The hardest part of being a preacher isn’t trying to fill your sermons with more content but having to cut things out to make sure that you don’t preach for 2 hours! Unfortunately, I had to cut a few things from my sermon this past Sunday morning that I want to quickly discuss here.
Firstly, I want to expound upon something that I was only able to briefly touch on during the first point of my message. Solomon writes something that hits very close to home in Ecclesiastes 7:21-22, “Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.” Be honest: have you ever eavesdropped on a conversation that you weren’t meant to hear or secretly looked at a loved one’s text messages to see what they are saying about you? We’ve all done something like this because we want others to think that we’re great and only say nice things about us. Is it bad to care what others think about you? Not at all; it would be foolish of me to not give any thought to what my wife, close friends, and mentors think of me. Caring about what others think isn’t bad; obsessing over and being controlled by what others think is bad and destructive. If your identity is tied up in public opinion then your worth will go on a topsy-turvy roller coaster ride on a daily basis. Instead, your identity and worth should be wrapped up in what your God says about you. He says that you are His son or daughter (1 John 3:1-2). He says that you are loved no matter what (Rom. 8:38-39). He says that you are His workmanship and destined to accomplish great things for His glorious kingdom (Eph. 2:10). What would happen if we began to care more about what God says about us than what other human beings say about us? Our lives would change and we would be much happier. Solomon wants us to understand that the wise don’t get easily offended or constantly obsess over what others may say because they are secure and comfortable in their own skin. The wise man or woman doesn’t get bent out of shape when others say rude things about them because they know how often they’ve said rude things out of turn about others as well.
Secondly, Solomon seems to go on a strange tirade in vs. 26-28, “And I find something more bitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things - which my soul has repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I have found, but a woman among all these I have not found.” Okay, what in the world is Solomon talking about here and why does he seem to be roasting the female population? If you read about the life of Solomon, it becomes very clear that he had romantic relationships with a lot of women (700 wives and 300 concubines) and a lot of them didn’t go very well. He sinfully chose to pursue relationships with pagan women who ensnared him in the worship of false gods and led him down the wrong path. All throughout the books of Proverbs, Solomon warns his male readers to avoid the temptress and to not fall prey to a woman’s beauty without paying attention to her inward character. Simply put, in these verses Solomon is emphasizing the sad reality that he has not come across many wise people of either gender. Wickedness and sin abound among men and women alike. He ends this chapter by saying, “See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes,” (7:29). Men are not better than women and women are not better than men. Man or woman, we have all strayed away from the Lord and are in desperate need of His saving grace.