Image: Winter scene, North Garden, Virginia, January 2017
Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Ecclesiastes 7:1-6.
Ecclesiastes 7: 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 to hear the rebuke of
the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. 6 For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of
the fool: this also is vanity.
The great contrast in the wisdom
literature is between the wise man and the foolish man. Jesus taught about the wise man who built his
house on the rock and the foolish man who built on the sand (Matthew 7). Here the wise man is the one whose heart (the
seat of his affections) is in the house of mourning (seriousness, sobriety).
And the fool is he whose heart is in the house of mirth (frivolity,
superficiality).
Another, yet related, dimension
is added in v. 5: “It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man
to hear the song of fools.”
This is also a stock teaching in
the wisdom literature. Do not resist an
admonition that comes from the wise. But receive it and profit from it.
Psalm
141:5 Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove
me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head: for yet my
prayer also shall be in their calamities.
Proverbs
25:12 As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise
reprover upon an obedient ear.
Proverbs
27:5 Open rebuke is better than secret love. 6 Faithful are the wounds
of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
Think of David when
Nathan the prophet confronted him and said, “Thou art the man!” (2 Sam
12:7). Did David run from Nathan? Did he accuse him of treachery? Did he order his execution? Did David call for his sycophants to soothe
his conscience? Did he call for musicians and arrange a party? Did he call for comedians to lighten his
mood? No, he acknowledged that Nathan had brought him the Word of God. And he
repented of his sin (see Psalm 51).
The last verse calls to
mind a vivid analogy. The “song of
fools” (v. 5) or the foolish laughter of those who dull their meaningless life
through partying and laughing are like crackling thorns under a pot on a fire
(v. 6a).
His summary for it all? “This
also is vanity” (v. 6b).
Here is a great irony:
Unregenerate men are headed for eternal destruction, but while here, in
this life, they most often ignore their plight by escaping to the house of
mirth. Meanwhile, regenerate and godly
men, who are headed for the New Jerusalem, while in this life, will frequently
go to the house of mourning, in sorrow for their sins and habitual repentance.
May the Lord
make us wise, sending us out of the house of mirth and into the house of
mourning, so that we might dwell in his house forever.
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
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