Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN

Ecclesiastes 10:16-20 Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child,
      and your princes feast in the morning!

17 Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility,
      and your princes feast at the proper time,
      for strength, and not for drunkenness!

18 Through sloth the roof sinks in,
      and through indolence the house leaks.

19 Bread is made for laughter,
      and wine gladdens life,
      and money answers everything.

20 Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king,
      nor in your bedroom curse the rich,
for a bird of the air will carry your voice,
      or some winged creature tell the matter.

One of my favorite professors would begin each course he taught by making the provocative claim that “This is the most important course you will take as a student here.” He did so to get our attention as he introduced the nature and significance of the course.

The first class I had with him was one on modern political philosophy. When pressed to defend his claim in this class, he said that mere political philosophy is simply an attempt to discern the best way to organize a society for the maximum benefit of its citizens. We’re all here, he reasoned, and we all want to get the most out of life, so what more important question is there than how to do so.

That sounds a bit like Ecclesiastes, doesn’t it? Maybe even more than it initially seems.

Like the Preacher in this passage, the moderns were not primarily concerned with ultimate truths. They were not seeking to govern based on divine decree or even natural law. Many of them were simply trying to figure out what worked best. To do so, they considered many of the same things as the Preacher and with much the same (under the sun) perspective as the Preacher.

In that way, it’s not hard to understand why some of them came to the same sorts of conclusions as the Preacher concerning the way ordinary people ought to relate to their king and him to them.

The big idea of this passage, like the big idea of a good deal of modern political philosophy I learned from Dr. Leibowitz, is that wisdom is needed to rule and be ruled under the sun. The main takeaways are to learn that wisdom and to look to God as the one true King.

Again, the main banner over this small handful of proverbs is wisdom concerning kings and how their people should think about and relate to them.

In a very simplistic way, the outline of these five verses is simply this: No, yes, no, yes, no. Or, bad, good, bad, good, bad. In other words, the Preacher begins with some things that we should try to avoid in our rulers, he moves to naming some things that we should seek in them, and then alternates back and forth through one and a half more cycles.

That structure seems intended to help us feel the weight of both the bad and good aspects of kings. And so, rather than simply list and comment on the bad and then list and comment on the good, we’re going to go back and forth with the Preacher; beginning, once again, with some things to avoid if at all possible.

The Preacher starts off by naming two things that make for particularly bad rulers. Both are a sign of nearly certain citizen-suffering and both probably need some explaining.

16 Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child,
      and your princes feast in the morning!

Child-kings and princes who feast before noon. What do those things mean and why are they considered “woes” (cries of grief, calamity, or misery)?

Given the fact that kings in the Preacher’s day were functional sovereigns (their word was absolute law for the land), the last thing anyone would want was an immature or immoral king.

Imagine a person who could outlaw certain colors of clothing or foods just because he felt like it on a given day. Imagine a someone with the absolute power to take from you whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted (including your land, your possessions, your young daughter, or even your wife) on nothing more than an impulse. Imagine a governor who was able to end your life with the wave of his hand; no checks and balances, no chance to appeal, and no penalty for injustice.

For it to be a good thing for someone to have that kind of power, they would need to be exceptionally mature and moral.

Again, then, it doesn’t take a particularly active imagination to think of the pain, suffering, and damage a childish king could do. That’s the heart of the Preacher’s first line in v.16.

16 Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child…

One commentator gives a rather humorous example of this from history.

“A notable example from European history is Charles XII, who became the king of Sweden when he was only a teenager. The wild behavior of Charles and his friends included riding on horseback through his grandmother’s apartment, knocking people to the ground in the city streets, and practicing firearms by shooting out the windows of the palace. In response, the leading preachers of Stockholm all agreed to preach from Ecclesiastes 10:16 on the same Sunday, pronouncing woe on a land with a child for a king and princes that feasted in the morning.”

Brad shared a more tragic version of this, one probably more like what the Preacher had in mind.

One of the most egregious examples of a child being given the title of king might be Henry VI of England. In 1422, at a time when England was in control of a significant portion of France, Henry V died of dysentery at the age of 35, and crowned his 9-month-old son, Henry King of England. Henry VI was removed from his mother early and raised by advisors who never conditioned or groomed him to rule, rendering him ill-equipped to manage a very politically charged situation. He remained very child-like even into his adult years. This effectively created a power-vacuum. Because there were powerful families who had a great deal to lose without a proper King to manage English holdings in Europe, in 1455 England descended into a bloody and destructive civil war known as the War of the Roses that lasted 32 years – England had a child for a king. It is a fearful thing for a country to fall under the rule of anyone who lacks the necessary education, training, and wisdom to rule well and what child possesses such things?

It’s not impossible to have a good king who is a child (Josiah, who was only eight years old when he came to power in Judah, comes to mind), but it is very uncommon. For every Josiah, there are probably ten Charles XIIs and Henry VIs. For every happy kingdom with a child-king there are probably ten woeful kingdoms.

At the same time, the Preacher almost certainly had in mind immature rulers as well. We’ve all heard the term “man-child”. Men ruling as kings without the mind or maturity to do so are often as bad, if not worse, than an actual child doing so.

This is true for Kings, and it is true for governments like ours. Functional children in office have done unimaginable damage to our country throughout our history.

This is true for kings and governmental leaders, and it is true for fathers within the home. We are called to lead by example, away from folly and toward maturity and godliness. But woe to the families who are led by men who are steeped in immaturity and folly; who are more interested in leading toward fun than God’s glory; who are more interested in using their authority for selfish pleasure than the blessing of their family; who are functional children in adult bodies.

Men, don’t be like this. Learn from the wisdom of this proverb!

All of that, leads directly to the second line of v.16. Just as it doesn’t take a lot of deep thought to imagine how much pain, suffering, and damage an immature king could do, neither does it to imagine what an immoral king could do—one who is prideful, selfish, vengeful, spiteful, or petty.

16 Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child,
      and your princes feast in the morning!

What kind of princes feast in the morning? The kind that Isaiah 5:11 talks about, “Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them!”

They are the kind of princes, the sons of the king, who use their positions of power to serve their fleshly appetites instead of their people. They are drunk from morning to night. Woe to the nation that lacks rulers with the morality to rule well. Literally, millions have been murdered and millions more oppressed by leaders like this.

The poetic proverb of the Preacher is a warning against immature and immoral kings. It is a grievous thing to fall under the rule of either and worse still to fall under both.

And that is a reminder of the fact that God alone is a perfectly wise and good sovereign. He is the one true King. He can do (and does!) whatever He pleases (Psalm 115:3). But what pleases God is always what’s best for His people. The frustration and pain we face at the hands of bad rulers is, like most things in Ecclesiastes, an instrument of God’s to point us to Him. Look to Him, therefore, Grace and not any earthly ruler as your true help and protection and provision.

Avoid unwise and immoral kings if you can and seek instead kings who are noble, appropriate, and sober. That’s the heart of the three lines of v.17.

17 Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility,
      and your princes feast at the proper time,
      for strength, and not for drunkenness!

When a good family was in power, it was often a blessing for that power to stay in the hands of the good family. When a wise and moral leader trains his son well to lead with wisdom and morality, whole nations are blessed (happy). The biblical phrase, “He followed in the footsteps of his father,” can be a glorious thing indeed when the father is a noble king who hands his crown to a noble prince.

Similarly, when a good family is in power, the sons of the kings know their place and the place of all things before them. They feast at the proper time (in celebration of God’s kindness and blessing) and for the proper reasons (for strength to rule well, not for sinful pleasure).

Woe to those with bad kings, wrote the Preacher, but blessed are those with good kings. Heavy are the lives of those whose kings rule wickedly, but happy are those whose kings rule righteously.

Much of the OT puts these first two proverbs on display for all to see. As men ruled poorly (immaturely and immorally) the nation suffered. I read of this in graphic form recently in Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 15:3-4 I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the Lord: the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 4 And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.

But the opposite is true as well. As kings led well (with nobility, appropriateness, and sobriety), the nation was blessed. Even the pagan Queen of Sheba couldn’t miss this of King Solomon’s reign.

1 Kings 10:7-9 Your [King Solomon] wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard. 8 Happy are your men! Happy are your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! 9 Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the Lord loved Israel forever, he has made you king, that you may execute justice and righteousness.”

Seek kings, therefore, who are noble, appropriate, and sober-minded.

We considered v.18 last week in the context of a fool’s work. The further context is a foolish king’s work.

Good rulers are always about the business of blessing their people. Good rulers are working to hold back evil and promote good (Romans 13). Good rulers are defined by making their kingdoms places where God’s will can be lived out in freedom and peace (1 Timothy 2).

Bad rulers on the other hand not only actively undermine their subjects’ well-being (as we saw in v.16), they also passively do so through laziness and neglect.

18 Through sloth the roof sinks in,
      and through indolence the house leaks.

Perhaps the king isn’t doing anything intended to harm, but it’s just as bad to neglect doing things that are necessary for the survival and thriving of their subjects: building and maintaining roads, maintaining a well-trained and well-equipped police and military, creating areas designed to incentivize buying and selling goods, encouraging marriage, procreation, and good education, promoting genuine good and fear of the Lord, etc.

When those things are neglected, societies crumble as much as (even if not as quickly as) societies that are actively harmed by their rulers. Good Kings, rulers, dads, or anyone entrusted by God with leading, are never to be passive, but always active in doing good.

In a society like ours, then, when we vote, we need to be thinking in terms of what the people on the ballot stand for, and also what they have accomplished. It’s one thing to talk about doing good things. It’s another thing altogether to possess the wisdom, hard work, discipline, skill, and perseverance to accomplish good things.

Similarly, ladies, when you are looking for a husband, look for a man who has a crystal-clear sense of good and demonstrates consistent initiative at doing it. Look for a man who is a hard worker. Look for a man who is driven in a godly direction. Look for a man who already takes good care of all the things under his care.

Men, in every area that leadership has been entrusted to you by God, know God’s will for you and take initiative in seeing it done in the world. Do not be passive. Do not abdicate learning or fulfilling your God-given roles. Reject or repent of laziness or neglect.

Avoid bad kings (and leaders) who are lazy and indolent.

A fourth word for rulers and ruled, for leaders and led (similar to that of v.17): Everything in its proper place, at its proper time, and for its proper purpose.

19 Bread is made for laughter,
      and wine gladdens life,
      and money answers everything.

Everything that has been made, has been made by God for a good purpose. Only inside that purpose can things be properly ordered, beneficial, and honoring to God. And outside of its God-given purpose things are always disordered, harmful, and in rebellion against God.

A wise pastor once asked a man struggling with lust, “Do you make fires in your living room?” If his answer is “Yes, right in the middle of the floor,” he’s in big trouble and will likely burn his whole house down. If, on the other hand, his answer is “Yes, in my fireplace,” he’ll know a special kind of warmth and appeal. Same fire, big difference in location and result.

The same thing is true for bread, wine, and money. Each are part of God’s design for particular purposes, and particular times. The Preacher names proper uses of each and in that, he expands a bit on the appropriate use of things from v.17.

One of God’s intentions for giving us bread is that it would go with laughter. In this way, bread is likely a symbol of a feast or banquet. As we saw, bad kings are always and only feasting and laughing; morning to night. Good kings, again, aren’t marked by feastlessness or asceticism or stoicism, but by proper celebrations at proper times. Bread and other good foods (and drinks, as we’re about to see) are a part of that in proper proportion.

One of God’s intentions for giving wine is that it would enhance gladness. Wine, like bread, is tied to celebrations. Wine, like bread, is given to us by God for certain, limited reasons and within them it is a blessing. Outside its proper purpose, however, it will burn a man’s whole life down—hence, the myriad biblical warnings against drunkenness.

And two of God’s intentions for money are that it would reveal our treasure and provide for good. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evils. Money is often used to indulge sinful and worldly pleasures. But money, according to God’s design, has proper uses as well.

Money answers everything, then, in two important senses. First, it answers every question about what is most important to us. It really is that simple, Grace. If I ask you to tell me what you love the most, your credit card bill will answer that question with a kind of honesty that your words might not. Money is nothing more than the means to acquire our heart’s desires. The issue is never the money, therefore. The issue is always the desire of the heart, which money merely reveals.

Second, money answers everything in that it is a God-appointed means of providing for every earthly need. It is a means of worship—cheerfully giving our first fruits for kingdom use. It is a means of acquiring the food, shelter, and clothing we need to carry out the Great Commandments and Commission. It is a means of serving others—sacrificially giving to provide them whatever they lack. And it is a means of God’s blessing us—through it, providing the opportunity to feast with bread and wine and milk and honey.

Good kings, good presidents and governors, and good dads know and submit entirely to God’s design for bread, wine, and money. They do not use them for their own purposes, in their own ways, or at their own times. They know that God’s ways always provide the straightest path to the greatest good and they do not veer off that path.

Grace, seek, therefore, good leaders who use all things properly. Pray for them according to God’s command (1 Timothy 2:1-2). And if the Lord grants you a position of leadership, seek to be a good leader who uses all things properly—for the glory of God and the absolute best for those you’re called to lead.

Finally, under the sun wisdom calls us to avoid speaking or even thinking curses upon our rulers. Look at v.20.

20 Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king,
      nor in your bedroom curse the rich,
for a bird of the air will carry your voice,
      or some winged creature tell the matter.

For us, as Christians, there needs to be two important tracks running here. First, there is, as the Preacher primarily means, tremendous (under the sun) wisdom in keeping your mind guarded and your mouth shut when it comes to criticizing someone who could put you to death at will. Treasonous thoughts have always had a way of getting to the ears of those in power—even before cell phones recording everything and the internet to publish everything instantly throughout the whole world (some “bird of the air” sounds like Twitter).

Again, there is wisdom in this. Be careful about what you say. And if God’s Word necessitates saying something disparaging about those in authority (which it certainly does at times), make sure you’re willing to pay the cost for it.

On the other hand, where and whenever God puts us in a position of leadership, let us hold that office very differently. Let us be patient, humble, and just. Let us lead boldly, but listen carefully when those in our charge have concerns.

The second track that ought to be continually running in us as we consider the leadership over us comes from above the sun wisdom. God’s Word teaches that we ought to be careful of cursing the king because it is a fearful thing to speak poorly of God’s appointed. As we saw at the beginning of chapter 10, and as we learn from the Apostle Paul, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment” (Romans 13:1-2).

There is a way in which Christians will be distinctly honoring and obedient to our authorities. There is a distinct way in which Christians will speak well of our authorities whenever we can. For, even bad authorities are “from God” and “have been instituted by God.” There is judgment from God, therefore, for all who improperly resist the authorities “God has appointed.”

Grace, let us fear God and honor the emperor (1 Peter 2:17). Let us honor our parents. Let us speak well of and submit joyfully to our elders. Let us use our words (as we saw last week) to build up and give grace to all, and especially those with God-delegated authority over us. Let us be quick to listen and slow to speak. Let us look toward our leaders as God has called us to and avoid thinking and speaking curses concerning them in every way possible. Let us let them lead with joy and not with groaning for that is of no advantage to us. Let us pray for them continually, asking for the fear of the Lord to be upon them and the righteousness, courage, and beneficence of God to be in them always.

The big idea of this passage is that wisdom is needed to rule and be ruled under the sun. The main takeaways are to learn that wisdom and to look to God as the one true King.

In that, Grace, as is often the case, God flips everything upside down in His kingdom. Instead of a woe, the greatest news of all time is that the king of Kings came as a baby to bring an unending and infinitely joyful feast. The Son of God is the feast! and the strength! and the all-consuming satisfaction! Jesus never rests making intercession for us and He never neglects good. He is the bread of life and the joy of the Lord. His blood is the living wine and He is the greatest treasure. Though we cursed the King, He became the curse on our behalf and we have become the ones to carry that good news and to tell of that matter.

All the rulers of heaven and earth belong to Him. Trusting in that with all we have is the beginning of wisdom and life and joy. It is the key to living under whatever under the sun authority God assigns to us. And it is our true and certain hope of the kingdom to come.

Look to Jesus as the one true King, therefore Grace Church. Learn the wisdom of faithful surrender. Learn to seek Him as King overall and therein learn to honor and obey all that He places over us without fear, even as we pray that they would fear, honor and obey Him.

Ecclesiastes 10:12-15, 18 The words of a wise man’s mouth win him favor,
      but the lips of a fool consume him.

13 The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness,
      and the end of his talk is evil madness.

14 A fool multiplies words,
      though no man knows what is to be,
      and who can tell him what will be after him?

15 The toil of a fool wearies him,
      for he does not know the way to the city.

18 Through sloth the roof sinks in,
      and through indolence the house leaks.

The Preacher addressed fools, folly, foolishness, and the like more than 40 times in Ecclesiastes. For context, vanity (~38) and under the sun (~30), the two terms Ecclesiastes is primarily known for, both occur less frequently than does the various forms of folly. In other words, if it seems like we’ve been hearing a lot about fools lately, that’s because we have. Evidently, it’s a topic God means us to consider carefully and thoroughly.

With that, welcome to the third and final sermon on the folly proverbs of Ecclesiastes 10. In fact, welcome to the last look at folly in the book (no more folly in Ecclesiastes after today).

One more time, then, we’ll consider the Preacher’s insight concerning the nature, experience, and results of the folly of fools. To that end, we get seven more poetic lines on the words of the foolish and four more to the work of the foolish.

In all of this we’ll see that the big idea of this passage is that God’s people are called to bless others through wisdom, but a fool’s words and works bring nothing but harm to himself and those around him. And from that, the main takeaways are to seek the Lord’s help in speaking graciously, being humble, and working excellently.

Do you have any fools in your life; I’m talking a bona fide fool’s fool? If so, think for a minute about how they talk. What is different about the way they talk from non-fools? What are some of the primary characteristics of their words? The main thing that comes to my mind is significant and misplaced confidence in themselves. When the fools I know talk, they display the tragic combination of being constantly wrong and supremely confident.

In our passage, the Preacher notes five marks of the talk of fools. It is self-destructive, thoroughly foolish, evil madness, verbose, and ignorant. As is easy to see, those are not desirable traits. And as is easy to predict, they are not only annoying, but genuinely destructive as well.

We read earlier in Ecclesiastes 10 that a fool can’t long hide his folly. One of the most common ways it is revealed is through his words. And the first revelatory aspect of a fool’s folly is that his speech is self-destructive. Look with me at v.12.

12 The words of a wise man’s mouth win him favor,
      but the lips of a fool consume him.

When it comes to poetry like the kind we find in v.12, there are three main relationships between the lines. They are usually connected by comparison, continuation, or contrast. Each one is intended to function as a powerful tool designed to drive the poet’s point further home than would either line by itself (kind of a 1+1=3). In this case, as I imagine you can see, the lines are in contrast.

In this way, in order to most fully appreciate the self-destructive nature of a fool’s words, we need to most fully appreciate the contrast between the two lines of this verse. And in order to most fully appreciate the contrast, we need to begin with the effect of the words of the wise (12a).

12 The words of a wise man’s mouth win him favor…

The primary characteristic of a wise man’s words is that they “win him favor”. On the surface, that sounds like wise people are able to use their words to get what they want for themselves, from others.

If you are wise and you want ice cream, you can use your words to convince your parents that it’s a good idea.

If you are wise and you want to get a girl to be your girlfriend, you can use your words to convince her that you’re quite a catch.

If you are wise and want your husband to help out more around the house, you can use your words to convince him that it’s in his best interest.

If you are wise and you want to get a job, be elected to a political office, sell a product, win an argument, settle a dispute, get out of a parking ticket, get your kids to be quiet, or get the last dessert, you can use your words to win those favors.

That’s what it sounds like, and that’s certainly how some people use/misuse their wisdom, but it is not what the Preacher meant.

A more literal translation helps make that clear, “the words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious” (I imagine your Bible has a footnote in that regard). The words of the wise are a gift to the hearer. In that, he will under most circumstances win the affection (the favor) of those to whom he speaks. But the main point is that the speech of the wise is marked by benefitting the people he talks to.

Again then, rather than use his words to gain from others, the wise person uses his words to give to others. Rather than extract favors from his hearers, his kind, beneficent words cause favor to be bestowed upon them.

In other words, Ephesians 4:29 is an echo of Ecclesiastes 10:12 (which will become even clearer as we consider the contrasting second line of v.12).

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths [second line], but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Grace, once again, if you are wise, if you are godly, you will pick your words with more care than you pick almost anything else in your life. Every word of the wise is sent out on to accomplish a particular, God-given purpose: graciously building up the person to whom you are speaking, along with everyone else within ear shot.

If you are about to say something, then, and you are wise, and you realize that it’s not intended as a gift for those who would hear you speak, and especially the primary person(s) you are speaking to, you should either change what you were going to say or keep silent…every time.

Words of encouragement, words of kindness, words of praise to God, words of intelligence, words of help, words of good counsel…the words of the wise always have the aim of giving grace. And in that, any sensible person is glad to hear them and is better for them.

Can you think of a recent time in which that was the case for you; where someone spoke words that were clearly intended to be a blessing to you and actually accomplished that purpose? I hope so. I hope it happens all the time (especially when you are around the saints of Grace Church).

And can you think of a recent time in which that was the case for you; where you intentionally spoke words intended to be a build someone up and it actually accomplished that purpose? I hope so. I hope it happens all the time.

Having seen how good, true, and helpful are the words of the wise, therefore, we’re in a better place to feel the truly grievous nature of the words of the foolish. Rather than being marked by grace, they are marked by self-destruction. Look again at v.12.

