“If you had the superpower to change one thing in the world, what would it be?” That was a question Michael asked his kids the other day—I thought it was a good one. Even better was Nora’s answer: “I’d take us back to a point where we had smart phones but not social media.”

What about you? If you had the superpower to change one thing in the world, what would it be? A September without ragweed? Four seasons in Texas? Or, more seriously, would it be a solution to world hunger; the end of all violence; a government committed to mercy and doing justice? Or maybe it’s closer to home: conversion for a wayward child; affection from a distant spouse; infertility into pregnancy; mom healed from chronic illness; a church with no weaknesses. If we only had the power…

The question reveals our longings to straighten what’s crooked. We want to fix what’s broken. But so often we come face to face with our inability to fix very much at all. We can only react to what life keeps throwing at us. This calls for wisdom.

J. I. Packer asks, “What kind of gift is [wisdom]? …[It’s] like being taught to drive. What matters in driving is the speed and appropriateness of your reactions to things. [What matters in driving] is the soundness of your judgment as to what scope a situation gives you. You don’t ask…why the road narrow[s] or screw[s] itself into a dog-leg wiggle just where it does, nor why that van [is] parked where it is, nor why the driver in front should hug the crown of the road so lovingly. [No,] you simply try to see and do the right thing in the actual situation that presents itself.”

In our passage today, we again face our limitations. We lack power to change what’s crooked. Life takes unexpected turns. Our days have twists we didn’t plan for or want; and the complexities leave us confounded. Can we know what’s good when things get so crooked? Today’s passage helps us. Here’s the big idea: the wise aim for what’s better, while trusting God with what’s crooked. Let’s read, starting in verse 10…

¹⁰ Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he. ¹¹ The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? ¹² For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun? ¹ A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth. ² 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. ³ Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. ⁴ The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. ⁵ It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools. ⁶ For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fools; this also is vanity. ⁷ Surely oppression drives the wise into madness, and a bribe corrupts the heart. ⁸ Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. ⁹ Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools. ¹⁰ Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. ¹¹ Wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun. ¹² 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. ¹³ Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? ¹⁴ 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.

At first glance, it seems like the Preacher gathers a bunch of disconnected proverbs and dumps them here. But on closer look, you can see their unity. In 6:12, for example, we read the question, “Who knows what’s good for man?” He then answers that question in 7:1-12. Our English translations repeat the word “better…better…better.” But it’s the same Hebrew word behind “good” in the question of 6:12.

Also, 6:10-12 introduce our inability to change God’s plans. And that’s exactly what he returns to in 7:13-14. He opens with theology about God’s sovereignty, and he closes with theology about God’s sovereignty.[i] So, we’re going to begin there and end there as well; and in the middle, we’ll discuss what’s better for man amid what’s crooked.

Considering God’s Sovereignty

So, let’s start where he does with considering God’s sovereignty. We get this in 6:10-12. And 7:13-14 help us make more sense of it. But start at 6:10, “Whatever has come to be [i.e., whatever exists] has already been named.” In this context, naming something has to do with one’s authority. And since we’re talking about authority over “whatever has come to be,” clearly God is in view.

He doesn’t name God here, but he will name him in 7:14. There he explains how God has made both the day of prosperity and the day of adversity. “Whatever has come to be” (both the good and the bad), God has already named it, determined it. He has authority over it. Nothing happens outside his sovereign control.

That includes his authority over you and me. Verse 10 again, “and it is known what man is.” If you wanted to connect this back to Genesis 1-2, “it is known what Adam is.” Adam got his name from adamah, “the ground.” From dust of the ground, God made man. God knows what we are. He’s emphasizing the Creator-creature distinction.

“It is known what man is, and that [man] is not able to dispute with one stronger than he.” Who’s the stronger one? It’s God. We can’t dispute with God. We can’t strongarm him into changing his plans to suit our wants. Whatever he wills to happen—whether prosperity or adversity—all we can do is receive it and respond to it.

It will do us no good to raise a fist in his face and argue. That’s why verse 11 says, “The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man?” Nothing. You gain nothing. The point is the same made elsewhere in Scripture. Like when God comes to Job: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?” And Job eventually says, “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”[ii]

Likewise, Ecclesiastes puts us in our place. God is in control, and we are not. Will tomorrow be a day of prosperity or a day of adversity? You don’t know. Nor does God always disclose why he brings things about in the way he does and when he does. Again, wisdom is like being taught to drive. We don’t determine what’s coming down the road, all we can do is respond. Likewise, we don’t always know what God is doing next. All we can do is receive and respond to what he deals us.

