Wisdom for Royalty

The speaker begins by inviting the audience to stand for the reading of Scripture from the book of Ecclesiastes. They mention that they are nearing the end of their study of Ecclesiastes and that the text for today is chapter 10. The speaker then reads the entire chapter, highlighting various verses that discuss wisdom, folly, rulers, and the importance of studying the Scriptures. They emphasize the need for believers to be students of the Bible and to handle the Word of Truth correctly. The speaker also discusses the context of the book of Ecclesiastes and how it fits into the history of redemption. They mention that while Solomon and his audience were looking forward to the promise of redemption, believers today look back to the finished work of Christ on the cross. The speaker concludes by encouraging the audience to continue studying and contending for the faith. I want to invite you to stand, please, for the reading of Scripture. We are finishing up, getting close to finishing up our study of Ecclesiastes, and we're in chapter 10 today. So the entire chapter, chapter 10, will be our text, 20 verses. This is our text as we work our way through Solomon's words of wisdom. So Ecclesiastes chapter 10 is our text for this morning. And this is God's word. As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left. Even as he walks along the road, the fool lacks sense and shows everyone how stupid he is. If a ruler's anger rises against you, do not leave your post. Homeless can lay great errors to rest. There is an evil I have seen under the sun, the sort of error that arises from a ruler. Fools are put in many high positions while the rich occupy the low ones. I have seen slaves on horseback while princes go on foot like slaves. Whoever digs a pit may fall into it. Whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake. Whoever quarries stones may be injured by them. Whoever splits logs may be endangered by them. If the axe is dull and its edge is unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill will bring success. If a snake bites before it is charmed, there is no profit for the charmer. Words from a wise man's mouth are gracious, but a fool is consumed by his own lips. At the beginning, his words are folly. At the end, they are wicked madness, and the fool multiplies words. No one knows what is coming. Who can tell him what will happen after him? A fool's work wearies him. He does not know the way to town. Woe to you, O land, whose king was a servant, and whose princes feast in the morning. Blessed are you, O land, whose king is of noble birth, and whose princes eat at a proper time for strength, and not for drunkenness. If a man is lazy, the rafters sag. If his hands are idle, the house leaks. A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for everything. Do not revile the king even in your thoughts, or curse the rich in your bedroom, because a bird of the air may carry your words, and a bird on the wing may report what you say. The word of the Lord, thanks be to God. Please be seated. You may be saying, what did we just read? What was that? Well, let's see if we can figure it out today. It's a great text, but it seems to go all over the place, so let's work together. Today we've entitled this message, Wisdom for Royalty, and we'll study this text. Here's how we're going to study this text. First we're going to take a little broader view of how and why we study the Scriptures, some little reminder there, and then we're going to look at something in this story here in this text about three little critters versus the king, and then in the end we'll talk about Jesus and Ecclesiastes as we typically do. So first, how and why we study the Scriptures. Believers in Jesus are not only readers of the Bible, but certainly we are students of the Bible. So our study of the Scriptures is to be a task to which we set our hands for the rest of our lives. So let's take a moment to recall how and why we study the Scriptures. We don't typically think of ourselves, of course, as scholars or as theologians or as academics, but this is what we are and what we are each called to be, certainly not just for the academic exercise, but so that we would truly each become a more faithful follower of Christ. There's something about the reading and the studying of Scripture that enables us, that brings us closer to God, that enables us to be more faithful followers of Christ. The truth of this understanding is borne out in and through God's Word. All the words of Jude, the last book of the New Testament, written sometime during the first century A.D., written primarily to believers, listen to how Jude opens his letter. This is Jude, verse 3, and he writes, Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. Jude makes it very clear here that each of us who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ are to engage in the active and beneficial promotion of the work of the understanding of God's Word. And for those who would push back a little to say that evangelism, the communication of the gospel, should be the big focus, here Jude acknowledges the importance of that effort. He says, I thought I was going to write to you concerning salvation and its communication, because that's