12 The words of a wise man’s mouth win him favor,
      but the lips of a fool consume him.

Fools are constantly bickering and therein destroying relationships.

Fools are constantly bragging and therein bringing the disdain of others upon themselves.

Fools are constantly talking with misguided and inflated confidence and therein fostering mistrust and skepticism.

Fools are constantly clamoring on and on and therein causing others to tune out and avoid them.

Fools are constantly disparaging others and therein further isolating themselves.

Fools are constantly hurling insults and therein inviting violence to be inflicted upon them.

When a fool talks, others are torn down, beaten up, deceived, corrupted, insulted, confused, and summarily worse off. And the result is that the fool is despised, rejected, mistrusted, avoided, assaulted, and consumed. He destroys himself by his words. He is eaten up by his own mouth.

How do you recognize a fool? Listen to his words and consider whether they give grace and win favor or give corruption and produce destruction.

We are right, therefore, to repent of any unintentional, careless or misguided words we’ve spoken.

And even more so, we are right to repent of any words that have torn others down, mocked them, belittled them, gossiped about them, slandered them, or otherwise left them worse off.

As I just said, the first characteristic of a fool’s words is that they are self-destructive. They consume the fool. And that is best seen in contrast with the words of the wise which give up-building grace to those who hear.

V.12 shows the destructive power of the words of a fool by contrasting it with the grace-filled words of the wise. This next verse shows the thoroughness of the foolish words of the fool through two lines of continuation.

13 The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness,
      and the end of his talk is evil madness.

From beginning to end, the fools’ words are foolish. He can’t help himself. Out of an overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34). And since a fool’s heart is filled with folly, so is his mouth.

The fool’s first and last words, along with all of them in between, are folly.

The two lines of v.13 together help us to see the totality of the foolish words of the fool. The second line helps us to see something additional. There, the Preacher qualifies the nature of the fool’s final words. He calls them evil (or wicked) madness.

Of this, one of the commentators I read this week (Kidner, TMOE, 92) notes that all words, including the fools, are both moral and mental.

Every word we utter is moral in that it is either honoring to God or it is wicked. There is no in between. We like to think of our words as good, evil, or neutral, but there really are no neutral words. The Preacher, in all his under the sun wisdom, was able to recognize this.

In working through this section, I was convicted of this. I’ll often make comments (especially at home) like, “This is a different recipe, isn’t it?” or “You rearranged the furniture.” At times, that can cause people to assume a critical spirit in that kind of speech from me (that I don’t like the dinner or rearrangement). My response has often been to defend my words as simple observations. But the Preacher helps me/us to see that as a lie. Some motivation drove me to say what I said and it was either godly or wicked, for anything that does not proceed from faith is sin (Romans 14:23). If my aim wasn’t to glorify God by giving grace, then it was not neutral, but evil.

Likewise, every word we utter is mental in that it comes from something we believe. It might come from something thinly examined, but it comes from something we believe to be true nonetheless. And just as there are no morally neutral comments, there are no truth-neutral words either. They all result from a belief in us that is either true or false.

The fool’s words are characterized by being rooted in immorality and untruth.

As I mentioned last week, all sin is foolish, but not all foolishness is sin. A key for us to see here, however, is that words that begin as folly, often turn to sin. Tolerating folly in ourselves is inviting sin in ourselves.

Grace, as I mentioned before, the talk of fools is always self-destructive, thoroughly foolish, and evil madness. Ask the Spirit to help you see the corrosive nature of this kind of talk. Ask the Spirit to make your speech filled with grace and not destruction. Fight the foolish tendencies of your flesh. Take every word captive. Make them submit to Christ.

In Matthew 12:36, Jesus said, “But I tell you that men will give an account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken”.

Of course, none of us have or will do this perfectly. Every one of us has evil madness in our hearts, and therefore in our words. But that’s precisely why Jesus came to earth. To teach us how to speak properly and to die in our place as payment for our sins of improper speech (along with all the rest).

Look to Him, therefore, for how to speak in thoroughly righteous truth, in such a way as to give grace to all who hear, and in such a way as to win the favor of God. And look to Him, therefore, for forgiveness when you don’t.

There are two more defining characteristics of a fool’s speech mentioned by the Preacher here. First, a fool talks as if he is getting paid by the word—no matter what the words are or do. Like a pagan prayer, they believe that they will be heard (or believed or revered) by their many words (Matthew 6:7-8).

That is, as the first line of v.14 says…

14 A fool multiplies words…

While God’s Word tells us that…

Proverbs 10:19 When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.

and

James 1:19 Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

…fools talk and talk and talk and talk. They go on and on and on. Their many words aren’t intended to add to their point, only to keep the floor. They enjoy the sound of their own voice and lack the sense to recognize the folly of that, much less to listen and learn from others.

Grace, pay attention to the proportion of your words to the words of others in your conversations. If it’s continually tilting heavily toward you, consider the words of the Preacher as a warning.

Finally, in another few poetic lines of continuation, the Preacher helps us to see that the fool’s many words are rooted in ignorance. Not only does he not care about making a good point, he doesn’t have a good point to make.

14 A fool multiplies words,
      though no man knows what is to be,
      and who can tell him what will be after him?

The fool talks confidently about matters that cannot be known. He speaks of the future even though the future is not ours to know. He speaks of where he will be and what he will do, even though knowledge of those things belongs to God alone (James 4:13). He’s so confident that he knows what’s to come (even though he doesn’t) that he won’t stop talking about it.

A fool’s words are thoroughly foolish, evil madness, verbose, and ignorant, and those things lead to self-destruction and the destruction of others.

Let us learn from this, Grace Church. If nothing else, let us learn that every word we utter comes from somewhere in us and accomplishes something outside of us. May our words come from a heart that loves God above all and our neighbor as ourselves. And may our words accomplish the purposes that God has assigned to them—building up, giving grace, convicting sinners, giving hope to the humble, demolishing ungodly philosophies, calling all mankind to repent, etc.

On top of all of that, and far more significantly, let’s marvel at the fact that the fool’s words are, in every way, the opposite of God’s Words. While the fool’s words are thoroughly foolish, God’s words are thoroughly wise. While the fool’s words are evil and mad, God’s words are righteous and true. While the fool’s words are empty and excessive, God’s words are perfectly effective and efficient. While the fool’s words are ignorant, God’s words are filled with knowledge and insight. And while the fool’s words are destructive, God’s words create, sustain, rescue, and restore. Praise Him!

And on top of that still, while the fool’s words are thoroughly of the evil one, Jesus is the very Word of God. Our words not only effect ourselves and others, they are always of either the devil or the Son of God.

Again, Grace, the nature of God and His words and Word, shatters the notion that any word that comes from our mouth is insignificant. The nature of God and His words and Word explains the evil of treating them lightly and the reason we will have to give an account for every careless one. The nature of God and His words and Word forces us to handle our words with proper care, knowing the power they contain. And the nature of God and His words and Word help us to see why folly is so tied up in the misuse of words.

The Preacher helps us to see that a fool is revealed not only by his words and their effect, but also by his work and its effect. The Preacher named five characteristics of a fool’s speech. He names four characteristics of a fool’s work. It is for him extraordinarily tiresome. And it is extraordinarily tiresome because he is extraordinarily inefficient, lazy and negligent.

The first defining characteristic of a fool’s relationship to his work is that it is extraordinarily tiresome for him.

15 The toil of a fool wearies him,

Have you ever seen this? Have you ever worked with someone who seemed to be ready to be done for the day—every day—by 10am or is twice as tired as everyone else at the end of the day (and not because he started early and accomplished more than was expected)? That’s one of the first ways to recognize that you are working with a fool.

Work is by definition tiring, but fools are always more tired by their work than they ought to be. The second (continuing) line of v.15 explains why and gives the second characteristic of a fool’s work.

Fools are extraordinarily tired by their work because they work extraordinarily inefficiently. They have to work exponentially harder or longer to do the same job as anyone else.

15 The toil of a fool wearies him,
      for he does not know the way to the city.

The simple idea of the second line is something like this: A foolish man was charged to deliver a package to someone in a nearby city. He loads the delivery on a donkey’s back and heads out, walking alongside it. That’s hard work all by itself. But the fool doesn’t actually know where the city is. And rather than ask for directions, the fool heads out with misguided confidence in the direction he thinks the city is in. Because he is wrong, though, instead of the normal work involved in such a journey, the fool travels two or three times as far, wandering around until he eventually stumbles upon it. Not recognizing that all the extra work and frustration was his own doing, he expects to be appreciated and paid for his extra time and energy.

I thought just like this at a time when I was in peak folly. My best friend’s dad offered to pay us to stack wood in the barn for him. With nothing more than dollar signs in our minds, our priority was to get the work done as quickly as possible. We paid little attention to the quality of our work as we ripped through it.

As we got close to the end (or so we thought), the unstable wood pile we’d created in our haste came tumbling down. We went whining to my friend’s dad and he told us to take care of it. Reluctantly we did, but we did so fully expecting that he’d pay us extra for the “extra” work.

We were far more tired by having to stack the wood twice than we would have been had we done it properly the first time. And we were incensed when he paid us the amount he’d promised from the beginning. We genuinely couldn’t make sense of the “injustice.” We were fools.

Fools are extraordinarily inefficient at work and because of that, they’re tired even at the thought of work.

You may have noticed that the scripture reading and the sermon text skips over vs.16-17 and jumps to v.18. That’s because, as we’ll seen next week, most of vs.16-20 contain proverbs concerning kings. Within that, the Preacher interjects another thought on the fool’s work in v.18. There we find the final two aspects of a fool’s relationship with his work—both of which continue to explain why the fool’s work is extraordinarily tiresome.

18 Through sloth the roof sinks in…

Or, as Proverbs 26:15 says, “The [foolish] sluggard buries his hand in the dish; it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth.”

Tending to sinking roofs or lifting hands full of food is just too much work for the slothful, lazy fool.

We were made by God to work hard and produce much according to His blessing. Work is good. Work is an essential aspect of being a divine image bearer and living a full life. But fools have no appetite for that which is good; only that which is easy.

We are finite, which means that we can’t always work. On top of that, God commands us to rest, which means that we must. But while godly men and women rest from work, for greater work, fools try to avoid work altogether. And, as with the rest of the characteristics of a fool’s work that we’ve considered, the amount of work fools put into avoiding work is exhausting.

The fourth characteristic of a fool’s work, the third reason his work is so tiresome, and the final point of this sermon, is that a fool is extraordinarily indolent (negligent) in his work. We see that in the second line of v.18.

18 Through sloth the roof sinks in,
      and through indolence the house leaks.

Laziness and negligence are related but also distinct. Laziness is an aversion to work and that often causes neglect. In other words, the fool’s roof didn’t sink in and eventually leak because he was lazy. It sank in and leaked because his laziness caused him to neglect the necessary repairs.

A lazy fool looks at his failing roof, he knows that if he continues to neglect it, it will continue to deteriorate until it eventually fails entirely, but he does nothing about it.

A fool looks at his failing marriage, he knows that if he continues to neglect it, it will fail entirely, but he does nothing about it.

A fool looks at his failing children, he knows that if he continues to neglect them, they will fail entirely, but he does nothing about them.

A fool looks at his failing church, community, and company, he knows that if he continues to neglect them, they will fail entirely, but he does nothing about them.

A fool looks at his failing spirit, he knows that if he continues to neglect it, it will fail entirely, but he does nothing about it.

A fool’s work is extraordinarily tiresome because he is extraordinarily inefficient, lazy, and negligent.

In stark contrast, wisdom works as unto the Lord; for His pleasure and glory. Wisdom works for the blessing of others; for their benefit and provision. Wisdom works at working with excellence (at continually getting better at your job). Wisdom works these ways at both under and above the sun matters; for the dominion of the things of earth and the salvation of the things above. Wisdom works as God designed, commands, and models. And wisdom rests for the proper purpose and in the proper way: for greater work and according to God’s example.

Further, as is the case with our words, our works are unimaginable significant because they too are rooted in God’s nature and work. Where’s the fool’s work is tiresome, God’s work is life giving and restoring. Where the fool’s work is inefficient, God’s work never fails to accomplish His purposes—and without a wasted fraction of a second or ounce of energy. Where the fool’s work is rooted in laziness, God’s work is rooted in unlimited power and unwavering determination. And where a fool’s work is filled with negligence, God’s is working at all times and in every thing for the highest good of all His people.

And further still, while the fool works the works of the evil one, God’s fullest work is in and through and for Jesus Christ. This is why it is by grace that we are saved through faith, not as a result of our works, but entirely owing to God’s work. O, praise Him!

In all of this we’ll see that the big idea of this passage is that God’s people are called to bless others through wisdom, but a fool’s words and works bring nothing but harm to himself and those around him. And from that, the main takeaways are to seek the Lord’s help in speaking graciously, being humble, and working excellently.

Wisdom calls us to speak words of grace, Grace Church. Intentional and sanctifying; every word spoken by us, every time.

It calls us to seek and receive words of grace (in every form) in humility. Thoughtfully and prayerfully; every word heard by us, every time.

And it calls us to work as unto the Lord. Excellence and diligence; every work, every time.

And the fact that none of us have acted perfectly in that kind of wisdom reminds us that grace calls us to confess our shortcomings in these areas and entrust them to Jesus in the certain knowledge that as we do, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and fill us with all that we lack.

It is for that reason that we turn now to one of the two primary reminders of His grace that God has given to His Church…

Ecclesiastes 10:8-11 He who digs a pit will fall into it,
        and a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall.

9 He who quarries stones is hurt by them,
        and he who splits logs is endangered by them.

10 If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge,
        he must use more strength,
        but wisdom helps one to succeed.

11 If the serpent bites before it is charmed,
        there is no advantage to the charmer.

In the way of bringing you up to speed (if you’re just joining us) or reminding you of where we’ve been (if you’ve been with us through our time in this book), there are probably three main things to keep in mind regarding Ecclesiastes as a whole.

When we read Ecclesiastes in light of the whole counsel of God, though, we see that its main contribution is its unmatched ability to reveal our need for a higher wisdom and deeper satisfaction than can be found through ordinary, earthly means. To read Ecclesiastes as we ought, therefore, is to feel frustrated at the limits of mankind—at our inability to understand or gain lasting joy—and therein to feel compelled to look elsewhere for those things. It is out of that realization that C.S. Lewis’ famous quote was born, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy [as was the case with the Preacher], the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world [as is revealed in Jesus Christ].”

With all of that in mind, the big idea of this passage is that folly (acting contrary to the way the world really is) leads to all kinds of problems in our ordinary lives. In many ways, the folly of fools creates the problems they face. And the main takeaway is to act in wisdom—wisdom that comes from careful observation of the world, from listening carefully to others, and ultimately from the supernaturally revealed Word of God.

Again, if I were to summarize the Preacher’s message from these verses in the least number of words possible, it would be something like this: Folly causes trouble.

In order to drive that point deep inside his readers, the Preacher determined to use the literary tool of poetry. And as is often the case, it is the imagery of the poetry that allows it to do so.

Consistent with what I shared last week (the third point from the TLI curriculum on biblical poetry), one commentator notes of our passage, “When the Bible uses images like this, we need to slow down to understand them, puzzling over them like riddles instead of skimming over them like stories” (Ryken, PTW, 238).

The first big riddle to puzzle over surrounding the images of these four verses is whether they (1) continue to address folly and wisdom or if the Preacher (2) has shifted gears to address the simple fact that bad things happen in this world (to the wise and foolish alike).

The second possibility is certainly true—bad things do happen to everyone, no matter how we order our lives. In that way, sometimes even the most careful pit-diggers will fall into their pits and wall-breakers will get bitten by something hiding in the wall. Sometimes, no matter how OSHA compliant a quarryman or lumberjack is, a stone/tree will fall on them. And sometimes, well-kept axes get dull and snakes have minds of their own.

If that’s the right interpretation, the imagery helps us feel the deep frustration of the unpredictability of life—something the Preacher certainly lamented and something we’ve all certainly deeply felt.

In this regard, I remember my dad telling me about how he thought his career path was all set as a supervisor for a steel castings company that had been around for generations, a company his dad worked at and retired from. And then the Japanese discovered how to manufacture steel castings with far greater precision and at significantly less cost. The factory that he worked in and imagined retiring from shut down virtually overnight. Through no folly on his part, my dad found himself without the job he thought he’d have for the rest of his life.

Again, if that’s what the Preacher has in mind, it’s true and important and visceral enough.

However, there are a couple of clues in the passage that suggest the first possibility is the most likely.

The first and main one is the context of vs.8-11. That the passages directly before (10:1-7) and after (10:12-15) are clearly about folly and wisdom suggests that ours is too.

The fact that serpent imagery bookends the passage is another indication that it is not merely about “bad luck.”

And the fact that v.10 speaks directly to wisdom (and indirectly to folly) is another strong indication that our passage is a continuation of the Preacher’s observations on folly/wisdom rather than a new commentary on how bad things happen to everyone.

With that, this morning we’ll see two main “features” of folly: (1) It leads to problems by failing to anticipate highly anticipatable problems and (2) It leads to problems by failing to recognize the importance of timing.

The first four lines of the Preacher’s poem give four different images. The images are drawn from four ancient professions. Each highlights a way a fool’s folly might show up as they go about doing their job.

Again, there are four lines in these two verses, each with a separate image, but all are meant to drive home the same basic point: The folly of fools fails to anticipate the anticipatable causes avoidable trouble.

Let’s begin at the beginning. The first line (8a) reads…

8 He who digs a pit will fall into it…

When I was a kid, my dad, uncles, and cousins would spend a week riding 2, 3, and 4 wheelers in the state forests of upper, lower Michigan for a week every summer. As you can imagine, during that time 7-10 guys create a good deal of trash. One of our jobs as kids was to dig a trash pit. Over time, we decided to take the pit-digging assignment as a challenge—to dig the biggest, deepest pit possible. As we got older, our ability to do so grew and so, therefore, did the size of the pit.

I’m sure I’m remembering it as bigger than it was (there were no cell phones or pocket cameras back then to record such a feat), but I’m sure we got to 5’ wide and 10’ deep.

Although I can’t recall anyone actually falling into the pits we dug (even though we tried hard to get one another to fall in), throughout the course of our digging, we took countless piles of dirt in the face, eyes, and mouth. We were hit by one another’s shovels and buckets more times than I can remember. In our haste, the sides of the pit fell in again and again. In other words, our folly and its trouble was everywhere.

In a lot of ways, this is that. Whenever fools are involved in the construction of a thing, there is a high likelihood that the thing itself will reveal the fool’s folly, as the fool fails to anticipate something he should have anticipated.

Non-fools know that if you did a pit, you need to be careful of falling into it. Likewise, non-fools know that the bigger the pit, the more careful you need to be. Knowing these things, anticipating them and the trouble they’d cause, non-fools have that running continually in the back of their minds in order to avoid it.

Fools, on the other hand, are often consumed (as were my cousins and I) with having fun or avoiding working hard or thinking about what’s next. And insodoing, fools make themselves far more likely to fall into the very pit they dig.

In some ways, then, this opening line is an echo of Psalm 7. As I read vs.14-16 listen for the parallels with our passage and the interplay between folly and wickedness.

Psalm 7:14-16 Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies. 15 He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made. 16 His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.

That leads to the second line (8b) and the second illustration. Again, the point is the same, even though the image is different.

8 …and a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall.

In parts of the world where snakes are prevalent, they hide out everywhere—in holes in the ground, in rock piles, and in cracks in walls. Fools go about life as if things aren’t as they are. Of course, anyone might be bitten by a snake, but fools are especially susceptible because they are characterized by being oblivious to their surroundings. While everyone else knows to be on the lookout, fools are perpetually surprised by being snake-bitten while working where snakes live. Fools fail to anticipate things that are highly anticipatable.

Do you know anyone like this? They are always surprised by the hardship that befalls them, they tend to blame other things (or other people) for it, and they can’t understand why they don’t get a lot of sympathy.

What’s more, as I mentioned earlier, serpents are virtually synonymous in the Bible with folly, treachery, and evil. Wherever we find a serpent mentioned, from the Deceiver in the Garden in Genesis to the great dragon of Revelation, it almost always points to something beyond itself; something distracting if not sinister or wicked.

To be clear, if you ever encounter a talking or fire-breathing serpent, wisdom would tell you to avoid it if at all possible and to not do what it says no matter what.

We don’t want to read too much into this here, but we also don’t want to miss it. There is significant interplay between folly and evil. Be careful, Grace, of allowing either into your life or you’re likely to have both and all the trouble that comes with them.

The third line intended to drive the point home—that fools experience problems that come from failing to anticipate things they should—is found at the beginning of v.9. Another image and in it another reminder of the fate of fools.

9 He who quarries stones is hurt by them…

As I tried to slow down and work through this image, it was hard not to think of the quarry we’d pass each time we visited my aunt and uncle in Chicago. Over the years of my childhood, it kept getting bigger and bigger. I can’t even guess how big it was/is—hundreds and hundreds of feet wide and certainly over a hundred feet deep. It was so big that they needed to make substantial roads for the massive machines to get in and out of it with whatever it was that they were extracting.

As a foolish kid, I imagined all kinds of ways to “have fun” in the quarry. Racing the massive excavation vehicles up or down the quarry roads was chief among them. Not far behind that daydream was another of being in charge of the explosives they used to free the materials. I used to do the dumbest things imaginable with the tiniest amount of gunpowder contained in fire crackers. I can’t even imagine how much damage I would have done with the kind of explosive power needed to free the massive rocks of that quarry. It’s impossible to imagine a scenario in which I wouldn’t have been hurt by the stones of the quarry if I’d been able to act on my foolish impulses.

