Introducing Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 1-2

            The very first Bible study I ever taught was on the book of Ecclesiastes, when I was in high school. I can’t say it was the best Bible study I ever led; nor can I say that I fully understood it.  (Mr. Harks, our youth counselor, took me aside afterward and spent some time on the distinction between Law and Gospel.) The truth is the book appealed—and still does appeal—to my dark side. And read on a surface level, the book itself is pretty glum. Reduce it to a t-shirt and you have, “Life sucks and then you die.”

            Derek Kidner, a respected scholar of the wisdom literature, comments that there are two main options in interpreting the book. First, it could be Solomon’s own interior debate about the value and purpose of life, a “debate with himself, torn between what he cannot help seeing and what he still cannot help believing,” a struggle between faith and sight (2 Cor. 5:7). Second, it could be understood as a “challenge to the man of the world to think his own position through to its bitter end, with a view to seeking something less futile.” That is, it could be understood as a response to the nihilist, the atheist, the one who says this life is all there is. “If this life is all there is,” the Preacher seems to say, “you’ll have a pretty dismal time of it. Want to reconsider?”

            Under the first view, one of the more poignant verses in the book is 3:11, “He has made all beautiful in its time; moreover, He set eternity in man’s heart.” On the one hand, the author is aware of the beauty of the world; on the other, he is keenly aware of its trials, travails, and contradictions. Yet he knows that he is more than a beast: a beast wouldn’t even notice the tension; an animal doesn’t live in dread of its death or of its legacy. He senses there must be something more and can’t turn his heart from that confidence.

            On the second view, it is the believer who can look the futility, the nonsense, the contradictions of life full in the face. And he does so, to drive the unbeliever to the deciding point: either it is glum, depressing, and pointless … or there’s more—one who sets eternity in human hearts, who provides, who determines. Sometimes you have to push the argument to its bitterest conclusion to cause someone to draw back and create space for the Gospel.

            On either view, I find this a strangely, darkly compelling book—even if I can’t teach it with any more clarity than I mustered 25+ years ago.

            One more introductory technicality: nowhere does the author identify himself as Solomon. He identifies himself as the Preacher, a son of David, a king in Jerusalem. Frankly, those titles could make him any of a number of people from kings before the exiles to kings-in-name only after it. For myself, I see no reason to think the author is anyone but Solomon.

The Wife of Noble Character

Proverbs 30-31

            When reading about the wife of noble character, it is important to imagine life before the Industrial Revolution. In a pre-industrial world, the home was the center of life, the household the basic economic driver. In this context, the wife of noble character is not some little homemaker; she doesn’t engage in ‘crafts.’ No, she is an economic engine: she is diligent, rising early, working industriously. She buys land, expands opportunities, engages in trade. She turns the fruit of the earth (traditionally the purview of a man) into goods for sale and for the support of the family.

            How do we translate this into an industrial age? Many in our day long nostalgically for a day when wives stayed at home and raised the children. But in some ways, the picture of the wife of noble character is very modern. She has a career; she creates wealth for the household. Now, of course, in a pre-industrial age, that work happened at home; but so did the work of the father, who taught especially his sons to engage in the family’s work. In an agrarian age, fathers and mothers raised children. So, yeah, we haven’t figured out all the questions that industrialization has raised, especially around work and childrearing, but the wife of noble character suggests that our options aren’t quite as limited as we sometimes think.

The Rich and Rulers

Proverbs 28-29

            Jesus famously says that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 19:24 and parallels). Proverbs 28 also has some things to say about the rich and the poor. The poor are not to be oppressed (28:3, 8). It’s better to poor and righteous than rich and perverse (28:6). Relatedly, stinginess and greed produce strife. The implication is that this is more a problem of the rich, that those who have little are more likely to share it. That’s not universally the case, but it is a warning that wealth can be a snare to us, if ever we start to value maintaining wealth more than we value people.

