Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ecclesiastes 7:8
Better [is] the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: [and] the patient in spirit [is] better than the proud in spirit.
8. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof ] As in ch. Ecc 6:11, the noun translated “thing” may mean “word” and this gives a preferable meaning. It cannot be said of everything, good and bad alike, that its “end is better than its beginning” (comp. Pro 5:3-4; Pro 16:25; Pro 23:32), and those who so interpret the maxim are obliged to limit its meaning to good things, or to assume that the end must be a good one. Some (as Ginsburg) give to the “word” the sense of “reproof,” but this limitation is scarcely needed. It may be said of well-nigh every form of speech, for silence is better than speech, and “in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin.” It is obvious that this furnishes a closer parallel to the second clause. The “patient in spirit” is the man who knows how to check and control his speech, and to listen to reproof. The “proud” (literally, the lofty or exalted) is one who has not learnt to curb his tongue, and to wait for the end that is better than the beginning. So interpreted the whole maxim finds a parallel in Jas 3:1-18, in the precepts of a thousand sages of all times and countries.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Better – Inasmuch as something certain is attained, man contemplates the end throughout an entire course of action, and does not rest upon the beginning.
Patient … proud – literally, Long, long-suffering …high, in the sense of impatient.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Ecc 7:8
Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.
The new year
The text expresses the general principle or doctrine, that by the condition of our existence here, if things go right, a conclusion is better than a beginning. The fruit is better than the blossom; the reaping is better than the sowing; the enjoyment than the reaping; the second stage of a journey to the happy home is better than the first; the home itself than all; the victory is better than the march and the battle; the reward is better than the course of service; the ending in the highest improvement of means is better than being put at first in possession of them. In all this we see it is conditionally, and not absolutely, that the end is better than the beginning. Now let us consider in a short series of plain particulars what state of the case would authorize us at the end of the year to pronounce this sentence upon it.
1. It will easily occur as a general rule of judgment on the matter, that the sentence may be pronounced if, at the end of the year, we shall be able, after deliberate conscientious reflection, to affirm that the year has been, in the most important respects, better than the preceding.
2. The sentence will be true if, during the progress of the year, we shall effectually avail ourselves of the lessons suggested by a review of the preceding year.
3. At the close of this year, should life be protracted so far, the text will be applicable, if we can then say, My lessons from reflection on the departed year are much less painful, and much more cheering than at the close of the former: if we can say this without any delusion from insensibility, for the painfulness of reflection may lessen from a wrong cause; but to say it with an enlightened conscience to witness, how delightful! To be then able to recall each particular, and to dwell on it a few moments–that was, before, a very painful consideration–now,. . . This, again, made me sad, and justly so–now,. . .! What shall I render to God for the mercy of His granting my prayer for all-sufficient aid? I will render to Him, by His help, a still better year next. And let us observe, as the chief test of the true application of the text, that it will be a true sentence if then we shall have good evidence that we are become really more devoted to God.
4. If we shall have acquired a more effectual sense of the worth of time, the sentence, Better is the end of a thing than the beginning, will be true. Being intent on the noblest purposes of life will itself in a great degree create this effectual sense. But there may require, too, a special thought of time itself–a habit of noting it–because it is so transient, silent, and invisible a thing. There may be a want of faith to see this invisible, and of a sense of its flight. For want of this, and the sense, too, of its vast worth, what quantities reflection may tell us we have wasted in past years–in the last year! How important to have a powerful habitual impression of all this! And if, this year, we shall acquire much more of this strong habitual sense–if we become more covetous of time–if we cannot waste it without much greater pain–if we shall, therefore, lose and misspend much lees–then the text is true.
5. It will again be true if, with regard to fellow-mortals, we can conscientiously feel that we have been to them more what Christians ought–than in the preceding year. I am become more solicitous to act toward you in the fear of God. I am become more conscientiously regardful of what is due to you, and set a higher importance on your welfare. I have exerted myself more for your good. On the whole, therefore, I stand more acquitted towards you than I have at the conclusion of any former season.
6. Another point of superiority we should hope the end may have over the beginning of the year, is that of our being in a better state of preparation for all that is to follow. Who was ever too well prepared for sudden emergencies of trial?–too well prepared for duty, temptation, or affliction?–too well prepared for the last thing that is to be encountered on earth?
7. It will be a great advantage and advancement to end the year with, if we shall then have acquired more of a rational and Christian indifference to life itself. My property in life is now less by almost, 400 days; so much less to cultivate and reap from. If they were of value, the value of the remainder is less after they are withdrawn. As to temporal good, I have but learnt the more experimentally that that cannot make me happy. I have, therefore, less of a delusive hope on this ground as to the future. The spiritual good of so much time expended I regard as transferred t,o eternity; so much, therefore, thrown into the scale of another life against this. Besides, the remaining portion will probably be, in a natural sense, of a much worse quality. Therefore, as the effect of all this, my attachment to this life is loosening, and the attraction of another is augmenting. (John Foster.)
The end of a good mans life is better than the beginning
I. At the end of his life he is introduced into a better state.
1. He begins his life amidst impurity. The first air he breathes, the first word he hears, the first impression he receives, are tainted with sin; but at its end he is introduced to purity, saints, angels, Christ, God!
2. He begins his life on trial. It is a race–shall he win? It is a voyage–shall he reach the haven? The end determines all.
3. He begins his life amidst suffering Man is born to trouble.
II. At the end of his life he is introduced into better occupations. Our occupations here are threefold–physical, intellectual, moral. All these are more or less of a painful kind. But in the state into which death introduces us, the engagements will be congenial to the tastes, invigorating to the frame, delightful to the soul and honouring to God.
III. At the end of his life he is introduced into better society. We are made for society. But society here is frequently insincere, non-intelligent, unaffectionate. But how delightful the society into which death will introduce us! We shall mingle with enlightened, genuine, warm-hearted souls, rising in teeming numbers, grade above grade, up to the Eternal God Himself. (Homilist.)
The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.—
The power of patience
The lion was caught in the toils of the hunter. The more he tugged, the more his feet got entangled; when a little mouse heard his roaring, and said that if his majesty would not hurt him, he thought he could release him. At first the king of beasts took no notice of such a contemptible ally; but at last, like other proud spirits in trouble, he allowed his tiny friend to do as he pleased. So one by one the mouse nibbled through the cords till he had set free first one foot and then another, and then all the four, and with a growl of hearty gratitude the king of the forest acknowledged that the patient in spirit is sometimes stronger than the proud in spirit. And it is beautiful to see how, when some sturdy nature is involved in perplexity, and by its violence and vociferation is only wasting its strength without forwarding its escape, there will come in some timely sympathizer, mild and gentle, and will suggest the simple extrication, or by soothing vehemence down into his own tranquillity, will set him on the way to effect his self-deliverance. Even so, all through the range of philanthropy, patience is power. It is not the water-spout but the nightly dew which freshens vegetation. They are not the flashes of the lightning which mature our harvests, but the daily sunbeams, and that quiet electricity which thrills in atoms and which flushes in every ripening ear. Niagara in all its thunder fetches no fertility; but the Nile, coming without observation, with noiseless fatness overflows, and from under the retiring flood Egypt looks up again, a garner of golden corn. The world is the better for its moral cataracts and its spiritual thunderbolts; but the influences which do the worlds great work–which freshen and fertilize it, and which are maturing its harvests for the garner of glory, are not the proud and potent spirits, but the patient and the persevering; they are not the noisy and startling phenomena, but the steady and silent operations. (J. Hamilton, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. Better is the end] We can then judge of the whole, and especially if the matter relate to the conduct of Divine Providence. At the beginning we are often apt to make very rash conjectures, and often suppose that such and such things are against us; and that every thing is going wrong. Dr. Byrom gives good advice on such a subject: –
“With patient mind thy course of duty run:
God nothing does, nor suffers to be done,
But thou wouldst do thyself, couldst thou but see
The end of all events, as well as HE.”
