Ecclesiastes 10:4-7

Big Idea

In a fallen and unstable world, wisdom teaches God’s people how to live faithfully under flawed authority—without panic, pride, or misplaced hope—by trusting in the reign of Christ rather than earthly systems.

Main Points

• Living Under Angry Authority (v. 4)

  • Authority is unavoidable in life—governments, workplaces, families, and churches.

  • When a ruler’s spirit “rises against you” (anger, accusation, or threat), wisdom does not respond with pride or impulsiveness.

  • The temptation is to “huff and puff,” rage quit, or walk away dramatically.

  • God’s wisdom calls for composure: stay at your post, speak carefully, and seek peace.

  • “Conciliation pacifies great offenses”—gentleness and restraint often prevent disaster.

• What This Wisdom Is—and Is Not

  • This is not a call to passivity, cowardice, or enabling abuse.

  • It does not require participation in sin or silence in the face of evil.

  • There are times when obedience to God requires leaving a post (Acts 5:29).

  • The principle addresses ordinary, real-life situations where pride would only make things worse.

• Biblical Examples of Faithful Composure

  • David and Saul: David refuses to retaliate, even when unjustly hunted.

  • Daniel and His Friends: They calmly speak truth without defiance or panic.

  • Nehemiah: Careful speech before an unpredictable king leads to restoration.

  • Jesus before Pilate: Christ models perfect restraint, trusting the Father’s will.

• A Case Study in Broken Leadership (vv. 5–7)

  • Solomon observes a tragic reality: foolish people are often elevated, while the wise are overlooked.

  • “Servants on horses” and “princes walking on the ground” picture an upside-down world.

  • Poor leadership appointments harm societies, organizations, and the innocent.

  • Scripture repeatedly confirms this pattern (Rehoboam, Ahab, Haman, Pilate).

• Right Expectations in a Fallen World

  • Do not be surprised when incompetent or ungodly people gain power.

  • Do not interpret promotions or demotions as direct indicators of God’s favor.

  • God’s providence is deeper than visible success or failure.

• Christ as the True King

  • Jesus, the King of Glory, embraced humiliation rather than earthly honor.

  • Through His submission and suffering, salvation was accomplished.

  • Earthly authority is unstable, but Christ reigns perfectly.

  • Hope is not found “under the sun” but in the kingdom that is coming.

Final Exhortation

Remain calm under pressure. Be faithful when overlooked. Speak gently when authority flares. Do not anchor your hope in systems, leaders, or outcomes—but in Christ alone, the King who reigns now and will one day set all things right.

Wisdom, Authority, and the Reign of Christ

1. Scripture Focus

• Ecclesiastes 10:4–7

• Romans 12:17–21

• 1 Peter 2:18–23

• Philippians 2:5–11

2. Historical & Biblical Context

Ecclesiastes addresses life “under the sun”—human experience in a fallen world. Solomon, a king who observed both wisdom and folly in leadership, offers realism rather than idealism. Authority structures exist by God’s design, but sin distorts them, often producing injustice and frustration.

3. Key Themes

• Wisdom vs. Pride: Wisdom restrains impulsive reactions; pride escalates conflict.

• Broken Authority: Even God-ordained offices are occupied by flawed people.

• Providence: God remains sovereign even when leadership fails.

• Christ’s Example: Jesus embodies perfect submission without moral compromise.

• Hope Beyond the System: Ultimate justice belongs to Christ’s kingdom.

4. Westminster Standards Connections

• Westminster Confession of Faith

  • Chapter 5 (Of Providence): God orders all things wisely, even through sinful authorities.

  • Chapter 23 (Of the Civil Magistrate): Authority is ordained by God but limited in scope.

• Westminster Larger Catechism

  • Q. 124–133 (Fifth Commandment): Teaches duties of respect, patience, and faithfulness under authority, while recognizing lawful resistance to sin.

• Westminster Shorter Catechism

  • Q. 26: Christ executes His kingly office by ruling and defending His people.

  • Q. 107: Proper response to authority includes obedience for God’s sake, not fear of man.

