Use God's Word as Your Navigational Tool
Tom Shrader works through Ecclesiastes 8 and 9, pressing home Solomon's relentless argument that human beings cannot know what will happen, when it will happen, or how it will happen — and that even if they could, they lack the power to change it. Using the illustration of flying blind through clouds on instruments alone, Shrader urges listeners to stop trusting their instincts and instead trust God's Word, which unlike a fallible instrument panel never fails. The teaching closes with Solomon's surprising counsel: within that posture of trust, believers are freed to enjoy life, work wholeheartedly, and rest in the knowledge that God holds everything in His hands.
“We're not trusting an instrument panel that can fail — we're trusting a God that never fails.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Ecclesiastes
Recorded: 2008 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 1 hr 3 min
Themes: trust, uncertainty, God's word, wisdom, contentment, fear, enjoying life, guidance, anxious about the future, struggling with control, feeling lost, new believer, young adult, working professional, overwhelmed by uncertainty, seeking direction
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 8:1-9:12, Ecclesiastes 5:2, Romans 13:1-7, 2 Peter 3:3-8, James 4:13-14, Colossians 3:23, Ezekiel 16:49, Genesis 39
Theological Themes: biblical authority, providence, divine sovereignty, sola scriptura, human limitations, eschatology, scripture sufficiency, wisdom literature
Full Transcript
Welcome and Announcements
I am going to ask you to multitask, so this is scary for some of you. I am going to ask you to open your Bibles to the book of Ecclesiastes. If you don't have a Bible here in the chapel, there should be a Bible in the pew somewhere along the way. If you are over in the conference center and you raise your hand, they should bring you a Bible. When you get it open, turn to page 480 — that is where we will be in a minute.
As you are doing that, can I draw your attention to the bulletin? Especially if you are with us for the first time, we would love to meet you, and completing the guest registration card is an invitation for us to contact you. Last week I think I met four people who said they were there for the second time. Honestly, that is really significant, because it means you have been here once, whatever we did was not terribly terrifying to you, and you are back again. We would really love to meet with you.
The best way to do that — and the timing is perfect — is next Sunday. You will see it in the bulletin: a Connect to EVBC class. That is for those of you who are newer to the church, whether you have only been here a couple of times or maybe you have been here a bunch but have just never really plugged in. You need to register using that same tab so that we can arrange child care if you need it. We are going to have lunch together, so we want to make sure we have enough lunches for everyone — and what is really important is that I get one. Last time I did not get one because we did not register. So please register, come over, you will have your time with our staff, and then I will come over and we will spend an hour to an hour and a half — whatever time it takes — for me to answer every question you ask. I will stay there as long as you want to be there.
A couple of other things: if you are a thirty-plus single, there are about five or six spots left in the annual retreat, which is the first of August up at Bison Ranch. Check the bulletin for details. If you are a newly married couple — and here is the way we define it here: three years or less — we have a whole ministry that is really gearing up for you for that stage of life. It is a critical stage of life and we want to be there for you. We decided that once a quarter we will come together as a whole group of newly marrieds to talk about big issues. In the fall we are going to talk about money and we are going to talk about sex. I probably have eighty-five percent of my preparation done for this, and I mean it sincerely — this is going to be an incredible night. If you have been married three years or less, you need to be there next Saturday night. It is going to be a great time to deal with something that is really, really important.
Hot Summer Nights
Lastly, Hot Summer Nights — that is the opportunity we have to get together about five times over the summer. We have this Tuesday and then the following Tuesday. This Tuesday my guest is Barry Asmus. I talked a lot about Barry last year and have not said much about him this year, but we had such a great response. According to USA Today, Barry is one of the top five most sought-after speakers in the country. He is an economist, but he will shatter your stereotypical image of what it means to be an economist. We will talk about gas and oil, health care, politics, religion, marriage, and raising children — we will cover it all. I am just telling you, if you were here last year for Barry, you will be back, and for those of you who were not, just ask someone who was there what it was like. We have already started a valium drip for Barry, so he will be relaxed by Tuesday night.
The following Tuesday, my guest is Tim Kimmel. Tim is going to come and we are going to talk about parenting — grace-based parenting — and also grandparenting. That will be a lot of what we discuss, but we are going to go down some other trails with Tim as well. He has some other passions and I want to pull those out of him, and I think I can do that with a couple of the right questions. So here is how I am framing these two weeks: for Barry Asmus, you just need to be here — I do not even need to say more. The following week, if you are a parent or if you have a parent, you need to be there. That should cover almost everybody, so we hope to see you these next two Tuesdays.
