffer the effects of mortality. “We shall all die,” he says. You might expect that the spectre of death hanging over the population of today of any day, might make man more serious. The fact that man knows that he is going to die, that there is no solution to the problem of mortality, that perhaps man might be more serious, he might take life more seriously. He might look at religion. Not true, is it. It is not true, why isn’t it true? He says here, look, “the sons of men,” in V 3, “there lives are full of evil, madness is in their heart while they live, then they die.” They know they are going to die but they don’t change it even, they live a mad foolish life. The word “madness” means ‘folly.’ All he wants to do is to eat, drink, to be merry, to die, and die happy, die merry. And if that’s shorter, well that’s probably better. Doesn’t want to learn the truth, because that involves sacrifice, you see? And he wants all of his blessings now. Hopeless.

 

This is your portion

Verses 4-10 then describe the article of death, that death is a cessation, there is no work, there is no device, there is no knowledge there is no wisdom in the grave and therefore he concludes in V 7, and here is our exhortational section you remember, the ‘thee’s’ and the ‘thy’s, look V 7-10 is an exhortational  section to the believers. “Go thy way eat thy bread with joy, drink thy wine with a merry heart, because God now accepteth thy works,” he says. God accepteth thy works. Literally it means, God approves of what you are going to do. And what you are going to do is to go your way, eat bread with joy and drink wine with a merry heart. It does not mean you can embark on levity or frivolity, because he goes on in V 8, “that your garments should be white, and your head should lack no ointment.” And white garments are obvious in Scripture aren’t they, Rev 19:8 tell us that “fine linen, clean and white is the righteousness of the saints” and in Isaiah Ch 1:18 he says, “Though your sins be as scarlet, yet they shall be white as snow.” White is the colour of righteousness. And so he is saying, enjoy all the blessings that life brings in V 7 but live a godly life in V 8. Keep your garments pure, 1 Tim 4:3. “God has created these things to be received with thanksgiving, by them which believe and know the truth.” And therefore V 9, he says, “Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of thy life of thy vanity, which he has given the under he sun, all the days of thy vanity for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun,” and once again, you’ve got these same kinds of words in V 9 as you found back in Ch 8:15. This is your portion. This is the gift of God. This is the divine blessing for the here and now. The conclusion which he has made, chapter after chapter, maybe half a dozen or eight times in the book of Ecclesiastes, these words or very similar words to this occur. But because he is talking about death, life and death, he doesn’t just say, ‘enjoy your labour’ he also tells you to enjoy the lives of those you love, be it your wife, or any one you love of course. And the verse just can’t be limited to marriage can it, because David had a friend in 2 Sam 1:26, whose love to him was so wonderful he says, that it passed even the love of women, and David wrote that verse as a married man. Married in fact to Jonathan’s sister. So enjoy those whom you love. Enjoy your lives together, with your ecclesia. With your family, with those you love.

 

Time and Chance

And then he concludes the section with two most intriguing verses, Vv 11 and 12. “I returned,” he says, “and I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favour to men of skill, but time and chance happens to them all. For a man also knows not his time as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, as the birds that are caught in a snare, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time when if falleth