5. Practical Applications

• Examine how you respond when corrected, criticized, or overlooked.

• Practice slowing down your speech and softening your tone in conflict.

• Refuse to measure God’s favor by promotions, recognition, or success.

• Anchor your peace in Christ’s reign rather than leadership stability.

• If placed in authority, seek wisdom and humility in appointing others.

Will you please turn with me and your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 10. Ecclesiastes chapter 10. And this morning we'll be looking at verses 4 through 7. I'm going to, for some context a little bit, read verses 10 through 7 though. Ecclesiastes chapter 10. If you're using your pew Bibles, you'll find that on page 594.

Dead flies putrefy the perfumer's ointment and cause it to give off a foul odor. So does a little folly to ones respected for wisdom and honor. A wise man's heart is at his right hand, but a fool's heart at his left. Even when a fool walks along the way, he lacks wisdom. And he shows everyone that he is a fool. If the spirit of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your post, for conciliation pacifies great offenses. There is an evil I have seen under the sun as an error proceeding from the ruler. Folly is set in great dignity while the rich sit in a lowly place. I have seen servants on horses while princes walk. on the ground like servants.

That ends this portion of the reading of God's word. Let's pray together. God, we have read your word and it is perfect and it is true. But Lord, we confess to you it's easy for us to tune you out. It's easier for us to get distracted. We need your help. to incline our hearts to actually listen to your word. God, I confess to you that even this morning I feel weak, difficult to think straight. Lord, we need your Holy Spirit to please help us. Help us to understand your word by the power of your spirit to have it buried in our hearts like a seed that might sprout up and bear good fruit. Father, please help us. May you be glorified in the building up of your people, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

We like in America to think that we are absolutely free. And yet we live under a lot more authority than sometimes we want to actually admit. We do have a federal government that we have to live under its authority. We have a state government that we have to live under its authority. We have different laws in our land that we have to live under authority. We have bosses that we have to live under their authority. Children, you have parents that you have to live under their authority. There are teachers we have to listen to. There are supervisors we have to listen to. For elders, there's a presbytery and a synod we have to listen to. There's a lot of authority in life. There are bankers who decide what we're allowed to do sometimes. There's a lot of authority that you just don't necessarily think about sometimes.

And sometimes authority is wise, and sometimes authorities aren't very wise. Sometimes authorities even become angry. Sometimes justly and sometimes unjustly. And Solomon, he just doesn't have time to romanticize about perfect human authority. He's standing as one in authority. And he's met countless kings and queens and different rulers as they made their different pilgrimages to find out about his wisdom, right? When the queen of Sheba came and there was all sorts of, the king of Tyre comes down and he wants to meet him. Solomon's met all sorts of dignitaries from all over the place and he just doesn't have time to pretend like leadership and authority is always going to be perfect.

Power is unstable. And in a world that God's created, and yet sin has twisted, sometimes we need wisdom. And how do we live under authority that's not necessarily what we want to be under? And how do we do so wisely and faithfully? Well, that's what he gets at in verses 4 through 7. Look with me at verse 4. And at verse four, we're gonna see that he gives this wisdom principle for how we live under authority when it's mad. If the spirit of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your post, for conciliation pacifies great offenses. And then in the second part, there's a case study, verses five through seven.

So if the ruler's mad at you, if his spirit has risen against you, What do you do? Well, you stay on your job, you stay in your post, but verse five through seven is, but what does that look like sometimes? Why is this command needed in the real world?

Well, there is an evil I have seen under the sun as an error proceeding from the ruler. Folly is set in great dignity while the rich sit in a lowly place. I have seen servants on horses while princes walk on the ground like servants. What's this getting at?

Well, verse four tells us, as one commentator, his name is Kidner, says, you need to give up the huff. Do you know what that means? Have you ever seen someone, when they're in a situation they don't want to be in, and they get offended because somebody else is mad at them, and how do they respond to it? Well then I quit.

Matthew Henry commenting on this says, don't act childish. If somebody gets under your skin a little bit because they're mad at you and you just huff and you puff and you sulk and you cry and you pout, well fine, I just won't even be here anymore and you walk away. Solomon says, don't do that. Don't behave like that.

