The Value of Wisdom – Ecclesiastes 7:1-14

SPEAKER 04 : 0:00

I don’t like hurt anymore than you do. And I feel pain as you feel pain. And I feel heartache like you feel heartache. But let me tell you something. The sweetest words of comfort and consolation from my Lord and others have come in those times and not in the times of feasting. For the Bible teaches that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be ours. God uses hurt. God uses pain. God uses sorrow in our lives to cause us to look to Him. And in that, I say it is far better, and I agree with Solomon.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:56

It’s a blessing to have you with us for this Tuesday edition of Hope for Today. In Ecclesiastes chapter 7, verses 1 through 14, Solomon reminds us that God does not exist to explain himself to us. We exist to fear him, trust him, and bow to his sovereign hand. As David Hawking teaches this passage, you know, human pride… It’s stripped away. Our illusions of control, they’re exposed. And we’re called to submit to God who rules over both the good days and the hard ones. Stay tuned for today’s study. We’ll be right back. And third, if God has laid it on your heart to stand with us financially so this uncompromised teaching can stay on the air and online, well, you can send a gift by mail to Hope for Today, Box 3927, Tustin, California, 927-9277. In Canada, write to Hope for Today, Box 15011, RPO, Seven Oaks, Abbotsford, B.C., V2S 8P1. Or call us at 800-75-BIBLE in the U.S., 888-75-BIBLE in Canada. And of course, you can give 24-7 online at DavidHawking.org. Let’s get into the Word of God. Here’s David with day two of The Value of Wisdom from Ecclesiastes 7, 1-14.

