Beloved, I am glad to share with you today the above theme from Ec 7:1-2 and following. Indeed, thepreacher explored the world. What did he see everywhere? Vanity, suffering, disorder and madness. A question then arises for the wise man: How should he behave in the midst of this state of affairs to which he can change nothing? In the form of sentences reminiscent of the book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes now gives us advice of wisdom and prudence. – Let’s not avoid the house of mourning (vs. 2 to 4). It will remind us of our fragility and give us more seriousness. Seeing the sorrow of others will make our hearts more sensitive and perhaps dictate words of sympathy to direct to the Lord the thoughts of the afflicted. Other recommendations follow: Do not rush in your mind to irritate yourself. V. 21 presents us with the other side, that of the criticisms of which one is oneself the object. Among these traps, v. 26 quotes “the woman whose heart is like nets… and whose hands are chains”. He who is pleasing to God (that is, who fears and obeys Him) can count on him to be guarded and escaped, “but he who sins will be taken by her.” Two opposing stories illustrate this warning: Joseph’s (Gen 39:7-12) and the tragic one of Samson betrayed by Delila (Jg 16:4-9). Young Christians, let’s meditate well on these two examples!
Here the profitable things are much more accentuated and are in direct opposition to what the world chooses or prefers. The wise man is necessarily isolated in a world where death, the fruit of sin, reigns. But this scene itself offers him better things. There are seven of them, a number of complete things:
1 ° “Better a good reputation than the good perfume”. In Prov. 22:1, good fame among men is better than great riches; here it is considered by the eyes of God and is better before Him than the fragrant oil from which the priests were anointed to perform their service (Ex. 30:23-33). This is where the activity of the wise begins.
(2) “And on the day of death than on the day of birth”. This thought follows No. 1. Arriving at the day of death having achieved a real consecration to God is better than entering the world. Twice, in the life of the sage, the latter had made him desire never to be born (4:3; 6:4, 5).
(3) “It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feast, in that this is the end of every man; and the living take this to heart.” In this world where death dominates, the house where mourning has entered is better than the one where joy reigns. It is appropriate for the wise to attend the first, for he is in the presence of reality, of the end of every man, a consequence of the sin that reigns in the world. The living takes this to heart; he sees where all the work of man ends up under the sun; it does not nourish hopes and projects that death can destroy.
4° “Better sorrow than laughter, because the heart is made better by the sadness of the face. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of the fools in the house of joy.” Witnessing the sorrow of others, seeing tears flow, makes the heart better, disposes it to sympathy, pushes it to offer consolations. It is the same, not only for the one who sees suffering, but also for the one who suffers. It is through the sadness of the face that God acts on man’s heart to make him find better things. Arranged in this way, the hearts of the wise are in the house of mourning; it is the place where the ailments can be exercised. The hearts of fools know nothing of these blessings; the joy of a moment is enough for them. What will be left of it? Is this not the very text of Ecclesiastes? He who mourns is considered blessed by the Lord, for he will be comforted (Matt. 5:4); and for the Christian a blessing descends upon him from the God of all consolation, and this consolation is eternal (2 Thess. 2:16).
5 ° “It is better to listen to the reprehension of the wise, than to listen to the song of the fools. For like the sound of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This, too, is vanity.” The wise take advantage of the experiences they have made, to lead their neighbor in the right path. They have acquired the authority to take over and straighten out. It is better to listen to them and make a profit from them than to listen to the song of fools: sounds pleasant to the ear, but which have no more meaning than those who emit them. The laughter of the fool does not last; it is quickly extinguished like a fire of thorns under the pot; it only noises and blazes for a moment. Afterwards, everything falls back into the silence of death. This too is vanity.
6° “Certainly, oppression makes the wise man foolish, and the gift ruins the heart. Better the end of a thing than its beginning.” There are two dangers for the wise in this world. First of all, the oppression that makes him foolish by pushing him to revolt, when he sees all the injustices that are committed under the sun (cf. 4:1-3). Then, even greater danger, the gift by which the heart allows itself to be corrupted and pushed to the worst actions. These are always the two means used by Satan to lose men: violence and corruption or cunning. That is why the end is better than the beginning. A heart that has had to deal with evil without anger and without revolt, that has refused the presents and has not allowed itself to be seduced, arrives victorious at the end of the trial and this was the end that God wanted to produce (This is at least the explanation of this difficult passage that we submit to you, dear Christian).
7° “Better a patient mind than a haughty spirit. Do not hurry in your mind to irritate yourself, for irritation rests in the bosom of fools.” In all these trials, the wise man learned patience; he did not rise before evil and against it. Patience is always humble, gentle, peaceful; she knows how to suffer; it attains the promised things (Heb 6:15). Patience is the very character of Christ. The one who is patient does not rush or get irritated.
Wonderful picture of the life of the wise man in the midst of circumstances, the fruit of sin, and which are all made to provoke his anger, irritate him or seduce him. He crosses a world whose character he knows well, expects only suffering, but is victorious by following principles diametrically opposed to all that directs men.
