Ecclesiastes 7,14-17. Septuagesima

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The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Ecclesiastes 7,14-17             1319

Septuagesima 020 

Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople, Martyr 449

17. Februar 2019 

1. O Gracious God, whose mercy is new every morning, pour out upon us abundantly the Spirit of grace, so that we receive all those things that are salutary and needful in both body and soul (Löhe 9).  Amen. 

2. »In the day of prosperity live joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has caused the one to agree with the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him. In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is an ungodly man remaining in his evildoing. Do be not very righteous, and do not be very wise, lest you become confounded. Do not be very wicked, nor stubborn, lest you should die before your time.« (LXX) 

  3. King Solomon, the author of Ecclesiastes, writes about the vanity of life. He notes: »I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after the wind/waywardness of spirit« (Ecclesiastes 1,14/LXX). Solomon also states a philosophical and theological observation that many Western Christians find uncomfortable: all days, whether they be good or evil, belong to God. Solomon writes: »God has caused the day of prosperity to agree with the day of adversity« (LXX). This is also the underlying theme of Job: »the Lord gives and the Lord takes away« (Job 1,2).  

4. Solomon reasons that this is vanity, and he submits two examples. 1. righteous people perish in their righteousness; 2. godless people prolong their life through their wickedness. The proverb „no good deed goes on punished“ sums up the vanity Solomon has observed. Such an observation can lead to the philosophy of nihilism where all religious and moral principles are rejected because life is meaningless. Friedrich Nietzsche is credited as turning nihilism into a philosophical viewpoint. Thus Nietzsche concluded that Gott ist tot!  (Nietzsche § 125), and therefore, God is no longer a credible source of absolute religious and moral principles; God Himself is vanity. 

5. Is Nietzsches’ conclusion correct? Is God dead, and by extension is there no theological or moral principles founded upon the Judeo-Christian cornerstone? 3000 years before Nietzsche, Solomon proclaimed that God is not vain or meaningless. The Scriptures tell us Solomon’s credentials: »And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breath of mind like the sand on the seashore, so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all their men. And people of all nations went to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from him all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom« (1. Kings 4,29-31.34). We can summarize Solomon’s wisdom from one sentence he wrote: »The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord« (Proverbs 9,10). Solomon directs us back to God, and teaches us: »For Wisdom’s exoduses is the exoduses of life and in them is prepared the favor [Wohlgefallen: pleasure] of the Lord (Proverbs 8,35 LXX). 

6. The Apostle Paul, another gifted with Godly wisdom, tells us: »Christ is the Wisdom of God (1.Corinthians 1,24). The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord and the ending of wisdom is seeking Jesus and His righteousness for He is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14,6). In Christ we find the answer to the vain dilemma of life: why do the righteous perish while the wicked thrive? The answer is not to ponder the hidden will of God and demand to understand His decision, for God often hides Himself and His will seems unjust, but rather to know that God is generous (Matthew 20,15). We put our trust in Christ, the Wisdom of God, who practices mercy/loving-kindness, judgment/justice and righteousness (Jeremiah 9,24). God’s grace is undeserved; we have not nor can we ever earn it, but God pours out upon us His grace freely as a gift through His Son. The Holy Spirit points us to Christ, and only Christ, who has revealed to us God’s mercy (Bayer 203). Jesus Christ is our Advocate and Redeemer who helps us in our struggle to understand His Father‘s will, assuring us that His justice will finally prevail (Bayer 207), for in Christ we see the Father’s righteousness and justice (Bayer 208). Luther echoes the wisdom of Solomon, exhorting us to fear, love and trust God, for to them who do all things shall go forth well (Ecclesiastes 7,18 LXX). 

7. Jesus is God’s righteousness made flesh, and the wisdom of God for human beings. The Apostle John speaks of Jesus this way: »And the Word became flesh and  dwelt among us, and we have seen His Glory, Glory as of the Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about Him, and cried out: This was He of whom I said: He who arrives after me ranks before me, because He was before me. And from His fullness we have all received,  grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth arrived through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the Only God, who is at the Father’s side, He has made Him known« (John 1,14-18). Jesus is the Righteousness and Wisdom of God, and He gives us God’s righteousness with His death on the cross and He gives us God’s wisdom that those who die in Christ will live forever in His holy presence  Amen. 

8. Let us pray. O Christ, who shows us that God is merciful; answer our pleas and petitions, so we see the revealed righteousness of our Heavenly Father. Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Soli Deo Gloria

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

Bayer, Oswald. Theology the Lutheran Way. Copyright © 2007 William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.  

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand. 

Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Gay Science. Copyright © 1883.