Suffering and Sin (Ecclesiastes 7:1-8:1)
Big Idea: Suffering is inevitable but becomes beneficial when met with the wisdom that comes from God.
I'm not in business, but I understand that most products follow a development cycle. A leader develops a promising idea. Engineers then design it, create a prototype, and finally—the crucial stage—subject it to rigorous testing.
I read last week about a transport vehicle designed in Canada for the U.S. Army to move tanks and other heavy equipment. When field testing began, military standards proved unforgiving—the first prototype was completely destroyed during evaluation. What a spectacular sight that must have been!
The team returned to fundamentals, redesigning the vehicle from scratch. Their second attempt succeeded. This illustrates why we value field-tested products in our daily lives. Most of us would hesitate to fly on a new aircraft's first flight; we prefer that it has been tested and proven safe by others.
The same goes for a lot of other things: cars, recipes, shampoos. They can test it on someone else, thank you. I'll try the finished product.
What about our faith? When we trust in God, we become a new creation; the old is gone, and the new has come. Inevitably, we will encounter adversity in our lives. Our spouses will frustrate us, we'll lose a job, encounter an illness—whatever.
And the real question is this: Will the life of faith survive hard and troublesome times when the "good old days" have gone and the "days of adversity" come? Is your faith only strong in good times? Will it survive the hard times?
To help answer this question, we're going to turn to Ecclesiastes 7 this morning. We're at the halfway point in this book. Solomon has been examining life and concluding that everything is meaningless. In chapter 7, Solomon switches gears.
In chapter 7, Solomon begins to examine wisdom and faith. He is, in a sense, field-testing a life of faith and asking if and how a life of faith can meet the trials that will come to it in life. Solomon helps us to understand how suffering and wisdom can benefit us and even strengthen our faith.
You'll notice that this chapter is in the form of proverbs. A proverb is a maxim, a pithy statement that condenses truth into a few memorable words. In this chapter, Solomon is instructing us.
Two Lessons
In this passage, Solomon teaches us two lessons about suffering. Here's the first:
Suffering is beneficial.
Solomon points out that adversity and suffering have the potential to be beneficial instead of harmful in our lives. Given the choice, all of us would choose only good and pleasurable things to happen to us. I'm sure all of us would rather laugh than cry, and we would rather attend a birthday party than a funeral. But Solomon points out that sorrow is better than laughter.
Read verses 1 to 4 with me.
A good name is better than precious ointment,
and the day of death than the day of birth.
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.
Sorrow is better than laughter,
for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
Let's look at verse one a bit closer. We could translate this verse, "As a good name is better than perfume, so the day of death is better than the day of birth." A good reputation based on character is more valuable than a pleasant scent. Similarly, a funeral prompts important questions about life more than a noisy birthday party does. Happy times generally teach us less than hard times.
Solomon expands on this idea in verses 2 through 4. When I attend a funeral, do you know what I do? I think about my own. Attending or conducting a funeral serves as a reminder of my own mortality and the inevitability of being in that casket someday.
What will my life have been like? What will people say about me? What will God say about me? That's why Solomon can say that it is good for us to enter the house of mourning once in a while. It causes us to think, doesn't it?
Do you get the point? We should live with the awareness of our coming death.
So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.
(Psalm 90:12)
I received a phone call one morning while I was shaving that someone very close to me had died in her sleep. I got in the car and drove to meet with some others. In that car, my mind was clearer and more focused than probably at any other time. I was thinking about the deep issues of life, the things that really matter. Everything else becomes less important.
There's a true story told by Chuck Swindoll that comes from the sinking of the Titanic. A frightened woman found her place in a lifeboat that was about to be lowered into the raging North Atlantic. Suddenly, she thought of something she needed, so she asked permission to return to her stateroom before they cast off. She was granted three minutes, or they would have to leave without her.
She ran across the slanted deck. She raced through the gambling room with all the money that had rolled to one side, ankle-deep. She entered her stateroom, set aside her diamond rings and jewelry, and took three small oranges from above her bed. She quickly made her way back to the lifeboat and got on.
Thirty minutes earlier, she would have chosen any piece of jewelry for a whole crate of oranges. Death came aboard the Titanic. All of a sudden, priceless things became worthless. Things once deemed worthless have now become invaluable. And when death came calling, she preferred three small oranges to an entire crate of diamonds.
Death and adversity give us that wisdom. C.S. Lewis wrote, "Pain insists on being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to our conscience, and shouts in our pain. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." Pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
I think you will agree that the times you have learned the most in this life have been times of adversity. The good news is that these times are not wasted in our lives. God is refining us and improving us.
I once heard somebody say that they didn't want to hear a sermon from a preacher who hasn't suffered. There's a certain type of wisdom that only comes from those who have been through the refiner's fire. Solomon makes another point in this chapter. He's taught us that suffering and adversity can bring benefit and instruction.
