Sermon Transcript
Good morning, everyone. In 2006, a guy named Kyle MacDonald was then 26 years old, and he lived in a tiny apartment in Montreal, and he was thinking about what to do with his life next. He had just finished a job, and he was now jobless. And he was sitting at his desk one day, and he had an idea, ’cause he looked down at his desk, and he remembered a game he used to play when he was younger. It was called Bigger or Better.
Some of you know this game. It’s a game where you take something smaller and you try to trade it for something bigger or better, sometimes both, bigger and better, and then you just repeat that. And he looked down at his desk and he found a red paperclip. And he said, I’m gonna take this red paperclip and I’m gonna see what I can do with it. So he took the red paperclip and he posted it on Craigslist.
And he wanted to see who was interested, and 2 girls said, we’re interested and we have something that you might be interested in. And it’s a pin shaped like a fish. So Kyle looked at the pin and said, that’s bigger and better than my paperclip. So he made the trade. Here’s where it gets interesting, ’cause other people started getting involved in this.
Another person saw the fish pin and said, I got something you might want. It’s a hand-sculpted doorknob that has a silly face on it, and I would be interested in trading you that for the fish pin. Kyle said, okay. And so now he has a hand-sculpted doorknob. What’s he gonna do with this?
Well, somebody saw that and said, I have a top of an espresso maker at home that fell off, and I could use this in a creative way to be able to fix that. How about I trade you a camping stove? Kyle said, yes, please. And so he got the camping stove and met this person. Somebody saw the camping stove, and they said, I’ve been looking for that exact same model of camping stove.
And so they said, I’ll trade you an electric generator. So Kyle now has on his hands an electric generator. Trades are starting to be made left and right, and then this is again where things begin to build up from there. Somebody said, I’d like that electric generator, and I’ve got an empty beer keg I’ll give you. And Kyle said, well, if you throw in an IOU to fill it with beer, then yes, we have a trade.
So Kyle then ended up with an empty beer keg that was going to be filled up with beer in exchange for the electric generator. Somebody saw that and said, I’d like that. I have an old snowmobile sitting in my garage. I’ll trade you. So he now has an old snowmobile that he has no use for.
It doesn’t really work. But by this point, a magazine in Canada had gotten word of this, and they thought in an effort to be able to build up some publicity and to increase readership and the human interest part of this story, that they would get involved. And so they said, we’ll trade you. We’ll take the snowmobile, and we’ll give you a trip for 2 to the Canadian Rockies. So Kyle said, I’ll take that.
He and his girlfriend were gonna use that trip to the Canadian Rockies. If you’ve been noticing in some of the pictures of Kyle, one of the things that he wears in all of these photos that get posted and that were now starting to spread all around Canada and even starting to seep into the United States, he kept wearing the same shirt. And it’s a shirt that’s made by the company Cintas that makes and sells uniforms. And it says Cintas on it. Well, Kyle didn’t work for Cintas.
But somebody who did work for Cintas said, we have somebody who’s impersonating a Cintas employee and we need to get involved. So the CEO of Cintas got involved and said, Kyle, we will get involved with this and we’ll take the trip for 2 to the Canadian Rockies and we’ll trade you and we’ll give you a Cintas truck. And so Kyle now has a Cintas truck on his hands. Still wearing the Cintas shirt. Doesn’t work for them, but he started with a red paperclip, working his way up.
Somebody saw this and said, that’d be really, really cool to have. I’ll trade you a blank one-day recording contract. Kyle said, okay, I’ll do that. He wasn’t interested in singing, but he knew somebody would be. Somebody would take him up on this and he could use it as leverage for another trade.
So he took the one-day recording contract and somebody said, I’d like that and I will trade you. I own part of a duplex in Phoenix, Arizona, and I’ll give it to you in trade for the one-day recording contract and I’ll throw in a year’s free rent. So that’s him there in front of his duplex in Phoenix, Arizona. Well, the next-door neighbor there in the duplex heard about this and said, I’d like that year’s free rent. How about I trade you that and I’ll let you have an afternoon with my boss?