I may add, in the words of our paraphrast: –
“Wait the result, nor ask with frantic rage
Why God permits such things. His ways, though now
Involved in clouds and darkness, will appear
All right, when from thine eyes the mist is cleared.
Till then, to learn submission to his will
More wisdom shows, than vainly thus to attempt
Exploring what thou canst not comprehend,
And God for wisest ends thinks fit to hide.”
C.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
If this verse relates to that next foregoing, it is an argument to keep mens minds from being disordered, either by oppression or bribery, because the end of those practices will show, that he who oppresseth another doth himself most hurt by it, and that he who taketh bribes is no gainer by them. But if this be independent upon the former, as divers other verses here are, it is a general and useful observation, that the good or evil of things is better known by their end than by their beginning; which is true both in evil counsels and courses, which are pleasant at first, but at last bring destruction; and in all noble enterprises, in the studies of learning, and in the practice of virtue and godliness, where the beginnings are difficult and troublesome, but in the progress and conclusion they are most easy and comfortable; and it is not sufficient to begin well, unless we persevere to the end, which crowns all.
The patient in spirit, who quietly waits for the end and issue of things, and is willing to bear hardships and inconveniences in the mean time,
is better than the proud; which he puts instead of hasty or impatient, which the opposition might seem to require, partly because pride is the chief cause of impatience, Pro 13:10, and makes men unable to bear any thing either from God or from men whereas humility makes men sensible of their own unworthiness, and that they deserve, at least from God, all the indignities and injuries which they suffer from men by Gods permission, and therefore patient under them; and partly to correct the vulgar error of proud men, who think highly of themselves, and trample all others, especially such as are meek and patient, under their feet.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. connected with Ec7:7. Let the “wise” wait for “the end,” andthe “oppressions” which now (in “the beginning”)perplex their faith, will be found by God’s working to be overruledto their good. “Tribulation worketh patience” (Ro5:3), which is infinitely better than “the proud spirit”that prosperity might have generated in them, as it has in fools(Psa 73:2; Psa 73:3;Psa 73:12-14; Psa 73:17-26;Jas 5:11).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Better [is] the end of a thing than the beginning thereof,…. If the thing is good, other ways the end of it is worse; as the end of wickedness and wicked men, whose beginning is sweet, but the end bitter; yea, are the ways of death, Pr 5:4; and so the end of carnal professors and apostates, who begin in the Spirit, and end in the flesh, Ga 3:3; but the end of good things, and of good men, is better than the beginning; as the end of Job was, both with respect to things temporal and spiritual, Job 8:7; see
Ps 37:37;
[and] the patient in spirit [is] better than the proud in spirit; patience is a fruit of the Spirit of God; and is of great use in the Christian’s life, and especially in bearing afflictions, and tends to make men more humble, meek, and quiet; and such are highly esteemed of God; on them he looks, with them he dwells, and to them he gives more grace; when such who are proud, and elated with themselves, their riches or righteousness, are abominable to him; see Lu 16:15.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
There now follows a fourth, or, taking into account the mutilated one, a fifth proverb of that which is better: “Better the end of a thing than its beginning; better one who forbears than one who is haughty. Hasten thyself not in thy spirit to become angry: for anger lieth down in the bosom of fools.” The clause 8 a is first thus to be objectively understood as it stands. It is not without limitation true; for of a matter in itself evil, the very contrary is true, Pro 5:4; Pro 23:32. But if a thing is not in itself evil, the end of its progress, the reaching to its goal, the completion of its destination, is always better than its beginning, which leaves it uncertain whether it will lead to a prosperous issue. An example of this is Solon’s saying to Croesus, that only he is to be pronounced happy whose good fortune it is to end his life well in the possession of his wealth ( Herod. i. 32).
The proverb Ecc 7:8 will stand in some kind of connection with 8 a, since what it says is further continued in Ecc 7:9. In itself, the frequently long and tedious development between the beginning and the end of a thing requires expectant patience. But if it is in the interest of a man to see the matter brought to an issue, an will, notwithstanding, wait with self-control in all quietness for the end; while it lies in the nature of the , the haughty, to fret at the delay, and to seek to reach the end by violent means; for the haughty man thinks that everything must at once be subservient to his wish, and he measures what others should do by his own measureless self-complacency. We may with Hitzig translate: “Better is patience ( = ) than haughtiness” ( , inf., as , Ecc 12:4; Pro 16:19). But there exists no reason for this; is not to be held, as at Pro 16:5, and elsewhere generally, as the connecting form of , and so for that of ; it amounts to the same thing whether the two properties (characters) or the persons possessing them are compared.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
THE BEGINNING AND THE END
Ecc 7:8.
FOLLOWING Robert Murray MCheynes scheme of daily Bible readings, I recently read afresh the fourth chapter of First Kings. It is in that chapter that Solomons superior wisdom is discovered, or rather, described; and in summing up his excellencies, the inspired writer says: He spake three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five.
While not reported in the Book of Proverbs, our text is one of the three thousand to which attention is called, and as such I propose to study and interpret it this morning:
Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
BEGINNINGS ARE OFTEN BEGGARLY
They are commonly small. It is the course of naturethe custom of Godto commence with diminutive things. The great mustard plant starts with the smallest of seeds; the towering oak takes its rise from a tiny acorn. The same custom of Nature, or God, controls the life of man and institutions. The mighty Moses is hid in a bit of a basket; and Saul sleeps his infancy out in a common cradle.
In the mental and moral world the great grow, also, out of the exceeding small. Daniel Webster was an unpromising lad; Abraham Lincoln was still more so; while Henry Ward Beecher was not bright in his college studies. William Matthews says: It was an old shanty which had been a drinking saloon, but which was so rickety that it had been abandoned even for that disreputable purpose, where, with a few tallow candles around him, Dwight L. Moody initiated his whole mission by trying to teach a negro boy the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Who hath despised the day of small things?
Bildad spake more wisely to Job than he knew, when he said:
If thou wert pure and upright; surely now He would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.
Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase (Ecc 8:6-7).
In illustration of this thought we find a conspicuous example in Dr. Alexander Maclaren, whose first pastorate was small and inconspicuous, and who himself, we are told, questioned his own success. But, after much debate, he continued in the calling of the ministry, and became not only the pastor of the great church in Manchester, which he served for forty-one years, but one of the most outstanding expositors of the Bible known to his day.
Beginnings may be beggarly in size, but what of it? He that is faithful in a few things shall be made ruler over many things. Better (because bigger) is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.
Beginnings are also characterized by struggle. The worlds biographies of great men are filled with instances of this great truth. Gladstone in his youth worked eleven solid hours a day. Pasteur, the French scientist, added his nights to his days as long as strength would last. Agassizso poor that he could not buy booksborrowed them and copied them, and by copying came to know their contents. Prescott, the historian, nearly blind, had to trace his student notes with incredible care, and we are told that he spent ten years on a single book. Abraham Lincoln, almost Americas idol, did hard manual labor by day and then at night studied in the light of log fires.
Newell Dwight Hillis, writing of the struggles essential to success, refers to the poets from David to Robert Burns, to the jurists from Moses to the last great Judge, to statesmen and patriots and soldiers and martyrs, and says:
Not one member of this elect group represents a career of uninterrupted happiness, or believes in exemption from sorrow. All are as unique for their sufferings as they are unique for their greatness. Moses, the worlds great jurist, comes in, after forty years in his wilderness, and falls on death ere he enters his promised land. Homer, blind, fed on crusts, and holding heart-break at bay, leads the company of the poets. He is followed by Dante, the exile, with sufferings so keen that the very children felt that he must have passed through hell; and Dante is followed by Milton, who in his blindness is led by servants, who understood him not. Paul leads the company of the reformers, with body worn thin as parchment, bruised by innumerable stonings and floggings; Livingstone, whose path was filled with thorns, with bleeding feet, heads the company of philanthropists; and Lincoln with his face furrowed with sorrow heads the rulers; and who is this One that cometh out of Eden, with dyed garments from Bozra, this Man whose name is above every name, whose face is marred above every face? And to what end was His suffering? Lo! this is the answer: for the joy that was set before Him. For the Angel of Sorrow is the herald who goes before proclaiming the approach of all those who have come out of great tribulation on, their march toward final victory and perfect happiness.
