The Book of Ecclesiastes - Part 8

The Church of God is great brethren in a way, but in another way it's very small, very humble, and we know that we have to persevere through the trials of this world, as we were just told in the message right before. And frankly, that has a lot to do with what we've been talking about here as well, is enduring these trials and going through all these things, and what is it all about, and why do we have to go through this? What is it for? I do want to continue in Ecclesiastes.

Doing these sermons really has helped me to push through this book in a way I don't think I would have been able to if I wasn't doing the sermons. It's just because number one, I'm doubling up on the work, but also I have this voluminous amount of material that when I go to sit down to try to write this, it's just so daunting that I almost can't do it. And so going through it like this, it just presses me to move through it, and it's very helpful. So I end up being able to marshal all these things into what I'm doing, but just coming at it as a big thing, it's very daunting. And again, I mean, it's interesting because, of course, Messages has been given on this book that are quite brief. I mean, one sermon maybe, or even just touched on. I remember we had an article, I think, in Vertical Thought that covered the book of Ecclesiastes. And that was at a time that I was already delving into Ecclesiastes, and I was thinking, wow, it's neat to be able to write one article, like a two-page article in the entire book of Ecclesiastes. But, of course, that gives you just a big overview of what it's about. And it's important that we have that overview to be able to understand the minutia of the book, the detail of what it's actually going through. It's a very interesting book, though, because, as I've mentioned before, the challenge of it is actually understanding kind of the process of the argument. Why is he saying all the things that he's saying? Why is he going through a number of these things? And there have been various outlines proposed for the book. The one that we're going through based on Dr. Walter Kaiser, I think, is a very good one. We don't agree, I don't agree, at least with him, in every respect of his argument either. But I think the overall outline is a very good way to structure the book, and so I've definitely wanted to follow that. But I will tell you about a difference of what he concludes about a section today when we come to that. But first of all, I want to get back into where we were, because I don't want to take too much time to review. I know that maybe not all of you have been able to follow along where we've been, but the sermons are up there, I think. And I think this is fairly easy to catch on to this, and so I'm just going to try to get right back into this where we were. Where we were was in chapter 7, and I don't know if you remember this, but basically we ended a section in chapter 7 and verse 15 where Solomon says, I have seen everything in my days of vanity. There's a just man who perishes in his righteousness.

There's a wicked man who prolongs life. It is wickedness. What's that about? Why the good die young and the bad go on? And it's a very sad state of affairs in this world. But he's making the point, and he just made the point, that adversity is not necessarily so bad. God gives adversity as well as prosperity, and things don't always go the way you think they're going to go.

They, you know, God is going to surprise you. That's the way he's set up with his life. I mean, it has to be this way for our benefit. If he just gave us everything on a silver platter, we would not do so well, especially in the state that we're in and what we're trying to accomplish here, that would not sit well with us. But at the same time, I mean, God didn't put us here to torture us either. He's put us here because he loves us and he wants us to turn into what he is, which is amazing. I mean, if you really think about what he's really doing with us and his intention with us, it's the most giving thing imaginable, that he gives us all that he has.

We've said this in our Destiny book, that he gives us all that he has, and he gives us what he is.

I mean, that's what he is giving to us, and so much to be grateful about in that regard, brother.

It's just absolutely astounding. But getting back into this, we had covered also these verses after verse 15. Moving into this next section with a very strange statement about verse 16, do not be overly righteous, do not be overly wise, and why should you destroy yourself?

And I had concluded from looking at that that this is most likely talking about being too righteous in your own eyes and overly wise in your own eyes, to the point where you're judging God for being unfair. You're able to say, oh, you know, God's not doing this right.

And in that, you know, setting yourself up as the just one, so to speak, that you are also righteous. And this is absolutely not what we need to do. We need to be humble and realize that God knows what he's doing. You know, Job had this whole experience where he had take God to trial, basically, and God put a stop to that. And Job was better for it in the end, even though he had erred in believing that there was some unfairness going on there somehow with God, of not, you know, with him, because he there was some mistake, because wasn't he righteous, and he shouldn't have to go through all this. But God knows better what we need, better than we do. We don't know what we need to go through for our own sakes.

We don't know what will happen tomorrow that may lead us to think a certain way. But God does in many respects, and so he prepares us for whatever may come. And he's preparing us for his kingdom and for eternity with him, and that's an awesome thing to contemplate and to think about.

But then, also, I want to get now back into this, because then it says also, you know, another reaction. One reaction is, oh, I'm going to set myself up as righteous. God's not fair. But then the other reaction is, well, if it doesn't matter, I'm just going to go complete evil.

I'm just going to be lawless. I don't care if the righteous perish and the wicked prosper.

