A Commentary in Simple English on Ecclesiastes

Chapter 7 What wisdom can do

Verses 1-12 Good, better, best again

In these verses the Teacher uses some more wise sayings or ‘proverbs’. Much of this chapter is like this. Some of these sayings set out the idea that one thing is ‘better’ than another thing. This does not mean that one thing is good and that another thing is bad. Sometimes it only means that two things are both bad. One of them is worse than the other.

So first in verse 1 we have the picture of a jar of good oil. The Hebrew word was ‘semen’. This oil had a good smell no doubt. Wealthy people loved that sort of thing. Really it was not much use. A good ‘name’ is better than that. (See Proverbs 22:1.) The Hebrew word for ‘name’ is ‘sem’. We like people to honour our name or ‘reputation’. Even so, it may not do us much good. In the same way, the day when we die is better than the day when we are born.

Christians can agree with that. See Philippians 1:21-23; and 2 Corinthians 5:1-8. We are born into a life that is full of trouble. We die with the hope of glory. (Verse 2) The wise man will learn much about life if he joins people who sorrow over the death of someone they love. In the ‘house of feasting’ people have a jolly party. Perhaps (verse 1) this is because a baby has been born. The wise man knows that he will not learn much there. Psalm 90:12 is rather like the second half of verse 2. (Verse 3) Here we may think about John 16:20 and 2 Corinthians 4:17. We may be happy before we pass through sorrow. We shall feel real joy only after we have passed through sorrow. Joy is better than happiness. (Verse 4) The wise man thinks at least as much about death as about life. Sadness makes us ready for joy.

We shall still find the word ‘better’ in verses 5-12. Yet for a while we leave behind the thought of life and death. The sayings in these verses have more to do with wisdom and the good it can do us.

So (verse 5) it is never easy to listen to someone who tells us that we are wrong. If it is a wise man, it is not quite so hard. If we feel that the person who speaks to us is silly, it is very hard to listen to him. It is better to be ‘told off’ by one wise man than to listen to many fools when they sing together. See, for example, Proverbs 13:1. Dry sticks or thorns (verse 6) will burn well. They make a lot of heat. It does not last long, though. Very quickly, the fire dies down again. (Psa 58:9; Isa 64:2) There is noise and some heat, but it does not last long. That is a picture of ‘the laughter of fools’. It is empty. Someone has put it like this: -

‘The crackling of nettles under the kettle’

or like this: - ‘Crackling stubble makes the pot bubble’.

In verse 7 it seems perhaps that the wise man has listened too much to the ‘fools’. He is quite wrong now. He lets people give him money or ‘bribes’. He helps the people who give him money. He starts to do what is wrong. He will not help the poor people who cannot give him money. He no longer does what is wise and good. The man who loses his wisdom loses far more than the man that he wrongs does. [7.1]

For verse 8, see 1 Kings 20:11. Verses 8 and 9 together give us the picture of two men. One man is wise. He waits to see what it is that God will do. So he is ‘patient’. He does not become angry. The other man is proud. He thinks that he knows what God ought to do. He cannot wait for God to do things in His own way. This man soon gets angry. ‘The end’ in verse 8 may mean death. ‘The beginning’ then would mean ‘birth’. ‘Patience’ is ‘length of spirit’. ‘Pride’ is ‘height of spirit’.

Verse 10 tells us something that is most useful. There are some questions that we will not ask if we are wise. If you ask a silly question, you will get a silly answer. Here people ask the question: ‘Why were the days that have passed better than the present time?’ The Teacher does not even try to find an answer. If anyone asks the question, it only makes the present time worse. The person who asks the question does not know just how bad the past was. We should rather work to make the present time better. It is the glory of a Christian to be good in bad times.

Let us make sure that the questions that we ask are wise questions. And may the Lord give us wisdom to know when a question is foolish. Such questions do not deserve an answer.

Verse 11 may mean either ‘Wisdom with an inheritance’ or ‘Wisdom like an inheritance’. The word ‘inheritance’ may mean wealth which is yours already and which no one can take away. Or it may mean wealth which will one day be yours, perhaps when someone else dies. In any case, both this wisdom and wealth do people good. They gain from them if they have them. Yet this is only true as long as they ‘see the sun’. Once they die, they gain nothing from their wisdom or their wealth.

In verse 12 ‘money’ is silver again. There were no coins in use. People used pieces of silver instead. Both wisdom and silver are like a ‘shelter’ or ‘protection’. The Teacher really says that they are a ‘shadow’. They keep the great heat of the sun off. Both wisdom and silver can make life more easy and pleasant. Yet wisdom or ‘knowledge’ can do something for us that ‘silver’ cannot do. Wisdom can give ‘life’ to the man who has it.

One of the great problems that the Teacher had is seen here. He worried about the early death of a good or wise man. The heathen used to say: ‘Those whom the gods love, die young’. But the Teacher saw the blessing of God in a long life. He saw God’s blessing in the honour people gave to a man when he died.

For the Christian, there should be no problem here. Life may be long. Life may be short. In either case, our God will always be with us. We may die soon or late. When we die, God will receive us in glory. (Psa 73:24) Whether life is short or long, God’s will is best.

Verses 13-29 God’s work

It is not easy to find thoughts and ideas that bring these verses together. Yet they begin and end with the thought of God’s work. Perhaps we should look for the thought of God’s work in all these verses.