It is so appointed of God that the hard battles must be fought at the opening of life. This is so evident and universal in the natural world that Mr. Darwin based his theory, The Survival of the Fittest, wholly on that fact. The most trying time for the tree is not when the storm sweeps its ample branches. Back of that, in the shell of a seed, it is threatened by frost; when sprouting its tiny shoot, it is endangered by overlying clod or stick, by hungry insect, or by careless feet of men and beasts, by all that is more powerful than this wee weakling.
In animal life this same law obtains. The newborn thing has but a feeble hold on existence, and must struggle against many enemies to keep that.
Human life has its hardest at the first. There are more diseases of a more dangerous character that attack infants than come to maturity or old age. Ignorance and poverty and gormand hardship are the leeches of youth. Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Johnson, Jackson, Franklin, Grant, Lincoln, Garfield, and four thousand others such had to do hard battle in youth.
Born of ignorant parents in some instances, and of poverty in all, they had to meet the great giants, as David met Goliath, before their beards had grown.
It is not more true of men than of institutions, that the end is better than the beginning. A hundred years ago, over this West, a single man sat among five or six students, at this place and at that, and dared to call his chair a college. In poverty, in want of libraries and buildings, without appointments or apparatus, John Crow, John Peck, and Simeon McCoy, and a hundred others urged education. There was little to encourage; there was much to discourage, but they were men who saw the truth of this text and forgot present weaknesses in hope of future success.
The great churches of our land and all lands have come in the same way. When Charles Spurgeon went to the pastorate of Park Street Chapel he found a few folks, dying or dead, spiritually, and altogether a dismal promise of a great church. But in a few years the Metropolitan Tabernacle confirmed the truth of this text.
Dr. Talmage was called to Brooklyn by nineteen people, and there was no special outlook for the great work of Grace and mighty temples erected to God. It was struggle, struggle at first!
It is always so. But what of it? Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof,
IN THE BEGINNING, PATIENCE IS ESSENTIAL TO PROGRESS
The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
It is in the day of small things especially that we need patience in labor. The injunction of Paul to the Galatian Christians is needful to those undertaking new enterprises for Christ.
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not (Gal 6:9).
Almost anybody can join gaily in a procession that is successfully pushing a great enterprise. It takes a man of courage, of Christian faith and integrity, to espouse and aid one that is deserving and yet difficult. Almost anybody can run well when the road is smooth, the distance short, and the rich prize full before them. But it takes a true man of God to do his best for a reward that is unseen, and over a road known to be rough and long.
Any kind of a Christian can seek membership in a church whose numbers are large, and whose finances are so easy that he can escape both personal work and the sacrifice of silver and gold.
But the man or woman who deliberately casts in lot with a few folks who are entering on an enterprise of church-concern that calls for time, labor, and self-sacrifice, is of another spirit and a better one. The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
If there is one thing for which I prized my Chicago pastorate above any other ever held, it was this: that my people did not, could not join that small church to escape duty, but purposing in their hearts to faithfully discharge it.
But in these days of enlargement, we need also patience to wait. The harvest cannot ripen before the seed has received the early and the latter rain. There are some members who count the growth of the present church phenomenal. And yet, some of us are not satisfied. We say we ought to have given more, have gained more, have accomplished more. Patience then! The harvest will come!
As a Christian missionary, who had preached in the market place of a town in India, was taking leave of the city, a heathen scoffingly asked, How many converts have you made today? The missionary pointed to a plowed field whereon a man was sowing seed, and asked, What will happen there tomorrow? Nothing! was the heathens answer. And what next day? Nothing! What a week hence? The grain will sprout and its blades will appear! Even so, said the missionary, I have sowed the Good Seed today. Wait awhile and you will see it sprout.
There are some people who think that a few years are long enough to bring a church to full strength on all lines of work. But not so. The church is not a century plant, but the plant of centuries rather. The time element must enter into every harvest, and the years only prove faith and fruitfulness.
But the patient in spirit, hope. You have read the parable of a great king, who sent out laborers to level a forest, plow and plant the ground, and bring him the harvest.
According to their respective characters, one laborer was named Faith, one Industry, one Patience, another Self-denial, and a fifth Importunity. They wrought peacefully, persistently, but encountered discouragement and obstacles, not a few, and often their spirits were tried. Fortunately, however, they had taken with them their sister Hope, and with her cheerful songs and her assurances of harvest to come, they kept courage and wrought on, until the forest blossomed like the lily bed, and brought forth like the Euphrates Valley in fruitful years.
It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord (Lam 3:26).
Sow in the morn thy Seed,
At eve hold not thy hand;
To doubt and fear give thou no heed,
Broadcast it oer the land.
Thou canst not toil in vain;
Cold, heat, and moist and dry
Shall foster and mature the Grain
For garners in the sky.
Thence, when the glorious end,
The day of God, shall come,
The angel reapers shall descend
And Heavn cry, Harvest Home!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CRITICAL NOTES.
Ecc. 7:11. Wisdom is good with an inheritance] Wisdom, though good in itself, yet when joined with ample means imparts a power of doing good to others.
Ecc. 7:12. Wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence] Lit., in the shadow of wisdom, etc. In countries where the heat was oppressive, a shadow would be the natural symbol of protection. The excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it] Both wisdom and money give a man superior advantage in the battle of life. But wisdom is life itselfthe principle of the souls animation and vigour.
Ecc. 7:14. In the day of adversity consider] The last word belongs to the next statement, as if the Preacher saidConsider the adaptation of one part to another in the system of Divine Providence. God also hath set the one over against the other] Even things evil in themselves are employed to bring about the purposes of God. The consideration of this is a source of comfort in adversity. To the end that a man should find nothing after him] God so acts in His government of the world that man cannot fathom the future.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Ecc. 7:8-14
THE COUNSELS OF A RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHER
Human life, duty, and destiny are here contemplated from their philosophic side. We have moral and prudential maxims from one whose philosophy does not lose itself in vain speculations, but mixes with men, and exerts itself in the humbler but more useful task of contributing towards right practice. Counsels such as these tend to mitigate the evils of our condition, and to inspire us with a better hope.
I. Be Patient under Trial. (Ecc. 7:8.) The patient man is he who meekly endures, who bears present evils and troubles with resignation, and who is free from that unreasoning and passionate haste which is the bane of impetuous natures. He is here contrasted with the proud in spirit, because that blindness to reality, that wilfulness, that fierce vindication of self-love, all of which are pressed into the service of pride, are alien to that patience which sees clearly our true position, accepts the will of the Highest, and refuses the aid of passion to support a fictitious glory. Pride and patience are mutually exclusive. The patient man is superior to the proud, because,
1. He recognises the uses of discipline, and a purpose wider than himself. However dark and perplexing his present trial, he knows that God has some worthy end in view, that His will is being accomplished in the improvement and perfection of all who piously and meekly endure. He is satisfied that the righteous are safe, though they pass through much tribulation into the kingdom of God. He whose character is stamped with such convictions, bears the imprint of such lofty thoughts and purposes, has a wider horizon and a sublimer idea of life than the wretch who is concentred all in self. Breadth of view, that nobility of mind which despises the mean, and small, and selfish, is the mark and quality of true greatness.
2. He is more easily moulded for goodness. Wilfulness lies at the root of pride. He whose aim is to glorify himself scorns the yoke of obedience. There is a kind of rigidity in such which refuses to be shaped into the form and excellence of goodness. They refuse the dictation and control of the will of the Highest, setting themselves against it in stubbornness and rebellion. But the will of the patient man is tamed and subdued; he learns easily the lessons of dutyof faith and hope. He resigns himself into the hands of that Divine Artificer who can mould him into His own image. Our steps cannot be directed in the paths of peace and goodness unless we acknowledge Him in all our ways. But this involves the forsaking of our own will, and of that pride which refuses to submit.
