Finish Well
Scripture:
A fool’s laughter is quickly gone, like thorns crackling in a fire. This also is meaningless. Extortion turns wise people into fools, and bribes corrupt the heart. Finishing is better than starting. Patience is better than pride. Control your temper, for anger labels you a fool. Don’t long for “the good old days.” This is not wise. Wisdom is even better when you have money. Both are a benefit as you go through life. Wisdom and money can get you almost anything, but only wisdom can save your life. Accept the way God does things, for who can straighten what he has made crooked? Enjoy prosperity while you can, but when hard times strike, realize that both come from God. Remember that nothing is certain in this life.
—Ecclesiastes 7:7–14 (NLT)
Yesterday Solomon called us to embrace sorrow as a refining force and to pursue wisdom over shallow living. Today he continues with a rapid-fire series of proverbs that are just as pointed. He opens with a warning about the corrupting power of money. Extortion turns wise people into fools. Bribes corrupt the heart. The implication is clear. Wealth is not neutral. In the wrong hands, or held with the wrong grip, it distorts judgment and erodes integrity. Solomon is not against money. He acknowledges that wisdom and money together are a genuine benefit. But only wisdom, he says, can save your life. Money opens doors. Wisdom knows which ones to walk through.
Then comes one of the most countercultural statements in the passage. Finishing is better than starting. Our culture celebrates the launch, the announcement, the bold beginning. But God honors the slow, unglamorous work of staying faithful when the novelty has worn off. Patience is better than pride. An uncontrolled temper labels you a fool. And longing for the good old days blinds you to what God is doing right now. These are not abstract principles. They are the quiet enemies of a life well lived, the small surrenders that accumulate into a wasted story.
“God in His love always wills what is best for us. In His wisdom He always knows what is best, and in His sovereignty He has the power to bring it about.”¹
— Jerry Bridges, Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts
Bridges puts into a single sentence what Solomon is building toward in his closing verses. Enjoy prosperity while you can, but when hard times strike, realize that both come from God. Nothing is certain in this life. That is not a pessimistic observation. It is a liberating one. It releases us from the illusion of control. It frees us from the exhausting project of trying to fix what God has allowed to be crooked. The wise person does not demand an explanation for every difficult season. They trust the character of the One who holds every season.
So the call of this passage is simple, even if it is not easy. Walk in wisdom, not in pride. Finish what you have started. Hold your prosperity loosely and your hardship without bitterness. And in both the bright seasons and the dark ones, trust the God whose love, wisdom, and sovereignty are working together on your behalf, whether you can see it or not.
Reflection:
- Solomon says only wisdom can truly save your life. In what area are you currently tempted to rely on money or worldly success rather than on God’s wisdom?
- Finishing is better than starting. Is there a long-term commitment where your patience is being tested and you are tempted to give up rather than faithfully persevere?
- What is one crooked situation in your life that you need to stop trying to fix on your own and simply trust to God?
Prayer:
Ask God for wisdom that lasts and the patience to finish well. Pray for a humble heart that trusts His sovereign hand in every season, and surrender any pride or anger that stands in your way.
Footnote:
¹ Jerry Bridges, Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1988).