But that gets tricky, doesn’t it? Because if you don’t know what’s coming, then what? Who knows what to do? How do you figure life out? Ecclesiastes sympathizes with our dilemma. Hear his questions again in 6:12: “For who knows what’s good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?” How does he describe our life? “Few days”—life is short. “Vain life”—like a breath. It passes “like a shadow.”

That’s you and me. How could we, in all our limitations, figure out what’s good for man? On our own, we can’t. But God knows. He knows everything, including what comes after us. He knows the end from the beginning. He also knows what’s good for us in the present. But sometimes his wisdom comes in the strangest ways.

Aiming for What’s Better

That brings us to 7:1-12, aiming for what’s better. God knows what’s better for us; and verses 1-12 give some answers. But something to remember is that we’re still dealing here with life “under the sun.” This wisdom is for life in a broken world. It’s telling us what’s good/better in a world that’s crooked.

For example, let’s start with verses 1-4. What’s best is a world without death. God created this world without death. Death entered the world because of sin. It was God’s judicial response to Adam’s sin. Death now frustrates life under the sun. We can’t change that. We can’t dispute with God about it. We can only respond to it; and when death comes, it’s better to learn from death.

Verse 1 begins with a straightforward proverb: “a good name is better than precious ointment.” Internal character matters most, not what you put on. Having a good name might even outlast your death. Your name might even be immortalized on the pages of history. But maybe that’s why death comes into view so jarringly in the next clause. Perhaps some would take that initial wisdom about a good name in the wrong way: “If I’ve got a good name, what’s death got on me? I don’t need to think about it.” But the Preacher doesn’t allow us to go there. Rather, we must learn from death.

He puts it this way: “and the day of death [is better than] the day of birth.” He’s not saying to seek your own death—he has in mind the death of others that you will encounter. The loss of a family member, a friend, a church member. The loss of a leader you respected, like Voddie Baucham this week. He’s also not saying to glory in death—the Preacher knows it’s a terrible curse. It’s the cause of mourning (verse 2) and sorrow (verse 3) and a whole bunch of frustration back in chapter 2.

Nor is he saying that birth days are bad—verse 14, “in the day of prosperity be joyful.” And four times already he’s told us to enjoy God’s gifts. The point here doesn’t undermine that. In fact, verse 3 indicates that he’s pursuing a deeper joy throught it.

What, then, is he saying? We must keep reading to figure it out. Verse 2, “It’s 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/better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.” Did you catch it? Under the sun, death is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.

Every casket, every tombstone preaches a sermon that you won’t get at the party. That sermon goes something like this: “One day, you will lie here. At your birth, you faced people. At your death, you will face God. Your days are numbered. What are you doing with them?” Are you listening to that sermon? Are you taking it to heart? Death has a way of sobering us for the present.

Fools don’t learn from death. They only want the parties to escape, to distract themselves from any thought of death. And, we have to say, even some Christians aren’t very good at this. We have language to lighten the gravity of death: “He passed away;” “She went to a better place;” “They crossed over.” Even funerals can sometimes paper over the grief too quickly with celebration—anything to keep from having to sit here in this sadness. But the Preacher says death is the better teacher.

If you want to be wise, learn from the day of death. Don’t rush to get past the sorrow; sit in the house of mourning and lay it to heart. What can you learn from death? Repentance—one sin led to all this death and sorrow. What does that say about the seriousness of our sins? We learn humility—you are limited. You are dust, and to dust you shall return (Gen 3:19). We learn to fear God—you will give an account. Hebrews 9:27, “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” We can learn faithfulness—God has granted you only so many days. How are you stewarding them? Are you staying diligent so as not to waste them?

Also, joy in the gifts of today—every heartbeat, every breath, every sunrise, every person in front of you each day are gifts. Enjoy them while you have life. Death also teaches our great need for a Savior—we die because sin is inside us. When your body lies in the grave, you will have no superpower to change that. We need Jesus. Jesus rose from the dead because sin was not inside him. Because of his death, we’re forgiven; and because of his life, we who believe have hope that God will raise us.

Learn from death when it comes. In the best world, death will be no more. But in this world, in life under the sun, death can be a teacher, if we take its lessons seriously. Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom.”

He then moves to correction in verses 5-7. It’s better to welcome correction. What’s best is a world without sin. What’s best is a world where everyone is ordered beneath God’s good rule. But in a world rife with sin, we need correction. Verse 5, “It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fools; this also is vanity.”

I grew up with south Texas brush country. I get “the crackling of thorns.” When clearing brush, we’d gather thorn bushes and toss them on the burn pile. One, they make noise. Two, they don’t last. That’s what the laughter of fools is like—noisy but short-lived. Fun for a while, but in the end, vanity.

