July 19 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Ecclesiastes 7:13–18

Devotional

“Be not righteous over much.” “Be not over much wicked.” These words are often misinterpreted. Many are happy to find these words in the Bible and they use this text to condone a sinful lifestyle. People have concluded that they should not be too righteous, meaning they should not be too strict and neither should they be too wicked. So, they conclude, a little wickedness would not be bad.

“Be not righteous over much.” “Be not over much wicked.” This text does not mean that we should not be too strict, nor too easy-going. Would God’s Word really teach something like that? Is it possible to be too obedient to God’s commandments and therefore be too righteous? Does Scripture teach that man is allowed to be a little worldly as long as he doesn’t become too wicked? It is clear that this cannot be the meaning of these words, for then Scripture would contradict itself. The Bible teaches that we can never be too righteous, and also that the smallest sin is already wickedness. Let us rather notice the context of these words. Whenever we take a text out of context we do injustice to the Word of God and harm ourselves.

The context of our text is clear. It deals with God’s providence and speaks of God’s guiding hand in the events of this world and in our personal lives. Verse 13 says, “Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?” Not a sparrow falls from a rooftop without the will of the heavenly Father. The hairs of your head are all numbered.

But when we take note of the ways along which God leads us or others, then question marks can arise. Questions can press on us especially in our personal lives. A storm can rage in the soul when the Lord leads along unexpected and undesired paths. There can be crooked ways in life that we cannot figure out. We read in verse 15, “There is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness.” We can ask, how is this possible? The righteous can have many difficulties in his godly life and the wicked can enjoy good things in his wicked life. The wicked man quietly lives in sin and reaches old age. How is it possible for God to permit this? Who can solve these questions?

Think of Joseph in the house of Potiphar. He ended up in prison. Why? Not because he had done wickedly, but because he had refused to sin. Is that not a strange guidance of God? Or think of Job. He was a man of whom God Himself said that he was perfect and upright. Without giving an account of His actions, God permits one calamity after the other to fall upon Job. Who can understand this? Job could not.

Sometimes it happens in life that our path suddenly curves. Then we must reduce speed and find that our thoughts and plans cannot be realized. Woe to the person who does not make the curve! He will perish. No one can prevail against God’s counsel. We cannot make straight what God has made crooked. Humanly speaking, we can ask: Is God not a hard God? Or even: Is there still a God in heaven? But see now the answer our text gives to these questions. “Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself overwise.... Be not over much wicked.”

Perhaps you cannot accept the fact that there is so much injustice in the world. If there is a righteous God in heaven, how is it possible that the godly experience adversity and the wicked prosperity? Imagine what it must be like when calamities enter your door. When we do not agree with God’s dealings, we are really saying that we would do things better. We would be more righteous and wise. Before we know it, we would thrust God from His throne and be in control ourselves. But then, instead of being below God, we place ourselves above God. This is to be “righteous over much and over wise.” The text is clear: “Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise.” We must heed to the warning not to grasp the reins out of God’s hands, thinking that we can be more righteous and wiser than God.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.