Excessive Righteousness

Passage: Ecclesiastes 7:15-29

Excessive righteousness.  That sounds like a strange title for a sermon.  After all didn’t Jesus say unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:20)?

Do Solomon and Jesus disagree, contradict each other?

Solomon continues to wrestle with how God has designed life under the sun to be a mystery.

Solomon has seen it all in his brief life under the sun.  Things what wisdom can’t make sense of.

He sees the inequity of things.  The good die young and the wick live long.  This is one of the mysteries of God’s sovereignty that is beyond finding out.  There are things that belong to God and God alone.

Wisdom can’t solve all the problems we face or answer all the questions we have.  Since wisdom can’t solve all problems, don’t go overboard, or be excessive in pursuing wisdom.

7:16 Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? 17 Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time?