Studies In Ecclesiastes

Studies In Ecclesiastes Presentation 08

Submission Or Resignation Chapter 8v1-18 Presentation 08

Introduction We can learn a great deal from people’s reactions to situations over which they have no control. Our reaction tells us a great deal about how much God is allowed to influence our thinking. On the one hand there is the submission of faith which is prepared to trust God in the dark while on the other hand there is a resignation which throws up its hands in despair and says "Oh what's the use?" There is an eternity of difference between these two reactions as we shall see as we examine the passage before us. Presentation 08

Authority The secular man above all else wants to be left alone to live his own life and steer his own destiny. He sees God and the authority which he represents as an unwelcome intrusion and so he erects a barbed wire perimeter fence around his heart. He thinks he has achieved his purpose. He thinks his life will be free from interference! But he's in for a shock and soon discovers that he lives in a world where freedom from authority is impossible. God's world has an authority structure built into it and this authority is derived from God. Presentation 08

Authority For example, we read that God's pattern for the family is that the husband should be the head of the wife and that children should be submissive to their parents Eph.5.22-6.4. We learn that God's pattern for society is that we are to submit ourselves to the governing authorities for there is no authority except that which God has established Rom. 13.1-17. Presentation 08

Authority In these opening verses we have a picture of both a servant and a king whose commands and expectations are often apparently unjust and arbitrary. Look at v4 because the king is supreme no one can say to him, "What are you doing?" Frustration with authority is something that is experienced across the spectrum of society, with the headmistress, the union leader, the company director or indeed, with the prime-minister and his government. You see there is no such thing as absolute freedom. Other people are constantly penetrating the perimeter fences of our lives. Presentation 08

Authority How do we respond? We learn in v5 that wisdom learns discretion before a capricious king. It does so in order to keep its possessor out of trouble. It does not give the king the benefit of its wisdom. The secularist's response is often that of resignation. He shrugs his shoulders and says, "what's the use?" Even when commanded to violate his conscience he may resort to unhealthy compromise lest he endanger his prospects of promotion, or introduce turbulence to his peaceful life or, indeed out of fear of losing his life. Trying to live with such a conflict of loyalties will often pull a man apart. History is full of such examples. It is also full of examples of men who have refused such compromise.cf Thomas Moore over Henry VIII’s divorce. Presentation 08

Authority There is a submission to authority which only a man of faith can exercise. We have a beautiful example of this in the life of Daniel. Daniel was taken captive into a foreign land where he served a foreign king. He submitted himself to the king’s authority and served him faithfully. His moral integrity however made some of the court officials jealous and they hatched a plan to trip up Daniel. The king was persuaded to make a decree which forbad any subject from worshipping anyone save himself. Daniel refused to obey since his loyalty to God was a greater loyalty than to man. An so an appointment was made for him to meet some lions. Presentation 08

Authority A consequence he gladly submitted to committing himself into the hands of a higher authority. The principle of Daniel's behaviour is clear. He recognised God was the author of all delegated authority even that exercised by the king who had enslaved him. He saw submission to that authority as a means of expressing his obedience to God. He gladly "Obeyed the kings command" v2, or to borrow Jesus’ words he "rendered unto Caesar the things which were Caesar’s". However, when that human authority challenged the authority of God and violated the clear commands of God, Daniel had no qualms about refusing to obey, and accepting the consequences of disobedience. He could commend his cause to God whose authority is absolute. Presentation 08

Authority Now this whole approach to authority is alien to the secularist. He is frustrated by all forms of authority. He certainly would not see submission to human authority as an expression of obedience to God. Nor does he have incentive for refusing to do that which is wrong! For he has no trust in God to overrule for his good and vindicate his stand. He is resigned to the existence of authority but no more than that and therefore authority will be a constant source of frustration to him. Only the man of faith can pray: “God grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference.” Presentation 08

Accountability A second area of concern for the secular thinker is summed up in the popular dictum, "It doesn't matter how you behave as long as you get on". That is the attitude of many people today! We should not be surprised! For once you show yourself to be unhappy with the idea of authority then being held accountable to authority is something one can easily let slide. We had evidence of this in the trial of Klaus Barbie tried for war crimes in France. He persistently refused to accept the authority of the court and because of that he refused to appear before it to give an account of his behaviour. He wanted to be answerable to no one. A great many people are like that today. Presentation 08