A Special Interview
This morning we are going to do something I do not believe we have ever done in the history of this church. There are times where we need to take some time and do some family business, and there are different ways to do that. This particular matter is so important that I wanted to get it right, and I really felt the only way to get it right was for me to sit down and put together a short interview with Dave and Jodi Moore. I did that about ten days ago. It is fifteen minutes and thirty-five seconds — that is a chunk of time — but I think as we get into it you will see that it is really important and really worth it. The topic is self-explanatory. After we watch it, I want to take about sixty seconds to make some comments.
Please listen closely. If you have cell phones, will you turn those off? If you have children who are going to distract the people around you, now is the time to place them in the room that has been prepared especially for them so that we can really focus on this.
It is Wednesday morning, and I am in a conference center lobby with Dave and Jodi Moore. Many of you know Dave and Jodi — some of you know them well, others know them by sight, and those of you who are new to the church are in for a treat as you get to know these two people a little more.
Use God's Word as Your Navigational Tool
Who has been here since that very first day? Their hands would go up, but way more than just being here, they have been a real central part of East Valley Bible Church. I was the first elder at East Valley Bible Church; Dave was the second. That is how far back we go, and we are gathered here this morning to share a moment with you and talk about something that is bittersweet.
Dave and Jodi have had some conversations, and we have talked with them. Even though Dave has been on this board for 17 years, he has come to the realization that physically he cannot serve on the board anymore. I want to talk a little bit about that, because if I heard that I would ask: how physical can this be?
Dave's Condition
Talk about just the physical condition you are in, and specifically the RSD — what is it, and how does it affect your day-to-day life?
RSD is a nerve disorder — Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy is what the letters stand for. It actually started in the knee after a knee replacement, and then it spread through my entire body. Day-to-day life becomes very difficult. Heat bothers you, cold bothers you, wind bothers you — it is an amazing thing.
We reached a point a couple of months ago where there were six elder meetings within a span of time, and five of those times Dave physically could not get there. Here is what I know: in the history of this church, having had seven or eight elders, I do not know that there has ever been a man who loved being an elder more than Dave. I know that is a tough reality for him.
I have a compassion — a passion — about being an elder and what it involves: being a shepherd to the flock, ministering to the flock, and being part of the team that does that. The elders have been so gracious to me. I cannot count how many times Neil brought his office chair and allowed me to use it with a pillow, just trying to make me as comfortable as possible to function in an elder meeting.
Jodi's Many Roles
When you say shepherd, different pictures come to mind, but one of them might even be just seeing the two of your faces. We just had an elder retreat, and a lot of the newer men were talking about the early days. Jodi, you were there at the beginning — just take us through the different things you have done and continue to do with the church.
I started in the nursery. We had one service and then two services, and the teachers wanted the children in the nursery to be taught as well. So I was in there helping with the little ones, and that grew quite a bit as more children came in. Then, as that grew, they started the compassion ministry, and within the compassion ministry was Hearts to Hands, which brought meals to people. I got that going, and then just working alongside him with the compassion ministry — visiting people in the hospital, praying with people in the hospital.
Everybody has different gifts and different spheres of influence. Dave and Jodi may fly a bit under the radar screen, but they have probably touched as many lives — or more — than almost anyone, because when they touch them it is in a significant way, oftentimes during a time of crisis, hurt, or pain. You love that, don't you?
Yes, it is wonderful to go in there, especially when you do not know these people, because that is where friendship starts. You can pray with them, get to know them, and then follow up afterwards with meals or prayer or whatever else needs to be done. That is how you get to know a lot of people and how friendships grow.
Learning to Receive
Sometimes it is easier to give care and love than to receive it. Now you are on the other end of that. Here is a person who went one hundred miles an hour, doing as much as possible, and then a hundred miles becomes a little bit less, and a little bit less, until you can only give a little — and now you are on the receiving end. You say it is hard, but it is pretty wonderful at the same time.
It is wonderful. We are so thankful for the people who just show up. Larry Larson is there every week or every other week just to cut the yard and clean up the front. People actually came and painted the house — they painted the inside of the house. We have had so much love from this church, and it was all done in love. People brought meals to us on bad days.
There were times when Jodi was gone for a couple of days, and I was trying to vacuum. I put myself down just doing the vacuum in the living room — I could not do it. To a healthy person, they cannot even begin to understand that. I cannot comprehend it. You tell me you cannot even vacuum, and the reality is: no, I cannot.
Now talk about this — and it may be uncomfortable, but that is all right. Talk about what it is like not just to receive care, but to give care to someone you really love, the most important person in the world to you. How hard is that?
It is hard.
