Was Man Made Upright?

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Good morning B_,

Thanks for this question. You ask about:

“Ecc 7:29 Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

The sum of God’s Word certainly does show us that we were “marred in the Potter’s hand… shapen in iniquity and conceived by our good mothers in sin.” This 7th chapter of Ecc. demonstrates that this is a very bad translation of what Solomon actually said. Look at these verses in this chapter and ask yourself if all of this agrees with having been made upright?

Ecc 7:1 A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.

Solomon himself died an apostate. So how can this verse be true if Solomon were originally “made upright?”

Ecc 7:8 Better [ is] the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

If man were originally “made upright” and then dies in sin as all who lived before Christ did, then how can this verse be true? But of course the truth is that it is through patience that we are saved:

Luk 21:19 In your patience possess ye your souls.

We know that God is actually “calling light out of darkness,” and He has no intention of losing a single soul. That is His method. He is starting out with a “vessel of clay… an earthen vessel… corruptible flesh and blood,” and through that “body of death” he is bringing out a purified spiritual body.

1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Flesh “by nature… serves the law of sin.” It cannot do otherwise even in its very best state. Flesh is a “body of death.” Flesh is corruption, and therefore cannot inherit incorruption, be it the “corruptible body of this death of Christ, which did not want to go to the cross, or be it our flesh which does not want to go to the cross. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God because it is corrupt and dying.

Finally, look at this verse of Ecc 7:

Ecc 7:13 Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?

Well, now which is it? Did God originally make man upright, or has man been “made crooked?”

The apparent contradictions all disappear when we remember that Christ and His words never pass away and they are always is, was, and will be. That is the very character of Christ and His word:

Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Rev 1:4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace [ be] unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

Rev 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Ecc 7:13 Consider the work of God: for who can make [ that] straight, which he hath made crooked?

Rev 1:11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send [ it] unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

Rev 1:18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

Four times in this one chapter we are drilled with this truth, simply because Christ knows how easily we will tend to forget it. It appears another 8 time in this book of Revelation alone. Nothing is so oft repeated, and yet we still struggle to know and understand the depth of this Truth. It actually applies to every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Does this book of Revelation proceed out of the mouth of God? Of course it does. We are told so in the very first verse:

Rev 1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:

What does all of this have to do with Ecc 7:29?

Ecc 7:29 Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

It all makes perfect sense when, with the sum of God’s Word, we realize that ” God made man crooked,” and man cannot change that fact. But God is making man upright, and man is seeking out many inventions to prove that he doesn’t need His Creator, but the Truth is that even mankind’s efforts of pride and rebellion are all of God:

Pro 16:1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Eph 2: 2-3 show that we are all, originally, “by nature, children of wrath even as ohters.” But God is making straight that which He origninally made crooked and marred and in sin.

Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

I hope this helps you to see how Ecc 7:29 agrees with the sum of God’s Word. Let me know if you still have questions. It is the least I can do for all you have done.

Your brother in the Christ,

Mike

 

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