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One time a few friends and I flew in a small plane to the town of Lake Placid, Florida. The plane was an old “prop job,” and in the middle of the flight, we got socked in by a wall of clouds. Vertigo came over me, and I didn't know if I was up, down, or sideways. I looked at the man next to me, and he was sweating.
I said, “What direction does it feel like we're flying to you?”
He said, “I don't know, but I think we're upside down.”
By that time, I felt like we were flying straight for the ground.
Then I looked at the pilot, an old guy who wore a leather hat with flaps on his head and a big white kerchief around his neck. While I was scared stiff, he was whistling and having a good time.
I said, “Don't these clouds make it hard for you to see where we're going?”
An Outline of Ecclesiastes
Following the Logic of Solomon
VI. Be Courageous in Life: 8:1-12:8
Be bold in doing right even if you're not rewarded (8:1-10:20).
He said, “Oh yeah, when I look out the window, I can't tell anything about where I'm headed.”
“Why aren't you a little more concerned, then?”
He pointed down to the gauges on the panel. “See this right here? It never lies. We're right here. There's a Delta plane over there and an American plane over there. The ground is down here. I know who's talking to me on the radio; it's Leonard from Fort Myers. I know right where I am.”
That's exactly how life is sometimes. We get enveloped in suffering and don't know which way is up. If we looked at the circumstances around us, we'd end up chucking all reason and flying straight into the ground.
When we don't know what's going on, we have to fly by the panel. You don't abandon your faith because you can't figure it out. You don't punt because God didn't behave. You trust in what you know, not in how you feel. That's flying by the panel.
I recently visited with Tammy, a young lady who had moved away from Denton. I had counseled her often when she was a member of my church. She had mangled many of the important relationships in her life, and it was tough to connect with her. She could be clingy and codependent. I always had to weigh my words carefully when I spoke with her because her feelings were so easily hurt.
Why was Tammy this way? Early in her life, something bad had happened that she couldn't understand. Someone had sinned against her, and she had never recovered. She could never fully believe that God could heal her and take care of her. She could never be still and know that He was God. She could never “in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:18). Tammy could never say, “all things work together for good” (Rom. 8:28). She could never fly by the panel. Her circumstances were sovereign.
We've all known people like this. Maybe you have been a person like this at one time, or maybe you are right now.
Many times in our lives we will go through things we can't understand. How do we become the kind of people who can graciously endure the knocks and bumps of life? How do we remember our smallness and God's greatness? How do you fly by the panel?
Solomon teaches us how to survive in a fallen world. In chapter 6 of Ecclesiastes, he tells us that evil people may prosper, but that doesn't mean they're happy. In chapter 7, he reminds us that suffering is not the worst thing that can happen to us.
In chapter 8 of Ecclesiastes, Solomon shows us that wisdom endures even when it doesn't understand. Life is not fair, and God almost never gives us answers.
Solomon emphasizes the importance of poise in the face of trials. Do you know what poise means? It's related to the word “pose”—to freeze and not move. A “posit” is a truth you believe and hold onto. Poise means that you don't shift due to outside circumstances.
Let me give you an example from sports. If you're a shortstop and you make an error in the ninth inning of a tie game, allowing a runner to move to third base, you've got to put that blunder behind you. When there are two outs and the ball is hit to you, poise means that you put aside the noise of the crowd and your disappointment about the earlier error. You just make the play you're supposed to make. You focus on the fundamentals and act according to the rules of the position. You're not manipulated or intimidated by any forces from outside of you. You do exactly what a shortstop should do. You approach the ball. You take the hop. You come up throwing, hit the first baseman right in the letters, and get the out because you have poise.
Do you know some Christians who, when things didn't work out, got rattled and lost their faith? When we lose our trust in God, we become like Tammy from my church—a walking sore that infects everyone around us.
Chapter 8 of Ecclesiastes applies to every one of us. Watch and learn from what Solomon says about poise. In verse 1 he asserts that the best thing we can have in life is wisdom—to know the will of God:
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.
What authority is intelligent enough to be compared with a person who has a Bible in his hand and who knows God's will? Solomon says the wise person is illumined and has so much joy that you can see it on his face.
Do you have joy? If not, perhaps it's because you aren't soaking in the wisdom of God's Word. It's not being integrated into your life and giving you poise.
Wisdom brings poise because a person who has biblical wisdom is assured of what is right. There is no greater privilege than understanding where we came from, who we are, where we are going, how sin is removed, and what the will of God is. There is no greater blessing. And there is no other place to find these answers than from God in His Word.
