Doing God’s work: How to persevere in faith?
Context: After Ecc 1-3 defined the problem (i.e. that all attempts to ‘fix’ our crookedness by our own works are futile, and that we therefore need one who can open our eyes for the saving work of God), Ecc 4-6 talked about the redemption by God himself of those who find rest in Him as an unmerited free gift. This rest, described as ‘one handful of quietness’ (4:6) is the fruit of hearing God in his temple (5:1-3), a metaphor for the body of Christ (the community of his followers), so that the other hand is enabled to now partake in His work. Proceeding in logical order, the following chapters 7-11 now address how this work of God (namely that we live by faith, Jn 6:29; Ro 1:16) will become manifest in us to overcome evil with good.
Outline: Ecc 7 starts with teaching ‘the wise’ who walk by faith how to persevere in it, v18 (i.e. like Christian in the story Pilgrim’s progress).
- learn what is worthy of pursuit (by minding your mortality), 1-6
- learn patience and wisdom to cope with adversities, 7-12
- learn to depend on God, not your own limited wisdom, 13-24
- learn how to overcome (sex) addiction to avoid shipwreck, 25-29
Read Ecclesiastes 7
Warm-up: How did you find out what profession or career you should pursue?
1) How did Kohelet suggest to find out what is worthy of our pursuit and to be treasured by our hearts (and what is not), vv1-6?
- How can it be beneficial to ‘take to heart’ the reality of death and suffering?
- v1: Although ointment was expensive, it was administered to corpses to protect them against decay. Why did Kohelet contrast a ‘good name’ to such ointments?
- What could be the purpose of declaring that a ‘good name’ is better? Did Kohelet ask believers to value their own reputation? Why or why not? *
- What happens if you focus on making your own name look good? cf Lk 6:26; Col 3:17; 2Thes 1:12 [For the concept of being ambassadors for Christ, see 2Cor 5:20; Eph 6:20]
2) Read Lk 6:21-22 & Jn 16:20. Do these sayings of Jesus about sorrow and weeping have anything in common with Ecc 7:2-6?
- Why can bereavement be a better teacher than the ‘feast-times’ of life?
- What is the fruit of this sober perspective on life, v3? (Morbid self-introspection, or gladness of heart?)
- Why can ‘laughter’ remind one of crackling thorns, v6? [Fire under a pot = already caught by the fire of God’s judgment, cf Mt 3:12; 13:40; Jn 15:6]
- Since Jesus enjoyed parties, what wrong could he find in ‘having fun’ e.g. in Jn 16:20? [The timing: There is a proper time for feasts, for resting and tranquility to strengthen the hard working, Ecc 8:5; 10:17].
3) What counsel do vv7-12 give to believers who are persecuted or must work under corrupt regimes?
[Patience under oppression, corruption and other difficulties, and the wisdom how to cope]
- What did Kohelet counsel as a strategy to remain patient? [Consider the final outcome]
- v9: How does faith deal with anger?
- v10: What’s the danger of living in the past?
- vv11-12: Even wisdom cannot straighten what is crooked, i.e. it cannot make you righteous (Ecc 1). But what will growth in wisdom do for believers who are made righteous by the work of God? [Protection by wisdom; cf Ecc 8:1; 9:16–10:12
4) vv13-17: What are the limitations of what wisdom can do even for Christians? [More about this in Eccl 8:13-17]
- Should believers expect of wisdom to provide an answer to everything? Why not?
- In particular, can wisdom explain the apparent injustices described by v15? [= The main topic in Ecc 8]
- How can one be overly righteous or overly wicked, v16-17? [e.g. Job’s friends; in Ecc 7:13, the context is about our ignorance of the hidden purposes of God’s sovereignty in creation => Too wise = self deluded that we know even these. Too wicked = pretending we ‘see’, even though we know that we don’t, cf Jn 9:41]
5) Why does it matter to know the limits of what wisdom can achieve, also in believers, vv17-24?
- v17-18: What is the danger if we do not acknowledge the limitations of human wisdom?**
- v18: How can awe of God ensure that we persevere in faith and not fall away to the left or to the right of this narrow path?
- v20-24: What should the wise think about themselves, and why?
6) vv25-29 are about how to avoid shipwreck of our faith resulting from addiction, focusing on sex as an example. It is a difficult text, already in ancient manuscripts such as the Vulgate (Latin translation of the LXX Hebrew version), which most translators have followed ever since: So what could it mean?***
- Why would Kohelet possibly call sexual follies ‘the wickedness of folly, and the foolishness that is madness’, v25?
- Why is this one singled out among other dangers on the road of faith? Since Kohelet is not against good sex (Ecc 9:9), what does he describe as “bitter” about some (not all!) women?
- What makes especially vv26+28 sound as if Kohelet blamed these women to excuse men? Who is in fact blamed instead by v29?
- Most existing translations of v26 let men off the hook by putting the blame for impropriety at the door of seductive women. Whatever led those translators, what did Jesus say instead how we must deal with such blame shifting, cf Jn 8:7?
- And how did he enable an adulteress to start living by faith and ‘do God’s work’, Jn 8:11
7) Personal and application
- How did faith change your priorities of what is important in your life? How do you determine what really matters to you?
- What is your attitude about your own reputation compared to that of the name of Jesus? If you picture any of your friends or enemies, what would they say about whose reputation you are more concerned about?
- Can you remember a phase in your new life as a Christian where you became ‘too wise’? How did you get there, and what cured you from such foolishness?
- In the realms of sexuality, sex and intimacy, what do you regard as the root of any lack of (truly loving) self-control?
- The Bible does not frame the other gender as the enemy. Instead, sins of addiction are linked to whether we ‘please’ God (reconciled to him by faith in His redemptive work). How do you apply that insight?
* A ‘good name’ means your legacy beyond death (i.e. not just a good reputation during your life time). Believers must look beyond death to learn what really matters.
** ‘Death before your time’ may be literal, e.g. through diseases contracted by sin; but a more likely precocious death from being ‘overly wise’ is a spiritual death preceding physical death, cf Jude 1:12; Mt 23:27
*** v26: Modern translations generally follow the Vulgate in adding words: In particular, “He who escapes (her)…” has no “her” in the Hebrew original. Instead, a transliteration based on the Interlinear Bible is: Whoever pleases before God shall escape (from) sinning ensnared by women. The promised blessing is that he shall escape from his sin of addiction (cf Ps 124:7). In this case, neither the woman nor her attractiveness which crown God’s good creation (Gen 1:27) are maligned by the Hebrew text. Instead, what is singled out by v26 is man’s own idolatrous and addictive infatuation that shall yield to rightful worship of God himself thanks to our reconciliation to Him.
v28 is no less ambiguous: “One man ‘among a thousand’ I have found…” is generally taken as one among a thousand men. Instead, Kohelet more likely takes a pun at Solomon for having a thousand concubines: That not one among (these!) 1000 women were ensnared to their craving as he was found to be ensnared to his cravings for them is proof and warning that not even his proverbial wisdom can satisfy, and that only reconciliation with God can. By comparison, to surmise that Solomon had so many concubines for political reasons sounds far-fetched, given how this infatuation led him astray.
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