WISDOM IS BETTER – BUT DON’T EXPECT IT TO BE HONOURED IN THIS WORLD
Ecclesiastes 9:13 – 10:7 (text)   Hebrews 12:1-14

“Man does not live by bread alone,” Jesus told us. But he does, nevertheless, need bread to live on. Jesus promises us rewards not only in the life to come, but in this life also. So Peter tells us we are allowed to love life and want to see good days.

The Bible is concerned about this life as well as life in the new heavens and new earth. And quite a bit of Ecclesiastes, particularly, is concerned about getting on with life in this world. In fact, is life in this world worth living? is the great question Ecclesiastes is dealing with. So sometimes what it is talking about seems quite ordinary, quite earthly and maybe even rather un-heavenly-minded. The Preacher even says that some things in this world have been bent by God and it is well beyond you or me to straighten them. So learn to live life as it comes to you. You better learn a bit of adaptability and learn to work your way round some things in this world.

Quite a bit of our text this morning is along this line. Wisdom is a beautiful thing – certainly better than folly. But in a sinful world, don’t be surprised when you see that beautiful things often don’t get their due. In fact, they will often be trodden underfoot. 

The Preacher saw this and “it impressed him” (v.13). We might be more inclined, when we see that sort of thing, to be depressed! But the Preacher says, Don’t be despondent about it. It is only to be expected in a world in which God has not yet brought his victory over satan and sin to full flower. Furthermore, if we see only that, we are seeing the affairs of the world only from the perspective of “under the sun” (v.13). But we are Christians; we see the affairs of this world under something higher than the sun. We see it all as under God, the Maker of the sun and everything else.

So, however despised it is by the world, we still see that wisdom is better. Let’s have a look at this.

1.	WISDOM IS BETTER THAN MIGHT
“There was a small city with few men to defend it” (v.14). And inside, among those few defenders, is one poor wise man. That hardly seems a match for a great king and the huge siege-works he has thrown up against it. But we have already learned in verse 11 “that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the warriors.” On this occasion, the poor wise man delivered the city by his wisdom. 

We don’t know what sort of wisdom it was; whether it was skill at waging war, a good head for tactics and strategy; or whether the man was a diplomat who know how to strike a good deal or appeal to the attackers’ better nature – like that woman who saved Abel Beth Maacah in 2 Samuel 20, when Joab was pursuing Sheba, the son of Bichri the Benjamite. But at any rate, “the words of the wise” proved better than heroism and “the shouting of a great ruler among fools” (v.17).

Now it is true that verse 11 goes on to say that wisdom does not necessarily win the day either. Yet, as a general rule, wisdom is better than strength and armaments and much loud ado. For the much loud ado often proves to be about nothing, a lot of protesting too loudly.

And isn’t that how we find the Lord Jesus works as well? Matthew 12:19: “He will not quarrel, nor cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the street.” That is how Daniel’s kingdom, cut without human hands, cuts off the kingdoms of this world at the feet.

Congregation, we ought to want to grow. We ought to want to see the Church becoming large and great. But we don’t have to be great, or appear great, to be truly powerful and effective for the Lord. As the hymn puts it;
Not with swords’ loud clashing, or roll of stirring drums;
  with deeds of love and mercy the heavenly kingdom comes.

Wisdom is better than might because true wisdom is might. “The foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

2.	WISDOM IS BETTER BECAUSE IT LEADS IN THE RIGHT
“A wise man’s heart directs him toward the right, but the foolish man’s heart directs him toward the left” (13:2). And so you may be assured that your conservative politics are correct and that your vote for ACT in the last elections has divine approval! 

That might be how Hal Lindsey or John Smith might interpret Scripture, but I suppose we better do a little better. In OT times and a lot later, the right hand usually bespoke the idea of good or lucky; and the left hand bad or evil or unlucky. 
#	That is one of the things that is remarkable about the judge Ehud who delivered Israel from Eglon, king of Moab – he was left-handed. 
#	Proverbs 3:16 tells us that “riches and honour are the gift of wisdom’s left hand, but long life is in her right.”
#	So when Jacob blessed Joseph’s sons and wanted to carry on the tradition of the previous two generations in which the younger got the greater blessing, he quite deliberately crossed his arms and gave Ephraim the blessing with his right hand and Manasseh with his left when, by rights, it should have been the other way round. 
#	So when Jesus judges the nations at the end of the world, “the sheep will be placed on his right hand and the goats on his left.”