Solomon begins this chapter by saying that in a world full of questions, it's wonderful to know the absolutes of life. Some things in life we can't understand but some things we can understand—what the moral will of God is, who He is, and who we are in Him.
So whenever you run up against inequity in life, don't rebel.
I say, “Keep the command of the king because of the oath before God. Do not be in a hurry to leave him. Do not join in an evil matter, for he will do whatever he pleases.” Since the word of the king is authoritative, who will say to him, “What are you doing?” He who keeps a royal command experiences no trouble, for a wise heart knows the proper time and procedure. (vv. 2-5)
The command of the king was meant to be obeyed because he was under the leadership of God. The Jewish people swore an oath of allegiance and obedience to the king. Solomon is reminding us that we are called to obey authority. Don't abandon that position. Even if you have an evil king, don't panic.
For the Israelites, to leave the king was to commit treason. Just because a king is not doing what you think he should do, don't be in a hurry to disobey. Every time a person in the Old Testament rebelled against the king, he ended up being killed.
Nobody can challenge the king; he will do what he pleases. It takes patience and trust in God to submit to frail, human authority.
Who is the greatest example in the Bible of a young man who endured an evil king? One time when the king was trying to kill him, the young man had the opportunity to kill the king. I'm referring to David and King Saul.
David wouldn't kill Saul because of the oath he had given to God: “I will not stretch out my hand against … the Lord's anointed” (1 Sam. 24:10). David would not be ruled by his feelings, circumstances, or peers. David chose to be ruled only by the will of God.
That is poise. When you're in a cave and the man who is trying to kill you relieves himself and is within your reach, it takes poise not to take him out. Even though God had ordained David to be king some day, he didn't take matters into his own hands.
You can't control everything in life and that's OK. Obey the moral will of God and do what He commands you to do. Solomon says the obedient man can obey and know that no troubles will follow. He “experiences no trouble.”
If your life is characterized by submission and obedience, there will be a “proper time and procedure” for dealing with problems. When you're obeying the will of God, you don't have to worry.
Are you spending time with God? Are you walking with God? Are you serving Him? Are you sharing His Word? Are you in the will of God? Are you doing well with the things that are in your control? Then don't worry about the things you can't control.
When was the last time you lied to manipulate your circumstances? What's one of the problems with lying? Remembering your lie. When you lie, you have two alternative universes: the universe you are in and the universe that you created in the other person's mind when you lied.
Imagine telling someone you were a two-time All-American at LSU, when in reality you got cut as a walk-on at Nicholls State. Then you tell someone else that you had an offer from the Padres right out of high school. Sometimes you get them mixed up: Is that the LSU person, or is that the Padres person?
Do you see what happens? Sin is like potato chips; you can never eat just one. Once you sin, inevitably you'll be tempted to sin more to cover it up. If you steal something, you have to lie and hide it from your family. If you cheat the government, you have to lie and keep covering your phony tax tracks. If you cheat on your wife, you'll always wonder if she smells the foreign perfume.
But the truth is that you don't have to lie and sin to make your situation better. God will make things right in His good time. God can change everything at the proper time through His procedures.
A great example of this is Belshazzar, the king of Persia— one of the most wicked rulers in the Old Testament. Daniel tells how Belshazzar took the cups and articles from the temple in Jerusalem and used them to mock God. He praised the gods of stone and gold and silver and earth.
In Persia, whenever a king wrote an edict, it couldn't be changed. One night at a party, this human king saw a hand writing on the wall. It was an immortal hand, a deathless hand. The very hand of God was writing something unchangeable: “MEN
, MEN, TEKL, UPHARSIN” (Dan. 5:25), which means that Belshazzar had been weighed in the balance and had been found wanting. His kingdom would be taken away and given to the Medes and the Persians. And the writing came true: that very night, his kingdom collapsed.
Can God take out a wicked ruler anytime He wants to? Yes, He can.
Nicolae Ceausescu was born in Romania in 1918. A devout communist, he was imprisoned for his beliefs in 1936 and 1940. After the communists took control of Romania in 1947, Ceausescu quickly moved up the political ranks until he became the head of state in 1967. He ruled Romania with an iron hand for more than twenty years.
On December 17, 1989, Ceausescu ordered army troops to fire on a crowd of civilian protesters in Timosora. They refused. Over the next few days, protests spread throughout the country and into the capital of Bucharest.
