“A Good Name”
(based on the devotions of Selwyn Hughes: “Every Day Light”)
Sunday, July 31, 2011; Ecclesiastes 7:1-8:17

Introduction: Versace, Calvin Klein, Gucci, Ralph Lauren. When I say those names what do you think? You probably think of expensive products. Why? Because they have worked long and hard to attain a ‘good name’ for their company. They have sought to make top of the line products. If they would produce something that is not worthy of their name, it would damage their reputation, and keep people from buying their products.
So far in this series we have looked at the first 6 chapters of the book of Ecclesiastes. We have talked about how life is meaningless without God guiding our lives, how God has a time for all events to happen in life, and how to find contentment (not through things, but in our relationship with God). Today we talk about having a good name. As children of God, created in the image of God, we need to make sure that we keep a good name.

I. Wise Advice- (Ecclesiastes 7:1-14)
This chapter is similar to chapter 3 because Solomon again makes his point using opposites. So let’s briefly look at what Solomon is trying to teach us…
a. Birth and Death- He starts first with birth and death. What
Solomon says might surprise you, as he says that the day of death is better than the day of birth. How can this be? Aren’t we always grieving at funerals and rejoicing at births? If you think about it, you will understand that death is really a birth into eternal life with God, whereas birth is the entrance into this world, which is filled with much heartache, struggle, and evil. While we can experience some joy here on this earth, it is nothing compared to the joy we will experience being in the presence of God; the presence of love Himself!
b. Mourning and Feasting- Next, Solomon turns the tables on us
again, saying that the house of mourning is better than the house of feasting. In his wisdom Solomon is able to look beneath the surface of things. Solomon wants us to understand that in understanding death, we can understand life all the more. If you are prepared for your death, then you will not be afraid of it, and you will live your life with freedom and excitement. You will make the most of the time you have.
c. Sorrow and Laughter- Third is sorrow being better than laughter.
Now I love to laugh, and I am not too found of sorrow, but Solomon seems to have a deeper thought about this. What brings us sorrow, more often than not, will stay with us much longer than what brings us laughter. The things that cause sorrow are the things that are more dear to our hearts. We should be grateful for the sorrow, because it helps us to understand the depth of our emotions and love.
d. A wise man’s rebuke- If I were to ask you which you prefer, a
rebuke or listening to a song, I bet most of you would choose listening to a song. But Solomon tells us that the rebuke from a wise man is better. We actually need people in our lives who will keep us in line and living right. We need people who will call us on our bad behavior. A good rebuke, when done in love, will help to keep us on the right path and keep us strong in our living for God.
e. The end and the beginning- Next, is that the end is better than the
beginning. There are some people who like to know how things turn out before they start the book or movie. They will actually read the end first. I know that when I tape a Lakers game, I will find out if they won or not before I watch it. Why would I want to watch them lose? When you know how things end, you have the whole picture before you. In knowing the beginning and the end, the truth can be seen. In fact, the Bible tells us about the end: how in the end God will call all people to Himself, and all will be judged. The righteous (those who have Christ) will go to heaven to live with God; the unrighteous (those who don’t have Christ) will go to hell. God has made the end clear to us.
f. Patience and Pride- You might not think that patience and pride
are opposites, but Solomon does, and he says that patience is better than pride. When we are patient, we are more able to make good decisions, because we don’t rush to judgment. When we are prideful we tend to push aside wisdom thinking that we already know everything we need to know, and thinking that we can do it on our own. How often does a prideful person play the role of the fool because he did not wait for more information, or seek out help?
g. Prosperity and Adversity- Lastly, there is prosperity and
adversity. Life will bring us both. Solomon instructs us in how to respond when we find ourselves there. When you find yourself in times of prosperity, be joyful. Acknowledge not only the blessings themselves, but the source of those blessings: God. But there will also be times of adversity, and when you experience adversity, seek out God. The times of adversity will make us stronger, and help us to be all the more thankful for those times of prosperity.

