Ecclesiastes 8:1-8

Ecclesiastes chapter 8, verses 1 through 8 for our text and study this evening. Elysiasis chapter 8 verses 1 through 8. Who is as the wise man? And who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makeeth his face to shine. and the boldness of his face shall be changed. I counsel thee to keep the king’s commandment, and in regard of the oath of God. Be not hasty to go out of his sight, stand not in an evil thing, where he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him. Where the word of the king is, there is power. Who may say unto him, what doest thou? Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing, and a wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment, because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him. For he knoweth not, that which shall be. Who can tell him when it shall be? There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit, neither hath he power in the day of death. And there is no discharge in that war. Neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it. May God bless to us His sacred and holy holy. word this evening. A father watched his three-year-old son run around the office of the doctor that he was visiting. The toddler only paused to slam open and close the door to the office again and again. Don’t do that, the father said. People in the office here will spank you, telling an obvious lie. No, they won’t replied the boy, calling the father’s bluff. And on he went, slamming the door back and forth. Then I’ll spank you. Came the weak reply, obviously an idle threat that has never been acted upon because his son ignored it. Turning to the receptionist, the man lamented a little later, in the hearing of his little whirling monster, that lad is. too smart for us. The fact is this type of episode is being repeated in millions of families across the United States. It’s only one symptom of the breakdown of authority in society that we see today. That’s just the lowest level. The judicial system is failing to convict the guilty. Criminals are walking free. Charges are being dropped. The crime rate is rising. The judges are too lenient. Prison terms are inadequate. The police are being defunded. And so there’s this breakdown in the legal system. The law-abiding citizen is a mainstay of a stable society. But we don’t have that. very much anymore. The creeping anarchy that which abounds, even in children, threatens the stability of our country. Solomon here takes up the subject of human authority and our text this evening. And it’s obvious that he sees the wise person looking beyond the state, looking beyond the federal government, the wise person realizes that God has established authority, that the powers that be are ordained of God. They don’t come from the consent of the government. And therefore, a rebellious spirit will be the ruination of men. The problem is today that people have rejected the idea that their absolute standards are right and wrong. We find that the law of God, the Ten Commandments, are rejected. Everything is said to be relative, which means you can do pretty much whatever you want. Like in the book of judges, every man did what was right in his own eyes. God’s people, however, are people who believe in law and order, because they believe God has established law and order. order. And they understand the notion of God setting up various authorities over them. Whether it be the president and Congress, the federal government, if you would, whether it be the state government, whether it be the local government, whether it be the elders of the church, or whether it be parents, so forth, or the local government. it doesn’t really matter. God has established some type of government, some type of authority over people. Let me begin tonight by saying this. You must obey human authorities in verses 1 to 4. Now, he begins by saying your wisdom makes itself known in verse 1.1. 1. Who is as the wise man? And who knoweth the interpretation? of a thing. A man’s wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed. Wise people are distinguished by a depth of knowledge and understanding of life. They know the interpretation of a thing or the explanation of a thing. Who can expound the mind, the word, and the ways of God? That’s a rare commodity. That’s a rare gift to have it. Sort of like Daniel in Daniel chapter 6, when their handwriting is on the wall and nobody can read it or understand it. But he knows, for he knows God’s ways, and he understands God’s purposes. A person who is, without grace may have education, may have wealth, but the believer is able to discern the ways and the works of God, which is more profitable. He’s able to interpret events from a divine perspective. The wisdom makes your face to shine that you have. There’s a special glow that comes from God. on the enlightened person, because he has had intercourse with heavenly things. You recall the story of Moses on Mount Sinai when he came down from the mountain because of his contact with the thrice holy God, his face shone, and he had to put a sack over it. It shone, so brightly that others couldn’t look on him. Being in the presence of God had an effect on him. and the same in a way for you and I, if we are in the presence of God, it has an effect on us as well. I’m not going to say your face is going to shine like Moses’s face, but there’s a sense in which you walk in the light of God and you develop a holy character. Godliness is something that makes itself known. The brightness of the light of Christ’s righteousness shines for, in a life of practical godliness. The Lord says he will beautify the meek with salvation. Indeed, there’s a certain attractiveness about the Christian because the Bible says that we’re lights, we’re stars in a dark world. We shine forth. Boldness of his face shall be changed. here. The boldness seems to carry the idea of the strength of his faith. Knowing the Lord softens facial features, it melts the hardened the hardened heart of man. It creates humility. The