The last speech Ceausescu made was captured on video. He was talking to a crowd in a public square when the protesters overwhelmed his message. In the video, you can see from the look in his eyes that he knew his situation was hopeless. He and his wife tried to flee the city in a helicopter, but they were caught.
The next video footage of the revolution shows two policemen walking Ceausescu and his wife outside and lining them up against a wall. Then you hear, “Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop,” and the screen fills with smoke. In the next scene, a doctor is feeling for Ceausescu's pulse. The video lasts about three minutes. The events themselves occurred in less than five days. That's how quickly God can take out an evil man.
A wise man knows God can change things in a heartbeat. Anytime God wants to, He can turn your world upside down. So a wise man rests in the sovereignty of God, rather than taking matters in his own hands. In verse 6 Solomon offers a general principle.
For there is a proper time and procedure for every delight, when a man's trouble is heavy upon him.
When my life is burdensome and my heart is broken, I need to remember that there is a proper time and procedure for every delight. There will be a time when this trouble is gone. There will be times of laughter. In God's purposes, there will be a time when everything is turned upright again.
So if you have trouble that is heavy on you right now, know that it's all in the sovereign purposes of God. Change what you can change. Be wise. But in what you can't change, rest in the sovereignty of God.
Let me ask you a very penetrating question: If you're going through great struggles right now, how much of your difficulties involves things you can't change and how much involves things you can? Verse 6 indicates that you need not worry about the things you can't change. Rest in the sovereignty of God. The things you can change, you need to change. For the others, let God's wisdom illumine you.
In verse 7, Solomon reminds us that God makes time, but men make watches.
If no one knows what will happen, who can tell him when it will happen?
Don't keep a stopwatch on God. Don't put Him on your timetable so that He has to perform.
Remain poised. Keep going to church, keep singing, and keep listening. Take the first fruits of your wealth and give them to the Lord. Spend time every day in your Bible and prayer. Check yourself for moral purity. Guard your tongue. Look at the relationships you have and ask yourself if you are sharing the gospel. These are things you can control and in which your wisdom can make your stern face beam. Be illumined by them.
On the things you can't control, you can rest. You can just chill. You can wait because you know that when you're in trouble, there's a proper time and procedure for every delight. Joseph waited thirteen years; Abraham, twenty-five; Jacob, twenty. The saints of Hebrews 11 waited a lifetime then died in faith not receiving the promise! (Heb. 11:39-40)
Right now, I could tell you about three or four things in my life that could easily keep me awake at night. I don't see hope for any of them.
But you know what? They aren't keeping me awake because I'm not worried about what's going to happen. The reason I'm not worried is that I know I'm not in control. If the results depended on me, I'd be worried sick. But it's not up to me, it's up to God, and He's a lot more dependable than I am.
Some of these situations are sinful things that others have done to me, and I do wish God would hit some of them with a meteor. But no cosmic shower has occurred and that's OK.
Here's what I know: I read my Bible this morning and I'm trying to live by it. I loved my wife today and I was affectionate to her. I haven't slandered anybody yet today.
I'm happy and yet I've got struggles. Those are God's business. Is my trouble heavy on me? In a sense it is, but I'm not worried, because there's a proper time and procedure for every delight. I know who holds tomorrow even if I don't know what tomorrow holds.
Do you believe the same?
In verse 8, Solomon shows us that evil men don't have the ability to control their own destinies.
No man has authority to restrain the wind with the wind, or authority over the day of death; and there is no discharge in the time of war, and evil will not deliver those who practice it.
Perhaps the most evil of the Old Testament kings, next to Manasseh, was Ahab. He married a Phoenician woman named Jezebel. He brought idolatry into Israel and God didn't do anything about it. He authorized Jezebel to kill the prophets of God and she did. Still God didn't act.
Then Ahab tried to kill Elijah. God shut the heavens for a three-and-a-half-year drought, and he still didn't repent.
Ahab longed for the land of a man named Naboth, so he killed him to take his land. Then Ahab went to battle and had an alliance with a king named Jehoshaphat. They formed a coalition to fight against the Syrians.
Micaiah the prophet had just prophesied that Ahab was going to die, but Ahab was so arrogant, he thought he could cheat death. He told Jehoshaphat to dress like a king, while Ahab dressed in the common gear of a foot soldier. He thought he had outsmarted God.
The Bible says that as the battle began to rage, a Syrian took an arrow and fired it at random in the air. He was probably some scared first-year Syrian soldier stuck in the back of the line, but he let an arrow fly and guess what? It hit Ahab exactly in the exposed joint of his armor.
