A sermon preached at Covenant Presbyterian Church of Fort Smith, Arkansas on August 27, 2023.
Who is like the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed. I say: Keep the king’s command, because of God’s oath to him. Be not hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. For the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to him, “What are you doing?” Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way. For there is a time and a way for everything, although man’s trouble lies heavy on him. For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it. All this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt. Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity. Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him. But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God. There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun. When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one’s eyes see sleep, then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out. (Ecclesiastes 8:1-17)[1]
Good government is a gift from God and a fruit of God-given wisdom. In the context of our own national government, for example, though certainly not perfect, we see wisdom in its design and structure. The founders of our country knew that man can be impulsive and collectively impassioned, and so rather than a pure democracy, they chose to form a republic, “a government in which the popular will is carried out indirectly, through the mediating office of institutions and their representatives.”[2] We elect our representatives by popular vote and since 1914 our senators, but prior to that our senators were elected by our state legislatures. We elect our President, not by popular vote but by Electoral College. Such checks and balances are intended to help keep us from mob rule, so to speak, behavior that Solomon cautioned against thousands of years ago.
My point is that while no government is perfect, we can see wisdom in what we have, but wisdom has its limits. Having wisdom is better than not having it, but it doesn’t solve everything. Wisdom may be seen in our form of government, for example, but that doesn’t mean those who serve in it have a lick of it. Such are the mysteries of life, many that wisdom cannot explain. Part of wisdom then is having the right perspective, the humility to accept life’s limits.
The Right Perspective
“Who is like the wise?” “Who compares with the sage?” (8:1 NJB). It’s a rhetorical question, not to be answered with a name (or names) but to be contemplated, considered, perhaps for the prevalent lack of wisdom. But scarcity increases value, and wisdom makes herself known often in the practical application of discernment. Surely it is the sage who “knows the interpretation of a thing,” a know-how to navigate the complexities of life. Proverbs says, “whoever finds [wisdom] finds life and obtains favor from the LORD” (Prov. 8:35). Solomon says that you can even tell who has found it: It’s written all over his face, a wise countenance. The wise comprehend a matter and have the confidence to act, not in arrogance but with clarity.
For example, wisdom understands and respects authority and knows how to live under it. Rather than rebel against authority, Solomon says, “Keep the king’s command, because of God’s oath to him,” or as it may also be translated, “because of your oath to God” (8:2).[3] In the context of the ancient kingdom of Israel, the king sat in the seat of authority, under God. He was the governing authority. And though our government differs, our obligation to authority doesn’t. Our “oath to God,” so to speak, it to respect what God establishes. As covenant children of God, we submit to authority, because “there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God,” we are “subject to the governing authorities” (Rom. 13:1). It is helpful to remember here that “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will” (Prov. 21:1), but that doesn’t mean we will always understand why God turns it a particular direction.
We must exercise godly patience with the governing authority. Solomon says, “Be not hasty to go from [the king’s] presence” (8:3). The presence of the king was a place of honor but also decision making, a place of privilege but also deliberation. To rush out of his presence could be warranted or unwarranted, but to depart in haste conveys disrespect and a lack of wisdom. Solomon’s caution is against such impulsive behavior, regardless of motive, behavior he describes as “evil,” an evil that puts you at odds with governing authority. Wisdom is required to remember that when you’re in the king’s presence, “the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to him, ‘What are you doing?’” (8:4).
This is not to say that there may be a time to oppose the governing authority, to disobey the king’s command. For example, consider Daniel’s faithful prayer life, contrary to the king’s command, which led to a night in the lion’s den, a civil disobedience that ultimately resulted in justice and turned the king’s heart to make a national declaration exalting the glory of God (Dan. 6). As there is a time and place for everything, the wise, like Daniel, know the right time. Solomon says, “the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way” (8:5b). When the governing authority commands its citizens to disobey the commands of God, then wisdom says, with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, “be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods” (Dan. 3:18). Solomon says, “Whoever keeps a command,” meaning the Lord’s command, “will know no evil thing” (8:5a). There is no law of man that outweighs or overrides obedience to God (Gal. 5:23).
The Right Time
In the third chapter of Ecclesiastes, Solomon poetically explains, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (3:1). Here, in the sixth verse, he echoes this truth, emphasizing the necessity of recognizing the right time and responding accordingly, “For there is a time and a way for everything” (8:6a). For example, as anyone who has lived long enough can attest, it is quite easy to get into trouble. A poor decision, a momentary lack of discernment, can lead to endless trouble. “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,” wrote Alexander Pope,[4] but wisdom helps us avoid trouble, by considering the end from the beginning.