a primary function of the church, and we need to talk about that, but instead today in my letter here to you, I sent the leading of the Holy Spirit to write to you concerning our in-depth study of the things of God which are, of course, communicated in His Word. As believers in Jesus, you and I are urged and challenged and called through God's Word to contend for the faith, to be students of the Word, to study, to learn, to understand, to grab hold of what we can grab hold of, and by doing so that we would be those who would work to contend for the faith. Now, Jude is not the only one who writes with such instructions. Recall the words of the Apostle Paul in the final season of his life, writing sometime in early 60 A.D., writing to the young pastor Timothy, who serves at the church in Ephesus, and these words are found in Paul's second letter to Timothy, chapter 2, verse 15. Paul writes this. Paul says to Timothy, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved. And we would all say, that's a good thing. We should all do that. We should all do our best to present ourselves to God as one approved. How do we do that? By being a workman, Paul continues, a workman who does not need to be ashamed. How would we do that, Paul continues, and who correctly handles the Word of Truth. The way we engage to present ourselves to God as one who is approved, a workman who doesn't need to be ashamed, how do we do that? By learning how to correctly handle the Word. Engagement with the Word of God, essential for who we are in Christ, essential for our ongoing sanctification work that's going on within our hearts as we're getting closer and closer together for glory. You and I are students and are individuals who work to study together and to understand God's Word and to handle God's Word. As we contend for the faith, we're going to handle the Word of Truth. I often get questions of a similar nature. How might God approve me so that I might serve Him? What can I do to be more ready to serve God? How can I make myself worthy to serve God? Well, you can't make yourself worthy to serve God, but what can I do? How can I serve in a confident manner? Here's what Paul says to do, learn to handle the Word of Truth. Learn to handle, correctly handle the Word of Truth, the Word of God. And so, my dear friends, you who are scholars and theologians and academics, yeah, there's not a sheepskin hanging on the wall, but you are nevertheless called by God to be scholars and theologians and academics. Let us together proceed again for these few moments. Let us proceed again to handle the Word of Truth. Let us proceed again so that we might learn the Word of God, so that we might more boldly contend for the faith. Now when we study the Bible, we always want to think about the context of the particular book and the particular passage under consideration. Context, of course, is a big key to rightly comprehending and rightly applying the truth that we find in God's Word. I'm not opposed to putting a Bible verse on a bumper sticker and slapping it on the back of your car, or putting a Bible verse on a meme that you would then put on a Facebook page and share with everybody. Nothing wrong with that. The problem with it is it doesn't necessarily give context to that particular verse or that particular passage. Let's talk about context, understanding the particular book and particular passage under consideration, rightly comprehending, rightly applying the truth that we find in God's Word. We've done this through our study of Ecclesiastes. We've talked a number of times. The primary thing we've noted is where this book fits in the history of redemption. Where does the book of Ecclesiastes fit in the history of redemption? Solomon, of course, is writing at a time before the Incarnation. He's writing to an audience for whom the Incarnation is a promise that is not yet fulfilled, and Solomon and his audience are always looking forward. They're looking forward to the cross. To give you a perspective, of course, you and I are looking back to the cross. You and I look back to a finished work, the work of the cross, the work of Christ. Solomon and the believers in his day are looking forward to the cross as a promise. Yes, they don't know it's a cross. They don't have that understanding, but they're looking forward to something, something that will be their redemption, something in which they place their hope, something that is a promise of God that will be delivered unto them. They're looking forward to that moment and to that day, not yet fulfilled, a promise given to them. So we know some things Solomon doesn't know. We have information in the story. It'd be like if you read the novel first and you're watching the movie next to someone who's never read the novel yet is watching the movie. You kind of know where it's going to go. Solomon doesn't have a lot of information that we have. We know things that Solomon doesn't know, but we also understand that Solomon is being inspired to write what he writes by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, of course, already knows the plan in detail because, of course, the Holy Spirit wrote the plan. So you've got the individual, the person of the Godhead, and when you're a person of the