upon them.” What is it talking about? Well in V 11, it talks about time and chance. The word ‘time’ an unknown or unexpected moment, that’s what a time is, an unknown or unexpected moment. And a ‘chance,’ a chance is an unpredictable event, or an accident. And so he says, very simply, unpredictable things happen at unforeseen times, to everyone under the sun. And the question has been raised then, ‘Well, if time and chance applies to those under the sun, which of course is what it says in the early words of V 11, time and chance applies to those under the sun, does it apply to the saints or not?’ Are we subject to time and chance. You will remember we made the distinction in an earlier talk, between the world and the ecclesia. Between those who are under the sun, and those that see the sun. We highlighted certain sections of the record based on the words ‘thee’ and ‘thy,’ ‘thou,’ exhortational  sections which are spoken to the brethren, none of which include the words “under the sun.” So are we, brothers and sisters, are we under time and chance or aren’t we? What Solomon does in this chapter here is he describes life “under the sun,” and when he does that, he is referring simply to natural moral life of which we are all a part, and in that sense, the saints are just as much “under the sun” as everyone else is “under the sun.” The difference, of course, with the saints is that for the world, their sole dominion is “under the sun.” Our sole dominion is not “under the sun.” We live “under the sun” now but we “see the sun.” We know what life is about and we know what life offers, what it doesn’t offer, and that death is not the end in that sense. So whilst we live “under the sun,” in this mortality, we do “see the sun,” we are subjected to all the vagaries of human life. Our lives are just as broken as everyone else’s life. Anomalies occur in our lives just like they do for anyone else, but that is not all that occurs in our lives, but it is all that occurs in the lives of the world. And if you want to see the proof of that, you know I said Vv 7-10 are this is an exhortational section, and you will see the word “thy” occurs all the way through this section. Well this is an exhortational section but he has made an exception here because in V 9 he talks about the saints living “under the sun.” Twice the phrase “under the sun” occurs in V 9. It is the only verse in Ecclesiastes where he is making an exhortational point to the believers, where he uses the words “under the sun,’ because, of course, death does happen to all men. As he said in V 2, “clean or unclean, wise or fools, righteous or unrighteous, death comes upon all. It is a feature of life “under the sun.” Well then the question arises, if that’s true, how do we explain providence? What part does providence play? I think the the best definition is in the “Ways of Providence.” This is what he says, “There is such a thing as chance as distinct from what God does. The Bible declares this in Eccl 9:11, and the experience of every day teaches it. Every moment teams with the incidence of chance; the whirl of a cloud of dust, before the windy dust coming around the corner of he house illustrates the point, perhaps at my house or my next door neightbour’s house. It is a chance event, and the dust might be identical around both of our houses. God has control of all chance, but all chance is not controlled,” and that is the point. When God controls chance, we call it providence, but when he allows the world run according to the natural laws he has set up, then it is not providence. Of course God could change the laws. God made the laws in the beginning,  he can interfere whenever he likes, but once he has set the thing in motion he doesn’t have to consciously make every little flower grow, it grows because of laws which have already been established. His purpose does not require him to decide which shell a child will pick up on the seashore and which shell the child will leave unless it is necessary in the purpose being worked out, and then the hand of the child will be guided. I think that explains the difference between chance and providence. Chance, therefore, happens to all of us but providence also happens to those in the Truth, or coming to the truth. It doesn’t, necessarily, at all happen to those in the world who have no interest. The fools, who live their life in folly and evil and in the madness that he described earlier on in this chapter.

 

Ultimate wisdom is unattainable and limited by man’s mortality.

Well now, having explained the purpose of life here in Ch 9, and the uncertainties of life contained, Solomon now turns back to the practical consideration of wisdom. Ch 8:16-17, in a couple of verses there he explains that ultimate wisdom was unattainable. You just can’t understand the things that God knows and wisdom therefore is limited by man’s capacity. Ch 9:1-12 we’ve just looked at, wisdom is limited by man’s mortality. Mortality itself limits our wisdom, there is only so much we will ever learn in life and it takes time to learn things, and our lives are finite, and you just can’t possibly learn everything anyway, even if we could contain it. And then from Vv 13-18 the last half a dozen verses of this chapter, he says, Wisdom is limited by man’s estimation, that’s why so few people seek the truth, you see. This most precious commodity is undervalued by most of mankind and he says, look, I will tell you a story, it is a classic illustration of the vanity of life as we see it in Vv 11 and 12. V 13, “This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me. I was most impressed with the futility of this. There was a little city, and a few men within it. There came a great king against that city and he besieged it and he built great bulwarks against it. But there was found in that city a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered this city from the siege, yet no man remembered that same poor man. Then said I, wisdom is better than strength, nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not heard.  A classic illustration of the vanity of Ch 9:11, because in this case, the battle wasn’t to the strong as it says in V 11, because wisdom prevailed over strength. Neither was bread to the wise, because after this city was delivered, nobody remembered the one who delivered the city. Neither were their riches to them of understanding because the poor man remained poor. He was forgotten, after he had done this great deliverance and saved the city, completely forgotten. And so, of course, V 11 came absolutely true for him, and in all these categories he did not succeed, even though he’d delivered the city.

