The Riddle of Wisdom

<<“Under the sun” - Solomon is trying to figure out the meaning, purpose, profit, answer to what we do apart from God. “Under the sun” is his shorthand for this.

This is where the great wisdom of the book lies. It’s a memoir of a man who knew God, and had everything he could want, and still often went astray. And in the end, he found out that no matter how much he gained, without God, it was just so many puffs of air under a baking sun.

You can divide the book into six DIVES, and each one of them ends with a glimpse of life not under the sun, but under God’s promises. Solomon remembers, but he doesn’t have all the pieces.

TODAY: In the middle of DIVE number 4 - started in ch 6, ends in ch 8

Every once in a while, Solomon steps back & gives us a proverbial interlude.

Starts w/ series of poetic proverbs - but all of ch 7 can be seen as a series of increasingly difficult riddles designed to help us learn wisdom from the failure of Solomon’s wisdom.

4 points, each of which addresses a riddle

I. The Blessing of Wisdom (vv1-14)

Riddle: When is sorrow better than laughter?

<<READ vv1-13>>

note: “better” is that Hebrew word, טוב

[vv1-6] - expanding on the surprising statement - “the day of death [is better] than the day of birth”

v1 very similar to Prov 22:1 “1 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.”

Precious oil - a symbol of status & power, e.g. anointing

vv2-6 - the “story” of the proverbs - with vv3-4 as the heart

[vv7-13] - additional proverbs pointing to the fact that wisdom is good and worth pursuing.

Verse 7 - compare Ecc 1:16-18

Ecclesiastes 1:16–18 ESV

16 I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” 17 And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. 18 For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

Wisdom is better than folly, he told us in chapter 2, but it doesn’t solve the problem of death. In fact, he tells us that this realization drove him to hate life.

So where’s the blessing of wisdom?

Look how verses 1-13 are bookended by chapter 6:12 and 7:14: <<READ 6:12, 7:14>>

This puts wisdom in a context. Wisdom is a blessing - to see God’s world the way God does - but it doesn’t solve the problem of death - our lives are just a few days that pass like a shadow.

But sorrow and mourning stop us in our tracks and help us see life for what it really is.

Compare it with verses 6, 9 and 10 <<READ 6>>

ILLUST: Christmas tree - burns fast, hot, then it’s gone // hardwood or charcoal = cooking over COALS

Laughter of the fools - starts out loud & raucous, but burns out & leaves the sorrow of wasted life, wasted potential, wasted years behind. Useless, short-lived, ends in sorrow

But the sorrow of mourning leads to wisdom & ends in heart gladness.

So… which sounds better? To laugh now and weep for eternity, or to weep now & rejoice in eternity?

RIDDLE: When is sorrow better than laughter? When it teaches us to fear God.

Moses, who wrote Psalm 90, agreed with Solomon. Ps 90 is entirely about the brevity of life. And listen to the heart of that Psalm,

Psalm 90:10–12 ESV

10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. 11 Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? 12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

In the second half of the chapter, though, we learn that while wisdom is a blessing, it has limits.

II. The Limits of Wisdom (vv14-29)

A. vv14-22

RIDDLE: When does wisdom end up hurting its owner?

When he had gained all the wisdom, wealth, and achievements he could imagine, he said this:

Ecclesiastes 2:15–17 ESV

15 Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. 16 For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! 17 So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.

Here, vv14 & 20 - wisdom limited by our finitude and our sinfulness.

<<READ 14-20>>

Verse 14 reminds us of another time that Solomon impressed upon us God’s sovereignty and our finitude -

Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV

11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

His recounting of the death of the righteous and the apparent success of the wicked reminds us how he despaired over the same thing in chapters 3-4 - the mystery that wisdom couldn’t resolve there was that God will judge the righteous and the wicked, but the place where we’re supposed to see justice in this life is often plagued with corruption.

And look at the paradox in verses 15-19 -

What could it mean to be “overly righteous” or “too wise”?

Sometimes we see a righteous man perish in his righteousness, and a wicked man seem to get away with his evildoing. So you can’t guarantee yourself a long life through righteousness or wisdom.

But some of us are counting on the idea that if we’re really good, really righteous, keep all the rules, somehow we won’t get sick. Or we’re counting on our great wisdom to get us out of every jam.

