Sermon Discussion Questions:
1. What do you think about the quote Marc opened the sermon up with? Does life feel like an "ever-growing to-do list"? Does your faith ever feel like this?
2. What does vs. 16 mean? How can one be "excessively righteous"? Can you think of what this kind of "false-righteousness" looks like in real life? (can you think of an example of it?)
3. What is the assumption behind the question: "Why do bad things happen to good people"?
4. How does the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15 help illustrate this passage? Which brother do you relate to more?
Here is how Hartmut Rosa, the German sociologist, opens his book The Uncontrollability of the World: “Do you still remember the first snowfall on a late autumn or winter day, when you were a child? It was like the intrusion of a new reality. Something shy and strange that had come to visit us, falling down upon and transforming the world around us, without our having to do anything. An unexpected gift. Falling snow is perhaps the purest manifestation of uncontrollability. We cannot manufacture it, force it, or even confidently predict it, at least not very far in advance. What is more, we cannot get hold of it or make it our own. Take some in your hand, it slips through your fingers. Bring it into the house, it melts away. Pack it away in the freezer, it stops being snow and becomes ice. Maybe that is why so many people—not only children—long for it.”
“Our relationship to snow reflects the drama of our relationship to the modern world…The driving cultural force of that form of life we call ‘modern’ is the idea, the hope and desire, that we can make the world controllable. Yet it is only in encountering the uncontrollable that we really experience the world. Only then do we feel touched, moved, alive. A world that is fully known, in which everything has been planned and mastered, would be a dead world.”
What do you think of that? His book argues that our operating assumption today is: “Everything that appears to us must be known, mastered, conquered, made useful.” And therefore we respond to the world less like a child on the first day of snow, and more like a manager looking out at a factory floor. Efficiency, optimization, enhancement, productivity and control.
We live in the age of technology, which means we are fascinated with technique. The annual updates our phones and computers get—*better, faster, enhanced—*convinces us that all of life should be continually improving, optimizing. There are things in your life that are not currently under this technical control—but, we assume, with the right technique, you can enhance your life, you can grow in control and mastery over your time, your health, your future.
“Consider your relationship to your own body. Everything that we perceive about it tends to be subject to the pressures of optimization. We climb onto the scale: we should lose weight. We look into the mirror: we have to get ride of that pimple, those wrinkles. We take our blood pressure: it should be lower. We track our steps: we should walk more. Our insulin levels, our bustline: we invariably encounter such things as a challenge to do better, even if it is a challenge we can ignore or reject. Moreover, we ought to be calmer, more relaxed, more mindful, more environmentally conscious. Even those things we encounter outside ourselves take on the character of a challenge: Mountains have to be scaled, tests passed, career ladders climbed, lovers conquered, places visited and photographed, books read, films watched, and so on…More and more…everyday life revolves around and amounts to nothing more than tackling an ever-growing to-do list. The entries on this list constitute the points of aggression that we encounter as the world: grocery shopping, checking in on a sickly relative, doctors’ appointments, work, birthday parties, yoga classes—all matters to be settled, attended to, mastered, completed, resolved, gotten out of the way.”
Okay, what does this have to do with the book of Ecclesiastes? Everything! We modern people today may have unique temptations because of our advances in technology, but the craving to be in control of everything is as old as Eden when Adam and Eve tried to become like God. And Ecclesiastes was written to puncture this illusion. Life is brief, tragic, uncontrollable, and beautiful. And Ecclesiastes is the perfect antidote to our modern pathology of control. Solomon wants to give you the gift of the magic of seeing snow fall with the eyes of a child, and free you from the cow-eyed glaze of a factory manager who feel dead inside, yet cannot escape the “ever-growing to-do list.”
And, I wonder how many of you approach your faith like an “an ever-growing to-do list”? It is another “point of aggression,” a load on your back, that you don’t really enjoy, but know that you must do so that your life doesn’t spin out of control.