II. Keeping Your Balance- (Eccl 7:15-29; Ps 73:2-3; Js 1:5; 1 Kgs 3:5)
a. The righteous and the wicked- One of the hard issues in life is
where we see the wicked prosper and the righteous struggle. I know many people who have questioned God about this. We believe that fairness would dictate that God would give the righteous prosperity, and cause the wicked to suffer. The psalmist, in Psalm 73 struggled with this, causing him to lose focus of his own faith, when he said in verses 2-3, “But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. 3 For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”
A tyrant lives on, while a missionary family on their way to bring help and medical care to others is lost in a plane crash. We struggle to make sense of this, unless we have an unshakeable trust in God, and believe that one day God will answer every question to our satisfaction.
Solomon warns us in verse 16, “Do not be overrighteous…” If you think yourself better than you are, it will cause you to be prideful and lead you into sin. If you get too bitter with these thoughts, it will cause you to lack love for others. John really challenges us in this, as he says in 1 John 4:20, “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.”
Solomon wants us to keep our balance in how we react to the things of this world, and keep our trust in God, who will justify all things in the end!
b. Inner Strength- Solomon is trying to impart his wisdom to us,
knowing that wisdom provides inner strength. One who operates with wisdom possesses more strength than those who do not possess wisdom. When we have wisdom, we have the inner strength to cope with whatever comes—tensions, stresses, and problems that are not easily resolved.
Inner strength comes from knowing that we are not perfect, but God can still work in and through our lives in the midst of our imperfection. As Solomon says in verse 20, “Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins.” In this we show ourselves to be wise, because our wisdom comes from God. We know that we are not wise in ourselves, but with whatever wisdom God gives to us. Again, Solomon says in verse 23, “All this I tested by wisdom and I said, ‘I am determined to be wise’— but this was beyond me.” Or as James tells us in the New Testament, in James 1:5, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all generously and without reproach.”
Even though it is called ‘inner strength,’ the strength that we find within us comes from God through seeking God, and seeking wisdom from God.
c. Be the one who is righteous- In 1 Kings 3:5 we see God saying
something remarkable to King Solomon: “Ask whatever you want me to give you.” What did Solomon ask for? WISDOM. In the midst of the wisdom God gave to Solomon, he went out seeking more. When he put his findings together, he concluded that human wisdom was nothing compared to God’s wisdom. Although Solomon was wise, he realized how far short of God he was.
Likewise, he realized that he could not be righteous on his own either. As he says in verse 28, “While I was still searching but not finding— I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all.” Now Solomon is not saying that men are more righteous than women, or that women cannot be righteous. His point here is how scarce are the righteous. That shouldn’t surprise us, because if you look around our world you will see that people care more about riches, and possessions, and pleasure, and fun, than they do about being righteous. If you polled a large group of people, you would be hard pressed to find anyone who would list ‘being righteous’ on their top ten list of priorities.
Because of the sin of Adam and Eve, sin came into the world. We are all sinners. Our primal desire is now sin, not righteousness. It is only through Christ that we can desire to be righteous, and can become righteous. We must desire to be righteous if we hope to pursue righteousness.

III. Looking at Your Life- (Ecclesiastes 8:1-8)
a. Working things out- Often when you talk of possessing wisdom,
people think that wisdom comes from knowing many things. This is in part true. But having wisdom goes far beyond academics; it is more than acquiring knowledge. Wisdom is being able to ‘put into practice’ the knowledge you possess. You probably know people who have a great deal of knowledge, but they don’t make wise decisions; they don’t put their knowledge to good practice.
Many commentators believe that in chapter 8, Solomon is giving us a self-portrait, and using himself as an illustration of how wisdom works in the lives of those who have position of authority over others. Remember, as king, Solomon was very powerful, and had a great kingdom under him.
If we hope to work things out in our lives, we have to first get the big picture. The big picture includes understanding that our life is filled with fulfilling our commitments. In Ecclesiastes 8:2 Solomon says: “Obey the king’s command, I say, because you took an oath before God.” Now, while we don’t have a king that we make oaths before, we do make vows and commitments all the time. Maybe you signed a contract for work, or to buy your home or car. When you got married you made a vow to your spouse. When you accept Christ as your savior and Lord you make a vow to Him to follow in the ways of God. When we live by these vows, our lives will be much more constructive, productive, and worthwhile.
Working things out in our lives is more beneficial when we do it with a smile. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather be around a person who smiles, than a person who is gloomy. And when we smile, we seem to have more energy and enthusiasm in the way we live our lives. Wisdom, the kind that comes from God, should light up our face. Thus, we can know that God is at work and alive in our lives when we radiate cheerfulness.
b. Our limitations- We all go through tough times. These tough times
are almost as regular in our lives as waking up each day. We have to keep these tough times in perspective, and not allow them to cause us to doubt the Lord. We should not withdraw our faith, trust, or support from God because we are going through a tough time, or a series of tough times.
Ecclesiastes 8:6 says, “For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a person may be weighed down by misery.” When tough times come, understand that we can and should go to God, but not to demand that He remove the struggle from our lives. And we can’t let these tough times weigh us down. God will give us the strength to overcome them, and to learn from them. Many people have ruined their lives because they did the wrong thing, or even the right thing at the wrong time. The wise person will know the proper time and way to respond.
As we get to verses 7 & 8, we see Solomon giving us an important reminder: we have limitations. We don’t know the future, we don’t know where the wind will blow, we don’t know the time of our death, and we don’t know when war will break out. These limitations should not cause us concern, as much as they should be a catalyst to lead us to turn to God and trust God all the more!

