Rebuke from a wise man
[Ecclesiastes 7:5-7]
Have you ever heard of "pastor's disease"? About one or two weeks ago, I heard this phrase from a pastor for the first time. According to that pastor, we, pastors, have disease. And that pastor's disease was 'to teach others'. His intention seems to be that 'the pastor's disease is to teach others but does not listen to what others teach'. When I heard his words, there was nothing for me to say. That was because I agreed with him. When I see myself, I have that pastor’ disease. Although I didn’t want to get caught in this pastor's disease, I know I am. And I feel terrible because even though I am pursuing the spirituality of the wilderness and trying to listen to God’s voice through the meditating on the Word of God, I have the pastor’s disease. When I think about what’s wrong with me, the Pharisees in the New Testament came into my mind. And the thought that came into my mind was like Pharisees I was neglecting to teach myself as I was teaching my church members. What was the result? It was pride. And since I was proud, not only I wasn’t listening to God’s voice but also to the voice of people around me.
Few days ago, I meditated on the words of 2 Samuel 12: 7 at the Morning Prayer under the heading "You are the man." This Bible story we know well is the Prophet Nathan rebuking King David's sin. King David committed sins against God by sleeping with Bathsheba and found that the baby had conceived and attempted to cover up the sins, eventually leading to a murder of her husband Uriah, his own faithful soldier (v. 12). What King David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord (11:27). So the Lord sent Prophet Nathan and Nathan told him the parable of two men, the one rich and the other poor (12:1-4). When David heard the parable his anger burned greatly against the rich man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, surely the man who has done this deserve to die” (v. 5). David didn’t know that he was the one who deserve to die, maybe because he had covered his conscience while covering up his sins. At that time Prophet Nathan directly rebuked King David: "You are the man!" (v. 7) What a shocking rebuke? David himself had apparently never thought of himself that he was the one who deserve to die, but how surprised was that Prophet Nathan saying, "You are the man!" Won’t our conscience be shocked when the holy God exposes our sins and the Spirit rebuke us to the point that we are conscience-stricken?
In Ecclesiastes 7:5, King Solomon says: “It is better to heed a wise man's rebuke than to listen to the song of fools.” We had already meditated on Ecclesiastes 7:1-4 under the title “The living should take this to heart.” We were taught that we should ponder the fact that our destiny is death. And we learned that in order to think deeply we should go to the house of mourning rather than the house of feasting. So King Solomon told us in Ecclesiastes 7:4 that “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.” The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning because he can think about the destiny of everyone which is death. But the heart of the fool is in the house of meaningless and meaningless pleasure. King Solomon continues to talk about the wise in Ecclesiastes 7: 5-7. If Ecclesiastes 7:1-4 is talking about “the heart of the wise", then Ecclesiastes 7:5-7 is talking about "the rebuke of the wise." The voice that God tells us through today's text is 'Listen to the wise man's rebuke.'
Who would love to hear rebuke? Our sinful old instinct wants to be praised by people and doesn’t want to be rebuked. I personally have questions about Korean parents raising their children in my parents' time. One of the questions is why Korean parents keep on pointing out their children’s shortcomings instead of praising them for what good they have done. I still don’t understand this even though I know in my head that this is their way of loving us. I think it’s because I am so used to American parenting. The American-style child-rearing that I am referring to here refers specifically to parents praising their children. One day, I saw children playing soccer on TV. The scene that I still could not forget was that when a child couldn’t make a goal in front of the goal, an adult who looked like the child’s father standing on the sideline said 'Good job! Good job! "as he was clapping. If the father was Korean, I think he probably said ‘You couldn’t even make that goal? You stupid.’ When I went to see my son playing little league soccer, I saw the kids’ mothers were more frenzy these days as well as their fathers. It seemed to me the mothers were cheering and screaming more. Well, of course, I do not entirely agree with American parenting. I just think that in raising children we need both praise and rebuke. From this point of view, if we consider Ecclesiastes 7:5, the lesson that we should learn is it is better to heed a wise’s man’s rebuke than to listen to the praise of fools. Look at verse 5: “It is better to heed a wise man's rebuke than to listen to the song of fools.” What is "the song of fools" here? This refers to the "false comfort of the wicked" (Park Yun-sun). What King Solomon is telling us is to watch out for the false comfort of the wicked. Why should we beware of the false comfort of the wicked? The reason is written in verse 6: “Like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of fools. This too is meaningless.” In a word, the reason we should beware of the fool's song, the false comfort of the wicked, is that comfort is meaningless. King Solomon said that meaningless comfort is ‘like the crackling of thorns under the pot’ (v. 6). What does it mean? What do you think of the crackling of thorns? Don’t they make loud noises? But do they get the heat to boil the pot? The words "thorns" often refer to the wicked (2 Sam. 23:6; Nah. 1:10) (Jamieson). And the wicked who enjoys physical pleasure makes the sounds of comfort are false comfort. And it seems to be comforting for a moment, but it disappears quickly. There is no comfort. In a word, the comfort of the wicked is vain. Therefore, King Solomon teaches us that what we should listen to is not the song of the fool, but the rebuke of the wise.