Godhead, your access is unlimited because you played a role in his composition and his execution. You're the one who did this thing. You're the one who put it all together. So Solomon doesn't know everything, but Solomon knows who does know everything, and that's the one who is directing and guiding him through this process. He is inspired by the one who does know everything, Solomon inspired by the Spirit of God. Another aspect of context for us to consider, then, is also the audience. To whom is Solomon writing? That's a big question that we've got to think about when we read Ecclesiastes. To whom is Solomon writing? Now the general consensus is that Solomon's initial audience for the composition of Ecclesiastes is the royal family, with special attention focused on the descendants of Solomon who will one day ascend to the throne. The promise, of course, is that Solomon's sons after him will occupy the throne, and so there's a thinking that Solomon is writing Ecclesiastes as an instruction manual, if you will, to hand down to the next generation, succeeding generations, of kings, of rulers, those who will sit on the throne of Israel, and they will receive this knowledge and this instruction from Solomon. So Solomon is writing to the royal family. It's a book, it's an instruction manual for royalty, it is wisdom for royalty. It's a book of notes, if you will, to those who will lead God's people as king over Israel at some future date. Now Solomon has written in this manner previously, in fact, a lot of Solomon's writing is focused on this way. You look at a number of other places in the Old Testament where Solomon's writing appears and you see this very same thing. Recall, for example, the words of Solomon found in the Psalms, Psalms 72, verses 1-8. If you read that psalm, you notice in the superscription that Solomon is the writer of that psalm, that psalm is attributed to Solomon. Not all the psalms are attributed to David. This particular psalm is attributed to Solomon, Psalms 72, verses 1-8. And Solomon writes these words, Endow the king with your justice, O God, the royal son with your righteousness. He will judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice. The mountains will bring prosperity to the people, the hills the fruit of righteousness. He will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy. He will crush the oppressor. He will endure as long as the sun, as long as the moon, through all generations. He'll be like rain falling on a mown field, like showers watering the earth. In his days, the righteous will flourish. Prosperity will abound until the moon is no more and he will rule from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. You hear Solomon's wisdom there being handed down to those who will occupy the throne and to the nation of Israel who will have one of Solomon's descendants sitting on the throne and serving as their king. We also recall these words, these royal instructions given by Solomon. They're found in the book of Proverbs. This is Proverbs chapter 16, verses 10-15. Solomon writes these words also. Solomon, this is Proverbs 16, verses 10-15. He writes, The lips of a king speak as an oracle, and his mouth should not betray justice. Honest scales and balances are from the Lord. All the weights in the bag are of his making. Kings detest wrongdoing, for a throne is established through righteousness. Kings take pleasure in honest lips. They value a man who speaks the truth. A king's wrath is a messenger of death, but a wise man will appease it. When a king's face brightens, it means life. His favor is like a rain cloud of spring. Again, buried in Proverbs is Solomon with this wisdom for those who would descend to the throne and for those who would live and reside under the throne that would be occupied by one of Solomon's descendants. Just as Solomon leaves instructions for the future monarchs over Israel in Psalms and Proverbs, we also see this repeating itself in Ecclesiastes. The work of Solomon that we have been studying to discover wisdom in order that he might impart royal wisdom to his royal descendants. A couple of weeks ago, we saw Ecclesiastes chapter 4, verse 13. Solomon wrote, Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to take warning wisdom from Solomon for those who would sit on the throne. And of course, there's another work of the Bible attributed to Solomon. We also ascribe Song of Solomon as a contribution of the words of Solomon and also of his wife and also of his wife's maidens. Now why would we mention Song of Solomon in this list? Well apparently, the king who took over 600 wives and concubines and also maintained a harem, apparently sometime along the way, somewhere towards the end of his life, voila, had learned his lesson. And so he then expressed the joy of love reserved for one spouse at a lifetime. Where does Solomon learn this? I don't know. What do you do with 600 wives, concubines and a harem? I don't even want to think about it. So imagine, if you will, Solomon nearing the end of his life and here he's compiling the instruction book for the future kings who would serve God's people. It's wisdom for royalty. Here's some lessons concerning things I did well. Here's some lessons concerning things I didn't do