It’s better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise. Notice, he’s not talking about just any rebuke—like correcting something that’s petty. The rebuke comes from the wise, from those who fear the Lord and want to please him. Proverbs 12:15 gets at a similar point: “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.” Fools can’t take correction. Wisdom accepts rebuke.

It’s not fun. Rebuke doesn’t feel as great as a song. What happens when we’re rebuked? Our inner-defense attorney comes to our side: “How dare she!” “How dare he point out what’s wrong in me. I have a good reason for my attitude.” But rebuke is for our good. Jesus echoed this wisdom: “If your brother sins, rebuke him.” We live on this side of Eden. As sinners, we need each other’s correction.

Even the wise might need correction. Look at verse 7, “Surely oppression drives the wise into madness, and a bribe corrupts the heart.” Remember, we can’t control what life throws at us. The picture here is that bad circumstances have entered the life of a wise person. But instead of responding with what’s better, they’ve become mad. They start making senseless decisions. “I’m not going to take this! It’s too late to turn the temperature down! By any means necessary, I’m getting what I want!” And they start taking bribes and acting unjustly themselves. We need correction.

We need ongoing correction. Because when circumstances get crooked, sometimes we get crooked. When circumstances are crooked, we are most vulnerable to sinning against others and against our Lord. But the way of wisdom is to trust God with what’s crooked and choose what’s better. What’s better is to listen to the wise counselors in your life. What’s better is that you have people in your life that will challenge you and curb your excesses and rebuke your sinful inclinations.

You’re not in a good place if the only people you welcome into your life are the ones who will only agree with you, the ones who will never tell you what’s wrong. This is one reason social media is so dangerous. Eventually you get trapped in an echo chamber where your beliefs get amplified and reinforced by repeated exposure to similar opinions from like-minded peers and algorithms.

You’re also not in a good place if you’re always defensive and create an environment where nobody can correct you. I want to challenge you: find two or three godly people in your life and welcome them to rebuke you if necessary. I’m not saying they’ll have something to say in the moment. I’m just saying to open that door, so that if you—like this wise man—fall into madness, they can say, “Hey, remember that time you welcomed me in? It’s time for that correction. Let’s deal with this…”

One more area: it’s better to practice patience. This is verses 8-12. What’s best is a world without corruption. But in a world where corruption is prevalent, we need patience. You may have wondered in verse 7, “What drove this wise man into madness? What would drive someone to moral compromise?” Verses 8-12 offer more clues.

For starters, he’s not willing to wait for the end; he wants control now. Verse 8, “Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools.” Eric Ortlund explains it like this: you “don’t know how things will turn out…a good beginning may be ruined, and a depressing start may end in joy. The limitations God has placed on human life call for patience if something does not instantly turn out well, instead of an arrogant certainty which explodes in anger when frustrated.”[iii]

What else might have driven the wise man into madness? Nostalgia, wishing for “the good ol’ days” to return. Verse 10, “Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.” His outlook about the past is off. He’s biased. He’s viewing the past with rose-colored glasses. He can’t see the faults of his former days. The sins and problems of our age were also present back then—they just took different forms. Put on the lenses of 1:9, there’s nothing new under the sun.

But even worse is how this perspective doesn’t trust God with the present. It looks at the present and says, “God, I could’ve done this better than you. We had it better back then! Can’t you see that?” It’s not from wisdom that you ask this. Patience is better. Patience is the path of wisdom; and when we cling to that wisdom it preserves us.

That’s what verse 11 is about: “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.” The word behind “protection” is the same word behind “shadow” in verse 12. Think of a shade tree or a cloud protecting you from the sun. In this life under the sun, draw near to wisdom and it will become for you a place of shade.

Considering God’s Sovereignty

The wise aim for what’s better in a world that’s broken. But how do you get this wisdom? What helps you choose patience when things are crooked? What enables you to put off sinful anger and moral compromise? What enables you to sit in the house of mourning and learn from death instead of despairing? The answer comes in verses 13-14. “Consider the work of God.” When you encounter what’s crooked under the sun, consider God who’s above the sun. That brings us back to considering God’s sovereignty.

Listen to what he says: “Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity [evil, misfortune] consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.”

You heard that last part before—“that man may not find out anything that will be after him.” It was part of the question in 6:12: “Who can tell man what will be after him?” Answer: God can tell man what will be after him. But he doesn’t.

This echoes what he said in chapter 3 about time. God is over life and death, springtime and harvest, laughter and sorrow, mourning and dancing, war and peace. We can now add to that list: he’s over what’s straight and what’s crooked. He made the day of prosperity as well as the day of adversity. Nothing happens outside his control. And then it said this in 3:11, “[God] has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”

Again, we’re reminded of our creaturely limitations. We must face what it means to be God’s creatures. He’s in a category by himself. He’s not limited like we are. These truths keep us in our place. They are a grace to us. Often, we want control. We think we can run the world better than God. But the truth is we can’t. We can’t see what he sees. We must accept that he’s in control, and we are not. We must rest there, even when things get crooked. We must trust that he has a plan. We can’t always discern it. Much of the time, we’re in the dark about it. But the point here is that we must consider God, not only with days of good but also with the days of evil.