Let me be wicked. You know, God says, no way. That's bad, too. You know, don't be overly wicked, verse 17, nor foolish. Why should you die before your time? We're going to see more about that here. Why should you die before your time? Because that's leading to an early death. That's what it's saying. You are going to bring calamity on yourself if you go that way. That is not the answer. You think, well, these people out here are doing bad and they're getting along. But not ultimately. And who knows, at any moment, life could be over for them. And if you're going to go that way, life could be over for you. And remember, Jesus said even about people out in the world that were not necessarily even righteous or wicked, but they were just going about their business and bad things happened. The Tower of Solomon fell, you know. Unless you repent, he said, you will likewise perish. If you're part of this world system, you're in jeopardy. And we don't, any of us, want to be in that position. We want to be in the position where we are serving God in His way. And if calamity befalls us, it's not in this random way that happens to the world. It's because God is still overseeing our lives and preparing us for whatever He has ready for us. So that's encouraging to think about that as we think about all the things that we have to endure at this time.

But anyway, it says here in verse 18, it's good that you grasp this and also not remove your hand from the other. And what it's talking about is there's both these principles. You know, you're not to set yourself up as all righteous and wise, but you're not to turn to complete immorality either. And you got to hold on to both of these things and not remove your hand from the other.

For He who fears God will escape them all. If you are a God-fearing person, if you have a proper fear of God, and again, we've discussed this as a holy, reverential, cautious awe before God, who has all control and all power, He loves you very much, but God's not one to be trifled with.

And it's not like, you know, God's a hothead where you set Him off, but we need to realize who we're dealing with, the God of the universe who made all things. He has all power. And He is someone who, you know, God says that we are to tremble at His Word and to have respect for this great power that is His, and also the depth of His love and His plan and all that He is working out.

And, you know, we may think we're getting away with something with God, but we're not.

That's what you remember, always. God is aware. And we'll talk about that a little bit more here as we go too. But we have to have this proper fear of God, and if we do, we're not going to be in either of those positions. We're not going to be in, sit in judgment of God as being unfair, and we're not going to, and thinking ourselves so superior and wise, and we're also not going to go all out immoral, because we're going to be restrained by that fear, proper fear that we have.

And then we're going to move on to where we haven't been yet in the message, and I'm going to take a drink here before I do. And that is in verse 19, is the next part. So, looking, you know, looking to this counsel that has just been given is true wisdom. And this next verse, you know, another proverb shows its value. It says, wisdom strengthens the wise more than 10 rulers of the city, or actually, rulers there in the King James is mighty men, more than 10 mighty men. Some see a governing counsel here, thinking of multiple rulers, but recall that David had mighty men who fought for him as a group of powerful men served to defend a city. So does a wise person's use of his wisdom strengthen him in vital ways, in numerous ways. That's the idea of you've got numerous mighty men out here. This recalls the mention of wisdom as a defense in verse 12. You might look back up there for wisdom is a defense, a shield, as you know, you're in the shadow of wisdom, as money is a defense, but the excellence of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to those who have it. It's a defense that gives life. And so we see how valuable it is still mentioned right here. Indeed, true wisdom, not propping oneself up as wise, is crucial to governing the self, to navigating interaction with others. For no one is perfect. We must understand this. Everyone sins as Solomon is going to say down in verse 20. Just so we can skip ahead, there's not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. We heard that in Romans 2. This is something also that Solomon said in 1 Kings 8 46 when he was given the dedicatory prayer at the temple. He said, there's no one that doesn't sin. And that's why they needed to be able to look toward God's temple and seek forgiveness. He also stated there the need for repentance and supplication before God.

As pointed out earlier, none of us are entitled to a blissful, problem-free life. See, that's one of the ideas. You think, well, we're not deserving of these bad things. Well, actually, we're not deserving of anything good, frankly, because we've all been in rebellion against God in various ways.

Every single one of us all have sinned. What we actually deserve is the penalty for sin, misery, and death, because we all sin. And whatever life and blessing we have is through God's grace and mercy. We're very thankful for that. The proof? What's the proof? Well, he gives some right here. Let's look at verses... the next verse is here. In verse 21, we see in verse 22, he says, Also, do not take to heart everything people say, lest your heart...

excuse me, lest you hear your servant cursing you. For many times also your own heart has known that even you have cursed others. So Solomon gives a simple, common example, which is likely proverbial. This is probably a proverbial saying, maybe one that he made up or one that he gathered from elsewhere. Of not getting too bent out of shape about others, even those you trust, bad mouthing you behind your back, as you know that you've done the same thing. That's what he says. We all have. It's amazing. He gives this example that everybody goes, yeah, I know, yeah, everybody has to admit. We should also note the value of wisdom here and not taking everything too grievously as a way to weather the common difficulties of this life. Remember, part of what Solomon is doing also is how do we endure this? How do we get through this? And one way is not to get so bent out about things like this. And this is a quote from the preaching the word commentary that I think is very good about this. It says, sooner or later, we are bound to overhear somebody saying something about us that may be unkind or untrue. Usually, our first reaction is to get angry.

