Ecclesiastes 6-8 - Coming to Grips with Reality
Tom Shrader walks through Solomon's insights in Ecclesiastes 6-8, contrasting five common delusions with reality. He addresses the false belief that we can satisfy our senses, that celebration is better than confrontation, that successful people control their destiny, and that we can escape judgment. Solomon reveals that only a personal relationship with Christ can fill the deep longing that material things and human achievements cannot satisfy.
“You have a crucial longing, a deep need, that can only be met through a personal relationship with Christ.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Reflections From the Top of the Heap (2002)
Recorded: October 31, 2002
Duration: 43 min
Themes: meaninglessness, satisfaction, reality, wisdom, judgment, materialism, purpose, fulfillment, searching for meaning, feeling empty, successful professional, wealthy individual, middle age, life reflection, questioning purpose, facing mortality
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 6, Ecclesiastes 7:3, Ecclesiastes 7:21-22, Ecclesiastes 8:11, Philippians 1:6, Romans 8:39, Romans 13
Theological Themes: vanity, emptiness, divine sovereignty, god's control, worldliness, temporal values, eschatology, final judgment
Full Transcript
Today we look at session six in the eight session series. The title is "Reflections from the Top of the Heap." Let me remind you that the guy we're reading and the gentleman who's sharing his wit and wisdom with us is Solomon himself.
I bought a book the other day. I'm looking at the front of the book. I'm saying, I don't remember this book. Is this new? I look for the copyright. If we were to take Ecclesiastes and look for the copyright date, we would see plus or minus 931 BC on this. So it's something that's essentially 3,000 years old. I would argue that it is as fresh as any of the stuff that you're going to find at Borders or Bookstar or Barnes and Noble.
Solomon's Extraordinary Perspective
You have insights here from a guy—and I don't want to spend a great deal of time on this, we need to touch on it every week, but we certainly don't need to recap it or summarize it all every week. This is a man, Solomon, who was allowed to experience life in as full of measure as we can possibly conceive. Solomon sits down at the end of his life, a time of great reflection, and he writes this. It's as though he's having a fireside chat with you.
He's giving you his insights, the insights of this extraordinary man, and he's saying to you that life looked at in a horizontal plane is absolutely meaningless. Then he anticipates, it seems, your arguments. But wait a minute. If I just had a new house, I'd be better. He says, been there, done that. If I just got into wine and the spirits and fun, he says, been there, done that. It won't work. How about sex? Been there, done that.
Whatever it is you come up with that you think will make you happy, as you look at life—again, the phrase he uses is "under the sun"—as you look at life and you judge it on this temporal basis, Solomon says, been there, done that. It is not going to produce for you what you want it to do.
The Structure of Chapters 6-8
When we get to chapters 6, 7, and 8 of the book of Ecclesiastes, humanly speaking, it's as though Solomon's mind begins to drift, and as though he starts to wander, and one thought triggers another. A couple of years ago, I bought a book, "How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci," and I thought, well, this would be good for me.
So one of the exercises was to start writing. I can't remember if there was a specific thing, but start writing. Don't lift the pencil off the paper for 10 minutes, and just keep writing. It was obviously to show you that you're more creative than you realize, I guess. What's interesting, because I did it, when I was done, I went back, and it was amazing how point A connected with point B, and the transition was so smooth, that by the end of 10 minutes, the first point and the second point had absolutely nothing to do with each other. One thought triggered another, and another, and another, and another, and it's like that humanly.
Maybe you've done it. You're writing a letter to a friend, and all of a sudden, this makes you think of something else, makes you think of something else. Well, that's what kind of happens, it seems like, or feels like, to Solomon in chapters 6, 7, and 8.
Our Approach: Delusion vs. Reality
How we get our arms around it is we came up with this vehicle. What we're going to do is look at five points, and in these five points, we're going to look at a delusion, and then we're going to look at reality. So that's what we're going to do. It's going to have a similar ring to some of the things we've already looked at.