3. He is content to wait for the end. Patience signifies something more than meek endurance. It is often opposed to that disposition which cannot wait. The proud man is in haste to secure the short-lived triumphs of the hour. He rushes on to his purpose, not heeding, not caring, what human and Divine rights he may trample upon. He is completely under the tyranny of the present. This contracts his view, and seals up his affections within himself, so that he wildly reaches out to the glittering things that lie near, unmindful of the holy and the high. But the patient man feels that, though the present trial may be grievous, and the way dark, the end will be better than the beginning, and so he waits in hope. To be able thus to take in a large view imparts nobility to the character.
II. Subdue the Violence of Passion. (Ecc. 7:9.) A wise man learns to control passion, to keep it from bursting out into the intemperate heats of anger. It is the triumph of religion thus to subdue the wildness of nature, and so to tame the passions that they easily submit to the yoke, and thus become the servants of virtue. Anger rests only in the bosom of fools, i.e., with the irreligious. Of such passions it may be affirmed
1. That they indicate a nature uninfluenced by great moral convictions. The practice of goodness in the quiet paths of duty, and constant meditation on those great truths which concern our relations to God and eternity, tend to keep down the violence and fury of the passions. Righteousness (which is the result of great moral convictions) brings peace, and peace finds a congenial home with contemplative souls. Anger is the vice of the thoughtless, but it is far from minds accustomed to regard the solemn aspects of life, duty, and destiny.
2. They indicate a mischievous employment of useful powers. It is not the purpose of religion to destroy the passions of human nature, but rather to give them a right direction. No original endowment of our nature is either mischievous or useless. Nothing is made in vain, either in the material or moral world. The organs of the body, though they may become the seat of disease, yet in their healthy state serve beneficial ends. There is a pious use of anger. When it is directed against sin, oppression, and wrong, it strengthens the just in their righteous cause. Those noble champions who have sought to redeem their fellow-men from the tyranny of ages, have found their weakness turned into strength and impenetrable defence by the stimulus of a holy indignation. When anger is kindled upon the altar of God, it is just and good; but as an unreasoning passion, raised suddenly upon the slightest provocation, in our daily intercourse with men, it is but the offering of a strange fire. That anger which is quite disproportioned to the offence, and fails to weigh the circumstances of it with accuracy, is a weakness and baseness of naturean abuse of powers capable of nobler employment.
3. They are hurtful to others. Anger has been a fruitful source of oppression and wrong. The history of religious persecution bears ample testimony to the sad fact that the innocent and the meek have suffered from the fury and rage of this base passion. Even in the narrower circle of domestic life, how much evil arises from hencewhat deep and lasting wounds! Anger may proceed no further than words; yet even these become sharp instruments of torture, and memory renews the pain. When passion slips from the control of reason and righteousness, it can only spread disaster and misery. Anger is native to the bosom of fools, who are naturally careless, and serve their own selfish ends at any cost to the feelings and rights of others.
III. Do not Magnify the Past at the Expense of the Present. (Ecc. 7:10.) It is a common fault with men of peevish and fretful dispositions to praise past ages, and to mourn over the degeneracy of the times in which they have the misfortune to live. This is often the vice of age; for the old man is proverbially a praiser of the times when he was a boy, and a severe censor of youthof all that is new and fresh. This disposition to magnify the past can also be observed in some of those arguments brought from antiquity, wherein the authority that is hoary with time is made to overrule the most convincing evidence. In the history of human thought, there have been times of intellectual tyranny when it was treason to teach contrary to the doctrines of Aristotle. This tendency to the undue glorification of past times can only be corrected by study and reflection, by the cultivation of a contented mind, and by that sobriety of judgment which frees a man from the slavery of the unreal. This disposition arises
1. From dissatisfaction with the present. Men despise all what is near and about them as things common and familiar. That which is hidden from their observation is invested with peculiar sanctity. The past possesses a vague sublimity which often serves to charm away the fancied evils of the hour.
2. From the illusion of distance. As distance in space tempts the imagination to indulge in gay fancies which lend enchantment to the view, so distance in time entertains the mind with a pleasing illusion. Antiquity, instead of being rated by the sober judgment of historical facts, becomes a mere sentiment. Poetry is made to take the place of logic. To act thus is not to enquire wisely concerning these things. It is not the part of the religious philosopher to forsake the sure ground of facts in order to follow fancies. There must be something faulty in our moral nature as well, when we fail gratefully to acknowledge the good that marks our own times, and seek an ineffectual relief in the fictitious glory of the past. This fault is the indication of a nature dissatisfied with itself, and spreading the gloom of its own discontent upon all around. It is a revelation of moral character.
IV. Consider wherein Mans Real Strength lies. (Ecc. 7:12.) Wisdomthat intellectual and moral sagacity which imparts sobriety to the judgment, and steadiness to the walk in the paths of duty, has also this excellence, that it is the defenceyea, the highest defence of man. A feeble image of its power to protect, and to give assurance, may be seen in the social estimate of the potency of riches. They, too, in their way, are a defence; they give a sense of security, ward off many evils, and endow men with power and influence. These properties raise the consciousness of strength. They are regarded as a material defence against calamity, and in unspiritual minds the protection they afford is sufficiently magnified. So far, the analogy between wisdom and money, as a source of defence, holds good. But beyond this point they part company, diverging into widely different issues. Wisdom has this superiority, that it giveth life to them that have it. Consider how wisdom contributes to this result, and affords the only reliable protection against real evils.
1. There are some evils from which neither wisdom nor money can save us. Our sagacity and prudence sometimes fail to ensure what is called success in life. The highest qualities of goodness do not suffice to ward off disaster. They grant no title of exemption from taking our sorrowful portion in the community of suffering and woe. In this regard, wisdom stands on a level with riches, as a defence. Riches cannot prevent the invasion of sickness, calamity, and death. And wisdom is equally powerless to deliver us from these evils.
2. Wisdom has superior consolations. In the great troubles of life, the comfort gained by wealth is but limited and insufficient. When man is fairly within the grasp of the last enemy, his wealth can give him no assurance or joy. But to the good man, journeying through the dreariest desert of life, wisdom is a spring to refresh him, a tree to give him shade. And when time is setting with him, and the last struggle approaches, conscience gives him strength and assurance. In the kindly light of faith and hope, he humbly awaits what God has laid up for him.
3. Wisdom is the only essential and permanent defence. All other defences are temporary, quite unavailing in the severest trials, and the greatness of man can afford to dispense with them. Wisdom gives life, and from hence springs the consciousness of strength, that robust courage, which is confident of victory. Life is the sphere wherein mans highest hope rests and expatiates. To him who is assured of life, what is death itself but the dark and painful struggle into his second birth? Life, in its deep spiritual significance, is perpetual existence under the smile of God. This is the greatest powerthe strongest defence of man. All else are shadows; this the only enduring substance.
V. Be Resigned to the Established Order of Providence. (Ecc. 7:13.) Resignationthat habit of humble submission to the Divine willis mans true wisdom, the garment and proper adornments of piety. Hereby is patience kept alive, and grows strong for her perfect work. There are two considerations which should prevent men from murmuring at the established order of Providence.
1. Such conduct is useless in itself. We cannot withstand God, or alter His determination. We are able to collect the facts and discern the laws of Providence, as we do those of the solar system, but we are powerless to effect any change in either of these spheres of the Divine operation. God has not taken us into His counsel. His wisdom is not so weak and fallible that it should call to us for aid. In the laws of Nature and Providence, there is no help nor happiness for us but by submission. It is vain to contend with infinite wisdom and power. For man, in his ignorance and bold defiance, to lay his puny hand upon the revolving wheel of nature is destruction.