Well, that sounds silly. Well, it turns out that this person’s boss was Alice Cooper, the rock musician. And this person contacted Alice Cooper, and it turns out he was on tour at that moment in Fargo, North Dakota. The tour manager said, We’ll fly Kyle out here and we’ll get involved with this. He can have the afternoon with Alice Cooper and we’ll even bring him out on stage that night.
And so that’s exactly what happened. They brought him out on stage with a giant red paperclip. Again, the story’s starting to spread at this point. Well, somebody said, I’d like to be able to meet Alice Cooper. I have some memorabilia from the rock group KISS that some of you are familiar with.
And so somebody said, I’d like to sell you a very, very rare KISS snow globe. And he said yes to this. Now, by this point, people who are following online are like, that was a dumb trade, that was a downgrade. But Kyle was thinking, because months earlier he had been contacted by the actor Corbin Bernsen, who used to act in ’80s movies and TV shows. And Kyle had remembered reading that Corbin Bernsen had the world’s largest snow globe collection.
And so he contacted Corbin and said, I now have something you may want. And Corbin said, I want that KISS snow globe. And so he brought Kyle out and said, I want to show you my snow globe collection. And so that’s Kyle there with Corbin Bernsen and his family, and he got to meet him. And in exchange for that, Corbin said, I will give you a credited speaking role in one of my upcoming movies.
So now that’s what Kyle has. Well, somebody in Kipling, Saskatchewan, the economic development officer in Kipling, Saskatchewan, heard about this and said, we wanna get involved. We wanna bring tourists to our little country, or to our little town that’s less than 1,000 people here in Kipling, Saskatchewan. We will have a special show that we’re gonna put on to bring tourists in. We’re gonna call it Kipling Idol, and we’re gonna have people audition to be in the Corbin Bernsen movie.
In exchange, Kyle, we will give you the deed to a house that is owned by the government. And so that is his house there. That Kyle turned from a paperclip into a house almost 1 year to the day that he started trading things, and they threw a huge housewarming party for him. There were 3,500 people there, which is more than 3 times what the size of the town is, and he ended up with a home. I don’t know if he still has it.
I just know that he wrote a book about it called One Red Paperclip, and he’s been on the TED Talks, and really fascinating story. We all have something in common with Kyle. It’s not just an interesting story, but the fact is, is we all want something better than what we already have, and we’ll do anything we can to have it. We don’t all agree on what will make us happier. We don’t all agree on what is better, but we all want it, whatever that is.
And Solomon, the author of Ecclesiastes— we’ve been going through his book here for the last several weeks— he also wanted something better. And in fact, he asked the question at the end of chapter 6, where we last left off a couple weeks ago. Prior to Easter. And he asks the question there at the end of chapter 6 that Solomon’s going to attempt to answer. And Solomon asks this, for who knows what is good for a person in life during the few and meaningless and empty and few days that they pass through like a shadow?
Solomon wanted to know what is good for a person to do in this meaningless life. And the word good there comes from a Hebrew word, tov, which is the word we use whenever you hear the phrase mazel tov. It means good, but it also has another meaning. It can be translated as better. So Solomon’s saying, what is necessary?
Who can tell me how to have a better life? Not just a good life, but better than what I already have. And it’s a question that all of us have asked at different times, and it’s this question that Solomon’s gonna now attempt in chapter 7 to answer. And he’s gonna start off with a few different proverbs here, just little pithy sayings full of wisdom to describe what is good, what is better for a person in life. So if you’ll turn in the book of Ecclesiastes, we’re gonna look at chapter 7, and Solomon’s gonna tell us— he’s been on this epic road trip, this long journey to discover the meaning of life, and now he’s gonna try to answer Here’s what I think God has shown me is good in life.
Here’s what’s better in life. He starts in verse 1 of chapter 7. We’re not gonna look at all of these proverbs here in these first few verses, but we’re just gonna look at a few of them. Verse 1 says, a good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death is better than the day of birth. When I was in middle school, my friends and I would go on youth group retreats with our youth group from the church.
