Tested by Wisdom
Ecclesiastes 7:1–9:18 – What's the Point?
Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – August 17, 2025 (am)
This section of Ecclesiastes can confuse us. If we’re inclined to give Scripture the benefit of any doubt and receive it as though it’s giving us straight-forward instruction on what we should or shouldn’t believe or think or do, we’re going to read this section one way.
However, if we’ve begun to pick up on the style of the Preacher, his tone, his use of irony and even sarcasm, plus his intent to be brutally honest with regard to the nature and quality of life under the sun, life in this world without reference to God, then we’ll hear this section differently.
It grows darker from the start (cf. Kidner 86), and not just from intentional sarcasm, or even irony or brutal honesty, but from deeply insightful observations of real life. Even so, not only is the darkness not quite as dark as it could seem, but we’re also not left without fresh and relevant rays of light. Let’s look into the text and see how this is so.
Into the Text
Right out of the blocks we see why I suggest that this section can confuse us. The Preacher has just stated: 6:12 … who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life…? Then he immediately proceeds… to [share his opinions on] what is good, or what [is] better (Shepherd 314). 7:1 A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth. Then comes a familiar one: 2 It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting…. Apart from the irony of going straight from good being unknowable to good being affirmed and assessed, the good being affirmed and assessed doesn’t sound very good at all! Maybe that opening assertion does, but nothing in the first half of verse 1 prepares us for the body-blow of the second half (Kidner 64), or the seeming cynicism of v.2ff.
And yet, they do present a truer picture of our actual lot in life, which we do better if we admit: 7:2 … for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. And it’s in the house of mourning that we reflect on and realize these things.
[T]he lessons derived from a funeral are more instructive than the lessons of a birthday party. The funeral may bring us to think about life but the party probably will not. In this sense sorrow is good for the heart (3); [it] enables [us to make truer evaluations in our innermost thoughts] (Eaton 1994 615). That’s where wisdom is found, so that’s where the wise are found. 7:4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. The funeral in this illustration calls us into reflection on the true nature of life that we not only wouldn’t consider during a season of celebration, it wouldn’t even be at home there. It wouldn’t come to mind or make sense.
Do you see how interwoven light and darkness are in this section? They’re inextricable. And darkness plays the lead role because that’s the nature of life in this fallen world, under the sun. So, yes, it’s dark. But it’s real. Yes, it’s ironic. But it’s truthful. Yes, it’s even a bit cynical. But it’s honest.
The Preacher just continues on down this same road through this section (cc.7-9), sort of setting up the final one (cc.10-12) (Kidner 87). But here, he deals with the realities of the reader’s potential reactions to this view of life under the sun. If it makes you angry (7:9), for instance, you may think that bit of discernment identifies you as wise, but anger is actually the characteristic of fools (7:9). (Think about that next time you have a conversation on politics or morality or even religion.) And don’t appeal to [the good old] days (10) as though things haven’t always been this bad; that observation doesn’t express wisdom either (10). Yet, there is no way to deny that God Himself is behind all this in some way that we’re also not able to discern with any sort of precision or clarity (7:13) (see Kidner 68).
That leads inescapably to one conclusion which comes in two parts: 7:14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him. In essence, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. We can’t know. So, our comfort regarding the uncertainties in this world isn’t going to come from knowing the outcome. Do you hear that? That’s a pretty important observation. And it’s helpful. But it’s not yet one of those rays of light. This is just a bare truth that our only comfort is going to come from trusting God in all our circumstances, good or bad.
The Preacher continues this thought, revealing its unavoidable implications under the sun. 7:15 In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. The righteous can die early. The wicked can live long. Under the sun you can’t really see much difference between the outcomes of their lives with any reliable clarity!
Then comes another confusing statement: 7:16 Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? 17 Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? 18 It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them. In context, this is clearly so-called wisdom under the sun. This is the inescapable conclusion at which one must arrive, the brutally honest outcome of seeking to make sense of this world on its own without any gleam of genuine faith (Kidner 69). The righteousness and wisdom in view here could only be self-righteousness that [loves] the reputation of [being wise] (Eaton 1983 130). But that’s the tone we’ve come to expect in this section. And the one who fears God [is distinguished] from both of them (7:18).
So, don’t expect that living out your personal standard of righteousness is going to force God’s hand of favor, or in some other way obligate Him to bless you, or to preserve you from hardship. That’s just not how His world works. And if you press in the other direction, pursuing wickedness or some other brand of foolishness, you’re only hurting yourself. Yes, as the Preacher has said all along, there’s benefit in pursuing wisdom over foolishness. And he says so again here (7:19; 8:1-6). But that’s not the pathway toward this world making sense. 7:23 All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. 24 That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?
