Ecclesiastes 8:1-4 says,...Bible reading week 8, day 3

Let's get on to our verses today which are Ecclesiastes 8:1-4, which read,

v.1 - Who is like the wise man and who knows the interpretation of a matter?  A man's wisdom illumines him and causes his stern face to beam.

Let's start off today with another question from Solomon.  He is a man of questions.  Solomon has shown us that wisdom has value and one who has wisdom does see and understand situations to come to a good conclusion.  They are able to interpret what is going on to respond accordingly and with a result that promotes righteousness, right living.  The one with wisdom helps him to go from a stern face to a beaming face.

Body language speaks volumes and a stern face shows a lot of concentration on what is going on and maybe someone who is trying hard internally to figure it out.  They are even stressing their facial muscles as their mental muscles are working overtime to decide how to respond verbally or act openly toward this situation that has him stumped for awhile.  But the wisdom that he has kicks in and because he can act upon something with confidence his face changes.  He has a comfort in knowing what to do.  He might even beam because he knows that if he follows wisdom a good result will come that hasn't yet but he sees it before it comes to fruition.  

v.2, 3 - I say, "Keep the command of the king because of the oath before God.  Do not be in a hurry to leave him.  Do not join in an evil matter, for he will do whatever he pleases." 

1 Chronicles 29:24, 25 says,

All the leaders and the mighty men, and all of King David's sons as well, pledged their allegiance to King Solomon.  The LORD highly exalted Solomon in the sight of all Israel and bestowed on him such royal majesty as had not been bestowed on any king over Israel before him.

Do we keep the commands of the king?  Sometimes it is hard and sometimes the culture is doing opposite what the king says.  Will you continue to keep the commands of the king?  It seems that many are in a hurry to leave the commands of the king.  They are redefining the commands of the king.  They are disregarding what the king says. There are even religious looking people hurrying away from the commands of the king.

Solomon calls this action an evil matter to abandon the commands of the king.  The result of not following the commands of the king is to do whatever we please and that will pull us in the camp of the fools for that is their motto.  I hope you are making the connection here between the king and the King, capital "K."   We have earthly kings and authorities put there by God who rule over us and many of the laws of the land are in line with Scriptural principles are we are wise to follow them.  We also have a King, capital "K," over us who gives us His Word and we are in an unwise state when we hurry away from His commands.  We are doing what we please rather than what pleases Him.

v.4 - Since the word of the king is authoritative, who will say to him, "What are you doing?"

The physical king has a position that also has authority to say what is the law of the land.  He has been placed there by God but in our country we also had a hand in the system developed by our forefathers and supported by us in our votes.  We put them in those places of authority.  We deem them authoritative even though as a Christian we go one step further and hold that God put them there first for our good.  Even a bad king can bring about good if the good rise up to hold God's words supreme if the king is not.  The good is that our loyal to God our King is strengthened in the matter.  

Do we question the authorities?  Yes, they need to be questioned in accordance to the One who put them there.  The one who would question the king would be the one who is wise toward God.  It is a question to understand.  It is a question of help to the other person, the authoritative person.  Any other question would be a question to undermine who they are and belittle their position.  A wise person does not do this.  It would be a question of ridicule instead of a question of clarification.  

I think many times we question God but it is of the ridicule nature rather than the clarification type.  Zechariah questioned the angel Gabriel, one sent in the authority of God, and was struck dumb for 9 months while Mary questioned the angel Gabriel and was given a fuller answer to how this great thing was to come about.  One questioned to say, "Sure right God, that's never goin' happen," while the other questioned to say, "The laws of nature seem to have to be violated here, how can that be?"  How do you approach what God says?  What kind of authority does He have over your life?  Let us pray.

"Lord, may we have beaming faces today because we are searching for Your way to respond.  Our stern faces have a purpose to see the correct path that might be hard to take but in the end it glorifies You.  Help us to give respect and allegiance where it is due and not question to ridicule but to better understand.  Even if we must go a different way because of following Your commands we will do so with a respect for those who are not.  Amen."

Pastor Adam