Ecclesiastes Chapter Seven, The Schemes Of Men

Ecclesiastes 7:27 “Here is what I have found,” says the Preacher, “Adding one thing to the other to find out the reason, [28] which my soul still seeks but I cannot find: one man among a thousand I have found, but a woman among all these I have not found. [29] Truly this only I have found: that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”

The preacher reveals what he has, thus far, discovered. He has found it by adding one thing to another. In short, he’s viewing all that he sees individually, and then drawing back for a panorama of sorts, seeing how each thing examined fits into the larger tapestry of life and its functions. His ultimate goal, of course, is to discover the purpose of what is done under heaven, or under the sun.

His soul seeks the answer, yet the answer eludes the preacher. The answer which only true wisdom may provide, could lie in the far off and very deep place that no man can truly reach of his own power, Ecclesiastes 7:24. So he adds what he sees one to another, determining how each component creates the whole of human existence and experience, but is humble enough to admit that he cannot find it.

Or is he? He does state that one man among a thousand he interviewed, or found, has wisdom and therefore an answer, but not a single woman possesses an answer. Now before anyone shouts incriminations of misogyny, Sinclair Freguson, author of The Pundit’s Folly, suggested that the preacher could be referring to himself. Yes, King Solomon might be the one man in a thousand he inspected and found capable of answering wisely, despite his claims that wisdom was far from him, Ecclesiastes 7:23.

Another potential answer is the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus, of course, being God incarnated as a Man, is the source and summit of all wisdom. For the Christian, Jesus Christ is our wisdom from God, 1 Corinthians 1:30. Of wisdom, we read in Proverbs, “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old,” Proverbs 8:22. Continuing, it reads, “I have been established from everlasting, from the beginning, before there was ever an earth,” verse 23. Wisdom’s delight was with the sons of men, Proverbs 8:31. We are finally informed that anyone finding wisdom finds life and favor from God, but the one who sins against wisdom wrongs their own soul, and those who hate wisdom love death, Proverbs 8:35, 36. Wisdom has two aspects; the first is wisdom that permits man to comprehend the natural world. By comprehending it, that is, truly perceiving it, one must come to the realization that back of creation there is a Creator, Psalm 19:1, Romans 1:20. When we thoroughly examine the created order and reach an opposing conclusion, we are not viewing the creation through wisdom’s lens. Since wisdom originates with God, and is older than creation or mankind, it cannot be employed in any enterprise contrary to God’s purpose and glory. Therefore, when one deduces something regarding creation that opposes Him, it is despite wisdom and to spite God. The evidence of design and therefore purpose in creation abound to an utterly ludicrous degree. God’s witness in nature, according to the Psalmist, is a voice that goes out day and night, comprehended universally, Psalm 19:2-4. That is the second aspect of wisdom, recognizing and submitting to the Creator once that deduction is levelled.

Finally, the preacher declares that he has with a certainty deduced one thing. In verse 27 he speaks generalities as to what he has discovered by adding one thing to another. Here he wants his readership to understand that, truly, he has learned something concrete about life under the sun. The first part of this truth is that God made man upright. The Hebrew word for “upright,” is “yashar,” and means, “straight.” Of the 119 times it is used in the OT, it is rendered upright 53 times, and righteous 42. This should give a pretty clear idea of what is implied by the simple definition of “straight.” “Good and upright (yashar) is the Lord; therefore He teaches sinners in the way,” Psalm 25:8. God is the standard bearer for how upright is defined. He  is incapable of sin, therefore God is holy and upright. He is just and righteous, capable of only right things. This standard, this straightness, is what the believer aspires toward as we are led and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8.

Instead, man rebelled, and remains in a state of spiritual death. Man has sought out many schemes, plans, or ideas contrary to God’s revealed will, often in an effort to avoid accountability to Him, Romans 1:32. Adam rebelled, as did his son, Cain. Lamech rebelled and boasted about it prior to the Flood. Nimrod rebelled by building his tower and gathering the peoples instead of spreading abroad and populating the earth as was God’s command to Noah and his sons. Nimrod’s name even means “let us rebel.” Man has a storied history of rejecting the evidence of God’s presence, power, and grace, seeking our own selfish, self-seeking, self-loving, and self-destroying ambitions instead. However, “where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,” Romans 5:20. No living person is beyond the reach of God. The offer of salvation through the person of Jesus Christ is universally offered to all who will come. We are summoned, one and all, to behold the King in His beauty. We should repent, or change our minds about our lives and light view of sin, and accept what God has declared about our fallen race. We need to divest ourselves of our schemes, and trust the One who died to save us from them. Those schemes lead only to ruination and death. There is a narrow gate, and a difficult road, through which we must pass to enter into life, Matthew 7:13, 14. I pray the Lord that all who read may take it.