But if we're going to benefit from suffering, we need wisdom. Wisdom is described as the God-given ability to view life objectively and manage it with stability. But wisdom is easier to recognize than it is to define. If we are going to survive the trials of life, wisdom is essential.
Wisdom is good with an inheritance,
an advantage to those who see the sun.
For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money,
and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.
(Ecclesiastes 7:11-12)
Wisdom is better than a generous inheritance. Money can lose its value or be stolen. True wisdom always keeps its value and cannot be lost. Solomon states that a wise person can endure life’s challenges due to their wisdom.
"Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city" (Ecclesiastes 7:19). Wisdom gives us the strength to overcome the trials of life.
Suffering is beneficial, at least if you have wisdom. You will suffer in life. It's inevitable. But you can benefit from your suffering if you approach your trials with the wisdom God provides.
That's the first lesson. Suffering is beneficial. Here's the other lesson Solomon teaches us:
Suffering is inevitable.
In this passage, Solomon lists a number of trials that will inevitably come our way. What are some of the trials? Let's look at them.
One problem is that adversity is as much a part of life as prosperity.
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. (Ecclesiastes 7:14)
It takes a lot of wisdom and maturity to be able to accept adversity as well as prosperity in life. Job's wife encouraged him to curse God and die, and Job replied:
But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips. (Job 2:10)
In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. (Job 1:21)
Another problem is that the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper.
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 (Ecclesiastes 7:15)
One of the mysteries of life is why the righteous seem to suffer while the wicked prosper. This problem requires wisdom and maturity.
Another issue is simply sin.
Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.(Ecclesiastes 7:20)
It's a fundamental law that everyone is a sinner and that everyone lets us down.
Human sin is seen particularly in the area of speech.
Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others. (Ecclesiastes 7:21-22)
People say nasty things, and if we try to listen to everything that goes on, we're going to get hurt. Charles Spurgeon told his pastoral students that the minister ought to have one blind eye and one deaf ear.
You cannot stop people's tongues, and therefore the best thing to do is to stop your own ears and never mind what is spoken. There is a world of idle chitchat abroad, and he who takes note of it will have enough to do.
Solomon expands on human sinfulness in verses 26 to 29. He begins with the sinful woman, the prostitute who traps men and leads them to death. Solomon had a thousand women himself; he was experienced, and yet no wiser. He realized the danger of being seduced into an illegitimate sexual relationship.
He began searching for a righteous man or woman and concluded that they are very rare. One righteous man in a thousand, he says figuratively, and no woman. Let's not get caught up in the numbers or the battle of the sexes: his point is that righteousness is hard to find.
A fourth and final problem is our inability to grasp the meaning of what God is doing in the world.
All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out? (Ecclesiastes 7:23-24)
Even Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, could not understand the ultimate questions of life. Wisdom is inaccessible, it would seem. Solomon concludes his thoughts on this subject with some praise for the wise person.
Who is like the wise?
And who knows the interpretation of a thing?
A man’s wisdom makes his face shine,
and the hardness of his face is changed.
(Ecclesiastes 8:1)
Godly wisdom can make all the difference in the world. Although wisdom is hard to find, it makes all the difference in the world, and it's available to us in Christ.
As we field-test our faith, we realize two things: first, suffering is beneficial if we have wisdom. And second, we can't avoid suffering even if we tried.
Somebody has said: "No pharmacist ever weighed out medicine with half as much care as God weighs out every trial he dispenses. Not one gram too much does he ever permit to be put on us."
Some flowers, such as the rose, must be crushed if their full fragrance is to be released. Some fruits, such as the sycamore, must be bruised if they are to attain ripeness and sweetness. Some metals, such as gold, must be heated in the furnace if they are to become pure.
The attaining of godly wisdom – the process of becoming a mature Christian – requires similar special handling. Pain, suffering, and challenges help us develop spiritual discipline and grow.
The good news is that Jesus has already endured the ultimate test for us. He faced suffering, rejection, and death—not because he deserved it, but because we did. Through his perfect life, sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection, Jesus provided us with forgiveness, reconciliation with God, and the promise of eternal life—achievements we could never attain on our own. This means that when we face suffering, we don’t do so alone or without hope. Our trials are not meaningless, they are part of God’s redemptive work in our lives, shaping us to be more like Christ.
And here’s the beauty of it: the gospel frees us from the pressure to prove ourselves in the midst of suffering. Your faith doesn’t have to be perfect, and your wisdom doesn’t have to be flawless. Jesus is your wisdom and strength. When you feel crushed by adversity, remember that he was crushed for you so that you could be made whole. When you feel like you're failing, remember that his power is made perfect in your weakness. The gospel reminds us that in our darkest times, God is actively working to refine us, bring us closer to him, and prepare us for a future without suffering. So, rest in this truth: your trials are not the end of the story. In Christ, they are part of a much greater story of redemption and glory.