well. Here's some things I wish I had done differently. And yes, here's some things I wish I never even thought of doing but went ahead and did them anyway and now regret that I had done them. It's kind of the stuff that Solomon is writing about, the wisdom that he is imparting to those who will serve on the throne of Israel. Now recall a couple of weeks ago when we said that we see a larger application to this wisdom for royalty. We noted that our nation has thrown off the trappings of monarchy and that few absolute monarchs in this world rule in our world today. And this being understood, Solomon's wisdom for kings certainly would apply to anyone who aspires to serve as the leader of a nation, one who would really serve as a leader over a people in any context, be it national or statewide or regional or even local. In Psalm 22, David writes, Dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations. And this is wisdom for everyone who would rule, who would serve in a position of government and of leadership. Also wisdom that would serve well anyone serving in a position of government or leadership. Psalm verse 2, verses 10 and 11, Therefore you kings, be wise, be warned, you rulers of the earth, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. I wonder if anybody has ever had an opportunity to speak to the president or a prime minister or any leader in government and say, let me tell you what Solomon wrote, serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling. In history we know that, or at least the story is passed on, that there was one who would stand behind the emperor, that would stand behind the Roman emperor and would whisper in his ear, and he would say, remember you are mortal, remember you are mortal. I hope that someone close by the president is speaking that into his ear. I hope someone close by our mayor is speaking that into his ear. I hope that somebody that is running for office or considering running for office in our nation or serve on a bench or serve in a legislative capacity or serve as an officer in our military, I hope someone is speaking into their ear and saying, remember, you're mortal, remember this, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. The Bible clearly makes the case that those who serve the community or the state or the nation in a leadership role receive their calling to that role from God Himself. They are ordained for that position, God grants it. And those who would then serve in a leadership capacity, in a leadership role, better understand that God is to lead them in such work. And so it is absolutely imperative that their decisions and their actions line up with and remain consistent with the Word of God. That is absolutely necessary. And because their position of leadership is granted to them by God, those who lead a people or a nation but they would reject the good counsel of God, they will have to answer for their disobedience on the Day of Judgment. Those who lead must hear the wisdom of God, and those who reject it will have to answer for their rejection. Now, we might look at this and say, Tom, this is all well and good. I've got a little bit of a civics lesson here. I've got a little bit of Bible knowledge here. This is great stuff, stuff about Solomon. Why do I need to know this? Why should I take the time to study the Scriptures which give me instruction concerning those who serve in positions of government and leadership? Why do I need to know this? Well, we're to study this because this tells us what we are to expect in our governmental leadership. Yes, I know in our country now we vote for leaders rather than just inheriting the throne, we vote for our leaders. And our government leaders do not formally, at least, inherit the positions of authority. So when we vote for our leaders, we must demand of them and we must expect them to serve in a manner consistent with biblical wisdom and morality and ethics. This must be the thing we demand of those who would lead and who would serve. We must call them to the highest standard. We must vote for those who will subscribe to biblical truth. And we must reject those who will clearly reject God, those who disbelieve the Word of God, those who cling to ungodly concepts, and those who exhibit and endorse ungodly behavior. This is what we're called to do as believers. Believers are not called to sit idly by and watch the world fall apart. It is, but we're called to serve and we're called to call our leaders to the higher standard, case in point. There was an article published this past Tuesday, it was in the New York Times, and it was concerning the problem of homelessness. Homelessness which now exists in a lot of cities across the nation, of course. Terrible problems of homelessness. This particular article talking about homelessness in Portland, Oregon. I've never been to Portland. I don't know anybody in Portland. I know that when we read on the news and hear about the decay of cities throughout our West Coast, this particular story that appears in the Times is about the situation in Portland, Oregon. And the article centered around a particular homeless person, a person who had fallen into the hell of drug addiction, and this person eventually died, died in a tent, while residing on