Christian is a man or woman full of compassion and meekness. Moses, whose face is a man or woman full of compassion and kindness. glowed was very meek above all the men who are upon the face of the earth the Bible tells us. Very humble man. And so spiritual wisdom makes itself known in practical ways. Wisdom is not merely knowledge, but it transforms the way that you live your life. So wisdom makes itself known. Now notice here, your obedience to authority. is a sign of wisdom. Versus two through four. Let’s look at that. I counsel thee to keep the king’s commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God, be not hasty to go out of his sight. Stand not in an evil thing, for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him. Where the word of a king is, there is, there is power. Who may say unto him, what doest thou? Spiritual wisdom does display itself in your obedience to human wisdom. The Bible says this in Titus 3.1. Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be magistrates, to be ready to be ready to, to be ready to, to be ready to, to be to every good work. That’s what the Christian is commanded to do. I dare say that every one of us has said the Pledge of Allegiance sometime in this life. That pledge is to be faithful to your country, to your government. But it does contain an important phrase in it. One nation, under God. And what this indicates to is in this pledge, I believe, it envisions that the Lord God is not a mere spectator to the events that take place in life. In a sense, this pledge indicates that God is sovereign over a nation and therefore involved in the affairs of the nation. and this is the reason that human authority is to be recognized by you because God has established it and he’s committed you to do so. And therefore, as we read in verse 2 here, keep the king’s commandment. Obey those place in authority over you because God has established government. Accepted as its will. As God’s means by which he will. punish evil doers. Solomon here refers to an oath. Some kinds of pledge of allegiance in ancient Israel. Whatever it was, it certainly involved submission to the king, and I think it also involved a solemn oath before God here by the subjects of the king. Hurring away from the king’s presence, we’re standing up for a bad cause. indicating some type of rebellion against the king, verse 3, would be a sign of insolence and disrespect not only to human authority but to God himself. So take into account the king’s power. Avoid provoking him to unnecessary wrath, as verse 4 indicates. You must show respect to respect. His Majesty and power. Because who can easily rebuke a king and say unto him what doest thou? Not an easy task, is it? Who can do that with a president or a congressman or representative? However, fear of punishment, which is a practical reason for obeying the king’s commands, is not the primary focus for the believer. It is the fact that God has commanded you to do so. You have a theological reason. You know that respectful submission to authority is being obedient to God himself. I had Russell read from 1. Peter chapter 2 tonight, because there’s another passage that indicates, you know, to honor the king, you know, to obey those in authority over you and so forth. This is the profound reason we obey and submit. to all the authority that is over us. Children obey your parents and the Lord, because this is right. They have a reason to obey the Lord too, and obey their human authority over them because God commands it to them. So we’re not talking here about my country right or wrong, and that’s the reason we obey. But an oath applies here, it implies a higher allegiance to God himself. You render underseizance. to things of the Caesars, but never forget the render under God the things that are gods. Obeying God may at times mean disobeying human authority, because God’s authority is higher than human authority. We have to obey God rather than man. There are times when there is a conflict in commands. What the government tells you to do, and what God tells you to do, and what God tells you to do, may not be in sync. Moses’ mother was commanded by Pharaoh to kill. They were told to kill all the firstborn males that were born in the family. She wouldn’t do it because God would not have her kill. So she hides Moses in the ark, puts him out there on the Nile River, tries to watch over him and take him. take care of them from a distance, so to speak. When the Chinese government says if you have two children and after that, you have to abort the rest, if we’re Christians, we’re going to have to say, no, we can’t do that. And we may have to secretly hide children under those situations. We recently had a situation where the United States here, forbidden, the church services, were forbidden, who were not supposed to be gathering. We see it happening in Canada and in the United States and other places. Those who know the Lord’s command know that that is the duty that they are supposed to put first and worship of God certainly takes priority over everything else. We can’t do that. We can’t follow that, a commandment of man. And they had no right to. to command us this. But the scripture does call upon you to submit to human government out of a desire to faithfully follow Christ as long as there’s no conflict with God himself. It’s interesting, if you read through the book of Daniel, he really gives us a perfect example of this. Daniel, if you read his prophecy, you see how respectful, how respectful, how submissive he was. to the foreign kings of Babylon and Medo-Persia that were over him. And yet when there was a conflict between obeying God and obeying God and obeying these powerful kings, what did he do? He obeyed God. For in chapter 1, when they basically commanded him to eat unclean’s food, he wouldn’t do. and worked a way around it. And in chapter 6, when he was forbidden to pray to any other God, but only they could basically submit their request to the king, he also didn’t do it, but opened his window. A bold man, didn’t care who saw him as he always did. He opened his window. He praised to the Lord God as he’s commanded to do. A great thing. example of following the commandments of God rather than obeying man when they are in conflict. So you must obey human authorities. Secondly, tonight, you must know the proper time to approach human authorities and oppose them. Versus five to seven. Let’s look at that. Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil. In a wise man’s heart. discerneth both time and judgment because to every purpose there is time and judgment. Therefore, the misery of man is great upon him. For who knoweth, for he knoweth not that which shall be, for who can tell him when it shall be? Obviously the law of God of the land is important. We obey that standard. But then we have to obey the commandments of the king, or those in political power or authority. But we can’t make the commandment of the king the moral guide for us, for what’s right or what’s wrong. That comes from the law of God. That comes from the Ten Commandments. So if the law says abortion is a woman’s right, and God says, no, it’s not. We must obey God. When the law says, well, we have no fault divorce in Pennsylvania. You don’t have to have a real reason to divorce. It’s up to one of the other individual’s whim. If they want out, they can get out. Well, that’s not what God’s word says. God’s word is very strict about divorce. You have to have a biblical reason for divorce. whether that be adultery or whether it be abandonment. There’s a very narrow window for divorce. We don’t just obey the so-called law of the land. So the state is not to be your conscience or your ultimate sovereign, if you would. You must always analyze the situation and respond biblically, even in face of potential. threatening consequences. The wise and heart discern when to obey and when to resist the king’s command. You know, when the king, when the state says, if they would say, with regard to homeschooling, well, you have to use our curriculum. You have to teach, uh, um, wholen if you homeschool. And we’re going to inspect you to make sure you do. You can’t obey that because you know it’s against God’s commandment. And so you’re going to have to oppose it. So the wise and hard have to discern that. Some things are tricky. Some things are quite complex in this regard. So we have to. carefully evaluate God’s word in light of what’s commanded and realize things are not always going to be clear-cut like abortion or something like that. We need a spirit of wisdom because we want to avoid the danger that will threaten us when we oppose the government. So in all costs, we want to be careful how we go about this, not do so just out of some whim. At the same time, in opposing the government, you would like to lead the government in the right way. Not that we just oppose the government, but we tell them the government that they’re wrong, that this is against the law of God. We can’t obey this, and this is why. We do the, you know, government some good to hear what God’s word has to say about certain things. So this calls. calls for some patience and some great discernment on our part. You must not be self-willed. You must know that you’re doing God’s will when you resist authority. It’s not something we should likely do. The RP pastor Gordon Ketty was once originally in his younger years a zoologist. And on an overnight train, train ride across Antolia in Turkey. He and his companion had dozed off for about 30 minutes while they were on the train. And when they awoke, they found that their cameras had been stolen from the overnight luggage compartment. When they arrived in Ushkudar on the Asian side of the Black Sea Straits from Istanbul, they made a beeline for the police off of the police station in order to report. report the theft. The policeman on duty evidently pegged them as two western hippies who had just been on a field trip to the Taras Mountains. They were both English. So he expected, I guess, them to be strange people. He was in his mid-60s, dressed in khaki clothes. So the policeman accused him. of selling their cameras, profiting the money, and then trying to turn an insurance claim. So he would not give them paperwork for theft so that they could get their camera prices back. Gordon’s friend, Dick, is always out with Dick doing something. It wasn’t in the boat the last time, this time I’m telling you, about one he was on the train. It was bolder of the two, and he didn’t take things mad, you know, sitting down. he basically sounded off to the policeman as if the whole Royal Navy was right off offshore with their guns trained on that police station to blow them off the face of the earth if they didn’t listen to what Gordon and Dick were talking about and give them the paperwork. But the more he protested, he protested, this earlier the officer became. And he just dug in his heels and wouldn’t listen. Eventually they just left. And they went to the consular’s office and the British consulate. And he took them to the Central Police Station in Istanbul, where they were given the paperwork they needed to recover the price of their stolen cameras. They tried to resist, but it just didn’t work in this case. So there’s a proper time, a proper procedure of things. Sometimes we have to go around through the back door rather than the front door on certain things. But there are examples like this in the Bible. Jonathan, early on, chose exactly the right time to speak to his father, King Saul, about David, when at first King Saul was going to kill David. He said, what is he done? Didn’t he risk his life and go out and fight the giant? And we all rejoiced in that. And at first time, he talks his father out of killing David. Okay, he shall not die. Nathan, the prophet, told David a story about stolen sheep and a greeting next door neighbor with impeccable timing. He rebukable timing. the king about his adultery with Bathsheba and corrected him. Esther went in to King Azareris, and it