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Ecclesiastes 7:25-29 - Many Schemes

Chad Werkhoven

Watch out for the lady trying to seduce you!


 

Ecclesiastes 7:25-29


CONTEXT: The book of Ecclesiastes contain the life long wisdom of the Teacher, a character modeled after King Solomon, the wisest man to ever live. This passage is shocking at first, but as we view it in the context of the Proverbs Solomon wrote, it will begin to make much more sense.


25 So I turned my mind to understand,

to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things

and to understand the stupidity of wickedness

and the madness of folly.


26 I find more bitter than death

the woman who is a snare,

whose heart is a trap

and whose hands are chains.

The man who pleases God will escape her,

but the sinner she will ensnare.


27 “Look,” says the Teacher,  “this is what I have discovered:

“Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things—


28 while I was still searching

but not finding—

I found one upright man among a thousand,

but not one upright woman among them all.


29 This only have I found:

God created man (ʾā·ḏām) upright,

but they have gone in search of many schemes.”

 

Canons of Dordt

Point 1 - God's Unconditional Election


5 - The Sources of Unbelief and of Faith


  • The cause or blame

    • for this unbelief,

    • as well as for all other sins,

    • is

      • not at all in God,

      • but in man.

  • Faith in Jesus Christ, however,

    • and salvation through him

    • is a free gift of God

 

Summary


At first glance, this passage seems to be full of the misogyny and sexist attitudes that so many people think the Bible is full of. So let's begin here by addressing the elephant in the room: no, the Teacher is not disparaging women as a whole in this passage. With that out of the way, we can begin to make some sense out of it.


This passage comes at the end of a section in which the Teacher grapples with the frustrating fact that so often the wicked prosper while the righteous suffer. Ultimately, the Teacher knows that the wicked will get what they have coming, so remaining in sin and wickedness is foolish. But the Teacher wants to understand why so many people persist in the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.


Enter the woman who is a snare. The book of Proverbs, which is comprised mostly of Solomon's collected writings, features two primary female characters. One of these is Lady Wisdom, the lady man ought to pursue. The other is Lady Folly, the woman the Teacher has in mind here, who continually snares men with her seductive schemes.


After long investigation, the Teacher identifies the root of the world's problems, and as our Canons explain, it's not God's fault that things are the way they are. God created man upright, but they have gone in search of many [of Lady Folly's] schemes.




  Dig Deeper 


Let's dwell on the Teacher's conclusion a bit longer. Notice the switch from the singular man to the plural they. The Bible identifies the first man, Adam, as the one who introduced sin into the world. Although Adam stood before God pointing his finger at the woman who 'snared' him and the serpent, the rest of us are quick to point our fingers back at Adam, as if all of the world's subsequent problems are his fault.


But the Teacher reminds us here that all of us have compounded and increased the sin Adam introduced by going in search of many schemes. Notice that we can't even blame Lady Folly for her seduction - we actively go in search of her schemes just as much as she comes looking for us.


The Teacher was unable to find one upright woman among them all. Certainly, the Teacher is being hyperbolic here; this passage does not teach that women are inferior to men. It refers to the exhaustive search King Solomon made for an upright woman, marrying and taking in hundreds of women, a search that ultimately caused his downfall (1 Kings 11:3). All of them, to one degree or another, was less than upright and pulled him away from God (again, this reflects the sinful condition of humanity as a whole, not just women).


But even our pessimistic Teacher mentions a glimmer of hope. He teaches us that the man who escapes Lady Folly pleases God. In all of human history, there has only been one upright man who successfully resisted her seductions. That man, of course, is your Savior, Jesus Christ.



  • ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who is pleased with those who escape Lady Folly;

  • ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will realize the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly;

  • ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

 

Read the New Testament in a year! Today: Acts 4

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