What we ought to do instead is to let it go, realizing that it was never intended for us to hear anyway and may well have been spoken in a moment of weakness or misjudgment. It is foolish for us to eavesdrop. And then it quotes here the 17th century philosopher Blaise Pascal, who said, if all men knew what each said of the other, there would not be four friends in the world.

I thought that was pretty true and accurate. Then we come here to verses 23 through 25. So let's look at this. This is where Solomon's going to continue on here. He says, all this I approve by wisdom. I said, I will be wise, but it was far from me. And he said, as for that which is far off and exceedingly deep, who can find it out? I applied my heart to know, to search and seek out wisdom and the reason of things, to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness. He really wanted to understand this. And he writes that he proved or he tested other translate all this by wisdom. In the face of life's difficulties, he determined to be wise and get to the bottom of it. But he found the answers to be too far out of reach, coming to see that there is no way to figure it all out. In verse 25, he mentions his seeking to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness, as we saw some of his pursuit in this regard in the first two chapters of the book. He uses some of the same wording here of what he was doing. And we know that he went about this in a very bad and wrong way, I mean in respects. But he did try to evaluate everything that he was going through and make sense of it all. And it was too far out of reach. It just was beyond grasp to really get this in the way that he wanted to. And verse 26 shows where his course took him. It says, and I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be trapped by her. What is he talking about here? I mean, think about this. I went to the far reaches of trying to figure this out, and here's what I found out. The women who are traps and bring death. You know, there are a few possibilities. Considering that he just mentioned coming to know the wickedness of folly, the woman described in verse 26 could be a personification of that.

Earlier in the prologue of the book of Proverbs, in chapters 1 through 9, especially in chapter 9 there, Solomon presented just such a personification, contrasting folly and wisdom as two women.

It is not unreasonable that he would return to that industry in a discussion of these two ways of thinking and acting. However, there is nothing of that in Ecclesiastes so far that would make it such a thing clearer. So it may be that Solomon is speaking of an actual woman, or a plurality of particular women in his experience. That makes perfect sense when we think about what happened in Solomon's life. His many wives led him away from God to the point of building pagan shrines for them and participating in idolatrous worship. We read that in 1 Kings 11. Now, it's hoped, I hope, that Solomon at last came to his senses with Ecclesiastes being a repudiation of his former apostasy. I mean, you don't read that in 1 Kings 11. You just read that he apostatized and did these bad things. But we have Ecclesiastes. He talks about old age a little bit later in the book, and I do believe that this was his coming to his senses and laying this out for the nation and for posterity. That he finally repudiated his former apostasy. But another possibility regarding Ecclesiastes 7.26 here is that Solomon is speaking generally of the danger of being destroyed through enticement to sexual immorality or simply being pulled into a toxic pairing, as he also would have seen in observing others, not just his own case. Or, furthermore, he could have been speaking of all of the above. Maybe he was. Maybe it's all of this, kind of rolled into one, with this metaphoric and actual picture here going on at the same time. Let's look now at verses 27 through 28, because this gets a little bit maybe more confusing. He says, here is what I found, says the preacher. Think about this. He's gone through all this examination and he's sort of laying out what he's discovered. Here's what I've found, says the preacher, adding one thing to the other to find out the reason which my soul still seeks, but I cannot find. One man among a thousand I have found, but a woman among all these I have not found.

So, Solomon makes a disturbing statement here regarding his search for wisdom and understanding.

It seems he was looking for a wise or righteous person who did not disappoint him.

We should not take this as some kind of measure of the spiritual caliber of men versus women in an overall sense. This was Solomon's personal experience. The general takeaway from the statement is that such was rare among either gender. He just doesn't find these kind of people he was saying.

One man among a thousand could refer to a single man among those Solomon knew well, or it could refer to a handful of men among the nation, among several thousand in that sense.

Consider that Solomon knew a few godly men such as his father David, the prophet Nathan, Asaph the Seer. So, of course, none of these were perfect, but if he's thinking of upright, honest men, maybe he would find a few. And maybe even among some of the troops that he had, who knows? I don't know what he found. Solomon finding no women would mean that of his harem of a thousand, 700 wives and 300 concubines, none were godly. It's kind of interesting to read about Solomon there and some of the way we understand that. But the Bible presents a number of righteous women. I mean, we know that it does. But apparently, and this is a quote from the preaching the word commentary, apparently the preacher king who wrote Ecclesiastes did not know any women like that, which is what a man gets for trying to love a thousand godless women.