was risky to do so. It was against the commandment to go in unannounced, be uncalled for by the king. But she went with perfect timing of God’s providence and brought about the salvation of the whole Jewish community in all Medo-Persia. The difficulty is discerning the proper time and procedure because nobody knows what the future holds. Verse 7. We don’t know what’s going to happen. And not knowing the future brings misery, as the last part of verse 6 indicates. It may cause you to rush in like a fool where they say angels fear to tread. Impatience causes you to mess up things. How many times have you thought, if I had just waited, instead of rushing ahead, everything worked out okay? Or when have you said, oh, I wish I had thought to say something, and I didn’t speak up, and I’ve lost my opportunity? We’ve all found that to be the case. God grants us the Holy Spirit to help guide us as his people, to instruct us as the right time and procedure in pursuing God’s will in dealing with others. How to go about it, gives wisdom to us and how to approach it. Remember how Daniel was very respectful and careful about the uncle food in chapter one, how he carefully went to the eunuch that was over him and said, why don’t you just try us? Give us a test. Just give us the, you know, vegetables, pulse, if you would, and see if our countenance isn’t better. He wasn’t defined, we’re not going to do this. He just basically said, well, let’s try this. Give us at least a test. and see if this isn’t the case. He tried to work with the official that was over him, and approach it first that way, before you dig in your heels and say, I can’t do it. And, you know, that’s what happens. If it means being punished, then I’m going to have to be punished. I can’t help it. But first he tried to work things through, and that’s what the Spirit could help us do, too. If we trust in the Lord, wait upon the Lord’s dealings with us on this. Seek to please God, and he’ll watch out for us if we’re seeking to please him. So you must know the proper time to approach human authority. Lastly, you must realize the limitations of human authority in verse 8. There is no man that have power over the spirit to retain the spirit, neither hath he power in the day of death. And there’s no discharge in that war. Neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it. God reserves the ultimate authority over everyone. You might think that kings and dictators are in their ruthless rule over men men are pretty much sovereign because they can kill millions of people, and we’ve seen that happen with impunity. millions of people. They see him all powerful. But Solomon tells us here, well, human authority cannot prevent death. That day is going to come. He may be able to do a lot of different things, but somewhere along the line, his day is going to come and he’s going to die. God’s going to take him away. He won’t be able to continue on in his evil ways. The day of death proves the impotency of man. As powerful as the king is, when it comes to the day of death, he’s no different than the simplest poor man who lives on the street. The slave, who used to ride in the chariot with Roman heroes through the triumphal parade, was commanded to whisper in the ear of the hero. Remember that you’re still human. and that’s what God is telling me. Remember, you’re going to die. Remember, you’re going to be held accountable. It’s appointed under men wants to die. Those in government don’t last forever. Death is the great equalizer. There is no truth more certain, and none as easily forgotten, it seems, as this. God controls your life, and he will take it when he sees fit. When he calls the spirit of a man to himself, all earthly existence comes to an end. King Herod may kill apostles, but when God says your day is up and he’s eaten with worms, there’s nothing he can do about it. God takes his life. God exercises judgment in the latter part of verse 8 upon his enemies. God is the avenger of wickedness. God is the avenger of injustice. He wages war on those who oppress his people, sell themselves to do wickedness, whether it be Ahab, whether it be Pharaoh, whether it be Pharaoh. It doesn’t matter. Power can corrupt, absolute power can greatly corrupt. The state appears to impose limits, its will, if you would, on limitlessness. hold this great power over its subjects. And you might think that you’re in a situation where Hitler’s final solution is being carried out and all these Jews are being gassed and there’s nothing that can stop him. Or Stalin’s slaughter of millions of property-owning peasants right before World War II. Or Uganda’s Edia mean in his slaughter. Or we could think about meo-Sittung in China and it’s his slaughter of people. Hensdenberg says this, Wicked leaders only have importance until God’s time and judgment draws near. And then they fade from the sink. So when you observe wickedness growing more and more corrupt and evil in the exercise, and evil in the exercise of power by those in authority, remember this verse. God eventually is going to take their life. They’re engaged in a war they cannot win. And God’s power to exercise right judgment will bring them down. Haman, the Haman’s of this world, are always given enough rope to hang themselves. And ultimately, when When you war with God, he always wins. So the father, who failed to discipline his three-year-old monster, was sowing the seed for future disaster. Because we live in rebellious times. Human authority is treated with contempt, whether it be the government, the police, judges, elders, or even parents. This creeping anarchy, you know, has infected all of our society. The wise person realizes he must obey human authority because God has established all human authority. And it is a way for us to honor our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And we should always keep that in mind. That’s what God has commanded us. Lest there is a conflict, we should always obey of those authorities that are over us. Let us close what is there.