But what we want you to do in this point is to look at Solomon saying, okay, let me tell you, here's how things appear to be, here's how things really are. For example, it appears to be very cold in this room, in reality, it's perfect. That kind of thing. See, that's what I'm looking at.
Point One: The Ice Cream Delusion
Here's the first one. The delusion is, you can never have too much of a good thing. The reality is, you'll never satisfy your senses.
Susan and I—Susan primarily, but we're trying to get a lot of the sugar and the stuff out of our house. Now, we seem to take a couple steps forward, one back. Well, the other night, the kids were coming over, and Susan said, oh, the kids are coming over. We got some. So she goes, and she gets some vanilla ice cream, and caramel, and nuts, and all this stuff, and so she's packing this.
I said, why are you bringing this stuff in here? Well, she pulls out, maybe you haven't seen this yet, a half gallon of Dreyer's Almond Joy ice cream. Have you seen this yet? I said, you got to be kidding me. Why would you bring—Almond Joy is one of my favorite candy bars. I love Snickers, and I love Heath bars, but I love almond. I said, you've got to be kidding me. Get this stuff out of here.
She said, Tom, just don't eat it. I said, Susan, the next day, I ate the half gallon. The next day. As I'm eating it—I didn't do it in one sitting, because I ate it, I ate a bunch of it, and then I put it back, and I said, gee, I just feel sluggish. I feel fat, I feel sloppy. I went, did something, I came back, and then I'm in the ice cream. The next thing, she said, this is gone. I said, Susan, I'm trying to keep you from eating it. That's my decision. I did it for you.
The Scripture's Warning
Well, the feeling is, if something is good, boy, a little bit is good, then a whole lot is great. Solomon writes this: "All man's efforts are for his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied. Better what the eye sees than the roving appetite. This, too, is meaningless. It's chasing the wind."
Solomon says all of our efforts to try to satisfy these needs are just going to meet with a lot of disappointment.
of excesses, and there's never going to be enough of it. You're never going to satisfy these deep desires. Maury Povich has a show, and you don't need to watch it. I'll do it for you.
He has on there five ladies who have in common that their husbands are not satisfied sexually. These five ladies cannot satisfy their husbands sexually. They start talking to him, and here's what these gals say. They would say, "We'll have an encounter. It will be an extraordinary encounter. And yet, as we talk about it, my husband will say to me, 'You know, I used to date a girl who...'"
I come back to this again and again because if there's anything that, to me, premarital sex makes perfect sense. It just does. You don't buy a car till you test drive it, all that stuff. Here's this intimate thing. You've got this intimate emotion. It would seem you'd want to find out if you're compatible.
Why God Says No
God says no, and that's because God's not saying, "I don't want you to have fun." He's saying it's not good for you, because it's not just about the physical act. There's an emotional bonding that takes place. There's all these violations that take place, and God knows what's best for a whole bunch of reasons.
Now let me explain to you. You're sitting here today, and you're saying, "I've gone from guy to guy to guy, gal to gal to gal, job to job to job, thing to thing to thing." Maybe it's been over a period of time, and you're saying, "I've got this thing, it's the perfect job, it's the final deal, it's the best person, whatever it is." But ultimately, I end up empty at the end of the day. Here's why.
The Crucial Longing
Very important. You've got certain needs that can indeed be met through a person, or a place, or a thing. Right now, I'm hungry. When I'm done, I'm going to go in there and have some oatmeal and some wheat toast. I have a need, a desire, that can be met, albeit temporarily, with a thing.
We have a need for clothing, and we put on a shirt, or slacks, or whatever the item is, and we have a need for clothing, and it's met. We have a need for shelter. Whether it's a big five or six thousand square foot house, or a 500 foot studio, it doesn't matter. The need is met by a person, or place, or a thing.
Here's the problem. You have what one author calls a crucial longing, a deep need, that can only be met through a personal relationship with Christ. There is a sense in which you were created to be satisfied by a person, but the person is Christ.
