AP

Ecclesiastes 9:13-18  I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me: There was once a small city with only a few people in it.  And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siege works against it.  Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom.  But nobody remembered that poor man.  So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.”  But the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded.  The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools.  Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.

Throughout the Book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon uses the term ‘under the sun’ to refer to a worldview that is earthbound and has no place for a Creator Sovereign God to whom we are all accountable as creatures made in his image and likeness.  In the Book of Proverbs he had declared that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10), and it is likely that it was his father, David, who was responsible for the same declaration in Psalm 111:10.

In the light of all this, it is not surprising that the ‘under the sun’ worldview is diametrically opposed to the real situation of how God actually runs his world!  ‘Unrecognised’ Mordecai’s saving of the Jewish people in Persia in the Book of Esther is a typical case of a ‘poor but wise man’ ‘saving a city’ from powerful Haman’s wicked scheming, showing that, through the counsel he gave to Esther, ‘wisdom is better than strength’.  The hero of their story is Esther, the one who bears the name of the book, and not wise Mordecai, who is almost forgotten.

It is also good to remember that the Lord Jesus Christ, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3) was ‘despised and rejected by men’ during the days of his flesh in an ‘under the sun’ world!  The Apostle Paul writes this timely word in his letter to the ‘wise-under-the-sun’ Corinthians: “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called.  Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.  It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.  Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.’” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)

Let us persist in prayer for all those whom God has ordained to exercise leadership throughout our world ‘under the sun’, that they will come to acknowledge the truth that “wisdom is better than strength” before we destroy ourselves completely!

– Bruce Chrisitan