King Solomon was pretty smart. The Bible says that he was the wisest person ever to live (short of Jesus the Son of God). He is believed to be the partial author of 3 books of the Bible: Song of Songs, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. One of them is racy and the other two are filled with great wisdom. I’ll let you figure out which book is the racy one. (It is doubtful I will ever preach on that. If you read it, you’ll know why.)

I am struck by one particular passage in one of King Solomon’s books. The book is called Ecclesiastes. The word comes from the Greek and it means “Teacher” or possibly “Preacher.” There is no doubt that King Solomon is preaching about the meaning of life in this book.

Sometimes it seems King Solomon is mired in a mid-life crisis when he writes, “Meaningless, meaningless, utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!” and “For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.” You get a sense that he is rather unhappy that he is getting older.

However, there is this wonderful set of verses from Ecclesiastes 7:16-18 that should give everyone something to think about. . .

¹⁶Do not be overrighteous,
neither be overwise—
why destroy yourself?
¹⁷Do not be overwicked,
and do not be a fool—
why die before your time?
¹⁸It is good to grasp the one
and not let go of the other.
The man who fears God will avoid all extremes.

Wow. King Solomon says taking the middle path is the best path to be on. Don’t super over the top religious (in a bad sense) and legalistic. And on the other side don’t live by the seat of your pants and be a fool.

Somehow there is a balance between being “over-righteous” and “over-wicked.” Being in the middle of this continuum is where we should be. Avoiding extremes is good but it is hard.

Think about all the extreme stances people take today. Any more, you best not talk politics because a lot of people have adopted the approach of “you are either with me or against me.” Or even the attitude we bring to a lot of our own life, “It’s either my way or the highway.” We all have to watch what we eat because more is better, right? All doctors have said that “fad dieting” is bad because most of it is extreme.

Yet 3000 years ago, Solomon says walk in the middle. Don’t be extreme! Take the middle path that avoids religious extremism and legalism and don’t do whatever you want to do. Either one will kill you.

What is really interesting is that Jesus walked that middle path. He wasn’t a religious zealot yet he was the Son of God who was rejected by the over-righteous Pharisees. Jesus also wasn’t a fool. He didn’t do whatever he wanted. As a matter of fact, Jesus said that his mission was to do what the Heavenly Father wanted Him to do. Check out John 6:38.

Jesus stood in the center of extremism and asked people to come to him in the middle. He called sinners to know the love of God and change. He tried to educate the Pharisees on the actual will of God but they wouldn’t listen.

Standing in the middle is all about knowing to whom you belong. Knowing that there is nothing you can do to make God love you anymore and nothing you can do to make him love you any less. It’s not about being perfect and it’s not about doing whatever you want.

If Jesus stands in the middle maybe we should too. Let’s be kind to each other and avoid extremes.

God bless,
Pr. Ben