I wanted to thank you for your kindness and gift to Jack and I. I'm reminded of Hebrews 13, 17, obey your leaders and submit to them for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. But then he says this, let them do this with joy and not with grief. for this would be unprofitable for you." And so I think I say this almost every year, but it bears repeating, and that is, thank you for allowing us to do this with joy and not with grief. Right? It's so true. You know, I've almost been at this church, well, at least Arcadia Bible Church that we're all now Anchor Bible, almost 20 years, and that has been my experience, is just great joy. That doesn't mean no obstacles, no speed bumps, no difficulties. They're there as well. But just a maturity of believers who seek to care for their leaders and love them well. And so thank you for doing that. It means so much to us, and we're grateful for it. Well, turn with me to the book of Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes chapter 4. And as you do that, I'm going to begin our time in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you this morning for your word, how it anchors us. how it stabilizes us. Lord, as we look at the storms and the struggles of this fallen world, as we look at the ebb and flow of the economy or politics or jobs or any of those kinds of things, we are so grateful for the anchor that is found in your word. truth that we can cling to, truth that we can throw ourselves upon, truth that we can be confident in. Lord, that you are indeed sovereign, and this is your world, and that all your purposes will ripen at the exact moment that you have ordained them to. and that there is not a renegade molecule on this planet that is outside of your control, of your keeping. And so, Lord, we thank you for the rest that is found in your perfect will and in your perfect way. Lord, now, as we turn to your word, give us ears to hear and eyes to see the wonderful things that are found there. May they instruct us, guide us, and encourage us, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. I attended a funeral several years ago, and the son of the deceased advised us not to cry. Now, I understood the sentiment, but it struck me as a strange request. a funeral without tears. I mean, after all, weren't we supposed to grieve? Weren't we supposed to feel the sting of death as we grieve their absence? Now, it is true, the Apostle Paul does mention to believers that we don't grieve as those who have no hope. But that wasn't intended to mean that we don't grieve at all. We grieve, we feel, we see, we experience the pains of this planet. And let us not forget at the funeral or at the scene of the death of Lazarus that Jesus himself wept. And so we weep. Grief is a normal and expected experience this side of heaven, or as Solomon has been instructing us, under the sun. Death is a reality. Loss is a reality. Any honest observer of life on this fallen globe must include, alongside the great pleasures and delights that we enjoy, they must include the frustrations and the pains and the injustices the hardships, the cruelties, and the inequities that we've experienced or others have. If you haven't experienced one of those by yourself personally, you've certainly at least heard, read, or seen someone who has, or read about them in history. And processing what you've experienced or seen experienced by others is painfully uncomfortable. The weight of it all can truly be crippling. We need to understand that despair is a reality in this sin-sick world. All you have to do is read the Psalms to see that. Despair is a reality. Life is hard and Solomon has been reminding us of that. Because he looks at everything under the sun and he says this is futility. This is meaningless. It's empty. You labor and then you die. And yet for a myriad of reasons we find it difficult to express our pain. to express our grief. It's awkward, isn't it? It's something that we hide our faces when we're crying. We don't want others to see us. Perhaps it's because we're weak or it's viewed as weak. We say to ourselves, don't cry. Don't let that out. We wanna hide our tears or not allow others into our struggle and pain because we feel a sense of vulnerability. We feel exposed. or weak. And so we're not always honest or raw about what is really going on. And so we're even a little, feeling a little awkward as Solomon does it for us. I'll give you a telling example of this. How many of you walked into the sanctuary this morning and you were greeted by someone in the church and they said to you, how are you doing? And without even giving it a second thought, you said, I'm fine, how are you? Now the reality is, you aren't fine. You've had a terrible week, but for whatever reason, you said nothing. And what would you think if the person who you did ask, how are you, actually unloaded? and actually told you, you know what, actually, I'm terrible. My marriage is falling apart, my kids are failing in school, and I just lost my job. There are injustices all over the world, poverty, abuses of power. I don't find satisfaction in anything I do, and I'm gripped constantly by the reality that I'm gonna die. What would you do? How would you respond? Oh, I don't know. That's their reality and they've just given you a dose of it. You've been blasted by a genuine, unadulterated experience and observation. At bare minimum, you would be shocked, perhaps even at a loss of words. Maybe you would