Fools may well strive for the blessing of the left-hand – perhaps the more showy, but the less valuable. But if we have wisdom from God, we will pass up those things and strive after that which is of eternal value. We will not, like Demas, “love this present world.” We will remember that “our citizenship is in heaven” and we will not, therefore, set our minds on earthly things. Rather, “we will set our minds on things above,” the things of God and the kingdom of God, for we know that, as we do that, all our everyday needs God will give us.

The fool’s heart, on the other hand – the left hand, we might say! – will lead him in the way of folly and evil. That is why we are warned not to keep company with a fool – and a fool is not hard to spot. “Even when a fool walks along the road his sense is lacking, and he demonstrates to everyone that he is a fool” (13:3). In fact, about his only hope is to keep his mouth shut for, as Proverbs 17:28 says, “Even a fool, when he is quiet, appears wise.”

So, wisdom is better than might. Wisdom is better because it leads in the right. 

3.	WISDOM IS BETTER BECAUSE IT OVERCOMES A SLIGHT
Back in chapter 7:21, we read, “Do not take seriously all words which are spoken, lest you hear your servant cursing you.” And as with your servant, so with your boss: “If the ruler’s temper rises against you, do not abandon your position, because composure allays great offences.” But oh dear, our poor, poor dignity. We will not allow it to be slighted! If he wants to speak to me like that, then he can jolly well run his own ship!

Or it can happen another way. Sometimes we have such high and mighty principles, and so many of them, that we cannot bend without “violating my conscience.” And sometimes, it can sound a bit rich. Is it really our conscience that is being violated? Or our pride? Or is it that we just cannot get our own way? Actually, Peter tells us that for conscience sake we should bear injustice. 
  Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. For this finds favour, if for the sake of conscience toward God a man bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favour with God. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in his steps (2 Peter 2:18-21).

Of course, when we ourselves are required to sin, then “we must obey God rather than man.” But we may well find ourselves in compromising situations which others may misunderstand, and in which we may feel a certain embarrassment, but don’t be too quick to stand on your dignity and high-sounding principles. Proverbs 29:11 says, “A fool always loses his temper, but a wise man holds it back,” and, “The tongue of the wise brings healing” (Proverbs 12:18).

Think of Abigail, the wife of Nabal – and Nabal means fool! – approaching David, furious with her husband because he did not reward his men when he had protected him and them for many months. Let’s be honest, it would be hard not to think that her beauty did not make him stop and listen. But only because she took a submissive attitude and bowed down before him and appealed to his higher motives did he get off his high horse and turn away from a great slaughter. Her “soft answer turned away his wrath” (Proverbs 15:11). Her “composure allayed great offences.”

Yes, all round congregation, wisdom is better – wisdom is better than might; – wisdom is better because it leads in the right; – wisdom is better because it overcomes a slight; – but – we live in a sinful world and the Lord has not yet brought his victory over satan and sin to full flower yet. We are still awaiting that day, and so;

4.	WISDOM IS BETTER – BUT DON’T BE SURPRISED IF IT IS DISHONOURED
But how does the Preacher say, in verse 16, “Wisdom is better than strength. But the wisdom of the poor man is despised and his words are not heeded”? For his words were heeded and the city saved. 

We should understand this as a general rule. The poor man’s words were only heeded out of desperation on this occasion. Yet his wisdom was still despised for, although he delivered the city by it, no one remembered him afterwards (v.15). Is there a hint in the repetition of the word poor in that verse? “There was found in the city a poor wise man and he delivered the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man.” If you’re not beautiful or rich, it’s an uphill battle in this world. 

Let it not be so among us. “Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant, being made in the likeness of men.” In both the OT and the NT, we are warned not to take notice of men’s persons, for God is no respecter of persons. “Do not dishonour the poor man,” says James (2:6). 

What a warning this is, isn’t it, that we heed Paul when he says we are not to do our work as eye-pleasers, putting our back into it only when the boss is around. All we do is to be done as unto the Lord, for his praise and honour and glory. The praise of man is a fickle affair, after all. Let us not seek it then, but instead seek our praise from God. Then we can be sure we will be remembered and, in the end, honoured with his, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord.”

But there is more.

5.	WISDOM IS BETTER – BUT DON’T BE SURPRISED IF IT IS DESPOILED
“Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good. Dead flies make a perfumer’s oil stink, so a little foolishness is weightier than wisdom and honour” (9:18 – 10:1).
How many of you children have made a sandcastle at the beach? You spent hours on it. But then you see the tide coming in and so, because you know your castle is going to be destroyed anyway, you have a last fling for the day and go mad and jump all over it and at least have the fun of wrecking it yourself. Well, that’s okay. But it proves the Preacher’s point.