And that— these were the days when, as middle schoolers, nobody told us we needed to take a shower. And so we would play during the day, and at the end of the day, we would try to cover up how badly we smelled by taking Right Guard deodorant, the spray kind, before anybody knew about destroying the ozone layer. And we would just spray it all over our clothes thinking that this was the equivalent of a shower. And all it did was it filled the room with smoke and it covered up our sweaty clothes with smelly Right Guard. And there were still no girls that would sit next to us.
And Solomon is saying, no matter how much you spend time getting ready in the morning, standing in front of the mirror, working on your outward appearance, no matter how much time you spend trying to smell better— did you know that the most expensive bottle of perfume in the world I saw is listed at $215,000 a bottle. No matter how much you pay to smell good, that your reputation and your character is far better. It’s far more important to work on that. You can work on the outward piece, but if you stink and your character stinks and your reputation stinks, it doesn’t add up to much. A good name, a good reputation, good character is better, he says.
Than fine perfume. And then he says the day of death is better than the day of birth. Well, how is that possible? Well, it is for a person who has a good name before God, for a person who has a good reputation before God. He’s saying the day of birth is good, but the day of death is better, especially when a person who is a Christ follower understands that the moment that we die, we’re ushered into the presence of God immediately.
And that is far better. The Apostle Paul wrestled with that when he was in prison. Should I live? Should I, you know, would I rather be dead and be up in heaven? To live is Christ, to die is gain.
And he wrestled with that. And Solomon’s saying that death is far better for a person who has a good name before God. And I was reminded even between the services, somebody told me about an elderly individual who’s close to passing away, in that so often we think about the day of birth being this time of celebration, But the time of death for one of God’s children, for a saint, for somebody who’s lived a good life with good character and honoring before God, is a day of celebration as well. It can be. Solomon then in verse 2 says, it is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone.
The living should take this to heart. Verse 3. Frustration is better than laughter because a sad face is good for the heart. Which is better, to go to a birthday party or to go to a funeral?
To go to a carnival or to go to a cemetery? Solomon would say that sorrow and frustration can do far more good for our heart than laughter can. How is that possible? Well, we learn so much more in the valleys of life. Pain has so many lessons to teach us.
And you talk to somebody who’s lived a good life, who’s, who’s experienced ups and downs, and they’re so much wiser as a result of that. It’s not that laughter is bad, it’s that sorrow is better, Solomon says. It has so much more to teach us. Nobody thinks about the meaning of life at a birthday party. Nobody thinks about the meaning of life when they’re in Las Vegas at a party, but you think about the meaning of life when you’re at a funeral.
And at a funeral, everybody gives you their undivided attention because it reminds us that our days are numbered, right? It reminds us that one day we’re all eventually going to die. It reminds us that it is wise to pay attention to death. It is wise to number our days. It is wise to make the most of every opportunity.
And that’s the point that Solomon’s trying to say. It’s not that one is bad, it’s that one is better. Then let’s skip down to verse 8. It says, the end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. Which is better, to start a race or to finish a race?
Well, if you’re the one racing and it’s a grueling race, the end of the race is far better than the start of a race. A couple weeks ago, my 14-year-old son CJ had a chance with his LACS friends to participate in what’s called a Spartan Race. The Spartan Race, this particular Spartan Race was about 9 miles long and had about 25 obstacles of ropes and crawling under wire and getting into the mud, and he had a blast. And everybody was excited at the start of the race, but they were even more excited at the end of that race. And that’s him there with his medal as he just finished, and he was ready to do the whole thing again.
Caked in mud, he got his medal, and he’s So proud of that. The end of a matter is better than the beginning. Solomon’s not saying starting well is unimportant. He’s saying starting well is important, but ending well is better. The world has never been changed by the start of a project.
It’s always the end of a project that can change the world. So finishing well is better. It’s better to be patient, he says, and to not give up when things don’t turn out the way that you want them to. The end of a matter is better than its beginning. And then in verse 10, he says something that every church should hang outside on one of the doors that says, do not say, why were the good old days better than these?
