Wisdom Literature & Ecclesiastes

The Wisdom of Ecclesiastes in Context - Part II

Everything I've said so far is important background for understanding the wisdom literature of the Old Testament. We noted earlier that Israel was given rather straightforward directions in the Mosaic law. She was also promised abundant blessing when she obeyed the law and frightening curses if she chose to transgress God's covenantal stipulations (Deuternomy 27-29). This, too, corresponds with how children learn. For example, a little boy learns that it is wrong to do something that puts a sibling or friend in danger of harm. "Don't do that!" the Parent commands. But when the boy grows up and is put in a place of leadership, say, in the military, he will discover that it is often necessary to send some of his men on a dangerous, even fatal mission, in order to accomplish a greater goal. The wisdom literature of the Bible recognizes that ruling involves wise discernment and decisive action in life and death situations. After asking for and receiving wisdom from God Solomon's first dilemma called for him to decree death to the infant son claimed by both prostitutes (First Kings 4:16-28). The decree was not carried out, of course. But, on the face of it, for a king to command such a thing seems to violate the law of God. And yet it was the wisest thing to do in that situation.

As Israel matures and begins to reflect up the complexities of life and the challenges of ruling a nation, she discerns that everything is not so black and white, and that God does not simply reward obedience with material blessings and disobedience with poverty and calamity. No, life is more complex than that and God's ways are often quite paradoxical because his explicit intentions are not available to us.

The riddle character of life reflected in the use of riddles in the wise man's reflection on the world and life. Solomon's explanation of the purpose of his proverbs includes a summons to the wise: "Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a dark saying, the words of the wise and their riddles" (Proverbs 1:5-6). The word "proverb" translates the Hebrew word maschal, which is a rather broad term that is used to describe short, pithy riddle-like sayings (what we call "proverbs") as well as longer, more complex stories—what we might call "parables." In every case, however, this maschal literature of the wise has an enigmatic dimension to it. The meaning lies beneath the surface. The fool, who only looks at the superficial, surface meaning, will not understand. One must be wise to understand the sayings of the wise, or maybe better, if one diligently ponders and searches for the meaning of these dark sayings one will attain wisdom (Proverbs 2:1-9).

This means that the dominant literary mode of expressing the reflections of the wisdom teachers requires more than a superficial reading. Riddles take time and effort to solve. Unfortunately, some who comment on Ecclesiastes don't move beyond a superficial reading and conclude that Solomon has become despondent and given up on life or that he has written what amounts to an exposé of the unbeliever's perspective on the world and life. But this is a failure of the imagination. Such an interpretation may also say more about the interpreter than the text. A wise man will resonate to Solomon's frustration with the ephemeral character of life under the sun. The superficially pious calls for positive attitudes and cheery one-dimensional slogans about life and the world. But the wise man knows better. He has experienced Solomon's theme: "Everything is vapor." And armed with this, therefore, the wise man is ready by faith to rule the world.

Adam & Wisdom

Continued from The Wisdom of Ecclesiastes in Context, Part 1

Back to the Garden

Before we move on to the next phase of Israel's story—kingship—we should stop and return to the beginning of human history. Since we are reflecting on biblical wisdom and about to embark on a study of the wisdom of Solomon expressed in Ecclesiastes, it would be helpful for us to go back to the "book of beginnings" and think about the way in which wisdom is first presented to us. The Hebrew word "wisdom" does not itself occur in the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 1-3, but it is evident from the details of the story that God promised kingly wisdom to Adam if he would but be patient and wait for God's to mature him.

The promise of royal wisdom God held out to Adam was embodied in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This perspective is not often appreciated. But a little investigation into how the Bible later uses the notion of the "knowledge of good and evil" reveals that it is the wise discernment exercised by those placed in positions of authority and responsibility. Knowing or discerning between good and evil has to do with making mature judgments. It is a precious gift of God sought by those called to rule. Those given the gift to discern good and evil possess the wisdom necessary for deciding life and death issues for those whom he serve as rulers. So the woman of Tekoa recognizes that King David is a "messenger of God to discern good and evil" (Second Samuel 14:17). Indeed, David is able to unravel in this story a very convoluted situation that ultimately concerns the life and death of his son Absalom.