Now…this is a dangerous sermon to preach. In our text in Ecclesiastes today, I am going to try to walk through two dangerous extremes: on the one hand, Solomon wants to show us that there is a way that you can pursue righteousness and wisdom that will actually ruin your life. And, on the other hand, if you abandon wisdom and righteousness, you will also ruin your life. Now, we church-folk are very aware of the danger of abandoning righteousness and wisdom. We may, however, be less aware of the opposite danger.
15 In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. 16 Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? 17 Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? 18 It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them. 19 Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city. 20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. 21 Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. 22 Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others. 23 All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. 24 That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?
- Eccl 7:15-24
This passage is all about limits. The limits of our expectations, the limits of righteousness, the limits of wickedness, and finally embracing our limits in the fear of the Lord.
The Limits of Our Expectations (vs. 15)
15 In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. - Eccl 7:15
In the Preacher’s puzzling and brief—two possible meanings for “vain”— life, he has seen it all. What is it he has seen? He has seen a righteous man who has perished in his righteousness, and a wicked man who lives a long, settled life in his wickedness. Meaning, Solomon has seen men who have perished and died, even though they weren’t doing anything wrong, while those who cheat, steal, and fail to honor God go on. Solomon is likely telling us this as an extension of what he said previously in verse 14, “In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.” Consider: God sometimes sends good, and sometimes bad days so that you cannot predict what tomorrow will bring. You cannot control God through a timetable—He makes His decisions according to His own purposes, and you and I are left day by day with the responsibility to trust what He is doing.
And, as an example of what he is talking about, he tells you: I’ve seen the exact opposite of what you expect; a good man who has his days cut short, and a thug who lives a long life. Life is complicated and unpredictable.
Here is what this tells us: anyone who is following Jesus with the expectation that their life will be protected from problems is mistaken. Here is a common question people ask: why do bad things happen to good people? That’s a good question to consider. But notice the hidden assumption underneath it: being good entitles me to a life free from bad things. Where’d we get that idea? Does the Bible actually teach that? Well, the same man who wrote these words down here also wrote the book of Proverbs, where we are told that a life of righteousness leads to a long life, while a life wickedness results in a short life (Prov 3:2, 16; 4:10; 9:11; 10:27). What do we do with that? Well, we remember to interpret proverbs according to their genre. Proverbs are telling you what is generally true about life; Ecclesiastes is a meditation on the exceptions. Proverbs is the weather forecast for the week, Ecclesiastes is what happens when you actually experience the weather.
Or, here is another analogy: if the river of this world, because of sin, naturally flows over the cliffs of destruction—and it does—then Proverbs is telling you: if you follow that path, you’ll be destroyed. Fight against that stream and follow God’s path, and you’ll find real life. But, if you plant your feet in a flowing river, you will experience the pressure of current. You may even have debris slam into you. Ecclesiastes is telling you: Sometimes, because you are following God’s path, you get hurt.
Guys: Jesus Christ, the Righteous One died, perished—and it wasn’t because He wasn’t godly enough. He died precisely because He was so righteous. So, if you have hopped on the God bandwagon because you are under the impression that it is like a really excellent insurance program that will safeguard you and your family from any problems, then I am sorry to inform you that you have been misled. Sometimes life hurts, and it isn’t your fault, in fact, sometimes you are doing exactly the right thing! For instance, our church has been praying for Ryan Corbett, a missionary who has been held in prison by the Taliban for over two years now. God didn’t allow him to be thrown in jail because he wasn’t following the rules well enough—he was pursuing righteousness more seriously than any of us by going to one of the most dangerous and difficult places in the world to be a Christian! And he has suffered greatly for it—and we will continue to pray for his release. But, he reminds us: God has bigger plans for our life than our safety, than what would seem nice to us.
The Limits of Righteousness (vs. 16)
Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? - Eccl 7:16
This seems…odd…like the Preacher is cautioning us from being excessive in righteousness and wisdom. What is righteousness? It is to be just, lawful, acting in accordance with God’s character and morals.
What is wisdom? Noah gave us a helpful definition a few weeks ago when he preached on James, telling us that wisdom is the ability discern between right and wrong and to act on it accordingly.
So, the question we naturally want to ask ourselves is…how can you have too much of that?