Trusting God's Sovereignty in the Midst of Suffering
It gets really frustrating when you are not getting answers from doctors. They may tell you that blood work came back okay, this came back okay, this came back okay — but they are not answering the question of why this is still happening, or why he is having these symptoms right now. You cannot walk out of there without frustration. And then you see your husband, whom you totally love and admire, just keep going downhill. It is hard, and it is one of those growing experiences where you simply trust in the Lord, trust that He is going to be there with you and take care of you.
I want to go back to something you touched on in the middle of talking about people coming and hearing. One of the things we are hearing about is the sovereignty of God — the Lord gives, the Lord takes away. How does that reality, that doctrine, the sovereignty of God, play itself out in a day-to-day life where you can barely get out of bed, cannot vacuum, cannot go to an elder meeting, could not possibly sit through a three-hour elder meeting? Where does the sovereignty of God fit in when you are thinking that through?
Seeing that God has a purpose, and that God is using the experience and the situation — I think He uses it to grow me. I am so dependent on Him. As the pain increases — and it is a burning pain, head-to-toe burning pain — there are times I have to go in, shut the door, turn off the light, and just lay there. It even hurts to lay down; that first contact is a wild, hurting pain until the body gets used to it.
But to listen to praise music, to just enjoy the praise of the Lord — it puts me in a completely different place. I am receiving from Him through that, and that is a blessing for me. There is so much joy in it. I rejoice in what I receive. I give so little and I receive so much back from the Lord.
The Love of Christ Displayed Through the Body
The neighbors see it, and it has been an evangelistic tool, because I can tell them where this love is coming from — from East Valley and from our church's love for us. And we always have to jump right in there, because I want to make sure — and I know this is not at all what is being said — but sometimes people hear that and think, "All they care about is East Valley." Our point is not East Valley. Our point is that it is the love of Christ that compels us, and we are part of East Valley. That means it is the very thing that drove everything. That is the point.
That is why we love this church. We are going to stay here week to week; we are not going anywhere. We are committed to ministry here, committed to the Lord here. This is where we are serving the Lord, and God has us at East Valley Bible Church for Him and for His glory. That is what we are committed to here.
We could talk and talk about this, and maybe someday in a different setting we can share at greater length. But you used words like joy and blessing, and really, a display case for His grace and mercy. I know this will make you uncomfortable, but you two are exactly that — to me, to us, to this body. There are no two people who have been more of a blessing, more of a source of joy and love, and really the hands and feet of Christ in this body, than what you two have done.
The Blessing of Learning to Receive
What I love about that is now being on the other end of it — because I know it is hard. I know it is difficult sometimes to receive. It is very hard. At the very beginning of all this, people wanted to say, "We'll bring you meals," and it is so hard to say yes, because you feel you can do it yourself. But more than half my time is just trying to make sure he is comfortable and caring for him.
I tell you, it is such a blessing once you get past that point — when people want to help you and want to care for you, to receive that. But it is also a wrong when we do not, because we are robbing them of the joy. And sometimes we don't. I mean, part of the receiving is not just what you gain yourself — it is the opportunity for others to give to somebody.
You know what that is? It is the normative Christian life. It is the way it is supposed to be. I could do a whole lesson on the neighborhood watching this, because that is what should be going on throughout all our lives — not just in moments of real hurt and crisis, but in moments of joy. It is everyday living. It is celebrating a little league game together and all those things that go with it.
Commitment to the Body and to One Another
Here is what I know: if people want to find you, they can look you up, but do not bother — every Sunday morning at 8:20, when you come in the chapel on the right side, halfway up on the second section, those are the two of them sitting there. They were four or five pews from the front, exactly the same place, and always in the lobby.
We are so thankful to you both. Your fingerprints are all over this. When we talk about a display case for the grace of God and how to live, you two really model that. And I want to thank you for your service on the Elder Board, because I know from being there from the beginning that it is not an easy duty. It is difficult. There are moments of disagreement, moments of really searching to find what needs to be done — and sometimes it is a matter of going back to Scripture.
The Limits of Human Knowledge
Ecclesiastes chapter 8 and chapter 9. If you have been here for the last four weeks, I could say more of the same. It just continues in its rhythm. This book is relentless in terms of making a point, and then making it again and again and again and again and again, driving you to almost this sense of despair and hopelessness, though it is a book of hope, and that is what I intend to try to bring out today.
What Solomon really gets at today, and just drives it home again, is that there are these moments in life — and they are more than perhaps we would like — where we do not understand exactly what is going on. Solomon is going to say to us: you cannot know. A wise man, someone who fears God and has entered into a relationship — in our context — with Christ, that person can gain some wisdom. But the wisdom may not be in the specific answers to those questions around us. It would be in knowing certain things about, for example, specifically the sovereignty of God.
He tells us today that we do not even know what is going to happen, we do not know when it is going to happen, we do not know how it is going to happen, and if we did know, it would not matter, because we cannot do anything about it.
