Preserving Life

DEVOTION

ECCLESIASTES

PRESERVING LIFE

Eccl 7:7-12

7 Extortion turns a wise man into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart. 8 The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. 9 Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.

10 Do not say, "Why were the old days better than these?" For it is not wise to ask such questions. 11 Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing and benefits those who see the sun. 12 Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: that wisdom preserves the life of its possessor.

NIV

There are a lot of different individual sayings that maybe we should have taken them just one by one, but at the same time they could be seem all together. This word translated as extortion might also be translated fraud and it has to do with being oppressed. The bribe is in the center of this fraud or oppression. The bribe is the promise of something of value for a certain activity. It is usually seen as a promise of wealth in the context of Solomon’s writings. This is the promise that can corrupt the heart of a wise man. The wise man seeks God, the corrupt heart seeks the promised bribe. Sometime the beginning of this situation can seem alright, but it is far better to get it over with, to get to the end of foolishness, put it to rest and get back to the way it was before the bride came alone. In the Hebrew the word spirit is attached to this choice of being patient or prideful. To have patience in spirit is far better than to be high minded in the spirit. This is back to the wise and foolish. Only a fool would think more highly of himself then he ought, especially in spiritual matters. But the idea is that the high minded can be easily provoked, quickly provoked into anger which is foolish. It is far better to live with patience, to keep from those dumb conversations which lead to heated arguments over issues which will not be resolved. Those kind of words reside in the lap of fools. In addition, it is not a good thing to look back to the past thinking how the “good ole days” were. We have often said that if we are chained to our past we cannot move into our future. This is the meaning regarding the words God inspired Solomon to speak about the old days. Then he goes on to speak of the benefit of wisdom which is an inheritance, what is ahead, the rest of life. Wisdom is a benefit for us that are alive, or see the sun. It could be a play on words about the sun, if we were to spell it “Son”. The Hebrew means to be brilliant, as the sun, or we could see it as the brilliance of God. Nevertheless the idea is wisdom looks to the future, not the past, it is a shelter, as wealth is a form of shelter. However, as Solomon has said many times already about the foolishness of trying to make wealth our shelter, he goes on to say that wisdom is what is going to preserve our life. The wise man puts his trust in God, the fool in wealth. Let us put an end to foolishness and live with wisdom, thus preserving life.