I think that we aren’t helped by our English translations here especially with the final question: “Why should you destroy yourself?” Now, bear with me, the Hebrew word for “destroy” there is a very common word used in the Hebrew Bible (shamem), and it almost always means “destroy.” But Hebrew uses different forms of verbs, called stems, and this word here is in a relatively rare stem (hithpolel), and whenever this verb occurs in this stem, it always is translated as ”to be appalled; to be astonished; to be dumbfounded; to be confounded; to be horrified,” (NET fn. 60 on Eccl 7:16). For instance, “Then I rose and went about the king’s business, but I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it,” (Dan 8:27; see also Ps 143:4; Isa 59:16; 63:5). So, we could translate Ecclesiastes 7:16 here as, “Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you be left disappointed?”
“This fits in nicely with Solomon’s argument here. He urged his readers not to be over-righteous or over-wise ‘lest they be confounded or astonished.’ He meant that they should not depend on their righteousness or wisdom to guarantee God’s blessing because they might be confounded, dismayed, or disappointed like the righteous people whom Solomon had seen perishing in spite of their righteousness [in 7:15].” (Glenn, BKCOT)
This helps us discern what Solomon means by being “excessively righteous and wise.” He isn’t talking about real righteousness and wisdom here, but a facsimile of them both. It is the person who reads their Bible, goes to church, and keeps their nose clean…because they think that means God will bless them.
If you think that you can coerce blessings out of God through your devotions and knowledge, you will be disappointed. Sometimes, a righteous man perishes in his righteousness. If you have ever had some difficult season enter your life and had the thought: I don’t deserve this; I pray, I read, I tithe, I am a good person—God, why would you do this? Then you have fallen prey to this kind of false righteousness and wisdom that Solomon warns of.
We know that he isn’t denigrating wisdom because later, in verse 19 he praises wisdom: “Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city,” (Eccl 7:19). Wisdom is more valuable than any other asset you can attain in life. But there is a limit to it: “All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. 24 That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?” (Eccl 7:23-24). Solomon, second only to Jesus, the wisest man in the world admits: I’m not all that wise…there are mysteries I cannot explain. Which means that if we are under the impression that we can simply learn everything there is to know, then we will be perpetually frustrated. We are not God. We cannot know everything.
We also know that he isn’t denigrating righteousness—the book of Ecclesiastes concludes by telling us that all of life is about keeping God’s commands! But, we are told in vs. 20, “20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.” Meaning—no matter how righteous you are, you’ll never cut all the heads off the hydra of sin. You are limited.
Let’s think about why we are drawn to these false forms of wisdom and righteousness.
Why do we want to know more? Because knowledge is power. The more we know, the more control we have. The craving for secret knowledge was what the serpent used in Eden: the knowledge of good and evil will make you like God! Why do we want to be more righteous? So that we can guarantee our life will be full of blessing!
I am reminded of the older brother in Jesus parable in Luke 15 who, unlike the irresponsible prodigal, remains to faithfully serve his father. Yet, when the father graciously receives back the wayward son, the older brother explodes in outrage: this isn’t fair! He shouts at the father: “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ (Luke 15:29-30)
In other words: I earned it! He didn’t! I deserve to be blessed! You owe me.
The Limits of Wickedness (vs. 17)
Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? - Eccl 7:17
Lest we think that the Preacher is saying: Don’t worry about following God’s Law, he warns us of the equal and opposite danger of wickedness. When he says “be not overly wicked” that doesn’t mean: you can be a little bit wicked and that’s fine. He is just matching the same turn of phrase used in vs. 16. Martin Luther used to say that a drunken man can fall off of either side of his horse. Solomon is setting up two warning signs on equal and opposite errors. **Even though he has just warned us that he has seen wicked men prolong their life in vs. 15, Solomon knows that the course of this world, the current of sin leads to destruction.