want to try and alleviate some of their pain and distress, or maybe you feel as awkward as they do, and you'd just like to skirt out of there as quickly as possible. I'll pray for you. Right? Something like that. Now, I say this because that is exactly what is happening in the book of Ecclesiastes. You read these brutally honest and raw observations of life in a corrupted, sin-filled world, and you don't know what to do with them. It makes you squirm. You feel awkward, wondering what to do or what to say. With such raw observations, you may even be tempted to correct Solomon. Solomon, you need to think more positively. We shy away from the heavy and the hard. Now, if you know me at all, you know I love movies. Probably better said, I love the movie theater experience. There's nothing like AC, stadium seating, a giant Diet Coke, surround sound. Man, I love the movie theater experience. But if you know me, you know I hate I hate sad movies. I go to the movies to evade reality, not have it be on there in a big screen. I want happy endings. The good guy wins, the guy gets the girl, or vice versa, and they live happily ever after. So listen, when half the Avengers disintegrate in Infinity War, I was like, what is going on? This movie's terrible. Heroes don't lose. Thanos can't win. That's what makes a good story, or at least in my opinion. Or one of my kids, they love the movie La La Land, mainly because of the music, but I hate that movie. Two selfish prima donnas choose their fame and career over each other and end up, spoiler alert, not being together. It's a terrible movie. I can't even rewatch it because there's a physical pain that I experience. I can barely watch Endgame a second time. You know what happens. Sure, the Avengers assemble, but there's death and there's that very sad funeral scene that I can't handle. We're not comfortable for very long sitting and really considering the painful issues of this life. And if you've found yourself troubled by Ecclesiastes, that is likely the reason. Solomon is a straight shooter. He is brutally honest with what he's observed. There's no sugarcoating or rose coloring of life so that you can feel better. The truth is Solomon often just leaves you there to wallow in the muck and the mire of life. Occasionally he might provide some alleviation and he does in our passage this morning a little bit. But mainly he wants you to experience the weight and the heaviness of life because there are lessons to be learned even there. Pain is a great educator. Pain really does teach you something about living. Lessons you don't want, but desperately need. And remember, as I mentioned in the first message in the book of Ecclesiastes, that Solomon is driving us to a final conclusion, a climactic crescendo, but it's in chapter 12. And so we gotta wait, we gotta wait. And that conclusion helps us to make sense of this life And all that Solomon has said. I mentioned last time that someone brilliantly observed that Ecclesiastes is like a tapestry of these many horizontal lines about life's experiences, the hardships of them. And then occasionally, in the book of Ecclesiastes, this vertical line pierces through the tapestry. This vertical line where Solomon looks upward and he gazes vertically and he draws our attention to the Lord. And those are the moments when life begins to make sense and when meaning is actually gained. So listen, don't be troubled by Solomon's raw honesty, his melancholy perspective or pessimistic outlook. By the way, recovering pessimist, I prefer realist, thank you, but he is driving us to a wonderful conclusion. But in the meantime, can I just encourage you to feel the weight, feel the weight of what he observes, be uncomfortable, be unsettled, because if it's not your experience, it certainly is someone else's. And when he provides comfort, be relieved for a moment. Be relieved and comforted, but embrace the pursuit, as painful as it might be, as we go through the book of Ecclesiastes. And so this morning, in chapter four, I want us to note three lessons learned in this troubled world, or difficult lessons in this troubled world. The first one we see in verses one through three. I'm just going to read that. And we'll talk about it. Solomon says this, then I looked at all the acts of oppression which were being done under this sun. And behold, I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them. And on the side of their oppressors was power, but they had no one to comfort them. So I congratulated the dead who are already dead more than the living who are still living. But better off than both of them is the one who has never existed. and has never seen the evil activity that is done under the sun. The first lesson that we see is the abuse of power. He's mentioned it before. We looked at this section last Lord's Day, but Solomon observes the perversion of power, the abuse of power. You see the repetition of that word oppress in its various forms. Oppression, oppressed, oppressors, along with that phrase, no one to comfort them. And it tells us the sorry story of the powerful oppressing the powerless. A tale as old as time, isn't it? We've seen it. In the Bible, oppression usually involved cheating one's neighbor of something. It was often associated with stealing or retaining lost property or defrauding them, robbing them. It involves making an unjust gain, including the profit that could be made from the interest on loans. It's the abuse of power, whether