 

One sinner can destroy much good

Now we don’t know which event Solomon is talking about when he writes these words, it is probably I suppose that he is citing a specific event that happened in his life. The other point of course is that nobody remembered it, so he possibly could not even name the names anyway, but there is a remarkable example in Scripture of an even just like this, but it is not this event, because it was a woman who delivered this city. It was the siege of Abel Beth Maarka, in 2 Sam 20:15. And Joab came against the city and he besieged it, he dug a trench around it, he even brought ramps up against the walls of that city to knock it down. And a wise woman cries out from the city, “Joab,” she says, “why are you going to destroy a mother in Israel?” “Oh, far be it from me,” says Joab, “far be it from me to touch anyone, I just want Sheba the son of Bikri.” Well, you know the story, “You want Sheba?” Well over comes the head, doesn’t it, by lunch time the army was gone. This woman, 2 Sam 20:15 in this city, delivered everything, who knows if that woman was ever remembered. Scripture never records her name. As far as Scripture is concerned, she was just a “wise woman,” a mother in Israel, she called herself, but no hint of who she might have been, and I suppose a generation or two she was forgotten. You see, wisdom is under-valued, and so are the people who possess it. Everybody, everybody was very, very happy with that poor man when he delivered the city, but after the deed was done, who wanted to hear what that poor man said? Who do people want to hear from? Well they want to hear from all the people in V 11, they want to hear from the fastest, they want to hear from the strongest, the richest, the most skilful, they don’t want to hear from the wisest, do they? Look at all the personalities who have the ear of the world, the ear of the media, who are they? Athletes, actors. There are very few people who ever want to hear wisdom because it is under-valued. It is worth a fortune, but it is grossly under-valued. But there are some and you read of them in V 17, “The words of wise men” it says, “are heard in quiet, more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools. Isa 42:2  this is exactly what Christ said, Isa 42:2, tells us “Behold my servant whom I uphold, he shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street,” and where did the Lord take his disciples to teach them? To a desert place, up the top of a mountain. To a little house in Bethany, didn’t he? The still small voice, you see, he operated, he spoke to their hearts, didn’t cry in the streets, talked to them quietly. You want to have a classic illustration of the cry of him that rules among fools? Turn on your radio, what would you hear? You would hear the Parliamentary debate, an absolute fulfilment of the stupidity of those people and I don’t think I’d be wrong on any day you might listen. V 18, “Wisdom,”he says, “is better than weapons of war,” amply demonstrated by that poor wise man which is why the Apostle Paul says in 2 Cor 10:4, “that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong-holds.” They are the weapons of our warfare, they are what really takes down cities. The wisdom of the word, enormously powerful, but as powerful as wisdom is, as enormously powerful as wisdom is, there is one thing that is more powerful, V 18, “One sinner destroys much good.” Wisdom can overcome weapons of war, but sin can overcome is. and this is an example, I think, very possibly from Solomon’s own life. There was a man, Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who was renowned for wickedness. He made Israel to sin, twenty times, twenty different kings of the north, are spoken of in Scripture as being influenced by Jeroboam the son of Nebat. When Josiah came to rule, it tells us that the altars that were at Bethel and the high places, which Jeroboam the son of Nebat who had made Israel to sin had made, he tore them all down. “One sinner destroys much good” saith Solomon the son of David. Only two verses earlier Josiah had a problem with him as well, you see? Because the high places that were before Jerusalem on the right of the Mount of Corruption, on Olivet, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashteroth, for Chemosh and for Milcom, did the king defile, 2 Kgs 23:13. And as wicked as Jeroboam the son of Nebat was, and as much good as he destroyed, is directly paralleled by the work of Solomon himself. One sinner, how many generations later was that, and Solomon’s work is still effective is still effective to his infamy on the Mount of Corruption. One sinner, surely destroys much good.