Fools are defined by failing to anticipate the highly anticipatable. And encountering falling rocks while working in a quarry is about as anticipatable as it gets. Wise people are always watching out for them. Fools aren’t and are shocked when they are struck by one.

Finally, the fourth line (9b),

9… and he who splits logs is endangered by them.

Oh boy. I don’t like using myself as an example so much, but it’s hard to overstate the folly of my “youth”. I have such a deep well of examples to draw from in each of these that it’s hard not to—this one especially.

I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve gotten my chainsaw bar stuck in a tree I was trying to fell or the number of times my log piles have fallen over due to bad stacking. I’ve dropped massive trees in exactly the opposite direction I intended. I almost killed another dad and two of our sons by not anticipating something I should have in putting up a lean-to for our firewood. I have pants and boots with holes in them from the chainsaw. I dropped a tree on the road we live on and needed the assistance of our city’s director of public works to warn oncoming traffic. I broke my thumb misusing a log splitter. I took a limb to the face by misusing my pole saw. I could go on and on and on.

The sheer number of ways I’ve been injured by working with trees ought to make anticipating injury by working with trees the most obvious thing in the world for me. And yet, not yet. In all seriousness, “The fool who splits logs is endangered by them” might be the theme song of my life. But again, fools are marked by the trouble that comes from failing to anticipate the anticipatable.

Combining all four lines from both verses, we can see that there is a literal sense in which the proverbs of Ecclesiastes 10 are true (foolish pit-diggers do fall into their own pits, foolish wall-breakers do get bit by snakes, foolish quarrymen do get hurt by the stones they quarry, and foolish wood-splitters are in danger from the wood).

At the same time, vs.8-9 help us to see that there is also a way in which they represent a broader principle: Fools are marked by creating the conditions that cause them harm.

This is the abrasive man who is always surprised that people don’t want to be around him.

This is the neighbor who borrows tools and either brings them back worse off or not at all, and is surprised when his neighbors will no longer lend him their stuff.

This is the teenage girl who lies constantly and then is frustrated when she isn’t believed the time she does tell the truth.

This is the teenage boy who wants all the freedom of manhood without any of the responsibility and is perpetually annoyed that he has neither.

This is the glutton who eats trash for years and is later frustrated by chronic health problems.

This is the church member who neglects meaningful fellowship and ministry and then finds themselves lonely and far from God.

This is the wife who continually disrespects her husband and is surprised that he looks for it in softball leagues or at the gym or in online games or debates.

This is the husband who fails to cherish his wife and is offended when she’s not particularly interested in physical intimacy.

This is the student who puts off studying or paper-writing until the day before the test or due date and blames his computer for acting up and “preventing” a good trade or on-time submission

This is the father who neglects his kids when they are younger and then feels wronged that they neglect him when they are older (Cats in the Cradle).

This is the bully who plays victim when he eventually gets punched in the mouth.

This is the person who maxes out credit cards with entertainment purchases and then starts an unexpectedly unsuccessful GoFundMe campaign for himself when a genuine emergency happens.

In each case, a fool dug a “pit” and fell into it. In each case a fool created the conditions that caused their suffering and was shocked by it. In each case a fool caused problems for himself by failing to anticipate what wisdom would have anticipated.

If this is you or someone you love, life is a lot harder than it needs to be. The world isn’t perfectly predictable, but there are many things that happen frequently enough that wisdom calls us to live in light of them.

Now of course we’ve all done these things on some level, at some point. If we read these first couple of verses as we ought, they are a warning to us, Grace. They are a call to watch out. And they are a charge to help each other see our folly before it’s too late. Let’s walk in wisdom and point others to it as well.

Even more significantly, though, these verses help us to see that we need more help than can be found in this world. Therefore, even more than to under the sun wisdom, let’s point one another to Jesus who came to fill us with true wisdom, to lift us out of the pit we dug for ourselves, to heal us from the serpent’s bite, to lift the rock off of us that we pulled down on us and be the rock we stand on, and to be crucified on a split log on our behalf. He came to restore all that our folly and sin have bent, broken, and destroyed.

Jesus came to meet us in our folly and to be our wisdom. He came to tell us what is to come on earth and in heaven and to lead us on the right path in anticipation of it. Look to Him, Grace. Praise Him.

The final two verses of our passage speak to the trouble brought on by folly as well. Rather than the kind that comes from failing to anticipate the anticipatable, though, these two verses speak to the kind of trouble that comes from failing to recognize the importance of timing. The first focuses on problems that come from waiting too long to act and the second from those that come from acting too soon.

Fools fail to recognize the importance of timing and that causes them problems.

1. Waiting too long causes problems (10).

Again, the first timing issue mentioned by the Preacher is found in v.10. The imagery of this verse is meant to help us feel (and therein avoid) the folly of waiting too long to act.

10 If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge,
        he must use more strength,
        but wisdom helps one to succeed.

The picture here is that of an old school lumberjack—someone who made a living by dropping trees with an axe. He gets paid by the number and size of the trees he fells. Needing to provide for his family and his hobbies, therefore, he works hard. Stopping for anything seems like a bad idea. He might work through lunch and injury so as to stay ahead of the game.

Additionally, doesn’t want to be bothered by stopping to sharpen his axe. At first, he barely notices that it’s getting harder and harder to cut into the tree. In his youth and strength, he’s able to provide the additional effort required. Over time, however, his axe dulls to the point that he can no longer drop a tree regardless of the force he puts into his strikes. It takes him a good deal of wasted time to fully comprehend what’s happened. What’s more, he’s dulled his axe to the point that instead of requiring just a few quick passes on a whetstone to get back at it, he needs to head back to town to use the grinding wheel. His folly of waiting too long cost far more time and caused far more problems than if he had kept up with the sharpening little by little.

If I’m not really careful, this is a common struggle for me. By wanting to make sure I have my head all the way around a situation before acting on it, I am prone to frustrate others and have good opportunities pass me by.

This is kids having an accident because they don’t want to have to stop playing to go to the bathroom.

This is missing a warranty claim by not considering when it expired or getting stuck with a broken item because you were too distracted to return it within the 30-day window.

This is losing some kind of service (phone, internet, credit card, etc.) by not paying your bill on time.

For all kinds of reasons, fools fail to recognize that by waiting too long to decide on a thing, they are effectively deciding on a thing and that causes as many problems as making overly hasty decisions—which leads to the next and final point.

2. Moving too soon causes problems (11).

As potentially deep and trouble-making as that ditch is, there’s another ditch that can be equally deep and trouble-making on the other side of the road of wisdom. Again, the second ditch that fools are prone to fall in is that of moving too soon.

The image given to us by the Preacher to drive that point home is one of a snake charmer. I’m reading “charmer” synonymously with “trainer”—someone who can get a snake to respond to certain commands.

11 If the serpent bites before it is charmed,
        there is no advantage to the charmer.

We’re meant to imagine someone training a snake—most likely for entertainment purposes. I don’t know a lot about snake training, but I imagine that it’s much like training any other animal (only harder?). In that way, it takes a while to condition a snake to properly respond to certain incentives and disincentives.

Hold still and get a mouse. Move and get a whack on the head. Over and over and over.

In addition to getting a snake to do what you want, there’s the need to make sure it will do what you want every time you want it to. And, of course, the more dangerous the animal (like a poisonous snake) and the more vulnerable the audience (like small kids), the more important that second step is.

When a snake is trained, the trainer can make money from showing off his training. He is incentivized, therefore, to train it quickly. Fools pay little attention to this and rush to profit from their work. The result of moving forward too soon is that the snake, not yet fully trained, is far more likely to bite his trainer or his audience. And that, of course, is no small amount of trouble.

This is the fifteen-year-old who, after a single driving lesson is certain they’re ready for a solo, road trip.

This is the person who immediately posts a hot take online.

This is the person who is quick to give advice to others before even hearing the whole story.

In bringing these two verses together we see that fools bring problems upon themselves by failing to recognize the importance of timing and in that they either act too slowly or too quickly.

Therefore, wisdom means not being hasty, but it also means recognizing that we’ll never have all the information we need or all the wisdom it would take to sort through it. God alone possesses those two things. Wisdom, therefore, calls us to be as careful, thoughtful, prayerful, and corporate as the particular decision calls for—no more and no less.

In other words, it should not take us as long to decide what pants to wear golfing as it takes to decide on whether or not to amend our church’s doctrinal statement. It shouldn’t take us as long to choose the restaurant for an informal friend gathering as it does on whether or not to purchase the property to the north of us or add a new entry or plant a new church. It shouldn’t take us as long to decide whether to start with the Magician’s Nephew or The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as it should take us to decide on who to marry.

For all kinds of reasons, fools can’t balance the speed of a decision with the importance of a decision and therein bring significant trouble upon themselves (and often others).

So what do we do with all of this? What do we do with the fact that fools bring unnecessary trouble upon themselves by failing to anticipate the anticipatable and failing to properly consider the timing of things? How do we respond in faith? How do we respond as God would have us? How do we respond in such a way as to glorify God?

In conclusion, let me quickly name a few practical responses:

Ecclesiastes 10:1-7 Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a stench;
      so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.

2 A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right,
      but a fool’s heart to the left.

3 Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense,
      and he says to everyone that he is a fool.

4 If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place,
      for calmness will lay great offenses to rest.

5 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, as it were an error proceeding from the ruler: 6 folly is set in many high places, and the rich sit in a low place. 7 I have seen slaves on horses, and princes walking on the ground like slaves.

It was a joy to hear John and Matt’s sermons. They are faithful, godly men who are gifted in handling and preaching God’s Word. Make sure you thank God for them and them for their ministry to us.

My time in the Philippines was tremendous. I believe it was my 8th or 9th TLI trip and this one might have been the best. Logistics and health were straightforward. More significantly, however, the men were able to grasp the content and immediately share ways it was going to shape their ministry. That hasn’t happened all that often and never on this level for the group as a whole. Thanks for sending me.

Providentially, I taught on biblical poetry while I was there. The two main areas of focus were Psalms and Proverbs. And yet, the main point was not to teach the content of those books. The main point was to teach how to properly read the poetry in those books as an example of how to read it wherever we find it in the Bible—as in Ecclesiastes. In that way, I learned a few things that, Lord willing, will help me finish Ecclesiastes even stronger than I started.

With that, the main point of this passage is the nature of the fool and his folly (1-3) and the wise response to it (4-7). To be clear, the first part is not a how-to manual (of how to be the best fool). It is a warning against it. The point of the poetry is to reveal the folly of folly in order that we might wisely reject it and respond to it.

Again, then, the big idea of these few verses is that folly is destructive, dangerous, recognizable, unnecessary, and prevalent. And the main takeaway is to weed out the folly in our lives and the lives of those we love and replace it with the wisdom of God.

In order to keep us from taking the poetry out of the poetry, and from reading/preaching the biblical poems exactly as we read/preach the letters or the narrative stories of the Bible, the curriculum I taught in the Philippines encourages readers of biblical poetry to do a few things whenever we come to a poem:

Again, the point of each of these individually, and even more so of all of them collectively, is to get us slow down and appreciate the fact that poems are given to us as poetry on purpose. While poems by nature have a lesser ability to communicate precise truths than letters (for instance), they have a greater ability to drive the truth they do communicate deep into our hearts. In other words, poems are often designed by God to be narrower in scope, but greater in impact. And these five charges are one means of making sure we are impacted as accurately and fully as possible.

Good sermons on biblical poetry don’t name each of those, every time, but they are shaped by a preacher who has interacted with them every time. I hope you have and will continue to experience that as we finish up Ecclesiastes.

To that end, we’ll consider five poetic proverbs this morning. In them we’ll see that: A little folly outweighs much wisdom (1), there is a defining characteristic of both the wise and the fool (2), fools are always found out by their folly (3). the wise are marked by self-control (4), and folly is found everywhere (5).

Let’s begin at the beginning.

Consistent with everything I’ve just said, the first line of the first proverb is meant to stir in us a deep sense of disgust and frustration. Only once it does, can the second line find its proper mark in us. And again, for that to happen, we need to slow down and experience the poem’s imagery.

For reasons I don’t understand, the flies have been worse this year than any year I can remember. It’s abated a bit recently, but for a good chunk of the summer, they were everywhere in huge numbers. We could barely eat outside because they were so bad at times.

From what I can tell, flies are especially attracted to food. The nasty part is that they are equally eager to eat it right off your plate and right out of your digestive system. Flies are gross and they carry all manner of their grossness with them wherever they go.

On the far other end of the spectrum is perfume. If it is anything, it is pure and sweet—the opposite of flies.

In the ancient world, the world of Ecclesiastes, it was no small thing to produce it. It involved gathering more expensive or less available materials (usually flowers, herbs, resins, barks, woods, roots, and seeds), employing various methods of extracting the fragrance from them, allowing the extracted fragrances to age, and then implementing some way to disseminate the fragrance (often through grinding up the materials and putting them into pouches or mixing the extracted, aged materials with something like olive oil for application to the skin).

The main point is that it was a lot of work, it was expensive, and it was time consuming. But once the perfume was finally ready, it was a precious thing indeed. Consider the reaction of the disciples when a women poured out a flask full of perfume on Jesus’ head. Matthew records them as indignantly saying, “Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum of money [maybe even a year’s wages] and given to the poor” (Matthew 26:8-9).

Imagine, then, putting all of that work into making a batch of sweet-smelling perfume, to wear or sell or give as precious gifts. Imagine how costly and delicate it is. Imagine how precious it would be and how carefully you’d guard it.

Now imagine a pile of dead flies finding their way into your perfume. It wouldn’t take many of them to cause the perfume to smell tainted beyond the point of rescue. That would be devastating for the perfume maker or the one who had purchased the perfume.

Maybe you’ve spent all day preparing a meal only to burn it at the end. Maybe you’ve trained all year for a something only to get injured right before it or, as happened recently with the TCM, it was cancelled due to weather. Maybe you’ve saved and saved for a new (used) car, only to have the transmission give you problems a few months after you purchased it. Maybe you’ve worked on a paper for weeks only to have it somehow deleted from your computer. I’ve worked for a long time on turning a wooden bowl, having put hours and hours into shaping, sanding, and finishing it, only to come out and find it cracked (due to continued drying) in a significant and unrepairable way.

It’s a sinking feeling to put so much into something only to have something relatively minor and entirely out of your control derail the whole thing. Unless you’ve experienced something like that, you won’t be able to feel the full weight of the second line and the point of the proverb.

1 Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a stench;
      so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.

In the same way that a few flies getting into a container of perfume can undo something that it took months to make, a little folly can undo a lifetime of wisdom or an otherwise healthy fellowship.

This happens when a previously faithful spouse foolishly gives into lust one time in moment of weakness. This happens when a good student is expelled due to a single unwise choice to cheat on a test or plagiarize a paper. This happens when, after years of careful driving, someone gets in a car crash because they were foolishly texting or driving under the influence. This happens whenever someone who had been a good employee is fired for a costly mistake that happened because they were uncharacteristically lazy in finishing a project.

To be clear, folly and sin are related, but not the same. In the examples above, it is a foolish choice that led to the decision to sin, but they are two different things.

Hopefully, you have your own, visceral experience with this so that you really get the idea: It takes just a little bit of foolishness to overcome much wisdom with potentially devastating results.

Flee folly and fools, therefore, Grace Church. Seek wisdom and embrace it when you find it. Surround yourself with wise people and not fools. It is no small thing to let a bit of foolishness into our lives. It can ruin everything.

Continuing with proverbs concerning folly, the Preacher’s next thought cuts straight to the heart of both wisdom and folly. As I mentioned above, a key component to most poetry is its vivid imagery. That is, to really appreciate the poem, we need to recognize and relate to the picture(s) it paints. In that way, it is true that a picture is worth a thousand words.

With that having been said, the imagery of v.2 is largely lost to us. That often leads to one of the most consistent and dangerous ways to misinterpret a poem. When, for whatever reason, we miss the real idea behind a poem’s imagery (and especially when we don’t realize that we’ve missed it), we are vulnerable to misinterpretation and misapplication.

Consider v.2.

2 A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right,
      but a fool’s heart to the left.

As you consider these few lines, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? In our culture today, the right and the left tend to connote images of political parties. The Republicans are “the right” and Democrats are “the left”. This is a fairly silly example, and I know you all know better, but I bet if 1000 churches around the US were to hear a sermon on this passage, an embarrassing number would include some form of political commentary based on this false understanding of the image of the poem.

That is a powerful image in today’s world, isn’t it? It’s not hard to be emotionally moved as we consider various aspects of both parties. But that’s not, as you know, what this is about.

The actual meaning of the image, however, is no less powerful. The Israelites in the Preacher’s day would have responded to the imagery of this verse in a manner similar to the one we’d likely have concerning a saying about the respective merits of the two main political parties in the US today.

The picture is of a man on a journey. At some point, he comes to a fork in the road and needs to decide which way to go. More than a matter of a slight inconvenience for choosing wrongly, though, a lot is at stake in the man’s choice.

The Preacher means us to imagine something like a man who is wounded, bleeding profusely, and is hobbling along trying to find a hospital in an unfamiliar area. He comes to a place where he must go either to the left or to the right. If he chooses the correct path, he will soon find the help he needs. If he chooses the wrong path, he will likely succumb to his injuries. Everything hinges on him choosing properly. Again, that’s the picture here. And we won’t gain the full measure of the Preacher’s wisdom if we don’t feel the imagery in our bones.

I’ve been helped more than I can imagine by the shortest and simplest of all my commentaries on Ecclesiastes (Derek Kidner’s “The Message of Ecclesiastes” from “The Bible Speaks Today” series). Speaking to the imagery of this passage, I think you’ll see why.

“Perhaps [the Jerusalem Bible translation] puts it best, if freely: ‘The wise man’s heart leads him aright, the fool’s heart leads him astray.’ The right and left hands have always been widely viewed as lucky and unlucky, good and bad … and in our Lord’s figure of the sheep and goats the two sides correspond to the two contrasted verdicts. … The fool, then, inclines to the less valuable, the less good and, by the same token, to the positively wrong. The preference shows in many ways: not only morally and spiritually. By contrast, the wise man’s predilections are spelt out in the great list of ‘whatevers’ in Philippians 4:8 [‘whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things’]” (Kidner, TMOE, 89).

In other words, every day we are faced with the choice of going to the right or to the left, on the path of wisdom or folly. And every choice we make may be like a wounded man choosing between the correct road to the hospital and the incorrect one with no time to spare.

This is, once again, a stark warning concerning the life we choose to live. The choice is ever before us. This is particularly true for young people, as the Bible describes youth as especially prone to choosing the path and peril of folly.

Grace, listen to the words of the wise. If you always imagine that’s you, it’s probably not.

Conversely, avoid the fool and his counsel at all costs. Indeed, as the opening lines of the Psalms read, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

Fortunately, avoiding fools is not hard to do for those who are so inclined, as the next proverb makes clear.

Look at v.3.

3 Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense,
      and he says to everyone that he is a fool.

The picture is again of a man walking down the road. The second line of the proverb might make it seem like the man reveals his folly by going up to everyone he meets on the road and telling them, “I’m a fool. I’m a fool. I’m a fool.” But that’s not what the Preacher has in mind. In fact, one of the most defining characteristics of a fool is that he doesn’t know he’s a fool even though he’s continually broadcasting it.

Instead, the idea is that there’s simply something in the way he walks and talks that reveals his folly. Perhaps, he’s too unaware of his surroundings to notice the mud puddle or the animal droppings before stepping in them. Perhaps he has his tunic on backwards. Perhaps it’s in his quirky mannerisms or his incoherent talk. Perhaps he comes across as thinking he knows it all when it’s apparent that he actually knows very little.

“To the practiced eye of [the Preacher] the fool has no way of disguising what he is, except perhaps by total silence (Proverbs 17:28). Even then, his general bearing would probably give him away. But in fact he is too full of himself to refrain from airing his views to everyone he meets. To judge from Proverbs, his fine phrases will sound incongruous (Proverbs 17:7), his tactless remarks impertinent (Proverbs 18:6); and when you talk to him he is not really listening (Proverbs 18:2). If he has a message for you he will get it wrong, and if he comes out with a sage remark it will misfire (Proverbs 26:6). You can fortunately sense his approach by the efforts of all and sundry slip away (Proverbs 17:12)” (Kider, TMOE, 89).

The point is: Fools always reveal their folly. They can’t hide it for long. Fools are almost always easy to spot.

Knowing the potentially disastrous effects of interacting with fools and their folly, keep your eyes open, Grace. Be on the lookout. Know the signs.

But that leaves us with the question of what to do when we encounter a fool. Kindly, the Preacher’s next proverbs give us a few pointers.

The first three proverbs (the ones we’ve just considered) concern the nature of a fool. The next two focus on how to respond to a fool when you find one, beginning with a fool in a position of power.

4 If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place,
      for calmness will lay great offenses to rest.

Imagine being a servant in the court of a king or an attendant in the house of the president. In the course of your duties, you notice that the person in charge of your land is an unmistakable fool. He lacks sense. He acts irrationally. His words are characteristically rash and laced with nonsense. His orders only breed confusion and frustration, division and contempt. He thinks he’s leading wisely, but it’s plain for all to see that it’s anything but. And on top of all of that, for some reason you find that his anger is directed specifically at you.

The ruler has all the power, but lacks the wisdom to know how to wield it well and everyone around him —you in particular—is miserable because of it. It’s a maddening place to be. What do you do? What would you do?

