The Shade of True Substance Text: Ecclesiastes 7:11-12
Introduction: Cans of Peaches and Can Openers
The book of Ecclesiastes is a profound gift to the Church, but it is a gift that many Christians leave on the shelf. They treat it like a philosophical puzzle box, full of strange and seemingly contradictory statements about the meaninglessness of life "under the sun." But this is to fundamentally misunderstand the Preacher. He is not a despairing nihilist; he is a seasoned, repentant, and wise believer looking at the world with both eyes open. He sees the smoke, the vanity, the endless cycles of toil and frustration, but he sees it all under the absolute sovereignty of a good God. And because he knows God is in charge of the smoke machine, he can teach us how to live joyfully within it.
The Preacher's message is that God gives His people not only blessings but the ability to enjoy those blessings. As I have said before, the blessings of this life are like cans of peaches. To the unbeliever, God may give a thousand cans of peaches, a warehouse full of them, but He withholds the can opener. And so the man sits amidst his riches, starving, miserable, and unable to taste the sweetness. To the believer, God gives the can of peaches and He gives the can opener. This ability to enjoy, this wisdom to rightly use and take pleasure in God's gifts, is itself the greater gift.
Our text today gets right to the heart of this. The Preacher is going to compare two very practical, tangible things: wisdom and money. In our materialistic age, we are constantly tempted to believe that money is the ultimate security, the final answer to our problems. But the Preacher, a man who had more wealth than we can imagine, is going to recalibrate our thinking. He is going to show us that while money has its place, it is a fleeting shadow. Wisdom, true biblical wisdom, is a shadow of a far greater substance, and it is the only thing that can truly preserve our lives.
The Text
Wisdom along with an inheritance is good
And an advantage to those who see the sun.
For wisdom is a shadow of protection as money is a shadow of protection,
And the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the lives of its masters.
(Ecclesiastes 7:11-12 LSB)
The Compounded Blessing (v. 11)
The Preacher begins by stating a compound good, a blessing stacked on top of a blessing.
"Wisdom along with an inheritance is good And an advantage to those who see the sun." (Ecclesiastes 7:11)
Notice the pairing here. "Wisdom along with an inheritance is good." He does not say that an inheritance by itself is good. We all know the stories of the lottery winner who is bankrupt and miserable a few years later, or the trust fund baby who squanders his family's generational wealth on folly. An inheritance without wisdom is a curse. It is a loaded gun in the hands of a toddler. It is a feast set before a man with no stomach to eat it. The money is just a tool, and a tool in the hands of a fool is simply a more efficient way for him to bring about his own destruction.
But when wisdom is present, an inheritance becomes what God intended it to be: a generational blessing. This is the biblical pattern. "A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children" (Proverbs 13:22). God's plan is covenantal and multi-generational. He wants fathers to work hard, save diligently, and build something that outlasts them. But the physical capital, the money and property, is meant to be a platform for the spiritual capital, which is wisdom. What good is it to leave your son a farm if you haven't taught him how to farm it? What good is it to leave him a business if you haven't taught him diligence, honesty, and the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of all wisdom?
So, wisdom with an inheritance is good. The wisdom knows how to steward the inheritance, how to multiply it, how to use it for the glory of God and the good of others. The inheritance provides the wisdom with the resources and opportunity to be effective in the world. This combination is an "advantage to those who see the sun." This phrase, "those who see the sun," is the Preacher's way of talking about our mortal life, our existence here under heaven. In this life, in this world of smoke and toil, having both the spiritual capital of wisdom and the financial capital of an inheritance gives a man a significant head start. It is a tangible blessing for the here and now.
Two Shadows and a Substance (v. 12)
In the next verse, the Preacher explains the nature of this advantage by comparing the protective qualities of wisdom and money.
"For wisdom is a shadow of protection as money is a shadow of protection, And the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the lives of its masters." (Ecclesiastes 7:12)
This is a brilliant parallel. He says that wisdom is a defense, a shade, a protection. And money is also a defense, a shade, a protection. The Hebrew word for "shadow" or "shade" gives the picture of seeking refuge from the scorching heat of the sun. In the ancient near east, shade was a life-saving commodity. Both wisdom and money can provide this kind of practical, temporal relief.
Money can certainly provide a kind of protection. If your roof is leaking, money can hire a roofer. If you are sick, money can pay for a doctor. If you are hungry, money can buy bread. It casts a shadow of protection over you from many of the immediate hardships of life. We are not Gnostics; we should not pretend that material provision is unimportant. It is a real blessing from God.
But notice, he calls it a "shadow." A shadow is not the substance. A shadow has no real being of its own; it is cast by something else. And a shadow is temporary. It moves with the sun. It disappears at night. The protection money offers is exactly like that. The stock market can crash. Thieves can break in and steal. A corrupt government can inflate the currency into worthlessness. A sudden medical crisis can wipe out a lifetime of savings. The shadow of money is a fickle and unreliable thing.
Wisdom, however, is also a shadow of protection, but it is a shadow cast by a far greater and more permanent substance: God Himself. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This wisdom protects you from the far greater dangers of foolishness, of sin, of rebellion against God. Money can buy you a better hospital bed, but wisdom can keep you from the lifestyle that landed you in the hospital in the first place. Money can pay your legal fees, but wisdom can keep you from the crooked dealings that got you arrested. Money can provide a temporary distraction from a guilty conscience, but wisdom, rooted in the fear of God, leads to repentance and a clean conscience before God and man.
And this leads to the concluding clause, which shows the ultimate advantage of wisdom over money. "And the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the lives of its masters." The word for "preserves the lives" is a strong one. It means to give life, to keep alive, to restore to life. Money cannot do this. Money can prolong a miserable existence, but it cannot give life. In fact, the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, which leads to death (1 Timothy 6:10). Jesus Himself asks the ultimate question: "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?" (Mark 8:36).
The fool who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous who trust in God will flourish like a green leaf (Proverbs 11:28). Wisdom is the can opener. It is the thing that allows you to properly use and enjoy the gifts of God, including money, without being destroyed by them. It preserves your life not just from temporal dangers, but from the ultimate danger of eternal death. It is the path of life.
The Wisdom of the Cross
As with all Old Testament wisdom, we must ultimately run this down to its fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul tells us that Christ Himself is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24, 30). He is the ultimate inheritance that we receive from the Father. In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3).
The world looks at the cross and sees the height of foolishness. It sees a dead man on a tree. It sees weakness and defeat. But to us who are being saved, it is the very power and wisdom of God. The cross is the place where the ultimate transaction was made. Our foolish, sin-squandered inheritance was exchanged for Christ's perfect, wise, and righteous inheritance. We bring our bankruptcy, and He gives us all the riches of heaven.
The protection that worldly wealth offers is a fleeting shadow. But the protection we have in Christ is an unshakeable substance. He is our refuge and our fortress. His righteousness is the shade that protects us from the burning heat of God's righteous wrath against sin. His blood has not just preserved our lives, but has purchased for us eternal life.
Therefore, the ultimate application of this text is to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Pursue Christ, who is true Wisdom. When you have Him, you have everything. If God then chooses to grant you an earthly inheritance along with this heavenly one, you will have the wisdom to steward it properly. You will hold it with an open hand, knowing that it is just a shadow, a temporary tool to be used for the glory of the one who is the substance. And if He chooses not to give you earthly riches, you will still be infinitely wealthy, for you possess the Wisdom that preserves your life, not just for your short time under the sun, but for all eternity.