See when it says in verse four, if the spirit of the ruler rises against you, this is the idea that he's He's mad at you. There's there's anger that's come up now the anger might be flaring up Because you might done something wrong, right? It might be your mismanagement or it could be that somebody has maligned your name and Solomon doesn't tell us why this happens, but it happens and Their superiors, their tones change, the accusation starts, there might even be threats that are implied with their anger.

If a king gets mad at you, it might be off with your head. Remember Joseph? There were two guys who met him in the prison. Both of them have dreams. One of them is going to be restored, one of them is going to lose their head. When a ruler is angry at you, especially in the ancient Near East, this is a big reason that you might want to take stock. Do I need to leave town?

Solomon says, no, don't leave your place. Don't storm off. Don't go all theatrical. Don't be peevish, right? Don't rage quit. Don't throw your bag across or your computer screen across the room or something. It's not going to help with anything. What's he say instead? For conciliation pacifies great offenses.

One guy wrote on this and he was saying that essentially you need to learn how to be like a snake charmer. And at first I was like, I don't really like that illustration of snake charmer, really. But then as I thought about it, I thought, you know, If you're caught in a situation where you're dealing with a viper or a cobra and you're sitting there thinking, man, I might get bit and die, do you run away?

No, if you run away, what can still happen? You still get bit and you die. Or you calm down and you have wisdom. How do you pacify? How do you bring calmness? How do you bring gentleness back into the situation? How do you prevent this from becoming a disaster?

I need to be clear with you, there's things that this is telling us we should do and there's other things that I'm not telling you it means. What this is, is that we need to have a default posture where we control our speech, we control our body language, we control our timing, we don't add fuel to the fire, We don't let our pride seep in and get all offended and make things get worse. That's what we're supposed to do.

But this is not telling you, if you find an authority and they're mad at you and they're abusive of their power, it's not telling you to just be a doormat. There is a time to walk away. That's not what he's talking about here. This is not saying that if you submitting to the authority is just encouraging them to sin more, you just say, oh, you're doing great King, just do whatever you want. That's not what this is saying either. It's not saying you stay and you participate in evil. It's not saying that truth doesn't matter.

But this is talking about just the real life situation that there's an authority over you and they get mad, what do you do? We see this happen. We actually have some good positive examples of this. One of the examples that I think about in the Old Testament that amazes me, and sometimes I do literally scratch my head at this, is David and Saul.

King Saul is like gone off his rocker. The guy is mad. And by mad, I mean he's crazy. He wants to kill David. David has to play his harp to try to get him to calm down at times. And even when he's doing that, what does King Saul do? He tries to throw a spear and tries to pin him to the wall. And then he starts chasing him down and hunting him like a dog.

And yet there's this point this interaction between Saul and David, when David and his small group of guys are hiding way back in the dark part of a cave and Saul needs to do what happens when you've drank a little bit too much coffee in the morning, he needs to go to the bathroom and so he goes finds a cave where nobody else is there and he's gonna go take care of his business and David creeps up on him and he cuts off the part of the corner of of his robe.

And then Saul leaves and David is just heartstruck. Everybody, all the guys in the cave are like, just go kill him. Just go kill him. And how does David pacify Saul? Did he kill him? Or did he say, you idiot, look, I could have killed you. No, he says, what have I done wrong? What have I sinned against you? What have I done to make you come and try to hunt me like a dead dog? But he's grieved because he still used that knife. And it was, that was God's anointed, right? That was the one that God had put in authority.

Even though you're sitting there going, Saul shouldn't be king anymore. That's who God had chosen to be king and David understood. That if he had walked out of that cave and yelled and screamed, it wouldn't have gone well. He and his men would have died. But instead he restrains himself. He speaks carefully. He refuses to repay evil with evil. Anger with anger. He doesn't just huff and puff.