Under a king, as was the case with the Preacher and in his day, quitting wasn’t an option and sounding off would likely get you thrown into prison or worse. So what does a wise person do when stuck under the authority of a foolish and angry ruler?

The Preacher’s admonition is to hold fast and keep calm. Don’t try to quit and don’t add anger to anger or folly to folly (that’s like Matt’s story from last week about throwing water on a grease fire). Instead, wisdom and prudence call us to stay at our post and do our duty as best as we can, in the hope that our self-control will calm the ruler’s foolish rage.

This is a proverb and not a promise. It is a statement of how things often though not always work. And yet, ordinarily a soft answer turns away wrath (Proverbs 15:1).

Practically, today, Peter’s first letter contains a list of admonitions in this spirit.

What does God’s wisdom call for when unbelievers foolishly speak against us?

1 Peter 2:12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

What does God’s wisdom call for when foolish rulers rule in ignorance?

1 Peter 2:13-15 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

What does God’s wisdom call for when our bosses foolishly act unjustly and make us suffer for it?

1 Peter 2:18-19 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. 19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly…

What does God’s wisdom call for when husbands foolishly disobey the Word of God?

1 Peter 3:1 Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, 2 when they see your respectful and pure conduct.

What does God’s wisdom call for when other Christians foolishly sin against us?

1 Peter 4:8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

What does God’s wisdom call for when obeying Jesus leads to foolish insults?

1 Peter 4:14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

Are you tracking, Grace Church? Responding to folly-induced suffering with folly only leads to more suffering. Those with under the sun wisdom, then, respond to folly-induced suffering with calmness and self-control. And those with above the sun wisdom add to that trust in God’s promises and hope in Jesus’ example.

Kids, this week when your brother or sister or the kid at school says mean things, don’t say mean things back. Instead, try to say something nice or don’t respond at all and quietly pray for them.

Husbands and wives, this week when your spouse acts out in folly or sin toward you, don’t reply in kind or with condemnation. Instead, consider the fruits of the Spirit and do your best to be a blessing to them in their time of frustration.

Employees and employers, this week when your boss or employee or coworker does something frustrating or obnoxious or mean, remember how Jesus endured similar (and worse) things, entrust justice to the Lord, and do your job even better than you otherwise would have.

If fools are easy to recognize and calm rationality is the wise response in the face of folly, we might wonder how often we’re going to need to be prepared to do so or, from another angle, we might wonder where fools are concentrated. Again, in God’s kindness, the Preacher addressed that question in the final verses that we’ll consider this morning.

How prevalent is folly and where is it found? Is it predominantly among the poor and uneducated? Is it mainly among the second generation of the wealthy? Are fools few and far between? Look at v.5 for the answer.

5 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, as it were an error proceeding from the ruler: 6 folly is set in many high places, and the rich sit in a low place. 7 I have seen slaves on horses, and princes walking on the ground like slaves.

The bottom line is that folly is everywhere. There is no place or position in which it is not found. It is found among the highest positions of authority and in the lowest slave. It is found among the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor. We see it in the most educated, tenured university professors and in preschool kids. We see it in pastors and atheists. We see it in actors, musicians, and athletes as well as in aid workers, counselors, and health-care workers. We see it in politicians and philosophers. We see it in the United States and wherever is the exact opposite side of the globe from the United States.

Folly is everywhere, even in small amounts it corrupts (at times) catastrophically, it is always the wrong choice, it is easy to recognize, we ought to avoid it wherever possible, and when we can’t we ought to respond to it with quiet calmness, entrusting ourselves to the Father according to the example of Jesus.

Again, then, the big idea of these few verses is that folly is destructive, dangerous, recognizable, unnecessary, and prevalent. And the main takeaway is to weed out the folly in our lives and the lives of those we love and replace it with the wisdom of God.

However, while all the under the sun wisdom in the world might allow us to maximize our under the sun happiness, it will always fall short of providing true satisfaction and is entirely impotent to reconcile us to God. At best, it will reveal to us that there is a higher satisfaction and a need to be made right with God, but it cannot get us there.

In the end, we need God’s help—we need above the sun wisdom—to know that wisdom always begins with the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 9:10). Every ounce of above the sun wisdom begins there and is rooted there.

Further, we need God’s help to know that true wisdom is folly to those who are perishing in their sin (1 Corinthians 1:18). Not only is this kind of wisdom inaccessible to us apart from God’s help, it sounds ridiculous whenever we hear it.

And above all, we need God’s help to know that Jesus is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24).

20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Grace, if you have ears to hear, listen to the above the sun promises and wisdom of God that are in Jesus Christ alone and trust in them, trust in Him, with all you have.

Philippians 1:12-18a I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. 16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

Here at Grace Church we are regularly encouraged by five elders whom we trust can faithfully proclaim God’s Word to us. Thanks be to God. Yet I’m not sure the adjective ‘regularly’ can be applied individually in my case. I began preaching the letter to the Philippians in December 2023 when I was a candidate for elder. I first preached from the middle of the book – one of the highest theological pinnacles in all the Bible – the Christ Hymn in Philippians 2:5-11. Then seven months later I brought us back to the foot of the mountain, to the trailhead, to preach the opening address, thanksgiving, and prayer found in Philippians 1:1-11. I commend to you those two prior sermons. It’s my task now, 14 months later, to briefly reorient you once again to the background and occasion for Paul’s letter to the Philippians.

As told in Acts chapter 16, Philippi was “a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony” (v. 12). Paul went to Macedonia around AD 49 to 50 on his second of three missionary journeys. It was his first foray into the European continent and was no accident, as Luke, the author of Acts, makes clear. He says they were “forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in [the area then known as] Asia”, which is the western region of modern day Turkey – an area included places like Ephesus and Laodicea. So they sought to go north, but Luke says, “the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them” (v. 7). Then Luke relates what has become known as the Macedonian Call. He says, “A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia standing there, urging him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi” (vs. 9-12).

Philippi was not the capital city of Macedonia. That honor belonged to Thessalonica. But as Luke tells us, it enjoyed a more prestigious honor, that of being a “Roman colony”. Being designated a Roman colony meant that Roman citizens living there enjoyed the ius italicum, or Italian Right. This included a number of civic entitlements such as exemption from the imperial tax that was laid on vassal states. In essence, Philippi, though being in Greece, was Italian soil.

Thus, there was a great deal of civic pride amongst Philippian-Roman citizens and it is this pride in citizenship which relates integrally to Paul’s primary admonition in the letter, which is found in 1:27.

There Paul frames the struggle he intends to address in the letter as a matter of patriotism. He admonishes them to “behave as citizens worthy of the gospel of Christ”. Later in 3:20, he reminds them that “our citizenship is in heaven”. That the wider population of Philippi deeply embraced this Roman civic fidelity is evident in Acts 16:21 where their indignation over Paul’s gospel is rooted in his advocation of “customs unlawful for [them] to accept or practice as Roman citizens“. Likewise, after they later had beaten and bound Paul and his companions, they were mortified to discover that they had shamefully deprived fellow Roman citizens of their rights.

Despite the pervading presence of provincial pride, you may recall that the church at Philippi had quite a humble genesis. While Paul often went into a city and began preaching Jesus as the Christ in the synagogue, here there apparently was no synagogue. Nor did they find men to whom they could preach. Rather, they went “outside the gate to the riverside, where [they] supposed there was a place of prayer]” and shared the gospel with the women gathered there (v. 13).

Paul’s letter to the Philippians was likely written around AD 60 while he was imprisoned in Rome, some 10 years after the church was established. The letter is rooted in a rich and affectionate relationship alluded to in the letter itself, but also corroborated by the historical narrative of Acts and elsewhere in Paul’s letters (e.g., 2 Corinthians 8). Paul’s gratitude for their repeated provision of his material needs and support for his ministry, as well as his joy in their partnership in the cause of gospel advance, is evident in the letter and a key aspect to understanding its context. He keenly feels that they are one with him in his all-consuming passion for the magnification of Christ among the nations. This is captured in his opening address where he relates that his joy is founded in their gospel partnership, including their solidarity in his imprisonment and legal defense for Christ.

The Greek word koinonia appears in 1:5 and again in verb form in 4:15, verses that serve as bookends to the letter. It’s often translated “fellowship”, but means much more than a shared interest in salvation, conviction, or experience. Theirs was a practical partnership. There was a mutual benefit. Paul calls it “a partnership in giving and receiving” (4:15). The deep affection and joy that flow from the relationship indicate that Paul experiences their partnership as a kind of communion. They are profoundly united with him in his ministry and his sufferings for the cause of Christ, and that is a source of glad strength.

As such, Philippians is often called the ‘Epistle of Joy’, especially when contrasted with letters like Galatians or those to the Corinthians, both of which contain some sharp rebukes. Indeed, in Philippians there are at least a dozen uses of the word joy or rejoice. But I believe such a title is an oversimplification. While it highlights Paul’s love for the Philippians, it unfortunately obscures the fact that genuine concerns occasioned Paul’s letter. Philippians is more than a ‘Thank You’ card. One author says, “The letter is a document of exhortation in which the apostle, himself facing [potential] martyrdom, rallies his beloved Philippians to share steadfastly with him in the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings” (Martin, p. 44).

Epaphroditus, who had been sent to Paul by the Philippians, brought their most recent gift for the relief of his needs. Paul acknowledges their gift gratefully and he commends the faithfulness of their delivery man and messenger. But Epaphroditus also brought news of conditions that concerned him. Namely he told Paul about discouragement, defeat, and disunity. Paul’s chief aim in the letter is therefore to address the manner in which the church was responding to their suffering as partners in the gospel.

As I shared in my previous sermon on the first 11 verses of the letter, Paul’s introduction includes an expression of his gratitude for their gospel partnership and his prayer for their growth in grace. Verse 12 marks a transition to the body of the letter. While Paul’s letter is occasioned by his concerns for the Philippians, he begins here not by admonishing them, but by providing them insight into his own condition. They already know he’s in prison. He now unpacks for them the meaning these circumstances have for his partnership with them in the gospel. That is to say, he wants them to know how his imprisonment has impacted Christ’s interests. It’s fair to say that Paul’s imprisonment was disconcerting, or alarming and unsettling for them. Much like the Apostles after Jesus’ crucifixion, it looked to them like the gospel had hit a dead end. Like hope was lost.

So it would come to them as quite a surprise, when the letter was read to them, that Paul’s imprisonment had “really served to advance the gospel”! The word “really” is translated “actually” in the NIV and “moreso” in the NASB. It means it was an unexpected outcome. Somehow, rather than impeding the gospel, locking up a man who could otherwise have been out preaching and teaching the gospel has furthered its proclamation. Jailing Paul had an ironic result. Have you ever tried popping a flaccid balloon? Maybe your kid’s birthday balloons are still laying around a week later. You step on it or squeeze it – what happens? Or try getting that bit of eggshell out of the cup when you crack an egg to scramble it.

During nursing school I rented in North Branch with a friend who was in paramedic school but had served for several years as a volunteer on the fire department. One day I was heating up some oil in a frying pan to fry some old dumplings I had found in the freezer. I didn’t know enough about frying at the time to know that if you drop what is basically an ice cube into a pool of hot grease, a grease fire explodes in your face. So what was my gut reaction? Throw it in the sink and pour water on it. Because water is the opposite of fire, right? I remember hearing my fire fighter roommate in the background, “not the sink, not the sink!” I never told my landlord, who was my pastor at the time, about that. So this is my confession.

The news Epaphroditus brought of the Philippians, as we will see later in the letter, was that they were downcast by his imprisonment, and that discouragement, defeat, and disunity were cropping up within the church and threatening to bring contempt on Christ. But, in the words of one commentator, what Paul wants the Philippians to know is that “Caesar’s chains released the power of the gospel of Christ”. We’ve seen this before. In the hands of evil men the cross was a weapon to destroy the Son of God, yet by that means he disarmed the cosmic rulers and authorities, putting them to open shame and triumphing over them (Colossians 2:15). Or consider that the persecution of the fledgling church in Jerusalem at the hands of Paul (then known as Saul) served as the impetus to spread the gospel abroad in Asia (Acts 7-8). Locking up the Apostle should have snuffed out the fire, but like the grease fire in my kitchen, Paul’s imprisonment caused an explosion of gospel spread.

What are the circumstances that cause you to despair? What current events smother your hope in the triumph of Christ’s cause? Where do you tell yourself in your heart of hearts, ‘Satan is winning’? Consider some further examples. What about Joseph: sold into slavery by his brothers only to become prime minister of Egypt and save God’s elect (Gen 45:8; 50:20). What about the Apostle John – exiled to Patmos only to be caught up in the Spirit to the throne of God and write Revelation? What about John Bunyan – imprisoned for faithfully preaching the gospel independent of the Church of England only to have the townspeople gathered outside the prison walls to hear him preach, and when they stuffed him further away within the prison, to write Pilgrim’s Progress? What did Jesus say? “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24)

Paul was shut up. But the gospel was not. This is for two reasons, which we will now consider in verses 13 and 14.

The first is that Paul wouldn’t shut up until they cut off his head. In verse 13 he says, “it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ”. The Greek word translated “imperial guard” in verse 13 is praitorion. It was used to refer to a provincial governor’s headquarters such as Pilate in Mark 15:16 and Herod’s palace in Acts 23:35.

Most scholars believe that Paul is writing from imprisonment in Rome, where Caesar ruled, which is why ESV translates it “imperial guard”. Caesar’s Palace Guard or bodyguard included some 9000-10,000 men, of whom dozens would likely have taken a turn guarding Paul over the 2 years Luke tells us in Acts 28 that he was imprisoned there.

Regarding being imprisoned, Paul told Timothy, “I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound!” (2 Timothy 2:9). Like a Trojan horse, Paul’s imprisonment has ferried the power of the gospel to the very heart of the most powerful household in the world. The irony is that while Paul was a captive, imprisoned and chained 24/7 to a Roman soldier for two years, they were his captive audience.

What do you suppose these men experienced while being chained to Paul? What impression do you think, as one commentator put it, that his “graciousness, his remarkable patience and perseverance in great affliction, his wisdom, his deep convictions, his genuineness, his humility, and his genuine love and concern for them” (MacArthur, p. 61) had on them?

How do you think your children, your extended family, your co-workers and neighbors are affected by your experience of trials? It’s clear that Paul’s captors didn’t keep it to themselves. His evangelism, conviction, and example had such an effect on them that the word spread all about town. The closing verses of Acts, 28:30-31, record how many people came to him to hear about the kingdom of God and his Christ. And Paul tells us in this letter (4:22) that the word even converted some of Caesar’s household. But the spread of the gospel went beyond just Paul’s preaching…

We’ve seen in verse 13 that Paul’s imprisonment had a surprising effect on unbelievers in Rome. In verse 14 we see a second surprising result of Paul’s imprisonment. He wants the church to know what effect it’s had on the believers around him. You would think his imprisonment would stir them to fear and withdrawal lest they too would be imprisoned and persecuted. But once again it had the opposite effect. They saw that, as one commentator puts it, “Paul used his chains as an opportunity”. Paul says they became, “much more bold to speak the word without fear”. Rather than hole up at home and lock the door, they grew considerably bolder. They became “confident in the Lord by [Paul’s] imprisonment”. They stepped in the gap. His courage was contagious. It steeled their souls, stirring them to patriotic zeal not for the government of Rome but for that of King Jesus – who uses chains and crosses as tools of triumph. Who says, “In this world you will have tribulation. But take heart – I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Next, in verses 15-17, Paul makes an aside to acknowledge that while his imprisonment stirred many others to gospel witness, not all do so with the same motives. They are divided in two camps: those who do so out of good will and those from envy and rivalry. What’s interesting is while some seek to love him and others to afflict him, both camps are preaching Christ.

He unpacks the love camp first. In verse 16 he says, ‘They do so because they know I am put here for the defense of the gospel’. The word for put here (keimei) has military connotations. It indicates that Paul sees himself “as much ‘on duty’ as the guards posted to watch over him” (MacArthur). As a soldier for Christ, Paul is stationed at the prison for the gospel duty God has assigned him. He’s been deployed there.

What is your assignment? To what front have you been deployed, or where have you been stationed for defense, in the Cause of Christ? In another place Paul uses the same word for “put here” when he says, “[be not] moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this” (1 Thessalonians 3:3). He says elsewhere, “let each person lead the life that God has assigned” (1 Corinthians 7:17). Your station is not your primary concern; Your gospel faithfulness is.

At my work, I often hear constructive criticism or corrective action referred to as an “opportunity for improvement”. Although certain aspects of our station are a hindrance to our hopes, our happiness, and our health, we are to consider it an opportunity for Christ to be magnified. Sometimes, though, I think – What did Paul have to lose? He was a single man and a missionary. He lived, ate, drank, and breathed ministry. I have a wife and kids, parents, friends, and a career. What do you have to lose? But God doesn’t give us wealth, stability, and family to use for our own ends. Our Christian faith and our church are not a supplement to living for our own ends. We are at our Master’s disposal. We too are “put here for the defense of the gospel”.

When Paul says “defense” it is a legal term, which he uses also in both Acts 24:10 and 26:2, where he says, “I make my defense” before governors and kings. That our words, our character, and our actions should serve as witness in defense of the gospel is evident throughout Paul’s writings. For example, here Philippians 1:28 – Paul says their unity, integrity, and lack of fearful cowardice in their opponents’ presence will testify to the truth of the gospel. Paul also told Timothy (2 Tim 2:25) that gentleness in correcting opponents may lead to their conviction and repentance. And he told Titus (2:7-8) that our good works, [sound] speech, integrity, and dignity will put opponents to shame. By telling them here of the gospel advance through his own life, Paul is tipping his hand, priming the church for the admonition he will deliver later in chapter 1.

In verse 17, Paul moves from talking about those who proclaim Christ out of love for him to elaborate on a second camp – those who “proclaim Christ out of envy and rivalry”. I don’t know about you, but that’s not a category I usually maintain – Christians that aren’t in my camp – maybe don’t even like me, or worse – hate me, but yet they deliver teaching on Christ that is essentially genuine. Commentators agree that these detractors were included in the “brothers” in Christ stirred up in verse 14. As such, though he acknowledged that their motives were bad, Paul implied that he considered the content of their preaching orthodox. Paul elsewhere calls out those who “pervert [or twist] the gospel” such as in Galatians. Later in Philippians he condemns the Judaizers who would bring Christianity under bondage to the Mosaic Law, calling them enemies of the cross (3:1-10). There are those over whom he weeps and warns the church (3:18-19). These he condemns.

But not the rival brothers in verse 17. Their beef is not with Christ, but with Paul. One commentator says, “They must be Christians who bore no love for the apostle personally, who were anxious to see him remain in prison, and who intended to make that imprisonment as galling and irksome as possible” (Martin, p. 73). Paul identifies their goal: “thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment”. Though their teaching is genuine, their motives are sinful. He says they do it out of envy and rivalry, qualities which are listed among the works of the flesh in Galatians 5.

Envy begrudges the success of opponents like Paul and celebrates their misfortunes. “The envious person works to harm and ruin the object of envy” (Hansen). Says another commentator: “One of the most discouraging experiences for a servant of God is that of being falsely accused by fellow believers, especially coworkers in the church. To be maligned by an unbeliever is expected; to be maligned by another believer is unexpected. The pain runs very deep when one’s ministry is slandered, misrepresented, and unjustly criticized… That is precisely the situation Paul faced in Rome, where some [fellow] church leaders, in opposition to him, were preaching Christ, even from envy and strife” (MacArthur).

Paul doesn’t unpack how he processed that experience. He says here that he is aware of brothers – fellow born again Christians – who are intentionally seeking his harm and humiliation. It may be that they hate him, that they’re jealous, or as some translations put it, that they are driven by selfish ambition. There is no doubt that this had to hurt.

Have you ever been hurt in ministry? Maybe you’ve been deeply wounded. Perhaps by an elder. How did you process that? Have you processed it?

It seems clear that Paul did not allow these brothers’ efforts to afflict him to serve as an occasion for bitterness or self-pity. Paul had been let down by fellow believers at other times too and he would be again. He told Timothy, (2 Timothy 4:9-11a, 16-18) “Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me… At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me.” Consider also the intercession of Christ for his enemies, “Father, forgive them”. Or those fellow Jews that bludgeoned Stephen to death with stones, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them”.

In verse 18 Paul evaluates his experience. “What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.” What perspective frees Paul to glory in Christ in spite of real “suffering in chains as a criminal” (2 Timothy 2:9)? Don’t you read this, like me, and wonder – Really Paul? Don’t you miss your family and friends? Wouldn’t you rather be out there preaching and discipling? I’m sure I would not have responded the same way he did, nor had Christ’s interests first in my mind. But I’m encouraged that I’m not the only one who needs to wrestle with this. I know I’m not alone because Paul wrote Philippians.

It was peculiar and a huge spoiler to begin preaching Philippians to you from the pinnacle of the Christ Hymn of 2:5-11 a year and a half ago. Yet I’m glad we went there, because unpacking the Christ Hymn oriented us to Paul’s perspective on the incomprehensible worth of the Incarnate, once utterly humiliated but now risen and reigning, Christ. And it oriented us to the inestimable glory that awaits citizens of the heavenly kingdom. It’s this perspective that tempered Paul for all of his experiences of suffering and fueled his consuming passion for Christ’s interests.

