Are You Wise or Foolish?
8Better is the end of a thing than its beginning. The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. 9Don’t be hasty in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of fools. 10Don’t say, “Why were the former days better than these?” For you do not ask wisely about this. 11Wisdom is as good as an inheritance. Yes, it is more excellent for those who see the sun. 12For 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. 13Consider the work of God, for who can make that straight, which he has made crooked? 14In 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. 15All 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. 16Don’t be overly righteous, neither make yourself overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself? 17Don’t be too wicked, neither be foolish. Why should you die before your time? 18It is good that you should take hold of this. Yes, also from that don’t withdraw your hand; for he who fears God will come out of them all.
Some students feel they are lacking and study hard whenever they have a spare moment; others trust their own brains and study only when exams come round. A student of the second kind is not much worried, because a few days of cramming, even without steady work, will lift their marks to a fair level. But the student who puts in long hours and is diligent all the time is different. Whatever their grades, their very body remembers honesty and diligence, and because of that, as the years pass, the quality of their life and their character cannot help growing far more mature than those of the friend who studied in a hurry.
Life brings problems we never saw coming. We feel like giving up, and we lose heart at the thought that however hard we work, we cannot have what we want. Not only study but business, and the raising of children too, refuse to go the way we wish. Because of this, we cannot live rightly without wisdom that can govern the direction of our lives and the feelings that come with it.
Because people who know God look at problems from a different angle than the world does, they strive to live by the word rather than by their own ability and wisdom. The world honors whoever owns the most, whether they worked hard for it or took it from others and lived in excess. In such a world it may even be the honest who end up the more disappointed and discouraged. If we are not to lose heart in a world like this, we must meet in full the God who rules all creation and every human life. Those who know God’s will in this way do not burn with anger even when they see people who have no fear of sin.
Since God’s people know that their final destination is not the world’s, they can have the wisdom and patience never to give up on their salvation, right to the end. In the end it is those who hold the wisdom and knowledge God gives who prevail. Knowing how vain life is, they can be faithful instead of nursing a grievance, and they labor to draw up deep wisdom, as from a well, rather than shallow cunning. They can look at life this wisely because they know the purpose of God, who created the world.
God is the same at the beginning and at the end. When he created heaven and earth, his purpose was to establish the Kingdom of God on this earth and to save the souls of sinners; with that purpose he brought all of history to pass, each thing in its time. Nothing would have been happier than for Adam to obey the word and not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But God knew the nature of human beings, formed from dust, the stuff of this world, and he already knew that they would sin. That is why, before Adam ever ate the fruit, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit had already prepared the work of salvation through the cross.
First Peter 1:3-5 shows it plainly: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that doesn’t fade away, reserved in Heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
God kept the cross he had planned, holding it in reserve until the appointed time. Then, in the last days, Jesus came to this earth and bore the cross, and God raised him from the dead and so completed the work of salvation. Those who have met God still share this world with evil spirits and evil people. But if they do not forget why God created heaven and earth, they can hold fast with a faith that does not waver.
Ecclesiastes 7:10
10Don’t say, “Why were the former days better than these?” For you do not ask wisely about this.
The Preacher says that whoever claims the old days were far better than today is a fool without wisdom. It is like Israel: set free after more than four hundred years of slavery, they could not bear a brief hardship and said that life back in Egypt had been better. Someone who says, “I can’t work hard for the church now, but in the past I read the Bible and served day and night,” or “I have nothing to spare now, but I used to live in a house like a palace,” is a fool with no hope for the future. Such people have become fools because they forgot how God supplied every need at every moment; they recalled only their own past deeds and forgot to give thanks. God cares about how you are living now and how you are serving him now. A faith and a life that are not faithful in the present are therefore unbelief in themselves.
Those who know God’s will and are faithful in the present live by hope for the future rather than by memories of the past; their hope is what turns them wholly to the time they have been given now. Still, it is true that those who live by the word face more restrictions than the people of the world and are less free. As they strive to live by faith, there will certainly be times when the wicked take things from them against their will, and times when they hold back from taking something for fear of sinning against God. But wealth gained by deceiving others is like sand slipping through the fingers, and in the end it is all lost.
Those who know why God created the world can endure, because they know that what seems to be taken from them is never truly lost. Solomon called such people, who cannot see far down the road of life, fools. So let me ask you a question. Are you glad of where you are now that you have received Christ? Or were things better back when you lived in the world as you pleased? By instinct people may think that the days when they lived as they pleased were far better than now, when God holds them in check. But those who truly know the eternal Kingdom do not entertain such foolish thoughts. To say that the old life of doing as one pleased was better shows that a person has not been born again in God; they have not received new life. If we grasp the love of Jesus Christ, who laid down his life to atone for sins that could only plunge us into death, we will know how great a grace salvation is.