The irony is that the overly righteous isn’t nearly righteous enough to deserve life; the too-wise isn’t nearly wise enough to escape death. And the effort could be their undoing.

Solomon compares this with the fool and the quote-unquote overly wicked.

It’s easy to see why being “overly wicked” is likely to cost you an early death. Not because all of the “overly wicked” die young, but because we understand that they’re putting themselves into dangerous situations on the regular.

Solomon says that the opposite will not guarantee a long life. Consider the life of Christ - he was, truly, perfectly righteous, and it was in fact the ones we’d call the “overly wicked” who put him to death.

Verses 18-20 give us some clues - the limitation of wisdom for life is that every one of us is a sinner. For all the strength that wisdom gives, it can’t out-arm-wrestle mortality.

And lest any of us think we’re exempt, verses 21-22 remind the overly righteous among us that even our tongues testify against our so-called righteousness: <<READ 21-22>>

So wisdom injures all who trust in it rather than in the God who gives it.

B. vv23-29

And Solomon continues with the riddle of wisdom and its limitation in verses 23-29. <<READ 23-24>>

Solomon’s quest ends up showing that the greatest share of wisdom is learning how little we can know and understand.

Look at the details of his quest in verses 25-29.

Here’s what he was seeking in v25 <<READ 25>>

Could wisdom uncover the scheme of things - could it help him figure out why the righteous sometimes perish and the wicked seem to prosper? Could bare empiricism uncover the fabric of the universe?

And pay attention to words like “find” and “found” in vv26-29:

<<READ 26-29>>

The first thing he found was the personification of Folly described in Proverbs. Both Wisdom and Folly are portrayed as women in Proverbs.

>>Matters of the Heart series this summer, where we looked at Proverbs 2-4, Prov 2 -

Treasuring wisdom from God like a beloved bride - to be prized & loved, embraced

But something has gone wrong in Solomon’s quest. Using wisdom to seek wisdom, he found Folly.

This woman in verse 26, whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters - this sounds like what we read in Proverbs 9:13-18

Proverbs 9:13–18 ESV

13 The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing. 14 She sits at the door of her house; she takes a seat on the highest places of the town, 15 calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way, 16 “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” And to him who lacks sense she says, 17 “Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” 18 But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

And like the men of perverted speech and the adulteress with her smooth words in Proverbs 2. The adulteress stands in for Folly - a seductive raucous partier, just like the fools we saw in verses 1-13.

And Folly often masquerades as Wisdom; stands at the corner and calls out; and even the wisest of us is susceptible.

And in verses 27-29, Solomon says, in all his attempts to find the scheme of things, what he found instead was that he couldn’t find it. No matter how hard he searched, he could not figure out the scheme - the plan - that explains everything.

And instead of a complete answer, the best he can do is in verses 27-29, which echo verse 20 - there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

<<READ 27-29>>

Instead of discovering God’s master plan, this alone he finds according to verse 29 - that God made man upright - it’s the word “Adam,” referring to mankind as a whole, and pointing back to the creation of Adam and Eve.

Genesis 1:27 ESV

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

But he does discover schemes, and not the good kind. God made man upright, but they - mankind - have sought many schemes.

But what do we do with verse 28? What did Solomon look for and fail to find?

Here’s the biggest riddle in the entire chapter, and it can help us see the heart of Solomon’s message in chapter 7.

The first clue is in verse 23: “All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, ‘I will be wise,’ but it was far from me.”

And in his search for wisdom, he found Folly waiting for him. And in Solomon’s case, according to 1 Kings 11, his heart was turned from wisdom by something very specific.

1 Kings 11:1–4 ESV

1 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, 2 from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. 3 He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. 4 For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.

It looks like Solomon is saying that in his search for wisdom, he turned in at the door of Folly, and found himself alone - the man whose wisdom was unparalleled - because Folly’s enticements proved stronger than his wisdom.

Irony: Among a thousand fools, one wise man stood, and his wisdom turns out to be a mist, a vapor, insubstantial.

Riddle: When does wisdom injure its owner? When is wisdom not wisdom at all? When the wise man forgets God, and forgets his own finitude and sinfulness.