Navigating Life by Instruments
Susan said to me yesterday — and I don't think I've ever heard her say this — "I'm really ready to go on vacation." That got me thinking about a vacation we took several years ago. We wanted to get up to Northern California, and a friend of ours said, "I have a plane, let me fly you up there." I'm not a small plane guy, but he assured me it was a bigger plane and I'd be comfortable.
So we start up, and I'm the co-pilot. That should give you a sense that if the pilot goes down, we've got some serious issues. All I know is wheels first, but I have a feeling it's going to be nose first if I'm in charge.
We're flying over on a clear morning, heading toward the coast, when it gets partly cloudy, then very cloudy, then really cloudy. We're above it at first, so I thought it would be beautiful flying over and seeing the coast — but you couldn't see anything, just clouds. Then we start dropping down into the midst of those clouds, and they are really thick. Honestly, you cannot see anything.
So I'm watching us descend, watching the altimeter, knowing it's telling me how far the ground is from us. It reads 3,000 feet, then 2,500. I said, "Hey, are we all right?" He said, "Yeah, yeah, we're all right." I said, "Well, I can't see anything." He said, "It's all the instruments."
Are they ever wrong? That's what I'm thinking. It's 2,000 feet, then 1,500, then 1,000. The plane is rocking, and you can't see a thing. I cannot describe it — we are just socked in. The sun is gone and we are coming down. I said, "When will we see it? Will we see it before we hit it? Are there any rules here?" He said at 300 feet, if we don't see the runway by then, we're going to have to pull back up. Oh, my golly.
So now it's 900, 800, 700, 500, 400, 375, 325. I'm telling you, it's like trying to look through this piano — you cannot see anything. Right at 300 feet, it cleared up. Just like that, right there was the runway. It was amazing.
Life in the Clouds
There's a sense in which that is exactly what Solomon is acknowledging about our life in this world — we're in all these clouds and we can't see anything around us. All we've got are these instruments. It's the Word of God. We've got one shot at this: to have faith, and to trust, and to believe, and to obey. That's it.
There's not a pilot around who would, for a second, obey his instincts over those instruments. Remember John F. Kennedy, Jr. — that's exactly what happened to him. They got out there, and within a matter of 45 seconds he was upside down, had no idea what was going on, and they were gone. So you've got your faith, your trust, your belief, and you are obeying those instruments.
What Solomon is saying to us is that life gets just as confusing as those clouds all around us, and your instincts are only going to get you in trouble. Your instincts will say, if something's good, then it should be good for me always; if something's bad, it should be bad for me always. But what we saw last week is Solomon saying that's not true.
There are things we look at and say they're really good, and we think they're good, and then we get them and discover they aren't. And there are things we would never choose, but in reality God brings them into our life. In both cases, we really don't understand what is going on.
Haven't we seen that week after week in this book? It just doesn't make sense. It seems like wicked people live long and old, and righteous people often die young. It seems like the wicked people never have any hardship, and the righteous people are oftentimes struggling.
When Life Doesn't Seem Right
I look at a guy like Dave. That whole fifteen minutes is a perfect introduction, really, to the book of Ecclesiastes. Here is a godly man who loves God and obeys God, with Jody right there with him, who can't even get the strength to vacuum. That doesn't seem right — and meanwhile there are people who don't give a care about God and they're bodybuilders running marathons. It doesn't seem right.
Here's what I think Solomon says to us: it's never going to seem right to you, but that's okay. Don't let that place in your mind the idea that somehow God is not in charge, because He is.
Flying by Instruments — Chapter 8
That's right where we pick up today. We left off in chapter 8, verse 1: *"Who is like the wise man and who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man's wisdom illumines him and causes his stern face to beam."* One paraphrase puts it this way: wisdom puts light in our eyes.
Life is filled with questions, and most of those that start with "why" we're probably not going to be able to answer right now. A guy came up to me after a prayer meeting on Thursday morning and asked me three questions that all started with "Why would God?" I said, "Listen, this isn't going to go anywhere. I have no answer for you other than He did — and we know we've got to go forward."
What do we do when we're in a situation like that? We're flying by instruments. We've got to go with what we know. We know He's in control. We know He loves us. We know He'll never test us beyond that which we can endure.
Walking by Faith, Not by Human Understanding
We know that He causes all things to work together for good. There are a whole range of things we know, but we need to bring those truths to our situation and say: this is about faith and belief and trust and obedience. If I had all the answers, I wouldn't need any faith. It just makes sense, doesn't it? Paul tells us in chapter 8, verse 1 that we need to walk by faith, we need to live by faith. In life we will encounter all these things, oftentimes not making any sense to us humanly, and we will have to press forward.