the streets of Portland. And while it did not state so specifically, the Times article could not avoid its description of Portland's failure to address the issue and to truly serve its people, thereby also pointing to a problem now infecting all of America's larger cities. Listen to how one commentator responded to this Times article and responded about the city's moral and ethical collapse. He wrote this. He wrote this man, the man who eventually passed away while homeless in Portland. He said this man needed mental health treatment that he didn't get. Giving this homeless person a tent wasn't help. In fact, it was the enabling of his downward spiral. And here's the conclusion when I read this. It got my attention. It would break the heart of any truly compassionate person. The conclusion was this. So long as residents of Portland – and of course we're not talking about just Portland. We're talking about any community. But so long as the residents of Portland are willing to watch tortured souls try to end their pain with drugs on the street, the city can't and won't be saved. My friends, it has become apparent that much of our government leadership, federal, state, and local, truly does not care about this nation and about its people. But the church is called to care. The church is called to care for the broken and the abused and the strung out and the abandoned. Because these are all image bearers of God. They all are worthy therefore of value and dignity. So we then must see Ecclesiastes in general, chapter 10 in particular, as not only wisdom for kings and wisdom for modern day political and governmental leaders, but it's wisdom for you and for me as well. If we're going to hold our leaders to this high standard, we must be willing to subscribe to it too. This is the call of the book of Ecclesiastes to the people of God in this day. So, with all of that, let's briefly look at today's lesson from Scripture. We've got a little time this morning to consider today's text, Ecclesiastes chapter 10. The first 20 verses of this chapter read like familiar words of Solomon that might find us home in Proverbs. There's a lot of proverbial statements in this text. You can read this text in a lot of ways and find a lot of those great short little pithy sayings of common sense and wisdom. For today, we want to notice something that appears in the text. It kind of popped out at me this week and I want to offer this to you to see if you would notice this and see if it makes sense to you. The appearance in this particular story, this wisdom of Solomon for royalty, but in this text we see the appearance of three little critters. Did you notice them in the text? Three little critters. It talks about flies and it talks about snakes and then birds. Notice it's flies in verse 1 and verse 8 and 11 it's snakes and then verse 20 it's birds. Three little critters. Flies, snakes, and birds. Now, this seems a bit odd because we're talking about a book about wisdom written by Solomon, the great and powerful king over Israel. And yet the focus in this story, wisdom for future generations of kings, yet it's talking about three little critters. Three little individual insignificant critters. What's the point of injecting them into this big overarching story about wisdom for the monarch? These three little insignificant critters remind us. They remind us. They remind any king, they remind any leader, and they remind us that we can succumb to failure and we can succumb to destruction over the tiniest of matters. Notice verse 1. Great verse. I've got to admit, I've never seen this one on a bumper sticker ever. I've never seen a meme on Facebook with this one. Dead flies give perfume a bad smell. What's it saying? Well, it's saying this. Even the smallest of folly and sin can lead to the destruction of that which is born of wisdom, that which possesses beauty and value. A little folly? The little sins to which we paid a little attention? In this, Solomon declares in verse 3 that the fool lacks sense, and he shows everyone how stupid he is. Such small things often prove to be treacherous things, seductive and enticing and insidious. Don't fall for the little things. Don't fall for the small things. Then we notice another critter in verse 8. Whoever breaks through a wall might be bitten by a snake. Do not be surprised, Solomon is saying, by the consequences of your actions. Another proverb that Solomon could have included here, one that would fit right in, something like play with fire and you're going to get burned. Here we recall the action that we took that we later regretted, or the words we spoke that we wished we could take back. As we describe it in this way, once you ring a bell, how can you unring it? Either due to our haste or due to some laziness to make appropriate plans and projections, we might fail to count the cost of some words or some action. And in the end, what are we? Snake bitten. And then we find excellent wisdom in verse 12. Words from a wise man's mouth are gracious. But here Solomon provides a contrasting proverb that's also good wisdom. He says, but a fool is consumed by his own lips. And it's in verse 20 we find that third little critter don't revile the king even in your thoughts or curse the rich in your