While it seems like some expressions of wisdom are possible—right here (7:23), 8:1 … A Man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed; 9:16 … wisdom is better than might….—even so, we as human beings are still not capable of true understanding—again, right here (7:24); 8:6 … man’s trouble lies heavy on him. 7 For he does not know what is to be…. That point just keeps being made from different angles. 8:16 When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one’s eyes see sleep (familiar?), 17 then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out. 9:1 … all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know…. The Preacher is eliminating any vestige of our self-sufficiency in this world. [W]e must be content not to know everything. Hard work, diligence, accumulated wisdom, all fail to find the answer (Eaton 1664 616). Every endeavor of wisdom to find the key by which one may master life is bound to fail (Garrett 330).
Our previous two sections (1:1-4:8; 4:9-6:18) have made this point pretty clear. Now this section (cc.7-9) is driving it home (Kidner 86). Proverbial wisdom makes that clear in c.7. Practical examples make it clear in c.8. Ultimate outcomes make it clear in c.9. 9:2 It is the same for all, … the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, … the good and the evil, … the clean and the unclean, … him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. 3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. There’s the story!
Even so, despite all this, there are a few gleams of better things, keeping some hope alive in us… (Kidner 87) (8:15; 9:7-10). And they’re not some new expression. The Preacher returns to what we’ve received as rays of light penetrating the darkness prior. Just as he’s driven home our weakness, he drives home our hope. Tucked in between it and two summary statements of the vanity in this world (8:14; 8:16-18), we get our first ray of light in this passage. 815 … I commend joy (cf. 5:20), for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun. This comes back in 9:7 Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. These are the enjoyments God has given. 3:12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as [you] live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. 5: 18 Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. 19 Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. Now, here again: 9:7 Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. This isn’t a moral permissiveness, it’s divine favor! God’s blessing to enjoy His gifts to the full! 8 Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy feasting (7). Here (8), enjoy the comforts of life. Also, enjoy marital intimacy (9). And enjoy your work (10). 9 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your [breath of a] life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might (cf. 1Co.10:31), for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going. Here and now is where and when we enjoy these good gifts from God!
Conclusion
Given the evident attention God gave to creating this world, and then to saving it after it fell, it really shouldn’t surprise us that His intention for us while we inhabit it isn’t to try to control the outcome of the world as a whole, or even our little corner of it, but to enjoy what He’s given us in it.
·Enjoy His gifts as gifts, not as selfish entitlements. Don’t hoard them as though He’ll take them away if He sees you enjoying them. Revel in them as displays of His goodness!
Enjoy them as the context for obedience, not as the reward for it. We don’t get to enjoy these things in as incentives for our obedience. We obey as an expression of delight in a God Who gives such gifts to men. When life feels heavy and hard, retreat into these manifestations of goodness and refresh, lest your obedience turn into drudgery, lest it begins to seem to us like God’s work (e.g. the advance of His Kingdom) depends on us!
Enjoy them as real blessings from God, not as grudging concessions. God gives them to us to display His character, not to earn our trust!
The rays of light in Ecclesiastes are genuine blessings, just as real and brutally honest as the insights into vanity. Today we see them as ours in Christ. Praise God! But they are ours!
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Resources
Carson, D. A., R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, and G. J. Wenham, eds. 1994. New Bible Commentary 21st Century Edition. Ecclesiastes, by Michael A. Eaton, 609-618. Leicester, Eng.: InterVarsity.
Clendenen, E. Ray, and Kenneth A. Matthews, eds. 1993. The New American Commentary, vol.14, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, by Duane A. Garrett. Ecclesiastes, 253-345. Nashville: Broadman & Holman.
Dever, Mark. 2006. The Message of the Old Testament. Ch. 19, The Message of Ecclesiastes: Wisdom for the Successful, 527-544. Wheaton: Crossway.
Grudem, Wayne, ed. 2008. ESV Study Bible. Study notes on Ecclesiastes, by Max F. Roglund. Wheaton: Crossway.
Guthrie, D. & J. A. Motyer, eds. 1970. The New Bible Commentary Revised. Ecclesiastes, by G. S. Hendry, 570-578. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Keil, C. F., and F. Delitzsch. 1891. Commentary on the Old Testament, trans. M. G. Easton. Ecclesiastes, 627-816. Edinburgh: T&T Clark.
Kidner, Derek. 1976. The Message of Ecclesiastes. Nottingham: InterVarsity.
Longman III, Tremper, and David E. Garland, eds. 2008. Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Revised Edition, vol. 6, Proverbs – Isaiah. Ecclesiastes, by Jerry E. Shepherd, 253-365. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Wiseman, Donald J., ed. 1983. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. Vol. 18, Ecclesiastes, by Michael A. Eaton. Downers Grove: InterVarsity.
The Bible Project/Videos/Ecclesiastes, [TBP].
NEXT SUNDAY: The Whole Duty of Mankind, Ecclesiastes 10:1–12:14