This is absolutely true: we put our faith and trust in an instrument panel on a plane, and it is fallible. Somewhere along the line it will wear out; it needs to be tweaked and aligned and checked; it has an expiration date in terms of reliability. We are not trusting an instrument panel that can fail — we are trusting a God that never fails. That is what He is saying to us.
Solomon is relentless in making this point. It has been the same point every week, and I wondered for a while why that is. I came to the realization that he wrote it that way — or rather, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit moved him to write it that way — and so we need to teach it that way. What really struck me this week is that Solomon is not driving us to a point of despair or hopelessness. He is driving us to the end of our rope so that we will give up trusting ourselves and place our faith, trust, obedience, and belief in the one true God and in what He says — even when it does not make sense humanly.
Submission to Government as Submission to God
In chapter 8, verses 2 through 5, Solomon talks about government. He speaks of a king: keep the command of the king, and because of the oath. In the nation of Israel, the Jewish people would have taken a pledge of allegiance — an oath of allegiance and obedience — to the king, who was placed there by God. To be disobedient to the king, therefore, is to be disobedient to God.
There is a New Testament parallel to this. If you will mark Ecclesiastes 8 and turn to the book of Romans — page 127 in the pew Bible — you will find Romans chapter 13. Paul writes something that, to a thinking person, can be very troubling. He says: "Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God." Here is what he is saying: all government is established by God, and I am to be in submission to it.
This is really important. When I am not in submission to that government, I am in rebellion against God, because God has ordained that government. Now that raises all sorts of questions. My latest copy of World magazine has a cover story about Sudan, and a story inside on Zimbabwe titled "Lord, how long will I call and You not answer?" It is the story of decades of food scarcity and shortages, skyrocketing prices, and fear under a dictator. There are nineteen dictators now governing on the continent of Africa, and some of them are terrible people. Am I supposed to submit to them?
Yes. And it gets really tough, doesn't it? Because God placed them there. I don't understand why He would — and I honestly don't either. I look at our own government and I see a couple of serious problems today: immigration and oil, both of which seem to me to be a direct result of inept politicians. It makes me angry when I look at it. But I obey, and I pay my taxes — not because those in power are always smart, not because they always do what is right, but because God placed them there, and to be disobedient to them is to be disobedient to God. All I needed to do was look at a map of Africa, think about living under a dictatorship, and I became incredibly grateful for the government God has given us.
Paul continues: "Whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and they who have opposed will receive condemnation. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same." Solomon makes the identical point in Ecclesiastes 8:5: "He who keeps the royal command experiences no trouble."
Obeying the Law Removes Tension
I was driving recently from here to San Diego, and on three occasions I felt myself reflexively press the brakes as I moved down the freeway. Looking back, all three occasions had one thing in common: I saw a car with lights on it, I glanced at my speedometer, and I thought it would be best to slow down. It is all relative, but it was a 75-mile-per-hour zone and I was doing 79. I was breaking the law — I get that. And there is a certain tension the whole way when you are driving at 80, watching constantly.
Here is what Solomon says: go 75, and you have no tension. Just do what they tell you to do and they will not bother you. If they tell you to pay a tax, pay the tax. Take advantage of every legal option available to you, but in the final analysis, pay what they say — because God placed them there. Solomon says you need to understand that. Whether it is kings, prime ministers, or presidents, what is true for them is true for us.
The Limits of Human Knowledge
In verse 6 we read: "There is a proper time and procedure for every delight, though a man's trouble is heavy upon him. If no one knows what will happen, who can tell him when it will happen?"
When We Cannot Control Circumstances
No man has authority to restrain the wind. No man has authority over the day of death. No man has control. Here is what Solomon is saying: we do not know what is going to happen, when it is going to happen, or how it is going to happen. And even if we did, it does not matter. We cannot control the wind. We cannot change circumstances. We cannot change what is going on around us.
So what do we do in the midst of that? Rather than scream, "It's not fair, I won't tolerate it, I'll respond," he says no. Have faith, trust, and obey. There are going to be those moments in your life where you will be abused — it might be a government matter or it might be a personal matter. There will be moments where you are treated unfairly.
To be autobiographical — perhaps too honest — in the last eight or nine months I have heard many things about the church, the elders, the leaders, and myself that are not only inaccurate, some of them are simply not true. What do you do? That is God's problem, not mine. I cannot fix it. It is what it is.
We start with Susan's cancer — it is the same principle. It applies to your business situation as well. I am meeting more and more men whose market has gone sideways, who are working forty-five or fifty hours a week, and whose answer is to work harder. I try to tell them: do not work harder. That is not the problem. The problem is a difficult market and you cannot change it.
