Do not be excessively righteous and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself?
Do not be excessively wicked and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time?
It's good that you grasp one thing and also not let go of the other; for the one who fears God comes forth with both of them. (Ecclesiastes 7:16-18, NAS)
Ecclesiastes is my favorite book in the Bible. I can't say exactly why. The first time I ever read it, I was exhilarated. It seemed like the exact book I would have written myself, if, you know, I was the wisest man in the world AND being inspired by the Holy Spirit.
I used to try to put my finger on exactly why I connected with it so well. I eventually stopped trying to figure it out when I realized it was a multitude of factors: the brutal honesty, the vulnerability of the author, the rollercoaster-like nature of the Teacher's sequence of reasoning, the beautiful gems of wisdom, the stunning resolve of the conclusion, and who knows what else. It's a fairly complex text, and I don't think I could ever comprehensively list the ways I connect and interact with it. But, as of a few days ago, I can add one more to the list: it is a book of moderation, which has always been something I value highly.
The verse quoted above is a prime example. To be clear, I don't think it's encouraging us to dabble in wickedness, nor to temper our good deeds. The author is confronting the reality of pervasive sin in our world. He's saying that if you indulge in it, you will destroy yourself, AND, by the way, you're not much better off if you try to pretend that you're above it.
Traditionally, we put prophecy and wisdom in distinct genres of Biblical literature, but I sure do wish we could receive words of wisdom as prophetic. These words could speak so directly to the heart of the American church, if we would allow it. My fear is that extremism is too ingrained in our cultural DNA for that.
2 comments:
Some things that occur to me as I glance over your post, Mr. Taylor:
Can one be "too wise?" And if so, what form(s) might that over-wisdom take?
The extremism you note is, I think, more of a recent phenomenon than something so deeply ingrained that it cannot be expunged. It does in some measure derive from how easily we as a whole make our way through the world (not denying that there are people who have anything but an easy time of it); we have become insulated, and so require extravagance to produce any reaction. But this tendency will, I think, correct itself; there will come a point when the level of intensity cannot be maintained or further endured, and the whole set-up that the extremism you note relies upon will collapse.
It is to be hoped that we can survive it.
Those are some good thoughts concerning extremism, and I definitely hope that your are right.
As for being "too wise," it's important to note the Biblical concept of wisdom, which may differ slightly from our own. Reading the Old Testament, especially the Proverbs, you get the sense that righteousness and wisdom are concepts that are entangled with one another. Though they may have different shades of meaning, it was believed that anyone who was truly wise was also righteous, and vice versa. (Cf. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.") So when the author here says, "Don't be overly righteous or wise," this is essentially poetic repetition for the sake of emphasis. You can't really divorce one concept from the other in the minds of the ancient Hebrews.
Thus, the idea expressed in the verse is, I think, similar to what we would call "self-righteousness," or prioritizing an obsessive kind of righteousness/wisdom, even over one's relationships with other people.
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