A few years ago (2017), authorities apprehended a group of Minnesota teens for attempting to steal a cake from a local grocery store. The teens were embarrassed, but even more so when they discovered the cake was fake—it was a cardboard display cake. The grocery store owner decided not to press charges, but the local police and news stations took the opportunity to poke some fun. They posted the story with phrases like "#nocakeforyou" and "not-so-sweet surprise" (The Associated Press, "3 Teens Caught Stealing Cardboard Display Cake in Minnesota," ABC News, 6-07-2017; www.PreachingToday.com).
Life is full of not-so-sweet surprises even when you’re doing what’s right, much more when you’re doing what you know to be wrong. So, learn to expect the unexpected, and you won’t be disappointed. You’ll enjoy life a little bit more. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Ecclesiastes 9, Ecclesiastes 9, where the Bible lays this all out.
Ecclesiastes 9:11 Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all (ESV).
Remember, this is a view of life “under the sun,” i.e., without God. Without God, time and chance may reverse what you expect: slow people win races; weak people win battles; and stupid people win food, fortune, and favor. Whereas the fast, strong, and wise lose out on all of these. Time and chance sabotage any effort you might put into life, because people don’t know what the next minute will bring.
Ecclesiastes 9:12 For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them (ESV).
One minute life is going great. The next minute you’re trapped in a bad situation like fish and birds caught in a snare. You are not the master of your fate. You are the victim of time and chance (Schultz, Evangelical Commentary on the Bible).
That’s life under the sun—without God. Life is unpredictable, so…
EXPECT TO BE SURPRISED.
You don’t know what’s ahead, so anticipate disappointment. Things do not go as planned, so expect your efforts to be upended.
Time magazine used to publish a column called Winners and Losers.
In an August 2001 issue, they put Rudy Giuliani in the “Loser” category. He was the lame duck New York City mayor, suffering from crumbling health, a crumbling marriage, and a crumbling political career. What a loser, Time suggested. Who would want to be this guy?
In a July 2001 issue, they put Ted Olson in the "Winner" category. He was a rising star as Solicitor General of the United States. What a winner, Time proclaimed. Who wouldn't envy this guy?
Yet, within a matter of weeks of those two issues, Time would refer to Giuliani as the “Mayor of the World” and a “tower of strength” for his leadership in the aftermath of September 11. Their December 31, 2001, issue named him “2001 Person of the Year.”
On the other hand, Ted Olson buried his wife, Barbara, who was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 77. It was the flight which crashed into the Pentagon on September 11. Let me tell you. No one envied him at that moment (Time magazine, July and August 2001; J. Richard Love, www.PreachingToday.com).
How tragic! But there are no guarantees in life, especially without God. Life is unpredictable, so expect to be surprised. Specifically…
EXPECT PEOPLE TO DESPISE YOUR WISDOM.
Anticipate that some will view your best ideas with contempt. Assume that many will forget your practical advice, even if it works.
Ecclesiastes 9:13-15 I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me. There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siegeworks against it. But there was found in it a poor, wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man (ESV).
A poor man’s wise advice saves his city against a powerful king, but no one remembers him to reward him. In fact, people despised the poor man’s wisdom.
Ecclesiastes 9:16 But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not heard (ESV).
People held his wise advice with contempt, even though it bested a mighty army. And you can expect people to do the same with you.
Stanislav Petrov, a Russian military duty officer, was just a few hours into his shift when alarms blared. They warned of intercontinental missiles that an American base had just launched.
The alarms turned out to be in error, but Petrov did not know it at the time. It was one of the most tense periods of the Cold War, which led to Russians living in constant fear in anticipation of a US attack.
Petrov felt pressure to take immediate action, but he sought clarity on the situation. According to the New York Times, “After five nerve-racking minutes — electronic maps and screens were flashing as he held a phone in one hand and an intercom in the other, trying to absorb streams of incoming information — Colonel Petrov decided that the launch reports were probably a false alarm.”
His superiors later reprimanded Petrov for not immediately reacting to the situation that confronted him. Petrov defended his inaction, pointing out that the alert system had been rushed to use and was likely inaccurate.
“We are wiser than the computers,” he said (Sewell Chan, “Stanislav Petrov, Soviet Officer Who Helped Avert Nuclear War, Is Dead at 77,” New York Times, 9-18-17; www.PreachingToday.com).