This is what Proverbs 17:10 says: “A rebuke impresses a man of discernment more than a hundred lashes a fool.” A fool does not listen to a rebuke. If you rebuke the fool, he will hate you (9:8). So the Bible says to rebuke a wise because the wise will love you (v. 8). We should rebuke the wise in love because he will be wiser. Look at Proverbs 9:9 – “Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning.” Look also Proverbs 25:12 – “Like an earring of gold or an ornament of fine gold is a wise man's rebuke to a listening ear.” How precious is the listening ear? The ear that can hear the voice of God is very precious. When we listen to the voice of God, we should not only listen to his commands but also his rebuke. The reason is because God’s rebuke is useful to our souls (2 Tim. 3:16). Because we are rebuked by God, we no longer walk in the way of sin but repent and walk in the way of righteousness. That’s why Proverbs 27:5 says “Better is open rebuke than hidden love.” If we truly love our brothers, we must rebuke them in love. If God gives them wisdom, then they will receive our reproof and will repent and walk in the right way. The danger here, however, is that the wise man who is rebuking with love is not walking the right way. In other words, when the wise man neglects to teach himself, there is a risk that he himself will enjoy the song of the fool. This is what King Solomon said about that danger in Ecclesiastes 7:7 – “Extortion turns a wise man into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.” This means that the coveting mind is darkened and is not able to discern righteousness from unrighteousness (Jamieson). Actually, if the wise man is not faithfully rebuking himself while he does so to others, then there is a risk that he will be disturbed by the temptation of bribes to be stimulated by the rising covetousness of the mind. Look at Proverbs 17:23 – “A wicked man accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the course of justice.” So this is what the Bible Deuteronomy 16:19-20 says: “Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the LORD your God is giving you.”
We must humbly listen to the rebuke of the wise. I think, in this age, it is hard to find the beautiful ears in the eyes of God. In particular, I think we keep on rejecting the Holy Spirit God’s rebuke through the Word of God. So we don’t like the sermons that rebuke our sins. This reminds me 2 Timothy 4:3-4: “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” We need a mind-set like a psalmist. Look at Psalms 141:5 – “Let a righteous man strike me--it is a kindness; let him rebuke me--it is oil on my head. My head will not refuse it. Yet my prayer is ever against the deeds of evildoers.” We must consider the wise man’s rebuke in love as oil of our heads. Although rebuke is hard to hear at the time, we should take it as an opportunity to look back in silence when our consciences are stricken by the rebuke. When we hear God’s voice through the wise man’s rebuke, we should acknowledge, confess and repent our sins. And we should have right discernment to discern righteousness from unrighteousness and will be able to walk in the right path. Do you think that we Christians are walking the path of righteousness by discerning righteousness and unrighteousness with the right judgment? Do you think that the church is walking in the way of righteousness by obeying the Lord's words?
Today, I met a pastor and had lunch together and we had a lot of genuine conversation. Through the conversation with him, God taught me precious lessons and I got encouraged. Moreover, God gave me a gentle rebuke through the conversation with him. And when I was receiving the gentle rebuke from him, it reminded me someone I know. So after I say bye to him and on the way to my church by car I gave a phone call to that person and gave an apology. And I also made a confession of love to him. After I hang up the phone with him, my heart was moving. What is God trying to say to us this moment? What is his gentle rebuke to us, the church? Let’s look at Revelation 2-3. We can hear the words the Lord giving to the seven churches. Among the seven churches, only the Church of Smyrna and the Church of Philadelphia in the seven churches are praised, and the remaining five churches receive rebuke from the Lord with praise: (1) The Church of Ephesus: "Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love" (Rev. 2: 4), (2) The Church of Pergamum: "Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans." (vv. 14-15), (3) The Church of Thyatira: “Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling” (vv. 20-21), (4) The Church of Sardis: "To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you” (3:1-3), (5) The Church of Laodicea: "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” (vv. 15-17). How do you hear the Lord's rebuke to these five churches? What do you think is the word of reproach to our church? "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Rev. 2: 7, 11, 17, 29; 3: 6, 13, 22).