IV. Understanding the Mystery- (Ecclesiastes 8:9-17; John 3:12)
a. Providence- Wouldn’t you agree with me that life is full of
mystery? There are many mysteries that exist here on this earth. Is there a Loch Ness monster? Do aliens exist? How come there are ten hot dogs in a package, but only 8 hot dog buns? Some mysteries are worth pursuing, while others are not. There are many mysteries that are really just a waste of our time.
In the last section of Ecclesiastes, chapter 8, Solomon turns his attention to some mysteries that don’t have clear answers…
1. The first is seen in 8:10, where Solomon says, “Then too, I saw the wicked
buried—those who used to come and go from the holy place and receive praise in the city where they did this. This too is meaningless.” Have you noticed that when you go to a funeral, even of someone who was wicked, only praise is spoken of them. Let’s say you go to the funeral of a crime lord. They don’t talk about the drugs he pushed, and the people he killed, and the cops he paid off. They talk about him as a loving husband, and a caring father, and a generous man. Believe me, when he gets to heaven, he won’t hear praise there. He will hear the truth.
2. The second mystery was why the sentence for a crime was not carried out
quickly. Today it is probably worse than it was then. It can take up to a year just to start a trial, much less convict a criminal. Part of the result of this is that crime goes up, because criminals think the justice system to be weak.
3. The third mystery is something that we mentioned before, but see
Solomon speak of again in 8:14, “…the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve…” What is Solomon’s answer to this? Eat, drink, and trust in God. In other words, even though things don’t make sense to you, continue your routines, and more than anything, trust in the Lord to carry you through and make it all right in the end.
b. Don’t demand answers- One mistake that people often make
when they don’t understand what is going on in their lives, is to demand of God: they demand an answer from God, or they demand of God to make their problems go away. However, the sooner we come to terms with the fact that there are things which happen in life for which there is no adequate explanation, the better we will be in life. Now it is not wrong to DESIRE answers from God, but not to DEMAND answers. When we demand from God, we will move ourselves to greater trouble. If you remember Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, where he asks in John 3:12: “I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?” One of the biggest reasons we shouldn’t demand of God is because we won’t understand the answer. While God has an eternal perspective, and the wisdom to understand it, we do not.
Rather than demanding of God, we should trust. I know I say that a lot, but I say it because it is good and sound advice. The missing pieces of every puzzle of your life are in the hands of the One who put this universe together in the first place.
Story: There is a story of a young boy who was bullied by some other boys. They called him names, and called his father ‘Frankenstein,’ saying that his father put people to sleep, cut them open, and took out their parts. The truth was that the boy’s father was a surgeon. Even though this young boy couldn’t understand all that his father did, he trusted that his father wouldn’t be involved in anything bad.

Conclusion: The same is true of God. We don’t always understand how this world works. We don’t understand how eternity fits together. We don’t know why the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer. But God does, and God has a plan. As Jeremiah 29:11 tells us: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
In the midst of a sinful and often evil world, where even we ourselves are sinful, we need to live in a way that shows we have faith in God. When we do this, we will make a good name for ourselves as ‘faithful follower,’ and we will bring glory to God’s name as well. Amen.