2. Such conduct is impious towards God. Most men in the time of adversity fail rightly to consider the work of God. If we see no presiding will behind the present system of things, we become fretful, disobedient, full of despair; and in the vain attempt to help ourselves, find only bitter disappointment. But if we see God in all these things, we learn self-control, and submit with pious resignation. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because Thou didst it, says the Psalmist (Psa. 39:9). Ours should not be the submission of despair, or of sad reconcilement to the inevitable, but rather that joyful submission which has all to hope for from a Fathers hand. As God is wise, and good, and loving, He can do nothing arbitrary. If we are good and true, we can afford to wait, even through present obscurity and discomfort, till God shall manifest Himself, and bring with Him full reward and consolation.
VI. Do not Force the Spirit into Unnatural Moods. (Ecc. 7:14.) A wise man is marked by that simplicity of character which avoids all affectation and insincerity. In the various moods of feeling through which he is called to pass, he is (in the best sense of the word) natural. We should use no devices to disguise or falsify our feelings, but let them have full expression and fitting exercise, according to their nature.
1. Give proper expression to joyful feelings. Prosperity comes from God, and should be a cause for devout thankfulness and joy. Love to Him who sends the blessing should dispose us to this; for what is joy, but the recreation of love? It is love taking exercise, casting off for a while the weight of care and sorrow, and sporting itself in the sunshine of prosperity. Is any merry? let him sing psalms, (Jas. 5:13). We should allow our feelings to flow in their proper channels and not repress them by an unnatural asceticism. We have this element in the Book of Psalms, wherein the most lofty expressions of joy are used, and nature herself is made responsive to the gladness of the soul.
1. Give proper expression to the feelings of sadness and gloom. While adversity should not drive us to despair, to doubt the goodness of God, or to insane endeavours to extricate ourselves; yet, at the same time, it should not tempt us to assume a stoical indifference. Not to feel the rod of the cross, the chastisement of God, is a great evil. The Prophet complains, Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved. (Jer. 5:3.) Job refused this wretched consolation of hardness of feeling, and scorn of afflictions rod. Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass? (Job. 6:12.)
3. Learn the lessons both of prosperity and adversity. In prosperity we should learn gratitude, a sense of our unworthiness, and discern herein a prophecy of a better and more enduring world. In adversity, we are told to consider the moral aspects of the affliction. These duties are not rigidly exclusive. We are not taught that prosperity should be thoughtless, and adversity joyless. But the consideration of the solemn facts of our moral probation is specially appropriate to the season of adversity.
(1) Consider that the same God appoints both conditions. In our human view, they are very diverse; but in the Divine idea and purpose of them, they are but alternations of treatment necessary to our souls health. They both come from His hand whose will is that the end should be blessed, though we proceed through part of our journey in pain.
(2) Consider that human helplessness and ignorance are a necessary discipline. The purpose of these diverse ways of Providence is, that man should find nothing after him. He is thus rendered incapable of piercing into the future, and, therefore, of managing it to serve his own purposes. Convinced thus of his own helplessness and ignorance, he is cast upon God that he may learn the lessons of humble dependence and of faith.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Ecc. 7:8. This is a strange statement, and thoroughly false when applied to some things.
1. It is false when applied to sin. Sin to man, in its first stage, is a comparatively pleasant thing. The fruit to Eve was delicious; the thirty pieces of silver in the hands of Judas, at first, were prized; but the endhow sad! Sin begins in pleasure, but ends in pain; begins in music, but ends in groans.
2. It is false when applied to unwise enterprises. The first stages of a mercantile or a national enterprise, to the projector, are pleasant. But if the methods of action are unwise, the enterprise will soon prove to be a house built upon the sand.
3. It will not apply to partial reformations. When reformation has not been effected on right principles, there comes an apostacy. Certain devils, in the form of habits, have been expelled, but the mind is left empty. The evil spirit at length returns, bringing with him seven more devils; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. But there are some things to which these words will apply.
1. They will apply to an honest and persevering search after truth. At the outset of all investigations, the mind is often harassed with doubt, and perplexed with difficulties; but as it proceeds, things appear more reasonable, obstacles are removed, and the mist gradually rolls off the scene.
2. They will apply to the history of Christianity. It came from despised Nazareth, its founder was the son of a carpenter, who died a malefactor. Systems, institutions, kings, and peoples were against it. But its end will be better. It is fast moving on to universal dominion.
3. They will apply to true friendships. Most true friendships at their outset have trials. But as it proceeds, mutual knowledge, mutual excellence, mutual love increase, and the twain become one.
4. They will apply to the life of a good man. This may be illustrated by three remarks:
I. At the End of his Life he is Introduced into a Better State.
1. He begins his life amidst impurity. Tainted with sin, at the beginning; but at the end, he is introduced to puritysaintsangelsChristGod!
2. He begins his life on trial. It is a moral battle; shall he conquer? It is a voyage; shall he reach the haven? The end determines all.
3. He begins his life amidst suffering. In this tabernacle we groan, earnestly, &c.
II. At the End of his Life he is Introduced into Better Occupations. Our occupations here are threefoldphysical, intellectual, moral. All these are of a painful kind. Toiling for breadgrappling in the dark with the mere rudiments of knowledgemortifying the flesh. But death introduces us to those which will be congenial to the tastes, and honouring to God.
III. At the End of his Life he is Introduced into Better Society. Society here is frequently insincere, non-intelligent, unaffectionate. But how delightful the society into which death will introduce us! We shall mingle with enlightened, genuine, warm-hearted souls, rising grade above grade up to the Eternal God Himself [Homilist].
However severe the afflictions of the righteous may be, the end is always in their favour. The end is their proper inheritance, of which no calamity can deprive them.
The end, for the righteous, will be the verification of those great truths which are here but dimly seen by faith.
If we are faithful, the darkest events of Providence will approve themselves to us in the end, which will be a revelation of the righteous ways of God.
It is only at the end that we can sum up fairly, and weigh the value of all things.
A patient spirit comes in aid of the decisions which wisdom is disposed to pronounce. It takes time to reflect, instead of giving way to the first headlong impulse. Pride lends fuel to feed the flame of passion and violence. Patience keeps down the fire and quells the tumult, and thus secures for wisdom the leisure and the calmness which, in such circumstances, it so especially needs, in order to judge righteous judgment [Buchanan].
Pride has a short-lived triumph, patience an eternal reward.
The gate is low through which we pass into the distinctions and honours of the kingdom of God.
Ecc. 7:9. Righteous anger, which alone is lawful for us, is slowly raised; is conformable to the measures of reason and truth, and endures no longer than justice requires. It expires with the reformation of the offender. It is rounded by pity and love, which, like a circle of fire, increases towards the central space until the anger itself is consumed.
Frail man, who has so many faults of his own, and stands in need, on every side, of favourable interpretation, should be very cautious how he indulges himself in the dangerous passion of anger. A wise man herein will observe a legal calmness and sobriety.
Cases are not only supposable, but of no unfrequent occurrence, in which the emotions of anger may be fairly justified. Yet it is one of those passions for which a person feels afraid to plead, because it requires, instead of encouragement and fostering, constant and careful restraint; and the propensity in every bosom to its indulgence is ever ready to avail itself of an argument for its abstract lawfulness, to justify what all but the subject of it will condemn, as its careless exercise, or its criminal excess. To retain and foster it is a mark of a weak mind, as well as of an unsanctified heart [Wardlaw].
It is one of the gracious and encouraging testimonies which Scripture has given us concerning God, that He is slow to anger (Neh. 9:17), and that Neither will He keep His anger for ever (Psa. 103:9). And yet what infinitely greater cause God has for being angry, and for retaining His anger against us, than we can ever have in the case even of our most offending fellow-men! Did His wrath burn and break forth against the sinner as suddenly and vehemently as does the sinners wrath against his offending brother, there is not a day nor an hour in which the sinner might not be consumed [Buchanan].
With the wise man, anger is a strange and suspicious guest, ready to be cast out upon the first confirmation of his evil intent. But with the fool anger has a congenial home.
