“THE WORDS OF THE WISE”

D. L. Stewart

Ecclesiastes 9: 11, 13–16; 10: 5–7

We are reminded that the writer of this book, is “the Preacher, the son of David, king in.

Jerusalem” (see Ecclesiastes l: l). There is something unique about the place he has in the canon of Scripture. It speaks in the last chapter about

“The words of the wise … and the collections of them as nails fastened in ... given from one shepherd”. I thought that these three references are a collection of the words of the wise relating to what is under the sun. It is not exactly heavenly light but relates to what is down here. We have to take account of what is down here and as we do so rightly there is profit in it.

So we find in this scripture that things are not to the swift and not to the strong and not to the wise (as far as worldly wisdom and intelligence and knowledge are concerned). Spiritual things do not come that way; this verse would write off that side of things completely. We tend to be taken in by natural ability; we have been taken in by it; it is natural for us to be fond of it. These things appeal to us—the swift, the strong, the intelligent; but divine things do not come that way.

It says, “time and chance”. We cannot say much about chance in spiritual things, but the greatest possible importance is connected with time. God works with time. We are often reminded that God made time and uses time, and according to His own ways in the solving of matters so much depends upon God working, and we have to learn to give time to God to work. As we look back on history we wonder at the way time enters into God’s ways. Forty years in the wilderness; it did not need forty years to extinguish that generation; God could have done it in a day; but God takes time. Then the long time between Malachi and the incoming of Christ, four hundred years, and no scriptural record of anything that took place.

God takes time, uses time. Think of church history in the dark ages, the long period before the recovery; how much God uses time. We cannot help being reminded too about the book of Esther and Esther’s

feast. She invited the king and Haman and they come, and the king says, “What is thy request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be done”, Esther 5: 6. Esther had everything she needed at that moment, naturally speaking; she had the answer to all her requirements there and then, but she says, “Tomorrow”. We know that that night just gave time for God to work, and what a working took place! So how vital it is that we reckon on God working in His own way and in His own time. Nothing will be perfect unless it comes in that way.

So, to pass on briefly, we have the little city. How valuable our cities are! The divine viewpoint is here spoken of, “a little city”. It enters into the reckoning of this man of skill and divine wisdom, and our cities are meant to be miniatures of the heavenly city. One day all that is being worked out in time, and in God’s ways in time, and His ways with the assembly, and in our local assemblies, is going to take shape in permanency and be displayed in the world to come. All will declare the skill of divine workmanship. These features to be displayed then are to be current, and to be operating. As we think of the wall and the gates, and the street of pure gold (only one street), what features these are to work out in our localities; “In the midst of its street, and of the river, on this side and on that side, the tree of life”, Revelation 22: 2. ‘What delightful features these are, and the enemy is against them.

This “great king” would be against the appearance now of anything that spoke of what God has in mind to display in the city, and so we have the poor wise man who in his wisdom delivered the city. There is the need for wisdom in every city. Job asks, “But wisdom, where shall it be found?” (Job 28: 12). Where is this essential matter that is going to defeat the enemy’s objective and allow

scope for God’s operations city-wise? It is in the city that wisdom is to be found, the wisdom that is of God, which is first pure. James speaks of there being an abundance of it; we have only to ask and the answer to every problem, the answer to every question, is available. The feature of the poor wise man, of course, would be the feature of dependence. There is nothing here of man’s strength; the swift is not here, nor the intelligent and all that kind of thing. We need to covet and develop this feature in our cities and make room for it in whomsoever it may appear. But the poor wise man is not remembered—is despised. That feature does not appeal to the natural sensibilities. It speaks of Christ, of course, and the Spirit of Christ. We need to become appreciative of what God is working with in smallness and in weak conditions to bring about His own great results.

Then there is this other suggestion—“I have seen servants upon horses”. We have seen that, and we do not want to see it again. “The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong”.

Scripture speaks about the driving of Jehu, that he drove furiously; these are not the features we want to develop. It is very attractive to think of “princes walking as servants upon the earth”. The Lord has in mind that princely features should develop amongst us. It says in Psalm 45: 16, “Instead of thy fathers shall be thy sons; princes shalt thou make them in all the earth”. The Lord would dignify the saints in the enjoyment of sonship and bring out features of princeliness. “Walking as servants”; it is not the day for riding upon horses; that day is to come; there are going to be the armies of heaven; we tremble and we sorrow in one sense as we think of it; the day of grace over and the time of judgment, the time of riding on horses, on white horses (see Revelation 19: 14). Now is the time for walking as servants, in all

lowliness, following in the steps of Jesus. “Looking at Jesus as he walked”; John the baptist was enraptured as he saw the Son of God, here in lowly circumstances as a Bondman, walking upon the earth. Paul was minded to go on foot (see Acts 20: 13). May we be encouraged to make way for the development of these features and not be in relation to these other features of the swift and the strong and what is able naturally. May the Lord bless the word.

Word in meeting for ministry, London
12 February 1980