that be financial or otherwise, that's perpetrated on those who are not so powerful, on the more vulnerable. And so often in the Old Testament, where we see those who are often in the category of the oppressed are the poor, or the widow, or orphans, or even strangers in the land of Israel. Notice that Solomon sees that this oppression is so great and so severe, it is so wickedly evil, that he actually, in verse 2, congratulates the dead. That's a melancholy outlook. It is better to be dead than to endure that. And in verse 3, Solomon even steps it up a notch. It's better to be non-existent. It's better to have never been born. That is how dark this oppression is. Now we struggle with it because I don't think we've ever experienced it. Not like this, but we've read of it. We've seen it in our history books. And we've seen images of oppression and the misuse of power by tyrants and regimes. We've read and seen the horrific images of the concentration camps of Auschwitz or Dachau or Flossenburg. We've seen those images. We've heard or read of the killing fields of Pol Pot's Cambodia or the mass killings of evil regimes like Chairman Mao or Joseph Stalin. We've read or seen images of the genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda, or the evils of the Taliban, the sexual abuse and slavery of children in the sex trafficking industry, the countless billions of unborn, sorry, millions of unborn babies that have been snuffed out in their mother's womb. I mean, if we were to dwell and give consideration to the evils past, present, and even imagining in the future, that evil oppression is enough to cause us to go into madness and despair if given much thought to. I often think that some of the darkness and despair that we see so prevalent in our own culture, especially among our young, is due to this mass information. We know every evil atrocity that ever happens, and it's enough to cause us to go into despair. and to go into madness. Solomon was observing what has been painfully true throughout the history of fallen man. Man oppresses man in some of the most wicked and perverse and twisted ways you could ever imagine. To make matters worse, Solomon says there's no one to comfort them. Sometimes they never get out of it. That is their experience. That is their lot in life. for their whole existence. An evil so severe that it's better if you were dead or non-existent. Now before you get on Solomon for being unorthodox and talking about it's better for them never to be born, realize Job felt a similar sentiment. He said in Job 3, let the day perish on which I was born. Jeremiah the prophet in Jeremiah 20 verse 18 said, why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow and spend my days in shame? The world is a miserable place for many people. There are many who live without anyone to comfort them with the real prospect of change in their circumstances. Many have been deprived of even the most modest means out of which to live their lives. Let that sink in for a moment. Don't run too quickly. Don't close your eyes to that reality. Allow that to weigh heavy on you for a moment because it's been the reality and is the reality for many on this planet right now. Solomon is making a true observation of human history and yet we can recall And remember that vertical line that pierced through the tapestry of all these horizontal lines, that stitch that includes God in the picture and all that is true on fallen planet Earth. You might remember chapter 3, verse 17 of Ecclesiastes. I said to myself, God will judge both the righteous man and the wicked. man, for a time for every matter and for every deed is there. In verse 18, he talks about God testing humanity, but he says God will judge. It will not go on forever. Injustice will not continue, and it certainly will not go unpunished. Solomon alleviates the perversion of power by saying, it won't always be like this. God will judge. He will make it right. I can't help but think of Revelation 19 as we are going through chapter 3 and into chapter 4. I couldn't help but have Revelation 19 in my mind. where the sweet baby Jesus of the first advent, born of a virgin, in the little town of Bethlehem that's recorded for us in Matthew and Luke, is all grown up in Revelation 19, and he sits upon a white horse. His head is crowned with many crowns, for he is the righteous king. His eyes are a flame of fire, and there's a sword protruding from his mouth. His clothes are dipped in blood, the armies of heaven are assembled, and John tells us in Revelation 19 that Jesus comes to judge and wage war. He comes with a sword to strike down the nations and to rule them with a rod of iron. He treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty. Now, I promise you that is not the vision of Jesus that people want to hear about. But it is a vision of things to come. It is a vision of Him making things right. Injustices will be punished. He will judge. In fact, you can read more about this in Isaiah chapter 11. I don't have time to look there, but we do at times need to be reminded of what is to come, that he will indeed right the wrongs. Evil will be judged in an ultimate sense. And by the way, we're pretty much the only worldview that includes that. What does the atheist worldview have to offer in the sense of ultimate judgment? Many of these leaders never experienced judgment on this earth. Many of these oppressors, oppressed people, doing evils that you could not even imagine. It is the Christian worldview that says those things will not go unchallenged. Those things will not go unpunished. And so Solomon says, hey, there's a lot to learn in the abuse of power, in oppression. Let that weigh heavily on you and yet allow that vertical line of alleviation, right? That it won't always be this way. There's a second lesson. We see that in verses 4 through 12. Let me read this section. Solomon says, I have seen that every labor and every skill which is done is the result of rivalry between a man and his neighbor. This too is vanity and striving after wind. The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh. One hand full of rest is better than two fists full of labor and striving after the wind. Then I looked again at vanity under the sun. There was a certain man without a dependent, having neither a son nor a brother, yet there was no end to all his labor. Indeed, his eyes were not satisfied with riches, and he never asked, and for whom am I laboring and depriving myself of pleasure? This too is vanity, and it is a grievous task. Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor, for if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. Furthermore, if two lie down together, they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him, a cord of three strands. is not quickly torn apart. Solomon is mentioning in this passage another lesson that's valuable to us, and that's the barriers to meaningful production. The barriers to meaningful production. In that section, there's a theme. I don't know if you caught it. It's a word that's repeated. It's repeated in verse 4, verse 6, verse 8, verse 9. Do you see it? It's the word labor. Solomon has mentioned labor before or our work and he's spoken of its vanity. The fact that we work so hard and then it goes to someone else, right? We die and it's over. Solomon mentions a series of barriers to meaningful labor, meaningful work, meaningful production. The first barrier you see is There in verse 4, he's seen every labor and every skill which is done is the result of what? You see the word there? Rivalry. Rivalry between a man and his neighbor, or other translations may have the word envy. Envy. A barrier to meaningful production is envy. Envy seems to drive us. It is the ambition for industry. Rather than joy in our God-given labor, rather than joy being the caffeine that kind of gets us up in the morning, instead it's this covetous competitiveness, this rivalry that fuels our heart. the suspicion or even the realization that others are gaining more from life than we are. And that leads us to this competitiveness in this insane rat race where we are striving to outdo one another or make a name for ourselves. Envy is a motive that's really difficult to satisfy. And Solomon would say it is ultimately dangerous. Envy is a dangerous motivator when it comes to production, when it comes to labor. Proverbs 14.30 says this, Envy makes the bones rot. Envy makes the bones rot. Envy, jealousy, covetousness, greed, they all serve to motivate people to work with fervor for long hours. But in the end, envy divides families, right? We have examples of this even in scripture. Think of the story of Joseph and his brothers. Jealousy is what ruled their hearts. I'm not saying Jacob was being a good dad and showing, you know, that kind of favoritism. However, it was envy, it was jealousy that ruled them. Or even, not just dividing families, we know that envy kills. We see that even in the opening chapters of the book of Genesis with Cain and Abel. Envy destroys others just as certainly as the exercise of oppressive power. Instead of loving your neighbor as yourself, we're embracing mottos like, you gotta look out for numero uno. You gotta look out for number one. And it's this kind of cutthroat mentality that's willing to step on heads if that's what it takes. And Solomon says in verse 4, listen, this rivalry, this fighting, you know, in this competition of gaining things, it's all vanity. It's all striving after the wind. Now, it might be tempting here to think of corporate America or the political elites, you know, those wealthy one-percenters, they're to blame. You guys really need to listen to Solomon and perhaps they would do well to take in Solomon's wisdom, but realize envy can just as easily consume our hearts as well. You scroll through social media and see what your quote unquote friends are doing, or what your friends, and I say that because let's be honest, they're not all friends, right? We could probably count our friends on our hands, but we've got thousands of social media friends, right? And we look at what they did, or we look at what they have, or we look at what they didn't invite us to, And envy just starts to roll, and jealousy, and self-focus. You see the homes, or the vacations, or the cars, or the salaries, or fill in the blank, right? And envy begins to stir. You want it, and so you begin to consider how you might go about attaining it. Solomon says, listen, friends, that is transitory. That is fleeting, because you're gonna have all this envy, and maybe you're gonna attain these possessions, but don't forget what he's already said. You're gonna die in those possessions. Those things are gonna go on to someone else. That house that you've loved and lived in and spent all that money on, you're gonna die and sell it, or somebody's gonna sell it, because you're dead, right? And someone else is gonna live in it. We need to kill envy. Kill it before Solomon says it kills you because it ultimately will rot the bones. Just as a point of prodding a little bit, if this statement would be true of you, here's a statement. Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies. If that's true, you need to be advised, as Cain was, that sin is crouching at your door, and it desires you. You need to run from that. Envy sets people over against one another. That's what happened with Cain. Envy may make you money, but it will do precious little in providing any sense of meaningfulness in your production, meaning in your labor. So envy is that first one. There's a second one that we notice in verse five. The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. Solomon really provides the antithesis to envy, right? That envy-driven toil with laziness. Laziness. The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. One natural response to the reality that envious ambition drives our toil would be to stop working altogether. Maybe that's the answer. And Solomon says, not a good idea. Right? Not a good idea. Because that too is disastrous. That phrase there, a fool folds his hands, it's a statement of inactivity. He uses it similarly in Proverbs 6 verse 10. The idea is this fool doesn't work. He doesn't labor. He isn't doing any kind of production. And the second half is not speaking of self-cannibalism. He eats his own flesh. Rather, He's talking about the laziness of the fool that leads to his own destruction. It leads to his own ruin. You know, as much as Scripture speaks of envy and greed and taking advantage of people for selfish gains, it also speaks of laziness, the danger of it, the ruin that comes from it, the poverty. Solomon says a slack hand causes poverty. But the hand of the diligent makes riches. Proverbs 6, this is the same phrase. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man. So laziness is also not the answer, right? It's not the answer to an envious dog-eat-dog style of labor, but it's also not the answer in terms of finding meaningful labor. It's a barrier. It's a barrier. And scripture says much about it. Interestingly enough, in verse six, Solomon advocates for a kind of a way of moderation in that better than saying in verse six, he says, better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and striving after the wind. There's this contrast between one handful versus two handfuls and quietness or rest and toil. And essentially, Solomon is saying, listen, instead of cruel competitiveness or abject slothfulness, there is a working that leads to gain and to rest. And that is better than two hands full of toil. But you have to make a choice. And here really is, I think, what he's saying. You can become a workaholic. That's another barrier to meaningful production. I think that's where he's leading us is this concept of working, striving after possession and riches with no one to share it with. This kind of workaholism. And Solomon is saying, man, it's a lot better you have only one handful of stuff but you find rest and you find quietness than it is to have two handfuls but you're absolutely stretched. There is toil and he says it's striving after the wind. This is kind of Solomon's Godliness with contentment is great gain. That's what Paul says in 1 Timothy 6.6. Godliness with contentment is great gain. Solomon is saying something similar. Better to not overwork yourself, better to have enough than it is to work yourself to death. Have two handfuls, but it's full of toil. Proverbs 15, 16 says, better is a little with the fear of the Lord. Right? Better is a little with the fear of the Lord. So the imagery provided is a poignant one. Either two greedy and exhausted hands cupped to gain everything one can, or one hand extended and full, not of stuff, it's filled with quietness. His work is full of joyous contentment. And notice, this one hand is still working. It's still extended. It's not folded like the fool who does nothing. Right? It's kind of this middle ground. Solomon has noted the frustrations of laboring, of working, of being oppressed with no comfort. He's mentioned envy as your driving force for gain and laziness and being a workaholic with no rest. Now he turns in verses 7 and 8 to this workaholic with all the resources, the gain, but no one to share it with. And that's, by the way, a potential for a workaholic, right, in the end. You know, you may end up with all the riches, but no one. Your wife left you, or your husband left you, and your kids don't want anything to do with you, because you worked yourself to death. You have it all, but you have nothing. Right? And that's what he says. Verse 8, there was a certain man without a dependent, having neither a son nor a brother, yet there was no end to all his labor. Indeed, his eyes were not satisfied with riches, and he never asked, for whom am I laboring and depriving myself of pleasure? So he has money, but no family or friends. He's a loner with lots of stuff. And that's another barrier to meaningful production, this kind of isolationism, right? This kind of isolationism where we don't have, we aren't with anyone. We're completely alone in our mad dash for success and for stuff. And Solomon is essentially saying, listen, you might as well order your own flowers for your funeral now because no one else will. You're alone. Your workaholic drive, your envy, your thirst for more has driven everyone out. Or in this sense, he just