Part of this wisdom is knowing our limits. Though created in God’s image (Gen. 1:27), we are still created, and fallen in sin, and eventually die, every one of us. Though we spend a lifetime caring for our bodies, we are from dust and to dust we return (Eccles. 3:20). Though science fiction would have us believe we can go on forever, no one has the power to retain the human spirit or death, only God (8:8). But in this life, we do have the power to hurt one another, war against one another, even kill one another. God only knows the limit of our depravity. But that’s the point: God knows; we don’t.
To emphasize this truth, Solomon considers the funerals of wicked people, who during their lives masqueraded as righteous, faithful in corporate worship and good deeds, and totally rotten. Solomon finds it ridiculous. What hypocrisy! And yet, they pulled it off their entire life. Void of conviction, they carried on as if it was acceptable to live wickedly, masked with a spiritual superficiality. Where’s the justice, we wonder?
But the better question is: Where is our faith? Is our faith in some sort of Karmic justice, or is it in him who declares the beginning from the end? Is our faith in social justice, or is it in him whose purpose will prevail (Isa. 46:10)? Given our fallen human nature, we are short-sighted at best. But Judgment Day will come, wickedness will be judged, and the evidence of our depravity will be revealed.
Stop looking to this world for what God only can provide. Fear him with reverence and awe, looking in faith to his promised provision, to Christ “who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). There is no life mystery to unravel, no equation to solve to figure out life: “For all the promises of God find their Yes in [Christ]” (2 Cor. 1:20). “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10), and so wisdom is revealed as we trust in him in all things, even, or perhaps especially, in the things we can’t understand. And in rightly fearing God, trusting him in all things, by his grace he helps us rightly respond to the complexities of this life in a fallen world.
The Right Response
For example, why do bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people? You and I know people who love the Lord, seek to live for him, and yet encounter issues, problems, even tragedy, unexplainably. And we also know people who don’t know the Lord, live like the devil, and seemingly flourish. How do you explain it? Like Job’s friends, we have our theories, love to voice them, and some even contain nuggets of truth. But they are just theories, which often dissipate under the weight of life’s complexities. Just about the time you think you have life figured out, you realize you don’t.
Solomon says that we won’t figure it out. Life is uncertain and will often twist and turn in directions you cannot foresee, and you may not like. We live in a world of imperfect government and flourishing fools. We pray for the governing authority, but we know power often corrupts. We seek to right injustice, but we cannot right it all. We look around and feel at times that wickedness runs rampant. And seeing what we see, it is quite easy to fall into a kind of moral, cynical misery. But the wise in heart, who fears God, trusting in his promised provision in Christ, and his providential working out all things for our good, looks around and says instead,
This is my Father’s world,
O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.[5]
The right response to life’s uncertainties is to trust the Lord, and in trusting him enjoy his blessings. So, Solomon says, “I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun” (8:15). Solomon’s commendation, in Hebrew, is more akin to praise.[6] He can’t be more adamant: Amidst the uncertainties of this life under the sun, thoroughly enjoy God’s simple gifts, such as food and drink. They’re not merely fuel for the engine but pleasurable gifts of God to be enjoyed, and the child of God will see the pleasure of God through them.
Slow down; don’t scarf it down: “Taste and see that the Lord is good (Ps. 34:8). There’s no need to binge but gratefully imbibe, note the bouquet of God’s goodness, enjoy what Robert Farrar Capon calls “water in excelsis,”[7] savor the blessings of God’s good bounty. Because when the children of God do, conscious that we are the recipients of God’s grace, Solomon says, we will carry it with us into tomorrow. Amidst your daily toil the memory of our senses should remind us of God’s good provision in all things.
Enjoy the good things that God gives, knowing that this world obsessed with busyness, with its always-on, sleep-deprived, 24/7 compulsion to be God, will do what it can, when it can, to rob you of his joy. And when it tries, remember this: we trust in the only one who neither slumbers nor sleeps (Ps. 121:4). We trust in the one who created this world and upholds it by the word of his power (Heb. 1:3). We trust in the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rev. 22:13).
[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).
[2] Anton Barba-Kay, A Web of Our Own Making: The Nature of Digital Formation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023), 135.
[3] ESV footnote, alternative translation.
[4] Alexander Pope, “An Essay on Criticism,” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69379/an-essay-on-criticism.
[5] “This Is My Father’s World,” Trinity Hymnal, Revised Edition (Suwanee: Great Commission Publications, 1990), 111.
[6] Benjamin Shaw, Ecclesiastes: Life in a Fallen World (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2019), 119-120.
[7] Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection (New York: Modern Library, 2002), 83-97.
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