He's absolutely terrible. Now, we will see that he does mention living joyfully with one's wife positively in Ecclesiastes 9-9. And recall that he ended the book of Proverbs with the description of the virtuous wife, Proverbs 31, 10-31. But sadly, he did not experience this with his vast harem.

This was a great tragedy. Solomon then declares in the next verse here, verse 29, regarding both men and women, truly, this only have I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

The last word here also rendered devices, referring to ways to do wrong. That's what we're talking about. The word for man here, as at the end of chapter 6, is Adam. You know, I reference again to man's original creation in the Garden of Eden. Man in the image was made in the image of God with no sin. And so Adam was initially upright, that is, morally innocent and doing as God said.

While he had not yet developed righteous character, as there was as yet no testing of resolve, the scripture here shows that he was not neutral in terms of morality either, as God had made him to do right and reinforce that by instruction. So Adam naturally obeyed at first, as did Eve. That's how they were made. They were made to do the will of God. That's why he made us.

But when a test of that morality came, with stark temptation to disobey God, they sinned.

Man's nature became corrupted under the influence of Satan, and all mankind's sense has gone astray, with people devising ever more ways to do evil. Now this isn't in my notes here, but you might remember it got to the point at the time of the flood that God said the thoughts of man's hearts were only evil continually. These were people that lived for hundreds of years. I mean, living hundreds of years was bad. That's why he cut the lifespan. You know, why did God shorten the lifespan?

Because people get so bad. They lived that old, and they're going on for that long a time, and there gets to be so many people doing so many bad things. So he started over, you know, with Noah and his family. But then it's progressed and gotten bad again. Not to that degree, maybe, but we're getting to these terrible times of the end time that are described in prophecy. Thankfully, God is in the process of recreating the human race through the last Adam. That's what Jesus is called in 1 Corinthians 15, 45. He is the last Adam, and in that sense, he's the progenitor in a sense of a new race. Now, the father, of course, is the father, but it's through Christ as a new Adam that God makes a new humanity, a new human race, a renewed human race. Through him, we can become and remain upright. It's awesome, this plan that God has through Christ.

Recall the context here of some thinking. We look at this. This is the end of a subsection here.

The context of some thinking God unjust in not bringing swift punishment on evildoers, and not bringing instant relief and reward to themselves, along with other good people.

Again, those of this mind are not considering the punishment that they themselves deserve every day.

For we all often commit some sin, at least in thought, if not in word and deed. All of us have contributed to the world's problems. As the Holman Old Testament commentary states, we ought to be more humble and therefore accurate in our self-assessment.

Early 20th century Christian writer and philosopher G.K. Chesterton said, well, he was a good example, it says, of this, in answer to the question, what's wrong with the world? Chesterton said, I am.

And we all need to be able to say that. What's wrong with the world? We all are. We've done this.

Now, we have not been alone in it. We've been corrupted by an evil being.

But we bear responsibility and have to seek forgiveness.

And thankfully, we are able to receive forgiveness from God and be reckoned as righteous before Him. But it's stated this is by His mercy through His plan of salvation. And those of us who've been forgiven should also be thankful that God did not destroy us while we were reckoned as sinners, but instead led us to repentance and continues to do so when we fall short, as He will yet do for others. And we can say to God be the glory about that, because absolutely, we will be lost. And rightfully so, for where we've been. But God has a plan to redeem us and save us.

And I'm going to move into the next subsection here of chapter 8, verses 1 through 15.

And I've titled this section, Wisely Enduring Through Man's Rule. Wisely Enduring Through Man's Rule. So we come now to the last part of the major subsection that began in chapter 6, dealing with explaining and applying the plan of God in light of it seeming to be unfair.

So that's what we've been going through. And we've seen that what we might assume to be for the best or worst is not necessarily so. That was in 6.1 through 7.15. That everything that's bad is not necessarily the worst thing that can happen. And everything that's good, or what you think of as good, is not necessarily the best thing that can happen to us. God knows we don't. So we saw that, and we also saw that all bear part in the world's problems, with no one being innocent and deserving of trouble free life. We saw that in chapter 7. We just finished that 16 through 29.

Now, in chapter 8, Solomon tells us to exercise wisdom and righteousness, which he's been giving the value of those, but he now tells us to exercise wisdom and righteousness to help reduce and manage problems in many cases, to maintain proper perspective, and to find joy in life and ultimate reward from God. So I'm going to say that again, because I think as we go through, I want you to keep these various factors in mind that I just said, that he's going to tell us to exercise wisdom and righteousness, to help reduce and manage problems in many cases, to maintain proper perspective, and find joy in life and ultimate reward from God. That's a big conclusion to this section, is getting into these themes that he's going to talk about right now. So first of all, here, verse 1, let's look at it. It says, Who is like a wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man's wisdom makes his face shine, and the sternness of his face is changed. You see that? That means something more than what it says on the face of it. We're going to go through this a little bit.