SPEAKER 04 : 2:55

When we look at the whole matter of God’s wisdom and recognize what’s really important and secondly realize the value of sorrow and death, we’re already starting to think differently. Life will all of a sudden not be the bowl of cherries people want us to believe it is. We’re going to start thinking of it more seriously in light of what God thinks. Even in terms of sorrow in 1 Peter chapter 1, I read these marvelous words in verse 6 and 7. It says, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Listen, there isn’t anything we suffer in this life that God isn’t going to reward a hundred times over. If we suffer, the Bible says, we shall reign with Him. And all that we suffer in this life, is it worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed? Sorrow is better than feasting and frivolity and joyous laughter, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But sorrow is much better than that, because in terms of instruction, in terms of consolation and comfort, in terms of anticipation of future glory, it does far more for us. We need to look at it. The Bible says, as you notice again in Ecclesiastes 7 and verse 2, that this is the end of all men, death and mourning. And the living will take it to heart. And I ask you, sir and ma’am, as I ask myself, are we taking this to heart? Would you rather we not talk about it, or do you really understand what the Bible is saying? Have you got worldly wisdom? Are you controlled by the secular culture you live in, which is trying to escape what is real in life? Or are you controlled by the wisdom of God that says, you know, that’s true. The inevitable fact is every one of us will die. And the probability of great sorrow and pain and suffering in our life, it’s real. Hurts from breakups of marriages and families and hurts from problems that come. And hurts from people dying and hurts from sickness and pain and from job loss and bad relationships and loss of friends. And hurts from all kinds of things. Yet we are, according to the Bible, much better in the house of mourning than we are in the house to feasting. And we would do well to understand that. Wisdom will deepen the soul in the midst of the trial. Wisdom will refresh the spirit in the midst of sorrow. Wisdom does for us in the hurt place much more than in the place of laughter. And I think we all need to understand that. There’s a third thing that wisdom will help us to do. And that is that it will help us to respond to others as God would desire. I want you to look at verses 5 to 7 in the light of this. Wisdom will help us to respond to others also as God would desire. Verse five says, it’s better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. Now, first of all, I don’t think the Bible is against music. Okay. I think the Bible has much to say about music and the Bible wants music to be on a joyful note and praising the Lord. But you know there’s a song of fools. Now first of all you have to know who’s the fool to know who the song of fools is all about. The fool in the Bible is an unbeliever. Doesn’t trust God. Doesn’t have his confidence in the Lord. Doesn’t have God’s wisdom. Now the song of fools would have to be all the singing of every unbeliever. Do you realize that? Now I begin to analyze this a little bit further. I like to listen to a lot of kinds of music and I hear a lot of music even written by unbelievers. And I listen to that stuff. Now, some of it’s downright stupid. For instance, country western. Let’s just think about that for a moment. Everybody’s going to a diner, right? And the guy’s just left his wife. And he runs into somebody in the diner he ought not to mess around with, but he does. And all this is in some sort of relief and pain bit. You know what I mean? It’s amazing. And then I listen to the, and I have listened to some of the rock programs just because I want to know what really hurts. But anyway, I listen to that stuff, you know, that pounding and all of that. I try to listen to what they’re saying. You know, it’s a song of fools. And kids know it too. It’s dumb what they say. Half the stuff is stupid. Doesn’t mean anything. Sometimes it has double meanings. I don’t know what they’re talking about. All I know it’s foolish. I look at everything. You say, oh, but our period, hey, the period of the big bands, man, the good music of the past, that’s what’s in. No, no, no. A lot of that’s a song of fools. It always has been. Nobody’s waking up to deal with that. And a lot of us listen to music. You know why? To soothe the pain that’s inside. A lot of us want to get pumped up by music, man. Turn me on. Why? Because we’re trying to escape. What is really the realities of life. It’s true. And you listen to what is sung. Everybody wants you to ignore what is the truth. We’re running away from ourselves. It’s a song of fools. And the Bible says it’s better to hear the rebuke of one wise man than it is all a song of fools that try to temporarily relieve your heart. How true that is. Man, is that true. God’s wisdom helps you to respond to others as God would desire to take that rebuke of the wise man. I like what verse 6 says, like the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. Boy, is that the truth. You know, in Israel, these thorns, dry thorns, grow everywhere, especially up in the north around the Sea of Galilee. Now, you can take those thorns and you can get a quick fire off those dry thorns. The only trouble is it doesn’t last and it never produces much heat. Now, once again, the Hebrew writer and Hebrew poetry is throughout Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. The Hebrew writer, again, has two words that rhyme with each other. And we have here the matter of the crackling of thorns and the matter of the pot. And those two words rhyme. It’s like what one author said, nettles under the kettle, okay? That’s what we’d be saying. We’re having two words rhyme with each other to make a point. Now the crackling of thorns is something that… You know, it’ll give you a quick fire, but it’s temporary relief. Now, when somebody tells a joke and they cause a lot of laughter and make you laugh, there’s temporary relief. There’s nothing wrong with that. Except that it does not minister to the heart as we should have it ministered to. It is better to hear a rebuke that will really help your life than it is to listen to laughter that only temporarily relieves the pain. When there’s something wrong, folks, something is wrong. When somebody jokes with you about something you’re involved with that you ought not to be involved with, and somebody makes a joke about it, hey, it may temporarily relieve you, and their justification of it may help in a moment, but you know immediately when it’s over that the pain is still there. The crackling of thorns under the pot. It’s like the laughter of a fool. It’s all vanity. It’s emptiness. It’s meaningless. It doesn’t deal with our hearts as our hearts need to be dealt with. And you see, God’s wisdom helps us to respond to others as God would desire. Even look at verse 7. It says, Now that’s either oppression that you’re causing, you’re coming down on somebody, or it’s oppression that’s being caused to you. Somebody’s coming down on you. And sometimes you lose all reason. You blow your stack because it’s unfair. It’s not just. And you’re all angry about it. A wise man listens to rebuke. Even the rebuke of God. Turn over to this Proverbs chapter 27. Proverbs. Just back a few pages to the left. Proverbs 27. And look at verse 5 and 6. God’s wisdom is so needed in our life. it evaluates the circumstances of life from God’s point of view, helping us to recognize what’s really important, helping us to realize the value of things like sorrow and death, and helping us to respond to others as God would desire. In verse 5, it says, Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Look down at verse 17. As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. Hey, sometimes friction is caused. Certainly rebuke is tough to take, and they are wounds, and the Bible calls them wounds. But when they come from a wise man, when the rebuke is what God really wants us to hear, the Bible warns us not to be a scoffer and refuse to hear that, lest our lives wind up being destroyed. we will grow in understanding and we will become smarter and wiser in our own lives when we listen to the rebuke that comes from God’s wisdom. Though it hurts and though it is a wound, it is far more faithful than all the kisses and all the strokes of the enemy, the one who cares nothing about you. See, that’s a great tragedy in life. There are a lot of people out there giving you strokes that care little about you. They’re pumping you up because they want something out of you. They’re going to manipulate you. They’re going to use you to their advantage and their ends. And sometimes a wise person, a loving person has come along and tried to tell you something that was wrong in your life and you didn’t listen. The Bible warns us about that kind of response. When you have God’s wisdom controlling you, God’s wisdom listens to that rebuke. God’s wisdom is not scoffing. God’s wisdom accepts it. God’s wisdom refuses to harden your neck because the Bible says you do that too often and you’ll suddenly be cut off. God’s wisdom listens and understands. Let’s come back again to Ecclesiastes 7. God’s wisdom not only helps us Respond to others as God would desire. But in verses 8 to 10, a very important passage that’s been of great personal help to me. And that is that God’s wisdom helps us to react properly to present difficulties and disappointments. Life is filled with many difficulties, friends. You know that and I know that. Life is filled with many disappointments. I was in Philadelphia speaking. Family came up and shared a tremendous burden. And if you’ve been there, you can identify with them and their kids what they were doing and how their hearts were broken and how they were grieving. And I thought about this passage. God’s wisdom helps us to react properly to present difficulties and disappointments. Let’s look at these things again. Verse 8. The end of a thing is better than its beginning. The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of fools. Do not say, why were the former days better than these? For you do not inquire wisely concerning this. What interesting verses. It seems to me that the end is always better than the beginning. I don’t know much at the beginning, but I know more at the end. We need the kind of patience that can see a thing through. When something happens in your life or your family that isn’t what you want, it’s a disappointment, it’s a hurt, it’s a difficulty. One of the hardest things is to be patient. Patient in spirit is much better than being proud in spirit. Proud in spirit says, why is this happening? Why does it happen to me? Patient in spirit says, God knows. Let’s wait. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he will strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Job 42.12 says that the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. Praise the Lord. The end is better than the beginning. Isaiah 28.16 says, “…whoever believes will not act hastily.” I see in that that patience is the child of faith. If I really believe in God and I’ve got my confidence in Him, then that is going to lead to patience, not overreacting, not acting too hastily. God’s wisdom helps us to react properly to present difficulties and disappointments. I want you to turn back to Proverbs again and look at chapter 14. Because the Bible warns us here about being angry too quickly. Don’t be quick or hastily developing an angry spirit in your life. It warns us about that. Instead it says be patient. And when something happens that you don’t like, a turn of events, it’s easy to react quickly. And to get mad and get angry. And to attack. And to want to do something without backing up and saying, where’s God’s wisdom? We need to wait on the Lord. We need to be patient. Notice how often Solomon wrote about this in Proverbs 14, verse 17. Again, don’t be quick to blow off the handle. Look at chapter 14, verse 29. He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, but he who is impulsive exalts folly. Chapter 15, verse 18. A wrathful man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger allays contention or argument, kills it. Look at chapter 16, verse 32. He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. We could keep going. That’s enough. Proverbs is filled with it. Slow down. Something’s happened. You don’t like what’s happened. Slow down. Back off. Don’t get proud. Don’t get angry. Back off and say, God, you’re in control of all things. And I don’t know why this is happening, but I know you’re in charge. And I need to rest in you. Wait on the Lord and be of good courage. And he will strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Back to Ecclesiastes 7 again. You see, a lot of us say, as verse 10 says, Hey, the former days were better. You know, we speak about the good old days. Hey, the good old days. I remember hearing… My parents speak about the good old days. And one day I asked them, I said, what was good about the good old days? Huh? You know, it’s funny, they couldn’t come up with anything. They discussed a lot of things, but in reality they turned and looked at one another and said, you know, there’s a truth that there were some times that we enjoyed in the past. But you know, they weren’t necessarily the good old days. There were a lot of things that are better today than we had then. A lot of things have changed. Every day ought to be special. But you see, a lot of us still live in the past. You know why? Because the hurts of the present are there. Oh, I wish it could be like it was yesterday. Yet Solomon says, you are not thinking clearly. You are not using wisdom here. You do not inquire wisely concerning this. You see, it’s ignoring who God is. It’s ignoring the plan of God. Because you see, he’s already started in this chapter to tell us that sorrow is better than laughter. He’s told us the house of mourning is better than the house of feasting. And when we are going through the pain, we always ask, what about the former days? Why couldn’t it be like that, Lord? Things were so good then before this happened or that happened. Wait a minute. God knows what he is doing. Wisdom relaxes and says, God has a plan. God has a plan. He knows what he’s doing. And we need to relax in the Lord and to trust him.