Where anger is indulged it will lead all the other passions to mutiny, and render any wise self-government impossible.
Ecc. 7:10. The dreamy admiration of antiquity is the refuge of weak minds, the futile justification of their discontent. They despise actual life around them and the ways of duty as too prosaic, thus injuring their moral force by the excesses of the imagination.
If we follow the fancied superiority of past ages with a sober and impartial eye, we shall find that it retires into the region of mist and fable.
Some Christians mourn over the lack of spirituality and earnest purpose in the Church of the present. They sigh for the ideal perfection which marked primitive times. But a closer examination would soon dispel this illusion. Even in the times of the Apostles, the passions of human nature, and the infirmities of the human mind, both disfigured the life of the Church, and corrupted the truth.
The golden age for our race lies in front of us, and not behind. Humanity is ever toiling up the heights of progressfrom evil to greater good.
Those who unduly praise past ages, fix their attention upon a few illustrious names, and challenge the present times for the production of their like. They forget that those famous men do not represent the average of their contemporaries, but stood at their head and top. Those moral heroes are but brilliant points of light scattered sparingly through the long dark vista of the past.
Thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this.
1. Thou art inquiring for the cause of what thou shouldst first ascertain with certainty to be a fact; of what possibly has no existence but in thine own distempered imagination, or partially unformed judgment. There has been no golden age in this world but the short period of paradisaical innocence and bliss enjoyed by the first progenitors of our since accursed race.
2. Consider that thou knowest the evils of former times only by report; whereas of present ills thou thyself feelest the pressure. By this feeling thy judgment is liable to be perverted. The sight of the eye is more impressive than the hearing of the ear.
3. In uttering thy complaints, thou art unwise: for thou arraignest in so doing the All-wise Providence of the Most High, who assigns to every successive age its portion of evil and of good. The complaints of a petted spirit are ungodly; and the inquiries of such a spirit are equally unwise in their principle, and delusive in their results [Wardlaw].
Ecc. 7:11. Wisdom can stand upon its own merits, and derives no additional glory from wealth. Yet by means of wealth, wisdom is commended to the minds of many.
Wisdom can do without wealth better than wealth can do without wisdom.
Ample possessions do but minister to the lusts of their foolish owner, and feed his self-importance.
Wisdom, as far as it can make use of wealth, is a profit to them that see the sun, i.e., to those who are free, and have the power to enjoy. But when the darkness of adversity comes, wisdom has reserves of strength, and riches of consolation hidden till then.
In the vocabulary of a very large class of men, wealth and wisdom mean pretty nearly the same thing. The wise man who knows everything but the art of making money they regard as a fool; while the millionaire who, with a lamentable deficiency of higher gifts, has continued to amass a fortune, receives all the deference due to the man who is pre-eminently wise. It can need no argument to prove that Solomon could never mean to lend any countenance to so gross a method of estimating the worth of things [Buchanan].
Ecc. 7:12. Wisdom is so conscious of her superior dignity and worth that she can afford to estimate, at their full value, all beneath her.
Wealth affords but a mechanical defence against adversity, giving way under the pressure of the greatest calamities. But wisdom changes the nature of the afflictions themselves, and altogether neutralises them.
Wisdom is a wall of defence, and money is a hedge. The thorns in the Gospel, which sprang up and choked the good seed, are by our Saviour expounded of the deceitfulness of riches; but that is when the thorns do grow among the corn, when the love of riches hath placed them in the heart, where the seed of spiritual grace ought to grow. Let them be kept out of the heart, be esteemed of as they are, outward things; then they are, as it were, a fence, a hedge unto a man whereby he is preserved from hurt. So they were to Job, by Gods Providence over them (Job. 1:10) [Jermin].
True spiritual wisdom not only ministers to the comfort and dignity of life; it is life itself. That which is true in a lower sense of human knowledge has its highest illustration in that knowledge which is eternal life (1Jn. 5:11-12).
Of what avail are the splendours of wealth when the soul passes, bereft of all, into eternity? The riches a man leaves behind him raise the admiration of others; but the deep, solemn, essential question is, did they give him life? If not, they cannot be placed in comparison with the unfailing virtues of heavenly wisdom.
Money may defend its owner from a certain class of physical evils, but it can do nothing to shield him from those far more formidable moral evils, which bring ruin upon the immortal soul. It cannot protect him from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. But heavenly wisdom arms him against all these foes, and teaches him, as its first great lesson, what he must do to be saved; and it disposes him to choose that good part which shall not be taken away; and in so doing it enables him, humbly and calmly, to bid defiance to the devil, the flesh, and the world. In acquainting him with God, it gives him a peace which the worlds greatest prosperity cannot confer, and of which its direst adversity cannot deprive him [Buchanan].
Ecc. 7:13. The conviction that the work is Gods is enough for the pious soul.
The spiritual instincts of the righteous discern behind the dread forces of nature not only a personal will, but also a heart. He feels this, and is satisfied.
Our wisdom is baffled by the system of Providence, as well as our power. As we cannot resist the decrees of it, so we can find no principle to harmonise its apparent discrepancies. Our safety lies not in rebellion, but in patience, faith, and hope.
So terrible are the restrictions of human destiny, that man can have no perfect liberty here. The seeming disorders of life sorely chafe him. We must be born into another life before we can have complete emancipation and glorious liberty (Rom. 8:21).
Solomon does not mean, in so saying, to teach or countenance the revolting doctrine of fatalism; he does not mean that we are to regard ourselves as being in the iron grasp of a remorseless power, in regard to which we have no resources but passively to leave ourselves in its hands. It is His willthe will of the only Wise, Just, and Holy Jehovah, and not that of His ignorant, erring, and fallen creature, that is to decide what shall be. Let man, therefore, humbly and reverently acquiesce in what the Lord is pleased to ordain as to his earthly estate. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? [Buchanan].
When we are at home with God, in the secret place of the Most High, our painful perplexity subsides in the presence of His love and comfort. The darkness of our sojourn here is but the shadow of His wings.
Ecc. 7:14. Our joy in prosperity should not be the selfish glorying in success, or the transports of gratified ambition. It should be an act of worship, a glad recompense paid to heaven.
It is wisest, as well as most natural, to allow our feelings full play while they last. We cannot take in the idea of life as a whole; else the burden of duty and suffering would appal us.
Consider
1. The Author of your trials. Whatever be their nature, and whatever the instrument of their infliction, they are the appointment of Providence; they come from the hand of a wise and merciful Godwho, in all His ways, is entitled to your thoughtful regard. Consider
2. The cause of all suffering. Sin is the bitter fountain of every bitter stream that flows in this wilderness. Consider
3. The great general design of adversity; excite to self-examination, repentance of sin, and renewed vigilance, to promote the increase of faith, love, and hope, and spirituality of mind, and general holiness of heart and life [Wardlaw].
The alternation of joys and sorrows in human life is necessary to our souls health. Our nature is too weak to bear an unvarying experience without being hardened or corrupted. We need to be startled into sudden surprises in order to keep our attention awake.
God so tempers His dealings with us as to make our probation a stern and serious thing. He thus keeps men in His own hands, so that they can find nothing where He has not willed it, or where His light does not show the way.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
f. Patience is better than anxiety. Ecc. 7:8-9
TEXT 7:89
8
The end of a matter is better than its beginning; patience of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit.
9
Do not be eager in your heart to be angry, for anger resides in the bosom of fools.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS 7:89
185.
To what previous statement in this chapter could the first part of verse eight have reference?
186.
What one word is synonymous with haughtiness of spirit?
187.
Explain what you think is meant by eager . . . to be angry.
188.
One who harbors anger in his heart is considered to be what?
PARAPHRASE 7:89
Better is the end of something than its beginning, and better is a patient spirit than a proud spirit. Do not become impatient and angered in spirit for he who allows anger to reside in his heart is a fool.