Ahab told his men he was wounded, and they took him in his chariot from the battle. Before he left, he saw his army being destroyed. That was the last thing he remembered as he lost consciousness.
Ahab died in the chariot. When they washed his blood out, the dogs came and licked it up.
Isn't that incredible? As Jonathan Edwards said, God holds evil men like little spiders over the fire. He will let them kick and thrash until He is tired of using them for His purposes. Then He drops them in the flames. When God wanted Ahab out, he was dog food, just like that.
All this I have seen and applied my mind to every deed that has been done under the sun wherein a man has exercised authority over another man to his hurt.
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 futility. (vv. 9-10)
Solomon says that he learned a long time ago that evil does not ultimately win. God can take it out whenever He pleases. God can do whatever He wants with an evil government. We need to keep our poise when evil is in authority.
Verse 10 creates some problems for translators and commentators. Some say it is the wicked who used to go in and out from the holy place. Others say there should be a period after “buried,” implying that both the wicked and the righteous are forgotten. But whichever interpretation you choose, the end is the same. Men are forgotten, and we can't control the sovereignty of God.
Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil. (v. 11)
The sons of men (also known as the “sons of Adam”—a fallen man—as noted in earlier chapters) are people who don't know God. They are at the mercy of their own ignorance. Because a person doesn't see instantaneous justice by God against evil, he thinks he can do evil and get away with it. This same thought is found in 2 Peter 3:3-4, “Mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and 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.’”
But we learned earlier in Ecclesiastes that God's patience is a great blessing. If He were to immediately judge evil, every one of us would have already been condemned.
God is long-suffering and patient because He's gathering His people.
Let me give you an example. At the edge of my church's parking lot is a tree that has thorns around it. One of the people who cares for the church's facilities saw the thorns and intended to use a weed eater to clean around the tree. What he didn't know is that I had planted some tulip bulbs around that very tree.
When I saw him going outside with the weed eater, I stopped him and asked him what he was doing. He said, “I'm going to take those thorns out from around that tree.” I said, “Now, wait just a minute. You don't know where my tulips are.” I told him to let the briars grow because in among them are my tulips. As soon as the tulips grow tall, we can clip them and put them in a beautiful vase. Then he can weed-eat those briars to his heart's content.
There's wickedness in this world and God lets it go on. Do you know why? Because there are also little tulips coming up, and someday He's going to take them away and put them on display in glory. Then He will have at those briars.
So be of good cheer. That's why God doesn't remove every hindrance quickly. God wants us to walk by faith.
Another great example of poise comes from the Book of Daniel. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were told they must bow down to idols. They refused and were thrown into a fiery furnace. How's that for an unjust situation?
They could have chucked their beliefs and bowed to the idol to keep out of the furnace. Instead, they said to the king who had issued the edict for everyone to bow to an idol, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (Dan. 3:16-18).
They were willing to trust God no matter the outcome.
Before Thomas Cranmer was burned at the stake by “Bloody Mary,” the Catholic Queen of England, he was told to sign a document to recant his Protestant belief in salvation by faith alone. He had already signed a document before that recanted his position, but he had professed his faith again and was now going to his death for his beliefs.
As the wood was piled around him and the fire was set and began to burn, his accusers came to him, released his right hand from his bonds and placed a quill pen in it, and gave him one last chance to sign the document that would have recanted his Protestant position on salvation by faith alone.
Instead of signing the document, he took his right hand— the hand that had signed the earlier recantation—and held it in the flames until it burned off. He said, “So be it to the hand that offended me.” Now, that's poise.
I've got a friend who had a little brother named Tommy, who loved the Lord. When Tommy died of leukemia, it broke my friend's heart and his parents' hearts and crushed his family.
My friend's name was Joe; he was a Marine and loved to control things. He said that for a brief period of time, he was so bitter toward God that he dropped out of church and stopped reading his Bible.
Then one day, he says, it was just like the hand of God touched him with wisdom. He said to himself, “No matter what happened and no matter what I can't understand, there is an infinite, personal God who gave His Son to die, who saved me by faith, who in His Word shows me how to live holy, and who promises me a revelation at the end of the Bible where evil is judged and good is rewarded.” He decided to trust God. That's what you call poise.
You will have to decide on your poise some day. You may have to bury a child. Your heart will break, and you will wonder why; but you will hear nothing but a faint, mocking echo of your own words. God will not give you reasons, and you'll have to rest in that silence. Remember Ecclesiastes 8:5—“He who keeps a royal command experiences no trouble.” There is a proper time for every delight when evil rests heavy on a man.
