WWUTT 1719 Keep the Command of the King (Ecclesiastes 8:1-17)

The Bible has told us that all things are in God's hands. There is nothing that is happening that is outside of his control.

But even though we know that, we still can't see how God is working in this particular situation when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. In our Old Testament study, we are in Ecclesiastes chapter 8.

If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there, I am reading from the Legacy Standard Bible and going to read all 17 verses of this chapter.

This is the word of the Lord, through the voice of the preacher, writing in the book of Ecclesiastes.

Who is like the wise man, and who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man's wisdom illumines his face and causes his stern face to beam.

I say, keep the command of the king because of the sworn oath before God. Do not be in a hurry to go from his presence.

Do not stand in an evil matter, for he will do whatever he pleases. Since the word of the king is powerful, who will say to him,

What are you doing? He who keeps a royal command experiences no evil thing, for a wise heart knows the proper time and custom.

For there is a proper time and custom for every matter, though a man's trouble is multiplied upon him.

If no one knows what will happen, who can tell him when it will happen? There is no man who has power to restrain the wind with the wind, and there is none who has power over the day of death, and there is no discharge in the time of war, and wickedness will not provide escape to its masters.

All this I have seen, and given my heart to every work that has been done under the sun, wherein a man has power over another man to his calamity.

So then, I have seen the wicked buried, those who used to go in and out from the holy place, and they are soon forgotten in the city where they did thus.

This too is vanity. Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.

Although a sinner does evil a hundred times, and may prolong his life, still

I know that it will be well for those who fear God, who fear him openly. But it will not be well for the wicked man, and he will not prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear

God openly. There is vanity which is done on the earth, that is, there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the works of the wicked.

On the other hand, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the works of the righteous.

I say that this too is vanity. So I laud gladness, for there is nothing good for a man under the sun except to eat and to drink and to be merry, and this will join with him in his labor throughout the days of his life which

God has given him under the sun. When I gave my heart to know wisdom and to see the endeavor which has been done on the earth, even though no one ever sees sleep with his eyes day or night, and I saw every work of God, I concluded that man cannot find out the work which has been done under the sun, even though man should seek laboriously, he will not find it out, and though the wise man should say,

I know, he cannot find it out. So we begin and end this chapter with statements about the wise man.

It's kind of the bookends on chapter 8. So we start, the first line is, who is like the wise man and who knows the interpretation of a matter, and talking about how the wise man seeks out wisdom and finds it.

And then at the conclusion, in verse 17, it says, even though the wise man should say,

I know, he cannot find it out. And what this is saying here is, though the wise does seek wisdom and knowledge, he cannot fully know exactly what it is that God is doing and everything that is being done in the earth.

There will never be a man who knows all that God is accomplishing by his will.

We will get to see how God was working all things out for our good and for his glory when we get to the other side.

Trust in him now and the day will come when we will stand with God and look back over all the things that have happened in our lives and it will make sense.

I'm going to come back to that thought again at the conclusion of the lesson today. But let's begin here in chapter 8, verse 1, who is like the wise man, who knows the interpretation of a matter.

A man's wisdom illumines his face and causes his stern face to beam.

Now this also, this almost makes it sound like the wise man is a happier man because he gains wisdom.

That would contradict the statement that we had at the end of chapter 1, though, where it says in much wisdom there is much vexation and whoever increases knowledge increases pain.

So therefore, what could it mean that a man's wisdom illumines his face and causes his stern face to beam?

This is really to say that the wisdom that a man gains when he does become wise makes him humble.

What you see in his face and in his countenance is a searching, is an understanding of a matter.

It doesn't necessarily make the man happier, but it does make him humble.

And this picture of his face shining, remember that Moses came off the mountain with a shining face right after he had spent 40 days with God on Mount Sinai.

When he comes down, his face was shining so bright that he had to cover it with a veil because the Israelites could not look at him.

In this particular instance, the picture here is of a man who seeks out wisdom and so his face is like a light that can shine through darkness and can understand the meaning of a matter.

Yet we're going to get to the end of the chapter and hear how though a man gains wisdom, he cannot know everything that there is to be done.

We also recognize here from verse one that wise men are very few for it says who is like the wise man and who knows the interpretation of a matter.

Remember the way that we ended chapter seven, verse 28 says, my soul still seeks, but has not found.

I have found one man out of a thousand and that's to say there is one man who walks upright out of 999 men who do not walk in righteousness.

So the wise man is very few. There are, there are few wise in the earth who seek out what

God has said and what he requires and does it. So then going on to verse two,

I say, keep the command of the king because of the sworn oath before God.

Do not be in a hurry to go from his presence. Do not stand in an evil matter for he will do whatever he pleases.

Now this may only have to do with Israel. This may not be, you know, any king or any ruler in the earth, but consider that Solomon, the king is over the people where God has chosen to put his name.

Only the people of Israel had the law of God. No other king in the world had God's law.

So whatever the king does, he does under an oath to God.

He desires to know God's law and then execute it over the people. This oath that he has taken before God.