The phrase people around me have grown to hate is, "It is what it is." Someone says, "Well, I don't want it to be that way." But it is. And at some point I come back — for perhaps the fifteenth time — to Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verse 2: "Don't be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring a matter in the presence of the Lord, for He is God in heaven and you are here on earth. Let your words be few." Trust in Him. He is in control. He is on the throne. All is well.
Taking Inventory of What Truly Matters
Even in the midst of these difficult circumstances, great things are happening. We are taking inventory of our lives and saying, "We have filled them up with a bunch of stuff that does not really matter." I thought that bedroom was important. I thought I could not live without a certain thing. I thought I absolutely had to have whatever it was — and now it has become a burden rather than a blessing.
That is what Solomon said last week. How many people pursued a house they never thought they could get into, and then God opened the doors? Now they are in it, they cannot make the payments, they should not have been in it in the first place, and they are upside down. And somehow it is God's fault, or the mortgage company's fault, or the government's fault, or the bank's fault. By and large, it is your fault. I understand there is predatory lending out there, but by and large, the responsibility lies with us.
We say, "What a blessing — look how God has blessed us with this incredible burden we will never be able to pay off." But then we can also flip circumstances the other way. David says of his RSD: "This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me," yet it gives him a platform to teach about the sovereignty of God and an opportunity to be a blessing to others, even as they are used by God to bless him. That is what Solomon is saying. You do not know what is going to happen, when it is going to happen, or how it is going to happen. And if you did, it would be totally irrelevant, because you could not do anything about it.
When Punishment Is Slow
Verse 11: "Because the sentence against the evil is not executed quickly, therefore the sons of men among them are given full to doing evil." Here is something else Solomon has noticed: when punishment or discipline is slow, those who should receive it tend to be drawn into even more evil. I look around and think there is no way the authorities can catch all of these people. I see someone who has been on death row for thirty-eight years, and the slowness of punishment fosters two thoughts in the criminal mind: first, I am probably never going to get caught, and second, if I am, they are too busy — they will never punish me.
God's Timing Is Not Our Timing
Let us go to the back of the Bible, to 2 Peter chapter 3. Spanning roughly a thousand years from Solomon and then two thousand more, you see the constant pattern of human thought. Second Peter 3:3: "Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts." They will do whatever they want to do. And they will be saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation." They kept hearing about God and His judgment. They kept hearing He is coming again, but nothing has happened.
What they miss is verse 8: "Do not let this one fact escape you, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day." Here is what they have missed. When you are now dealing with God — not a government, but God — and you are in the midst of something, you have sinned, you have done something, and you are pressing on even while petrified. Even in the process of it, you are fairly sure God is going to deal with you immediately — but He does not, and there is a reason for that.
When God Seems Silent
There is a moment of relief when you get away with something, and then a moment of telling yourself you will never do it again. Then comes the thought of maybe just one more time, and soon a person becomes almost cavalier about it. It could be gossip, it could be pornography, it could be adultery, it could be sex outside of marriage. On the front end there is so much fear, and then all of a sudden it is as though God's judgment has an expiration date — as if you have discovered the one sin God no longer punishes, because He has never disciplined you for it.
That is exactly what Peter is addressing. These people are saying God promised to do something and He did not do anything, therefore He does not care. But that is not what is happening. God is simply showing grace, mercy, and patience. Do not get carried away with the silence, mistaking it for permission.
When people say He has not come yet and it has been a long time, they need to understand that God's time is different from ours. He created time; we invented the watch. When He says a thousand years is like a day, He means it. So while you think you are getting away with something, from His perspective He has only been gone two days. A time of judgment is coming and it will fall.
The Problem of Apparent Unfairness
Solomon looks at what he considers unfair in verse 12: although the sinner does evil a hundred times and lengthens his days, it still does not make sense. Here are wicked people who seem to live long lives, and here are righteous people who seem to die young. Here are wicked people who appear to get away with everything, and here are righteous people for whom life does not seem fair.
Think of Joseph. In Genesis 39, Potiphar takes him and puts him in his house. Joseph refuses to sleep with Potiphar's wife, she falsely accuses him, Potiphar hears her accusations, and throws Joseph in jail. And here is what the Bible says: "And the Lord was with Joseph." At this point we cannot even determine what good circumstances and bad circumstances truly are.
It becomes really dangerous when everything is moving along well and a person thinks they must be right in the center of God's will — that they must be the greatest thing God has going because of how they are prospering, while looking at the person in hardship and drawing conclusions. Solomon is saying you cannot make that kind of assessment. You do not know enough to say something like that. That is way beyond any of us.