            Luke’s telling of the story in which the saying from Jesus dwells is interesting. Not only is the man in dialogue with Jesus rich; he is also a ruler. Proverbs has some things to say to those who rule, too. He is not to oppress his people (28:3), presumably through high taxes or a lifestyle out of proportion to his people (28:16). Such a ruler runs roughshod over his people (28:15).

            Lessons: regarding wealth, wealth is a blessing from the Lord, but it is a blessing that can turn our heads. Jesus tells us to use it wisely (Luke 16). Such wise use includes generosity (Matthew 10:8; 2 Corinthians 9:6).

            Lessons: Not many of us are rulers in the sense of governing cities, counties, etc. But many of us do exercise power of some sort, either over our children or as supervisors at work or as business owners. Fair treatment and understanding are called for (Luke 18:1-7; Ephesians 6:4; Colossians 4:1).

Engaging Fools

Proverbs 26-27

            Proverbs 26:4-5 offer an interesting contrast; they would be contradictory if we didn’t know that they were proverbs (generally true, not ironclad guarantees). On the one hand, we are advised not to answer a fool in his folly or we risk stooping to his level. Sounds like the modern adage, “If you wrestle with a pig, you’ll only end up cover in dirt.” On the other hand, answer him in his folly in order to expose his folly. Sometimes bad behavior has to be named. Wisdom is found in knowing when each is called for. In which situations will addressing foolishness just result in everyone being reduced to folly? In which situations will addressing foolishness lead to folly’s exposure? As an example: I hate talking about politics. People are so sure of their own rightness that they can’t hear opposing viewpoints and everybody just ends up deeper in their own echo chamber. Still, politics is part of our life and if truth is really a thing, then sometimes you have to call untruth what it is.

Proverbs in the New Testament, Again

Proverbs 24-25

            I mentioned about a week ago how I was seeing connections between Proverbs and the New Testament. There are two more of them in Proverbs 25.

            First, St. Paul directly quotes Proverbs 25:21-22 in Romans 12:20. This seems to be the original observation of “killing them with kindness.” On the surface, it seems a little strange, that the motivation for being kind to an enemy is their discomfort. On reflection, I’m not sure that’s quite where the proverb is headed, though. I think instead the heaping of coal’s refers to the enemy’s own sense of shame at realizing the other is not his enemy at all.

            The whole notion of enemies is troubling to me. In Romans 5, Paul states that Christ died for us while we were still enemies of God. If God so loved His enemies, how can we, His holy people, look at someone and name them an enemy? Unfortunately, when people hurt us, disappoint us, betray us, it’s very easy to name them enemies. How blessed it would be if we could see them as objects of the same mercy that we have received from God.

 

            The second example of a New Testament reference to Proverbs is 25:6-7 which rings of Jesus’ saying in Luke 14:7-11:

When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

The temptation is always to exalt ourselves, to speak of what we deserve, to seek our own honor. But the way of the kingdom, the way of wisdom, is to act humbly. The Lord will exalt in His due time. On this Jesus is completely in line with many proverbs.

Discipline, Drinking, Getting Older

Proverbs (18-21) 22-23

Proverbs 19:21—Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

            Here’s one of those proverbs that encourages true humility because it encourages true dependence on the Lord. No matter how careful, how thorough, our plans, we cannot account for everything. Sometimes the things we don’t account for don’t make any difference and things go our way; sometimes the things we don’t account for have outsized consequences and things fall apart. In either case, we do well to count on the Lord.

 

Proverbs 20:20—The glory of young men is their strength, gray hair the splendor of the old.

            My uncle used to have a plaque on his desk that read, “Old age and treachery will overcome youth and vigor.” There does come a time when our bodies fail us, when the vigor of youth gives way. When that happens, we do well to lean more on our brains. Just recently I had to move a couch. In younger days, I would have horsed that thing around. This time I called a friend. “Work smarter, not harder.”

