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A Wise Fool

Proverbs 31 – Ecclesiastes 2

Well, we finished Proverbs today and started Ecclesiastes.  I really enjoyed Proverbs and intend to spend some more time in them on my own.  I think I could take one verse a day and find great profit in pondering the truth there-in.  I think it is fascinating that Proverbs ends with a discussion on the makings of an excellent wife.  I know many of us have an excellent wife while others are still searching.  I also know there are some who read this description and think their wife doesn’t measure up.  If you are thinking along that line I’d like to turn the question around on you.  When your wife reads in the scriptures what makes an excellent husband would she feel you measure up?

Fellas, we can’t control how others act or think or speak; we can only control ourselves.  The problem with griping that our wife doesn’t measure up to the biblical standard is that the same can be said of us.  Instead of focusing on the speck in our wife’s eye maybe we should be looking at the plank in our own.  As the spiritual head of our home it is incumbent on us to live a godly life.  It is by our faithful example that our family will be led.

I remember a story of a brother in Christ who was married to an unbeliever.  I’m not sure if he married her after he was already a believer or not but regardless his wife was antagonistic toward his faith.  She ridiculed him, berated him, and put him down.  The demands of his employment and marital situation left him little time to read his Bible.  His response was to make time.  He got up every morning at 3am to read his Bible.  I’m saying every morning!  He was faithful.

His wife noticed.  One morning, while he sat reading his Bible she came down stairs and spoke to him.  She told him that she couldn’t understand how he could be so consistent in his faith in the face of all that she threw at him.  He never rose to the bait she kept throwing out.  He never failed to get up to read his Bible.  His behavior led her to believe that maybe, just maybe, there was something to his faith after all.  She asked him to tell her about it.

Now I know most of us are married to Christian women; what a blessing!  I’m also sure that if we focused on how they are supposed to be we would find fault.  As I’ve said, however, if they look at you they will find fault as well.  You can do nothing directly about their faults but you can do everything about your own.  By doing so you may just provide the leadership they need to address theirs.

Now, about Ecclesiastes, Solomon wrote this book along with Proverbs and the Song of Solomon.  As J. Vernon McGee says, Proverbs is the wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiastes is the foolishness of Solomon.  He says that Ecclesiastes is “the dramatic autobiography of his life when he was away from God.”  Remember that Solomon was eventually led away from God by his intermarriage with foreign women and the influence of their foreign gods.

I’m going to provide the outline of this book followed by Dr. McGee’s commentary on the book.  Ecclesiastes is a very different kind of book from the others in the Bible and I think it important for us to understand that before we get too far into it.

McGee, J. V. (1997). Thru the Bible commentary (electronic ed.). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

Outline

I. Problem Stated: “All is Vanity,” Chapter 1:1–3

II.  Experiment Made, Chapters 1:4–12:12
(Seeking Satisfaction in the following:)

A.  Science, Chapter 1:4–11

B.  Wisdom and Philosophy, Chapter 1:12–18

C.  Pleasure, Chapter 2:1–11

D.  Materialism (Living for the “Now”), Chapter \2:12–26

E.   Fatalism, Chapter 3:1–15

F.   Egotism, Chapters 3:16–4:16

G.  Religion, Chapter 5:1–8

H.  Wealth, Chapters 5:9–6:12

I.    Morality, Chapters 7:1–12:12

III.  Result of Experiment, Chapter 12:13–14

“To correctly understand any book of the Bible, it is important to know the purpose for which it was written. We need to back off and get a perspective of the book. We need to put down the telescope on the Word of God before we pick up the microscope. The necessity for this is more evident here than in many of the other books of the Bible.

This is human philosophy apart from God, which must always reach the conclusions that this book reaches. We need to understand this about Ecclesiastes, because there are many statements which contradict certain other statements of Scripture.

Actually, it almost frightens us to know that this book has been the favorite of atheists, and they have quoted from it profusely. Voltaire is an example. Today we find the cynic and the critic are apt to quote from this book. And it is quite interesting to note the number of cults that use passages from this book out of context and give them an entirely wrong meaning.

Man has tried to be happy without God; it is being tried every day by millions of people. This book shows the absurdity of the attempt. Solomon was the wisest of men, and he had a wisdom that was God-given. He tried every field of endeavor and pleasure that was known to man, and his conclusion was that all is vanity. The word vanity means “empty, purposeless.” Satisfaction in life can never be attained in this manner.

God showed Job, a righteous man, that he was a sinner in God’s sight. In Ecclesiastes God showed Solomon, the wisest man, that he was a fool in God’s sight. This is a book from which a great many professors, Ph.D.s and Th. D. s, and preachers could learn a great lesson. In spite of all their wisdom, in spite of all attempts at being intellectual, unregenerate men in the sight of God are fools. That, my friend, is something that is hard to swallow for those who put an emphasis upon their I. Q. and the amount of knowledge and information that they have accumulated.

In Ecclesiastes we learn that without Christ we cannot be satisfied—even if we possess the whole world and all the things that men consider necessary to make their hearts content. The world cannot satisfy the heart, because the heart is too large for the object. In the Song of Solomon we will learn that if we turn from the world and set our affections on Christ, we cannot fathom the infinite preciousness of His love; the Object is too large for the heart.

The key word is “vanity,” which occurs thirty-seven times. The key phrase is “under the sun,” which occurs twenty-nine times. Another phrase which recurs is “I said in mine heart.” In other words, this book contains the cogitations of man’s heart. These are conclusions which men have reached through their own intelligence, their own experiments. Although Solomon’s conclusions are not inspired, the Scripture that tells us about them is inspired. This is the reason for the explanatory: “I said in mine heart,” “under the sun,” and “vanity.”

…This is not a book without rhyme or reason—not just a bunch of verses stuck together. It begins with the problem stated: All is vanity in this world. Then we will find that experiments are made. Solomon will seek satisfaction through many different avenues, in many different fields. He will try science, the laws of nature, wisdom and philosophy, pleasure and materialism, as well as living for the “now.” He will explore fatalism, egotism, religion, wealth, and morality. Then in the final verses of the book he will give us the result of his experiments.

Keep in mind that the conclusions in each experiment are human, not God’s truth. This is man under the sun.

Do not misunderstand what is meant by “inspiration” when we say that the Bible is inspired by God. Inspiration guarantees the accuracy of the words of Scripture, not always the thought that is expressed. The context should be considered, and attention paid to the person who made the statement and under what circumstances the statement was made. For example, in the betrayal of Christ by Judas, the record of the event is inspired, but the act of Judas was not God-inspired; it was satanic. Also the statements that Solomon makes, while he is searching for satisfaction apart from God, are not always in accord with God’s thoughts. Inspiration guarantees that what Solomon said has been accurately recorded in Scripture.”

Let us not be fools my friends.  Let us learn wisdom from Solomon’s foolishness!

Have a faithful day!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!