All Things Are in God's Hands
Look at chapter 9. He says, "For I have taken all this to my heart and explain it that the righteous man and the wise man and their deeds are in the hands of God." This is all up to God. God is going to take care of all of this.
Then he returns again to a repeated theme. He says it seems like it does not even matter. Verse 2: "For there is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked, for the good, for the clean and for the unclean, for the man who offers a sacrifice and for the one who does not. As is the good man, so is the sinner; as is the one who swears, so is the one who is afraid to swear." Verse 3: we all go the same way, we all have the same path, we all have one fate, and it is to die.
Now, having studied this book, we know he is not saying it is better to be a fool than to be wise. He is not saying there is no difference between the righteous and the wicked. What he is saying is that within the overall design, all of us are going to die, and we need to be prepared for that moment and understand the temporariness of life.
The Brevity of a Life Remembered
In verses 4, 5, and 6 he reflects on this reality. Scholars estimate there have been 14 billion people who have lived since the beginning of human history — it is difficult to understand how they calculate something like that — and Solomon's point is that we have all gone the same way. In verse 5 he says that by and large they are forgotten.
Really think about this. If you were to pull out all of history and compile every name into one long list, and then in the ultimate act of trivia identify everyone you could, you would come up with only a small fraction of those 14 billion people. Solomon says that is simply the design of life.
Enjoy the Life God Has Given You
So what should we do with this? Solomon's answer is in verses 7, 8, and 9: "Go then, eat your bread in happiness and drink your wine with a cheerful heart; for God has already approved your works. Let your garments be white all the time, and let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which He has given to you under the sun; for this is your reward in life."
His counsel is to enjoy life. That might seem completely opposite to everything he has just said, but remember — there is no hope under the sun alone. For those of us who know Christ, for those who are in right relationship with God, he is saying there is nothing better than to enjoy life. Grab some friends, get something to eat, go to a movie or a ball game, go to the park, play a game — just enjoy it.
When he says let your clothes be white, he is drawing on the culture of Solomon's day, when people going to a feast would wear all white and anoint their heads with oil. He is saying: be ready to celebrate. Not in a frivolous way — this is not an eat, drink, and be merry without meaning. He is saying God gave us all of these things to enjoy.
Our problem is that we want to ruin everything. God gave us food to enjoy, and our problem is we want too much of it. God gave us sexuality to enjoy within certain boundaries — and if you are newly married, you will want to be here next week when we talk about exactly what those boundaries are, because God has given us very good things to enjoy within His design.
Celebrating Life Within God's Design
God has created a wonderful thing in marriage — simple rules: single, celibate, married, celebration. He is saying, here are the parameters; stay in here and just have fun. He wants us to relish it.
I want to read a paraphrase of verse 9: "Relish life with the spouse that you love each and every day of your precarious life." He cannot even leave that alone — He slides "precarious life" in there. Each day is a gift from God, all in exchange for the hard work of staying alive. Make the most of it. Celebrate. Have fun.
This is not a call to frivolousness or to be oblivious to the hardship around you. But God has said: you work hard, and it is okay to have fun. I am so afraid that we have equated the Christian life to long faces and suffering, and that we miss the celebratory, ongoing, wonderful life that is associated with it.
A couple of weeks ago I was in the Commons trying to talk to somebody, and behind me, two or three tables over, there was just laughing and laughing and messing around and laughing. Finally I could not handle it anymore, so I looked around — and it was the children's ministry having a staff meeting. I thought, how cool. I will tell you about that staff: I have never seen them having more fun than they are right now, and they get more done. That laughter was just so enticing.
One of the things that makes me laugh most is whenever I see Susan laugh. When she starts laughing, it just makes me laugh. He says enjoy the spouse that God has given you. Then he expands it and says, listen, life is fleeting away — enjoy it.
Working with All Your Might
Whatever your hands find to do, verse 10 says, do it with all your might. Colossians 3:23 — work is unto the Lord. Plan, prepare, be active.
I like verse 11 because it runs counter to expectations. It is like an illustration of what he has been saying about life not being as it appears: "I saw again under the sun that the race is not to the swift, the battle not to the warriors, neither bread to the wise nor wealth to the discerning nor favor to men of ability; time and chance overtake all of them."
He is saying, I look around at people, and it is not like it appears to be. This October is my 40th high school reunion. I am going back — I did not know they did not send out cards, so I am going back the week before, which obviously means two trips, but I would love to go. What you see at a reunion like that is that some of the sharpest, smartest guys are working in relative obscurity. And there is nothing better than seeing a 250-pound homecoming queen, or the quarterback who cannot get up the stairs. Back in school, people said of certain individuals, "You can't miss — bound to succeed," and now some of them are in prison somewhere.
