Sermon Tone Analysis
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Life is truly not as simple as some would have you believe.
King Solomon is discovering in chapter 4 what life is like for other people who don’t have all his advantages.
As a result, all of his previous thoughts about how boring life was and how meaningless it was, turned out to be somewhat naive.
Many years ago, Billy Graham famously stated that he read the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other hand.
Simply stated, the Word of God is to be applied and understood to be relevant to life in the here and now.
One of my professors cautioned us about becoming scholars only.
He stated that not only must we be students of the Word, but students of people and the world around us.
Solomon recognizes that nobody knows what problems we may encounter or when we might encounter them.
Today, we’ll be looking at life with Solomon in four different situations.
For the Christ-follower, contentment comes with wisdom and a balanced approach to life.
Courtroom - 4:1-3
We would like to believe that the court system provides justice and makes sure that everything is dealt with fairly.
Yet, we all know that is not always the case.
Even in Israel’s situation, God had given His perfect Law and prescribed how things were to be done in fairness, righteousness, and justice.
However, where there are people who do not fully believe that there is absolute truth based on God’s laws, there will be a twisting and perversion of justice.
Even Solomon discovered that he couldn’t guarantee trustworthy officials at all levels of his government.
The scene which we read described to us by Solomon is that of him watching a trial in a courtroom.
What he observed was not what should have been.
Corrupt officials were oppressing and ruling against innocent people.
Regardless of the pleas of the victims, they were not heard.
In fact, Solomon writes that they had no one to comfort them.
Those who had the power to do right chose to do wrong against the innocent.
The innocent were totally helpless.
This caused Solomon to make a somewhat rash statement.
Verses 2-3 are basically Solomon stating that it would be better for all to be dead as opposed to being alive and treated so wrongly.
Though we might think Solomon was overreacting, many have thought very similar thoughts.
We have heard Job make similar comments when he wished he’d never have been born.
You and I have most likely heard similar sentiments expressed by people we know or even by our own lips.
Or we may have uttered how we wished things were the way they used to be in the old days.
I, along with many others, find ourselves wondering why Solomon didn’t just clean house.
After all, he’s the king.
Well, some would suggest that this would have created more problems.
Even in our system today, many well-meaning people want to dive in and clean house on their own.
As believers in Christ, our first responsibility is to pray for those in authority.
We also work cooperatively at making sure laws are passed and enforced that are right and just and not oppressive and unfair.
We work within the framework that is biblical and legal in order to ensure that inappropriate laws are not passed that are ungodly and hurtful.
But when unrighteousness seems to rule, we pray and live righteously.
Very few people have read the book by Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Even I have only read parts of it.
He makes a very interesting quote: political corruption was the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty.
You see, we have the freedom to obey and to pursue many positive things.
However, this liberty also gives the opposite freedom.
There are those who believe you can pursue whatever you want because it’s a free country.
That is a people, quite similar to what Solomon observed, who think they are above the law.
Things were definitely out of balance.
Commerce - 4:4-8
It is almost as if Solomon is on a journey and as he leaves a very depressing court scene, he goes into the work world to see what he can learn.
He’s going to be watching various workers and discovers four different styles of people.
The first is the hard-working individual.
This is what one ought to expect since work is a gift from God and if one wishes to better oneself, they need to work hard.
This individual wasn’t just working hard, he was good at what he did.
However, what he was able to do did not reflect who he truly was.
His hands were amazing, but his heart was cold.
It seemed that the reason the workers were so skilled and gifted and hard-working was simply for themselves.
They were interested in only being the best and the greatest and the richest.
They were not working to be a blessing to others by what they made.
They just wanted to be number one.
This was disappointing to Solomon, knowing that work was not for selfish gain.
Friends, what a reminder for us.
We don’t want to work hard to just have more stuff or keep ahead of someone else.
It’s almost like a sports team who have been told to win at whatever cost is necessary.
Getting ahead in business by stepping on the little people is never a good thing.
The motivation was for self-ego and false pride.
Then Solomon finds someone on the opposite end of the spectrum.
Personally, I call this person lazy.
Solomon understood very quickly the futility of this person’s work ethic.
He knew that it was an easy trip to self-destruction.
Relaxing and sleeping in may be enjoyable once in awhile.
But this person had taken it to the extreme so he didn’t have the ability to have the basics.
The motivation seemed to be temporary pleasure.
Verse 6 seems to be a well-balanced individual.
He appeared to work hard and had the ability to take a rest.
What needed to be done, he would gladly do it.
Yet, he never seemed to be ruled by his work.
Friends, Solomon is reminding us to not work ourselves into a frenzy or to death, as it were.
Paul worded it quite well in
Looking at these 3 different people, we see that money cannot buy peace, since there’s always more that could be done.
We recognize that laziness is self-destructive and is certainly not a pathway to peace.
However the balanced individual seems to have discovered the ability to enjoy the gift of work and relaxation, being ruled by neither.
This last man is somewhat like the lone ranger in his philosophy.
As we look at verses 7-8, Solomon engages this individual and discovers the aloneness of the individual.
Not only was he doing everything by himself, he wanted to be by himself.
He wanted to keep everything for himself and share it with nobody else.
However, in his efforts, he just kept working to accumulate more and more, never getting the opportunity to enjoy the fruit of his labors.
Even worse, when he would die, he would have nobody to share or receive his wealth.
Basically, all that he was doing was for nothing.
Warren Wiersbe summarized it perfectly: Blessed are the balanced.
Countryside - 4:9-12
As Solomon left the independent, isolated worker, he began to evaluate the importance of working with others and that of friendship.
All of us have experienced the proverb, many hands make light work.
One afternoon, I came home early to put wood into the woodshed.
Jannita came out to help me and we more than doubled my efforts.
Then Mindy and Margo came out (after my wife “encouraged” them to help) and they became part of the team.
We accomplished a great deal more than what I could have done by myself.
I especially love the fall when we have what is referred to as a wood party.
We literally are having fun as we encourage each other in the task at hand.
Verse 10 is more easily understood if we remember the time in which this was written.
People usually walked from one location to another.
Paths and roads were not even as nice as those in Maine.
People could trip, fall into a hole, you name it.
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