It’s not wise to ask such questions. The word better isn’t there, but he’s essentially saying today is better than yesterday. When times are hard, we long for the good old days. When things were better. But the problem is there were no good old days.
There were just memories that are better than reality. Solomon would say yesterday is past, you can’t change it, tomorrow’s not guaranteed, so make the most of today. Today is better than yesterday. Look at what God is doing right now and live in that and embrace that. That, that’s far better.
So what we have here is we have a list here that Solomon has accumulated, and I’d like to call these Showcase 1 and Showcase 2, where in one category we have a list of things that he said is better, and then a list of things in Showcase 2 that he compared those things to. And if you ever watch The Price Is Right, you know that at the end of the game they have a showcase showdown for the 2 biggest winners. And I learned growing up that whenever you play Price is Right, if you’re given a choice, should you take the first showcase or the second? You people don’t know? I will tell you.
You take the second. Always you take the second. Why? The second showcase is always better. Watch The Price is Right.
Okay, that’s your lesson. But in showcase 1, what we have here is we have the day of death and the house of mourning and frustration and sadness. The end and patience. Showcase 2, well, you can bid on fine perfume and birthdays and the house of feasting and laughter and beginnings and pride. Which would you choose?
Which is more valuable? Which is better?
Is there any logical reason that we would pick the things under Showcase 1? Showcase 1 sounds miserable. Showcase 2 sounds like an endless vacation. Sounds far better. And yet we’re told clearly and repeatedly here in these first few verses that what’s in list 1 is far better.
How is that possible? Well, because Solomon’s not trying to appeal to our common sense. He’s not trying to just dump a bunch of intelligence on us so that we go, wow, he’s really, really bright. He’s taken a lifelong accumulation of learning and he’s now providing it to us through the lens not of intelligence, but through the lens of Through his wisdom. He’s saying wisdom is better, and that that’s what leads to the better life.
Wisdom is simply the ability to understand life from God’s perspective. It’s understanding how the world really works from God’s perspective, according to his word. Wisdom is the supernatural, God-given ability to discern what is true versus what is false. It’s the ability to know what is the right thing to do in any situation. It’s the ability to know what is lasting, to know what is good and what is better.
And Solomon is saying wisdom is better. Living with a view to an eternal perspective is better. See, the Bible says there’s 2 different kinds of wisdom. We have earthly wisdom, and then we have the wisdom that comes from above. The earthly wisdom is something we’re all born with.
And it’s marked by immaturity and selfishness and pride and a lust for power and strife and struggling. Wherever you have those things, you have earthly wisdom. But the book of James tells us that there’s also a wisdom that comes from above that is characterized by mercy and kindness and humility and unity. One comes naturally to us. The other can only come from God himself.
Earthly wisdom might lead to varying levels of happiness, but it doesn’t last. It’s not true. It’s not better.
But the wisdom that comes from above, Solomon’s trying to tell us, is something that God gives us, and it’s better. We see throughout Scripture, it says wisdom is better than pearls. It’s better than fine jewels. It’s better than gold. Wisdom, simply put, is better.
Wisdom’s not the same thing as knowledge. You can have knowledge but not have wisdom. You know anybody who is brilliant but is a fool when it comes to making decisions? Knowledge sees quicksand, wisdom walks around it. Knowledge sees a red light, wisdom applies the brakes.
Knowledge sees a gun and knows how to use it, wisdom knows when to keep it holstered.
Wisdom is better than knowledge. And so he’s gonna describe to us now why wisdom is better. We want to look at a couple different more verses here. If you’ll look at verses 11 and 12, he says, when times are good, be happy. Oh no, excuse me, verse 11 is, wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing, and it benefits those who see the sun.
Wisdom is a shelter, as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: wisdom preserves those who have it. So one of the benefits of wisdom and why living life with wisdom, this God-given ability that can only come from God, that leads to a better life, the reason why it’s better is because it protects and preserves our life. He says that wisdom is like a shelter. Just as money is a shelter during hard times, wisdom is better. Wisdom is like a generous inheritance.