We see this in Daniel as well. We see Daniel's three amigos, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. When the king is angry at them, do they flee? No. They calmly tell the king, no, we're not going to bow down to the idol. Remember, these guys are leaders in the community by this point. They're not nobodies. Daniel's already interpreted the dream of the king about the statue. And they're promoted into these places of position, and they should die because Nebuchadnezzar is mad at them because they won't bow down to his golden statue. And yet, when Nebuchadnezzar is off his rocker, mad at them, going to throw them into the fire, they say, that's fine. Throw us into the fire. We're not going to bow. God will save us. But even if he doesn't, he's still king. Now, Nebuchadnezzar still throws them into the fire. But what happens? God takes care of them. They're saved. They don't respond back with sarcasm, but with careful truth.

You even see this with Nehemiah. When Nehemiah is standing before Artaxerxes in Nehemiah chapter 2. He's grief-stricken, Nehemiah's grief-stricken because the Jewish people are in Babylon, the city's in ruins, the walls are torn down, the temple is like this shabby little thing, a shadow of what it once was, and he's the king's cup-bearer. The cup-bearer is the guy that You want to talk about a risky job, that's the type of guy that's an adrenaline junkie. This is the type of guy who, I'm gonna taste the king's wine before he does. Because I don't want him to die, I might die instead. You gotta have a certain amount of guts to take that type of job. But if your countenance has changed, if your face looks a little nervous, if you're a little bit off as the cup bearer, That's a dangerous thing as well, because now, can the king trust you? Well, maybe not. He might get mad at you. What's wrong with you? Why are you looking sad? What's in my cup? What's going on? And Nehemiah found himself in a dangerous spot. And yet, he doesn't just like, huff and puff at the king. Oh, I can't believe you would see this. No, he's calm. He's measured. He has composure and posture. He prays to the Lord and he speaks carefully to the king. He says, yeah, I am sad. Because the city that my people come from is in ruins. And he pacifies the king's anger and actually good comes out of it. He gets to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls.

But this is also what we see when Christ is before Pilate. We see Jesus at a very peculiar point in his life. Life and death are right before him, and he's brought before a corrupt leader. By the way, Pilate would eventually get recalled back to Rome because of how cruel he was to the Jewish people. The story doesn't end well for Pilate with the Caesars. He's put there, but he's no friend of the Jews. And so when Jesus stands before Pilate and he's on trial, have you ever asked yourself, why is Jesus willing to be silent? One, he knows that he's doing his father's command, but Jesus also is this model for us. He doesn't retaliate, even though he's being sinned against. He doesn't melt down, he doesn't huff and puff, he doesn't lose his composure, but he walks with a purpose even before a king who's angry at him.

And so what does this mean for your life in verse four? Well, what are your patterns of huffing? Right, when is it that you're given to just, well, fine, I'll quit. Is it when you're offended? Is it because you love the drama that comes with it? Are you motivated by your actions when the authorities over you are mad? Is it because of a sense of rejection that you'll huff and puff and just walk away, quit the job, leave the post? Or is your motivation to honor God?

There's some practical advice. The authority over you is angry. They're mad. Bring down your volume a few notches. Soften your tone. Ask clarifying questions. Be willing to take critique seriously. Let the authorities over you know that you hear them. And be slow to give an answer back. Take a moment. Have some spiritual strength. And stay in that place unless it means disobedience to God. There are going to be times that you got to leave the post. Because you have to obey God rather than men. If the authority demands you to sin, demands you to lie, demands you to commit adultery or idolatry, okay, maybe it is time to leave. But most of the time, leaving isn't courage. Most of the time it's our impulsivity and anger back. Defensiveness. And so if the spirit of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your post, for conciliation pacifies great offenses.

But then notice, secondly, this case study that happens in verses 5 through 7. There is an evil I have seen under the sun as an error proceeding from the ruler. Folly is set in great dignity, while the rich sit in a lowly place. I have seen servants on horses, while princes walk on the ground like servants.