God has made them both. In Isaiah 45:7, God says something similar: “I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things.” Lamentations 3:38, “Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?” These texts don’t explain how God brings about his will; only that he wills both good and evil. Thus, it was also right for Job rebuke his wife. When he suffered evil, she told him, “Curse God and die.” Job responds, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”

So, some of you might be asking a good question: “Is God, then, the author of evil?” Not if you mean that God is the actor or agent or doer of evil on the historical stage. Psalm 5:4, “He’s not a God who delights in wickedness.” James 1:13, “God can’t be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.” Given these other texts, we have to say that God does not stand behind evil in the same way he stands behind good. At the same time, verse 14 is clear: both good and evil can be traced back to God’s sovereign will. He brings these things about. He writes evil into his story, like C. S. Lewis writes the White Witch into Narnia. God controls and guides everything.

But how does considering his sovereignty help us? How does it help us keep choosing what’s better in the face of what’s crooked? By reminding us that evil never has ultimate control. God does. Our adversities have boundaries to them. They’re not raging out of control. God stands over them. He guides them; and he’s bringing them to a good end. Even if we can’t see the bigger picture, we can trust the Lord is sovereign and that his intentions are good. How do we know his intentions are good?

The cross. There are other examples in Scripture like the story of Joseph: “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” Or the story of Job where God displays his worthiness in the sufferings of Job. But if there was ever a place in Scripture where we see that God’s intentions are good even in the evils he ordains, it’s at the cross.[iv] More than any other event, the cross could be labeled “crooked.” More than any other day, God’s Son hanging on a cross was the day of adversity. God made that day. God planned that day. God wrote that day into his story. God himself entered that story. He took on human flesh in the person of Jesus. Glorious as he is, Jesus the Son humbled himself. He identified with us; and he endured what’s crooked.

The nations raged. The peoples plotted in vain. They gathered against him. Herod and Pontius Pilot sought what was politically expedient, not what was just. Jesus was innocent, but Gentile soldiers arrested him, beat him, mocked him, crucified him. Jesus’ own people, the Jews, rejected him and falsely accused him. They released a criminal who murdered them over a King who gave them life. Yet Acts 4:28 puts it this way: they gathered against Jesus “to do whatever [God’s] hand and [God’s] plan had predestined to take place.” God made that day of adversity.

Did his disciples know what was going on? When they started following him, did they expect that things would go this way? And when he told them it would, they didn’t like it. Peter wanted to change it—“This shall never happen to you, Lord.” And when it did happen, instead of turning to wisdom, Peter resorted to the sword and cut off a man’s ear. The only one who trusted God with what’s crooked was Jesus; and he endured that crookedness to save us, to defeat death, to forgive our sins. He did it to bring us into a new world without death, without sin, and without corruption.

By looking at the cross, we learn to trust that God is good even in the day of adversity. By looking at the cross, we learn to trust that God has good ends, even amid what’s crooked. That frees us to respond with humility and patience to whatever he sends our way. It frees us to listen and learn and lay things to heart even in the house of mourning. We don’t know what adversity is next. We don’t know the next twist in the road. But Ecclesiastes shows us how to respond. The wise aim for what’s better while trusting God with what’s crooked.

In the day of prosperity, rejoice. In the day of adversity, consider the work of God. Consider his comprehensive sovereignty. The cross and resurrection of our Lord guarantee that he is guiding all things to a good end in a new creation where nothing is crooked. Christ endured what’s crooked to bring us into a world that isn’t. Rest there, beloved. To quote Charles Spurgeon: “The [worldly person] blesses God while he gives him plenty, but the Christian blesses him when he smites him: he believes him to be too wise to err and too good to be unkind; he trusts him where he cannot trace him, looks up to him in the darkest hour, and believes that all is well.”[v]

________

[i] Choon-Leong Seow, Ecclesiastes, AB 18c (New York: Yale, 1997), 240-41.

[ii] Job 38:2; 40:2, 4-5.

[iii] Eric Ortlund, Ecclesiastes (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2024), 118.

[iv] For more on how God brings about good through evil in the examples of Joseph, Job, and Jesus, see Greg Welty, 40 Questions about Suffering and Evil (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2024), 57-64.

[v] Charles Spurgeon, “A Happy Christian,” Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit 13 (1867), accessible at https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/a-happy-christian/#flipbook/.