This certainly ties back to the previous two sections. You know, they were extolling wisdom, and here it's extolled again. And in these previous two sections, we were told that wisdom is a defense that gives life, and that it strengthens those who have it. We saw that in chapters 7, 11-12, and verse 19. Now, some put chapter 8, verse 1 here, with the previous subsection, but it rather seems to be in answer to all of the previous dilemma, ending with the bleak, sinful condition of man at the end of the last chapter. And it's funny, because he was even talking there about pursuing this with his wisdom and trying to figure it out, but he can't. But then he comes down and says, who is like a wise man? Who's getting this? The wise man is able to interpret all of this in a proper framework, gaining a vital sense of what God is working out despite not being able to grasp the reason for all the challenging details. We're not going to figure all of this out, but wisdom helps us anyway, because we know in a general sense what God is working toward for everybody and in our lives. And we know that whatever happens is aiming toward that. You know, as the end of verse 1 tells us, this wisdom, this is a quote from Walter Kaiser, can dispel the gloom and brighten man's otherwise hard looks. The change of face here also reflects a new face on the problems previously discussed. There is a serenity that comes with things starting to make sense and with trusting that God knows what he's doing when things still don't seem to make sense. That's what we have to have. We have to have this general awareness of God's overall plan, and we just have to trust God, and that he's able to do what needs to be done to work it all out. This is vital, and then we can have this change of face that is described here. The next set of verses concern following kingly authority, human government, as a matter of life and death. Let's look at these verses here. It says, I say, keep the king's commandment for the sake of your oath to God. Do not be hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand for an evil thing, for he does whatever pleases him. Where the word of a king is, there is power. And who may say to him, what are you doing? Or what do you think you're doing? He who keeps his command will experience nothing harmful, and a wise man's heart discerns both time and judgment, because for every matter there is a time and judgment, though the misery of man increases greatly. For he does not know what will happen, so who can tell him when it will occur? No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit, and no one has power in the day of death. There is no release from that war, and wickedness will not deliver those who are given to it. All this I have seen, and applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun. There is a time in which one man rules over another to his own hurt, which is not exact correct translation. We'll go back through all this, following what the meaning here is.

But Dr. Walter Kaiser, whose overall outline we've been following, describes the chapter 8 subsection here as follows. This is the way it is on the outline that I handed out to you. It says, the removal of a large proportion of the apparent inequalities in divine providence come from righteous government. This summary, however, does not appear to be quite accurate. So this is a disagreement I have with with Kaiser in this sense.

There is no specific reference to the government being righteous here, and the verses appear to end with the problem of human rule doing harm. We'll return to that here in a minute.

Moreover, rarely has human government been righteous. And recall that this comes on the heels of Solomon presenting humanity as corrupt in chapter 7. People are so corrupt. That means if they get together and form a government, it's all of a sudden righteous. It doesn't mean that.

People are so corrupt in the governments that they form are corrupt. Furthermore, the verses in chapter 8 do not seem to speak of human government rectifying problems so much as us taking care to not run afoul of government. That's what's really, actually, I think being talked about here. Of course, it is true that human government has been established by God as a check against total lawlessness, as the apostle Paul explains in Romans 13.

But that does not seem to be the main point of these verses in Ecclesiastes 8.

Solomon says in verse 2, notice this here, we'll go back through, I say, keep the king's commandment for the sake of your oath to God. First of all, he says to keep the king's command, not my command. He's the king. He's thinking to keep my command. He'll say that.

This is because the instruction referred to obeying the king in general, whoever he was, or to obeying whatever human authority was in power. And, you know, needing to give such instruction without any self-serving appearance could be part of why Solomon referred to himself as the preacher throughout the book rather than as the king. Because if he's just, I'm the king, obey the king, that sounds kind of, you know, something in his favor. That's not what he's really trying to communicate there. Note that the obedience to the king is, in the same verse, for the sake of your oath to God. Now, perhaps some type of pledge of allegiance to the king or kingdom among the general populace was customary at that time. Or it could be that all the men of Israel took an oath as part of the nation's military. Or possibly the reference is to a general promise to obey God with this including the requirement of following Israel's divinely appointed king. Or maybe even any nation's ruler, since as Paul later points out in Romans 13, which says that all the governing authorities are there by God, that all the governing authorities are empowered because of God and are to be obeyed except where there is a conflict with God's law which must come first. We're told that in Acts 5.29 we must obey God rather than men.

But where there's not a conflict, we must obey human government in that sense.