bedroom because a bird of the air may carry your words and a bird on the wing may report what you say. In other words, our words have a way of coming back to haunt us, do they not? So in the battle of the three little critters versus the king, no matter how great the king may be, these among the smallest and lowest of creation yet represent the strongest of opposition. If a king is not careful, he can easily trip over them and they can lead to his downfall. And when a king falls, the even greater tragedy is that the people and the nation fall with him. Be it moral failure or be it incompetence, as we have seen this in our own nation and we've seen it around the world and throughout history, when a king falls, the nation falls with him. What might we suppose is eating at Solomon? Perhaps Solomon is looking into the future and he's looking down the line of succession and he's confronted with the horrible reality of generations, his future generations, woefully unprepared to rule and to serve. Is it that the descendants waiting in the wings, those who would seek the throne and its power for themselves, is it that they consider themselves invincible to even the small hazards? Or perhaps are they blind to their presence? Or perhaps are they unaware of the truth concerning the temptations and the wiles of the evil one? Or is it possible they just consider themselves above it all? It is apparent that Solomon looks to the future and as he does, he places little to no hope in what he sees. When he's looking at the future leadership, the ones who will sit on the throne, he's not too comfortable with what's coming down the line. So let's talk a minute about Jesus and Ecclesiastes. When Solomon imparts wisdom, the wisdom that is under heaven, the wisdom that comes from God, there are two fundamental universal truths that are always in play. And they stand, though, in opposition to each other. That's what makes them difficult. That's the universal truth. Solomon is passing along to his following generations, especially to those who are in line to ascend to the throne, and as we have understood also to leaders in our day and our world, and also passed along to us, that wisdom is absolutely vital for success. The people of God who receive this wisdom must employ this wisdom. Here exists the wiggle room. Solomon's descendants must act in this manner, as must the leaders of this world, as must we. Vital, absolutely vital, is God's wisdom for success. Here's the second fundamental universal truth. Solomon's descendants will fail to act in this way, as will the leaders of this world, as will we. Everyone is supposed to do it. But no one will. Now, we're going to try to do this. We who are believers in Jesus, we're going to try to operate our lives according to the wisdom of God, and using the wisdom of God, and applying the wisdom of God. But try as we might, we confess that our efforts to employ the wisdom of God, our efforts, will fall short. But we push back, and we say, wait a minute, we're not royalty. Why must we worry about this? Why do we have to consider application of this? This doesn't apply to me. Yes, it does. Yes, believers in Jesus, believers in Jesus, it does. God's Word says it does. Listen to what Peter writes, 1 Peter chapter 2, starting with verse 9, but you, speaking to the church, you are a chosen people. You are a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation. You are a people belonging to God. Why? What must you do? You must declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness and into His wonderful light. Tom, that's not me. Yes, it is, because once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. And once you had not received mercy, but now you've received mercy, you know who you belong to. Church of Jesus Christ. Grace Point Church. We know who we belong to. And we know what we're called to do. We admit, we confess, we can't do it. Nevertheless, the call is there. So if our reading of the Word of God ended with Ecclesiastes, if this was the end of the Bible, we would certainly walk away saying something like, oh, there's got to be more. There has to be more. We read this and we just hear screaming from the pages, we need a hero. We need a savior. It is clear that the necessary accomplishment will elude us. It is clear that the wisdom of God is yet somewhere outside of our reach. And the question we would ask is who can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves? Let's bow our heads and pray, shall we? Father, it's our privilege this morning as we have heard your Word and as we are challenged by it to commit ourselves again to it. Father, would you move amongst your people and would you bless us and would you direct our steps and when we see and we know and understand that we are weak and unable to do what you have yet called us to do, we thank you, we realize and we remember again that you have sent us Jesus who has paid the price for us and has paved the way for us and you've sent us your Holy Spirit who enables us. So thank you for the call. We're not up to it but we thank you that Jesus is and he did what he did for us, that which we could not do for ourselves. For this we praise you and we give you glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.