To discover:
As you read consider how we
are encouraged to cope with the injustices of life.
To ponder:
The teacher
continues his explanation of what is “better” in this life: the aroma of a good
name (righteousness) over that of a good perfume (wealth); death rather than
birth, because it can mean freedom from suffering; mourning rather than
feasting, because it keeps us mindful of our own mortality and so more likely
to live wisely in the light of it; and to heed a wise man’s rebuke rather than
listen to the idle song of fools, which are good for nothing just as crackling
thorns give off no heat (7v1-6).
Proverbs follow: Bribes can corrupt
the wise, turning them into a fool. It is better to be patient and slow to
anger because it is better when problems are resolved than begun. It isn’t wise
to say the past was better than the present for, as we’ve seen, nothing really
changes. Wisdom is then commended by its benefits in sheltering the individual
like a financial inheritance, keep their life relatively safe from the ups and
downs that might come (7v7-12). The fixity of God’s purposes is also noted:
No-one can straighten what he has made crooked. So we should be happy in good
times, but note that God has determined the bad times too, and we just cannot
know what is going to come to us in the future (7v13-14). As throughout the
book, this is a strong affirmation that God purposes all that happens for his
own reasons. And the teacher doesn’t duck this, going on to observe how the
righteous sometimes perish and the wicked live long. In the light of his
concern that God is feared, 7v16-18 can’t imply we shouldn’t be righteous. More
likely, they condemn those who are self-righteous and arrogantly consider
themselves wise. The point is that this, as well as being excessively wicked
and foolish, brings death under judgement. So we should take firm hold of our
tendency to both these things out of fear of God. As if to counter any pride,
the teacher then notes that although the wise can be extremely powerful, this
doesn’t mean they are absolutely righteous. In fact, no-one is free of sin, and
this would be born out by listening to what people say about us. Indeed, deep
down we all know we have been cursed many times for things we’ve done
(7v19-22).
At this point the teacher humbly
acknowledges his own limits: he had considered all these things by the wisdom
he had, determined to be wise. But he has now realised understanding all these
things was ultimately beyond him. This is the right perspective when unable to
fathom God’s purposes in the world. Knowing this, the teacher limited his
investigation to simply understanding what is wise in terms of the way life
actually is (the scheme of things), and understanding how stupid and insane it
is to follow wickedness and folly (7v23-25). Here he highlights the woman who
ensnares the sinner (probably the adulteress or a prostitute) as worse than
death, no doubt because of the damage she brings and the judgement the sinner
ultimately experiences (7v26). He adds that he has found only one man in a
thousand upright, and even less women, concluding that although God made us in
Adam upright, we have veered off into many sinful schemes. And so he commends
wisdom to navigate this sort of world, affirming how it is good, brightening
the wise man’s face – ie. granting them peace and happiness (7v27-8v1).
Reflections on government (the king)
follow. A ruler should be respectfully and submissively obeyed, out of
allegiance to God (8v2). Quickly leaving a king’s presence may suggest a lack
of readiness to listen to him. The teacher probably has a courtier in mind, who
made an oath to the king, but all government is to be obeyed in this way (Rom
13v1-7). Yet there is caution too: The reader is advised not to join the king
in standing for a bad cause, even though unable to question what he is doing.
But he is to be diplomatic in how he does this. Knowing that it is obeying the
king that guarantees safety, he must pick his time and manner of broaching the
issue carefully, even if it weighs him down. And he must be realistic, death
may result, as no-one can control that (8v3-8). Verse 8 may suggest that if the
king is wicked, he won’t stop being so when spoken to, and so may bring about
the death of the supplicant. Nevertheless, despite rulers hurting those they
lord over, wicked hypocrites being given honourable burials as if righteous,
crime multiplying because courts don’t carry out their sentences, and major
criminals enjoying long life, the teacher is confident that God-fearers will
receive good from God, and it won’t ultimately go well with the wicked. In
this, he therefore looks to the final judgement for comfort in the face of the
injustices of this world, where the righteous get what the wicked deserve and
vice-versa (8v9-14). And in the meantime, he once more commends enjoying, food,
drink and work (8v15).
The teacher’s humble acceptance of
God’s ways continues: Having observed man’s toil and all God has done, he
concludes none can fathom the meaning of it all, even those who claim to be
wise (8v16-17). All he knows is that the righteous and wise are in God’s hands,
but unable to know what they will face – whether love from others or hatred.
All they do know is that they will die just as the unclean sinner who offers no
worship to God (9v1-2). This is the great evil (ie. injustice) of life,
together with the fact that men in general are full of evil and madness as to
what they do (9v3). Nevertheless, on this matter life is better than death,
because the living know they will die and can still enjoy the reward of sharing
in the simple pleasures. By contrast, the deeds of the dead have passed, they
are forgotten, and their opportunity to make the most of their life is gone
(9v4-6). The author therefore continues describing the enjoyment of food and
wine as stemming from the favour of God, and adding the joys of celebration
(ie. dressing in linen and using oil as a cosmetic) and marital love (9v7-9).
With the satisfaction of hard work, these things are our lot in this life, to
be enjoyed now, before our opportunity has passed through death, or through
time and chance, which often mean the deserving aren’t rewarded, nor the wise,
who can achieve much, remembered (9v10-16).
Praying it
home:
Praise God for his
kindness in giving much to offset the trials of life. Pray that you would
delight in the fellowship of food and drink, the joy of celebrations and of
marital love as demonstrations of God’s favour to you.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
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