Stanislav Petrov had averted nuclear war, but his superiors reprimanded him for it. Some of you have experienced something similar. You do the right thing at work, perhaps averting disaster, but your boss refuses to acknowledge it. Or even worse, he reprimands you for what you did, threatening to fire you.
That’s life under the sun. Life is unpredictable, so expect to be surprised. 1st, expect people to despise your wisdom. 2nd…
EXPECT ONE FOOLISH ACT TO DESTROY YOUR WISDOM.
Anticipate that one stupid deed will ruin a hundred wise deeds. Assume that one misdeed will spoil all your good work.
Ecclesiastes 9:17-18 The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good (ESV).
Though quiet words of wisdom outweigh the shouts of the powerful, and though wisdom is more powerful than weapons of war, one sinner will ruin all that you have worked so hard to accomplish.
Ecclesiastes 10:1 Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a stench; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor (ESV).
A dead fly in the most expensive perfume makes it stink. So one foolish act ruins years of wise and honorable work.
An opulent, 900-foot cruise ship sank in 1912 on its maiden voyage from England to New York. That ship, of course, was the Titanic, on which 1500 people died in the worst maritime disaster of the time.
Experts suspected that the ship hit an iceberg, which opened a huge gash in the side of the liner. However, 85 years later (1997), an international team of divers and scientists used sound waves to probe the wreckage, buried in the mud under two-and-a-half miles of water. Their discovery? The damage was surprisingly small. Instead of a huge gash, they found six relatively narrow slits across the six watertight holds (USA Today, 4/9/97; Leadership, Vol. 17, no. 4; www.PreachingToday.com).
Just a small imperfection, invisible to most, can sink not only a great ship but also a great reputation. So watch yourself. Don’t let one stupid act ruin years of wise and honorable work.
But that’s life under the sun. Life is unpredictable, so expect to be surprised. 1st, expect people to despise your wisdom. 2nd, expect one foolish act to destroy your wisdom. And 3rd…
EXPECT THOSE IN CHARGE TO DEVALUE YOUR WISDOM.
Anticipate that those in positions of authority will promote those less qualified than you. Assume that your boss will overlook all your good work to honor someone less deserving.
Ecclesiastes 10:2 A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right, but a fool’s heart to the left (ESV).
I don’t believe it! It’s in the Bible! Conservative Republicans are wise, and Liberal Democrats are fools. No. That’s not what this says at all.
In the Bible, the right hand is the strong hand, the skilled hand. The left hand is the weak hand, the awkward hand. Thus, the right hand is the hand of favor, and the left hand is the hand of less favor (Genesis 48:13). So the wise person’s skill brings favor and the fool’s awkwardness brings him less favor, or so it should.
Ecclesiastes 10:3 Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense, and he says to everyone that he is a fool (ESV).
Everybody can see that a fool is a fool just by his erratic actions. But the wise person assuages the anger of those in charge by his calm demeanor.
Ecclesiastes 10:4 If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place, for calmness will lay great offenses to rest (ESV).
Don’t react to an angry boss and quit. Instead, respond calmly, putting his offense to rest. That’s what wise people do, which should bring them great favor. But that’s not how life works.
Ecclesiastes 10:5-7 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, as it were an error proceeding from the ruler: folly is set in many high places, and the rich sit in a low place. I have seen slaves on horses, and princes walking on the ground like slaves (ESV).
Those in charge promote fools and demote the wise. Bosses honor those less deserving and dishonor those most deserving. It’s not fair, but it’s a mistake those in charge make all the time.
I think of George E. Elliott Jr., whose superiors brushed aside his warnings of Japanese planes approaching Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. He was an apprentice radio operator on the day of the Japanese surprise attack.
Elliott and another private, Joseph L. Lockard, were on duty at Kahuka Point on the northern tip of Oahu working with some new radar equipment. Just after 7 a.m., Elliott saw “something completely out of the ordinary” on the screen, a huge blip, 137 miles out. Elliott called in his report to the Information Center at nearby Ft. Schafter, where an operator told him there was nobody on duty to take the information. Elliott and Lockard waited for a call back, which came minutes later.
Lockard took the call and told the duty officer, Lt. Kermit Tyler, that the radar blips suggested “an unusually large flight—in fact,” he said, “the largest I have ever seen on the equipment.”
Since Tyler was expecting American B-17 bombers to fly to Pearl Harbor from the mainland that day, he told Lockard, “Don’t worry about it.”