Now, the mention of an oath to God may bring to mind the need to follow through on vows to God in Ecclesiastes 5. I might flip back over there real quickly. Remember, in Ecclesiastes 5, it was talking about, walk prudently when you go to the house of God and not to offer the sacrifice of fools. Don't be rash with your mouth, says in verse 2, and it says, verse 4, when you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it.

Verse 5, better not to vow than to vow and not pay. Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin, verse 6. Don't be full of unrighteousness in making promises that you're not going to keep. And it's interesting because then here, we're in this section that's giving us something. It's different, but I think there's a tie in here. Now, recall that chapter 5 was the first instance of direct exhortation in the book, telling us to be careful in our approach in coming to worship God, the one in whose hands our lives are and who can help us through the present difficulties.

So you don't want to do things against God. That's going to be bad. And you want to be in line with God. God will help you. That's good.

It improves our situation in life and keeps us from ways that would make things worse for ourselves. If you're going to run a fowl of God, you're going to hurt yourself. That's not what you want to do. Now, chapter 8 is similar.

For the time being, we are subject to human rule, and we should respect and follow that rule with the benefits of doing so. There are benefits in adhering to being a law-abiding citizen, that is, and the avoidance of an approach that will bring more troubles on us than would otherwise ensue. So we think about, you know, we're having a hard time in life. You start becoming a lawbreaker, and you're going to have a worse time. This is not going to be good. The apostle Peter likewise tells us to be careful regarding both divine and human authority.

He says in 1 Peter 2, 17, fear God, honor the king. Both of those things are there, and both of those things are here in Ecclesiastes. Fear God, honor the king. That's going to make life a lot easier for you in both respects. As I said, we're, you know, making things easier in some respects, where you can benefit from these things or keeping you from harming yourself worse by running a fowl of these things. Now, the first part of Ecclesiastes 8.3 tells us not to be quick to leave the ruler. You see here, don't be hasty to go from his presence.

To go from someone's presence, the Tyndale commentary says, elsewhere signifies disaffection or disloyalty. Thus, the preacher warns against the capricious desertion of one's post. In fact, you can flip over and look at chapter 10 and verse 4 here.

He's going to later say, if the spirit of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your post, for conciliation pacifies great offenses. In other words, your reaction even to something like that, unless it became extreme, obviously, you know, if he's pursuing your life like Saul was pursuing David's life, you had to get out of there. But the immediate reaction to the boss isn't happy with you or the government has got some problem with you, is not to bail.

Do what you can. Pursue peace with all people. I mean, this is what we're all to do. So he warns against desertion of one's post there and against persistence in any disloyalty. The second part of verse 3 in chapter 8 says, do not take your stand for an evil thing, for he does whatever pleases him. Now, the phrase translated evil thing could mean a bad thing in a more general sense. Some see it as a worthless cause or a calamitous outcome or anything that the king would not like.

But if moral evil is in view, and it may be in view here, perhaps the sense is becoming a civil lawbreaker, like I was just talking about. Romans 13 speaks of rulers executing wrath on evildoers. That's why God has put them there. This would also seem to tie into the mention of wickedness in chapter 8 verse 8.

That is not where it says that. It said wickedness in...

Well, it's going to say it right here following that.

The end of verse 8. Sorry, it does say that. Wickedness will not deliver those who are given to it.

The beginning of verse 5 says that the person who keeps the king command will experience nothing harmful. This does not mean nothing bad will ever happen to the person. You'll obey the king, nothing bad will happen to you. Nor does it mean the person will be afforded protection by the government, though the person well may, as all do to some extent. We're all protected by the police in that sense. But really the meaning here is that the prudent, law-abiding citizen will receive no punishment from the government, at least generally speaking. The message here is, do your best to stay out of trouble. That's what this is really saying. If you go along with the king, if you don't...

rock the boat, so to speak, and get yourself in trouble, you're not going to get punished.

Yet the New Testament talks about us leading a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness.

And there was wisdom in that. At the end of verse 5 and verse 6 say that a wise man's heart discerns time and judgment, or what decision to make and when. That's really what we're talking about here.

This is not speaking of understanding that there will be a future judgment from God. Some people interpret this the way. Though that is mentioned later in chapter 8, the NIV renders the phrase in verses 5 and 6 as, proper time and procedure. There's a proper time and way to go about things.

The New American commentary notes, the wise man thus waits for the proper moment to make his case or take a stand and does not waste his influence on a lost cause. He maintains his patience, moreover, in spite of the moral burdens he carries that might otherwise cause him to act impetuously.

And it quotes the latter part of verse 6, for the trouble of humanity is heavy upon him. In other words, he wants to do something about it, but you got to be careful. That's what this is saying.