The wise man continues to move in the midst of a world spoiled by sin. There he encounters God’s work and the result of evil, which cannot be straightened out and where things are twisted by sin (1:15). But these twisted things, God lets them subsist and makes use of them. He has put one opposite the other: the day of the well-being that man is invited to enjoy and the day of adversity that leads him to reflect. In this way, man is left in ignorance of what will be after him.
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
Maxims and Reflections of Wisdom:
- Repentance, promises to those who repent (1 Sam 7:3 Samuel said to the whole house of Israel: If it is with all your heart that you return to the Lord, remove from your midst the foreign gods and the Astarte, direct your heart to the Lord, and serve Him alone; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.)
Answer to prayer 2 Ch 7:14 if my people, on whom my name is invoked, humble themselves, pray, and seek my face, and turn away from their evil ways, – I will answer them from heaven, forgive them for their sin, and heal their country.
-Forgiveness of sins Isa 55:7 Let the wicked abandon his way, and the man of iniquity his thoughts; May he return to the Lord, who will have mercy on him, to our God, who never tires of forgiving.
-Life Ez 18:21 If the wicked man returns from all the sins he has committed, if he observes all my laws and practices righteousness and righteousness, he will live, he will not die.
-Comfort Mt 5:4 Blessed are the afflicted, for they will be consoled!
-Gift of the Holy Ghost Acts 2:38 Peter said to them, Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
- Wise men, general references
Gen 41:8 In the morning Pharaoh had a restless mind, and he called all the magicians and sages of Egypt. He told them of his dreams. But no one could explain them to Pharaoh. Esth 1:13 Then the king turned to the sages who had knowledge of the times. For this was how the king’s affairs were handled, before all those who knew the laws and the law. Dn 2:13, 48 The sentence was published, the sages were put to death, and Daniel and his companions were sought to make them perish. 48 Then the king raised Daniel, and made him many rich presents; he gave him command of the whole province of Babylon, and established him supreme head of all the sages of Babylon. Mt 2:1 Jesus being born in Bethlehem in Judea, in the time of King Herod, here are the Magi of the East who arrived in Jerusalem,
- Destructive sin
Ps 34:22 Misfortune kills the wicked, and the enemies of the righteous are punished. Isa 3:9 The appearance of their faces testifies against them, and, like Sodom, they publish their crime, without concealing. Woe to their souls! For they are preparing for evils. Mt 7.13 Enter through the narrow door. For wide is the door, spacious is the path that leads to perdition, and there are many who enter through it. 1 Tim 6:9 But those who want to enrich themselves fall into temptation, into trap, and into many foolish and pernicious desires that plunge men into ruin and perdition.
- Bad women, general references
Jg 16:4 After that, he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek. Her name was Delila. Nh 13:26 Is this not what Solomon, king of Israel, sinned? There was no king like him among the multitude of nations, he was loved by his God, and God had established him king over all Israel; nevertheless, foreign women also dragged him into sin. Esth 5:14 Zeressch, his wife, and all his friends said to him: Let’s prepare a fifty-cubit high wood, and tomorrow morning ask the king to hang Mordecai from it; then you will go joyfully to the feast with the king. This advice pleased Haman, and he had the wood prepared. Mt 14:6 Now, when the anniversary of Herod’s birth was celebrated, herodias’ daughter danced among the guests, and pleased Herod,
From all of the above, we note that the Preacher tells his own story, a bitter story, in truth! He applied himself, as he said at the beginning of his Book (1:17), to seek wisdom and to know that wickedness and foolishness are foolish and unreason. Temptation and seduction came to him through the woman (1 Kings 11:4), and instead of escaping him, he whom God had so greatly favored, sinned and fell prey to the seductress. He was led to the cruel observation, “more bitter than death”, that there is not “a woman between them all” who does not attract lusts “like nets and rets”, and whose hands are not chains to hold captive the one she has seized. And even, what a remarkable rarity to find a man on earth who can help with his wisdom or intelligence: “I found a man among a thousand, but a woman between them all, I did not find her”. Only, if the search for the sage led him to these desolate conclusions, he benefited from them: “Behold, I have found that God has made man right; but they looked for a lot of reasoning.” The man out of the hands of his Creator, in the beginning, was straight. The preacher showed above that Creation was beautiful (3:11), and that now everything is twisted (1:15; 7:13). The ruin occurred, not because of God, but because of man: “They have sought a lot of reasoning.” Such was the case in the Garden of Eden when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good to eat and that it was a pleasure for the eyes and that the tree was desirable to make intelligent. So much reasoning! And since then it has always been the same. If we have the Lord’s approval, we must not take them to heart. “Who fears God comes out of everything” (v. 18); it is taught to deal with the most dangerous situations. Our prayers are with you all.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may shine in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom.
I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and for centuries of ages. Amen!
I would be happy to react to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow “The King must be respected – Various reflections (Ec 8).
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.