In unpacking what “I want you to know” in these opening verses of the body of his letter, Paul presents himself, not for the last time, as an example to the Philippians. Later examples will include Timothy, Epaphroditus, and chiefly, the Lord Jesus. He prepares us for the admonition to gospel-worthy citizenship that he will deliver in verse 27 by framing his imprisonment as a strategic stationing. And he is stirring us to encouragement with the ironic news that “Caesar’s chains have released the power of the gospel” to exponential effect.

In closing, let’s acknowledge that sin is the reason we often do not value Christ’s interests above our own when our station involves suffering. “The only certain cause for loss of joy in the believer’s life is sin… Dissatisfaction, bitterness, sullenness, doubt, fear, and negativism (or cynicism) cause joy to be forfeited. Consequently, the only way to restore lost joy is to repent and return to proper worship of and obedience to God” (MacArthur). In light of that, let’s pray.

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Father, grant us to repent from bitterness, sullenness, doubts, fears, and dissatisfaction with where you have put us for your purposes. Give us faith that we may take joy in your peculiar methods of triumph. We worship Christ. We desire above all that his Name be highly exalted above every name and that every knee would bow to Him in heaven and on earth and under the earth, confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. May we say together with Paul, as he does in Acts 20, that though “the Holy Spirit testifies to me [that]… afflictions await me, yet I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may… testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” Amen

Exodus 4:18-31 Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” 19 And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.” 20 So Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand.

21 And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. 22 Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.” If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’”

24 At a lodging place on the way the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. 25 Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” 26 So he let him alone. It was then that she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.

27 The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. 28 And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which he had sent him to speak, and all the signs that he had commanded him to do. 29 Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. 30 Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. 31 And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.

Do you believe your obedience or disobedience to God’s commands changes the world? Is your obedience to gather with the saints on the Lord’s Day a world-changing decision? Do you believe in the world-changing power of serving your neighbor, making a meal for a family with a newborn, holding the door open for a visitor, or praying with someone after the service? It is easy to take for granted the many ordinary things we do to obey the Lord, without considering what will come of it. Consequently, it is easy to overlook the significance of not doing those things. We make excuses—“I’m too busy to help my neighbor today.” “I don’t have time to put together a meal for them right now.” “I’m late for Sunday School; they don’t need my help with the door.” “I’ll tell them I’m praying for you.” Excuses turn into neglect, and patterns become set. And what are the consequences? We miss an opportunity to minister to a neighbor. Parents of newborns are a little more harried than they already are. Guests do not feel welcome. You forget to pray later. Ordinary acts of obedience change you into a different kind of person—the kind who thinks more of others than himself. Others are blessed, cared for, welcomed, and prayed for. Others, in turn, prioritize these things, a particular kind of culture is built up, and we become the kind of church God has called us to be.

Our passage this morning has four sketches related to obedience—each with a different emphasis. The first section, verses 18-20, is titled “Obedience and Blessing.” The second section is verses 21-23, “Disobedience and Its Consequences. The third section is verses 24-26, “Delivered Out of Disobedience. The final section is verses 27-31, “Obedience Changes the World.”

In these four sketches, we see God changing the world as He blesses obedience and curses disobedience. Moses’s obedience to God’s mission led to his reunification with his brother, who had also obeyed the Lord’s command. It reunited Moses with his people, whom God had prepared to receive him. His acts of obedience resulted in the elders of Israel and all the people believing the Word of the LORD and worshipping Him together. But in the middle of this passage, we see the consequences for disobedience—centered around the death threat of the firstborn of Pharaoh and of Moses. Pharaoh and Moses will take diverging paths, and the results will depend not upon themselves, but on the LORD and his mercy. Here, we should clearly see the need for perfect obedience and the inability of anyone to meet this standard. This passage cries out for a perfect firstborn son.

We last left Moses at Horeb, the Mountain of God. Moses had met “the angel of the LORD”, who had revealed himself to be Yahweh, the God of Israel. God had told him, “I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” (3:10) Yet Moses tried to excuse himself from the task. God was patient, but became angry with him as he continued to make excuses. Finally, God equipped him with his staff, which was to serve as a powerful symbol of God’s presence in the sight of the Israelites and Egyptians. God also agreed to send Moses’s brother Aaron to him as his spokesman.

After Moses met the LORD at Horeb, verse 18 tells us that “Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law”. Moses had been tending Jethro’s flock and had taken them “to the west side of the wilderness.” (3:1) Moses had responsibilities to fulfill with Jethro—the sheep were not his, and he wouldn’t have wanted them in Egypt anyway. In this first section, we see Moses obedient to God’s call to “go back to Egypt.” (4:21)

I have previously noted similarities between Moses and Jacob. In chapter two, we saw Moses flee to the east, to save his life—much like Jacob. And like Jacob, he met a woman at a well, married her, had children with her, and tended his father-in-law’s flock. Jethro’s graciousness in allowing Moses to “Go in peace” is a stark contrast with Jacob’s relationship with his father-in-law, Laban. Jacob left Laban under duress—tricking him, and when Laban realized it, he chased him. This contrast helps us to see Jethro in a far more favorable light. He is a much different kind of man than Laban, and this will be important later in the book, when we meet him again.

God then reassured Moses, after he had taken steps of obedience, much like he had with Jacob (Gen. 31:3), that it is safe to return. Moses had fled Egypt to save his life from the hands of Pharaoh after Moses had killed an Egyptian. But “all the men who were seeking [his] life [were now] dead.” (4:19). Here we see the graciousness of God in preparing the way for Moses’s departure. There were now no obstacles or objections for Moses to make to excuse himself from going. His father-in-law gave him freedom to go, and he had nothing to fear in returning to Egypt. When God calls his servants to a mission, He will remove every obstacle in their way to begin. Of course, as we will see, there were still many obstacles He would encounter before completing his mission—but those too were removed in time. The important thing to see is that Moses was reassured by the Lord after he had taken steps of faith by obeying the LORD.

It is important to note that the gospel of Matthew quotes Exodus 4:19, in Matthew 2:20. “But when Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.” (Matt. 2:20-21) We must see that these two stories are deeply intertwined. The missions of Moses and Jesus are bound together through their God-appointed task to save their people from bondage. This should heighten your desire to see the depths and riches of the Exodus narrative as a means of understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ and the richness of the entire biblical story.

With the LORD’s assurance that it is safe to go, Moses brought his “wife and his sons and had them ride on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt.” This may seem like a mundane or commonplace detail. But there is something beautiful about a man considering the frame of his wife and children and giving them the ability to travel without having to walk the entire way. Men sacrifice for those they love. Men do not demand of others more than they can bear. Men of Grace Church, I commend Moses’s example to you.

God had emphasized to Moses, back in verse 17, to “take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs.” At the end of verse 20, the text emphasizes that Moses obeyed this command by taking “the staff of God in his hand.” This staff exemplified the power that God had entrusted to Moses. The staff Moses had brought with him to the mountain was an ordinary shepherd’s staff. But notice here, in verse 20, that the staff is called “the staff of God.” This staff will play an important role throughout the rest of Moses’s life. This is yet another reminder that God routinely takes an ordinary thing and transforms it into something extraordinary. God is doing this with Moses. Grace, this is what the LORD does with all his children. We are not just ordinary men and women, but we are children of the King, made extraordinary through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.

In the second section, we are told of the journey toward Egypt and the Lord’s warning to Moses to expect resistance after he has performed the miracles that God had put “in [his] power.” This prophesied disobedience on the part of Pharaoh will have disastrous consequences for Pharaoh and the entire nation of Egypt.

The LORD is clear that Moses is to do as he had been commanded. The LORD had empowered Moses to perform a series of signs while at Horeb. These signs included turning his staff into a serpent, restoring the serpent back to a staff, making his hand leprous, restoring it again, and finally, turning Nile River water into blood. (4:3-9) These same signs are to be performed first, to the elders of Israel. Their promised favorable response stands in stark contrast to Pharaoh’s. In 3:18, the LORD promised that Israel will obey, and we see this fulfilled at the end of the chapter.

These signs were to be performed before Pharaoh as well, but God warns Moses that they will not result in Pharaoh freeing the Hebrews. Instead, God “will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.” (4:21) The word “harden” literally means to “make stubborn.” Rather than softening Pharaoh’s heart, God is telling Moses he is doing the very opposite—making Pharaoh even more set in his ways. Once Pharaoh’s heart is hard, Moses is to “say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve me.’ If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’” (4:22-23) The consequence for Pharaoh resisting the LORD will be the death of Pharaoh’s firstborn son. There is a lot to dig into here! Let’s take this one thing at a time. First, we will consider Israel as God’s “firstborn son,” then the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, and lastly the threat against Pharaoh’s firstborn son.

It is easy to overlook and miss the significance of God’s declaration in verse 22 that, “Israel is my firstborn son.” In the Bible, the firstborn son is the presumptive head of the family upon the death of his father (Gen. 27) and consequently received both a fatherly blessing, and a double portion of the inheritance (Deut. 21:17). God’s declaration concerning Israel is meant to demonstrate their special covenantal status, taking precedence over all the nations, and their future status as God’s priestly people. Later in the book, in chapter 13, the LORD will command Israel to “set apart to the LORD all that first opens the womb.” (Ex. 13:12) This firstborn theme permeates Scripture.

Israel’s status as God’s “firstborn son” means that the entire nation is under God’s protective care. They have been adopted through God’s declaration of His love for them, as evidenced by the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Pharaoh’s enslavement of them is a provocation to the LORD, and he is about to exact vengeance upon Pharaoh and consequently the entire nation of Egypt for their treatment of God’s own son.

Next, let’s consider God’s hardening Pharaoh’s heart. This idea of God hardening the heart of a man, such that he will face God’s wrath, raises the objection, “Is God being unjust to Pharaoh?” If God can do this to Pharaoh, can’t He do it to you or me? How can God hold Pharaoh accountable for his sin when it is God who has hardened his heart against him?

These questions are addressed in Romans 9 when the Apostle Paul considers this very situation. Paul quotes Exodus 33 in his answer, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.’ So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.” (Rom. 9:15-18)

Paul’s response to this first objection is that our standing before God has nothing to do with us, but is entirely based upon God’s mercy. (9:16) All stand condemned. All have sinned and are by nature enemies of God. This is why it is really a question of mercy, as Paul states. In Ephesians 2:1, Paul describes the situation of all men, apart from Christ, as being “dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.” Paul’s argument is similar there, for in Ephesians 2:4, he writes, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved…” (Eph. 4:4-5)

So the first objection that it is unjust to harden Pharaoh’s heart is diffused by the truth that Pharaoh’s heart, like the heart of all men, is already hardened against God. As Pastor Dave recently said, “Every minute that I am not in hell, I am getting something infinitely better than I deserve. ” Pharaoh, like you and I, is at enmity with God apart from his gracious gift of faith. We should see in this that apart from the work of the Spirit in the hearts of men, there is only one direction that we will go—further from God.

The second objection is, how can God hold Pharaoh accountable for his sin when it is God who has hardened his heart against him? To this, Paul writes in Romans 9, “But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, ‘Why have you made me like this? Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory…” (Rom. 9:20-23)

One commentator writes, concerning this hardening, that God’s “purpose in preventing Pharaoh from giving in too easily and too early was… to allow himself fully to demonstrate his sovereignty over Pharaoh, the Egyptians, the land of Egypt itself, and the gods in which Pharaoh and the Egyptians trusted.”

The Bible anticipates these objections, knowing human nature. They’ve been asked before and will be asked again. As people who honor God’s Word, we must turn to what the Word says, and not what we want it to say. The Bible is very clear: there is salvation only for those upon whom God extends his mercy and compassion. Pharaoh stood condemned before the Lord in the same way that all men do, including you, apart from his compassion for those whom God “chose … in [Christ] before the foundation of the world… In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace…” (Eph. 1:4-6)

We considered a few minutes ago the significance of Israel as God’s firstborn Son. Israel is God’s adopted son, through God’s declaration (Rom 9:4) of his fatherhood and their sonship. And so too are we today God’s adopted sons (Eph. 1:5). God protects His son, as any good father would protect his own. So, this threat that God makes to Pharaoh is not primarily a threat against Pharaoh, but a declaration of His love and concern for His people.

This threat foreshadows the tenth, and final plague that will be the culmination of Pharaoh’s hard-hearted rejection of God’s claim upon his adopted Son, Israel. If Pharaoh refuses to restore God’s son to Him, he will require restitutive justice. That is to say that the consequence for Pharaoh will be equitable, equivalent, just, fair. If Pharaoh refuses to free God’s firstborn son, God will take Pharaoh’s firstborn son. God’s justice is always perfect justice. As we will see later in the book, the plague of the death of the firstborn son is carried out upon all of Egypt, not only Pharaoh. As a commenter notes, this is likely due to Pharaoh’s representing all the Egyptians, in the same way Israel is spoken of collectively. As Tim Chester helpfully states, “God has just drawn a line between the firstborn of God and the firstborn of Egypt.”

As God required the life of Pharaoh’s firstborn, so too, today, God will require the life of all those who harm God’s adopted sons. Many have given their lives for the sake of the gospel, and God will one day bring perfect justice to those who have wickedly abused God’s sons and daughters. But that justice is God’s to mete out, for vengeance is His, not ours. (Rom. 12:19)

The third section, verses 24-26, is deeply linked to the second section. In this third section, Moses’s disobedience regarding the law of circumcision is revealed, and he is delivered out of that disobedience through blood and the work of another—an intercessor.

I’ve highlighted parallels between Jacob and Moses already this morning, and in this section, we see two more. In Genesis 32, God attacked Jacob at night and “wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.” Jacob only escaped after enduring a permanent wound in his hip. (Gen. 32:24-25) In our Exodus passage, Moses (or perhaps Gershom) is attacked by God at a “lodging place” and only escapes after he, or Gershom, endures a permanent wound.

All commentators acknowledge the difficulty of this passage, so I will tread carefully as we look at this passage together. Tim Chester helpfully summarizes the challenges posed by this passage:

Having acknowledged the ambiguity of the details of this section, we will proceed with what we can confidently state from the text. Circumcision is a big deal in the Old Testament. As one commenter remarks, “Circumcision is a symbol of putting away all that is unpleasing to God, and of dedication to God for the task ahead.” This covenant sign was given to Abraham in Genesis 17:10 and was to be kept in perpetuity for all sons of Abraham. In Genesis 17:14, God tells Abraham, “Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people, he has broken my covenant.”

As I acknowledged, we can’t say with certainty who was attacked or who was circumcised. But the context hints that it is most likely that it was Moses who was attacked, and his firstborn son, Gershom, had not been circumcised. If it was Moses who was attacked, it was likely because, as the father, it was his responsibility to ensure his son was circumcised.

Regardless of the specifics, we can definitively see that God’s law regarding circumcision had been broken. God’s covenant had been broken. This is no small thing! As Tim Chester writes, “Within the covenant there is grace and life. Outside of the covenant are judgment and death… Moses…is acting like an Egyptian or Midianite, rather than a member of God’s covenant people. God’s attack… anticipates his attack on Egypt. The only hope is to cross the line—which is what Zipporah does when she circumcises Gershom (or Moses).”

This scene is thematically tied to the previous threat of the death of the firstborn of Pharoah. Moses’s own family lacked the mark of “covenant sonship”—circumcision. Moses and his family are in the same position as Pharaoh—outside the covenant, and he faces the threat of death himself.

If Moses is not willing to obey God in first things—namely, circumcision, how can he faithfully act as God’s servant? How can he go before the leaders of Israel, or even Pharaoh? How could he instruct Israel in the law, living in violation of it? Moses stood condemned, and the just consequence is death.

In this section, we are confronted with the reality that Moses, whom God had called to act as the deliverer of his people, like Pharaoh, stands condemned before the LORD. He has broken the covenant of circumcision and faces the threat of death. Moses seems unable to do anything. He does nothing to save himself or his son, Gershom. It is the act of another; his wife, Zipporah, acts as an intercessor to bring deliverance from the threat of death. Moses, like Pharaoh, cannot save himself. It is only the mercy of God in providing an intercessor offering blood that delivered Moses’s family from the threat of death. That is the difference between Moses and Pharaoh. God chose to show mercy upon Moses, his family, and his firstborn son, Israel. Deliverance from sin and disobedience is entirely a divine favor. So it is with all men.

Later, when the tenth plague is executed, it is the blood of the Passover lamb upon the lintel and doorposts of their home that will mark out those to be spared . We don’t know how Zipporah knew what was required, but it is clear that she did know and acted accordingly. This reveals the necessity of circumcision, which had been understood but disobeyed. The crisis had been averted, and Zipporah joined the long list of women, like Moses’s mother and the Hebrew midwives, who have acted to protect God’s covenant children.

Before moving on, I want to be clear that circumcision was an Old Covenant sign of inclusion in the people of God. The Apostle Paul states this sign is no longer necessary. He argues this clearly many times throughout his letters. In 1 Corinthians 7:19, he writes, “For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God.” Not only that, but if you insist upon using circumcision as a sign of covenant membership, Paul writes in Galatians 5:2, “Christ will be of no advantage to you.” Baptism is the New Covenant sign of covenant membership. To be numbered among God’s people, you must take the step of obedience by submitting to water baptism.

The final section is verses 27-31, in which we see the reunion of brothers and Moses’s reunion with his people in Egypt. Here we meet Aaron for the first time, who obeyed the LORD’s command to “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” (4:27) The final section serves as a contrast to the second section. Unlike Pharaoh, in section two, whose heart will be hardened, we find the people of Israel obedient to their leaders and to God’s message. They accept the signs performed by Moses and Aaron, which were meant to confirm their authority as God’s messengers.

I must again highlight two more parallels between Moses and Jacob. As Jacob returned to Canaan in Genesis 32, he met his brother Esau, who kissed him in greeting. Of course, there are differences here. Jacob feared his reunion with Esau, though, to Jacob’s surprise, Esau had forgiven him. But they still parted ways. Here, we see the reconciliation of brothers, Moses and Aaron, who are united in mission. This hints at the work that God is about to perform. “How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!” (Ps. 133:1)

I have highlighted these parallels between Jacob and Moses because they are present in the text, and they serve a purpose. Jacob, whom the LORD renamed Israel after they wrestled together (Gen. 32:28), is the man who led his family of seventy into Egypt. Moses is a new Jacob, and will lead a burgeoning nation—hundreds of thousands of people out of Egypt. The LORD is shown as fulfilling his purposes through the covenant headship of Moses.

In this final section, there are six acts of obedience:

There is a progression of compounding obedience that culminates in worship. Notice the chain of obedience begins with a single man. Aaron’s obedience led to Moses and Aaron’s reunion, and Moses then obeyed his charge from the LORD by sharing God’s message and signs with him. Their obedience led to a larger gathering—the elders of Israel, who also obeyed the LORD. The passage culminates with “the people” believing and worshipping.

If you don’t think you can change the world, you are mistaken. Your acts of obedience may be used by the LORD in a compounding fashion, ultimately leading to a nation acting obediently, as this passage makes evident. “How good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!” (Ps. 133:1) Consider the generational impact of your obedience within your families, within Grace Church. Consider the impact of sharing the gospel with, and discipling unbelievers. We should see in this final section the impact that acts of obedience may have. God is not stingy. He does not save his grace, love, and mercy for a rainy day. But he won’t give it to those who walk in disobedience. But look at how he pours it out when His people walk in His ways!

Before we conclude our time together, let’s consider what this passage means for Christians today. What is God telling us through His Word this morning? When considering Old Covenant passages in this New Covenant era, we must apply the principles laid out for us and consider them in light of the fullness of God’s revelation.

We have seen that Moses is a new Jacob. He is God’s covenant head, leading God’s people out of the bondage of Egypt. Israel was declared to be God’s “firstborn son.” In these four sketches of obedience, we see that the standard for obedience is high—it is perfect, and the stakes are life and death. We see the failure of Moses and Pharaoh and the dangerous consequences for both. Moses and his firstborn son are saved from the wrath of God. Pharaoh and his son will receive no mercy, only wrath. What sets them apart?

What sets them apart is God’s mercy—his compassion for his own. God has adopted some in his mercy. He has adopted many sons and softened their hearts. When Moses’s family was threatened over Moses’s disobedience regarding circumcision, the intercession of another led to their salvation. When Pharaoh is confronted with the threat of death, he will instead harden his heart. He will become more of what he already is—an enemy of God.

It is the intercession of another, leading to salvation, that we must see clearly in this passage, throughout the book of Exodus, and indeed all of Scripture. Moses can only be saved by another—his wife’s act of obedience. Israel can only be saved by the intercession of another—God’s covenant head, who is like his brothers, but has to come from the outside to save them.

I want to return now to God’s declaration that “Israel is my firstborn son.” We’ve already discussed the importance of the firstborn in the Old Covenant, and I hinted at the significance of this theme throughout all of Scripture. Let’s now consider it in light of the New Covenant. In Hebrews 1, God declares that Jesus is his Son, “the firstborn into the world,” that He has an eternal throne, is the ruler of a kingdom, He is exalted above all his companions, is eternal, and sits at the Father’s right hand. Jesus is also spoken of as “the firstborn among many brothers,” in Romans 8:29, and “the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth” in Revelation 1:5.

What do we do with God’s declarations in Exodus and these New Testament statements regarding Jesus as the firstborn? The answer lies in the truth that Jesus is the True Israel. I mentioned earlier that Matthew quotes Exodus 4:19 when an angel declared to Joseph that it was again safe to return to Israel. Just a few verses earlier, Matthew explicitly unites Jesus with the people of Israel, when in Matthew 2:13 he says of Jesus, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” (Matt. 2:13)

The Old Testament is largely a story of how the people of Israel were rebellious sons, time and again showing themselves to be unfaithful and wayward. The story of the gospels is a retelling of Jesus, as the True Israel, fulfilling all the unfaithfulness of the nation of Israel. Jesus, time and again, proves himself to be the faithful, obedient son. The rest of the New Testament then shows that those who follow Jesus Christ, the firstborn of all creation, the firstborn from the dead, are “the assembly of the firstborn” (Heb. 12:23). But Jesus is also “bringing many sons to glory” and the founder of the salvation of many. (Heb. 2:10)

The Old Covenant role of Israel has passed on to the True Son, who is the True Israel, and of which all those who are in Christ are named. The True Israel today is not the nation of Israel in the Middle East, but those who are faithful sons of God found all over the world, united in Spirit to the True Israel—Jesus Christ. This is why Paul writes in Romans 9:6, “not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.” In Romans 10:21, Paul declares that ethnic Israel was “a disobedient and contrary people.” Ethnic Israel’s rejection of Jesus has brought salvation to the Gentiles—and one day the Jews will receive “full inclusion” in the covenant people of God. (Rom 11:12) Ethnic Israel was broken off from the Olive Tree, and will one day be grafted back in, as we Gentiles are now being grafted into that same tree.

This passage in Exodus cries out for a perfect, firstborn son, who faithfully does the will of His Father. Moses was not it, nor was Pharaoh. God revealed his firstborn son, Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, in Bethlehem. Like Moses, his life was threatened as a baby. He was exiled from his own people and later restored to them to act as their Deliverer.

Jesus, like Zipporah, like Moses, is our intercessor. He is the one like us, “born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7), but the eternal Son of God. He has come from outside of creation, incarnated into it, to lead “many sons to glory.”

Jesus Christ obeyed God perfectly. He is the perfect son. He lived the life of the perfect Son because we cannot. The obedience of Jesus Christ forever changed the world. God, in his mercy, has adopted us as his sons and given us the benefit of the work of Jesus Christ by uniting us to Him in baptism to make us co-heirs with God’s true and faithful firstborn son.

If you are in Christ, that is, if you trust in Him alone for the forgiveness of your sin, you are filled with His Spirit, and walk in His ways; you are already forgiven. All Christ’s benefits are yours. Your inheritance in the new heavens and earth is secure. But if you are in rebellion against God, walking in disobedience, you stand condemned. The threat of eternal death hangs over you! Beware, lest you harden your heart further. You need not face that judgment yourself. Jesus Christ, the perfect, true, firstborn Son, stands at the ready to claim you as His own. He has already paid the penalty for sin. You need only trust in Him and receive his already finished work of salvation.

Jesus has freed all of his own from the law, requiring perfect obedience, knowing, in the weakness of sin, that we are unable to fulfill it. All believers have been united with Christ, and “set free from sin.” We are “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 6:5-11) Because we have been freed from sin, we are not to let it reign in us and obey our fallen passions and desires. But instead, we are to present ourselves to God as “instruments for righteousness.” We are no longer enslaved to sin in the way the Israelites had been enslaved in Egypt. But we are “slaves of God.” (Rom 6:22)

Like Aaron, our acts of obedience can have a profound downstream impact on others. We, too, can change the world through our obedience. We should expect no less. That doesn’t mean we will always see the fruit of our obedience, but we should always expect it to come in God’s time.

I exhort you to consider your spheres of influence. Where can you and do you have influence? Walk faithfully there. Walk in obedience. Your neighbors are watching you. Church member, we’re watching you. Parents, your children are watching you. Students, your friends are watching you. Employees, your coworkers are watching you. Grandparents, generations are watching you! Strive to extend your obedience outward in each sphere of life, expecting fruit to come of it. God is building his kingdom for the glory of His Name, and He doesn’t desire a modest, manageable kingdom; He wants it all. “So then, let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” (Rom. 13:12) Let us walk in the Spirit, living lives of obedience for the glory of God and the advancement of His Kingdom.

Ecclesiastes 9:11-18 Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. 12 For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.

13 I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me. 14 There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siegeworks against it. 15 But there was found in it a poor, wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man. 16 But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not heard.

17 The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools. 18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.

The informal logic text that we used to teach our kids (The Art of Argument) defines bifurcation or false dilemma or false dichotomy like this: “A kind of fallacy of presupposition, the bifurcation fallacy attempts to frame the debate in such a way that makes only two options possible when, in fact, other possibilities may exist.”

A semi-famous way to make use of this fallacy is to ask someone if they are the only idiot in their family.

“Yes. I mean no. I mean…”.

The framing of the question necessitates one of only two answers. Either you are an idiot and no one else is or you are an idiot along with at least one other person in your family. The question form means there’s no way for you to get out of being an idiot. And yet, even though the question doesn’t allow for it, as we all know, there are other possibilities (such as there are no idiots in your family at all).

On a more serious note, as we’ve already seen in Ecclesiastes, readers of the Bible will find false dilemma fallacies all over if we’re not careful.

In each of these cases, two claims seem to be at odds. It seems, therefore, like there are only two possibilities for each: Either one of them is not true or there’s a logical contradiction. And yet, in each case, both claims are clearly taught in the Bible (often side-by-side) and we know God never lies.

Anticipating an objection on the grounds of a bifurcation fallacy regarding his teaching on God’s sovereignty and human responsibility, the Apostle Paul responded, “who are you, O man, to answer back to God?” In other words, Paul admitted that he didn’t fully understand how both could be true, but also humbly acknowledged that whenever we cannot understand how certain aspects of God’s Word are compatible, the problem lies with us, not the Word.

We may not always know how certain biblical doctrines are compatible, but we do know that where God’s Word teaches both, there is never a mistake or an ultimate contradiction.

Along these lines, for those of you who are in your late teens and early twenties, especially those of you who are regularly around non-Christians, this is one of the most important things you can hear me say. You are at the age when you and your peers are learning to work out the things you’ve been taught growing up. That’s a good thing for the most part.

But one of the things you’ll find is that the cultural currents and winds are flowing and blowing away from Christianity as being a reasonable conclusion for intelligent people. More than likely, in the course of your conversations with skeptics or your YouTube research, you’ll find many who say that they are not Christians because of the clear contradictions within the claims of Christianity.

But here’s what I’m driving at and hope you will hear and find confidence from: Christianity is true and is, therefore, able to stand up to every scrutiny. That is not to say that there aren’t questions that are hard to answer, but it is to say that there are answers. It is not to say that there is no mystery in the Bible’s claims, but it is to say that mystery is not the same as false.

Do not be afraid of asking or hearing questions, even pointed and difficult questions concerning the claims of God’s Word. Don’t worry when skeptics claim to know that Christianity can’t possibly be true for their various reasons. Be humble in admitting that you don’t know the answers to their questions, but let them know that you are as eager as they are to find the answers, and be confident that there are answers.

I bring all of this up because we have another example of a seeming false dilemma—a seeming contradiction—in our passage for this morning. Unlike some of the questions you may face, however, this is not a particularly complicated one.

In the first section (11-12) the Preacher teaches that wisdom is no real help. In the second section (13-16), he teaches that it helps a great deal. And in the third section (17-18) he teaches both. On the surface, it seems obvious that either under the sun wisdom is beneficial or it isn’t; that it can’t be both. And it seems obvious on the surface that someone making both claims simultaneously must be wrong about one or the other.

The solution to this apparent bifurcation is, again, simple, straight-forward, and familiar. It is also the big idea of this sermon: Under the sun wisdom has real and inevitable limits and it has real and genuine benefits. When we understand the limits and benefits, we are in a good place to make the best use of it. The Preacher helps us see both and therein brings us to a good place if we will hear him. The main takeaway, then, is to learn its benefits and limits in order that we might order our lives accordingly.

Wisdom doesn’t help, it helps, and it doesn’t help. The Preacher began his first description of the unhelpfulness of wisdom alongside a bunch of other counterintuitive aspects of the world we live in.

When two people race, and one is objectively faster, wisdom suggests that the outcome of the race ought to be predetermined, right? Likewise, wisdom teaches that if two nations go to battle and one has a king who is a much better leader and an army that is much larger and better equipped than the other, the better/stronger one will win, correct? And wisdom obviously leads us to conclude that wise, intelligent, and knowledgeable people will have more food, wealth, and blessing than those who lack those things, doesn’t it?

While it seems like those things should be the case, the Preacher observed something different. That’s just not how things work a good chunk of the time.

11 Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge…

Again, as we all know, wisdom suggests each of those things, but reality often proves wisdom to be unhelpful. More than a simple assertion, the Preacher describes what he saw instead.

11 … but time and chance happen to them all.

Chance is an interesting word choice here, given the fact that the Preacher clearly believes that it is ultimately the sovereign providence of God that governs the outcome of things. It may have been him who wrote (Proverbs 16:33), “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.” And it was definitely him who said (Ecclesiastes 9:1), “the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God.”

The Preacher’s point, then, is not that some things are truly left to chance (to randomness, to fate, to something other than God), but that the providence of God is so mysterious and unpredictable that it often looks like chance to us, and even when it doesn’t, we can’t be sure of what God is really up to in whatever we’re seeing.

In that way, he observed that regardless of a person or nation’s mental, moral, or physical aptitude, things entirely out of our control and understanding—things contrary to wisdom—dictate the outcome of our lives as often as not.

One of the sillier, but more memorable examples of this in my life took place on a Monday, many years ago. Monday has been my day off for nearly 30 years now. Ideally, they look much the same today as they did in the very beginning—slow days with little necessary stuff; up early for QT, a chance to run, make a big breakfast for everyone, spend time in the shop, and date night.

On this particular Monday, everything was going as planned through the first four elements of a good day off. Wisdom suggested that things would continue on as planned. But then, while in the shop, I ran two fingers on my left hand through my table saw and the fifth element of a good day off was toast. My first and immediate thought was, “This is really going to mess up date night.”

Time and chance got me good even though I had plenty of knowledge, experience, and wisdom, having made the same cut successfully hundreds of times before.

Elaborating on this idea, the Preacher wrote (v.12)…

12 For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.

Just think about it. You’re a fish, you’re doing what you were designed by God to do (swimming around, laying or fertilizing eggs, and eating stuff). The day’s going great. Food is plentiful. The water’s the right temperature for eating and making baby fish. And then you notice a particularly tasty looking bug not far from you. You swim over to it, swallow it whole, and BAM…all of a sudden your mouth really hurts and you’re being pulled violently in a direction you don’t want to go. The next thing you know, you’re in a net and in the best case scenario, you’re forced to endure a selfie session with some guy dressed in the goofiest clothes you’ve ever seen.

The Preacher’s point is that life is like that for us all in a certain sense, no matter how wise we are and how much we order our lives according to wisdom.

You’ve experienced that too, haven’t you? You wisely lined everything up “perfectly” to produce some desired outcome only to have something completely unexpected and unpredictable derail it entirely; only to be caught in a net or a snare?

In this way, the Preacher concluded that wisdom doesn’t help in the ultimate sense because it isn’t foolproof. There’s always the chance that you’ll find success, having ordered everything according to wisdom, and then for reasons you could never have predicted, everything will get completely upended by sickness or sin or a car crash or a crashed stock market or a global pandemic or the loss of a job or an uncooperative table saw.

You can’t trust wisdom to provide with or protect from anything with certainty and few things with regularity. Knowing how things ordinarily work is not the same as knowing how things will work in any given situation.

In other words, the Preacher’s first point is that under the sun wisdom is unhelpful as a trustworthy provider of protection or success.

At the same time, the Preacher’s second point is that wisdom is useful. It is valuable. It is “great.” It is helpful.

To illustrate this point, the Preacher recalled a (possibly true and certainly) interesting story.

13 I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me. 14 There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siegeworks against it. 15 But there was found in it a poor, wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man. 16 But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not heard.

The story is pretty straightforward, right? There was a great king who had a great army and every advantage. The king and his army made their way to a small city, determined to conquer it. They took their time to set things up properly, according to accepted military strategy—surrounding it, to isolate it from food, water, help, and escape, before attacking it. And yet, the king and his army were unable to do so on account of the plans of a single, poor but wise man within the tiny city.

The Preacher purposefully uses words of significant contrast to make his point especially clear. One the one side was “little,” “few men,” “poor,” “no one remembered,” “despised,” and “words are not heard.” And on the other side was “great king,” “great siegeworks,” and “might.” In this, he means us to recognize that according to conventional wisdom, this confrontation is a slam dunk.

For me, the most interesting aspect of this example, however, is that it is one of wisdom being unhelpful, then helpful, then unhelpful again. Did you catch both wisdom’s losses and win?

Its first loss was exactly the kind of loss the Preacher wrote about in his first point. Wisdom suggests that a great king from a great city will win against a little city every time. But the battle did not “go to the strong” in this case, just as the Preacher predicted.

Wisdom’s win (and the main point of the story) came in the form of a poor man who, through wisdom alone, devised (an unnamed) plan sufficient to repel the attacks of the great king. In that way, the Preacher rightly declared, “I say that wisdom is better than might!” If that’s not helpful, what is?!

As we all know, wisdom really does work like that sometimes. That’s part of what makes sports fun to watch, for instance. Sometimes the coach of a team with every disadvantage is wise enough to come up with a gameplan sufficient to overcome the other team’s advantages—especially if the advantaged team is coached by a prideful fool.

Wisdom’s victory in the Preacher’s story was not long-lasting, however. Its second loss came immediately on the heels of its win. Again, wisdom suggests that there will be bread for the wise, riches for the intelligent, and favor for the knowledgeable. In other words, wisdom suggests that the poor man whose wisdom delivered the city would be esteemed, celebrated, rewarded, and remembered in perpetuity in the little city and great city alike. Wisdom suggests that a man with such significant practical wisdom would be looked to for the rest of his days.

But also as the Preacher predicted, that is not always the case. Indeed, instead of being lauded, “No one remembered the poor man” and soon enough the poor man’s wisdom was “despised and his words…not heard.” And in that, wisdom failed to deliver on its “promise” once again.

In this is an example of the power and helpfulness of wisdom as well as two clear examples of its limits. It is right to seek wisdom and live according to it, but not to trust entirely in it.

And on a really practical level, in last part of the story is a significant warning not to do what is wise and good for the approval or praise of men. Doing what is right in God’s sight is its own reward. This is why Jesus said to the Pharisees, who did their deeds of “wisdom” and “righteousness” for the praise of men, “When you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward” (Matthew 6:2).

In this the Preacher means us to see as clearly as possible that while wisdom is unhelpful in areas it wasn’t designed to be helpful in—that is, while wisdom is fallible and vulnerable to “time and chance” and the fickleness of mankind—that is not to say that it is unhelpful in every area.

Even though wisdom can’t be counted on to win every battle, it is an essential component of victory more often than not.

In the final section, the Preacher sums it all up and reiterates the helpfulness and unhelpfulness of wisdom he observed.

Transitioning back into imparting wisdom in the form of proverbs (all of the next two chapters, chapters 10 and 11), the Preacher wrote first of wisdom’s helpfulness by explaining that wisdom spoken in quiet (spoken in humility to humility) is better than anything spoken at great volume, by great power, to foolish people.

There is more effective power in simple wisdom whispered among a few, simple people than in anything shouted, by anyone in power, to any number of people.

And in that way, the right wisdom in the hands of the right people, can defeat the most powerful weapons on earth in the hands of fools.

17 The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools. 18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war…

In that way, and once again, Grace, seek wisdom. Do so by putting into practice the same things I’ve been encouraging you toward throughout Ecclesiastes.

At the same time, do your best to take the understanding, the wisdom you gain through those things and live more fully in light of it. Reject folly. Put the Proverbs into practice.

Do these things, but don’t trust in these things. They are not meant to be trusted entirely.

Finally, in the final clause of the final verse, the Preacher wrote again about wisdom’s limits.

18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.

Remember, under the sun wisdom is nothing more than an understanding of the way things ordinarily (but not always) work. That’s why we don’t treat the Proverbs like promises.

In other words, all the wisdom in the world, in the hands of the wise, practiced wisely does not guarantee a single outcome. All kinds of things can get in the way of wisdom—especially time, chance, and sinners, as the Preacher witnessed. O, how time and chance can derail the best laid plans and o, what damage a sinner can do.

The two great ditches to fall into are folly on the one side and hoping entirely in under the sun wisdom on the other. Trusting fully in the kind of wisdom the Preacher wrote about is as dangerous as rejecting it entirely.

What, then, is the right path to walk between the ditches? It is learning the way the world ordinarily works and living in light of it, while being directed above all by, and placing your hope only in, the above the sun commands and promises of God.

The right path is making wise plans and the entrusting them to the Lord.

The right path is heeding the words of James 4:13-15, “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

Learn the Preacher’s wisdom and live consistently with it, but do not place your trust in it. That is, train yourself to run fast and to be strong, do all you can to grow in knowledge and intelligence, and elect great rulers and build formidable armies (all of that is wise), but do those things with your eyes wide open to the fact that time, chance, and sin can make all of them impotent in a matter of seconds.

And learn even more the wisdom of God, revealed in the Word of God, live entirely conformed to it, and trust entirely in it. That alone is true wisdom. That alone never fails. That alone can truly bear the weight of all your hope.

In all of this we ought to be able to easily see that there is no true dilemma, only a false dilemma in the claim that either worldly wisdom is helpful or it is unhelpful. It has limits, but in its proper place, it also provides tremendous help.

Likewise, the claim that there is necessary tension between following under the sun wisdom and above the sun wisdom is a false dilemma as well. Each has a proper place among God’s people in God’s World. Above the sun wisdom must always rule, but often they fit together for a fuller wisdom.

In the end, however, the most important of all wisdom is folly by every under the sun measure. Indeed, it is nothing but folly to those who accept only under the sun wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:18) and a stumbling block who cannot see above the sun (1 Peter 2:8).

Under the sun wisdom can get us far, but the best of it falls infinitely short of getting us to Jesus and His salvation. Under the sun wisdom is enough to know that there is a God, that we’ve sinned against Him, and that we’re in big trouble because of it, but it isn’t enough to know what to do about it. Under the sun wisdom always makes men seek to earn their way to God or make up for their sins on their own. But above the sun wisdom reveals that what we are powerless to do ourselves, God did for us by sending His Son to be born of a virgin, to live a perfect life, and then die in place of all who would trust wholly in Him. Trust in Him, Grace, for that is the true beginning and greatest help of wisdom.

Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.

8 Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head.

9 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

Have you ever seen Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park? The upshot is that every 90 minutes or so the water in an underground reservoir is heated enough by the lava flowing near it that the pressure builds to the point that it explodes in a stream nearly 200’ in the air.

There’s a certain aspect of Ecclesiastes that is like that. The Preacher’s “pressure” builds and builds as he describes the vanities he witnessed in the world around him, the frustrating nature of them, and his uncertainties as to what to make of them, before “erupting” every chapter or two in a “carpe diem” response.

It’s almost as if, after describing the apparently irrational and therefore unpredictable nature of the world we live in, the Preacher can’t take it anymore, throws up his hands, and yells out, “It’s all madness. I can’t figure it out. No one can. Just grab whatever joy you can in the things God gives you while you can. Seize the day!”

That’s happened five times already (2:24–26; 3:12–14, 22; 5:18–20; 8:15). Our passage contains the sixth and final such “eruption”. In it, we find the Preacher’s ingredients to maximizing joy under the sun before you die.

The big idea of this sermon is that every aspect of God’s creation is meant to give us joy as it points us to God as our greatest treasure. The main takeaway is to joyfully look through the things of earth to the God who gave them.

What are the ingredients to joy in this life? In this passage, the Preacher lists eight. Five of the eight are also found in the first five carpe diem passages, three are new to this passage, and four are in the other passages but not in this one. All told, that’s twelve relatively simple ingredients to your best under the sun life now.

As we make our way through the list, I think you’ll find that they are self-attestingly the right ingredients. Every attempt to find joy in this life apart from these things, or in them in ways other than what they’re designed for (and many have tried over the centuries since Ecclesiastes was written) always ends up producing less joy and often in significant frustration. These are, in a very real sense, the basic ingredients, according to God’s design, for living well on earth.

In other words, even if you are an atheist, even if you never see above the sun, you simply can’t get around these things if your aim is maximizing your worldly joy. Again, then, what are the ingredients to under the sun joy?

The first ingredient is the most familiar and the most basic. The Preacher admonished his readers…

7 Go, eat your bread with joy…

There are a couple of key ideas here.

First, you cannot have joy on earth if you don’t have life on earth. And you cannot have life on earth if you don’t have bread. God made our bodies in such a way that we need to eat to survive. In that way, eating bread and drinking water are one and the same. We need both to live. And in that, there really is a simple earthly joy in being able to have enough to eat and drink, even as there is soon no earthly joy when these basic needs are lacking (have you ever seen the TV show Alone or backpacked for a longer period of time or fasted for days?).

As you have food and drink, therefore, Grace Church, thank God, consume it in joy, and share it freely with others, as an act of loving service with those who lack and as an act of genuine friendship with those who have, and all as an expression of God’s goodness and design.

The second key, as we’ll see in each of the Preacher’s ingredients, is that the fullest expression of this under the sun joy, is only found above the sun.

On the most basic level, that means understanding that every bite we have to eat is from the Lord and is designed to point us to Him as our provider. Non-Christians can find joy in the first key to this ingredient, but it will always be a lesser joy than those who add this one—a godward view of it.

