Explore the Bible: Where is the balance?

• The Explore the Bible lesson for Aug. 15 focuses on Ecclesiastes 7:11-22.

Most people in our world today normally avoid extremes. Extreme sports pose great risks and danger. Extreme diets and lifestyles can cause lasting harm. Extreme work schedules can damage relationships. Extreme political views breed fighting and disagreement.

In this lesson, Qohelet speaks of extreme foolishness and extreme righteousness and the dangers they possess. There are parts of our text that seem to contradict what we understand of God and his word. Beginning with vv. 13-14, are we to understand that God is the creator of both all the good and all the bad that happen in our days? Does God truly cause calamity on his children? Our lesson reminds us of the life of Job and of Job’s insightful statement to his wife following the utmost destruction that befell him, “Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” (Job 2:10).

W. Sibley Towner writes of the reality that exists between God and the moral choices humanity faces every day, as well as the outcomes those choices produce. “Biblical faith is theologically monistic and ethically dualistic. That means that God is good and good alone; we human beings are capable of both moral good and moral evil. This reality about human nature means that we need help from God when we confront the choice of good or evil.” (W. Sibley Towner, The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, Vol. III, p. 995). We know we won’t always make the correct choice, but God never forsakes us or leaves us for any reason; rather, he promises to “…be alongside, ready to muddle on through with us.” (Towner, p. 995) An example from the life of Christ that Towner gives us is John 9, where the disciples question the reason for a blind man’s blindness. The simple answer that Jesus gives is that it is neither a sin committed by the man nor his parents; it is seen as an occasion wherein “God’s works might be revealed in him.” (John 9:3 NRSV)

God brings good out of bad experiences

We will all experience hardships, trials, struggles and days we would rather just never have to relive. That’s the great news of God. He will use both good and bad to bring about his purposes in our lives. As Paul reminds us in Romans 8:28, “ That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good” (The Message). And nothing, not even our own sin—which Qohelet astutely asserts is something everyone, even the wise and foolish, have in common—will separate us from God’s love. Paul concludes his famous teaching in Romans 8:37-39 with this truth: “None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.” (The Message).

Ecclesiastes takes us on a journey through the extremes of Solomon or another wise teacher/king—called Qohelet—as the examine the pursuits and gains in life. Much of what the son of David experiences in his life—becoming wise, powerful, wealthy, following God, and falling away from God—lines up with the teachings of Qohelet.

John Goldingay concludes his comments on our text in Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, & Song of Songs for Everyone, with the reminder that in life we are to “…accept that if God makes or lets things happen that interfere with the way you wish life would work out, you just have to deal with it.”  (p.207) He correctly asserts there is nothing a human can do to argue their way in or out of the mysteries in life that God has kept hidden or has not revealed just yet. Thus, Qohelet wishes to drive us to a better understanding of the fear of God and how this will lead us to living the life of love and balance as we depend completely and totally on him.

Davey Gibson is associate pastor of education and discipleship at Sugar Land Baptist Church in Sugar Land, Texas.