The Black Hole of False Satisfaction
If you try to meet those needs with anything other than Christ, it is a black hole, a vacuum, that will suck up everything you put into it. So if you try to find this ultimate fulfillment, this ultimate happiness, with a person, or place, or a thing, a job, a new house, a vacation, a friendship, it really doesn't matter what it is you jam into this area that demands Christ, you'll never be satisfied.
That's why even in the midst... I remember talking to a guy who was cashing a check for the biggest deal he ever closed, and I said, "You've got to be excited." He said to me, "It's anticlimactic. I've been through this whole thing, it's not that big a deal." Why? Because there's this idea constantly that if I get this single thing, all of a sudden everything will be alright. Now I'll be happy, I'll be set, there you go, set forever. The only thing that will set you forever is heaven.
The Second Delusion: Celebration Over Confrontation
Here's the second delusion. The second delusion is this: that celebration is better than confrontation. The reality is, good advice is better than a good joke. Here's what Solomon writes. Listen to these words: "Sorrow is better than laughter because a sad face is good for the heart. The heart of the wise" - we're in Ecclesiastes 7:3 - "the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of the fool is in the house of pleasure. It's better to heed a wise man's rebuke than to listen to the songs of a fool, like the crackling thorns under a pot, so is laughter of fools. It's meaningless."
That last imagery is they would have a pot that they had something in they wanted to cook, and they would take wood, they'd throw it under it, and they'd get these thorns and these really brittle sticks. They'd throw them under, they'd light them, they'd light very quickly, but they'd never get the job done. They'd go away. He said that's what laughter is like.
The Danger of Avoiding Serious Things
Now, I don't think I need to do any sort of a disclaimer. I'm for laughing. I'm for having a good time. I'm comfortable with that. I find the source of my humor changes a little bit over the years. As I get a little older, more and more of my laughter is about and at myself. The other thing that I have people telling me is that I'm taking life more seriously, and I think that's wise.
I've been in those environments. I've got a pretty fast tongue. I've probably not played verbal volleyball with many of you, but I can tell you I can play that game really well. I can come quick and fast and cutting. I've been in environments where there's three or four or five of us, and you can't say anything. Nobody's going to talk. You're not going to work. A waitress said, "What would you like to drink?" and nobody's going to say anything because the minute you say something, we're all over each other.
I've been in those environments where you're clamming and there's some fun to that, but after a while, it just becomes fun for the sake of just laughing, and you can miss the more serious things in life. I'll hear all the time, "I went to hear so-and-so speak, and they were great." I'll say, "Why were they great?" "They were funny." I got to tell you, in this deal, even in a study like this, or even in church, there's something about if somebody's laughing, you feel connected to them, or you feel like you're together. I am much better than I used to be, but I'll say, I mean, all you had to do is say Ted Kennedy, and everybody laughed.
I mean, it was an easy deal. Was this a Bill Clinton? I mean, it was like stealing, but I found that you'd go there, and that still doesn't mean you've delivered any content.
I spoke the other day for a group. I've done six or seven of these things for this group, and I have a little bit of a different setting than the speakers. I like the podium in the middle, and I like the house lights up. I don't like the house lights down.
Well, I got there, and I was running late. They'd given me the wrong time to be there, so I get there, and they say, you're on in ten minutes. I said, the podium's on the side. We can't get the podium to the middle. So I'm going through my notes, because I haven't spent a whole lot of time yet on this. I'm going through my notes, and they introduced me, and I go up, and all of a sudden, I said, oh, I forgot to tell them to put up the house lights.
So I'm speaking, and literally, I don't know a person in the room. I can only see to the second row. I mean, it was so bright, and what happens when the lights are down, I think, is you move into an observation mode. When the lights are up, like now, when we can see, there's more participation.
I'm about five minutes into this, and I've used some stuff that I know is funny, and I mean, you can't—there's not a snicker anywhere. One thing, this is good, and they have, when I hit the podium, I go, good morning. There's a clock that's at 40 minutes, and immediately, it goes to 39:59. So it's counting down, which I like that. That's fine. I look down. I got 35 minutes. I'm saying, this is going to be a long...