Wouldn’t you love a generous inheritance? Wisdom is better. Money can lose its value. Money can be stolen. Money can be lost.
True wisdom, wisdom that comes from God, can’t be stolen, can’t be lost unless you just deliberately abandon it. Wisdom is better than those things. And he’s saying it protects and preserves our life. It is foolish to live against God’s design. It is foolish to see danger and to see how close we can get up to it without getting hurt.
It’s foolish to live in such a way that says, I’m going to do what’s right in my own eyes. It’s foolish to listen to your heart because our heart is deceitful. It’s far more wise to get God’s perspective and God’s wisdom in a situation, Solomon is telling us, because it protects and preserves our life from various pitfalls in life. Some of the pitfalls he mentions here throughout chapter 7. Verse 7, he says, for instance, Extortion turns a wise person into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.
Greed and the love of money is a pitfall, and if you approach it through earthly wisdom, it will lead you to some expensive detours that will cost you more in the long run. Extortion and bribes may seem like easy routes. The love of money may seem like a shortcut, but in the end, it’s not better. To look at a situation with your money and say, what is the wise thing to do with my money? True wisdom, wisdom that comes from God, enables us to be content with what we have.
That’s a pitfall that wisdom can protect us from. Verse 9, he says, do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools. He says it’s foolish to let anger control you rather than you controlling your anger. That can destroy relationships, it can destroy unity. Can destroy a family.
And it may lead to temporary happiness, but it’s not lasting and it’s not better. He says that controlling your temper is better. And then verse 5, here’s another better than. It is better to heed the rebuke of a wise person than to listen to the song of fools. It is better to surround ourselves with people who are wise, who will tell us what we need to hear even if it hurts.
Than to surround ourselves with people who just tell us what we wanna hear, but it’s harmful advice. It’s harmful counsel. Wise people know what they don’t know, and they ask and they stop for help. They stop and ask for help. Wise people know when to ask for support and for counsel.
It’s one of the reasons why I appreciate Pastor Dave and how he, in terms of making big decisions, always includes the elders or the staff or the pastors. He includes others in that decision because there’s strength in those numbers. And a wise person or wise people will tell you what Ecclesiastes says. They will tell you that living for pleasure and working for selfish gain are empty and like trying to catch smoke in your hands. A wise person will tell you that because God is in heaven and we are on earth, we should guard our words and be careful what we say.
That’s what chapter 5 of Ecclesiastes tells us. A wise person will tell us that when it comes to going through a hard time, 2 people are better than one, ’cause 2 people can help you to get through this rather than you going through it on your own. Simply put, wisdom is better when it comes through a wise person. It’s wise to surround yourself with people who will tell you the truth. It’s foolish to surround yourself with people who will just tell you what you wanna hear.
So wisdom can save us, wisdom can protect, and preserve our lives. But there’s something else that wisdom does. Wisdom is the source of strength. Wisdom is the source of strength. Look at verse 19.
Wisdom makes one wise person more powerful, stronger, than 10 rulers in a city. A city would be fortunate to have one wise ruler. Imagine 10 wise rulers, and Solomon says the wise person is better even than that. They’re stronger than that. They’re more powerful.
Than a city that has any number of wise rulers.
And God gives us strength when we need it. God gives us strength, for instance, in verses 21 and 22, whenever we have to deal with critics. It takes strength to deal with critics. It says, do not pay attention to every word people say, in verse 21, or you may hear your servant cursing you, but you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others. It takes strength to deal with the critics in your life.
There are some people, let’s face it, we know this, that have the gift of criticism. And they love to wield it at any moment and to tell you that what you’re doing is wrong and to be a naysayer. And when you have people in your life, it takes strength to be gentle and gracious, right? It takes strength that only can come from God’s wisdom to help you to hold your tongue. It takes strength to say, I’m not going to involve myself in gossip.