Ecclesiastes 7:10
10Don’t say, “Why were the former days better than these?” For you do not ask wisely about this.
Just as an inheritance from our parents is a great help in life, so wisdom received from God makes us a treasure in the world. An inheritance brings real benefit for living, but God’s wisdom gives eternal life, which makes it far more valuable than any inheritance. Wisdom shines with the light of life and helps us use the wealth, authority, and gifts we have been given to better purpose for the Kingdom of God. If wisdom changes what becomes of us after death, then we ought to treasure the wisdom we have received and know how to be grateful for it.
Ecclesiastes 7:14
14In 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.
Since no one knows when a storm of suffering will strike or when life will turn calm as a still sea, no one can ever know their own future. This is because God has made prosperity and adversity such that no one can find out what lies ahead. Because life is a crossing of peace and hardship, the verse says, people can never know their future. What it finally means is that life depends on God.
James 4:14 says, “You don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.” Just so, no one can know their own future. Our lives alternate between peace and trouble, and we cannot live without relying on God, who holds absolute sovereignty. Since life never goes according to plan, however carefully people plan and carry it out, no one can map out the days to come. So even if we learn wisdom from the Bible, we come to true wisdom only by living out, according to the word, a life of repeated success and failure, and by learning through that experience.
When people declare confidently that their life is their own, or vow, “I will make this happen no matter what,” they are acting foolishly, and they can act this way only because they have no idea what a human being is. Those who have laid aside human righteousness can judge the world by God’s wisdom, and that is what enables them to live a good life.
1 Samuel 2:6-7
6“Yahweh kills, and makes alive. He brings down to Sheol, and brings up. 7Yahweh makes poor, and makes rich. He brings low, he also lifts up.
God is the one who makes rich and makes poor, and who kills and makes alive, both at once. If we do not acknowledge this power, we cannot entrust our lives to him; and even if we do, doubt will keep us from a whole relationship with him. God works according to the faith you have now. What God has lifted up, no one can bring low at will, and when he sends hardship to train us, no one can stop that training. So we must be all the more humble when we prosper, and when we are tested we must repent and turn back.
No human wisdom or strength can straighten a road that God has made crooked. If we admit our weakness in this way and live with an honest faith, God will see that life and help us stand strong. The pride that exalts itself on account of what it owns denies God, who gave us life. God makes a person now rich, now poor, because this is training their faith needs if it is to grow. If someone fails to overcome it with gratitude and patience and instead makes the choice Demas made, leaving for the world, they may live at ease for now, but that choice will bring their relationship with God to an end.
Of course, there are people who work hard all their lives and never escape poverty, and others who live lazy and wicked lives yet enjoy long years and riches. Watching such things, we may complain: why do the wicked who sin like that prosper, while the righteous who live by God’s will have to stay poor? But we who know God’s will stop complaining only when we accept that these things can naturally happen in the world and have nothing to do with salvation. Only then do our lives stay free of unhappiness.
What I have been saying is that the world and the church differ in the purpose, the meaning, the outcome, and the very quality of their lives. When Christians envy the wicked who live in plenty, it is no different from the sin of Israel. God had a purpose in leading them into Canaan, yet they envied the Canaanites, who opposed God and prospered, until at last they served their idols. When we doubt God’s power and complain, we are seeing things the way the world sees them, and we must guard against it.
A person’s life can be judged only once it has been lived to the end. So there is no need to be overjoyed when something good happens, and no need to despair as though the world had fallen apart when hardship comes, because life is like crossing a mountain pass: no one knows what lies beyond the ridge.
First, examine yourselves to see whether you carry the fragrance of faith, because then God, if only because that faith is too precious to lose, will protect you from Satan and the world and give you the strength to overcome them. In verses 16-17 the Preacher says that to be overly righteous or overly wise is the way to destroy yourself, and that to be too wicked or foolish is to die before your time.
God’s righteousness and human righteousness are like a seesaw. There is not a single righteous person in this world. Even so, some exalt themselves as though their wisdom were outstanding and try to stand over others. That in itself lowers the righteousness of God, and this is what makes it the sin of pride. Whoever exalts themselves and seeks to rule over others has already set foot on the road to destruction, and is committing the sin of judging everyone by the world’s yardstick.
Nothing but the righteousness of God can make a human being righteous. People who think themselves righteous believe that even their salvation came because their faith was so good. Out of that belief they behave proudly, as if they were qualified to teach others. This is the sin of despising a soul more precious than the whole world. Pride like this makes it easy to tell a soul whom God has chosen and called, “You are of no account, so you cannot be saved.”