So if you don't do what the king instructs you to do, it is to defy

God himself. Therefore don't be in a hurry to go from his presence. Do not stand in an evil matter for we here in the nation of Israel are closer to God than any other people on the earth.

God is right there in the temple. God has chosen to put his presence in the temple, which was right next to Solomon's house and whoever was going to sit on that throne on the throne of David was going to be somebody who had the law of God and desired to keep it in the land.

So being nearer to God than any other people in the world, any Gentile or pagan don't stand in an evil matter because how much worse will it be for you on the day of judgment to have known the right way to go and did not do it.

Now we could, we could take this concept and give it some modern application for us who are

Christians. We know what God has commanded. We know what he has instructed. It's in the

Bible. And as Paul said in Romans three, we do not overthrow the law by this faith.

On the contrary, we uphold the law. How do we know what pleases the Lord? We look into his word.

What he has commanded is pleasing to God. Jesus said to his own disciples, you will show me that you love me when you obey my commandments.

So how much more important is it for us to walk in righteousness in those ways that God has said for us to go?

So how much worse will be the day of judgment for a man who did hear the word of God and did not keep it?

So we know this word. We know it is from the Lord. Let us hear the word and do what it says.

Verse four, since the word of the king is powerful, who will say to him, what are you doing?

And let's take the word of God here that we have in the Bible. This word is powerful.

It is the authority over every single person, whether they believe in it or not.

So who can say to God, who can look at the scriptures and say, what are you doing? Why would you do such a thing?

This word does not apply to me. Oh, you're going to find that out on the day of judgment, whether or not this word actually applied to you.

So do not be in your heart thinking that this word does not apply. We must do all that it says in our service, in our submission to our

God who is in heaven. He who keeps a royal command experiences no evil thing for a wise heart knows the proper time and custom.

Indeed, shouldn't that be able to, shouldn't that be said of us? We who are filled with the Holy Spirit, who know the

Spirit's word and have been given power and ability to obey it, then surely we know that by keeping the royal command, we experience no evil thing.

If we do what the Bible says, we do what is right and just. For there is a proper time and custom for every matter, though a man's trouble is multiplied upon him.

We have already read previously in Ecclesiastes that there is a season for everything.

Which chapter was that? That was chapter three. There is a time for everything and a time for every matter under heaven.

So this statement here in chapter eight kind of harkens back to that. There's a proper time and a custom for everything.

How do we know how to live in those matters that we enter into if we cannot see them coming?

We don't even know where the culture is going, where society is going to be, where our nation will end up 10 years from now.

So how do we know how to live in the midst of those circumstances and situations? It's right here in God's word.

The way you must live today, according to God's word, is the way you must live 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 30, and on and on it goes.

If no one knows what will happen, who can tell him when it will happen? That's verse seven.

Verse eight, there is no man who has power to restrain the wind with the wind. And there is none who has power over the day of death.

We read the same thing in Job chapter 14, that God has set limits upon a man, determined all of his days, and he cannot pass those limits.

So who has the power over the day of his death? You can't even harness the wind to fight against the wind.

So who can stop the day of his death? There is no discharge in the time of war, and wickedness will not provide escape to its masters.

We've read previously in Ecclesiastes, back in chapter seven, last week, that the wicked will go on living wickedly, and they will prolong their days by their wickedness, whereas a righteous man does what is right, and he may not live as long as the wicked man.

But the statement here is that wickedness will come back on the one who does wicked. He will not get away with it.

A day of judgment is coming. He won't be able to escape the day of his death, nor will he escape the judgment that will come upon every person who did not keep the law of God, who did not do what

God righteously required of all men who are made in his image.

Verse nine, all this I have seen and given my heart to every work that has been done under the sun, wherein a man has power over another man to his calamity.

If man has strength over another man to influence him what to do, and does so wickedly, a wicked man influences another man to do wickedly.

He does so to his own judgment, to his own destruction. So therefore, the king takes an oath with God to keep

God's law, to keep God's command. If we're keeping that command, we have nothing to fear of the day of judgment.

But remember that we can only keep God's law in a way that is pleasing to God when we have

Jesus Christ. No man is righteous, and as Isaiah 64, 6 says, even our most righteous deeds are as filthy rags before a holy

God. So we cannot keep the law of God in a way that is worshipful and pleasing to the

Lord. To his glory, unless we have Jesus Christ, who transforms us and makes us new, who clothes us in his righteousness.

So that when God looks at us, what he sees is not the sinner whose deeds are as a soiled garment, but he sees a righteous man clothed in his son's garments.

And so we must turn to Jesus Christ who forgives us of our sin and leads us in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Only in this way can we do what is pleasing unto the Lord. The preacher goes on, verse 10, so then

I have seen the wicked buried, those who used to go in and out from the holy place, and they are soon forgotten in the city where they did thus.

This too is vanity. Now, there's some ambiguity with this particular verse, but let me just kind of summarize what's being said here.

Just because a man might be able to stand in the holy of holies, that doesn't save him.

He goes out of the holy place into the world where he either leads men astray or perishes himself.