But the best illustration of the meaning of "knowing good and evil" is found in the story of young Solomon's prayer for wisdom. Knowing that he is too young to have the weight of the kingdom on his shoulders, Solomon petitions God for the wisdom he needs to rule. He is not presumptuous like Adam. He does not prematurely seize power. Rather, when given the opportunity to ask anything of the Lord, Solomon makes this request:

And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people? (1 Kings 3:7-9)

God commends Solomon for his appropriate request and gifts him with "a wise and discerning mind." Solomon, the Son of David, is a new Adam. The text of First Kings calls attention to this shortly after Solomon's prayer for wisdom, recounting his Adamic accomplishments (First Kings 4:29-34).

Children do not know "good and evil" in this judicial sense (Deuteronomy 1:39), which is why elders not young people are given the privilege of adjudicating cases in the community. Even though Adam and Eve began their biological life as adults, they were nonetheless children in their experience of life and the world. It seems evident that God's program for them was to gain wisdom through their experience of life and the world, patiently waiting for God to grant them the gift of royal judicial authority symbolized by the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

As Adam faithfully ate of the Tree of Life, giving thanks to God for his life, and as he diligently guarded and served the Garden and his new wife situated in the midst of the Garden he would slowly mature into the kind of man qualified to rule over God's creation. That was the plan anyway.

The tragedy recorded for us in Genesis 3, however, is that Adam failed to guard the Garden and his new bride from the attack of the Serpent. They seized what God had asked them to wait for and as a result they were banished from the Garden. With fatal consequences Adam presumptuously and prematurely snatched what would have been his if he had trusted God’s promise—the authority to judge good and evil. He listened to the Serpent and decided that he didn't want to wait for God's permission to rule. The seductive power of being "like God" now and ruling like him "judging good and evil" overcame our original parents.

But God's plan was not thereby thwarted. God's program for the maturation of humanity continued. Now, however, after the fall, mankind would learn and grow into a mature image of God only through intense suffering and the curse of death. But the path to maturity, although now more difficult and frustrating, was nevertheless the same. Whether it was Abraham and his descendents or Israel's own story, they experienced life first as priests (guarding and serving the worship of God) and then were graciously given the privilege of "discerning good and evil" as kings. Abraham and his altars give way to Jacob ruling over his large family and finally Joseph's wise administration of the entire world in Egypt. From priesthood to kingship—that is the flow of God's program of maturity for his people.

Just as God intended Adam and Abraham's family to mature from priest to priest-king, so also the kingdom is envisioned in the priestly law for Israel (Deut. 17:14-20). As the Lord's new humanity (new Adam) Israel was to patiently wait for the Lord to bestow the responsibility of kingship on them when they were ready. If they would but faithfully guard God's house and serve at his Table, they would grow in wisdom and eventually mature into a nation capable of the larger responsibility of kingship. Israel begins with service at the altar and Tabernacle of God until she is ready to administer the kingdom some 500 years later. When David and Solomon rule, they also write. The law was given through Moses, but Psalms and wisdom literature came through David and his son.

This has been a rough and ready summary of the story of mankind and Israel from the perspective of their maturation from priesthood to kingship. A great deal more could be said. We have not even discussed the prophetic climax of maturity. Since the prophetic stage of the story is not directly germane to the study of the book of Ecclesiastes I'll only point out that becoming a prophet means even greater responsibility and authority. Contrary to popular notions, prophets are not merely God's errand boys, simply delivering messages they here in the heavenly court. Rather, prophets have been elevated to the rank of advisor and council member. God allows them to participate in the heavenly courts deliberation before He makes a decision to act. The prophet's words, then, have a power beyond that of kings. They have the ear of the Almighty. When they speak history changes, nations are alternately delivered or uprooted and destroyed.

This, then, is the basic outline of the story of humanity's maturation according to God's own pedagogy. We see it in the story of Abraham and his family as well as in the story of Israel as a whole:

Priest (Abraham) → King (Jacob) → Prophet (Joseph)

Note how the story of the Bible begins with priests who have a limited service in God's sanctuary, then progresses so that the priests become kings who rule in their own land, and finally ends with a flurry of prophetic activity relating to the whole of world history.

Priestly service in the sanctuary (Mosaic)
→ Kingly rule in the land (David & sons)
→ Prophetic advisors who change the world (Daniel).