It is true that salvation comes only through faith. Yet we must not forget that we are not saved because we have faith; we are saved by the merit of Jesus Christ, who accomplished the work of atonement, and by God’s choosing. Salvation rests entirely on the righteous judgment of God. Eternal life is received by faith alone, whatever our possessions, abilities, or authority, and that is why we need an honest faith in Jesus Christ.
Lazarus, who begged at the rich man’s gate, entered heaven because he trusted God’s good purpose even in his hard circumstances, while the rich man and the Pharisee, who boasted of their own righteousness, were pushed outside salvation. Sadly, though, people believe only what they see with their eyes. Unable to see through the rich man’s fine clothes and his outward show, they say he is blessed. This happens because, though we ought to judge with true faith, the world has become the measure of blessing.
If God were to show people just once how beautiful heaven is, they would probably abandon the world and live in hope of heaven. Knowing how evil human nature is, Jesus said that those who have not seen and have believed are blessed. Because human righteousness and wisdom only invite ruin in the end, I hope that, within the truth, you will be neither overly righteous nor overly wise.
Those who boast of their own righteousness do not know that there is no truly righteous person in this world; those who boast of their wisdom are fools who do not know how great the wisdom of God is. May you be neither proud in your wisdom nor a fool, because you could die before the time God has appointed. Once we grow proud or fall into sin, it is hard to stop. From the very start, then, we must weigh things carefully with the wisdom of God and walk in the way of Christ.
Sin is like a snowball rolling down a hill: it only grows larger and never shrinks. Jesus has already atoned for all the sins of humanity. If, after that, we cling to sin and roll on through the world, that is nothing less than destruction. Satan is waiting for us to come rolling down from the high hill of grace with sin in our arms, so that he can bring us down. You have received the grace of God; I hope you will be wise from the beginning, nipping sin in the bud and giving Satan no opening to attack. Because, as Proverbs 1:7 says, the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge, we must live in the fear of God. We must believe that Christ, the source of wisdom, has led us this far, put away our pride, and live humbly.
Those who do not turn back when God gives them the chance will not find the Lord even when they call on him in the day of trouble. Those who do not repent while there is still opportunity will suffer the misery of seeking the Lord diligently on the day Christ returns and not finding him.
Do you think you are righteous and wise? Then are you discerning the problems of the world by the wisdom of God? Whatever your circumstances, are you giving yourself to the saving of souls? If you believe you are wise and yet are not showing the Lord’s righteousness in your life, that is human righteousness, and you must throw it away. When trouble comes, you must ask why God has given you these circumstances, and think about what comes first in resolving them.
Because human wisdom and talent are vain unless God uses them, we must not trust ourselves but seek the wisdom of God. Solomon lived as he pleased, thinking his life was his own, but when he stood at the end of it he came to the deep realization that it had been God’s all along. He had thought it was his body, his life, and his possessions, yet standing before death he learned that everything he had used had been entrusted to him by God and belonged to God. Those who live knowing that their possessions and their very lives are God’s have a contented heart, and because of that they can enjoy peace and rest.
One day we will be judged for what we have done in this life. If it is true that we will all face God’s judgment, then we must strive at every moment to live a life that God approves. If you worship the almighty God who created and rules all things, you will be able to walk the way of truth without turning to the right or to the left.
Friends, we live in a world as rough as a field of gravel, and walking straight without swerving to the right or to the left is never easy. Still, the call to strive not to turn aside means this: put on the sure shoes of the gospel and keep to your duty as one of God’s people. Will you be wise or foolish? The choice is yours. Those who choose wisely will leave at the end of their lives the fruit of faith, faithfulness, and love, which, like gold and silver, does not burn in the fire of judgment.
If we live believing that God is always with us and sees our every move, we will not grow proud. Believing that the Holy Spirit dwells within us, we do not commit the sin of criticizing and judging others, and in this way we can live as the wise. But whoever believes that their own thoughts and judgments are always right makes light of all the love God has given them, and of people’s love as well; such a person cannot help but become a fool.
Wisdom and folly may be nothing more than ourselves, facing each other in a mirror. We know perfectly well how we ought to act now. Whether we put that knowledge wisely into practice or, like a fool, stand our ground and insist on our own way, that one difference divides wisdom from folly. When God takes our life, we will have to let go of everything: the hurt we held against others, the joys the world gave us, the work we clung to as if our lives depended on it, even the devout service we wore ourselves out in.
May you never entrust your precious soul to a world that is like a vapor, but commit yourselves to God, the King of glory.