Accountability Often we want only people whom we consider to be worse than ourselves to be held accountable for their behaviour. This is cause of the perplexity in v9ff. Few things are harder to bear than the sight of wicked men flourishing but when wickedness is respected and given the blessing of religion that is even more obnoxious. You may have attended a funeral and heard the deceased praised to heights but knowing their true character question if the minister speaking had ever met him. For he had made his family’s lives a misery, was a torment to his neighbours and took advantage of his friends. Presentation 08

Accountability But in v10ff we read of villains who are honoured at death by those who knew them. Honoured at the very scene of their misdeeds. And what is particularly appalling is that when they are no longer alive and able either to intimidate or enchant their following. Yet they are still hailed as fine fellows. Why? Oh the dictator or the bent tycoon may have bent the rules but they got things done, they had flair, they had style. Presentation 08

Accountability Why do people live as though they will never be called upon to give an account of their behaviour? It is not simply that they despise authority but that they do not give enough credence to the long range and long term effects of their sin. cf v11. Because the consequences of men’s sin do not become immediately apparent, they conclude that sin is not so bad or as dangerous as they were led to believe.‘Ah’, they say, ‘the preacher has been indulging in a bit of moral scaremongering, he has been telling fairy stories. We are safe!’ Presentation 08

Accountability ‘No you are not safe’, says the preacher! And for a few verses he drops his disguise, and lowers his mask. Such is his revulsion to the whole idea that sin pays rich dividends that he no longer plays the role of the secularist but is seen as a man of faith. Here is his declaration in v12. The godly man has hope beyond the grave, the ungodly has none. God will not indulge wickedness. He will not wink at it. Because he is God he must and will judge it. Wickedness riddles life through with insecurity it brings no benefits either in this life or in the world to come. Presentation 08

Accountability People often wonder why certain things are happening to them, why life is so harsh. The last thing many are prepared to consider is that they may be reaping what they have sown. We cannot escape the consequences of the past. This is illustrated in history. Consider the slave trade and think of America and other places and the race problem which has been inherited. Or, think of the arrogance and paternalism of much colonial rule and the turbulent problems that has created in emerging nations. Presentation 08

Accountability In a similar way many years after an event people may well discover that the consequences of their past catches up with them. They are paid back in their own coin! Not many people are prepared to say "this is because of that." When Jacob was deceived by his uncle Laban over the wife he was to marry and woke up after his wedding night and discovered that the woman next to him was not the radiant Rachael but the languid Leah, what did he think? Did he say I am deceived because I deceived my brother of his birth-right, I am tasting my own medicine, I am reaping what I have sown? Presentation 08

Accountability Now of course I know that all of life's harsh experiences cannot be explained in this way. We must guard against the folly of the disciples who asked Jesus, "Is this man blind because of his sin or that of his parents?" John 9.2 My point is that we are very reluctant ever to ask the question, "Am I reaping what I have sown?" It is easy to see others reaping what they have sown and to say “this is because of that” but what about ourselves? Presentation 08

Moral Effort Unrewarding? The man who tries to make sense out of life is perplexed because in many instances there is no outward evidence of people reaping what they sow. Wickedness doesn't always appear to dig its own grave v14. Not every Marcos is forced into exile or every Eichmann forced to stand trial, not every train robber is caught. While at the same time the young moral man has cancer diagnosed and a baby girl loses both parents in a car accident. If moral effort does not guarantee constant blessing then it is natural for the secularist to plump for a safe kind of investment. Presentation 08

Conclusion Secular man is baffled and frustrated by authority and accountability. He is baffled by God's world! His response is all too frequently one of resignation. His approach to life is to consider that the simple pleasures listed in v15 are the safest investment. But the dark mysteries of life are only offset by these things he still has an aching longing to understand what life is all about. But one can only do that in relation to God. It is the submission of faith which enables a man to trust God with life's dark mysteries and believe that God knows what he is doing. Presentation 08

Studies In Ecclesiastes