The education and maturity of humanity would culminate in the God the Son assuming our human nature and living as a man among us. Jesus, the Last Adam, would not fail to serve and guard his bride, the church. He is flawlessly faithful in his priestly service. Indeed, Jesus did not grasp for kingship as Adam did, but allowed God to bestow it upon him (Philippians 2:5-11). He did what Adam would not do. He refused the Serpent's temptation to seize prematurely what his Father had promised him (Matthew 4:1-11). Jesus knew that the path to wisdom was learning maturity through suffering (Hebrews 5:8). And "being made mature" the writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was granted the Davidic promise to sit down at the Father's right hand (Hebrews 1; Psalm 2 and 110).

The Wisdom of Ecclesiastes In Context - Part 1

This is a section from my commentary on Ecclesiates A Table in the Mist. What? You haven't read it yet? Shame on you.

Israel's Upbringing: Stage 1, Priesthood

Before we go all the way back to Adam and Eve and the beginning of the story – a move we must make eventually if we are to appreciate wisdom's role in mankind's progress toward maturity – let us begin with something fairly straightforward and easy to see. Think about the narrative of Israel's history. There are at least three fairly obvious stages in Israel's development. Think of these as stages in God's process of educating or training his people. This is one of the ways Paul encourages us to meditate on the story of God's interaction with his people Israel in the old world (Galatians 4:1-7). They were being trained or educated as God's new humanity. The three stages can be outlined as follows:

Priests → Kings → Prophets

This ordered sequence is important. As a nation covenanted to Yahweh, Israel begins her corporate life as priests. What we call the mosaic covenant, which Yahweh graciously inaugurates with Israel at Mt. Sinai, is largely concerned with regulating his people's priestly role in the world at large. A "priest" is a household servant of Yahweh. Israel is granted the privilege of drawing near to God and therefore of serving in his house (the tabernacle). I hardly need to amass proof texts to demonstrate that the Mosaic covenant and the revelation associated with that covenant largely concerns priestly and "sacrificial" regulations.

At this stage in the story of Israel she is charged with guarding and maintaining the Lord's special "house." She is granted this charge to serve the nations. What we call the Tabernacle is Yahweh's special "tent of meeting," the appointed place to which he invites his people to draw near and commune with him. This meeting place is a place of food and feasting, which is why so much of the content of the Mosaic regulations have to do with clean and unclean foods, animals that are appropriate for Yahweh's food, and the appointed times and places for such festival banquets.

As the Lord's priests his people serve as inspectors and servants at his communion table (what we call the "altar'). The special priests (Levites and the sons of Aaron) inspect, prepare, and distribute the Lord's food. I wish that our translations would make this clearer. Every animal that is brought near (the Hebrew verb is qrb, "to draw near") becomes "food" (lechem, "bread") for God. Speaking to the Aaronic priests in Leviticus 21:6, Yahweh says,

They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God. For they bring near (qrb) Yahweh's fire-cooked food ('isheh), the bread (lechem) of their God.

Much more could be said about these priestly duties, of course, but this is enough to get the general thrust of Israel's priestly duties. What we must pay careful attention to now is that priestly regulations are very detailed and do not require a great deal of discernment to administer. The law (torah) is quite meticulous. To be faithful priests Israel simply had to follow the law very carefully. If an animal is brought near for the Lord's table, the priests simply had to remember God's explicit instruction and discern whether an animal was clean and unclean, blemished or unblemished, and so on.

So much of what we call "the law" or "the torah" is like this. Do this, do that, don't do this, and don't do that. Israel begins her corporate life with relatively simple, straightforward rules to follow. The same is true for the laws that regulate her social and governmental existence. Of course, it is true that for us modern readers this legal system often seems hopelessly complex. But that's only because we are so far removed from the life of Israel and the old world of animal sacrifices. As others have pointed out, however, for an Israelite to acquire expertise in these matters was not much different than the way a car mechanic today learns the "rules" that govern the replacement and repair of auto parts. Most of us would be lost until we spent the necessary hours memorizing the manuals necessary for this kind of work. And the laws governing animal sacrifice are a lot simpler than those that apply to modern car maintenance and repair.

My point is this: Israel begins her life in Yahweh's house learning the rules explicitly laid out by him for her priestly duties. She is like a child who is governed by specific "dos and don'ts" unmistakably expressed by her parents. She begins in God's house serving at his Table. All of this is not to deny that there are "deeper" dimensions to the Mosaic law. There certainly are. We will get to that in a moment. But for now simply notice that Israel's early relation to God is very childlike. She was called to obey even if she didn't fully understand. She will need to mature as she obeys God's law in order to appropriate the "wisdom" embodied in the Law.