Solomon continues his thoughts.
Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and may lengthen 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 evil man and he will not lengthen his days like a shadow, because he does not fear God. There is futility which is done on the earth, that is, there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked. On the other hand, there are evil men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I say that this too is futility. (vv. 12-14)
Though 7:15 speaks of times when an evil man may have a prolonged life, generally the evil man's life won't come to a peaceful end. What goes around will come around. Someday evil or justice will catch up with him; we just can't be sure when.
But in the meantime, life will not appear just. The righteous will suffer in the short term and the wicked will prosper.
Tammy, whom I mentioned at the opening of this chapter, is obsessed with things she can't understand. Who knows why she was abused when she was twelve? Can anybody tell me why God would allow that? I don't know. You don't know. Tammy doesn't know. And we'll never know. But instead of remaining poised, obeying the command, trusting God, and working through her pain, Tammy simply abandoned her faith. So now she just hurts and has no hope at all.
So what can you do? Do right. Trust God. Remain poised. Be a Joseph, a Daniel, or an Abraham. And in verse 15 Solomon reminds us again that we should enjoy right now. Don't let what you can't control tomorrow ruin today.
So I commended pleasure, for there is nothing good for a man under the sun except to eat and to drink and to be merry, and this will stand by him in his toils 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 task which has been done on the earth (even though one should never sleep day or night), and I saw every work of God, I concluded that man cannot discover the work which has been done under the sun. Even though man should seek laboriously, he will not discover; and though the wise man should say, “I know,” he cannot discover. (vv. 15-17)
Solomon simply says he tried his best to figure out the inequality of life. He couldn't understand it and you won't be able to either. Even if we never slept and did nothing but investigate and analyze, we would still be left in the dark. It is certain that God is good and true. It is equally certain that life will be enigmatic.
It's foolish to go through life letting your happiness wax and wane according to the circumstances. Solomon again says our response should be to get two dips of Rocky Road—to enjoy life. Don't let what you cannot understand destroy what you can enjoy and what you know to be true.
Let's break into chapter 9 to finish Solomon's thought.
For I have taken all this to my heart and explain it that righteous men, wise men, and their deeds are in the hand of God. Man does not know whether it will be love or hatred; anything awaits him. (v. 1)
I wish I could tell you that if you would just go to church, read your Bible, or send money to my ministry, nothing evil would ever happen to you. But I can't. As a matter of fact, the current “God wants you to be prosperous” and “Bad things can't happen to Christians” idea is incorrect, cruel, and dangerous. God is not that easy to understand.
Solomon says all men are in the hand of God. He is sovereign and doesn't let us in on all of His plans. But we can be sure that He is a loving Father who will never forsake us.
Martin Luther was a German monk who took his religious duties very seriously. He felt the weight of his sin and guilt and worked as hard as he could to earn the favor of God. As a professor at Wittenberg University, he began to read and study. One day he read the text where Jesus Christ said on the cross, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Luther could not understand it.
In all of his monastic life, he had tried to earn heaven by his good deeds. Why did evil crush Jesus—someone who had done no wrong? The simple truth of salvation through the cross that you and I rejoice in, he couldn't understand. Why did this perfect man have to die? Why?
Later on, Luther came to the Book of Romans and saw that “the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith” (1:17). Luther finally understood that the righteousness of God comes by faith alone. He understood that men are not righteous because they earn the righteousness of God, but because the righteousness of God is given to man through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Suddenly it all fit together for Luther. Jesus was forsaken so that God in His infinite wisdom could save sinners. Christ died for our sins as a perfect man so that God's wrath would be satisfied.
Martin Luther bowed his head and trusted Christ for his salvation. He said he had such great joy that it was as if he had entered into the very gates of heaven.
Have faith in your loving Father, who gave up His own Son to be reconciled to you, proving His ultimate lasting love for you regardless of what current difficulties may cause you to think. Obey what you know to obey, enjoy what you can enjoy and, for the rest, wait on the timing and purposes of God. When life throws you into a bank of clouds, be sure and fly by the panel.
1. What do you think of when you hear the word “poise”? What does it look like to have poise in the face of struggles?
2. Has there been a time in your life when delayed punishment caused you to sink deeper into sin? What happened? How long did you get away with it? What happened when you were finally found out?
3. What would enable you to trust God in spite of your circumstances? What keeps you from trusting Him? How do you think you can grow in your faith and trust?