 

The effect of sin is disproportional

The problem is, of course, with sin, it has got a disproportional effect. In the natural, it is far easier to destroy something than to build. If you want to build a house, it might take you three months. If you want to destroy it, it might take you a day. It might take you less than a day. That’s what sin’s like compared with working isn’t it. Think of the tongue in Jas Ch 3:5, “How great a matter,” he says, “a little fire kindleth. The tongue is a world of iniquity,” just the smallest member does far the most damage. Far easier to destroy than to build and such in a vastly disproportionate ratio. But tragically, as Ch 10:1 shows us, folly isn’t just restricted to sinners. It isn’t just sinners who do foolish things, sometimes even wise men do foolish things themselves. And therefore, what is true of the sinner in a collective sense, is true of the wise man in a personal sense. “Dead flies,” he says, “causes the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour. So does a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and for honour,” and you see the link, of course, with Ch 9:18, “One sinner destroys much good,” one misdeed destroys much reputation. The problem I suppose, the real tragedy f this verse is that wise men most often stand for principles. They most often stand for a cause which is good, and when the wise mind embarrasses himself, he also embarrasses his cause. He devalues everything he stands for. That’s human nature, it evaluates things like that. It is a great tragedy that one misdemeanour can, in fact, discredit an entire cause which otherwise might be absolutely just and good, but the wise man has besmirched his reputation and devalued the cause that he stands for.

 

We looked at this verse last Sunday, so I won’t speaks about it any more, but I will offer you one reference on it which is interesting, because it speaks directly of the issue of the verse, Gen 34:30. After Simeon and Levi smote all the men of Shechem, what did Jacob say? “You’ve troubled me,” he said “and have made me to stink among the inhabitants of the land because of what you have done.” “You’ve made me to stink, amongst the inhabitants of the land because of what you have done.” That is exactly the issue of this verse, isn’t it? His reputation was completely degraded. But if a wise man is truly wise, then he will see to it that he doesn’ let himself down, so verse 2 goes on and says, listen, “the wise man’s heart is at his right hand but the fools heart is at his left.” The right hand side, of course, is associated with strength, with dexterity. It is the place of acceptance at judgment, it is the right hand side of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matt 25. Psa 16:18 tells us, “I have set Yahweh always before me, because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved.” The point is, a wise man knows where his heart is at all times, and his emotions are under control at all times, his heart performs properly at all times. The fool, in contrast, is undisciplined, undexterous, erratic, he can’t control himself. So therefore, V 3, “Also” he said, “when he that is a fool walketh by the way his wisdom fails him, and he says to everyone that he is a fool.” Fools can’t hide their folly, it is impossible. Prov 13:16, “Every prudent man deals with knowledge, but the fool lays open his folly.” He can’t help himself. He doesn’t see any reason for self-control, he’s never wrong, anyone else who tries to correct him, well they are just a fool, he really is uncontrollable. And a classic example, of course, of the need for self-control, is when you are in the presence of someone who can control you, V 4, “If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place, for yielding pacifies great offences.” So the king is angry with you, and perhaps the king is a fool, what do you do? “Leave not thy place,” he says, or as it literally means, “don’t tender your resignation,” “do not quit,” because yielding pacifies. Obviously Prov 15:1, “A soft answer turneth away wrath,” but what about this one? Prov 19:11, “The discretion of a man defers his anger, and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.” “The discretion of a man defers his anger, and it is his glory to passover a transgression,” Prov 19:11.  

 

Folly set in dignity is a great evil

Now V 5-7, Solomon goes on to makes an observation about foolish kings. “I’ve seen an evil,” he says, “under the sun, as an error which proceeds from the ruler. Folly set in great dignity, the rich sitting in low places. I’ve seen servants upon horses and princes walking as servants upon the earth. Four incongruities he names here. Four big problems, the first one. “Folly being set in great dignity.” A fool ruler. The second one, “the rich, the rich,” he says, “in low places.” ‘Rich’ here meaning ‘noble, or wealthy,’ in this context, in contrast to the fool, they would be wise. Probably people well-bred, capable, aristocrats. The third problem, “servants riding on horses.” And the fourth problem, “princes walking as servants.”  And the problem, you see, with foolish kings, is that they promote their friends. Rehoboam did it, a foolish king, promoting his friends, split the kingdom, split the kingdom straight away. Prov 30:22, “For three things the earth is disquieted and for four which it cannot bear. A servant when he reigned and a fool when he is filled with meat.” The earth can’t bear it he says, it is contrary to nature, it is a disruption, and it won’t last for long. Remarkably, you know, in the book of Esther, we’ve got a number of links with this very situation, because there was a fool set in dignity and his name was Haman. And there was a man of very low degree, but a very, very worthy man, called Mordecai. He was a man who, of course, was recorded in the kings annals as a faithful man, loyal to the king, and the  demise of Haman resulted in the servant being on horseback led by the prince, didn’t it. You see the principle behind these verses is that we have got here a reversal of the proper order, and whenever that happens there is going to be a problem, there is going to be consequences. The earth is disquieted, nature can’t bear these sorts of things. It won’t stay like that for long.