Time and Chance: God Is in Control
The fastest horse does not always win the race. I learned that over my years at the track. Yesterday, around four o'clock on Saturday as I started to get ready for today — winding down, gearing back — horse racing from Del Mar came on. Del Mar is a beautiful track founded by Bing Crosby, and I thought I would check to see how the fastest horses were doing.
I went online to one of their top handicappers, who picks a best bet each day. Out of nine races, he picks the one horse he is most certain of — the fastest horse, the one that cannot miss. So I checked four days of racing. The first day, his best bet finished fourth. The second day, his best bet finished seventh. The last two days, the best bet — the sure thing, the one no one could touch — finished seventh and then dead last. And I laughed. I thought, isn't God good, just to give you that illustration right there.
The race is not always to the fastest horse, and the battle is not always to the strongest man, and we cannot seem to figure out what is going on. Time and chance overtake them all. Now, there is no such thing as chance in the ultimate sense — what he is saying is that God is in control, and it does not always end up the way you think it should.
The Sovereignty of God in Salvation
I had a discussion this week with somebody on the sovereignty of God. Their question was, "Do you believe God chooses those who will be saved?" I said, that is a huge question. This September and October is our time to teach that again, and while I am on vacation I am going to rewrite that material, because I want to teach the doctrines of grace in a fresher, newer way.
But I said, yes, we believe God chooses those who will be saved. The response was, "That's not fair." And I said, it is not fair — what if He chose you? The problem is that He is God and you are not. He should not have chosen any of us. If we all got what we deserved, He would have, shortly after birth, been done with this earth altogether. So the moment He decides to extend mercy to us, that does not obligate Him to give mercy to everyone. If it did, by definition, it would no longer be mercy.
He's God
God is God, and I watch as He populates His kingdom with some people I would never select. That was Jonah's problem, by the way. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, and Jonah's reason for refusing was simple: "You may save these people, and I don't want You to save them. They're awful people. You're just the kind of God that would save these screwed-up people. I don't want to go." That is what the whole book of Jonah is about — that He's God.
Man Does Not Know His Time
One last point, found in verse 12: man does not know his time. We think we have forever, and we don't. James puts it this way in James 4:13: "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.' Yet you do not know what your life will be like. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away." You say you are going to do this, but you don't know. You could sit down and make a list of what you think is going to happen in your life over the next year, then sit down a year from now and see how close you come.
Solomon's point is this: in this world we are always looking at shadows, always looking in the dark, and things are so often not as they appear to be. We need to understand we cannot figure them all out. We see things that seem unjust and we cannot fix them.
Don't Stop Reaching Out
He does not say don't try. He does not say don't make an effort. He says there is a world around us that needs our help, that needs grace and mercy, and there are people who are hurting, and we ought to reach out to them the best we can.
I came across this again this week, and I was reminded — I haven't talked about it in a long time. Sodom is destroyed. Why is Sodom destroyed? Well, people say homosexuality. But consider Ezekiel 16:49: "Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy." That is the problem going on in Sodom. God is not saying, "You can't fix this thing, so don't get out there and help the poor and the needy." He is not saying that at all. He is saying you can enjoy life and have a sense of joy when you understand the God who created it all, and your life is not burdened with trying to fix and repair everything yourself.
He's Got the Whole World in His Hands
I was all done this morning and was thinking about all of this, and I have not the foggiest idea why, but my mind went back to a day when I was about eleven years old. I remember this lady, Mahalia Jackson, and she was singing. I saw her on television — my recollection is that it was the Ed Sullivan show, though I'm not certain. I just remember seeing her sing, and it captivated me. She was singing "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." It's best that I don't attempt to sing it myself, but that is exactly what Solomon is saying. He's got the wind and the rain. He's got fate. He's got the sun and the moon, and time. He's got the little bitty baby. He's got you and me. He's got everybody here in His hands.
That is what Solomon is saying. I can rest in this. I don't have to understand it all, and in saying so I am not committing intellectual suicide. Solomon is simply saying this stuff is beyond you, you are never going to fully get it, and that is where faith kicks in.
Looking Ahead
Solomon sets out to conduct an experiment — to try to find purpose and meaning in life. Next week we arrive at his conclusion, which he actually gave us in the very first week. He gives us a conclusion and a little advice on how we can live a life that is fulfilling to us and pleasing to God. We will pick up right there next week.
Father, thank You for the grace and mercy we find in You and You alone. God, we look at the world and we are like pilots flying into Monterey Airport in the fog — we have no clue. If it were up to us we would be upside down and nose-first in the ocean. But You give us Your Word and You give us the gift of faith. God, let us trust You and believe You and live in a way that brings honor and glory to You. Remind us that You have got this whole world, and everything in it, in Your hand. We pray in Christ's name, amen.