This too is vanity. So there's even nothing about a man who is qualified to stand in the holy of holies with the

Lord God himself in that place. There's nothing about that man that makes him greater than any other man in the earth.

He's still going to die like every other man in the earth. He is still just as subject to sin as any other man in the earth.

A man cannot escape the day of his death. He can't even escape sin because it is in our nature to sin.

We are born with that nature. We are born ensnared to sin. We are only set free from those bonds by faith in Jesus Christ.

Many of us justify our sin by the fact that we don't face any consequences for our sin.

And that's what the next verse goes on to say, verse 11, because the sentence against an evil work is not executed quickly.

Therefore, the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.

We do a sinful thing. No judgment comes upon us. So we do it again and we do it again until God gives us over to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done, because we love the unrighteous thing rather than righteousness.

Verse 12, although a sinner does evil a hundred times and may prolong his life, still

I know that it will be well for those who fear God, who fear him openly.

So it's not just about, you know, worried about what other people think of the things that I do.

I am concerned with what God thinks about my actions. I know that God is watching me.

So the way I behave, whether in secret or before others, is going to be in the fear of God.

And it will go well for that person who fears God on the day of judgment. He will not perish, but it will not be well.

This is verse 13. It will not be well for the wicked man, and he will not prolong his days like a shadow because he does not fear

God openly. In Luke chapter 11, where Jesus says, I tell you whom you should fear, fear the one who after he has destroyed the body also has the authority to destroy both body and soul in hell.

Yes, I tell you, fear him. Verse 14, there is vanity which is done on the earth.

That is, there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the works of the wicked.

On the other hand, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the works of the righteous. I say that this too is vanity.

Same kind of a statement that he said back in chapter seven. There are are wicked men who do wickedly and prolong their days.

It's like they receive reward for their wickedness, whereas there's a righteous man who does righteous, but he gets the punishment of the wicked.

And so the preacher says, this is vanity. It's empty. It's meaningless.

Justice is not done in the earth. Verse 15, so I laud gladness.

I celebrate gladness. I celebrate when the heart is merry. For if I'm just thinking about and pondering the injustice that goes on in the earth, it could be pretty depressing.

So I laud gladness for there is nothing good for a man under the sun except to eat and to drink and to be merry.

Now the apostle Paul uses this statement in first Corinthians 15, he says, if we do not rise from the dead, if there is no resurrection of the dead, which we are promised in Christ who rose from the dead.

But if there is no resurrection of the dead, eat and drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. There is no meaning or purpose to anything that we do.

What you're experiencing now is all there is. So just eat and drink and be merry for tomorrow.

That's it. Life is over and all is meaningless. And the preacher goes on here in verse 15 to say, this will join him in his labor throughout the days of his life, which

God has given him under the sun to eat and drink and be merry to find satisfaction in the work and the labor that he does.

Verse 16, when I gave my heart to know wisdom and to see the endeavor which has been done on the earth, even though no one,

I'm sorry, even though one never sees sleep with his eyes day or night.

So if we're constantly searching for answers, we would never get any rest. And I saw every work of God.

I concluded that man cannot find out the work which has been done under the sun, even though man should seek it laboriously.

Like he gives everything of himself to find the meaning and purpose of what

God is doing in everything that is under the sun. He will not find it out. And though the wise man should say,

I know. He cannot find it out. So how is it that we know what

God is doing in the midst of all things that are being done? We read his word.

Now, when we read the Bible, we will find that God does have a meaning and purpose in everything that is happening.

But just because we know that there is meaning in all that God is doing and everything that happens around us,

God is working it out for an ultimate good purpose for his glory. Even though we know that we still don't exactly know it.

Right. You would not be able to spell it out. You cannot see how this matter is ultimately going to be for our good and for his glory.

But a day is coming when we will stand with God on the other side and we will be able to look back and we will see clearly how he was working in every single thing, how he was, how he had arranged and organized every single molecule to bring about the goodness that has happened for us in Christ Jesus and the glory that we will give to God for eternity.

In 1 Corinthians 13, 12 and 13, it says, Now we see as though through a glass darkly, but soon we will see face to face.

And then we will know just as we are fully known. For now, these things remain faith, hope and love.

But the greatest of these is love. Because we have God's love now in Jesus Christ.

We have faith and hope also through Christ Jesus. When we get to eternity, we won't need faith and hope anymore.

But we will abide forever in his love. Heavenly Father, I pray that these things are a comfort to us.

That even though we know according to what the scripture says, you are working everything for our good, for those who love

God and are called according to his purpose, Romans 8, 28. Though we know that, yet we can't put our finger on exactly how you're working this particular situation out for our good.

And we don't know those things, so that we may trust in you and draw us all the more near to you,

Heavenly Father. Help us to put our faith and trust in you, knowing that you are sovereign and there is nothing outside of your control, no matter how bad things get.

Yet you reign. The wicked will be punished. The righteous will be exalted.

All according to the time that you have predestined. So we trust you in these moments.

We follow Jesus Christ and do according to your word. It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. For more about our ministry, visit us online at www .utt .com.