It takes a whole lot more to build something than to ruin it. Or, as Derek Kidner puts it, “it is much easier to raise a stink than to create sweetness.” And that can be done in the home, at school, in the Church and in our own lives. 
#	Think about Moses, the meekest man in all the earth. But on one occasion he lost his temper, one dead fly in the perfumer’s oil, and so he never set foot in the promised land.
#	Think about Achan. The Lord had just given Israel a great victory over mighty Jericho without a casualty. So they set off to that one-horse town, Ai. But because of the sin of one man, Achan – for a few bits of gold and silver and a fine Italian suit – 36 Israelite lives are lost. A little folly is weightier than wisdom and honour.
#	Think about the deputy mayor of Christchurch. No doubt he has done much good in the community over many years. But because of one – rather serious – sinful weakness, he ends up at 68 years of age in utter shame and will spend his retirement in prison. What a thing to bring on your family! What a state to bring your wife to in her old age!

Let’s not think ourselves better than others. But let us learn! There is wisdom crying out in the street! At least don’t let us despoil her. One sinner, or one sin, just one sin indulged in over the years or even only one isolated sin in the case of Moses and Achan “destroys much good” (v.18). Let us “pursue holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”

6.	WISDOM IS BETTER – BUT DON’T BE SURPRISED IF IT IS DISPLACED
There is an evil I have seen under the sun, like an error which goes forth from the ruler – folly is set in many exalted places while rich men sit in humble places. I have seen slaves riding on horses and princes walking like slaves on the land, says the Preacher in 10:5-7.

Believing in the current idol of one-man, one-vote democracy as we do, we are likely to see verses 6 and 7 as triumphs of social justice (as we call it), and we may not appreciate the Preacher’s consternation. We should do away with the ‘divine right’ of kings! We should do away with the ensconced privilege of aristocracy! 

After all, in 9:15, it was a poor man who had wisdom. But here the Preacher seems to want us to believe that wisdom is the preserve of the rich.

Of course the National Party deserved to lose two years ago with their arrogant ‘born to rule’ attitude but, as we are seeing, “The earth shakes under a slave when he becomes king” (Proverbs 30:22). For the present government treats us all with even more disdain; indeed, like little children. Whether you agree with this item or that, it is a deconstructionist government. It is out to wreck a good deal of what Christianity has built into our culture over many centuries and it has a very liberal hand with a lot of your money.

The Preacher has no particular agenda to support the present establishment – that is not his point. In 4:13, he said, “A poor yet wise lad is better than an old and foolish king who no longer knows how to receive instruction.”

I think we should take the reference to princes and the rich in these verses in a good sense. Riches were often, in the OT, seen as the Lord’s blessing and if you can make money and hang on to it, you can at least organise life. That is a useful attribute for a ruler. And princes are, of course, born to rule and presumably trained to also. The Preacher is simply pointing out that we will often see people in places of authority who are not suited and who do not have the ability or right or training to rule. That’s the way things go in a sinful world. Wisdom is better, but don’t be surprised to see it displaced. In God’s providence, yes, those people are appointed by him. But in his providence God can do things that seem very strange to us. His providence is not our rule to live by; his Word is. 

CONCLUSION
God is not concerned only that we be saved and look forward to heaven – pie in the sky bye and bye, as it is sometimes parodied. He is concerned about our lives here on earth, now. He is very concerned that we grown in holiness – for without it we will not see him. “This is God’s will for us, even our sanctification.”

But it is a sinful world in which we must live out our lives. And we are also exhorted to be content – not just with much or little of this world’s goods; but also content with God’s rule of his world which so often seems to permit things that go utterly against his kingdom and would seem to us to frustrate the growth of the Gospel. 

God is still in his heaven even when the foundations seem destroyed and there is nothing the righteous can do. So we should not be dismayed when calamity strikes. There should be a certain calmness about us and we need to learn to pick our way through life on an even keel, even though wisdom, godly wisdom, which is better than might; 
which leads in the right; 
which can overcome a slight; 
is, nevertheless, maybe dishonoured, 
despoiled 
and displaced, tossed aside from   where it should be for this world’s good and God’s glory.

Under the sun you will see all this. But don’t be depressed by it. For we do not view life as merely under the sun. We view it as under the sovereign hand of Almighty God who makes even the wickedness of man, let alone his folly, to praise him in the end.

So be patient brothers and sisters. And although wisdom may not be appreciated by the world, you keep striving for it. That is all part of our training, God’s disciplining us, and, in the end, “it will yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness … if we persevere and faint not.”
       Amen

John Rogers, preached in the Reformed Church of the North Shore,
28th May, 2000.