 

            We had several sayings recently about raising children: Proverbs 22:6, 22:15, and 23:13-14. The first one says that if we raise a child in the way he should go then they will stay on that way even when they are old. Here’s one where it’s good to remember that the proverbs are general statements, not ironclad guarantees. It’s good to remember that because everyone of us knows someone whose children did not follow in their ways; maybe it even happened in our family. I’ve often had parents ask what they did wrong that their children chose different paths, and I’ve often said that parents ultimately aren’t responsible for their grown children’s choices; those children also have agency. The best we can do is set them on the right path and pray that the Lord will keep them in it.

            The next two sayings encourage the use of the ‘rod.’ In a modern world, that sounds really brutal. Spanking has fallen out of favor in our parenting tool kit. And I think, in general, rightly so. Sometimes corporal punishment is the right choice—when for example there has to be urgency to the discipline. But corporal punishment dare not be executed in an atmosphere of anger. It cannot be perceived as retaliatory. It cannot teach that violence is the right response when one is upset. There are so many ways that corporal punishment can spill over into abuse that we do well to consider whether it should be used at all.

            On the other hand, the proverbs still ring true without corporal punishment. There are many ways to raise children in a disciplined environment without it. We need a broader understanding of discipline. Discipline is not punishment but an ordered life. Discipline begins with structure and routine. From the time they were only a few months old, our children had a bedtime routine—pjs, brushing teeth, read a book, say prayers, lights out. We rarely had to fight about it because that is just what we did. Morning routines came with school. Household chores were on a schedule. Children thrive on structure, and we only rarely had to resort to punishment.

 

            Proverbs 20:1, 21:17, 23:19-21, and 23:29-35 all warn against the dangers of alcohol. Psalm 104 says that wind gladdens the heart, and that’s true But alcohol must be treated with care. Too much and we say and do things we will regret. So, a drink eases the heart, but too many drinks have potentially disastrous risks.

The Ways of God

Proverbs 16-17

            The first section of Proverbs 16 reminds me of a modern proverb: “Man proposes; the Lord disposes.” That is to say, there is a limitation to human plans. We can be careful, cover all our bases, think through contingencies, wrap the thing in prayer, but ultimately our success rises or falls on the will of the Lord. This calls for humility, a key aspect of wisdom. We can’t think of everything and we certainly can’t control all factors. Proverbs 16:18 suggests the consequences of abandoning that humility. “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” So, we work and plan and pray, and cast it on the Lord.

            A few others that stood out for me today:

            Proverbs 16:31: there was a time I fretted about my gray hairs. Anymore I see them as well-earned. It would be well if we didn’t try to feverishly to hold aging off. It would be well for our society if we weren’t so youth-obsessed. It would be well for us if we could regain a sense of honoring our elders.

            Proverbs 17:3: here’s one I don’t much like, but it’s still worth pondering. It is only by testing that we discover our mettle. People often (mis)quote 1 Corinthians 10:13, “God won’t let you be tested beyond what you can bear.” Here’s a think I note: only God really knows what our limits are; we only discover it in the fiery test. Consider Job, whose suffering was as much for his benefit as for anything, so that he could have his doubts burned off and be left with his absolute dependence on his God.

The Burdens of the Heart

Proverbs 14-15

            Solomon understands the experience of suffering. First, in Proverbs 14:10 he notes, “Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can share its joy.” Suffering isolates us. Lamentations 1:12, “Is any suffering like mine?” Job felt deeply misunderstood by his friends. On and on it goes. Suffering is like a cage, like invisible bars around us. We feel like no one understands, like we can’t express it. Now, St. Paul says that things are different in the body of Christ, that we suffer and rejoice together (1 Corinthians 12:26), and that is something to rejoice in. Still, in our human experience, we often fall back into our fallen loneliness and reject any empathy given.