You know what I did finally? I said to myself, as I'm talking, I'm making this evaluation. I said, forget it. They aren't going to laugh. I'm just going to stick this right in their ear. Oh, do they want to be serious? I'll show them serious. So I went that way.
The Power of Serious Truth
But I'll tell you what I told them, and it was very interesting, because I walked through the hotel and around, and I had more people stop me saying, that really got me thinking. That really was... and it was not what they expected, and it really wasn't the tone I thought of. But I think that in certain settings, our life is so distracted with non-essentials, that when you hear the serious thing, it grabs your attention.
In a sense, Solomon is saying, although He doesn't necessarily use these words, go to the house of a dead man. So what He's saying there is, now you get a sense of reality and what it really is. Don't just make frivolous observations all your life. If you've got a friend that'll make you laugh, and a friend who will make you think, make sure you don't ignore the second one, for the sake of the fun of the first one. And be careful in these settings, not to just be off in some sort of a frivolous mode.
I did a conference, a retreat down in Tucson, and retreats are real simple, because they start typically Friday night—it's a throwaway night, everybody travels. You do Saturday morning, usually two sessions, then a break, then Saturday night, then Sunday morning wrap-up. We're in the Saturday afternoon mode, free time.
And I had three guys come up to me, and they all started the same way. I've got something that I want to tell you. This is very uncomfortable for me, and I want to share this with you. Well at that point, there's only one of two possibilities. They are about to confess some very dark secret. They've got a parakeet fetish, or something. They got something, I don't know what it is. I was trying to grab an animal, I couldn't think of anything. Or, they're going to reprimand me. It's going to be one of those two. There's not any middle—it's only going to be one of those two.
All three of these guys came up to me and said, this is very hard for me to say, and all three of them said, I think you were out of line this morning with this comment. Now what's fascinating to me, is all three of them quoted three different things. And I thought, oh, but I know what they were saying, because I think I said a couple of things. And you need to know, this was probably 10 years ago, 15 years ago maybe even. I think I said a couple of things that were on the edge, that were fine, but didn't need to be said, and I probably didn't know those people well enough to say them.
So, you just have to use your head here. And it's not about getting the laugh, it's about telling the truth.
The Delusion of Control
Here's the third thing. The delusion is, successful people control their own destiny. The reality is, you can't predict today.
When I came up the 101 today, I was a little bit late getting started. I got onto the 101, and it was stopped. And I'm thinking, you have to be kidding me. It's six o'clock in the morning, and we're stopped. So I'm navigating my way out to the left lane. I'm thinking, I'll be all right there. And people are honking at me for cutting them off, and I'm not cutting anybody off, using my blinker, you know. Well, that makes it right.
So I'm over there, and I'm getting up there. I'm thinking, you know what? This is nuts. Well, all of a sudden, I get to the 202, the loop, and it just opens up. So I'm saying, there's got to be... and they've got the ramp closed. I guarantee you, that place down there today is an absolute mess.
What I heard, or somebody told me, is they had a double fatality there. Now, I guarantee you, these people at 5:30 in the morning, are driving downtown, thinking, I got to do this, and I got to do this, and we'll get this done. If I can get this wrapped up soon, I'll play golf, or I'll head up to the mountains, or I'll do whatever.
You can't predict the next minute. There's a guy out in our end of town. He's 45 years old. He's leading music a couple of weeks ago in church. He's leading music. He turns around to... 45, healthy...
guy, skinny fit guy like me, and he's leading music. He says, "Let's do that song again." He reaches down to tune his guitar, and before he hits the floor, he's dead.
Now, you can't control this. The illusion is that you've got life under control, that you're master of your fate. You're captain of your ship. I was talking to somebody the other day, and they said, "So-and-so's a controller. They're control freaks." Everybody's a control freak. Everybody wants to be able to control the circumstances. The reality is, you can't. The illusion is that you might be able to, especially if you're successful.