And he has even spoiled his own experiment by bringing a thousand women - and every one an idolater - into his house. 1 Kings 11 goes on to tell us that the Lord told Solomon that his great sin had great consequences.

The limits of wisdom become quite clear: Wisdom - seeing God’s world the way God does - for all of its blessings, cannot save you from death, it cannot solve all of life’s riddles, and it cannot save you from temptation.

But there’s another part of the message. Wisdom is a blessing, and it has limits. But when is wisdom at its best? For that, we need to look at the heart of wisdom.

III. The Heart of Wisdom (vv13-14, 18-20)

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.

Start by looking how Solomon concluded the proverbs at the beginning of the chapter. Verse 13 <<READ v13-14>>

We saw earlier that when confronted with the reality of death, the wise will mourn now, and stop to consider our place before God.

And the wise will recognize that they cannot be wise or righteous enough to resolve the problem of sin, death, and vanity. The “overly righteous” person is delusional, just like the “overly wicked” - both end up like the crackling thorns burned up in a moment.

The wise know they need someone wiser, and see what verses 18-20 tell us: <<READ vv18-20>>

These verses help us make sense of verses 25-29. Who can escape Folly when they’ve fallen into her snare? Could wisdom rescue Solomon? No! Verse 26 says that "he who pleases God escapes her.” Who can please God?

The heart of wisdom has a final riddle: If all are sinners, and even the wise can be ensnared by Folly, how can anyone escape?

IV. Christ our Wisdom and Righteousness

In Romans 3, the apostle Paul quotes and points to several passages from the Old Testament to demonstrate the same wisdom that we see in verses 18-20. Paul lays out the indictment against all mankind - truly we have sought many schemes. Paul says,

Romans 3:10–18 ESV

10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

And

Romans 3:19–20 ESV

19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

And then Paul proclaims the glorious answer to the riddle of wisdom - if all have sinned, and no one can be declared righteous before God by works of the Law, how can anyone be saved?

Romans 3:21–26 ESV

21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

The heart of wisdom must drive us to conclude that no one will escape the wrath of God against sin unless God Himself redeems us.

Remember what we saw in the Sermon on the Mount, at the beginning of the Beatitudes:

Matthew 5:3 ESV

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The poor in spirit are those who know that their only hope is that another has paid their debt.

Solomon’s wisdom was better than the strength of ten rulers, but it couldn’t save him. But Jesus said:

Luke 11:31 ESV

31 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

And in 1 Cor 1, after demonstrating that the cross of Jesus puts the wisdom of the world to shame, Paul says

1 Corinthians 1:30–31 ESV

30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

The answer to the riddle: Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God on our behalf, the wisdom of God that can save, has been revealed. And it is not your wisdom or righteousness, but His, that matters.

You will stand before God one day - and every one of you will be declared guilty and sentenced to the punishment your sins deserve if you dare to try to stand before Him in your own so-called righteousness.

Ecclesiastes 7:2 ESV

2 It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.

So hear the Good News, and lay it to heart:

The God who made us, who is our Creator and Judge, sent His Son at just the right time, born of the woman, born under the Law, to redeem us from the Law.

Because of His great love for us, God the Father sent Jesus Christ His Son to be our righteousness in fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets

Jeremiah 23:6 ESV

6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

In our place, Jesus kept the Law and fulfilled it. In our place, Jesus the Holy One was condemned.

Isaiah 53:5–6 ESV

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He stood before Pilate and was condemned in a mockery of justice, flogged and then marched out of the city bearing the very instrument by which his oppressors would murder him.

He was nailed to a cross of wood, and yet He declared the purpose of His death in those words, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

And in our place, He died for our sins.

God put Christ forward as a propitiation in his blood - God Himself provided the atoning sacrifice that satisfied His holy wrath towards sin.

After suffering for our sins, Jesus cried out, “It is finished,” and breathed his last. His body was laid in a tomb. And on the third day, He was raised bodily. By His death, He conquered death, and He was raised for our justification.

For everyone who believes that Jesus Christ is LORD and confesses with their mouth that God raised Him from the death, their sins are forgiven, and Christ’s righteousness is counted as theirs.