            Second, in Proverbs 14:13, Solomon notes that we hide our grief behind laughing faces. Consider the casual greeting, “How are you?” The expected answer is, “I’m fine, thank you.” It’s just polite conversation; nothing more is expected. How surprised we are when someone takes the question seriously and answers it honestly! Our age has a proverb of its own, “Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes.” People who seem well-adjusted and happy may well be bearing griefs we know nothing about.

            Third, Proverbs 15:13, “A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.” The weight of our emotional troubles is every bit as heavy as the more obvious  burdens of life.

God’s Created Order

Proverbs 12-13

            Proverbs has no use for get-rich-quick schemes: that’s a theme through the first half of Proverbs 12. “Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense.” We sure live in an age of such schemes. My social media is filled with ads about earning thousands of dollars from the comfort of your home with only a few hours needed. I have a theory, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” In this matter, Proverbs overlaps the wisdom of say, Aesop, who told a story of an ant who worked diligently in preparation for the winter and a grasshopper who did not and starved, and who told a story of a tortoise and a hare in a footrace only to have the tortoise win because “slow and steady wins the race.” The wrinkle of Proverbs is that it sees such behavior as righteousness, acting as the Lord intends, according to His created order of things.

            In our age, we need to see a created order of things, especially since so many voices are saying that any such order is just a social construct, rules made up by men that don’t necessarily have to be followed. The German philosopher Frederich Nietszche articulated it in the 1800s, arguing that morality of all sorts is just a bunch of human rules and the truly strong person can break them because he is strong enough to see that they’re just human. Whether we recognize it or not, that kind of thinking undergirds a lot of our modern life. You can see it in the way that we ‘freed’ ourselves sexually so that everything is permissible. You can see it in the corruption that taints our government. You can see it in the unchecked pursuit of profit in business. Anywhere that the created says, “No,” humans are capable of saying, “Who says?”

            Proverbs reminds us that it is God Himself who says, “No,” who says, “There’s a way things should be done,” who says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

Proverbs in the New Testament

Proverbs 10-11

            I’ve read the Bible for a long time, and I love it when I make a new connection. Today I noticed several connections between St. Paul and the book of Proverbs.

            First, take a look at Proverbs 10:12, “Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.” I had never noticed how much that resonated with 1 Corinthians 13:5, that love keeps no record of wrongs. (Peter makes a similar comment in 1 Peter 4:8.)

            Second, Proverbs 10:16, “The wages of the righteous is life, but the earnings of the wicked are sin and death,” rings with Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is everlasting life in Christ Jesus.” Of course, Paul modifies it a little bit. Proverbs make life seem like a reward and Paul sees it as a pure gift, neither earned nor deserved.

            Finally, Proverbs 11:24, “One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty,” reminded me of 2 Corinthians 9:6, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”

            I don’t know what the great significance is. The New Testament regularly quotes the Old Testament, reminding us that our salvation is a single story about the fulfillment of a singular promise of salvation. But I looked it up, and Proverbs is quoted only four or five times in the New Testament, yet its influence goes deeper. If nothing else that teaches us that Proverbs is a book worth our time and effort.

The Deeper Meaning of Wisdom's Invitation

Proverbs 8-9

            Proverbs 8 begins with the image of wisdom, personified as a woman, calling out, inviting the people to embrace the best version of themselves. If folly invites us to indulge our most beastly desires, wisdom calls us to the noble ways of God. Again, I note two words: prudence and discretion (appearing 5 and 3 times in these first 9 chapters of Proverbs), Prudence can be understood as cautious, good judgment; discretion as carefulness—a carefulness that will not give offense or reveal what shouldn’t be revealed.

            Chapter 9 continues the image and contrasts the invitation of wisdom with the invitation of folly. Wisdom knows that she will not be universally accepted. Verse 7-8 point out that mockers will insult the wise and resent their insight; they are content to charge ahead in arrogance and they take pleasure in the power of having knowledge over another. But such a way leads to death.