Sin hurts. It will age you prematurely. It will take years off your life. I wonder if you have heard of what used to be called the “prosperity gospel.” Almost no one who believes it calls it that today. It is the belief that God’s will for your life is to be happy, healthy, and wealthy. If you have enough faith, then you can activate God with your faith, and He will pour out blessings of relationships, money, opportunities, etc. But, if you lack faith, then life will be hard. And it is attractive to many because it is so simple, it is black and white. But Ecclesiastes just showed us: sometimes righteous men perish, and evil men flourish. The real world is not always black and white, but complicated. But here is the kernel of truth in the prosperity gospel: if you follow God’s Law, generally, life will be better. What do I mean? I mean, if you are a person of integrity, humility, and conviction, if you sincerely strive to obey God’s Law from a pure heart…you likely won’t get an STD, have your liver fail from alcohol abuse, get fired because you keep showing up late, have to explain to your kids that because you cheated on your spouse you can’t stay in the house anymore.
Friend, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has purchased the forgiveness of sins for any who turn to Him in simple faith. And God removes our sins from us and will not give us what our sins deserve, hell. But that does not mean that He always intervenes to prevent the worldly consequences of our sins falling on our heads. In fact, sometimes it is a manifestation of His great love for us that sometimes He lets us experience that kind of ruin, so that we don’t continue to plunge into worse and worse destruction.
If you are feeling weary with the path of righteousness, if you look at your non-Christian friends and their life seems to be more simple, more care-free—they aren’t so wound tight and stuffy and legalistic as your Christian friends, as maybe even you are—and if you are starting to feel like it would maybe be nice to take a little vacation from your Christian faith…then be warned. The grass is not greener there, friends. Just underneath that veneer of freedom is the stark reality of sin. Jesus taught that everyone who lives for sin is a slave to sin (John 8:34).
Remember, the younger brother in Jesus’ parable felt like life away from the father would be freedom…and it was, for a little bit. Until, “…he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.” ( Luke 15:14-16)
Embracing Your Limits in the Fear of the Lord (vs. 18)
It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them. - Eccl 7:18
Picture a ship trying to leave a narrow channel; there are rocks on either side of the channel that can destroy the ship. The ship must avoid both to remain intact and safe. Solomon has lifted up two equal and opposite dangers: false-righteousness and wickedness; false wisdom and folly. Watch out for them both!
How do you do that? It is simple: fear God and you shall escape them both.
What does it mean to fear the Lord? I would recommend you go back and listen to Aaron’s sermons from earlier this Summer for a more in depth review of this. Here are two of my favorite passages:
“…let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.” - Heb 12:28-29
The author of Hebrews is evoking the image of God as a “consuming fire” from the story of God giving the ten commandments at Mt. Sinai:
“On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. 19 And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder.” - Ex 19:16-19
God is terrifying. The people of Israel, after hearing the voice of God boom down from the mountain beg Moses to tell God to stop because if He keeps talking to them, they are certain they will die (Ex 20:18-21). And after this, God tells Moses: “I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. 29 Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever! (Deut 5:28-29).
The fear of God drives out our longing for wickedness and folly. Sometimes, we pursue sin because the reality of God sits lightly on us. We think about flirting with that co-worker, lying to our parents, being embarrassed into silence when we should speak out about Christ because…God is trivial, His laws are less like inflexible laws and more like nice suggestions to consider. God isn’t so much a judge as He is a friend.
The other passage I love is Psalm 2
Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. - Psalm 2:11
This shows us that fear of God does not come at the expense of joy, but creates it. The fear of God undoes us, unravels us…but not with sheer terror alone…but with beauty. We need to see the awesome terror of God, lest we think we can run from Him in our wickedness, or control Him with our righteousness.
Jonathan Edwards says “It is a sight of divine beauty of Christ, that bows the will, and draws the hearts of men. A sight of greatness of God in his attributes, may overwhelm men. But seeing God’s greatness is not our deepest need, but seeing his goodness. Seeing only his greatness, the enmity and opposition of the heart, may remain in its full strength, and the will remain inflexible; whereas one glimpse of the moral and spiritual glory of God, and supreme amiableness of Jesus Christ, shining into the heart, overcomes and abolishes this opposition, and inclines the soul to Christ, as it were, by an omnipotent power.”
Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. 22 Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others. - Eccl 7:21-22
Christians become weird when they pursue “false-righteousness” and “false-wisdom”
