Ecclesiastes 7:11 Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun.
Have you ever played the little game where you are asked the question, “Which would you rather?” You know, which is better? Sometimes we play this negatively like, “Would you rather fall off a cliff or be out in the ocean without a life raft?” That is kind of silly because, no, I don’t want either one. But sometimes we say, “Would you rather have a gorgeous house or a beautiful car? Would you rather travel widely or have a hundred acres of your own?” We sometimes have thought to ourselves, “Which is better and which would I rather have?”
Last night we went to a grocery store called Fresh Market. It is a grocery store the same way a Ferrari is a car. It is kind of expensive. There are a lot of specialty items. It’s terrible, but I love the store. I want everything in there. There are special nuts, special coffees, special desserts, and special meats. It is all great. We went there as a treat, and while there my son said “You know, I’d like to be rich, not so that I could have a great house but so that I could buy whatever I wanted to eat.” I thought that was spoken like a true teenager. I thought, “Yeah, if I had a million dollars, I would buy everything I want in this store.” As we arrived back to our truck in the parking lot, a yellow 2015 Ferrari was parked next to our truck. It was gorgeous. In fact, the man who owned the car came out just as we were getting into our truck, and we had an interesting conversation.
Now, would you like to have a million dollars? Sure! Would you like to be wise? Well, who wouldn’t, but is anyone actually knocking themselves out to become wise or to have savvy for live? I would say that we are knocking ourselves out a lot more to make sure we have something to eat tomorrow and, better yet, to be fabulously wealthy next month, than we are spending effort to be wise. But, Ecclesiastes 7:11 says, “Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it [wisdom] there is profit to them that see the sun [those who live on this earth].” Wisdom is good with an inheritance.
There are a lot of get-rich-quick schemes, but there are no get-wise-quick schemes. So, you may have an inheritance in a day, but you won’t get wisdom that way. And, you won’t keep the one without the other. You won’t keep the riches without the wisdom. Wisdom is good with an inheritance. It is not that an inheritance is good with wisdom; it is that wisdom is good with an inheritance. Wisdom is better than wealth because you cannot keep the wealth or profit from the wealth without having the wisdom.
The next verse says, “For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence.” So, wisdom protects me from pitfalls I would otherwise experience in life and money may protect me from pitfalls I would otherwise experience in life. But it continues, “the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.” How can I ever enjoy my money without the good sense to do so? How can I keep my wealth in life without having the good sense to do so? How can I profit from my wealth without having the good sense to do so?
If you have a lot of money, you can see that as a gift from God and be grateful for it. If you do not have a great deal of money, you can be grateful to God that He has given what He has given. God knows that sometimes wealth or even health would ruin a person who otherwise is dependent upon God. Wisdom and wealth are both gifts, but wisdom is better than wealth because you cannot profit from the one without the other.