It takes strength to avoid what Pastor Dave refers to as triangles, where when one person has an issue with you, or you have a person— an issue with that person, you go to this person and to those people over here. That’s typically what we do. That’s foolish. That’s earthly wisdom. It’s wise to recognize that what your critic is saying about you is probably not what you were meant to hear anyway.
But also Solomon says it’s wise because many times you yourself have cursed others. It takes strength to look in the mirror and to have an honest assessment of yourself that says, you know what, I don’t have any room to judge. So therefore I’m going to take these things with a grain of salt and I’m going to with wisdom pursue peace. Takes strength to do that. It takes strength to go through hard times in life.
The book of James says that we’re to consider it joy whenever we go through hard times and trials and struggles because it develops us, it makes us more mature and complete, not lacking in anything. And God wants us to call out to him for wisdom in those moments, then to say, I can’t get through this time right now, God. I need your wisdom. And James 1:5 says that if any of us lacks wisdom, we can ask of God. He gives it to us so that we can then draw upon his wisdom, get through that trial, and then have abundant resources of wisdom throughout the rest of our lives that we can draw upon.
It strengthens us.
So wisdom is better. Wisdom that comes from God, a supernatural gift from God that only comes from him, is better. Yet Solomon is still struggling here in this chapter. Verse 13, he says something that echoes what he said in chapter 1 that we were— we talked about a few weeks ago. He says, consider what God has done.
Who can straighten what he has made crooked? The fact that this world is crooked and broken is troublesome, and we need strength in those moments, and it troubled Solomon. He just couldn’t get past it. He couldn’t get past how tragic and meaningless this life is. And even though wisdom has many, many benefits, we still live in misery and we still live in brokenness.
And this is the kind of thing that causes people to push away from faith. They’re not even interested in God because why would God allow such difficult things to happen in this life? God has made this world crooked. God has allowed this world to be bent in such a way that nobody can straighten it out. And that really troubles Solomon and it troubles us.
We need wisdom. This is where wisdom comes in, because wisdom shows us that the problems of suffering and injustice and pain and death and illness and unexplained tragedies, the problems of those things are certainly problems, but they’re not our real problem. The real problem is what’s underneath those things, and that it’s not just that our world is broken, that we are broken. And we need wisdom because we are broken. Verse 20.
It says, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins. That sounds a lot like Romans 3:23. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is no one on earth who is righteous. No one does what is right.
This world is broken because we are broken. We have departed from God’s wise design, and we need to get back to that in order to experience life.
That’s our only hope. He says in verse 29, this only have I found: God created mankind upright, but they have gone in search of many schemes. I like how The Message translates that. The Message translation, it says, God made men and women true and upright. We’re the ones who’ve made a mess of things.
And that word mankind there in verse 29, it says God made mankind upright. That word for mankind is literally the word Adam. In the Hebrew language. And it’s a reminder that God made Adam perfect in the beginning, and the world was as it should be. Remember whenever God created the world, the universe, and said it was good?
There’s that word again, tov, that Hebrew word tov. It was good, it was as it should be. It was working the way it was created to. But Adam decided to go his own way, and we’ve joined him in that. All of mankind has.
And so not only do we have to deal with a broken world, but we have to deal with our own brokenness in our own lives. Wisdom gives us hope, though. True wisdom points us to the answer to our greatest need. Our greatest need is not just that this world is broken, but that we are broken. And wisdom gives us hope in one respect.
It’s starting in verse 14. He says, when times are good, be happy, and when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. God allows both the good and the bad. We know that from Ecclesiastes 3. There’s a time for good, there’s a time for bad.
There’s a time for prosperity and a time for adversity. This is just part of God’s design for our lives, and God allows both of them. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future. In this meaningless life of mine, he says in verse 15, I’ve seen both of these. I’ve seen the righteous perishing in their righteousness.
I’ve seen righteous people suffering. Despite being righteous, and I’ve seen the wicked living long in their wickedness. I’ve seen people who don’t deserve good receive good in their life. What’s up with that? That, like, that’s not better.
