Ecclesiastes 7:8 Better is the end of a thing than its beginning. The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. 9 Don’t be hasty in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of fools. 10 Don’t say, “Why were the former days better than these?” For you do not ask wisely about this.
Only God is sovereign over all things. It is not for us to know the end from the beginning and all of the steps that God has in between. The wise understand this and are patient knowing that God works all things together for good. Romans 8:28 This does not mean that all things are good. Many bad and many terrible things happen and sometimes these circumstances only get worse and worse. For example, our son Jon died, leaving behind a wife and child.
A lifetime ago, back in the late 60’s, my Young Life Leader was Joni Eareckson Tada. A quadriplegic since an accident in 1967, she wrote, “Sometimes God uses what he hates to accomplish what he loves.” The God I Love, Zondervan Even through hardship and tragedy the believer can be assured that despite the circumstances, God is both the essence of love and sovereignty, working all things together for good.
On the other hand, the fool becomes angry when things don’t go according to his plans. He wishes for the good old days and asks, “Why were the former days better than these?” The wise realize As [God] has planned it, so it shall be. As [God] has purposed, so it shall stand. Isaiah 14:24
Ecclesiastes 7:11 Wisdom is as good as an inheritance. Yes, it is more excellent for those who see the sun. 12 For wisdom is a defense, even as money is a defense; but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.13 Consider the work of God, for who can make that straight, which he has made crooked? 14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; yes, God has made the one side by side with the other, to the end that man should not find out anything after him.
God has a master plan. With wisdom we can both understand and accept the fact that God’s plan is a mystery to us. In the desert, Israel longed for the good old days when they were in Egypt. But God’s plan was for them to go through the wilderness to enter the Promised Land. Exodus 16:3
When the disciples learned that Christ was to be crucified, they longed for the good old days of traveling throughout the land healing the sick and feeding the hungry. Jesus said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.” Luke 17:22 But Christ had to endure death to give the disciples everlasting life.
When Job’s wife urged him to curse God because of the calamity that had befallen them, including the deaths of their children and the destruction of his farm, Job replied, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” Job 2:10 The wise understand that even the troubles that we must go through have as their end result God’s blessing. The mystery of God’s plan is hidden from us but, as the old saying goes, “God draws straight with crooked lines.”
Solomon explains this incongruity…
Ecclesiastes 7:15 All this I have seen in my days of vanity: there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who lives long in his evildoing. 16 Don’t be overly righteous, neither make yourself overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself? 17 Don’t be too wicked, neither be foolish. Why should you die before your time? 18 It is good that you should take hold of this. Yes, also don’t withdraw your hand from that; for he who fears God will come out of them all. 19 Wisdom is a 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 doesn’t sin. 21 Also don’t take heed to all words that are spoken, lest you hear your servant curse you; 22 for often your own heart knows that you yourself have likewise cursed others. 23 All this I have proved in wisdom. I said, “I will be wise;” but it was far from me. 24 That which is, is far off and exceedingly deep. Who can find it out? 25 I turned around, and my heart sought to know and to search out, and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity, and that foolishness is madness.
What does Solomon mean when he says, “Don’t be overly righteous?”
Christ warned against the exact same attitude:
The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight. Luke 16:14-15 And again, they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7 they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others. Matthew 23:6-7
Appearances can be deceiving. There will always be people within the church who put on airs, parading their supposed, righteousness, in order to try to gain status and influence. However, Solomon quickly dispatches this idea by reminding us that, surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and doesn’t sin.
Unbelievers frequently justify their rejection of God by accusing the Church of being filled with hypocrites.What they fail to understand is that the Church is actually made up of repentant sinners; sinners that God has rescued and is in the slow and painful process of transforming through regeneration. The Church is not made up of good people who earned their way into God’s Kingdom by their exceptionally good works.
As we are in the company of sinners you can expect others to curse you in the same way that you have cursed them. Even when we attempt to be wise we often find that we are wicked, stupid, foolish, and mad. As such, we should be as quick to forgive others as we are quick to forgive ourselves. As Christ taught his disciples to pray, Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Matthew 6:12 Do you forgive those who trespass against you?
And speaking of the company of sinners, Solomon goes on to explain that he has seen precious few upright people stand before him in his courtroom. As king, Solomon sat in judgment in Israel’s court, 1Kings 3, and as a general rule he didn’t trust anyone. The first to testify sounds right – until the cross examination begins. Proverbs 18:17
Ecclesiastes 7:26 I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and traps, whose hands are chains. Whoever pleases God shall escape from her; but the sinner will be ensnared by her.
27 “Behold, I have found this,” says the Preacher, “adding one thing to another, to find out the scheme 28 which my soul still seeks, but I have not found. I have found one man among a thousand, but I have not found one upright woman among all those. 29 Behold, I have only found this: that God made man upright; but they search for many schemes.”
As Genesis 3 taught us God made man good, but though God made man upright… they search out many schemes. Solomon begins by warning Rehoboam about the schemes of women. Actually this is very similar to the warning that he wrote about in Proverbs:
My son, pay attention to my wisdom,
turn your ear to my words of insight,
2 that you may maintain discretion
and your lips may preserve knowledge.
3 For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey,
and her speech is smoother than oil;
4 but in the end she is bitter as gall,
sharp as a double-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death;
her steps lead straight to the grave.
6 She gives no thought to the way of life;
her paths wander aimlessly, but she does not know it. Proverbs 5:1-6
Of course, in today’s “Me Too” culture where women are to always be believed, Solomon’s wisdom would be judged as archaic and politically incorrect. But unfortunately, in reality, women are just as prone to and just as capable of scheming and lying as men.
The price of a prostitute reduces one to a loaf of bread,
And an adulteress hunts for a precious life.
Can anyone take fire in his lap
And his clothes not be burned? Proverbs 6:26-27
She flatters her paramours as her only beloved, while in truth she loves none, and each of them is to her only a means to and end, to the indulgence of her worldly sensual desire. Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, Edinburg
Solomon has warned his son about the destruction that is caused by the lies of women who are sexual predators. But, in a broader sense, Solomon is also warning his son to beware and not naively believe what he is told by his counselors and advisors. In his role as judge, Solomon could only find one man among a thousand who was upright. Though the term sin has fallen out of favor the truth is we are all, men and women alike, sinners.
And this remains true today even within the Church. When people live without a heavenly perspective, without the fear of the Lord, they chase after many schemes, trying to gain a sense of belonging under the sun. Without Godly men and women, our world is facing a crisis of values. As Paul explained, when men and women refuse to acknowledge and obey their Creator, God allows them to follow their passions. God also allows them to experience the consequences of their actions. Notice the refrain below, God gave them over.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. Romans 1:1-31
When people deny the existence of God or insist on ignoring God and instead, without restraint, worship themselves and their desires, God graciously allows them to go their own way, following the sinful desires of their hearts. The paradox is that allowing people to without restraint, follow the desires of their depraved minds, is actually a punishment from God. Without restraint civilizations devolve into anarchy and collapse.
And just as Solomon had warned Rehoboam that the wicked would try to recruit him, Proverbs 1:11, and just as Lucifer had recruited Adam and Eve, Genesis 3, Paul warns us that the wicked LGBTQA+ revilers and others would try to recruit people today: They not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. Misery and rebellion love company. It is easier to quell a guilty conscience if everybody is pursuing the same things that you are: greed, envy, murder, deceit, gossip, hate, slander, etc.
As Dostoevsky observed, without God… all things are permitted. Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov