1 Who is like the wise man? Who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man’s wisdom brightens his face, and the sternness of his face is changed.

2 Keep the king’s command, I say, because of your oath before God. 3 Do not hasten to leave his presence, and do not persist in a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases. 4 For the king’s word is supreme, and who can say to him, “What are you doing?”

5 Whoever keeps his command will come to no harm, and a wise heart knows the right time and procedure. 6 For there is a right time and procedure to every purpose, though a man’s misery weighs heavily upon him. 7 Since no one knows what will happen, who can tell him what is to come?

8 As no man has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has authority over his day of death. As no one can be discharged in wartime, so wickedness will not release those who practice it. 9 All this I have seen, applying my mind to every deed that is done under the sun; there is a time when one man lords it over another to his own detriment.

REFLECTIONS

Written by Andy Rowlands

I so often hear and ask for prayers to ask for wisdom. Like the Teacher, we have this instinctive desire for the wisdom we need to act rightly and confidently in uncertain situations. The teacher has been pointing us toward this throughout Ecclesiastes. And here, he teaches us to act wisely in our relationship to authority—which, in his day, meant the king.

In Australia, we do not have a king or queen in the same way—King Charles’ power is delegated to our government to rule us. The Teacher wants to show us that it is wise to listen to those in power over us. That obeying the laws of our country is a good and wise thing to do, and takes away the burden of much uncertainty, if we are content to listen to those God has put in power over us. But even as we obey them, we need to remember the limitations of human authorities. They, like us, do not know what is going to come.

But every man sits under the power of a higher king, our Lord and Saviour Jesus. Even more than any government, he is the only one who truly has the authority to do whatever he pleases! In his hands are the life and death of every man, and he knows what is to come.  And his are trustworthy hands to hold our lives. In this world where various men lord their powers over others, to the detriment of themselves and of others, he is the one whom we can trust to use his power for not only for his good but also for ours.

Jesus, the truly wise one, is the one whose commands are wise to follow not only because he is our ultimate king, but because he is the one who sets us free from wickedness and brings us into everlasting life with him.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andy is one of our Student Ministers.