Don't just think you're going to fix it and turn to either, you know, some kind of lawless brigand to try to work things out. This is a dangerous way to go about things. Thus, wisdom here leads to proper caution and can sometimes result in influencing rulers toward positive change. So that's another benefit. You know, if you could, if you're in good with the rulership, maybe you can have some influence that's positive. That's not to say that you should try to be in good with really evil leaders. I mean, this is not wise to keep company with really evil people.

These are all these principles we have to put together that we have in Scripture.

Now, verse 7, let's read that, says, again, for he does not know what will happen, so who can tell him when it will occur? Now, in context, this presents more about the need for discerning the right time and way. If one does not know what will happen, then how can he learn when it will happen? The wise are therefore observant for the opportune circumstance in which to speak or act as it presents itself. In other words, as you're wise, you're waiting for the right moment for whatever needs to happen. That's part of wisdom. And being in a wise person, you're going to be in a position to be able to do that. The beginning of verse 8 says that no one can retain the Spirit in the day of death. Now, some translate the word ruach here as breath, breath of life rather than spirit, but that would not change the point here because either way, nobody's going to retain their breath of life when it's gone. Or when the Spirit goes, you're not going to hold on to it. When it's time, it's time. Now, some read this verse as a general statement about not being able to withstand the inevitability of death. But in context, again, and this is very important that we read everything in context and understand why this is being said here, it appears to continue the warning about not getting into trouble with the government. New American commentary says death is ultimately in the power of God, but it is also in the King's hand. The point seems to be that if the King puts you to death for rebellion or crime, life is over. The statement, there is no release from that war, from the war, could refer figuratively to the march into death that all face, or simply be metaphoric for there's no getting out of this. Then the final line, and wickedness will not deliver those who are given to it, would tie back to the turn to wrongdoing in verse 3. And this is further tied back to the warning in chapter 7, verse 17, where we read, do not be overly wicked nor be foolish. Why should you die before your time?

See that? Why should you die before your time if you're overly wicked? And we just read here, it's warning about going to death and saying, you know, and your wickedness will not get you out of that. In fact, a turn to lawlessness will not stave off the punishment of death, it will hasten it. So that's what we have to keep in mind here. So again, the problems of human government must be navigated with wisdom and righteousness. And we then come to verse 9, and we can look at that again. It says, all this I have seen and applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun. It says, there is, notice that there is, is an italics, and I think it's unnecessarily been added in this case. There is a time in which one man rules over another to his own hurt, and actually one ruling another to that one's own hurt is apparently a mistranslation here. The Tyndale commentary notes, to his hurt in the Hebrew is not to his own hurt, as in the authorized version or here in New King James, but to the hurt of one under the abuser of power. So the New American commentary quotes an alternate translation of the verse, and it reads this way, all this I have seen and have given attention to every deed done under the sun, while man rules men to their hurt. In other words, this is just talking about men ruling over other men to their hurt. This is the terrible human condition of today. That is this world. Men ruling over other men to their hurt. Rather than that's why we wait for a new government, the kingdom of God, where God rules over men and not men ruling over men to their hurt.

Thankfully, this verse here is not where things end. Solomon next mentions, seeing the wicked buried. See that in verse 10? Let's look at that. He says, Then I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of holiness, and they were forgotten in the city where they had done so. This also is vanity. Now, the place of holiness to which they had come and gone is not clear, as the dead would not have been taken to the temple, as that would have been thermally defiling. Perhaps the locale of a funeral was intended as a holy service, I guess, or as some suggest, the holy city of Jerusalem. They're coming in and out of there. Now, where the verse says they were forgotten, many others render this as they were praised, considering that the positive eulogizing of the wicked must be the vanity or frustration that's mentioned here. But this requires a text emendation, and forgotten does work here. Because remember Solomon elsewhere talks about the wicked being forgotten. Everybody gets forgotten, ultimately. Proverbs 10, 7, he wrote, The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot. Perhaps the frustration in Ecclesiastes 8, 10 is simply that the wicked were able to die and have a funeral after a long life without having to face up to what they'd done. Verse 12 seems to support this with the mention of sinners' days being prolonged.

And so I think that's probably the case here. Here I see this wicked guy buried. He probably lived a long life and had his funeral, and now he's gone. And he didn't have to pay for it. What he did is what maybe is the thought there. Now verse 11, we can look at that. It says, Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. That explains why evil grows worse and worse, because justice is not swift. You know, many claim that the death penalty is an ineffective deterrent to capital crime today. That's because people end up sitting on death row for decades. But in the passage here, you know, and so this is a whole thing. I mean, some people are, they think the idea of deterrent law doesn't work. Deterrent law works if it's swift justice, but if it's this thing that's drawn out long, long, long, it becomes ineffective. It does become ineffective, and people are set in their hearts to do evil. But in the passage here, that's not really what is exactly being addressed. I think, of course, that's what's contributed. But we need to understand that God is the one who is not bringing His justice right away.