The Illusion of Control
Before I started yesterday, the guy had no idea what I was going to talk about, but he gave me this copy. It's Rick Reilly's last column for Sports Illustrated. It's called "Welcome to the Real World," and it's about John Elway. It says this: when the winningest quarterback in NFL history retired in 1999, he took all that cool, all that glory, all that cash, and galloped into the sunset. But somebody ran off with John Elway's Happily Ever After.
Since quitting football, lucky number seven has hit the worst losing streak of his life. Elway's father died, most of his business ventures flopped, his wife left him, and three weeks ago, his twin sister passed away. Now, listen to Elway's comment: "When you're a quarterback, you're in control. The football's in your hand. It's fourth and twelve, and if the wideout doesn't make the route, I'm going to run around and make things happen. But now things go wrong, and I don't have the football anymore."
See, that's why guys love to go to work. That's why guys love their business - because they're in control. That's why they're authoritative at work. You get on the horn, and you say, "Listen, Minneapolis, I want this ship to Houston. Houston, you get this to Singapore. San Francisco, I want you, the guys from New York and Atlanta, in here tomorrow." And they say, "Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full." It is way easier to get the executive VPs to a meeting than it is to get a 15-year-old to clean His room. So we love that, and we like the illusion of being in control.
The Management Problem
I think that's why some of... My brother and I were talking about this coming in today. I called my brother Jim to tell Him I had somebody I was going to have call Him. And I said, "You know what? This management thing cannot be this hard. Everybody's talking about how hard it is, and I don't... it is not this hard. Treat people fairly, be honest with them, give them a livable wage. It can't be this hard," and yet it's all I hear from everybody.
Now, I know there's problems, and I know there's things, but I think most guys screw up this business because they want to get in there and control everything. And they think if they control this person and make them miserable, somehow that's going to make the deal work. You got sales managers that say, "I want my salesman... I want Him in debt. I want Him to buy too much house. I want Him to have too much car. I want Him to take vacations. Because if they're in debt, here's what they're going to do. They're going to sell, sell, sell, sell."
Well, you know what they're going to do if they're in debt? They're going to drink, drink, drink, drink. Snort, snort, snort, snort. Screw people, screw people, screw people. Lie, cheat, and do what it takes to make the deal. Why would you forget business? These are human beings. Why would you take a human being and whisk them into a situation like that? And then labor hates management. Why? Because you screwed them. That's why. They're looking to you for advice and direction, and you put them in that situation. That's nuts.
I said to my brother, "I know I don't have this figured out, but we've got a business. The church has a business aspect to it. In 11 years, we've never had anybody quit. Not a janitor, not a secretary. We've never lost a person that we haven't had to let go." Now, I said to Him, "This is like... I'll go in today, and the next thing you know, I'll be cleaning toilets and leading music on Sunday." I got that figured out. But I said, "I can tell you why. Go talk to them."
God Is in Control
But then when the guys... The idea is that I have to control, or be in control, or I need to be... you can't control anything. That's the point. Here's what Solomon writes: "Consider what God has done. Who can straighten what God has made crooked? When times are good, be happy. When times are bad, consider God has made one as well as the other."
See? God's in control. I don't want to communicate this to you. I don't want you to walk out of here and say, "Well, life's out of control. Nothing can happen. It's all a crapshoot." No, that would be fatalism. We are not fatalists. A fatalist says, "It's all happenstance. It's all chance. It's all whatever will be will be," and there's a force out there that's out of control, and it's irrational. No. God has everything under control.
Finding True Security
You want some things? You want some things in your life that you can count on? Are you insecure? You're insecure, and you're worried. Well, that's because everything you're trusting is insecure. You can't trust anything humanly and have it be secure. But you can trust God. You want to find security? You're never going to find it until you have an intimate relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Here's some things. "He who began a good work in you will continue it till the day of Christ Jesus" - Philippians 1:6. So if you're here today, and you're a Christian - very important now - if you're here today, and you're truly a Christian, truly converted. If you died today, you'd go to heaven, then I can tell you whenever you die, you'll go. Because He began that good work. He'll continue it. You can count on that. That's rock-solid.