And most commentators think that verse four and five through six are directly connected, meaning that this is a ruler who is now making foolish appointments even. And Solomon here is saying that there's this evil that he's seen under the Sun, right? This is one of his favorite sayings throughout the book this Like what's under the Sun he's a by human experience, right? I've seen this stuff happen on the earth It comes from a rulers who's messing up with appointments and not overseeing things correctly Folly people who are foolish who are elevated to places. They ought never to have been and There's people that you would expect to be in positions of power and authority that have wisdom and experience and instead they're they're treated like dirt.

And other people that have no business doing anything other than sweeping the floor and handing people stuff end up making decisions that they're unqualified to be making. Servants riding on horses and princes getting blisters on the bottom of their feet walking.

The point is, right, authority often appoints badly. And when authorities in the world, under the sun, appoint badly, society, organizations, people suffer. People pay the price. It's just the nature of an unstable world that we live in.

We want them to believe Especially in America, we want to believe that whether it's in your workplace or whether it's in the church or whether it's in government, that we would live by a meritocracy. That the most qualified people, the best fit for the job, should get the higher positions of authority and power, of prestige and wealth.

And yet have you ever turned on CNET and listened to some of our politicians? We know that this happens. We know that there are people that receive honor and glory and positions of power and authority that they ought not to have. And that's what Solomon's saying. He's saying, and I am sure that even as he's dealing with a bureaucracy of ancient Israel that he even sees in his own administration, There are people he wishes that he could just get rid of, but they're there. And he sees it in other people's administrations too, and he's just saying, this is what happens. It's not a theory, but it's what happens when things get flipped on its head, and sadly, Israel's gonna get marked by this again and again and again, especially the Northern Kingdom.

But we'll start with the South, right? In 1 Kings chapter 12, you have Solomon's son. Solomon's gonna have a boy, his son's name is Rehoboam, and Rehoboam first becomes a king, and there's people, Solomon had all these great building enterprises, right? He built an amazing palace, he built the beautiful temple, he had all sorts of building projects all over the place, but guess what? It took a lot of work and a lot of manpower. A lot of people were taken away from their businesses and their farms, to go and to do the work of government building. And they come back and they come to Rehoboam, Solomon's son, they say, hey, yo, we need some breathing space. We need to be able to even take care of our own families.

And what does Rehoboam do? Does he listen to the wise or does he listen to the fools? He listens to his peers. He listens to the guys who have no experience. They might as well be servants, but they're friends with him, so they got some access. And he listens to people who are unqualified, and he rips apart the kingdom. Ten of the tribes up north say, you know what, forget it. We have no share in this. We'll go do our own thing. There's a civil rupture, instability, and lasting consequences.

You find this with Ahab and Jezebel in 1 Kings 21. Naboth is murdered. Innocent people are crushed. Corruption by the highest places of authority. This whole idea of Naboth is this guy who wouldn't sell his field to Ahab, and Ahab gets all huffy about it. He goes sulking home to his wife, and he won't sell me his field, and so what does she do? She just has the guy killed. Well, now he can have his field. That's what Solomon's talking about here. When folly is set in great dignity, this is what happens. People are hurt. When the wrong people are empowered, the righteous become vulnerable. That's what Folly said in Great Dignity is getting at.

I'm not going to rehearse these ones, but you can think about maybe later at home, look at Esther chapter 3 and think about how in the world did Haman get his appointment before Artaxerxes? Anything about 1st Samuel 22? How in the world did Doeg the Edomite get access to Saul? Or anything about even why in the world would somebody like Pilate or Herod get authority?

Solomon's looking at the world in verses 5 through 7 and he's saying the world just turned on its head sometimes. But we know it should be, it isn't. It's an upside down world. And we find just how dark that can get when we think of the King of Glory, who willingly Jesus willingly, though in the image of God himself did not count it equality with God, something to be grasped, he laid aside his heavenly glory for a time and took on the form of man. Didn't even have a place to lay his head. The King of Glory didn't have palaces to live in. Didn't have, there's one time that we read in all the Gospels, one time of Jesus being treated with any type of dignity or royal respect. That one day when he entered into Jerusalem on Palm Friday, when he walked up and they sang out, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest. as he rode on a donkey into Jerusalem. That's the only time in Jesus's entire earthly life.

And what happened? One day they're singing, Hosanna in the highest. And just a few nights sleep later, they're shouting, crucify him. Jesus showed us that the path to humiliation has to come. And yet God uses that to again flip the world on its head again. Because see, when the King of Glory walked in the way of humility and even was willing to stay the course when the ruler was angry at him, he saved all of us. And in his disgrace, we get grace. In his humiliation, we get salvation. In his being put to the side and willing to be injured The world was made right, and there's finally hope again. Ecclesiastes doesn't end in despair when we read it through the lens of the New Testament. It tells us the truth so we can stop putting our hope in the wrong places. We will never find our hope fulfilled in this life if you think that your hope will be fulfilled and someday the political organization finally getting everything right. I'm begging you, please do not hold your breath waiting for everything in Des Moines and DC to get right, that when they'll finally put the right people in all the right places and then you'll finally have a good life and then you can have hope. You will die blue in the face by holding your breath for that. That's what Solomon's getting at. It just happens. Don't put your hope there.

So some applications to walk away from this. What are your expectations? Verses 5 through 7. Stop being surprised when fools rise up. It happens. Don't assume that you're going to get your reward from the world if you have the right morals and the right actions and the right wisdom. You may even do all the things right in this world and even become what everybody in the world might think is successful. You may even become rich. And yet people might still despise you. You may be somebody who is godly. You may even be an adopted son or daughter of the King Most High, and people still look down on you. You may be those who deserve to ride on horses. Don't be surprised when you gotta put on your shoes and walk in this life.

But secondly, don't read Providence off of promotions. Right? This is what my pastor Micah used to tell me, right? Stop breathing the chicken bones. Right? We're not pagans. We're not people who, you know, like voodoo witchcraft doctors, right? They'll cut up chickens and they'll look at the entrails and the bones and stuff and they'll look at what's in the stomach and they'll try to read the future or read what God's doing by what's going on and that's what Micah used to tell me I would do when I'd be like, well maybe God is doing this because he's happy with me and so I got this good grade or I got this raise at work and so thank God and he would be like, know what God is doing. That's his secret counsel. If he's humbling you, there's a reason he's humbling you, and you know what your job is? To be faithful in that position he's put you in. If he's given you good things in your life, good, be thankful for that. If there are things that If there's famine, or there's drought, or there's demotion, or there's punishment, whatever, look at your life. If there's actually sin, yeah, be wise about that. But stop thinking that somehow, that if you're getting promotion, or if you're getting wealth, or if you're getting prestige, that God is happy with you. He may not be. Sometimes he lets idiots become kings and sit on horses. Doesn't mean he's happy with them. The text doesn't allow us that type of shallow equation.

