Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (OTA)

Ecclesiastes 7:15-29

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. 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.

¹⁹ Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.

²⁰ Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

²¹ Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. ²² Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.

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?

²⁵ I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness. ²⁶ And I find something more bitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. ²⁷ Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things— ²⁸ which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found. ²⁹ See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

There is not one person on earth who is without sin, or does not sin. There surely has been one who lives and walked on this earth who was and is without sin. Jesus Christ died as the perfect sacrifice only because he was a lamb without blemish. He therefore could pay the price for all your blemishes. But the wisdom of Solomon recalls from his own experience that it does not pay to be perfect.

He starts with a balance between trying to be good, and being evil. Those who are righteous will die young and those who have a little wickedness will prolong their life. In contrast he talks about seeking wisdom, and searching out understanding. Wisdom, the woman, will draw you into her net. The one who pleases God or understands God's wisdom will be able to escape this snare, but the sinner without salvation will be consumed by the wisdom of this world.

It is important for each of us to look to the wisdom of God, which shames the wisdom of this world. It is the wisdom of God that points us to one person dying for others. God sends his only begotten Son into the flesh, to be the only perfect human. He is God in the flesh, come to die for the forgiveness of sins. He made you upright. He cleansed you from unrighteousness. This is the wisdom of God, that Christ died for the forgiveness of your sins.