didn't have anyone. Maybe he was working too hard to bother with marriage, to bother with children. And in the end, Solomon says, this is fleeting, this is meaningless. What's the point of all the labor if there is no one to share it with? Now, thankfully, Solomon alleviates some of these miseries with a proverb on the benefits of companionship. We know this passage probably more well than we know other parts of Ecclesiastes, right? Two are better than one. And by the way, God himself declared of his perfect creation of Adam in an unfallen state, Genesis 2.18, it's not good for man to be alone. So the Lord advocates and even designs us for companionship. You might think you could have more or accumulate more or produce more with just you and Solomon says that's not true. Right? Verse 9, two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. Here you think you can get more out of it and in reality you're getting less. Your math is off. You can actually produce more, get more done with two. Now, anyone who's ever signed up to clean the church and done it alone, you know that's true, right? It's true. It's better to have someone else. By the way, I would always sign up with someone else or invite someone else. It just goes way faster, and it's way more enjoyable. You get more done. You get out of here quicker. It's way better. And by the way, that's a plug. There's a sign-up sheet in the back. It's kind of obvious, right, that there is more production when two are working rather than just one. There just is. You've hopefully taught that to your own children with chores and being involved in stuff. It's not stuff you want to do, but you need to do it. And if it's just you doing it, it's going to take you way more time than if you include them. This is obvious. Solomon continues, for if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But what are the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up? In other words, there's great assistance. There's great help that you have in each other, this kind of mutual support. Another benefit is found in verse 11. If two lie down together, they keep warm. But how can one be warm alone? Now, blankets are great, but body heat works way better. It just does. A blanket, in addition, can't talk to you or encourage you along the way, right? And so there is this sense, you know, it's kind of this image of this person who's on a journey in the ancient Near East, and the reality is two are better than one in terms of their labor, two is better than one in terms of keeping warm. Two is better than one. The next thing he says is in verse 12, because if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist, and even three is better, right? This idea of providing protection, that makes sense on this unlit desert journey in the Middle East. You could get robbed. We remember the story of the Good Samaritan. Two would have been better than one in that situation if there are two instead of just the one guy because they provide better protection. You know, we do this with our children. We want them to be in pairs for their safety. And then Solomon says the oft misused wedding passage. Maybe you had it in your wedding. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart. I just want to encourage you don't spiritualize that too much. This isn't talking about the Trinity. It's not talking about the husband, the wife, and the Lord, though, I mean, for obvious reasons, that's important, right? Just not in this passage. It's just basic arithmetic, right? The threefold court is simply a statement that we all know to be true in the most dangerous and difficult situations, and for everything from work to warfare, There is comfort, success, and safety in numbers, right? Community. Someone once referred to Ecclesiastes as inspired arithmetic. Because in verses one through three, Solomon says zero is better than one in that situation, right? Better to not even exist than to be under oppression, right? And then in verses four through six, we read one handful, is better than two. Then in verses 7 through 12, we find that two are better than one and three is even better, right? And so you have this, this movement in terms of numbers. Solomon says, listen, if you're looking for meaning in labor, meaningful production, it won't come in rivalry or laziness or being a workaholic or even just working for yourself. It comes in contentment and it comes in companionship. For in it, you find help and comfort and protection. Now, you can apply that in a lot of different ways. You can apply that to marriage, certainly, right? As Genesis 2, it's not good for man to be alone. I'll make him a suitable helper. Certainly marriage, no, I find that to be true. Just on the journey of life, it's nice to have a faithful friend, right? One that doesn't fail or leave or bail or any of that stuff, right? And so it's good to have that kind of companionship, a friendship. Right? That concept of a band of brothers, right? Or sisters, if you're a lady. Right? This concept of a band of brothers who are encouraging you and building you up. Even community in the church, that certainly should be true. The fact that we need one another. Scripture speaks abundantly about that. That we can't say we have no need of the nose if we're an ear or an eye or whatever it might be. We need each other. There's wisdom. There is benefits to our companionship and our being together. And so, Solomon alleviates some of that. In verses 