Hey, here's His promise. "I'll never tempt you. I'll never test you..."
beyond that which you can endure. You can never come to me and say, "The devil made me do it. There was nothing I could do." Because Scripture says, no, if you're there, you'll persevere. Very important. You bring the desire. He'll bring the strength. You desire to obey. He'll give you the strength to obey. He'll never allow circumstances to become so overwhelming to you that they'll crush you to the point you have to sin. That's a promise.
Here's a promise. Romans 8:39. What can separate me from the love of Christ? What can separate you from God's love for you? What can do it? And then Paul goes through this list. Height, depth. And he goes through all these different things. And then he says, no other created thing, nothing, can sever this relationship.
So, what we're not saying to you is things are out of control. What we're saying to you is they're out of your control. And that's a very big difference. And a very important difference. There are many things that are beyond your control, but they are not out of control.
The Illusion of Control
We think we can control so much. Here you go. Muhammad Ali. I would argue, and at least, I would argue, the greatest. Obviously, you'd have to say one of the greatest. If you'll watch him now, he just stands there and he cannot even control his left hand.
You can be physically fit and everything fine, and a little virus, or a little microbe, or something that we can't even see except with a microscope gets in your body. And this little thing that's virtually invisible lays you out, destroys you, maybe kills you. And then you want to talk about being in control. The illusion is that you're in control, or even successful people are in control. But they're not. You're not. They're not out of control. They're beyond your control.
A Father-Daughter Trip Goes Sideways
When Sarah was in about fourth grade, she and I, and her mom, decided that for her eighth grade graduation, I'd take her on a trip wherever she wanted to go. So, we started saving for it, and planning for it, and she started talking and trying to think about where she wanted to go. And it's something that took place for three or four years. We invited people to participate. We put a piggy bank in a prominent place, so you could all fund it. And we did everything we could to involve as many people as we could. If you came to our house, you had a chance to participate. Kidding about that. But we're ready.
So, finally, she announces, "I want to go to Disney World in Orlando." I said, "Perfect." So, she and I are going to go, just the two of us. And I had some frequent flyer stuff, and some other things with America West. And so, we upgrade to first class. So, we're flying first class. We get in there. The first class flight attendant goes to one of the PL studies. So, we had first class treatment in first class.
In fact, and this is a parenthesis, it's the only time in my life that I have heard God audibly. God spoke to me and said, "Tom, never fly coach again." I heard that. I heard that on that flight. This, you were made for first class, Tom. You should never go back. That's not, you're not a coach guy. So, now, I haven't heard Him since, really.
So, we go there. We have an unbelievable, I mean, it couldn't have been, it was unbelievable the flight. We get there. We check into the room. We get up the next day. We go to the Magic Kingdom.
At 7:30 Arizona time, we call from the Magic Kingdom, and we said to Susan, "Here's what we've done." There was no one in the park. We literally, they didn't even make us get off of Splash Mountain. We literally got in, and they just let us sit right in, and go get anybody on the line. There was no point getting off. We did everything we wanted to do. We had, literally, the park to ourselves.
When Control Becomes an Illusion
We're driving back to the hotel. We stop and get some pizza. We go to bed that night. I wake up in the middle of the night, and I don't feel very good. I'm not feeling too strong, and I'm not sick, but kind of sick, but not too well.
We get up. We're going the next day. We're driving. I must not look good, because Sarah said, "Are you okay, Dad?" I said, "I don't know, honey. I think so."
Well, we get in. Susan said this, because she gave me this long list of things to do, and she said, "Listen, Sarah weighs 80 pounds. She's not like you. She eats five or six times a day. She does, you eat all 12,000 calories in one sitting. She likes to spread it out over a day." I said, "Okay." She said, "You got to get..." So, we're walking. I said, "Honey, let's get something to eat." So, we go in, and she said, "Are you going to eat?" I said, "I'm just going to have a bottle of water." So, she eats a little bit.