 

The consequences of Sin

Vv 8-11 now talk about those consequences. “He that digs a pit shall fall into it. Whoso breaketh a hedge, a servant shall bite him.”  Any malicious or vindictive intent often recoils upon the person who institutes it. And the illustration of the previous verse, Haman was hung on his own gallows, it happened, didn’t it. It happened exactly as he planned it. “Whoso diggeth a pit, he shall fall into it.” His own gallows were used for him, and he goes on. He says, “Whoso breaks the hedge, the serpent shall bite him.” In the Middle East, in ancient times, in Bible times, houses, fields, they were in many cases hedged with stone walls, broad, quite low stones walls. If a vindictive neighbour decided to kick down the wall, there is a very good chance he would get bitten by one of the many snakes that took habitation in those walls. It is cause and effect, that is the likely thing to occur. Prov 5:22,”His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins,” Prov 5:22. And he goes on in V 9, “Look,” he says, “whoso removeth a stone shall be hurt therewith, and he that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby.” Quarrying and axemanship are dangerous jobs. A quarried stone could fall upon you. The  head of the axe could come off. A splinter could come upon you, you could kill someone, you could cut yourself, dangerous activities have dangerous consequences. You can quarry rock, or you could cut wood, in either a wise or a foolish manner. V 10, he says, “If the iron be blunt,” that is the axe head “ be blunt and ye do not whet” or sharpen the edge, “then you must put to more strength, but wisdom is profitable to direct.” The application is obvious isn’t it? Wisdom and planning is better than brute force. You should take thought about what you do before you do it, so that you do it the best way.

 

Can you see the relationship between V 10 and V 6? A blunt axe to the axe man is like a fool in great dignity, all brute force and no skill. These are not verses about how o cut down trees or how to take rocks out of the hillside, these are verses about people aren’t they. And here has in V 11 a counter balance, “Surely,” he says, “the serpent will bite without enchantment, and a babbler is no better.” The NIV says this, “If the snake bites before it is charmed, there is no profit to the charmer.” The babbler here, as the margin says, is the “master of the tongue,” the snake charmer. It appears that before they played flutes or pipes to charm snakes, they made noises with their tongues, and tried to charm the snake that way. The point is, of course, it doesn’t really matter how skilful you are, if the snake bites you, if you are not quick enough to charm the snake and the snake bites you, you are dead. The point? Preparation is essential, but not procrastination. If you spend all day sharpening the axe, you’ll never get any wood cut, you see? This is the counterbalance to planning as recorded in V 10. And a wise man, you see, has to balance all these issues, brothers and sisters and young people, we are living in a world subject to time and chance. Things might not always go our way. Life is short, perhaps shorter than we understand. There is a need for care, there is a need for preparation, there is a need for planning, there is a need for foresight. But these verses are not telling us about how to cut wood, they are talking about far more serious issues of life, aren’t they?

 

The contrast between the words of the wise and the words of the fool

Vv 12-15 now, illustrate the contrast between the wise and the fool by the way they speak. V 12 says that “the words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious,” and that’s all it says in this section about the wise man’s speech. You read of the fool in V 12, the foolishness in V 13, fool V 14, the foolish V 15. The fool begins with stupidity, and ends, in V 13 with mischievous madness. V 14 says that “the fool is full of words. A man cannot tell what shall be and what shall be after him, who can tell him.” He thinks he knows the future, he thinks he knows how everything is going to turn out, you can’t reason with him. Prov 18:2, “A fool has no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.” All he wants to hear is what he thinks, he is delighted by his own opinions, his own prognostications, Prov 15:2, “The tongue of the wise uses knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness. He can’t help himself, can he? He’s out of control. And you know, at some point, all the wisdom of the Bible, all the books of wisdom in the Bible turn to speak of the tongue. James says, the tongue is like the rudder of a ship, it is just a tiny little member, but it turns the whole body and the tongue controls everything, really. The fact is that our speech is the acid test of our wisdom. “The wise man’s words,” he says here in V 12, “are gracious.” “The fools words”  in V 14 are “wicked madness.” Matt 12:34, Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks,” and in Luke 4:22, in the synagogue of Nazareth, he himself, it tells us, they all bear him witness and “they wondered at the gracious words which came forth from his mouth,” because they were the words of a wise man in V 12.