The two soldiers kept tracking the radar blip, which grew so large that Lockard figured the radar set was broken. They turned it off at 7:45 a.m., after the blip fell behind Oahu’s mountains.
Within minutes, the first bombs began falling on Pearl Harbor’s battleship row.
Afterward, the army gave Lockard almost complete credit for spotting and reporting the approaching Japanese aircraft. They promoted him, sent him to Officer Candidate School, and awarded him the Distinguished Service Medal in 1942.
Elliott became a footnote to the event until joint congressional hearings on the attack in 1946. After lobbying from senators, the Army gave Elliott the Legion of Merit for his actions on that day, but he refused to accept the medal, saying he should not be given a lesser medal than Lockard.
You see, Lockard was instructing Elliott in the use of the radar equipment that morning, but Elliott insisted that Lockard give him more instruction after their watch was over at 7 a.m. Elliott also suggested that they call in the information on the advancing planes even though, at first, Lockard objected. Then Elliott continued to keep the radar unit operational after Tyler told the two men not to worry about the advancing planes.
To his dying day, Elliott lived with a sense of frustration.
“He had a feeling ... that if the warning had been heeded, they could have at least got planes in the air and lives could have been saved.” That’s what Elliott’s son, Tom, told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in Sarasota, Fla. Tom said, “He felt that way right up to the day he died” on December 20, 2003 (“George Elliott, 85; Warning on Pearl Harbor Went Unheeded,” Los Angeles Times, December 26, 2003).
Elliott was frustrated that his warning went unheeded. Elliott was frustrated that somebody else got the credit, but that’s life under the sun. Those in charge honor and promote the wrong people.
Life is unpredictable, so expect to be surprised. 1st, expect people to despise your wisdom. 2nd, expect one foolish act to destroy your wisdom. 3rd, expect those in charge to devalue your wisdom. And 4th…
EXPECT CHANCE TO DISSOVLE YOUR WISDOM.
Anticipate that fate will nullify your good decisions. Assume that bad timing will cancel out your best plans.
Ecclesiastes 10:8-9 He who digs a pit will fall into it, and a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall. He who quarries stones is hurt by them, and he who splits logs is endangered by them (ESV).
Accidents happen when you go to work.
Ecclesiastes 10:10-11 If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed. If the serpent bites before it is charmed, there is no advantage to the charmer (ESV).
Though wisdom helps you work smarter, not harder, you can still get bit. You take a chance every time you attempt to get something done.
On February 1st, 2018, Robert Meilhammer, 51, was out hunting with three friends when they noticed a flock of Canada geese flying overhead. From a blind, one of his friends fired a shot that struck one of the birds. In a burst of tragic irony, the trajectory of the plummeting goose aligned perfectly with Meilhammer's location, striking him directly. The impact left injuries to his face and head, including the loss of two teeth.
It was a “really unusual, freaky accident,” according to Maryland Natural Resources Police spokeswoman Candy Thomson, who said the goose was approximately the size of a small turkey. “He's lucky,” she added. “Those birds weigh a lot, and falling back down to earth, they're going to pick up a lot of speed. It's gonna leave a mark.”
Obviously, hunting accidents like these are no better for the hunter than they are for the goose. Sources are unclear, however, as to how good they may be for the gander (Michael Bartiromo, “Dead goose falls from sky, knocks hunter unconscious in ‘freaky accident,’” Fox News, 2-2-18; www.PreachingToday.com).
Meilhammer expected to harvest a goose that day, but “a really unusual freaky accident” put him in the hospital.
That’s life under the sun. Life is unpredictable, so expect to be surprised. 1st, expect people to despise your wisdom. 2nd, expect one foolish act to destroy your wisdom. 3rd, expect those in charge to devalue your wisdom. 4th, expect chance to dissolve your wisdom. And finally.
EXPECT FOOLISH WORDS TO DEVOUR YOUR WISDOM.
Anticipate that the wrong thing said at the right time will consume all your skilled efforts at success. Assume that a stupid remark will eat up anything good you are trying to accomplish.
Ecclesiastes 10:12-15 The words of a wise man’s mouth win him favor, but the lips of a fool consume him. The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is evil madness. A fool multiplies words, though no man knows what is to be, and who can tell him what will be after him? The toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know the way to the city (ESV).