We go in. The first display in Epcot is O Canada. So, we go in to O Canada. We are in O Canada, and we're going through O Canada, and I said, "Oh, Sarah, I got to go." Somebody, somewhere has a picture, right as you come out the door, Queen Victoria's Gardens. Somebody has a picture of me bent over in Queen Victoria's Gardens, fertilizing the tulips. I'm as sick as a... I am so sick, and she said, "You want to go back?" I said, "No, honey, we got to do this as we planned. We planned for four years for this trip."
We go through that whole part. After about two hours, I said, "I got to go home." We drive back to the hotel. I stopped twice to get sick. I said, "Honey, are you hungry?" She said, "I'm really hungry, Dad." I said, "Okay." We go into an IHOP to eat. She eats. I drink water.
I am up all night, and I remember sitting there thinking, "How do sick people handle this?" And literally smiling, thinking, "I can't even control my stomach." Now, that's the picture. Successful, especially can-do people, they get it done. They make things happen. When you're successful, the temptation is to think you're under control. The reality is you can't control your own stomach.
The Reality About Responding to Others
Here's the fourth thing. The idea is that people should pay for what they say. The reality is you shouldn't necessarily fire right back. It's interesting. We're not going to spend a
Interesting, Ecclesiastes chapter 7, verse 21 and 22. Solomon writes this: "Do not pay attention to every word people say." The New American Standard says "take seriously." "Do not take seriously every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you, for you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others." I'm not going to spend a ton of time on this, but what Solomon is saying is that cut people some slack. Sometimes people say things they don't necessarily mean, or they say things that don't have to be responded to.
I don't do any marriage counseling stuff. I used to have couples that I'd end up meeting with, and now there's people to do that. But I remember I'd sit there frequently, and the wife would say, "He said this, he said this, he said this, he said this." And as she's talking, I'm thinking, "I said all those things to Susan yesterday." And I would think, "How come they're in here, and how come we're doing great?" And I realized the reason is she's not taking these things seriously, and this gal's treating them like gospel.
I'm saying stupid things, but our relationship is based on trust enough that she says, "Oh, that's just that idiot Tom. He'll come to his senses." That's exactly what she's saying. And I've thought about it a thousand times. If a relationship is strong, you're going to let the other person say and do almost anything within reason, and cut them a bunch of slack.
Look it, we're slicing and dicing, and bringing back words, and stuffing them in their ear. Now with Lexus, we're bringing up quotes. Walter Mondale was mentioned for a senatorial candidate, and within an hour, Rush was quoting things from the 1984 presidential debates with Gary Hart. We're shoving these words, and Rush's line was, "Hart was saying, you're out of touch, you're out of touch, these are old ideas." Rush's point was, "If they were old ideas in 84, what do you think they are today?" Which is probably a really legitimate point, but the illustration is, you're just getting all these words, and everybody takes everyone so seriously. We want to do that. You see the balance here? He's saying, cut people some slack.
The Certainty of Divine Justice
Here's the last thing. The delusion is a smart operator can get away with everything, maybe including murder. The reality is, you'll never escape the certainty of judgment. Chapter 8, verse 11: "When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of people are filled with schemes to do wrong. Although a wicked man commits a hundred crimes and still lives a long time, I know that it will go better with God-fearing men who are reverent before God. Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them."
You've got that tendency, don't you? To look around in business and say, "You know, she's in this industry, and she shaves the truth, and she cheats over here. I don't know if it's illegal, but it's certainly unethical, and she's got the deal, and she's got the new car, and she got the promotion." This guy over here, he slides the truth, and his company's prospered, and he's taking advantage of this and taking advantage of that. It's not fair. It's not fair.
