2025.10.23 Hopewell @Home ▫ Ecclesiastes 7:16–29

Read Ecclesiastes 7:16–29

Questions from the Scripture text: What does Ecclesiastes 7:16a say not to be “overzealous” for? What else (verse 16b)? Why not—what does the rhetorical question in verse 16c imply? For what else should one not be overzealous (Ecclesiastes 7:17a)? What else (verse 17b)? Why no (verse 17c)? What is good (Ecclesiastes 7:18a)? But what shouldn’t they do (verse 18b)? Who will escape both destruction outcomes (verse 18c)? How strong is wisdom (Ecclesiastes 7:19)? What isn’t there, where (Ecclesiastes 7:20)? What shouldn’t we do (Ecclesiastes 7:21a)? If we did, to what would we respond wrongly (verse 21b)? What must we remember when this occurs—what have we done (Ecclesiastes 7:22)? What had Solomon tried (Ecclesiastes 7:23a–b)? With what result (verse 23c)? What did he conclude from this—what is the implied answer to the rhetorical question in Ecclesiastes 7:24? So, how did he try (Ecclesiastes 7:25)? But how, specifically, did he discover it to be far from him (Ecclesiastes 7:26)? What does Ecclesiastes 7:27 introduce? How did his search for the truly righteous, truly wise man go (Ecclesiastes 7:28)? Why (Ecclesiastes 7:29)?

Who can be truly righteous? Ecclesiastes 7:16–29 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word read in the public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these fourteen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that Jesus is our only hope for righteousness that is according to God’s standard, in God’s strength, and unto God’s praise.

The construction in Ecclesiastes 7:16 is reflexive. The idea is not an overzealousness in the pursuit of true righteousness and wisdom, but righteousness and wisdom that are according to oneself, by oneself, for oneself. The sort of faux righteousness (verse 16a) and wisdom (verse 16b) that Jesus condemned in the Pharisees. It is not just the pursuit of such “righteousness” that would destroy you (verse 16c), but attaining it. Any righteousness that is according to our own standard is not true righteousness. Any righteousness that we can do in our own strength is not true righteousness. And any righteousness that we would do unto our own praise is not true righteousness.

Giving up on righteousness altogether (Ecclesiastes 7:18b) is not the solution. To do so—to give in to wickedness (Ecclesiastes 7:17a) and folly (verse 17b)—is also a recipe for self-destruction (verse 17c). Grasping (Ecclesiastes 7:18a) the futility of both self-righteousness and wickedness ought to drive us to the only solution: righteousness that is by the fear of God (verse 18c). 

Wisdom is immensely valuable (Ecclesiastes 7:19), and if there were anyone who could have achieved righteousness or wisdom, it would have been Solomon (Ecclesiastes 7:23, Ecclesiastes 7:25). But it’s not possible for the children of Adam; they all sin (Ecclesiastes 7:20). This is important to remember, when others sin against us (Ecclesiastes 7:21). If we forget that we are full of sinfulness ourselves (Ecclesiastes 7:22), then we may foolishly take to heart others’ sin against us. 

But, Solomon’s extreme effort (Ecclesiastes 7:25) to pursue wisdom in his own life fell short (Ecclesiastes 7:23c) due to his own sinful nature. God’s Word had warned against the hearts and hands of foreign women, but in his sinful nature, Solomon had pursued those hearts and hands, and found himself bitterly (Ecclesiastes 7:26a) ensnared and bound (verse 26b–e). His greatest efforts arrived at the conclusion (Ecclesiastes 7:27) that of all humanity, only one man (Ecclesiastes 7:28b), and zero women (verse 28c), achieve what Solomon pursued. And that man is not Solomon! Indeed, it is a Man Who is not subject to the fall of Adam. God created him in righteousness (Ecclesiastes 7:29b), but in his fall, all of mankind fell into depravity (verse 29c).

What are you aiming at with your life? How do you hope to get there? Whom do you hope will be glorified by it?

Sample prayer:  Lord, thank You for holding up to us the mirror of Your Word, so that we can see ourselves and our depravity in it. Truly, we have pursued our own standards, in our own strength, to our own praise. And, we deserve destruction. But, we praise and thank You, for Jesus Christ, that one Man Who is righteous. In Him, count us righteous, and from Him and His life, make us to live according to Your standards, in Your strength, unto Your praise. Thus, forgive us and cleanse us, we ask through Him, AMEN!

 Suggested songs: ARP1 “How Blessed the Man” or TPH457 “Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness”