Politics, Justice, and Frustration

Ecclesiastes chapter 8. If you're using the few Bibles provided for you, you'll find that on page 592. Ecclesiastes chapter 8. Brothers and sisters, this is God's perfect word. 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.

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 what pleases him. Where the word of a king is, there is power. And who may say to him, what are you 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. 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 so done. This also is vanity.

Because a 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. 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 and who fear before him. But it will not go well with the wicked. nor will he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he does not fear before God. There is a vanity which occurs on earth, that there are just men to whom it happens 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 that this also is vanity. 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. When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on the earth, even though one sees no sleep day or night, Then I saw all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. For though a man labors to discover it, yet he will not find it. Moreover, though a wise man attempts to know it, he will not be able to find it. And this ends this portion of reading of God's perfect word.

Prayer for Illumination

It's true. It's holy. It's perfect. and will never fade away. Let's pray. God, we thank you for your word. And once again, we come to a chapter where we need your Holy Spirit to enlighten our eyes, open our ears, soften our hearts, that you might teach us and change our course. Lord, please help us to understand and to live. We pray this in Jesus's perfect name. Amen.

Sermon

Once again, we come to old man Solomon wrestling with the realities of this world. He's examined all sorts of things under the sun, looking all over the earth, staying up late hours, not sleeping, trying to figure out why things happen the way they are and how you should respond to things. And at the end of the day, he has some very practical wisdom. So as I've been working in my heart to think through praying and wrestling with this passage, And to be honest with you, there's a certain amount of heaviness, even on my own soul.

Because if we can come to grips with what the Holy Spirit gives us here, brothers and sisters, there is joy, and there is life, and there is hope. And this passage offers us these things, things that Solomon longed to know that the rest of the Scriptures open up for us. and a type of joy and a type of peace that isn't bound to the circumstances of what we experience in the ordinary day-to-day of life. So I have a number of different points that I hope are being drawn up from the text to point us to this joy and this peace and this hope that God offers. So let's look together at verse one. Wisdom has an effect on us. 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. There's something that happens when somebody has adequate knowledge and has the ability to take that knowledge and with a skill and an artful craft to be able to put the plan and the actions together and to carry out things in a good way. And it even shows in that person's countenance and the reputation, how they carry themselves. Did you notice what Solomon says? A man's wisdom makes his face shine. and the sternness of his face is changed.

The person who doesn't have wisdom is constantly carrying a load on their shoulders, trying to change the entire world, are burdened by things that they cannot change. They're just constantly weighing on them and just either depressed or mad or just overwhelmed with the cruelties of the life that they find themselves in.

But when we find the biblical wisdom that Solomon speaks of, there's freedom for the soul. Because we're able to rest in God's love towards us, in God's sovereignty over the world in ways that we don't understand, and implement the things that are right in front of us. And so worry doesn't consume. But instead, these are, when wisdom starts to permeate in somebody's soul as they know who God is, and they walk in his ways, and they learn to skillfully apply God's word to their hearts out of a reverence towards God, there's a venerability, a respect, a graciousness, and a gladness that goes with a person like that. Solomon says this is what happens to the person who's truly wise.

His face shines, this is the same language from Numbers chapter six in the Aaronic benediction there. May God's face shine upon you and be gracious to you. It's as if this person knows God's face shines upon them, and so what happens, their face starts to beam with joy at others. This was Moses' face after he had come face to face with God.

So there's a peace and a freedom. An inner tranquility, not a fake smile. By the way, this is really important, right? We live in Iowa, and I remember one of the first phrases somebody told me when they were just explaining somebody's reaction to me. They said, oh, Brian, they're just being Iowa nice to you. They're smiling at you, but they really want you to go away.

This isn't a fake smile like that. That's not what this is talking about. It's not a plastic smile. It's not just acting like everything is hunky-dory, and the world's on fire, and you got your coffee cup, and you're like, it's all okay, I don't care about it. That's not what this is about. This is a true inner peace that shows in an outward countenance.

And this is where I think the Holy Spirit is pushing us this morning. And it starts with a really heavy place in verses two through nine. Solomon is not speaking in the abstract, but he's going to talk about wisdom and authority. And the type of authority he's talking about in verses two through eight is an absolute authority. Let's go ahead and read it, and then I'm gonna talk through it with us together. Ecclesiastes chapter eight, beginning at verse two.

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, that's the king, does whatever he pleases. Where the word of a king is, there is power. And who may say to him, what are you doing? Solomon is writing in a day and age where kings have near absolute authority.

Right, you don't just get to stroll into the presence of an ancient Near Eastern king and do whatever you want. You don't get to walk into his presence and say, you know, I think that's a dumb policy. We shouldn't do that. No, you couldn't even, as we would see, Solomon is writing, but in a couple of hundred years, you're gonna have the rise of the Persian Empire. And we find in places like Esther that she's scared to even walk into the king's presence because the Persian king has six axemen at his side.

And anybody who walks into the presence of the king's court without being invited is automatically killed. unless the king holds out his scepter. You don't walk into the presence of a king like that and say, what are you doing? That's what Solomon's saying in verse four. Where the word of the king is, there is power, and who may say to him, what are you doing?

We are so Americanized, and we're just so used to thinking low, and everybody's perfectly at the same level, that we just act like people don't have real power. Reality check, that's not the way of the world. There is real power in most of the world. In many, many, many countries you go, you cross the side of those who are in authority with power in their words, you treat them with contempt and you will suffer for it.

That's the world that Solomon is living in. And so his practical wisdom here is verse two, keep the king's commandment. It's the obedience. This is where I'm thankful for the general principle that we received in 1 Peter chapter two, as well as Romans 13, verses one through six. Paul knew who the emperor was. He was Nero. Peter knew who the emperor was. They hated Christians. And they said, but you know what you should do? Obey. Obey as far as you're able to obey the commands of the ruling authorities over you. Obey the king. Honor God. Obey the king. Again, this is just a piece of practical advice. Maybe it's for you young people especially. There is this thing that happens in conservatism.

Even where there's like Americans who think of themselves like sovereign individuals and They will even try to treat police officers with contempt like oh, I don't have to listen to you I'm just going to encourage you with some just down-to-earth practical advice that normally doesn't end well There's a reason they have handcuffs and a gun not the type of person you want to just blow off. Now, if you need to go to court, there are abuses of power, but if they're giving you lawful commands, obey the commands. Even in our lives today, there are laws that we ought to follow. It's not saying that there aren't, isn't injustices at times. Absolutely there are. People are evil. Yet, obey. But why? What is the motivation to obey? Notice again at verse two, keep the king's commandment for the sake of your oath to God. Now there's some question because of the grammar of verse two.

Is it your oath to God or is that God's the one who has seen your oath and he will avenge you if you don't keep your oath? Because in the ancient days here, you would actually take an oath to the king. I mean, I remember when I became enlisted in the United States Navy, I had to take an oath. Now, the oath was to the Constitution. It was not to the president. The oath was to obey all lawful commands of those in authority over me. Yet, the ultimate oath was to the Constitution.

That oath, God saw it. Just like every oath we make, when we make vows of church membership, or of baptism, or of your wedding, there's a reason why we do that publicly, because you have witnesses here on earth, but there is a God in heaven who knows what you've just vowed. And so, if you're going to make this vow to the king, in verse two, God sees that. Our earthly vows here, we talked about this in a previous chapter, our earthly vows here matter in heaven. Of course, there's implied limits to that.

We obey God rather than man when man tells us to sin against God. But also, just a piece of practical advice, if you're gonna practice civil disobedience, meaning you're not going to obey the leaders in front of you, there might also be consequences for that. Even if you are making it as a principled Christian position, you may face the consequences for that, and may God be glorified in it. But don't think that just because you take a stand and say, well, but God says that it's gonna go well.

It may not go well in this life. But generally, But generally in verse five, he who keeps his command will experience nothing harmful. And a wise man's heart discerns both time and judgment. This is interesting, five and six. Notice verse six, because for every matter there is a time and judgment, though the misery of man increases greatly.

You shouldn't say anything you want to say whenever you want to say it. Right, part of what Solomon is getting at here with wisdom is that you can't just say to the king, what are you doing? But there is a time to have wisdom to know how to say something, when to say something, and what you're supposed to say.

Right, you know this, right, husbands, You know there are things that you, my, you gotta get across to your wife. And you know the skill and the art it takes to know, how am I going to say this so that she doesn't get offended by it? And when am I going to say this to make sure I'm not stepping on her toes after she's tired and angry with the children? And do I need to do anything else around the household before I bring this up to my wife? This is what relationships are like. You could say the exact same way why it's for their husbands.

But especially when you're dealing with somebody with the power of life and death, with the king. There's a reason why every single president, when they have their joint chiefs of staff, they try to figure out when is the right time to talk. Did you know that when they're in the Situation Rooms and when they're in the Oval Office, they're always trying to figure out when they're talking to the President, should I let the Secretary of War talk first? Or should I talk first before he talks? Because what's going to be the effect of how it's going to be received by the person in charge?

No matter what administration, this is just practical wisdom. There's a time and a judgment. Even though the misery of man increases greatly. And then look at verse 9. 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. There is a time even when those powerful kings are doing their work, and when they let injustice continue to roll on, when dictator's power continues to go, it typically doesn't go well for them either. There is a time which one man rules over another to his own hurt. People eventually rebel.

Just go through the Old Testament and look at how many of the kings of the north, they got all this power, they exercised all that power, and what's the next thing that happens? You're waiting for a knife in the ribs. I mean, the scriptures are full of it. And it's not just the kings of northern Israel, this is how King Nebuchadnezzar, how his son and his son, and then the Persian kings, and you go on and on and on.

It's this constant intrigue of who's going to kill who because they're exercising too much power in a way that they don't like. So we wrestle with this in our lives. We wrestle with unjust rulers. We wrestle with how do we interact with authorities above us? It's hard. It takes wisdom. It takes skill. It's the art of applying knowledge in the right situations. And your thanks be to God.

When's the last time you've had to worry about that with a king of kings? When's the last time you've thought, you know, I don't know how I'm going to get Jesus on my side. Maybe I shouldn't pray right now to Jesus. Maybe I should let my elders pray first and then I'll pray because then maybe Jesus will be happy. Maybe I should let my wife pray first and then I'll pray because maybe God will like me more then. Maybe Jesus will hear my prayers better then. When's the last time you've had to worry about the King of Kings, Jesus Christ, the supreme sovereign of all the universe? acting unrighteously. Never. Never, right?

This is the beauty that we have as Christians, is that we can look at the kings that reign today and are in love with their power, and then we can look at this and we can go, but there is a king who is above all of them, who reigns supreme, and I can rest in him. And he's the embodiment of wisdom. He knows exactly when to do, or what to do, and exactly when to do it. And there's a peace that comes from resting in him. But notice also, Solomon goes on in verses 10 through 14, and he speaks about justice, wisdom and justice. Look with me at verses 10 through 14.

Then I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of holiness, and they were forgotten where they had done so. It's also, it's vanity. This is a hard one. All right, Solomon says he's seen people walk into the temple, evil, wicked people. And as they go throughout the city, they rob, they steal, they manipulate, they oppress. They are cruel and wicked people.

And yet when they die, as one person said, nothing makes a sinner into a saint more quickly than a good eulogy. They get buried and it's all forgotten. They were just perfect. What a wonderful person. Solomon says this is a vanity. It's a hard thing. I mean, we know this in our own life.

I remember when Steve Jobs died. It was like a national day of mourning when the CEO of Apple died. And even at Stanford University, where there's a memorial chapel, they lined the path to the chapel with hundreds and hundreds of candles. And somebody even wrote in a piece, and I think it was like, well, let me, where was it written at? Oh, I don't have it written down where the title is, but the title is, oh, first things, the article is titled, Steve Jobs, High Priest and Prophet. That's how people remembered a man who was an open, had an open hatred for Christianity.

And yet, where is the funeral for 35 Nigerian Christians who have died at the hand of extreme Islamists every single day in 2025? Where's the mourning for them? Where's the paths to chapels lined with candles for children slaughtered for their love for Christ?

This is the world Solomon lives in, it's the world we live in. And he says in verse 11, 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. He says there's They're kings that have absolute power and yet they don't have justice and as they keep not doing the right things, what does it do to those who are wicked? They want to keep doing their wickedness.

I remember not too long ago, brothers and sisters, when the nation was shut down and police officers had shackles on their own hands saying they weren't allowed to do certain things in certain cities and our family went on vacation and we drove through St. Louis during COVID, and it was somewhat soon after these riots had happened in COVID, during, in St. Louis after COVID.

And it was like a Mad Max scene. I'd never seen, there were barricades all over the place. We were trying to figure out how to go to the arch and just go, how to see it. And there were, there were people just riding ATVs, doing wheelies down the middle of downtown. And I was like, where are we? Where is justice, where is order, where is righteousness? All the shops were closed. Why? Because there was no order. Wickedness was allowed to pervade and a blind eye turned to it and so it just continued. This is a real life injustice that Solomon is talking about. And yet, Look at verse 12, there's an incredible word in verse 12.

Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and his days are prolonged, yet, we should love that word, yet. I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him. But 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. Solomon says, look, there are wicked people who mock religion and are buried, and they look like they're saints, and there are other rulers who just keep doing wicked things, and they don't uphold justice, and so the wicked continue to prosper.

That's the way of the world yet. And this is his rugged faith. This is him saying, that's not the end of the story, and I know it. I know that there is a God of righteousness. Solomon says that there are those wicked things in the day to day, and yet there is a day of judgment to come. And this is the amazing thing for me.

There are many people who say that, well, you know, Solomon was the king. Solomon could have made sure there wasn't injustice. And so you get all these eggheads sitting in seminary somewhere writing these commentaries, and I sit there and I think, do you know how hard it is for any one king to get rid of wicked people who are judging and administering the state? No, one guy can't do all of that. And I think this is Solomon being honest even about his own reign. There are even elders and underjudges under him, local leaders who are doing wicked things and he can't present them.

And he looks and he says, yet I know that God is judge. Yet I know that though in this life it may look like the wicked prosper, yet the righteous will inherit the kingdom. Is that not our hope, brothers and sisters? Is that not when we see all things going wrong around us that we can say, yet, I know that my Lord lives? For there is a day appointed to man to die, but after this, the judgment. We look forward to our great king, Jesus Christ, coming and returning again, and he will open the scrolls, and he will judge with righteousness and equity. When the clouds part and the last horn blows, brothers and sisters, our king will return, and he will give to each one his due. And if we are not found in Christ, there is to be fear.

Because make no doubt about it, his robe is dipped in blood for a reason. He carries a sharp two-edged sword. He divides the sheep and the goats. Because he will make final judgment. And so brothers and sisters, I want to encourage you as you go through this life and you see injustice, Do not let it shake your faith in God. As we read in or sung in Psalm 73, God sees this and knows it. It's no surprise. And so we trust in our King who will return. And I want to circle back to verses 7 and 8. I passed over that just for a second. Because there is something that Solomon talks about, about wisdom and death in seven and eight.

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. You can fight and you can fight and you can fight all you want. to think that you can control the day you're going to die. You might be convinced of a transhumanistic philosophy that you can take all the supplements and do all the medical things to your life and implant different mechanical organs and you'll live forever, but I promise you, you will surely yet die. You can't get out of that war. There's no draft dodging. There's no enlisting somebody else to take your place. For the day you were born, you were also issued a death certificate. Each one of us some day will die.

We don't have power over death. We don't know the future. We don't have power over God's spirit. We have no power over when we die. We have no ability to discharge ourselves from war. And we have no substitute for ourselves in the battle. Death is the ultimate equalizer. Whether you're an absolute monarch with power in your word or somebody facing oppression, death comes to all. But death isn't the final word, is it? That's what the parable that Jesus gives of Lazarus and the rich man. When this plays out, this picture of Lazarus, poor, starving, begging at the rich man's gate, God, please give me food.

Give me somewhere to sleep. Give me something to eat. Give me something to drink. And you can imagine all the people walking in through the rich man's gates and just ignoring him. Whatever, whatever. You're just annoying. Why don't you just get off the streets? or just turning a blind eye towards him. And the rich man's in his home, scrumptious meal, wonderful food, great friends, living the high life.

And when he dies, there's a reversal of roles, isn't there? Lazarus, the poor man, enters into the rest of his lord, And there's a great chasm of gulf because the rich man is in a place of torment and he just wants a single drop of water to quench his thirst and none is given to him. The point of the story that Jesus gives there is you won't believe me and you wouldn't even believe Moses. But Jesus was saying he was the king And he was going to reverse those roles. Those who rested in him, though they were poor, though they were needy, though they might in this life have suffered injustice and wrong and longed for somebody just to be kind to them in this life, yet God will remember us in that last great day. So what do we do as we live? What do we do in this life as we live?

Look with me at verses 14 and 15. There is a vanity which occurs on earth, that there are just men to whom it happens 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.

So, I commended enjoyment. because 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. You see, there are things you can't control, I can't control, none of us can control. And so you can either spend your whole life being weighed down by the anxieties of what you can't control, or You can have breakfast.