COMMENT 7:89
Why is the end of a thing better than its beginning? There are numerous answers which could be given as many experiences of life underscore the truth that hind sight is better than foresight. One who enters rashly into a business deal or enterprise, bragging concerning his personal ambitions and goals, may discover that the wiser action would be to wait and see how events finally materialize. Jesus said concerning the individual who boasted of his intention to build, only to discover that he ran out of funds, that all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying This man began to build and was not able to finish (Luk. 14:29-30). A similar statement comes to us from the Old Testament in the classic statement of Ahab: Let not him who girds on his armor boast like him who takes it off (1Ki. 20:11). Thus, the wise man knows that it is better to resign all of ones future plans into the providential control of the Creator. This does not relieve one of the responsibility of planning for tomorrow, but it does safeguard against the proud spirit.
The purpose of a thing is best understood by looking back upon it. Wisdom is gained by patiently waiting even when one is tempted to press and force the situation to fit desired or predicted ends.
A quick temper in company with frustration is the earmark of a fool. Another mark of the fool is to welcome, harbor and entertain anger. The wise man will be careful not to become easily agitated or react physically without just provocation. Such irresponsible behavior will not produce a good name.
FACT QUESTIONS 7:89
338.
Simple observations of life lead to what conclusion?
339.
If one wishes to be thought of as a wise man, what is a better course of action than proud bragging over proposed projects?
340.
Give two earmarks of a fool.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(8) Thing.Here, as in Ecc. 6:11 and elsewhere, we may also translate word. Possibly the thought still is the advantage of bearing patiently the rebuke of the wise.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. End of a thing Hebrew, word; here meaning the reproof above named. To hear a reproof is trying to flesh and blood, and the voice of the reprover is like that of the first bringer of unwelcome news. Many times has a man lost a friend by reproving him but sometimes the result of the delicate and difficult task has been the peaceable fruits of reform. Happy is the patient in spirit, who can take a reproof in all candour without irritation and peevishness.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ecc 7:8. And the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit Better is he who considereth long, than he whose spirit is high. We have, in this and the preceding verses, the first proof of the third general proposition. Most men, unmindful of futurity, prefer a delicate life to that course whereby a good reputation can be attained; yet a good reputation is preferable by much to the most refined luxury, Ecc 7:1. A birth-day is every where a day of joy, whereas the day in which any one dies is a day of tears; yet the day of one’s birth is the beginning of his troubles, which, to all outward appearance, are at an end the day on which he leaves this world, Ecc 7:2. Few would choose to go to a house of mourning, if it were in their option to go to a feast; yet the consideration of one’s end, which obtrudes itself upon the mind in a house of mourning, is a very profitable one; and what can you get at a feast equivalent to that? The wise knoweth it, and chooseth accordingly. The fool or ignorant behaves likewise agreeably, to his wrong notions. A grave and serious deportment is not so welcome in the world as a merry countenance, which is considered as the surest token of a contented heart. Yet how often is the outward appearance deceitful! Ecc 7:2-4. To be told of your faults by a discreet man, may be of real service to you; whereas the highest encomiums bestowed on you by the poetical panegyrics of flatterers, are as vain and as insignificant as the noise of burning thorns. Yet how few are there, who do not love adulation? Ecc 7:5-6. Tyranny and oppression are the worst of evils in the eye of the world, and justly so; yet the effects of oppression, with respect to the wise, is to make wisdom more conspicuous; and bribery, though relished by such as are the objects of it, is the real source of the greatest evil, the corruption of our morals, Ecc 7:7. Any thing is more perfect (and consequently preferable) when finished, than when it is just begun; yet love of novelty, on the one hand, and aptness to be tired on the other, generally get the better of that very obvious reason. A hasty, assuming, peremptory, decisive man, frequently gets more applause than he who is called tedious, because he takes time to consider; yet how widely do they differ in the eye of reason! Ecc 7:8.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Ecc 7:8 Better [is] the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: [and] the patient in spirit [is] better than the proud in spirit.
Ver. 8. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning. ] No right judgment can be made of anything unless we can see the end of it. God seems oft to go a contrary way to work, but by that time both ends be brought together, all is as it should be, and it appears that he doth all things in number, weight, and measure. We may learn (saith Mr Hooper, a martyr, in a certain letter exhorting to patience) by things that nourish and maintain us, both meat and drink, what loathsome and abhorring they come unto, before they work their perfection in us: from life they are brought to the fire, and clean altered from what they were when they were alive; from the fire to the trencher and knife, and all to be hacked; from the trencher to the mouth, and as small ground as the teeth can grind them; from the mouth into the stomach, and there so boiled and digested before they nourish, that whosoever saw the same would loathe and abhor his own nourishment, till it come to perfection. But as a man looketh for the nourishment of his meat when it is full digested, and not before, so must he look for deliverance when he hath suffered much trouble, and for salvation when he hath passed through the strait gate, &c. Let the wise man look to the end, and to the right which in the end God will do him, in the destruction of his oppressors; and this will patient his heart and heal his distemper. We “have heard of the patience of Job, and what end the Lord made with him. Be ye also patient,” you shall shortly have help if ye hold out waiting. “Mark the upright man, and behold the just, for” – whatsoever his beginning or his middle be – “the end of that man is peace.” Psa 37:37 Only he must hold out faith and patience, and not fall off from good beginnings; for as the evening crowneth the day, and as the grace of an interlude is in the last scene, so it is constancy that crowneth all graces, and he only that “continueth to the end that shall he saved.” Laban was very kind at first, but he showed himself at parting. Saul’s three first years were good. Judas carried himself fair, usque ad loculorum officium, saith Tertullian, till the bag was committed to him. Many set out for heaven with as much seeming resolution as Lot’s wife did out of Sodom, as Orphah did out of Moab, as the young man in the Gospel came to Christ; but after a while they fall away, they stumble at the cross, and fall backwards. Now to such it may well be said, The end is better than the beginning. Better it had been for such never to have known the way of God, &c. Christ loves no lookers back. See how he thunders against them. Heb 10:26-27 ; Heb 10:38-39 So doth St Paul against the Galatians, because they “did run well,” but, lying down in that heat, they caught a surfeit, and fell into a consumption.
And the patient in spirit is better than the proud, &c.
a Acts and Mon., fol. 1377.
b Greg. Pastor.
c Daniel.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Ecclesiastes
FINIS CORONAT OPUS
Ecc 7:8
This Book of Ecclesiastes is the record of a quest after the chief good. The Preacher tries one thing after another, and tells his experiences. Amongst these are many blunders. It is the final lesson which he would have us learn, not the errors through which he reached it. ‘The conclusion of the whole matter’ is what he would commend to us, and to it he cleaves his way through a number of bitter exaggerations and of partial truths and of unmingled errors. The text is one of a string of paradoxical sayings, some of them very true and beautiful, some of them doubtful, but all of them the kind of things which used-up men are wont to say-the salt which is left in the pool when the tide is gone down. The text is the utterance of a wearied man who has had so many disappointments, and seen so many fair beginnings overclouded, and so many ships going out of port with flying flags and foundering at sea, that he thinks nothing good till it is ended; little worth beginning-rest and freedom from all external cares and duties best; and, best of all, to be dead, and have done with the whole coil. Obviously, ‘the end of a thing’ here is the parallel to ‘the day of death’ in Ecc 7:1 , which is there preferred to ‘the day of one’s birth.’ That is the godless, worn-out worlding’s view of the matter, which is infinitely sad, and absolutely untrue.
But from another point of view there is a truth in these words. The life which is lived for God, which is rooted in Christ, a life of self-denial, of love, of purity, of strenuous ‘pressing towards the mark,’ is better in its ‘end’ than in its ‘beginning.’ To such a life we are all called, and it is possible for each. May my poor words help some of us to make it ours.
I. Then our life has an end.
And in that counsel is involved the thought that ‘the end which is better than the beginning’ is neither old age, with its limitations and compulsory abstinences, nor death, which is, as the dreary creed of the book in its central portions believes it to be, the close of all things, but, beyond these, the state in which men will reap as they have sown, and inherit what they have earned. It is that condition which gives all its importance to death-the porter who opens the door into a future life of recompence.