 

The effect of poor leadership

Well the final few verses of this chapter talk about the risk of poor leadership of the nation. V 16, he says, “Woe to thee O land when thy king is a child and thy princes eat in the morning.” It is trouble if the king is a child and he hasn’t got the right perspective about what has to be done in the kingdom. Joash, you know, took the throne when he was only one year old but it went well with him all the years of Jehoida. He was a young king, but he had a superintendent and things went fine for Joash while Jehoida was alive, until Jehoida died. Manasseh took the throne at 12 years old, had no one to help him, corruption immediately. Absolute corruption immediately. And it is for that reason, of course, that the Apostle Paul says to Timothy, in 1 Tim 5:22, “Lay hands on no man suddenly.” 1 Tim 3:6, don’t choose a novice, he says, because he won’t see the seriousness of the issues, he won’t address them quickly, or he will be elevated in the position he is in and become a fool. He won’t stop the princes in V 17 from taking liberties, he won’t maintain a house in V 18, and because he’s got a lot of money in V 19 he’ll abuse things that are put into his care, and he will spend the inheritance. You can’t have a young king, the nation will not go well with a young and inexperienced king.

 

A warning against indiscretion

Man’s the last verse of the chapter is probably the most famous of all, you know. This is wisdom in thought, this is the warning against indiscretion. “Curse not the king,” he says, “ no, not in thy thought and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber for a bird of the air shall carry the voice and that which has wings shall tell the matter.” At least two common sayings have sprung from this verse, the first one would be that “a little bird has told me,” and it has come directly from this verse, and the second one most  probably is that “the walls have ears.” And we are reminded, of course, of the incident in 2 Kgs Ch 6:12 where the king of Assyria was continually frustrated by the fact that Elisha knew the very words he spoke in his bed chamber. Bed chamber, here is the most private room of your life. The most private room in your house, the most private room in your life. That’s the place where you let your guard down totally, that’s the place where you tell all your heart. He says, “Be careful.” Be careful for two reasons, firstly, it might not be as private as you thought, the walls might have ears.  A little bird might fly in and fly out and take your message away with it. And secondly, of course, it is not healthy to do that. It is not healthy to become embittered. Sooner or late you will damage yourself. Sooner or later your heart will be revealed by your tongue. Instead as Matt 6:6 says, the Lord said, “Go to your closet, shut the door, pray to your Father in secret, and your father which sees in secret shall reward you openly.” And with that, brothers and sisters and young people, Solomon concludes his reasoning upon wisdom, his estimation of the value of wisdom, of the use of wisdom. All he has to do now in Chs 11 and 12, and conclude with what this means to us in life. So what have we found tonight? Well some very simple things. Firstly we live in a world of time and chance, it is inevitable that things won’t always go our way. When they do, rejoice, rejoice when things go our way. When they don’t then draw close to God in prayer and pray for the good that he might bring ultimately out of those things. And then, don’t try and fathom why things go like they go, all the whys and wherefore of life; all the anomalies, all the discontinuities of life. Don’t try and work them out, you will never ever get to the bottom of them, you can never find solutions to unfairness and injustice in this life. It just may be beyond your power, or beyond the power of those who are subject to it, but be comforted, simply, by this fact, that there is a God of judgment, and it shall be well with thee that fear Yahweh. In the meantime, live heartily, live enthusiastically, enjoy the blessings of life, that life brings, that life provides and enjoy the company of those you love. Be consistent in life, remember how much easier it is to tear down than to build. Remember how damaging the tongue can be and how easily a good reputation can be tarnished. Keep your heart at your right hand. And finally, seek wisdom, pursue it, apply it, and don’t under value it, that our faces might all shine with the enlightenment it brings, that we might truly be people that see the sun.

 

Transcription by Fay Berry 2017.