            In between, we learn that wisdom is more than she appears (8:22-31). Wisdom existed before the creation of the world; indeed, wisdom was the Lord’s partner in creation. Later Christian reflection saw in this description of wisdom a nod toward Trinitarian theology. Wisdom was understood to be a way of referring to the pre-incarnate Christ, the second person of the Trinity. “But to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24).

            This changes how we look at the call and the warning. It’s not just a choice between good and bad behavior; it’s a choice between the ways of God, being renewed in His image, and the ways of sin which lead to death.

The Adulterous Woman, Or Is She?

Proverbs 7

            When is an adulterous woman not really an adulterous woman? When the image is a stand-in for folly. At least in part, that’s what is going on in Proverbs 7: it’s an analogy for wisdom and foolishness. That is clearer when we take chapters 7-9 as a unit. Even just in this chapter, though, there are clues. It is addressed to the simple, who wander unknowingly into dangerous situations. And the simple man is easily seduced with the offer of pleasure and food. Folly offers an easy route to a good life. Wisdom, by implication, is more difficult. Wisdom requires discipline, hard work, and lifelong faithfulness.

            Last week in my sermon, I was talking about the temptations of the world. I quoted the hymn, “Jesus, Grant that Balm and Healing,” about the world’s broad, easy way and its invitation to seductive, sinful vices. I said that the ways of the world are easy because they invite us to do what our basest instincts crave. The way of Christ means putting aside those desires. It means embracing the new creation that we are by our Baptism into Christ. It means setting aside base instinct and saying, “I am not an animal, a mere beast, that I should just act on my appetites. I am created in the image of God to live a godly life.” Many years ago, struggling with the question, “Why do we pray before we eat?” I settled on this answer: “We pray before we eat because we are not animals, who just tear into the food in front of them. We are children of God, and we can wait long enough to say, ‘Thank you,’ and to wait for everyone to be seated at the table together.” I continue to think it’s a good answer, and I think it’s indicative of the way of wisdom: wisdom means acting like a human, not some animal.

Adultery and Debt

Proverbs 5-6

            These two chapters contain two warnings against a sexually wandering eye and a warning against debt.

            The first warning against adultery uses the image of intoxication, which I think is apt. The problem is love and its perceptions. We tend to equate the obsessive longing of infatuation for love. Many relationships start with that feeling; many successful marriages begin with that feeling. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) that feeling evolves over time. The Greeks had more words for love than we do, and they characterized that feeling as eros. At its best eros keeps a place in a long-lasting marriage. But more needs to be added. Greeks distinguish philia, affection or friendship, and that is an important aspect of lasting relationships. They also not agape, a kind of love that serves another and puts their needs first. That’s the kind of love that sustains a relationship for the long-term. The intoxication of infatuation is powerful in an immediate sense, but intoxication is a good description, because that buzz is usually followed by weariness and a headache.

            The second warning against adultery uses the image of fire, again an apt picture. Eros burns hot; lust burns hot. But if that fire burns for another’s wife, it does not provide warmth but burns and injuries.

            In an age like ours, warnings against debt are difficult, because debt is so much a part of our lives. We go into debt for cars, for cellphones on payment plans, for houses. Credit cards are endemic among us. (According to Capital One, a credit card company, the average American had almost $6,000 of credit card debt in 2022.) Solomon’s advice sounds a great deal like Dave Ramsey: get out of debt as soon as you can: Allow no sleep, no slumber (6:5). Solomon dislikes debt because one becomes trapped by it, losing one’s agency because he is beholden to another. And he dislikes debt because it seems to him like an easy way out. Now, as a typical American who has some debt, especially a mortgage, I can’t say I love Solomon’s condemnation, but I certainly do see his point. Maybe a re-evaluation of how we operate in a modern economy is called for.

