Religion And Politics - Ecclesiastes 8:1-9:1 Series

8:1 Who is like the wise person, and who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man's wisdom brightens his face, and the sternness of his face is changed. 2 Keep the king's command because of your oath made before God. 3 Do not be in a hurry; leave his presence, and don't persist in a bad cause, since he will do whatever he wants. 4 For the king's word is authoritative, and who can say to him, "What are you doing?" 5 The one who keeps a command will not experience anything harmful, and a wise heart knows the right time and procedure. 6 For every activity there is a right time and procedure, even though man's troubles are heavy on him. 7 Yet no one knows what will happen because who can tell him what will happen? 8 No one has authority over the wind to restrain it, and there is no authority over the day of death; there is no furlough in battle, and wickedness will not allow those who practice it to escape. 9 All this I have seen, applying my mind to all the work that is done under the sun, at a time when one man has authority over another to his harm. 10 In such circumstances, I saw the wicked buried. They came and went from the holy place, and they were praised in the city where they did so. This too is futile. 11 Because the sentence against a criminal act is not carried out quickly, the heart of people is filled with the desire to commit crime. 12 Although a sinner commits crime a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I also know that it will go well with God-fearing people, for they are reverent before Him. 13 However, it will not go well with the wicked, and they will not lengthen their days like a shadow, for they are not reverent before God. 14 There is a futility that is done on the earth: there are righteous people who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked people who get what the actions of the righteous deserve. I say that this too is futile. 15 So I commended enjoyment because there is nothing better for man under the sun than to eat, drink, and enjoy himself, for this will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun. 16 When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the activity that is done on the earth (even though one's eyes do not close in sleep day or night), 17 I observed all the work of God and concluded that man is unable to discover the work that is done under the sun. Even though a man labors hard to explore it, he cannot find it; even if the wise man claims to know it, he is unable to discover it. 9:1 Indeed, I took all this to heart and explained it all: the righteous, the wise, and their works are in God's hands. People don't know whether to expect love or hate. Everything lies ahead of them.

Introduction: Don’t Chafe Against the Curse

What are the two things they say you should never talk about in polite company? Religion and politics. I hope there isn’t any polite company here today because after dealing with some other things for a few weeks we are returning now to our verse by verse study through the book of Ecclesiastes, and the entire section we hit today is all about both religion and politics. Ecclesiastes is about enjoying life in a futile world by pleasing God. And if we are going to learn how to enjoy life in a fallen, cursed, futile world, we are going to have to know how to deal with politics and government and authorities because that is a big part of life in a fallen world.

I was talking to Stephanie Truong not long ago and I really like the way she put it. She pointed out that so often we miss out on the joy we should have because we are “chafing against the curse.” You want to express love to someone with an encouraging phone call and your phone battery dies. You want to serve the saints of God in an important ministry at church but you end up spending two hours in a traffic jam so you can serve for 15 minutes. You plan a wonderful time alone with God in prayer and Scripture, but your alarm malfunctions and it is all you can do just to get to work on time. You plan to spend time together with your wife, but then your boss keeps you late. We have these big, important, eternal things we are trying to do, like expressing love to people, or doing ministry, or worshipping God. But we find ourselves frustrated because things like phone batteries and alarm clocks and traffic jams gobble up our time. But one of the things we are learning in this book is that all those troublesome aspects of living in a fallen, cursed, futile world are actually from God’s hand. He sends them, which means dealing with those things is part of our God-given task. If getting my phone charged is part of loving my neighbor, and sitting in traffic is part of serving the body of Christ, then dealing with the phone and sitting in traffic are big, important, eternal things. If God says I have to deal with those things in order to accomplish my task, then dealing with those things is just as sacred an activity as anything else.