There is a little insight here. When a sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong. We had a long discussion not long ago about the death penalty, and this guy was saying, "I don't think it's a deterrent," and I'm saying, "How would you know? How would you know?" This guy killed somebody in 1980, and we're still appealing in 2002. I said, "I'm for it," and he said, "Well, why if it's not a deterrent?" I said, "Because it's a punishment. It's punitive." That's me. That's what it feels to me like, that in Romans 13, that was the prerogative that was given to government. You got a guy, you know he did it. It's a fair, it's certainly a fair punishment.
The picture here is, if there's no discipline here, there's a sense in which people will go on and on and on and on and on. You certainly know it with your kids. It always is helpful when you have illustrations like this, bring them down to your kids. If you're not there, and you're not there quick with your kids, and you sew these things, and they think they can get away with it, away they go.
What Solomon is saying is, don't think that because somebody cheats and prospers in our mind, and in our economy, that they got away with it. Because they didn't get away with it. Because ultimately, you're not the judge, God is. I like the phrase, "The wicked who do not fear God, it will not go well with them." Here's what he means. He means, if you're not God-fearing, in our context now, that means if you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, it's not going to go well with you. What it means is, you'll be in hell forever. It's appointed to man once to die, and then judgment.
Our Distorted View of Wickedness
Here's what we do. We say, "I want the wicked to get it. I hope the wicked... God, sick the wicked. Get the wicked. Get them God, get them. Go get those wicked people." God says, "No problem, we'll do that. Now let me tell you what wicked is." Wicked is a sinner. "Get the sinner, God. Get them. Get them. Crush them, God." Now here's a sinner. Anyone who sinned once. That's a little bit of a different deal, isn't it?
We've got a very distorted view of sin. We think somehow our sins are not near as bad as some of the other sins we see, especially as it relates to salvation. There's all sorts of stories. Jeffrey Dahmers, we've talked about Jeffrey Dahmers before. He not only killed these people, he cut them up and he ate them. That's a bad guy. Supposedly in prison, supposedly in prison, he came to Christ and he was baptized in prison before he was killed. Son of Sam, David Berkowitz, supposedly has a magnificent testimony. I'm not validating these and saying they're true.
We look at that with some level of suspicion because their crime was so big. But here's the thing—their crime being so big might have made it easier for them to see that they were sinners. Versus you, who just lies and steals a little bit. Oh, those Enron guys, they're not like me. I only steal pens and paperclips from work.
Well, you're both thieves. See, that's the deal. They just have some imagination. You don't have any imagination. That's the difference. You're both stealing. When we say, "God, get the wicked," we're saying, "God, get us." Because without Christ, that's where we all are.
Solomon's Reality Check
So here's what Solomon says. Solomon says, listen, look past the veneer and the facade and look at the reality. And the reality is, you can try this stuff and you'll never be satisfied. The reality is, you need good, solid advice. The reality is, you aren't in control. The reality is that there is no way to get away with it ultimately, because God judges all these things.
This is six weeks of Solomon just going, bam, bam, bam, bam. And then on the last week, he says, now, here's how you find meaning.
Finding True Meaning
I'll tip my hand a little bit, because you can find meaning and purpose in life and in work. And you can find satisfaction and happiness within the right context in stuff. But remember this: you were created for a person, and the person was Jesus. And you were created for a place, and the place was heaven.
Everything short of that is inadequate. It's partial. It won't ultimately do what you're trusting it to do.
Let's pray. Father, help us see this truth and understand this truth. God, we pray for those that are here who know your Son Jesus as Lord and Savior, that they would be encouraged by this. And those that are here today, that maybe are not Christians—they came with a friend or a neighbor or co-worker, somehow you got them here—God, we pray that you touch their hearts, and you would put in them a desire to talk to the person who invited them about what it means to be a Christian.
It means not just going to church. That's not what makes a person a Christian. Or not just being born in America. What makes a person a Christian is that they know Jesus in a personal way. And I pray that every person who hears this would wrestle with that issue: Am I truly a Christian? God, help us see that through your Spirit. We pray that in Jesus' name. Amen.
Have a great week. We'll see you next week.