I mean, really, if you think about it, that's what we're actually talking about.

God is not bringing His justice right away. He is instead, in great mercy, giving everyone more time to repent. And I think He's letting us see how far we will drift without His intervention.

He wants us to realize how bleak and terrible things can get. But His intervention and judgment will ultimately come. It is just a matter of time, and probably less time than most imagine.

We certainly pray for that. Verses 12 through 13. Let's look at those here.

It says, "...though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged..." And this is such an awesome verse because after all the bleakness of the bad guys seeming to win and the good guys seeming to lose, He says, "...though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him, but it will not be well." We've looked at this before, and going through here just as a preview. "...it will not be well with the wicked, nor will He prolong His days, which are as a shadow, because He does not fear before God." So these verses show that beyond the prolonged days of the wicked, it will be well with those who fear God, but not for the wicked who do not.

Of that Solomon is certain. Preaching the word commentary notes on this.

And by the way, I've used that commentary fairly frequently because I think I found it later than when I was going through my original studies of this book, and I just think it I don't agree with many things in there. There's many evangelical, I think, things in there I wouldn't agree with, but in many regards, it just has a great insight into this book. But I like the way it worded this. It said that usually the preacher tells us what he saw, but this time he chooses a different verb and tells us something that he knows.

This is not something that he has seen from a distance. He doesn't see the justice that's coming. He's not seen that from a distance, but something that he has grasped with the rational conviction of his own mind. His reply is not an observation, but the answer of faith.

He believes what he cannot see, that one day all will be well for everyone who lives in the fear of God. It's not evident today, but he could look ahead and say, I know this. You know, it's like when you remember Joe, I know that my redeemer liveth and he will stand on the earth. I mean, he knew. I mean, he didn't see it, but he believed and he knew in his heart. Now, the same commentary goes on to state that those who fear God are said to fear before him. Those who fear who fear before him, it says, meaning that they know that they are before him. They know they are in his presence.

Most people, including many Christians, go through life hardly realizing that they are constantly in the presence of God. But the person who fears God knows that God is always near.

To live a God-fearing life is to live in constant awareness of the presence of God, who is even closer than a prayer away. God is always there. He lives in us, brethren. I mean, he's with us and we need to remember that. And he watches over us and he watches what we do.

This is the perspective that must be maintained. Along with understanding what the future will bring. It will help us through the quandary that still remains for this age. It's still here.

Solomon comes back to it in verse 14. Even with what he's just said, he says, there's a frustration of vanity which occurs on the earth. That there are just men to whom it has happened, according to the work of the wicked. Again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said this also is vanity. It's a big frustration, in fact, it's a summary. That's what he's been talking about. Repeating here the dilemma that we saw in 7.15 of the righteous receiving what wickedness should result in and the wicked receiving what righteousness should result in. But that is only for now. Because one day, God will set things right. Then, besides the perspective we need to have and the righteous life that we are to persist in, we are again given the prescription of the book's refrains. I was thinking about this with the sermon. I just want to add to that because Mr. Jackson had mentioned we go through these trials and we go through these difficulties. One big answer to that is fasting a prayer and drawing near to God in that way. But another answer to that is right here. Is the enjoyment of life that God blesses us with. Yes, and again, we need to make sure that we put the food aside sometimes and draw near to God and devote ourselves in prayer. But we also have to have this enjoyment of life that is going to help us to make it through. That's going to help us to get it through. Look at verse 8.15.

Here again is the refrain that we've seen repeated in various ways. So I commended enjoyment because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry. For this will remain with him in his labor all the days of his life which God gives him under the sun. Now some, and again, this is quite in the commentary, say that the preacher is simply making the best of a bad situation. Well, there's nothing better than this. You know, this is all you get kind of thing.

That Solomon is a cynic. If we're all going to die anyway, then why not seize the day, eat, drink, and be joyful? For tomorrow we die. You know, that was a philosophy some had that Paul spoke of. The problem with this view is that it does not do full justice to what the preacher says.

Notice that the preacher is giving us a God-sinner perspective. And then in verse 15, he is talking about the days of our life as a gift from God. That's what he calls them. They're what God gives us, and that's referring to giving us a gift. Notice as well that he mentions joy twice in this verse and describes it as something we can experience all through life. Continuing here, the preacher is growing more and more confident about this joy. I commend joy, he says, and the word he uses for commend is a Hebrew word for praise, Shabbat. He's saying, I praise joy.

Yes, there is vanity under the sun. Yes, we see injustice that is hard to accept or understand.

Yes, we have a lot of hard work to do. Nevertheless, there is joy for us in the ordinary things of life eating, drinking, sharing fellowship with the people of God, as we'll be doing today, brethren, right here. So let us be ever thankful for the days of our lives, and let's truly rejoice.