In this way, fullness of joy comes in having basic sustenance when we consume it in full assurance that man does not live by bread alone (Matthew 4:4); that Jesus is the true bread of life (John 6:35). Earthly bread is necessary for physical life. Heavenly bread is necessary for eternal life. And eaters of earthly bread find the fullest measure of joy in it when it points us to the heavenly bread of God.

The Preacher (as we see at the end of v.7) had some sense of this, but as is the case with this and all the rest of the ingredients, it was far from complete. His head peaked a bit above the sun a bit, but was mostly stuck below the clouds.

While the Preacher’s charge to eat bread indicates that there’s genuine joy in having your basic needs met, his next ingredient points to a different kind of joy—a joy of abundance.

7 Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart…

There is one kind of joy under the sun when we have what we need on the most basic level. There’s another kind of joy that comes when our life is conducive to excess.

Making wine takes time. It can take years of careful cultivation for grapes to go from planting to maturity, and then months after that to turn mature grapes into wine, and then years after that for the wine to age well. In times of drought or famine or sickness or war, no one is thinking of planting grapes and even if they do, they will almost certainly be neglected or destroyed before they could be processed into wine.

In the world as God has made it, wine is an especially significant symbol of peace and abundance. There’s a kind of joy in this life that is found there. We see it all over in the OT and around the feasts especially.

This is a good kind of joy in celebrating God’s abundant provision, Grace, but unlike eating and drinking ordinary food and drink, wine isn’t meant to be normal. We’re not meant to live in continual excess. Wine isn’t water.

Greater is the joy that comes from the above the sun recognition that wine is from the generous hand of God. Indeed, the Psalmist (104:14-15) sang of the gladness the Lord made wine to bring, “You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth 15 and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine (which we’ll come to in a few minutes) and bread to strengthen man’s heart (which we just saw).”

Greater still is the joy that comes from the above the sun charge to drink wine among believers as a part of the Lord’s Supper and as a symbol of the New Covenant (Matthew 26:28; 1 Corinthians 11:25).

And the greatest above the sun wine-joy of all will come when we drink it in the presence of the Lord in the new heavens and earth, not because we need it to survive, but as an expression of God’s excessive kindness. Isaiah and Jesus both spoke of this.

Isaiah 25:6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.

Matthew 26:29 I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.

(For a reason I’ll explain then, I’m going to come back to the end of v.7 at the end of this section.)

The third ingredient for under the sun joy is unique to this “carpe diem” and probably the first unexpected one.

8 Let your garments be always white…

Ever-white clothes in the ancient world were uncommon. Everything was dirty and there were no washing machines or stain-treating sprays. White garments were worn primarily by wealthier people and primarily for celebrations and special events.

With that in mind, the Preacher’s charge was, in essence: Celebrate when you can. You don’t know if there’s going to be another party to attend or another opportunity to dress up, so put on your best clothes now. Don’t store them for a later day since you cannot be certain that a later day will even come, much less that it’ll provide an opportunity to celebrate.

This reminds me a bit of the grandmas who used to cover their couches with clear plastic so as to protect them from the wear and tear of ordinary use. Ultimately, though, no event ever seemed special enough to warrant the removal of the plastic so the couches were never fully enjoyed.

With an above the sun perspective that comes from God’s Word alone (it cannot be discovered through ordinary senses and reason), there is greater joy still in wearing “white clothes” when they draw our minds to the fact that they are given by God to symbolize Jesus’ perfect, holy nature (Daniel 7:9; Mark 9:3), Jesus’ washing of our sin (Isaiah 1:18; Psalm 51:7), and our eternal heavenly attire (Revelation 7:9, 14).

So, get some nice clothes if you’re able and break them out whenever you get the chance. Don’t wait. Wear them. Enjoy them. And as you do, allow that to lift your eyes upward to the God who covers you with white garments of the holiness of Jesus.

The next ingredient named by the Preacher is, once again, unique to this passage.

8 … Let not oil be lacking on your head.

The tendency is probably to imagine the Preacher thinking of the last ingredient (white garments) and this one as more to do with holiness or purity or religious devotion than they really are. Almost certainly, he was thinking in far more practical terms—dressing up in the last one and being refreshed in this one.

“The hot, dry climate of [the Preacher’s context] is the reason for…the oil, which protected against dry skin” (Longman, NICOT, 230). Some might have chosen to save the oil they had for really hot days (like white clothes for really festive days), but again, the Preacher commended seizing the day; if oil would be refreshing now, keep your head covered and let tomorrow worry about tomorrow.

God gives shade and cool breezes and swimming holes to bring refreshment on hot days. It is good to make use of those things and find simple joy in them. These aspects of God’s common grace (along with walks in state parks, quiet evenings under the stars, sitting on a beach listening to waves crash, and taking naps) are available to all mankind for our refreshment and joy. We’re not made for continual rest (this isn’t a call to be lazy), but we are made finite (this is a call to accept that).

Above the sun we know that true and full refreshment and the joy of it comes only in the Lord, by grace, through faith in Jesus.

Acts 3:19-20 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord…

If you want to find joy in this world, make use of the many simple means of refreshment provided by God. If you don’t you will lack joy as is always the case in a disordered life—one that rejects your finitude and need for rest. And if you want to experience the fullest measure of refreshment, turn to Jesus in faith. He is our Sabbath rest. Both are equally from the Lord and for the good of us all.

The fifth ingredient for joy on earth is the last one that’s unique to this passage.

9 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun…

There is a way in which marriage is a common grace institution—given by God for all mankind—and in it, therefore, the joy of marriage is for all mankind. The very nature of things—basic biology and virtually all of human history—along with the straight-forward language of this passage combine to make it clear that marriage is exclusively between one man and one woman (“the wife”), that it is to be rooted in love (“whom you love”), that it is to be life-long (“all the days of your…life”), and that it is ultimately from God (“he has given you”).

There is a significant measure of joy available to all who honor those basic elements of marriage—joy of companionship, joy of stability, joy of shared and complimentary responsibilities, joy of knowing and being known, joy physical intimacy, joy of procreation, joy of generations and legacy, joy of a rightly-ordered life.

Conversely, as we’re seeing in what seems to be ever-increasing measure, there is no lack of frustration and pain when we forsake God’s design in marriage. Today, even in our churches, it is almost unheard of to find anyone who has a clear and strong grasp on these things.

Marriage is almost exclusively seen (or at least functionally engaged in) as a man-made institution that is entirely optional, self-defined, and self-focused. That is, most people have no idea of what it means that marriage was created, designed, and defined by God and, therefore, most have no idea what the purpose of marriage is or what their God-given roles are within it. And so, as we’ve all seen and experienced, the amount of marriage-disorder (along with the difficulties that go with it) is immeasurable.

Marriage belongs to God and it is the most basic of all human institutions.

Above the sun, marriage is designed by God to provide the world with millions of living pictures of the gospel and of the relationship all believers have with Jesus (Ephesians 5:32). Marriages that are ordered in light of the gospel are filled with a kind of joy not found anywhere else on earth.

That kind of joy that is available only to those who can see marriage from above the sun.

And greater still is the above the sun joy that comes from the knowledge that one day all earthly marriages will give way to the marriage supper of Jesus and the Church, the Lamb of God and His bride (Revelation 19). One aspect of the eternal life and joy that is ours in Jesus is the reality that the Church will exist forever as the bride of Christ, perfectly loved, protected, and provided for.

Grace, with God’s help, find joy in thinking of and ordering your marriages according to God’s design. And if you’re not sure what that means or how to do it, let us help.

The next ingredient for joy in this life is contentment. We see that in the last half of v.9.

9 … because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.

All that the Preacher has said so far (vs.7-9) and even what he’s about to say (v.10) is the portion and lot of mankind. There is, of course, variation within all of that and there are, of course, exceptions to some of that, but it is, for the most part, basic human living.

Although the Preacher struggled to heed his own advice at times, it is good advice. That is how God made the world. It is how the world works. And joy on the most basic level comes from accepting things as they are, not as you wish they would be.

How much angst and fretting and discontentment (how much joy-loss) comes in your life by wishing your circumstances were different rather than finding contentment within them (even as you ask God to change them if they are bad)?

On the most basic level, the Preacher’s point here is this: You might wish that gravity pulled things up instead of down, but it is the very definition of folly and futility to spend your life frustrated by the fact that it doesn’t.

As is the case with all of these, there is greater joy still for those whose hope is in Jesus. There are two key aspects of this higher joy.

First, there is heavenly joy in the knowledge that every minute that I am not in hell, I am getting something infinitely better than I deserve. The way things are, no matter how bad they are, pales in comparison to the terrors of hell. In that way, there is joy even in the worst possible under the sun circumstances.

And second, there is fuller joy in the reality that however things are, they are for a greater good than every other way things might be. We’ve spent some time in this in recent weeks, so I’ll only restate the simple, but joy-filled promise of Romans 8:28, “for those who love God all things work together for good…”.

There is joy in this life, even in the relentless under the sun vanities, for those who learn contentment.

Another ingredient to joy on earth is found at the beginning of v.10: Hard work.

10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might…

For many (especially kids, probably), hard work seems like the opposite of joy. It’s more of a necessary evil, to be avoided if at all possible, than anything close to a source of joy. Joy for me didn’t come in math class, but once math was over. God’s Word teaches something entirely different, however.

Back in 2020, in my sermon on Genesis 2:15, I offered a handful of principles on work. It is within those principles that the full measure of work-joy comes. Some of them the Preacher understood. Some he didn’t seem to.

Working with these things in mind, then, is our God-given path to joy in work.

For the final ingredient, we need to go back to the end of v.7. There we see that there’s joy in finding God’s approval. In this passage, it’s most directly tied to eating bread and drinking wine, but it really does apply to all of what the Preacher wrote in this passage.

7 Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.

Joy comes with God’s approval. Once again, there are a couple of things we really need to settle on here.

First, the Preacher was definitely not saying that God is glad for everything you do, no matter what you do. God has not only given us the things of earth, but He has also given them to us for a purpose. Making use of them for any other reasons or in any other ways is sin and God never approves of sin.

The Preacher’s main point, then, is that everything we’ve covered so far is from the Lord. Bread, wine, clothing, refreshment, marriage, contentment, and hard work are all part of God’s good creation (clothing for warmth rather than modesty). Even pre-Fall, He meant all of those things for our joy. He has approved of them. There really is, therefore, significant joy available in each of them as we make use of them according to God’s design and the approval that comes from it.

We tend to function as if our quite times and Sunday morning worship times are inherently more pleasing to the Lord than our times eating and drinking in Christian fellowship or taking a nap on the Lord’s Day; as if the spiritual is inherently better than the physical.

But again, the Garden in which mankind was made to live before the Fall, as well as the new heavens and earth where we will be in the presence and pleasure of God forever, was and will be every bit as much physical as spiritual. In other words, in God’s Creation and recreation physical things and spiritual things alike are very good and for our joy. The incarnation of Jesus Christ is the full and sufficient proof of this.

The second thing to settle on is that having the sense of God’s approval and actually having God’s approval are not the same. I spent all of my childhood and young adult years with a fairly clear conscience (believing I had God’s approval). I thought of myself as a good person. There was a kind of joy in that.

What I learned later, however, is that my clear conscience and the joy that came with it were entirely misguided. They were nothing more than the product of self-deceit. I was like the person whose body is unknowingly riddled with terminal cancer but still feels fine.

The Apostle Paul worded it this way (1 Corinthians 4:4), “I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.”

A clean, but out of tune conscience, can only bring fake joy.

On the other hand, living in the genuine approval of God brings a joy that’s impossible to match. So, where does that come from? We’ve touched on it already—living a life that is properly ordered to God’s design. But both below and above the sun wisdom tell us that none of us have done that as we should. None of us have lived perfectly ordered lives and, therefore, none of us ought to have a clear conscience.

The good news of greatest joy comes in the knowledge that God’s approval can be ours through Jesus Christ. By grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, Jesus’ righteousness is credited to our account and God’s approval with it. That means, Grace, that if your hope is in Jesus, you must live in the constant joy of knowing that you are accepted by God, fully and eternally. O what joy!

So there you have it…the secrets to under the sun joy; to joy in this life.

In just about any other book of the Bible we might expect something even more significant to follow, something tied to the greater joy in the life to come. But in this book, as you’ve probably come to expect, that’s not how it goes. The Preacher concludes this section on a much more somber note.

10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

Find joy in your God-given lot…and then you die. For the Preacher, as we’ve seen several times before, death seems to mainly mean something like eternal sleep.

But again, as I’ve pointed out many times, that couldn’t be any further from the truth. There are none who will simply go out of existence or consciousness. All of us will die, but our death will simply be a doorway to a different kind of life—eternal life in one of two places. Either our death will be the door to the eternal condemnation that we deserve for our sin or to the eternal joy purchased by Jesus on the cross.

The key to the first door is to continue on living an exclusively under the sun life. We don’t need to do anything to end up going through the first door when we die. Our sin makes that the default door.

The key to the second door is to place our faith in Jesus as the only way, truth, and life. The first door is to eternal anti-joy. The second to the fullness of joy that we’ve been seeking all our lives, but finding it where it is actually found—in fellowship with God and all of His people, in a world perfectly restored and with the distinction between above and below the sun living forever removed.

In the meantime, in faith, find joy in a clean conscience that comes through faith in Christ alone. And with a Christ-cleaned conscience, find joy, according to God’s design in bread, wine, clothing, refreshment, marriage, contentment, and hard work.

The big idea of this sermon is that every aspect of God’s creation is meant to give us joy as it points us to God as our greatest treasure. The main takeaway is to joyfully look through the things of earth to the God who gave them.

Ecclesiastes 9:1-6 But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. 2 It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. 3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. 4 But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.

Kids, what’s the one thing your parents have said to you the most and how many times do you think they’ve said it? Clean your room? Stop jumping on the furniture? Be nice to your brother/sister? Get in the car? Get ready for bed?

I have a child (who shall not be named) for whom I’ve have had to repeat the three rules of eating more times than I can count. In a close second is the ever-repeated admonition to make good choices.

My hope for my kids and all of yours, though, is that the phrase they hear repeated most is something more like “I love you” or “God is greater than you can imagine” or “Jesus is better” or “go grab your Bible.”

There’s a simple question that is implied in all of that: Why do we repeat things? More often than not, the answer is that the thing is too important to let go. In other words, we tend to repeat things that are most important to us.

That’s not only true for us, it’s also true for God. As I’ve mentioned before, where we find familiar things in the Bible, far from an opportunity to pull back or tune out, we’ve found an admonition to lean and tune in all-the-more. When God repeats something, it’s because it’s something we really need to grasp. That has already been the case many times throughout the first eight chapters in Ecclesiastes. It is the case once again in our passage for this morning.

The four main ideas of this passage are familiar indeed. They are that: (1) God is sovereign over all, (2) In light of that, it is a frustrating fact that there is no discernable difference between the experiences of the good and bad in this life, (3) All are sinful, and (4) Death comes to all.

We saw something very similar back in chapter two (2:12-17). There, the contrast was between the experience of the wise and the fool, but the basic idea is the same—the same things happen to both. And in 3:19-21, we see that this is not only the case between various kinds of men, but also between man and beast.

In other words, the slinky effect of Ecclesiastes returns again to a familiar set of topics, topics that we really need to wrap our heads and hearts around if we are going to live in this world as it truly is. And within that, we find the big idea of this passage: Life under the sun inevitably includes the head-scratching reality that good people and bad people experience the same things in life under the sovereign hand of God. The main takeaway is to interpret our circumstances with above the sun wisdom (God’s Word) more than below the sun wisdom (our senses and reason alone).

The Preacher was vexed, frustrated, and even despairing about a lot of the things he observed in his lifetime of searching for wisdom. One thing that was not at all confusing to him, however, was that God is God. That is, he knew and never wavered from the fact that God is sovereign over the world and everything in it.

That idea—the idea of all things being from the hand of God—is taught in many places throughout Ecclesiastes.

The things we busy ourselves with have been given to us by God (1:13; 3:10). If something is beautiful, it’s because God made it so (3:11). It is God alone who makes it so that we can know there is a God (3:11). That which God does, cannot be altered or undone (3:14). And yet, God will bring all things into judgment (3:17) and He can destroy the work of any man (5:6). God gives us our days, out lot, our wealth, our possessions, our honor, and the power to enjoy those things (2:24-25; 3:13; 5:18-20; 6:2; 8:15). God gives days of prosperity and adversity (7:14). God makes things good (7:29).

And in our passage, once again, we see that the righteous and the wise and all they do are in God’s hands. For the Preacher, this is God’s world.

1 But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God…

Grace, God is sovereign, but He is also wise and good. All three attributes are necessary for this to be good news. Of this, a friend wrote, “God’s sovereignty apart from his wisdom and goodness would strike unholy terror. But he doesn’t want us to wear a monocle [sovereignty only]. That lens is necessary, but he wants us to wear glasses with at least three lenses [wisdom and goodness too].”

In other words, God can not only do whatever He pleases (sovereign), but also, only good things bring Him pleasure (good), and He knows perfectly well what is good and how to go about accomplishing it (wise).

We can trust God even when life is hard, otherwise unbearably so, because of this.

Unfortunately, however, it doesn’t seem that the Preacher understood all of that. God’s sovereignty in all things was clear to him, but not necessarily His goodness in all things. Therefore, he concluded…

1 … Whether it [the things we experience at the sovereign hand of God] is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him.

As we’ll see beginning in the next verse, God’s goodness toward the righteous and wise is far from clear when all we can see is what we can see. It’s easy to look around and see that there is a great deal of suffering in the world, but it is not nearly as easy to see anything that would indicate those things being governed by a loving God. That was the Preacher’s point here.

At the end of the day, the main message of v.1 is that whatever we face in life, it is according to the hand of God. And while the Preacher wasn’t sure if that’s always a good thing, we can be. We don’t always understand how. There is mystery as to the specific good God is doing sometimes. And yet God’s Word makes it clear that there is no mystery at all as to whether God is working good.

Our good and wise God is over all.

What was it that caused the Preacher to wonder about the goodness of God’s disposition toward the righteous and wise? Simply put, it was his observation that regardless of one’s character or religiosity, everyone experiences the same basic things in this life.

2 It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath.

The Preacher’s opening words in v.1 reiterated how meticulous and earnest he was in observing the world around him. This was anything but a flippant, last-minute attempt to turn in a late assignment. He worked really hard over the course of a significant length of time, across a significant number of contexts, and with a significant number of participants, to discover how the world really is.

And one of his main conclusions was that life looks basically the same for everyone. There was no discernable difference between the experiences of people who were righteous, wicked, good, evil, clean, unclean, obedient, disobedient, convicted of sin, unconvicted, those who kept their word, and those who refused to even make a promise. Life was essentially the “same for all.” There were plenty of people within every group for whom things were going well and not well. No group the Preacher observed had a truly better or worse overall experience.

You’ve seen that, haven’t you?

When the Preacher looked around, he saw example after example of this and his conclusion was that, “3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all…”.

He had a really hard time thinking of this as anything other than evil injustice. As I mentioned just a minute ago, the same fate for all, combined with the fact that God is sovereign over it all, was confusing beyond measure. And like the last point, this idea is not new in this passage. That God’s ways are indiscernible and often frustrating in their indiscernibility is a constant refrain for the Preacher (i.e. 3:11).

So, what do you do when the circumstances in your life don’t make sense? How do you respond when you witness or experience injustice? What tends to fill your heart? Do you respond as the Preacher did or are you able to get above the sun enough to see things differently? Is your typical response, like the Preacher’s, driven almost entirely based on your own observations and under the sun reason, or is driven by the above the sun promises in God’s Word? Do you usually focus more on the fact that you can’t think of a single way that God is doing good in this or on the fact that He’s promised that He is?

For those of you who are trusting in God, please imagine your current suffering and your current processing of it, as I read a small handful of God’s promises for your suffering. And if you’re not suffering in any significant way right now, consider the passages I’m about to read in preparation for the suffering that is sure to come at some point.

Romans 8:28-29 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Ephesians 1:11-12 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

Ezra 8:22 The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him…

Although fleeting and underdeveloped, the Preacher himself did have some sense of this. Ecclesiastes 8:12, “…I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him.”

The same wise and good God is over all, overseeing the same under the sun experiences of all, but for those who trust in Him, for you, God is always doing one million invisible additional things for our good in those experiences.

One day things will be different. The “good” will be separated from the “evil,” the good to eternal life and blessing and the evil to eternal judgment and condemnation (Matthew 25:31-46). In the meantime, however, good people and evil people are mingled and constantly largely experiencing the same things in life.

But what’s underneath all of that? Why is it like that in God’s world? Look at the middle of v.3.

3 … Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live…

At the very least, the Preacher understood that sin is real, that it’s bad (5:6), that it is corrosive and costly (3:17; 4:3; 8:11, 13), and (as we see in the verse I just read) that all men are sinners (7:20; 9:3).

Once again, it seems like the Preacher understood more than he understood. His awareness of the corruption of all mankind might not have gone as deep as, and answered all the questions that, it should have, but it was there.

What he sort of knew, we know for sure: There are none who are truly good, but God alone (Mark 10:18). The world is as it is (with the “good” and the “evil” each experiencing the same things), because sin has corrupted all mankind and the world we live in. None of us have purely pure motives or actions. Nothing we do is just as it ought to be. There are none who deserve uninterrupted blessing, success, or prosperity

Coming to see this and believe this is (not just conceptually or theoretically, but actually believing that you are a sinner, having violated God’s Law), believe it or not, the beginning of the best news of all time. If you do not know and grieve that you are a sinner, you are in far bigger trouble than you can imagine.