So at the start of verse 13, the Teacher tells us to think about what God has done. As Christians, we believe that God is wise. God loves us. He knows about us. Sometimes we find something in life that is crooked or not straight. It is very difficult. We would like to change it. We cannot. We just have to say that God has His reasons. He knows. Now this is better than what many people would do. They would blame a blind ‘Fate’ or mere chance. That is no help or comfort to them. So we should think first about what God is like. Then after that we can think about what he does.

Verse 14 fills out this thought. It is God’s work to make both the ‘good times’ and the ‘bad times’. We should enjoy the good times. In the ‘bad times’ we have to think: ‘This is still God’s work’. So at the end of the verse, the Teacher says: ‘I may think about these things. But I cannot be sure that I will find an answer. Things that do not seem to agree with each other are all God’s work’. When we look at this life, we find more questions than answers. That is because we look at this life. We should look up to God. We should never find fault with what He does. We must trust Him.

The Teacher will use the words ‘find’ and ‘found’ (or ‘discover’) often in verses 24-29.

In verse 15 we find the problem which we spoke about at verse 12. The Teacher has seen a really good man who died while he was still young. He has seen a really bad man who lived to old age. God rules the world. Yet He does not always give a good man a long life. God does not always take away the life of a bad man while he is still young.

So in verses 16 and 17, the Teacher tells us what some people might say. This is: - ‘Do not be too good and wise or you may die young. If you are really bad, that may not lead to long life’. Of course, people who think like that are not really good or wise. Another way to think about verses 16 and 17 is like this: -

Do not be too righteous.

Do not be too wise

- or you may ‘burn yourself out’.

Do not be too wicked.

Do not be...silly.

So it could mean: ‘ It is even worse to be silly than to be too righteous, too wise, or too wicked’. Or better, it could mean: ‘ It is silly to talk like that. You cannot be too righteous or too wise. You must not be wicked.’

Verse 18 probably means that a man who fears God will do his duty to both good men and bad men. [7.2]

Verses 19 to 22 speak about the power of wisdom and about ways in which we fail. In verse 19, the ten rulers are the men who rule the city. They meet together. They talk about the problems of the city. They have to agree with each other. If they do not agree, nothing will be done. So they all have to give up some of their ideas. At the end, what they agree may not be much good. It is a ‘compromise’. It is rather weak. Then there is one wise man. We do not know whether he is inside the city or outside. He does not have to talk to other people. He knows just what he wants. He knows how to get it. He knows the ten rulers in the city do not agree with each other. So he will use some of them to get his own way. His ‘wisdom’ makes him strong. (See 9:13 and Proverbs 24:5 -6.)

(Verse 20) A righteous man who always did what was right and never sinned would have a special power and authority. No one could ever find fault with what he did. As it is, all righteous men fail sometimes. So we always look at what they do to make sure that they are right.

Christians know that there is one righteous man who never sins. This is Jesus. He always does what is right. So He has that special power and authority.

Verses 21 and 22 go together. The teaching of Jesus in Matthew 7:1 and 2 and again in 7:12 is like this. The wise man has often ‘cursed’ or wished harm to others. It may only have been in his mind. He may not have spoken aloud what he thought. He would not wish to be punished for this every time. So he must not be too quick to punish his servant. Other people may say: ‘Your servant has said very bad things about you’. The wise man will not always listen to them. He will ‘turn a deaf ear’, as we say.

So in verses 23 and 24 the Teacher tells us how the study of wisdom works. He will do this again in verse 27. He looked at cases where the power of wisdom met with people who failed in some way (verses 20-22). Then there were other people whose wisdom did good (verse 19). Still, the Teacher found that wisdom was a long way from him. It was too deep for him. ‘Who can find wisdom?’ We know! God can.

In verse 25 the Teacher ‘turns his mind’. He tries a new way. He will look again at wisdom. He will also look at ‘the sum of things’. Then he will also look at things that are very different. He will look at sin. He will look at what is wrong. Then he will try to add this up.

So we come to verse 26. The Teacher has found something! The thought here is not: ‘Men are good. Women are bad’. Most likely, the Teacher knows a woman who is like a hunter. She wants to catch a man. Yet it may be that ‘more bitter than death itself’ is an early death. In that case, ‘the woman’ is early death. [7.3] This does not fit in too well just here. Rather, there is this bad woman. It is not wisdom that helps a man to escape. It is God’s grace. The Teacher has tried to match wisdom against what sin does. He finds that it does not match.

In verse 27, we hear again the voice that began the book. We shall hear it again right at the end. It breaks in at the start of this verse.

So verses 27 and 28 and verse 29 give us two more things that the Teacher has found out. In verses 27 and 28 he sets out again the way that wisdom works. Then he says; ‘In human life, one and one do not always make two. Life will not always add up in the way that we expect it to’. If we can only find one case in a thousand people that is not enough to look at. It is too small a ‘sample’. In science, a ‘sample’ will sometimes be so small that when we study it, we cannot use it. We cannot decide anything from it.

The Teacher set out in verse 25 to find ‘ the sum of things’. Here in verse 27, he says sadly that he has not found it.

In verse 29, we come back to the work that God does. When God made man, He made him ‘good’ or upright (Gen 1:31). We shall never want to blame God for what is wrong in ourselves. We must never blame God for what is bad in the world. Men are to blame (Gen 6:5). Men have tried all sorts of ways to understand what is wrong in the world. We must thank God, that His work did not end when He made the first man, Adam. He sent the second Adam, His son, into the world. God will have the last word.