Learning from experience
Ecclesiastes 7:1-14
EXPERIENCE, it is often said, is a great teacher.
But, as J. A. Froude is quick to add, "experience teaches
slowly, and at the cost of mistakes". Even a cursory study
of history will reveal that human beings are very slow learners,
given our longstanding habit of repeating the mistakes of the
past.
Each succeeding generation seems wont to reinvent the wheels of
public ethics and personal morals, demonstrating a strange reticence
to the lessons of history. Be that as it may, that we learn many,
if not most, of our best lessons through personal experiences
- often from painful setbacks and failures - is an indisputable
fact.
The theme of "learning from experience" is taken up
in Ecclesiastes 7 where the Preacher, in his characteristic down-to-earth
manner, draws his readers' attention to life's many vicissitudes.
There is, however, a marked change in approach: instead of his
accustomed style of reflecting and arguing, he now bombards his
readers with proverbs, all aimed at creating impact. "The
opening ones are provocatively cheerless", observes Derek
Kidner with his usual perceptiveness, "the rest (for the
most part) provocatively cool and candy".
These proverbs, quarried from years of oral tradition, are sharper
in the original Hebrew than their English translations can render.
They relate to matters close to the heart of the Preacher's thinking.
The first part of the first proverb (verse 1a) is easy to understand,
even for modern readers who live in a different era from the writer
of Ecclesiastes and who belong to a different culture. "A
good name is better than perfume": the former represents
something of the essential character of a person - reputation
and integrity - while the latter signify something cosmetic and
superficial. But the second part of the proverb baffles: "and
the day of death better than the day of birth" (verse 1b).
The point the Preacher wishes to make is that when we are confronted
by death, not birth, we are compelled to reflect on the fleetingness
of life, and thus on life's meaning. This point is brought home
by the second and third proverbs: "It is better to go to
a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting … Sorrow
is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart"
(2-3).
Here the Preacher's arguments anticipate that
of the existentialist philosopher of the last century, Martin
Heidegger, who maintains that the reality and prospect of death
define life. For the Preacher, however, it is not that death defines
life, but that it forces us to look at life more seriously. Simply
put, death and sorrow may sadden our faces, but they sharpen our
understanding, and they teach us things that we otherwise will
not learn.
Turning to a different subject, verses 5-6 make the point that
the wise would prefer the admonition of a wise man than the "song",
that is, the empty praises, of fools. This saying, which finds
echoes in Proverb 27:5-6 ("The kisses of an enemy may be
profuse, but faithful are the wounds of a friend"), is not
difficult to understand. The rebuke from a faithful and wise friend
is worth the pain it necessarily inflicts, and the wise person
will receive it appreciatively and heed it enthusiastically.
In the next four verses (7-10), the Preacher turns his attention
to the various obstacles in life that would frustrate, and offers
counsel on how they can either be avoided or overcome.
The first obstacle or trapping - extortion or bribe - can be generalised
as "the power that other people can exercise over us that
would manipulate, dominate and eventually destroy us". The
Preacher exhorts his readers to identify the pressures that would
dehumanise us by undermining our moral convictions and value systems,
and to retreat from them even as they encroach on our lives.
The second pitfall is pride, which has been rightly described
as the "bastard offspring of self-worship". Notice that
the Preacher contrasts patience, not with impatience, but with
pride - that inflated self-esteem that has the capacity to distort
our understanding of ourselves in relation to others.
The third danger is a logical extension of pride, namely, impatient
outrage when things do not go according to plan. To those given
to such quick-tempered emotional outrages, the Preacher warns
that "anger resides in the lap of fools", echoing yet
another ancient proverb which says, "People with a hot temper
do foolish things; wiser people remain calm" (Prov 14:17).
The final trapping has to do with nostalgic dwelling on the past,
which is often accompanied by the regret that harks back to those
"good old days". It is this vain attempt to pine at
the past, to "live life in reverse", so to speak, and
not merely to reminisce about the past, that the Preacher warns
against. By this warning he stresses that our lives are lived
now and in the future, and that although our experience in the
past is important, it must drive us forward to the future that
God has in store for us.
How are we to meet the vicissitudes, uncertainties and hard knocks
of life and not be crushed by them? In verses 11-12, the Preacher
stresses the importance of God-given wisdom. The person who possesses
such wisdom will not be easily demolished when he encounters the
difficulties and exigencies of life.
Wisdom will protect such a person so that he will be able to take
the challenges of life in his stride with quiet calm and not be
given to panic and despair. Wisdom will be his shelter in the
storms of life. But wisdom serves yet another function: it preserves
the life of the wise. Wisdom alerts him to the dangers and pitfalls
of life, and prevents him from making decisions for which he will
later regret.
As Gordon Keddie puts it, in this passage the Preacher teaches
that "God-given wisdom is the key to redeeming the multi-faceted
experiences of life".
Dr Roland Chia, Director of the Centre for the Development
of Christian Ministry at Trinity Theological College, worships
at Fairfield Preaching Point in Woodlands.
QUOTE:
GOD-GIVEN WISDOM
'How are we to meet the vicissitudes, uncertainties and
hard knocks of life and not be crushed by them? In verses 11-12,
the Preacher stresses the importance of God-given wisdom. The
person who possesses such wisdom will not be easily demolished
when he encounters the difficulties and exigencies of life.'