SPEAKER 02 : 19:42

Well, that’s David Hawking, and this is Hope for today. David will return in a moment or two with some final comments on today’s study, so do stay tuned for that. Right now, though, Matt’s here, and Matt, we have a powerful resource that we’re featuring, a bundle that is so wonderfully matched with our current radio series, and let’s talk about it.

SPEAKER 01 : 20:02

We are grateful for the opportunity to serve the Lord Jesus Christ through proclaiming the gospel and teaching the uncompromised truths of God’s Word.

SPEAKER 02 : 20:10

Matt, over the years, listeners have related to us how hope for today’s Bible-centered teaching has helped them discern the times and anchor their hearts in Scripture. Rather than in the shifting sands of culture. Yeah, every book of the Bible has a message perfect for our day. Isn’t that amazing? Yeah. Every single book of the Bible has a message for us. And the book of Ecclesiastes speaks powerfully to our generation. It asks the timeless questions such as, what is the meaning of life? Does any of this truly matter in the end? or is life simply pointless?

SPEAKER 01 : 20:43

You know, Solomon’s spirit-inspired assessment of life under the sun exposes the emptiness of a world focused only on human effort and achievement.

SPEAKER 02 : 20:51

Yeah, vanity of vanities, saith the preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is… Vanity.

SPEAKER 01 : 20:57

That’s it, Ecclesiastes 1.12. The antagonism, restlessness, and confusion of our time are not accidental, Jim. No, no. The result of a culture drifting farther and farther away from God as history moves towards final days.

SPEAKER 02 : 21:09

And this is why we’re offering your dad’s impactful book, Is Life Worth Living? We want to get that into the hands of as many believers as possible.

SPEAKER 01 : 21:16

Yeah, drawing from Ecclesiastes. I mean, this timely resource helps readers understand not only the emptiness of life without God. but also the deep peace of a life centered on him and lived in light of eternity. And right now we have an excellent value package for you.

SPEAKER 02 : 21:30

It combines Is Life Worth Living by David Hawking with a complete set of messages in our current Ecclesiastes radio series.

SPEAKER 01 : 21:38

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SPEAKER 02 : 21:43

To get your copy of the Is Life Worth Living Ecclesiastes resource package or resource bundle, call 800-75-BIBLE, that’s in the U.S., or 888-75-BIBLE in Canada. Bible, of course, 24253. You can order online at davidhocking.org. That’s davidhocking.org. And just before David returns, earlier in the program, we invited you to write to us and we meant it. You might have a testimony to share or maybe a prayer need. And listen, we do want to pray for you. If you’re walking through a hard season, maybe there’s just a decision you’re wrestling with or a struggle you haven’t shared with anybody else. Listen, you don’t have to carry that alone. When you write, real people read your letters and real prayers are offered up on your behalf. So get in touch. And if God also leads you to give, listen, your support helps keep this teaching on the air and God’s word going out to others who need the same hope and truth that you’re hearing today. You can write to us, share your prayer request, or send a gift of support anytime. Our address in the U.S., hope for today, Box 3927. Tustin, California, 92781. In Canada, write to Hope for Today, Box 15011, RPO, Seven Oaks, Abbotsford, B.C., V2S 8P1. You can also get in touch using the contact form on our website, davidhawking.org, or call us at 875-BIBLE in the U.S. and 888-75-BIBLE in Canada. Once again, here’s David.

SPEAKER 03 : 23:32

Friends, we are excited about this series because there are so many people living in a very secular, humanistic culture of today, especially in North America, who leave God out of the picture and think they can pretty well handle everything, and all we’re doing is adding to the problems we have. Our marriages aren’t any better. Our children are running wild. Our schools are not doing well. And all of life, it’s politics, it’s economy, everything, it’s like falling apart. It’s going down the tubes. We need to return back to the God of the Bible. When we say the value of wisdom, we’re not talking about the wisdom of this world. 1 Corinthians 1 warns us about the wisdom of this world. Where are the wise? Where are the counselors? Where are the disputers, the debaters, and the arguments? The fact is that God’s wisdom is much greater, more pure, works better than anything the world has come up with. The Bible says, stop loving the world. And it even says, if you love the world like that, the love of the Father isn’t in you. What is the world? 1 John 2, 15 to 17 says, it’s the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. That’s boasting over one’s means of livelihood, your occupation and the paycheck you get from it. Like that’s security? Oh. It’s a passing fantasy, and when you come to death’s door, you kiss it all goodbye. You brought nothing into this world, and it’s certain you’re going to take nothing out. There’s nothing better than knowing the wisdom of God about every single issue in your life. whether it’s your marriage or family or your work or your goals and dreams, whatever they are, don’t leave the Lord out. Be sure to ask for our commentary, Is Life Worth Living? Give us a call. Hope you can be with us for our next broadcast.

SPEAKER 02 : 25:44

Thank you, David. My friend, if you missed any part of today’s program, you can listen again anytime at davidhawking.org. And while you’re there, be sure to check out the Bible study resources, audio and video teaching available to help you go deeper in God’s word. And one more thing, if this program has been a blessing to you, consider inviting a friend to listen along with you. Next time on the program, we continue in Ecclesiastes chapter 7 with more from God’s Word as David Hawking takes us further into the value of wisdom. Right here on Hope for Today.