Or you can go downstairs and have an amazing cup of coffee and thank God for it. Or you can play with your grandkids and thank the Lord for a new generation. You can tie your shoes and thank the Lord for protection on your feet. You can hear the heater click on in your house. And you can enjoy and say, thank you, Lord, for the good gifts you have given me in this life. Do you see?

Solomon isn't saying, you're just living your life, ques, ras, ras. Whatever it is, let it be, right? Just, whatever, just be a hedonist. Enjoy sensuality and don't hold back from any pleasure. That's not what he's saying. He's saying you're a fool if you live your life for that. But if you're able to enjoy the good gifts of God, you're able to have peace. I think this is what Paul was getting at in Philippians chapter four.

Don't be anxious about anything. But in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. And then he goes on after that, and he says, okay, so you're not gonna be anxious. Instead, you're gonna, what you can't control, you take the God and you say, God, please help me with these things. And by the way, God, I'm so thankful for all these other things. Please help me to have peace. And then he says, okay, now, stop thinking about those things that are wearing you down, that you can't control, and instead, fix your mind on those things which are good, and right, and just, and pure, and lovely, and praiseworthy, and of good report, Fix your mind on those things. This is not putting your head in the clouds and acting like everything is okay in life. This is saying you don't have to be shackled to the concerns and the cares of this life, because guess what?

You can't control tomorrow. And you can't control a power-hungry authoritarian king. So what can you control? Your own thankfulness. Your gratitude to God. And you can have a peace that surpasses all understanding. So don't be consumed with what you can't control, people, politics, and place. Just turn off the news. And enjoy your family. Open God's word. Remember how good he is. And there is limits to wisdom. Look with me at verses 16 and 17. We'll wrap up here.

When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, even though one sees no sleep day or night, then I saw all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. For though a man labors to discover it, yet he will not find it. Moreover, though a wise man attempts to foreknow it, he will not be able to find it. Solomon's just being honest about what he spent his whole life doing. He wanted to get all the knowledge and wisdom he could possibly get from all over the globe. Staying up late at night, talking to counselors, reading books, experiencing all the stuff, trying to figure out the world, and he says, you know what I found out at the end of the day? You can't do it. You can't do it. You can't figure out what God is doing and why he's doing it. We don't know. It's not for us. He has a secret will. And so the humble person says, God, not my will be done, but yours.

Last night we watched this fun little movie. I don't like every part about it, but it's a fun movie. If you've never seen the series Inside Out, it's the two movies, and it's all about these emotions in this little girl's head, right? In the second movie, Inside Out 2, she gets more complex emotions, and the one who tries to rule over everything is this little emotion, anxiety.

It's like this spazzy green or orange creature, and it tries to rule her life. And one of the scenes in it is, anxiety tries to foreshadow everything that could possibly ever go wrong in this situation. Right, and like if I just figure out, okay, all this could go wrong, and all this could go wrong, and all this could go wrong, and all this could go wrong, and we need to be prepared for every single situation that could happen, because then we'll have a good life. And what happens?

She has an anxiety attack. She turns on her friends, she becomes this person that just, a ball of nerves. There's no peace. There's no joy. There's no contentment. Solomon here is saying you could try to stay up, wear yourself down, try to figure out why every single thing is happening, and all you'll be is a ball of nerves and full of pride. That doesn't have to be you. We can have a reverent submission a humility to go to the Lord and say, I don't need to know the depths of knowledge because you have it.

And even though all this crazy stuff is happening in the world, yet I know that you're still my King. Yet I know that righteousness will someday reign. Yet I know that my Redeemer lives. So brothers and sisters, I hope That you're able to see that the Holy Spirit gives you everything you need to just let go. That you could cling to Christ. That you can enjoy the good gifts that he's provided for you. You can rest in his love for you. And you can have a peace that surpasses all understanding. rest in Christ, trust in God, honor the King, but love the Lord.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. God, we confess that we often just, we're messed up trying to figure out the world, trying to figure out our own lives. And we confess that there is wickedness injustice, things that concern us in this life, even in our own country, even in our own neighborhoods and families. And yet we confess to you we have no control over the Spirit. And so, Father, we lay ourselves down at your feet, bowing before you at your throne, trusting that you truly are sovereign, holy, good, and righteous, and that you have shown us your love in Jesus. God, please give us a rugged faith to trust in you despite the circumstances of our life. We pray these things in Jesus's name, amen.