Knowing What You Need

Proverbs 4

            I’ve often said that there are three steps in fixing a problem: 1) realizing the problem exists, 2) brainstorming solutions to the problem, and 3) implementing a solution that works. I’ve also often said that the first step is often the hardest. I thought of that reading Proverbs 4:7 this morning, “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom.” Now that seems redundant, but it’s actually quite insightful. Wisdom begins with humility. Most often in Proverbs, it is humility before the Lord God; here it is humility that says, “I don’t know it all.” Wisdom involves lifelong learning, and lifelong learning means realizing you never now all that there is to know.

The Way of Wisdom

Proverbs 1-3

            Proverbs is the quintessential book of wisdom. The books from Job to Song of Songs are often characterized as the “Wisdom” books, but Proverbs is the model for it: chapter after chapter of short, pithy sayings describing general principles of how the world works, what sort of behaviors lead to the best results, how to live with sanctified common sense.

            We’ll get to those chapters eventually. Today we have an introduction that tells us that the simple and the young need to be taught how to live wisely (1:4) and that the wise are those who continue to learn (1:5). And then we jump into the first section of the book, which contrasts the way of wisdom with the way of foolishness or folly. The section is cast as instruction from a father to a son to pursue wisdom and avoid folly. In this case, folly has an evil sense about it, not just foolishness as we would usually think of it, but an enticement to an actively wicked way of life. So, the call of wisdom is to leave that behind. For this reason, important theme of Proverbs is, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” What’s at stake here is not a prosperous life versus a needy life; what is at stake here is following the Lord or not. Everything else flows from that.

Psalm 138-150

Psalm 138-150

            Psalm 139 is a confession of the omnipresence and omniscience of the Lord. At first, David sees it as a good thing—awe-inspiring—that the Lord knows him so thoroughly. On reflection, though (verses 7-12), David realizes that that means there is no place in which he can hide from the Lord. There’s a certain fear in that. If God knows and sees all, then He knows and sees our sins, too, even the ones we think are in secret. But David quickly recovers; the Lord is not some kind of secret police, looking to catch us in wrongdoing. No, he is our Creator (vv. 13-16), who has known and loved us since we were in the womb. The psalm concludes with a prayer (vv. 19-24). It never explicitly mentions the Lord’s omnipresence, but the foregoing verses inform it. You can hear David wondering, “If God sees all, why doesn’t He do something about the evil?” a sentiment we certainly understand.

            In the order of Evening Prayer in our hymnal, Psalm 141:1-4 is the basis for one of the main canticles. That’s where I first learned Psalm 141, and I have cherished verse 3 ever since. “Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep a watch over the door of my lips.” For a man given to say whatever is on his mind at the moment, it’s a powerful prayer. James says that “the tongue is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body… a restless evil, full of poison” (James 3:6, 8). Many a conflict is sparked by careless words. It is good when the Lord sets a guard over our mouths, keeping thoughtless words from escaping.

            The superscription for Psalm 145 names it a ‘psalm of praise,’ and praise will characterize the last five psalms, too. Three themes bear comment in Psalm 145. First, “One generation commends your works to another.” Ronald Reagan once commented, “Democracy is never more than one generation from extinction.” I think in the last 20 years the church should have learned the same lesson. Young people have left the church in droves in that time, and that loss should remind us of the responsibility to pass the faith on generation to generation. Second, verse 8 repeats that common description of the Lord, a description we’ve read several times in the psalms, namely, that He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. There is a time, a place, and a necessity to preach the Law of the Lord, but as CFW Walther famously commented, “Let the Gospel have predominance.” Finally, as David recounts the Lord’s faithfulness, he notes that that faithfulness includes the food we eat. My language arts teacher in middle school often used verses 15-16 as our lunchtime prayer, and I’d suggest it makes a very nice addition to a family’s repertoire. “Come, Lord Jesus,” is a fine prayer; “The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing,” is a rich and deep prayer, too

            Psalm 146 contains a line we should take to heart, “Put not your trust in princes, in human beings who cannot save!” Way too often, we look to the powers of this world for our good, but we should look to the Lord for all good. Anything else is idolatry.