Morning Devotion - Eccl 7

Read Ecclesiastes 7

In Chapter 7 we now move past the introduction of the final cycle of the book and into the body of what Qoheleth has to say about the pursuit of wisdom. I find the structure of this third cycle the most difficult to discern. Perhaps there is something fitting here in the form of the author’s remarks that matches his message throughout this cycle: that the wisdom of God is unfathomable.

The seventh chapter includes both the observations that come from inquiry after wisdom, and the practical instruction that follows from endeavors to understand life. In all of this there is the note of surprise that things are not what people commonly assume them to be. The chapter opens with a series of these surprising observations. Man seems to naturally prefer things that make a body comfortable, and things that are emotionally enjoyable, but these are not actually the best things for us.

Man wants life, but death is better. Man wants a wedding feast, but the house of mourning is better. Man wants laughter, but sorrow is better. Man wants frivolity, but a wise word of correction is better. Man wants to be proud, but patience is better. In all of this we should be able to enjoy these lesser gifts as they are given, while yet possessing the wisdom to discern that they are lesser gifts.

There is something about the human condition that makes these surprising facts true, though few seem to grasp these matters very much at all. Verse 14 gives this insight into the good use of both the pleasant and the difficult: “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.” There is something in the way that God has made things that leads to limits, to adversity, to frustration, and hopefully to some measure of insight and humility. Life is a complex matter that is to be enjoyed in simplicity, but with some measure of wisdom that recognizes the importance of the sting of suffering.

What is the limit of the human condition that makes all of this so? It seems to be our inescapable unrighteousness. It is because of our sin that we need the day of mourning more than the day of feasting. “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.” In specific, Qoheleth seems to be reflecting on his own life experience when he recognizes that the delight of a man in a woman may lead to a mortal wound because of our sin and the sin of this other human being. “I find something more bitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her.” Beyond this one example of the root problem of man, we are given at the end of the chapter a more general statement of our problem: “God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”

We have seen much in this book about the problem of death, but now the pursuit of wisdom forces us to grapple with the sinfulness of our hearts. It is because of this that suffering can be better for us than joy. Imagine the indescribable joy of finding a way out of our own scheming desires. Imagine a door out of the depravity of the human heart that would lead us into a new world where righteousness reigns perfectly in every soul. This is what Jesus Christ has accomplished for us. Our hope in the resurrection of the dead is not just the achievement of unending life; it is the attainment of a whole new kind of life, a life without sin. What makes the resurrection our best hope rather than a horrible nightmare is that we and all who are citizens of that new world will be perfected in holiness. Jesus Christ is the only door to this new world of universal righteousness.

To deliver us from the bondage of the current order, the Man of Righteousness came. He was the One among thousands of thousands of thousands who did not seek out wicked schemes. He never sinned. He always did good. He was the One righteous man. He came to face the day of adversity for us. The day of His death was a horrible day of sorrow brought about by our own sin. This one worst of all days has now become for us better than thousands of days filled with the best pleasures that this life can offer. To see this day of the cross rightly and brightly is true wisdom.

Because of the proclamation of the gospel, finding this wisdom has in some sense become a very obvious and easy matter. Nonetheless, we would simply run from this greatest of all gifts if God had not given us a heart that was renewed and ears that can hear. This is how serious our sin problem is, but this problem has been decisively addressed. The Lord Jesus Christ has conquered not only death for us, but also sin.