II. The end will, in many respects, not be better than the beginning.
And if we go further, and think of death as the end, is it not in a very real and terrible sense, loss, loss? It is loss to be taken out of the world, to ‘leave the warm precincts and the cheerful day,’ to lose friends and lovers, and to be banned into a dreary land. Yet, further, the thought of the end as being a state of retribution strikes upon all hearts as being solemn and terrible.
III. Yet the end may be better.
But there is a better sense in which this paradoxical saying is simple truth, and that sense is one which it is possible for us all to realise. What sort of end would that be, the brightness of which would far outshine the joy when a man-child is born into the world? Would it not be a birth into a better life than that which fills and often disturbs the ‘threescore years and ten’ here? Would it not be an end to a course in which all our nature would be fully developed and all opportunities of growth and activity had been used to the full? which had secured all that we could possess? which had happy memories and calm hopes? Would it not be an end which brought with it communion with the Highest-joys that could never fade, activities that could never weary? Surely the Christian heaven is better than earth; and that heaven may be ours.
That supreme and perfect end will be reached by us through faith in Christ, and through union by faith with Him. If we are joined to the Lord and are one with Him, our end in glory will be as much better than this our beginning on earth as the full glory of a summer’s day transcends the fogs and frosts of dreary winter. ‘The path of the just is as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day.’
If the end is not better than the beginning, it will be infinitely worse. Golden opportunities will be gone; wasted years will be irrevocable. Bright lights will be burnt out; sin will be graven on the memory; remorse will be bitter; evil habits which cannot be gratified will torment; a wearied soul, a darkened understanding, a rebellious heart, will make the end awfully, infinitely, always worse than the beginning. From all these Jesus Christ can save us; and, full as He fills the cup of life as we travel along the road, He keeps the best wine till the last, and makes ‘the end of a thing better than the beginning.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Ecc 7:8-10
Ecc 7:8-10
“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof,, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry; for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these; for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this.”
“Better is the end … than the beginning.” (Ecc 7:8). Here again, the truth of this hinges upon the question of whether or not the “thing” spoken of was good or bad, wise or foolish. The end of a wicked ruler’s reign is, of course, better than the beginning of it. Apparently the burden of the meaning is that the completion of some great project is better than the beginning of it.
“The statement here is not a repetition of Ecc 7:1, but states a truth generally applicable to certain situations. The end is better, because at that time we can form a right judgment about a matter. “Of course, this proverb is too pessimistic to be true without qualifications.” In fact Solomon gave two proverbs in which this is not true, namely, in Pro 5:4 and in Pro 23:32.
“Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry” (Ecc 7:9). Here once more Solomon virtually repeats a proverb he gave in Pro 14:17, “He that is soon angry will deal foolishly.”
“What is the cause that the former days were better …?” (Ecc 7:10). This, of course, is exactly the kind of question that may be expected of nearly any old man. “This is always the plaint of an old man. However, something else may also be true of such questions. The downward spiral of human wickedness in many situations is radical enough to justify such an old man’s question, because, as an apostle said, “Wickedness shall wax worse and worse” (2Ti 2:13).
Also, there is a quality in human life that romanticizes and glorifies the days of one’s youth, conveniently forgetting its hardships and disasters, dwelling only upon those memories which are delightful and pleasant; and this very human trait frequently leads old people to glorify “the former days” with a halo of desirability to which those days are in no wise entitled. The ancient poet Horace has this:
Morose and querulous, praising former days
When he was boy, now ever blaming youth ….
All that is most distant and removed
From his own time and place, he loathes and scorns.
Thus, Solomon’s proverb here fingers an action on the part of old people that is very generally foolish, although, of course, exceptions undoubtedly exist also. Paul also gave us the good example that included, “Forgetting the things which are behind” (Php 3:13).
Ecc 7:8-9 Why is the end of a thing better than its beginning? There are numerous answers which could be given as many experiences of life underscore the truth that hind sight is better than foresight. One who enters rashly into a business deal or enterprise, bragging concerning his personal ambitions and goals, may discover that the wiser action would be to wait and see how events finally materialize. Jesus said concerning the individual who boasted of his intention to build, only to discover that he ran out of funds, that all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying This man began to build and was not able to finish (Luk 14:29-30). A similar statement comes to us from the Old Testament in the classic statement of Ahab: Let not him who girds on his armor boast like him who takes it off (1Ki 20:11). Thus, the wise man knows that it is better to resign all of ones future plans into the providential control of the Creator. This does not relieve one of the responsibility of planning for tomorrow, but it does safeguard against the proud spirit.
The purpose of a thing is best understood by looking back upon it. Wisdom is gained by patiently waiting even when one is tempted to press and force the situation to fit desired or predicted ends.
A quick temper in company with frustration is the earmark of a fool. Another mark of the fool is to welcome, harbor and entertain anger. The wise man will be careful not to become easily agitated or react physically without just provocation. Such irresponsible behavior will not produce a good name.
Ecc 7:10 -There is undoubtedly more implied in this verse than merely a rebuke of being dissatisfied with the present and the fruitless longing for days gone by. If the conditions of the present time which produce suffering are a result of disobedience and sin, then the present is a time of just retribution. In such a case, it is not wise to question the circumstances of the present or long for the past. There is evidence that Solomon detected three signs of lack of wisdom: impatience, willingness to harbor anger, and a failure to inquire wisely concerning the circumstances of the present.
It is easy to imagine that former days were better than the present time regardless of the age in which one lives. With the passing of time there is the tendency to forget the evil experience of the day-to-day living that constitutes life in every age. Thus, the present appears to be more difficult than what one overhears concerning the joy of past experiences. However, the wise man interprets the present in the light of wisdom. This will enable him to interpret the past and make necessary adjustments to live wisely in the present.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Better: Psa 126:5, Psa 126:6, Isa 10:24, Isa 10:25, Isa 10:28-34, Luk 16:25, Jam 5:11, 1Pe 1:13
the patient: Pro 13:10, Pro 14:29, Pro 15:18, Pro 16:32, Pro 28:25, Luk 21:19, Rom 2:7, Rom 2:8, Heb 10:36, Jam 5:8, 1Pe 2:20, 1Pe 2:21, 1Pe 5:5, 1Pe 5:6
Reciprocal: Gen 42:36 – all these things are against me 1Ki 12:14 – My father made 1Ki 21:4 – And he laid him 2Ch 10:14 – My father Job 42:12 – So Pro 17:14 – leave Pro 21:24 – haughty 1Co 13:4 – vaunteth not itself 1Ti 3:3 – patient Jam 1:19 – slow to wrath
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Ecc 7:8-9. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning The good or evil of things is better known by their end than by their beginning; which is true, not only respecting evil counsels and practices, which perhaps seem pleasant at first, but, at last, bring destruction; but also concerning all noble enterprises, the studies of learning, and the practice of virtue and godliness, in which the beginnings are difficult and troublesome, but in the progress and conclusion they are most easy and comfortable; and it is not sufficient to begin well unless we persevere to the end, which crowns all; and the patient in spirit Who quietly waits for the issue of things, and is willing to bear hardships and inconveniences in the mean time; is better than the proud in spirit Which he puts instead of hasty or impatient, because pride is the chief cause of impatience. Be not hasty in thy spirit, &c. Be not angry with any man without due consideration, and just and necessary cause: see on Mar 3:5. For anger resteth in the bosom of fools
That is, sinful anger, implying not only displeasure at the sin or folly of another, which is lawful and proper, but ill-will and a desire of revenge, hath its quiet abode in the heart of fools: is ever at hand upon all occasions, whereas wise men resist, mortify, and banish it.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
7:8 Better [is] the {f} end of a thing than its beginning: [and] the patient in spirit [is] better than the proud in spirit.
(f) He notes their lightness who attempt a thing and suddenly leave it off again.