But he says, do not be over-righteous, neither be over-wise. Why destroy yourself? Don’t be over-wicked and don’t be a fool. Why die before your time? Verse 18, it is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other.
Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes.
So even though this world is chaotic and meaningless in many ways, it’s broken, wisdom gives us hope by showing us that God is still in control. God is still working things out in accordance with his perfect plan. He allows the good, he allows the bad. This is part of his plan for our life. But here’s the good news for a person who fears God, is that God is able to take the good and mix it with the bad in order to bring something amazing and better for us, to give us a better life so that we come— become more mature and more complete and not lacking anything.
God is able to do that, and he loves to do that. He’s able to do something far more than we could ever ask or imagine, even though we don’t see it right now from our small vantage point. And because we are limited in our knowledge, we need to fear God. That means to recognize God for who he really is. Some of us don’t know who God really is.
And we treat him as if he’s just another person. God is in heaven, and he is sovereign, and he holds the universe in his hands, and he’s working things out in accordance with his plan. And we need to live every moment, not just every day, every moment dependent upon his wisdom and dependent upon him, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That opens the door for wisdom. You want wisdom?
You fear God. You want wisdom to know what is right and true and good? For you in any given circumstance? What is the right path to take? Fear God.
Get wisdom, Solomon is saying. Get wisdom, because wisdom is better. But Solomon points us to something even deeper than that, and it’s not very overt in here. It’s more subtle. But the fact is, is that if you look ahead several books in the Bible, we see that someone greater than Solomon showed up on the scene.
‘Cause Solomon couldn’t do anything about his brokenness, and we can’t do anything about our own brokenness, but that’s why God sent Jesus. And Jesus, it says, grew in wisdom. But Jesus not only had wisdom, he is wisdom. He is the wisdom of God. And when you have Jesus in your life, it’s not just about eternal life.
You have the wisdom of God.
Jesus is better.
And he enables us to be rescued and redeemed from our broken nature. And he allows us to be able to experience life here with peace and without panic because we know that God’s got the whole world in his hands and his Holy Spirit lives within us. See, we look at things like the righteous dying in their righteousness and the wicked getting things that they don’t deserve. Frustrating to us, and yet Jesus experienced the greatest injustice the world has ever seen. He, being righteous, the only one who is righteous, received what the unrighteous, those of us, deserve, so that those of us who are undeserving and unrighteous could receive righteousness and be made right with God.
That was his plan from the beginning, and Jesus came to not only help us with our limited vantage point, but also to redeem us from our brokenness.
My question for you today, if you’re not a Christ follower, is whose wisdom are you leaning on? Your own or on God’s? If you’re not a Christ follower, God desires you to be what the Bible calls wise unto salvation, because in Jesus, the Bible tells us, are found the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. God wants us to be wise unto salvation. He wants us to use the wisdom that he’s giving us in this very moment for you to turn your heart and to say that you need him, that you can’t save yourself and you can’t rescue yourself from your own brokenness.
For those of you who are Christ followers, God wants you to fear him and to trust him with all of your heart and not lean on your own understanding, that in all of your ways You would submit and surrender yourself to his wisdom, not your own, and he will direct your path. You got a decision you need to make? Should I stay?
Should I leave? Should I start this? Should I end this? Should I say something? Should I be quiet?
What decision should I make here? Fear God. That’s the beginning of wisdom. Jesus. Is better.
Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for sending your Son, that ultimately what Solomon is pointing us toward is the fact that we have a great need and you’re the only one who can resolve that. I pray, God, that anyone who does not know you, anyone here, Lord, who’s not a Christian, pray, God, that today would be the day that they would say yes to the invitation to receive eternal life. We thank you that you sent Jesus, not to be another Solomon, but to be better, to rescue us. God, we pray that you would save today, and we pray that you, throughout this week, would remind us to lean not on our own understanding, but to lean on your wisdom.
Thank you, God, that you can give us the better life that we so desire, not by our own strength and because of our own good deeds, but because you are good. God, help us to depend upon you. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