Thirdly, don't idolize systems. This text just smacks us dead in the face, saying that we live, no matter how much we try to use our political science brains to maneuver everything possible, that the system just works perfectly, there will always be holes in the plan. There will never be a perfect system of government under the sun. You cannot anchor your stability spiritually to what's going on in the leadership, especially of the government. Do not place your faith in earthly princes. I'm going to say, Even as we've had people join the church and they've been, you know, rah-rah and excited about Presbyterianism and stuff, and sometimes even will work through membership vows, and they'll say, I'm just so glad that there's a church that, like, finally does this right, and I'm like, er, er, hold on, let's put a big break here, I promise you, we're gonna get things wrong. Don't place your trust even in just blind Presbyterian system, like, oh, well, the system works, and so the system's biblical, so it's always going to work perfectly. No, because there's sinful people involved in it. Our anchor of our soul is in Jesus Christ alone, and we get our peace from him, not in people running authority systems. If you do that, your peace is going to be crushed when leadership fails. Bringing it together, what do we have for this application? We need to have a Christian posture. The world's unstable, so we need to have a posture of wisdom. Leadership is uncertain, so we need to know how to stand. You need to know how to be steady when you're mistreated. Stay calm, even when authority flares. This is a hard one. You need to be wise in how you respond to an angry authority, even when you can see the incompetence of that authority. You need to learn what we need to learn. We need to learn what it means to show faithfulness even when there's criticism. And how do we show faithfulness without becoming cynics? So when authority gets hot, don't huff and puff and act like a child and quit the job and resign and just walk away. Slow down. Hit the pause button. Speak gently. Ask clarifying questions. Receive correction. Have humility. And when the world goes upside down, don't panic. Don't obsess. Don't become bitter. Don't let it steal your joy. When you're sidelined and you know that you're the one who deserves this honor or praise or riches or promotion or whatever it is and some nimcompoop got it instead. Do you let it ruin your life? Or do you find your life hidden in Christ and find a stability that's nothing outside of you can steal from you? Because you know what? Sometimes this world, trying to find the word I want to say, I don't want to say because it's, maybe some parents don't like it. Sometimes it's just like eating a bag of garbage. Sometimes there's just bad deals in life. and where the rubber hits the road for Christians is asking, when you get handed that, do you start thinking that somehow Jesus isn't king anymore? Does it shake your Calvinism to think that, well, maybe God isn't actually sovereign? Maybe because things aren't going well in my life, maybe I can't actually believe that God's in control of my life. Because if God was in control of my life, then things would be going better for me. If God really loved me, then wouldn't he know that I don't like this, and that I was injured, and that I was wronged? Oh yeah, that happened to Jesus. If it happened to Christ, why would we be surprised that it would happen to us as well? So when you're sidelined and you get the hard providences of this life, don't let that pull you away from Christ. But instead, I pray that you might dive more deeply into the depths and of the riches of the knowledge of the love of God, which is shown to us in Christ Jesus. And if you're one of those who God puts in a place of authority, if you're put in a place where you have leadership, we ought to listen to this really, really closely. How we respond to people and who people in authority appoint and really mess up people's lives. Leaders ought to know and prayerfully consider, am I promoting somebody who's full of a bunch of folly? Leaders ought to fear this text and wrestle in their hearts with, I don't want to just elevate people that everybody else is looking around and going, That guy deserves to be washing dishes, not making decisions. Anybody who God puts in authority, we ought to come to verses four through seven, and it should bring us to our knees pleading with God to give us wisdom. And the last application, I'll close with this, is having our hope grounded in Christ. Under the sun, in our normal human experience, rulers are going to mess things up and things are going to seem like they're upside down and backwards. But in the heavens, not under the sun, but where Jesus Christ is the blinding light, the king is reigning perfectly. And we look forward to that kingdom. We look forward to that great day. When all this foolishness goes away, when the last great day comes, and the king of glory returns, and there's no more foolish appointments, And there's no more, there's no more false judgment and fear of anger of just petty rulers. But we know that the King of glory reigns and that he judges with perfect equity and he does all things perfectly. Christian, wait for and long for and know that someday that kingdom is coming. Don't place your trust in earthly princes, but look to the King of kings and wait for that great day. Because the King of glory is coming back someday. He's reigning now in heaven, but someday he will put all things in order and in place. And so rest in him. Hope in him. And then we can be calm, even in the face of angry rulers. Then we can have an anchor for our souls. Even when we see those who don't deserve glory riding on the heights, while those who deserve honor are walking in the dust, we can still have confidence because our King is still reigning. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for telling us the truth God, we pray that your Holy Spirit would please now help us to not get off center when the pressures of these things actually happen in our lives. Please don't just let us be hearers of this Word, but help us to be doers. Teach us to be peacemakers, for they are blessed. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

• What situations most tempt you to “leave your post” rather than respond wisely?

• How can conciliation differ from compromise?

• Why is it dangerous to read God’s approval into success or promotion?

• How does Christ’s humiliation reshape our expectations of honor?

• What does faithful obedience look like when leadership is incompetent or unjust?

• Conciliation: A gentle, peace-seeking response that de-escalates conflict.

• Providence: God’s sovereign ordering of all events for His glory.

• Authority: God-ordained structures for order, limited by His moral law.

• Humiliation of Christ: The voluntary lowering of the Son of God for redemption.

• Kingdom of God: Christ’s present reign and future consummation.