The fool is extremely ignorant, so much so “he does not know his way to the city.” It’s an ancient proverb like saying today, “He does not know enough to come in out of the rain.” The fool is extremely dumb, but he keeps running his mouth anyway. Though he is clueless about the future, he multiplies words, dispensing delusional advice from beginning to end. Now, such folly is not limited to the poor shmucks in our world, for even kings can speak and act foolishly.
Ecclesiastes 10:16-19 Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, and your princes feast in the morning! Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility, and your princes feast at the proper time, for strength, and not for drunkenness! Through sloth the roof sinks in, and through indolence the house leaks. Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, and money answers everything (ESV).
Foolish rulers think money is the answer for every problem. They party all the time, and their laziness brings the house down—i.e., it destroys the infrastructure of the nation.
If that doesn’t describe our president, his cabinet, and congress these days, I don’t know what does. So it is tempting to ridicule such rulers, but that would be foolish, as well.
Ecclesiastes 10:20 Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom curse the rich, for a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter (ESV).
Private words become public knowledge. Private emails get published for the whole world to see. So be very careful what you say, and don’t run your mouth like a fool.
James Stephens learned that lesson the hard way. He and his wife were at home one night complaining about his boss, who overheard their conversation, because James had accidentally pocket (or butt) dialed him. The next day, James’ boss gave him a choice: resign or be fired. James resigned.
“He had a tendency to call me after hours quite a bit,” James told CBS News' Mark Strassmann. Well, after James' boss, Michael Coan, called him at home late one night, his wife Gina had something to say about the “intrusion.”
Coan overheard them talking for about 12 minutes before James realized he had pocket dialed his boss. He hung up immediately.
The next day James was forced to resign his six-figure job with the state of Georgia. He and his wife later sued Coan personally, claiming he had invaded their right to privacy with “voyeuristic eavesdropping (that was) felonious conduct.”
Rikki Klieman, legal analyst for CBS News, understands the rationale for the lawsuit, but sees a potential hurdle in its ability to proceed. “What we find here is someone who really believed he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in having a very, very confidential conversation with his wife and that yet, it may not be private at all.”
In 2015, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled on a similar case in Kentucky. It decided someone who pocket dials another person does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy because they placed the call (“Georgia man sues former boss after butt dial costs him his job,” CBS News, April 11, 2018; www.PreachingToday.com).
Ouch! Your words, even those said in private, can get you into a lot of trouble, so watch what you say.
Nelson Mandela once said, “It is never my custom to use words lightly. If 27 years in prison have done anything to us, it was to use the silence of solitude to make us understand how precious words are and how real speech is in its impact on the way people live and die” (Nelson Mandela, in His Words, Wall Street Journal, 12-5-13; www.PreachingToday.com).
My dear friends, that’s life under the sun. Life is unpredictable, so expect to be surprised. 1st, expect people to despise your wisdom. 2nd, expect one foolish act to destroy your wisdom. 3rd, expect those in charge to devalue your wisdom. 4th, expect chance to dissolve your wisdom. And 5th, expect foolish words to devour your wisdom.
So, what do you do in the face of such risk? Stay in bed and never get up? No, then you risk bed sores and blood clots. This is what you do. If life under the sun is too risky, you look above the Sun. You look to the Lord. Commit your life to Him, and trust Him to work all things together for your good (Romans 8:28), even your foolish mistakes, just as He promised. Then enjoy the surprises, because some of them are wonderful!
Just last year (2022), LeQuedra Edwards was in a convenience store, spending $40 on a lottery vending machine. However, when she went to make her selection, a rude patron bumped into her, causing her to push an unintended number on the machine. Edwards said, “He just bumped into me, didn't say a thing and just walked out the door.”
So, instead of spending money on several lower-priced tickets as usual, she ended up spending most of her money on a $30 Scratchers ticket. But her irritation quickly faded after she went to the car, scratched off the numbers on her ticket, and realized that she’d won the grand prize of $10 million.
She said, “I didn't really believe it at first, but I got on the freeway and kept looking down at (the ticket) and I almost crashed my car. I pulled over, looked at it again and again, scanned it with my app and I just kept thinking, ‘This can't be right.’”
According to the news release, Edwards plans to use her winnings to buy a house and launch a nonprofit organization (Editor, “Woman won $10M after accidentally pushing wrong button on vending machine in Tarzana,” ABC7, 4-6-22; www. PreachingToday.com).
Sure, life is unpredictable and full of surprises. But when you bring God into the picture, He can redeem even your accidents to accomplish much good. Trust Him to do so for you and risk the surprises, living your life under his control to the full.
