Ecclesiastes

Lesson 6 w/answersEcclesiastes 7:1-29

This week Solomon again turns his attention to wisdom and we can see through this study some of the practical side of applying the wisdom Solomon examines. The value of a good name, the difference between a truly wise person and someone who believes they are, but in fact they are not.

Bible

As we look at the challenges facing us in the world today whether it is the environment, healthcare, education, or conflicts around the world, we need wise leaders. We need a source of strength, conviction, and determination that only a wise and righteous leader can bring, we need Christ and His wisdom in our lives and in those we depend on as leaders.

Let’s read chapter seven this week and consider the following:

  1. As Solomon begins his discussion of wisdom what is the first thing he cites as “good” in verse one of chapter seven?
    1. ANSWER: The value of having a “good name”, without it you have no credibility. Its worth noting that a good name is not something we can buy or acquire, it’s something earned over a long period of time and is dependent on many factors – and it is something that can be destroyed in one single moment with a bad or foolish decision.
  2. What are the characteristics, values, or behaviors we associate with having a “good name”?
    1. ANSWER: Integrity, high moral values, wisdom, trust worthy, intelligent, and dependable just to name a few.
  3. What affect does the quality of the family name have on our children or the children of others?
    1. ANSWER: A child associates with the good or bad name associated with his or her family. It affects how they interact with their peers, their teachers, neighbors and so on. Someone who causes the family name to be bad or go bad affects not only themselves but their children and their children’s children for many generations.
  4. Could we argue based on our responses above that perhaps one of the things missing from our global leadership is a good name, and if so why is that? Why is the lack of having a “good name” one of the keys to being a good leader?
    1. ANSWER: Our good name gives people confidence in us. It is associated with a person of integrity, having high moral values, honesty, sincerity, and wisdom. With a bad name these values are missing so that we will have no confidence in that person.
  5. In verses two through four Solomon refers to death in what many may find a strange way. Why does Solomon say the day of death is better than the day of birth? (2 Cor 5:1-10, Philippians 1:21-23)
  6. Why does Solomon say “sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart”?
    1. ANSWER: We learn from sorrow. Solomon is teaching us that through our sadness and our mourning we are growing wiser and stronger. Those who spend their days seeking only pleasure are fooling themselves and are ill prepared for times of struggle and sadness when it comes upon them.
  7. What does our sorrow indicate to others?
    1. ANSWER: That we cared about the person who has died, or at least that we care about those who survive and sympathize with their loss and their pain.
  8. What does Solomon mean when he writes “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure”? (Seealso Romans 12:9-16)
    1. ANSWER: Mourning and the sadness over the loss of a loved one demonstrates that love and caring in a public way. Fools are those who constantly seek pleasure – and avoid discomfort, pain, and struggle, or so they think.
  9. Solomon continues with his analysis of the fool versus the wise man. What does he tells us in verse seven that rings true today – and is a warning to us ofa trap we should not fall into? Have we seen this happen to people around usthat we hold in high regard? Does it destroy or damage our confidence inpeople and institutions when we see it happen?
    1. ANSWER: A corrupt leader, neighbor, friend or even relative destroys our confidence in them and if they represent an institution or organization it destroys our confidence in that entire organization, not just the offender. Nothing in my mind corrupts people’s thinking and values quicker that greed, and bribes, kickbacks, gifts, whatever you call them cause those receiving them to rot at their very core. All we need to do is look in the headlines and we can find many examples in our own leadership where this has happened exactly as Solomon describes. Nothing ruins a good name faster that a corrupt person and nothing ruins our confidence in leadership quicker than this.
  10. James tells us we are to be quick to listen and slow to speak. What does Solomon tell us in verses eight and nine?
    1. ANSWER: That the wise don’t overreact. That the fool does. That we shouldn’t act hastily and irrationally driven by emotion and bravado. As followers of Christ we should take the time necessary to pray and consider God’s will in all that we do before we take an action or make a decision. However, having said that, this shouldn’t become an excuse for indecision. Often the situation will dictate the need for a quick decision or action. If we are trusting Christ with our lives and our thoughts each day, He’ll provide that wisdom for us. It’s when we drive our entire decision making by our own strength, our own “wisdom”, and our own emotional motives that cause us to be foolish and make bad decisions.
  11. In verse ten Solomon makes an interesting statement. Are you the person he’s referring to, have you ever done this? Do you know of people who do this? What’s wrong with it?
    1. ANSWER: We all do this from time to time. It’s always fun thinking about “the good old days” but be careful. If we spend all of our time looking back we can’t be focused in living and working in the Kingdom today. If we our attention is focused on the past how we can be ready to address the evils of the day and the needs of the those around us, before you know it your whole life will have passed by and you’ll have accomplished nothing for Christ.
  12. In verses eleven through fourteen Solomon tells us more about the virtues of wisdom and about the futility of worrying over things we have no controlover. Do you think many of us spend too much time trying to do exactly whatSolomon tells us not to do in verse fourteen? Where Christ’s disciples doing this as well?
    1. ANSWER: Yes. All of us want to know what the future holds for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren. Even the disciples wondered when Christ would set up his earthly kingdom and when each of the things Christ prophesied would take place. Earlier we looked at folks who spend inordinate amounts of time living in the past and always looking back, here we see the opposite extreme, people consumed with the future – Solomon warns us that this too is folly. Don’t be caught in either snare, you can’t change the past and you have no control over the future. Live each day for Christ seeking His Kingdom and He’ll take care of the rest.
  13. In verses fifteen through eighteen Solomon looks at the extremes, wisdom versus folly, righteous versus the unrighteous. How would we paraphraseverse fifteen today? Perhaps you’ve even heard sermons on this subject? How does Matthew 5:44-45 apply here?
    1. ANSWER: Good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. We are in the final analysis a fallen people affected by sin living in a fallen world or a planet cursed by sin. Unexplained and undeserved good and bad things will happen to all of us – Matthew 5:44-45.
  14. During the time of Christ’s earthly ministry who would have qualified as agroup of people trying to do what Solomon says not to do in verse sixteen?
    1. ANSWER: The Pharisees.
  15. Solomon really provides us with a key precept for living in verse eighteen, compare what Solomon writes here with what he wrote in Proverbs 2:1-6,what is he teaching us?
    1. To fear God, to put your trust in Him and to let Him lead you and comfort you, don’t put your trust in mankind or in your own strength.
  16. Compare Romans 3:23 with Ecclesiastes 7:19 – what do they tell us?
    1. ANSWER: That all have sinned, there is not a righteous man or woman on the earth today, and will never be until Christ returns.
  17. Concluding his study of the wise man versus the foolish Solomon arrives at afinal conclusion in verse 29, what is it?
    1. ANSWER: That God’s plan was for man to be upright, righteous in God’s eyes, but man had different ideas and followed after other “schemes”…man sinned and fell short of God’s righteousness, the evil and sin in the world today were not caused by God, but by man.

Let’s commit this week to focus on living a life that is driven by our quest for God’s wisdom. That more and more, we’ll come to depend on Christ for all that we are and do; and let’s begin to hold ourselves, our families, and our leaders accountable for their actions as well, striving always to live a life pleasing to God, a life that is a living testimony that Christ is alive in us.

Yours in Christ

Wes