Living In Between: Life under fallen authority yet before the Kingdom

2 Obey the king’s command, I say, because you took an oath before God. 3 Do not be in a hurry to leave the king’s presence. Do not stand up for a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases. 4 Since a king’s word is supreme, who can say to him, “What are you doing?” 5 Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm, and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure. 6 For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a person may be weighed down by misery. 7 Since no one knows the future, who can tell someone else what is to come? 8 As no one has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has power over the time of their death. As no one is discharged in time of war, so wickedness will not release those who practice it. 9 All this I saw, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun. There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own hurt. 10 Then too, I saw the wicked buried—those who used to come and go from the holy place and receive praise in the city where they did this. This too is meaningless. 11 When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong. 12 Although a wicked person who commits a hundred crimes may live a long time, I know that it will go better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him. 13 Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow. 14 There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless. 15 So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun. 16 When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the labor that is done on earth—people getting no sleep day or night—17 then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.

a. Ecc 8:2-9 – Living under a (unjust) king

b. Ecc 8:10-14 – Living with injustice

c. Ecc 8:15-17 – Living with joy

d. Our lives are lived in between. Under the authority in a fallen world and not yet fully under the reign of the Kingdom of God in eternity.

i. All earthly authority will pass away. God’s authority will never pass away.

1. Rev 1:8

Revelation 1:8 (NLT)

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.”

2. There is no “God and…”

ii. So how do we live in this time before Jesus returns?

Caution

Ecclesiastes 8:2–6 NIV

a. We have a commitment to those in authority over us, Ecc 8:2

Ecclesiastes 8:2 NIV

2 Obey the king’s command, I say, because you took an oath before God.

b. We should live like Jesus said in Matt 10:16

Matthew 10:16 NLT

16 “Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves.

c. Be patient, knowing God is in control – Ecc 8:3a

Ecclesiastes 8:3a (NIV)

3 Do not be in a hurry to leave the king’s presence.

d. Stand firm on God’s word – Ecc 8:3b

Ecclesiastes 8:3b (NIV)

3 Do not stand up for a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases.

e. Wisdom understands when to take a stand and when to step aside – Ecc 8:6

Ecclesiastes 8:6 NIV

6 For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a person may be weighed down by misery.

Patience

Ecclesiastes 8:13 NIV

13 Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.

a. The wise will not struggle foolishly agains reality.

i. One person is not going to change the world.

b. God will set all things right.

i. Patient expectation. 2 Peter 3:8-9

2 Peter 3:8–9 NLT

8 But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. 9 The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.

c. Patience and faith are inextricably linked

Integrity

Ecclesiastes 8:15–17 NIV

15 So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun. 16 When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the labor that is done on earth—people getting no sleep day or night—17 then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.

a. We must live our lives before God

i. Ecc 8:15 contradicts a worldview that power equates happiness

Ecclesiastes 8:15 NIV

b. We recognize that God is God and we are not.

i. Ecc 8:16-17

Ecclesiastes 8:16–17 NIV

16 When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the labor that is done on earth—people getting no sleep day or night—17 then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.

ii. We cannot understand it all.

iii. Nicodemus in John 3 wanted to understand yet Jesus tells him that God cannot be fully comprehended.

iv. Integrity means living with the mystery of God, faithfully.

v. Integrity means trusting God for all and not looking to others as our source.

vi. The trap of the wise is to try to live by calculation and not by faith.

Conclusion

a. We must recognize that power and authority as we see them are the result of a fallen world.

b. There is no “God and…” To do so is idolatry.

c. We live in this fallen world with caution, patience, and integrity.