The second piece of (equally non-good-news-sounding) good news is found in the next few verses: death comes to all.

I’ve been saying throughout this sermon that the Preacher lamented the fact that everyone he observed had the same basic experiences in their lives, no matter what kind of life they lived. That is true. But I hope that some of you noticed something in the grammar of the passage that I haven’t yet mentioned. The Preacher, in this particular passage, wasn’t mainly talking about common experiences (plural). He was mainly talking about a common experience (singular).

2 It is the same for all, since the same event happens [to all]…

3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all…

What was that event? Death.

3 … the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

In other words, the Preacher was pointing his readers mainly to the fact that no matter what kind of person you are or what kinds of things you do, you will die. Of this, one of the commentators I regularly read has said many times, “Death is the great leveler.”

Think of the person you most admire (whose life seems to be going exactly as you’d like yours to be going), the person you least admire (who is suffering the most), the youngest person and oldest person, the nearest person and furthest person, the person most and least like you, the smartest and dumbest person, the prettiest and ugliest person, the best and worst person, the richest and poorest person, the healthiest and sickest person, the strongest and weakest person, the most godly and the least godly. Everyone you can draw to mind has a one inescapable thing in common, no matter what they do, think, feel, believe, love, or trust, they will all die. And at the heart of this whole passage is the Preacher’s frustration about this. It just doesn’t seem fair to him that nothing about the way you live your life can alter this fact.

It seems to me that unlike some of the other ways the Preacher remained in mystery, in this case he really did have all the pieces he needed. He just didn’t know how to put them together. The fact of the matter, Grace, is that death comes to all because, as the Preacher saw, sin leads to death and we are all sinners. In Adam (which we all are), all die (1 Corinthians 15:22).

Interestingly, the Preacher’s concluding observation is that, nevertheless, it is better to be alive than dead. That’s the heart of v.4, “But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.”

For most of us, this makes at least a bit of sense. Although lions are “the king of the jungle,” it’s better to be any lesser animal who is alive than the greatest animal who is dead. In the ancient world, though, in the Preacher’s world, the contrast was much greater.

When we think of dogs, we tend to think of cute, domesticated, well-groomed, well-behaved, well-bred family pets. But again, that was far from the case for the Preacher.

If you’ve ever traveled internationally to areas of the world that are less well off, you’ve inevitably seen a different kind of dog. They’re generally everywhere, they’re mangy, filthy, malnourished, aggressive, unsupervised, and unwanted. They’re the last thing you want to be around. People are constantly shooing them away, kicking at them when they try to seal a bit of food, and cursing them. They’re the lowest part of society. (With that in mind, a lot of the biblical references to dogs will make a lot more sense.)

And the Preacher’s conclusion is that death is so bad that it’s better to be that kind of dog and alive, than the most noble and powerful animal of all and dead. He lists several (five) reasons why.

Like so many other things, in the way of life after death, the Preacher knew more than he knew, but not all that could be known. His view on the afterlife is unclear and confused. He knew there was something (as we’ve seen and will continue to see), but not much at all about that something. In these few verses (and throughout most of Ecclesiastes) it sounds as if the Preacher’s view of the afterlife falls somewhere between death as eternal sleep and death as simply having no more to do with the things of earth.

In that way, it’s not hard to make sense of his thoughts on the advantages of the living (and why it’s better to be alive as a dog than dead as a lion). His first thought being that the living have the advantage of understanding.

5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing…

As I said a minute ago, this sounds like the Preacher is assuming some kind of eternal sleep for the dead. How else could they know nothing? But we’re not meant to put too much on this. It’s possible (and maybe probable) that he’s speaking more of knowing nothing about the affairs of life on earth than knowing nothing about anything. Regardless, the Preacher calls his readers to be glad for what they do know since that will change one day.

A second advantage of being alive is that there is a kind of earthly reward available to the living that isn’t to the dead. We see that in the middle of v.5.

5 …and they [the dead] have no more reward…

The next points point to the kinds of rewards the Preacher has in mind. For now, though, let’s name the elephant in the room. The great promise of God is that death is the only doorway to full and eternal reward. It is a reward that is far, far greater than any that we can experience on earth. I’ll come back to this in the end, but don’t miss the fact that the Preacher missed this. And don’t miss the fact that everyone misses this who tries to figure out the nature and meaning of things through nothing more than observation and reason.

How many people alive today have made use of the Preacher’s same methods and come to the Preacher’s same conclusions? How many are proving this observation true for themselves (no more reward in death) by believing this observation to be true?

Grace, everyone who employs only senses and reason can only conclude that there is no reward in death. And everyone who concludes there will be no reward in death will have no reward in death. This is why the primary takeaway of this sermon is to make use of above the sun wisdom in order to make the best use of the under the sun wisdom we have. Indeed, our under the sun wisdom is only wisdom when it is interpreted through the lens of something higher (the Word of God).

Again, then, what kind of rewards did the Preacher have in mind when he said the dead have no more reward? The end of v.5 gives us part of the answer.

5 … for the memory of them is forgotten.

Whatever else there is to say about the Preacher’s observations and conclusions, it is true that the dead are soon forgotten. Some people are forgotten virtually as soon as they die—people without family or community. Some are remembered (albeit in a different way) if they accomplish or are otherwise connected to an especially noteworthy event (in recorded history). But almost all of us will be forgotten within a generation or two after our death. I imagine that not many of us have very clear recollections of our great grandparents.

The reward of the living is that we are known. There are people in our lives who understand and love us. They’re glad when we’re around and sad when we’re not. They depend on us for certain things and would feel a real loss if we could no longer meet their needs. We share life with them and their lives are fuller because of it. None of that is true for the dead in a very real sense—at least among those still on earth.

Although this is a tragically incomplete view of life and death, there is something to be learned from it: Let’s be a people who really give ourselves to one another. Let’s do our best to be fully present wherever we are. Let’s live in such a way that rises way above the pursuit of personal entertainment, to the point that the lives of those around us are genuinely enhanced by us.

The next advantage, found at the beginning of v.6, is another example of the kind of reward of the living the Preacher has in mind.

6 Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished…

The living have the privilege of experiencing the full spectrum of emotion—love, hate, and envy are named by the Preacher. Suggesting some kind of eternal sleep, the Preacher assumes that the dead no longer experience anything. It is better to be alive and experience good (love) or bad (hate and envy), than to be dead and not.

Finally, and summarily, the fifth advantage of the living listed by the Preacher is participation in life under the sun. Look at the end of v.6.

6 … and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.

The Preacher would be able to rightly say this even with a full grasp of life after death. It is true in God’s World that once we die, we will have no more share in the affairs of those on earth (at least not until the new heavens and earth are ushered in by Jesus).

Before coming to my conclusion, I want to point out something that appears to be a contradiction in the Preacher’s Words.

His basic message of the latter half of this passage is that even with all the vanity of life under the sun, it is better to be alive than dead. Contrast that with what he said in 4:2, “I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive.” That sound like the opposite of what he said in 9:4-5.

As is often the case, in neither passage was the Preacher trying to make a universal, absolute declaration. Rather, in each case he was simply highlighting a few practical advantages of life and death. Without an understanding of heaven or hell, that’s most definitely true. And in that way, the observations the Preacher makes in the two passages are not mutually exclusive, but complementary.

In chapter 4, the advantage of the dead is that they are no longer oppressed and must no longer see the evil deeds done under the sun. In chapter 9, the advantage of being alive is that there is a significant measure of reward available to the living that is not available to the dead (in his mind).

In conclusion, I want to come back to the greatest news of all time. I mentioned that it begins with the understanding that we have all sinned against God. Then, in the next point, we saw that it continues with the fact that the result of our sin is (eternal) death. The Preacher saw both of those things without entirely seeing those things. Largely stuck there, the Preacher clearly recognized that doesn’t sound a lot like good news.

With a more complete picture of God’s work in the world, however, it’s not hard to see that if you do not believe in a God who is creator-king and righteous-judge of all, and that we all (you and I) have sinned against Him and therein brought death upon ourselves, the rest of the good news won’t be good news either.

If you don’t believe that, there is no good news for you in the same way that news of a cure for a disease you don’t know of anyone having isn’t good news. News of a cure is only good news for those with or near the disease.

Sin and death are good news in the sense that they are the disease that God has provided the cure for. If you don’t know you have that disease, news of what God did to overcome it will sound silly at best.

But once the Spirt opens your eyes to see your ruin, you are ready to receive the rest of the good news: namely that God loved the world in such a way that He sent His one and only Son into the world, so that whoever believes in Him will not truly die, but have eternal life. Jesus came to earth in love, becoming a man, to give us an example of perfect godliness and then to die in our place. He willingly offered His life as a ransom for the world. And then, on the third day, He rose again, defeating death and making everlasting life possible for all who will receive that in faith.

These things are not, as you can easily see, discernable through observation and reason alone. The require wisdom from above; above the sun wisdom that God alone can impart.

To that end, let me leave you with another passage from the Word of God. One that perfectly fits with the Preacher’s observations, but fills in what He lacked.

1 Peter 1:3-7 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused [the sovereignty of God observed by the Preacher] us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you [the reward of the dead in Christ], 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials [the righteous suffering as the Preacher observed], 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ [the reason things were the same for the righteous and the wicked that the Preacher couldn’t see].

Life under the sun inevitably includes the head-scratching reality that good people and bad people experience the same things in life under the sovereign hand of God. The main takeaway, therefore, is to interpret our circumstances with above the sun wisdom more than below the sun wisdom.

Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of Grace Church

Psalms 89:1-8 I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord forever;
   with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.
2  For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever;
   in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”
3  You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
   I have sworn to David my servant:
4  ‘I will establish your offspring forever,
   and build your throne for all generations.’” Selah
5  Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord,
   your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones!
6  For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord?
   Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord,
7  a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones,
   and awesome above all who are around him?
8  O Lord God of hosts,
   who is mighty as you are, O Lord,
   with your faithfulness all around you?

It is with deep emotion and great honor that I greet this special congregation, my dear friend (your pastor) in this special place and address you this morning. God truly has been faithful! Dear church – you are blessed by a good, merciful, providing, shepherding, present, almighty, healing, happy God! I praise God for His work here in you!

What a special moment this is! Twenty-three years ago, in the fall of 2002, one of your elders, James Smith, reached out to me about serving as your pastor. I was just turning 27, a recent seminary graduate, having served for a year in the college ministry at Bethlehem Baptist Church.

I was newly married and expecting our first child. Up until that time, I had preached fewer than a dozen sermons, and no one had ever called me “pastor.” While my zeal was great, my wisdom and experience were limited.

I believed I was called to be a pastor, my home church affirmed this, and a small group of believers in Wyoming, Minnesota, did as well.

God was faithful. God is faithful. God will be faithful.

I testify to that in my life and in the life of this church – together.

This morning, as we celebrate the 30th anniversary of Grace Church’s first service, I want to lead us in exalting the faithfulness of God for the glory of Jesus Christ and the strengthening of our faith—our confidence in Him.

Many verses could anchor this message, but let us focus on one from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church:

“God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Can we not apply this truth to Grace Church?

God is faithful, by whom you were called into a covenant partnership with each other, rooted in Jesus Christ our Lord!

God is faithful! I have seen this truth displayed repeatedly during some of the most formative years of my life. From late 2002 until 2013, my family and I were here. Grace, Paul, Elijah, Barnabas, and Mary were all born here—one literally in our home in Forest Lake. The oldest three were baptized in this building.

I even had the privilege of baptizing your current pastor—once he finally got his baptism theology right!

I have just finished a sabbatical in which the last month was spent thinking and praying about this day (not ever moment – but a lot).

God is faithful! I have witnessed this firsthand through prayers answered (with yes and no), through people coming and going, through God’s patience towards me and us as a congregation, in pain and sorrow and the growth that comes from that, and in provision of every kind.

To frame this sermon, I offer four pillars to uphold our reflection:

I keep saying – God is faithful. What does this really mean?

The faithfulness of God means that He is absolutely true to His Word. He makes promises and keeps every one of them. Unlike humanity, God is unchanging in His nature and character—steady, stable, reliable, a foundation we can always depend on when He has promised.

God’s faithfulness is always praised in the context of His covenant relationship with His people—Israel in the Old Testament and the Church in the New Testament. We see this in our text: He has called you into the fellowship of His Son.

The faithfulness of God is His unchanging, reliable commitment to keep every promise, expressed through His steadfast love and covenant relationship with His people.

Lamentations 3:22–23 declares, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end… Great is thy faithfulness.”

In a world of unfaithful spouses, politicians, leaders, pastors, and people, God is not like humanity.

Numbers 23:19 states, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?”

You can always count on God to do what He says He will do.

Can I add something to this: God’s faithfulness isn’t just an adjective – a word to describe God – it is an adverb that brings glorious weight to every one of God’s breathtaking attributes. I needed to ask my daughter Grace to get adverbs right…

God is faithfully wise.

God is faithfully good.

God is faithfully kind, loving, merciful.

Faithfully providing, protecting, shepherding, sustaining, fulfilling all His promises.

He never misses. He always is going to follow through. If it seems slow it is on purpose because He is faithfully perfectly timed.

The Scriptures make it abundantly clear: God is faithful!

1 Corinthians 1:8-9 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Faithfulness is a defining attribute of God.

2 Timothy 2:13 assures us, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.”

1 Peter 4:19 encourages sufferers to trust in Him as their Faithful Creator.

Deuteronomy 7:9 proclaims, “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.”

Deuteronomy 32:4 declares, “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.”

On this 30th anniversary, we lift our voices in praise to declare this awesome truth!

When you are tempted, Scripture declares God’s faithfulness: 1 Corinthians 10:13.

When you hold fast to hope, He is faithful: Hebrews 10:23.

He promises to preserve you against the enemy and present you holy before the Lord because He is faithful: 1 Thessalonians 3, 5.

He always forgives the sins of those who humbly confess in Jesus’ name because He is faithful: 1 John 1:9.

Dear saints of God – called into the fellowship of His Son – God is Faithful!

“God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

To the struggling, divisive, and worldly church in Corinth, Paul reminded them of God’s promises, gifts, and grace. God is faithful!

1 Corinthians 1:8-9 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

Philippians 1:6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Behold how He sovereignly called you! You did not call yourself; He rescued you from the tomb! He called you into a family—the fellowship of His Son, a covenant of grace that holds you fast forever. See His faithfulness in how He forgave you, gave you faith, and promises to keep you blameless to the end. God is faithful! He bats 1000. He defines reliability.

If You call Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior, How did that happen? Not by your wisdom, righteousness, or good works, but by God’s grace. This grace has come to you and made promises to you—see His faithfulness displayed. Will He not give you all things you need if he spared not His Son?

As we celebrate this 30th anniversary, I have reflected on how God’s faithfulness has been displayed in my soul and in this church. Let me share a few ways:

As a young, inexperienced, and less-than-eloquent preacher and new leader, God was patient with me. So was the church!

I think of my lack of confidence, fears, insecurities…and God (and this church) was so patient with me.

God promises this to us! Psalm 103 reminds us that He knows our frame and remembers we are dust. He shepherds us, His sheep, who need patience from our Shepherd. I thank God for His patience. So when I ponder the display of God’s faithfulness I think – Faithfully patient! Writing straight with crooked lines! He meets us with such grace and care.

I am guessing there are more persons hear this morning who needs to be reminded that God is faithfully patient, tender, and caring for us in our weakness…

Maybe a young parent.

Maybe grandparents who feel sad about past messes.

I have seen God’s faithfulness displayed in pain—both in my own life and in our congregation. To be a pastor is to feel pain – your own and the pain of God’s people. Pain because of sin and pain because of a sinful world – and pain because of a wise God who plants His footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm.

I witnessed God sustaining the brokenhearted and being a refuge for those in need, including myself. At funerals, in hospital rooms, on the phone, or in person—whether crying, grieving, or singing—I saw God’s faithfulness, comforting me and others in our afflictions so that we would rely not on ourselves but on the God who raises the dead.

This was evident in the lives of the Pearson and Carlson families, in Howie’s story, and through divisions and rejection.

2005 – Dec 9 – a car accident that shook this congregation and this pastor.

Post youth group activity when 3 of our teen girls collided with another car in Forest Lake – killing our dear Hannah and greatly impacting the other two, their families, and our church.

God’s grace to parents and us!

Faithfully comforting; faithfully reminding of truth; faithfully driving our church together – as we sang:

   Every blessing You pour out
   I’ll turn back to praise
   When the darkness closes in, Lord
   Still I will say
   Blessed be the name of the Lord
   Blessed be Your name

   You give and take away
   You give and take away
   My heart will choose to say
   Lord, blessed be Your name

   “When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
   my grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
   the flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
   thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

He promises for his grace to be sufficient.

He promises to give us strength for the measure of the day.

He promises to be our shepherd and heal the brokenhearted.

God showed me and our church that when He promised to answer prayer, He meant it.

God is faithfully prayer-hearing! Faithfully near to the one who cries out! Faithfully responding.

The decade of my time at Grace is a decade in the school of prayer – learning how desperately dependent we are on Him and how faithfully He is to care for us and minister to us through the blessing of prayer. He was faithful to open when we knocked and answer when we asked. He taught me to pray for change in my own life and in the congregation. He led me to take prayer walks, crying out in lament, praise, and desperation for Him to work.

The importune prayers that we see in Luke 11 and 18 – the widow and the judge and the neighbor with a midnight guest – God wants us to ask and keep asking –

Call in God’s loan (per say) – with the promises of God.

Please change this person.

Please provide.

Please Help.

Please encourage.

Through prayer we saw the faithfully providing God:

In times of personal and church financial scarcity, just enough would come—an unexpected gift, vehicles given to us, groceries delivered, or an unanticipated check.

The Lord is faithful! He supplies all our needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not one!

If God so clothes the grass of the field…

There were times when we would get a message from the church treasurer – we got something in. You can get paid!

Provision the supplied our needs to add another pastor when it really didn’t make sense and yet we felt it was necessary to take the steps we wanted to take.

How else did he provide?

God answered prayers and provided not just with money but with people. I cherish how the Lord places people in our lives. It took time before we had our first service with over 50 attendees (including Grace in the nursery). For the longest time, Molly and I were the youngest in the church. God brought the right encouragers to this young pastor’s life, some to keep me humble, and many to help the work—He led Marty and Selena Pagain, and Luke and Christie, Tony and Heidi Cooper, Kyle and Johanna and so many more.Trombergs, Jensons, Howards, Gilkersons… Some who are here and no longer here.

One story stands out as a testament to God’s faithfulness. In July 2007, I received a voicemail from David VanAcker, who was looking for a church. In the meetings, weeks, and months that followed—first with him joining and then our hiring him—I look back and declare, “You are faithful!” I needed Dave, and this church needed Dave. Thank You, God! The church needed Dave and I needed Dave – in the development of my own life. He has impacted me in ways that I can never really quantify.

How did Dave impact your life?

God’s faithfulness was also evident in providing this place. It was disheartening when, after failing to find a gathering place and being asked to leave the Methodist church, one elder suggested that perhaps God was signaling the church should close. We had found this building, but the city created obstacles, and the owner’s rental terms seemed unattainable. I remember kneeling in the basement of our Forest Lake home with Molly, crying out to God to preserve and grow this work. We knew it would have to be all His doing. I went from painful anxiety to confidence that God was faithful and would do what was best, regardless of the outcome.

Within a week, we met with Ron, the owner. The discussion started poorly, but over two hours of negotiations, the Lord parted the Red Sea and led us through the wilderness. We secured a deal better than we could have imagined. That moment of prayer and God’s special providence remains vivid in my memory.

“God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

If you are a believer—if you have been born again, trusted in Christ to save you, and repented of your sins—you have been called into the fellowship of Jesus, part of His body and His people. His faithfulness is good news, and the promises of God are yours in Jesus Christ because of Jesus Christ!

But if you have not trusted in Christ, God’s faithfulness means He will keep His word and judge you for your sin. You are already under His condemnation and will face His wrath. You are on borrowed time by the grace of God. You cannot claim His promises of answered prayer, provision, help in pain, or steadfast care until you turn to Him.

The Faithfulness of God to the non-Christian is a testament to the goodness of God that they are rejecting and will not be able to enjoy.

Yet, God welcomes you! I welcome you! This church welcomes you in the name of Jesus Christ! Jesus came to save hopeless sinners who admit they are sinful and undeserving of His love. He forgives, cleanses, and makes family all those who turn from their own ways of saving themselves and receive Christ’s gift and Lordship. Would you do that this morning? He will forgive and save you!

Faithfulness cries out for faith!

He gives us water to drink, bread to eat, and faithfulness to close our hearts unto Himself with faith – trusting His goodness.

Grace Church, to those who have been called and rejoice that God is faithful:

As I look around, I have no doubt that this church—its leadership and members—has countless testimonies of God’s faithfulness: His provision, answered prayers, growth through pain, souls saved, hearts revived, and wayward souls returned.

God is faithful! This God has called you into an intimate, covenant fellowship because of His Son, in His Son, through His Son, and for His Son—Jesus Christ our Lord!

Grace Church – God is Faithful! He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ!

Psalm 89:1–5 sings, “I will sing of the steadfast love of the LORD, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. For I said, ‘Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.’ You have said, ‘I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: “I will establish your offspring forever, and build your throne for all generations.”’ Selah. Let the heavens praise your wonders, O LORD, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones!”