13 to 16, it provides another lesson. Listen to what he says. He says, A poor yet wise lad is better than an old and foolish king who no longer knows how to receive instruction. For he has come out of prison to become king, even though he was born poor in his kingdom. I have seen all the living under the sun to the side of the second lad who replaces him. There is no end to all the people, to all who were before them, and even the ones who will come later will not be happy with him. For this too is vanity and striving after the wind." What is he talking about here? You could go a couple of different directions. I would say this, the fading nature of popularity, the fading nature of popularity, you could even say the fading or fleeting nature of politics, since he's talking about two kings, right? But let's be honest, humanity constantly dreams of some sort of utopia on earth, right? I mean, it's happening in our own country right now. These fanciful ideas of what would it mean if the rich paid for everything for the poor, right? These fanciful ideas of what would happen if they paid their fair share, then all the rights, all the injustices would be done away with. But, you know, as we see injustices of the world, as you see the rivalry and the greed and the oppression, And you think to yourself, man, if we can only get the right ruler, or if we can only get the right government set up, or the right fill in the blank, the right economy, right? Nations have done this, generation after generation, political regime after political regime. People seeking solutions to the problems of humanity, both socially and morally. And they will expend immense wealth and power on attempting to right all of society's wrongs. And every attempt meets failure at some juncture, right? Every quote-unquote great society comes to a time when it all collapses and the advances of decades disappear. And so Solomon tells this story in verses 13 to 16. It's an honest observation. I don't think he's talking about himself here, or any historical person in particular. But the story is straightforward enough. There are two kings. The first king was an old monarch, and yet he was unexpectedly foolish. I say that because usually in wisdom literature, it's the aged who have more wisdom. But I would caution you, it's not always the case. Just because you're old doesn't mean you're wise. This king clogged his ears to the advice of others. He ruled alone and thus he ruled foolishly. I mean, perhaps you could think older folks who often can get in this point of view that thinks their way is the only way, their way is the best way, and they don't like change. They're going to be a difficulty in taking instruction. I'm not nailing any particular person, by the way. I'm just saying that can be true, right? That can be true. It can be true of 46-year-olds as well. But the second king who succeeded the first king. I mean, this guy lived the American dream. He went from rags to riches. He went from the poor house, or literally the prison house, to the White House. And yet, notice how Solomon ends this, verse 16. There is no end to all the people, to all who are before them, and even the ones who will come later will not be happy with him. Despite the large following the young king received, what is Solomon saying? Brother, if you don't know it now, you better figure it out. People are fickle. They're not always going to like you. They may like you now, but tomorrow? I think we're experiencing that in our own nation, right? We are. We're experiencing it. We're seeing it. Popularity rose, and now it's gone. in a hundred days or less. Numbers are no guarantee of popularity because people in the end are fickle. A ruler can quickly be left behind for the next ruler who comes along. As quickly as they ran to him, they will run against him. One commentator put it this way, the whims of the masses and the reign of the wise are as momentary as the direction of the wind. I love that. The whims of the masses and the reign of the wise are as momentary as the direction of the wind. It's a painful lesson, but popularity is fading. It just is, it's fleeting. Even the praise of praiseworthy politicians eventually evaporates. And I'll just say this as a point of application. Teenagers, you guys are not political giants, but you put a lot on popularity, you know, on friends. Take a deep breath. You won't even know them in five years. And I'm just honest, you just won't. People are fickle, and by the way, we move around. And these things that seem like, man, it's just, this is so important. I need them to see I'm cool, you know, and I'm popular, it's fleeting. You're gonna get chubby and out of shape like the rest of us. Listen, it just happens. Get over it. That kind of popularity. Right? It's fleeting, it is fading, it won't last. It reminds me of the rags to riches of Joseph in Egypt in Genesis, right? Not to say that his life was easy, it wasn't, but you read in the very opening chapters of Exodus that a new king arose over Egypt and it says this, who did not know Joseph. How could you forget Joseph? He saved you! Big time! He saved your nation, or God, through him, right? Forgotten. Forgotten. This is where Solomon leaves us at the end of Ecclesiastes 4, staring at this what's-his-face king, as we listen to that now all too familiar refrain, for this too is vanity, striving after the wind. By the way, he doesn't provide any relief for this one. He just observes, this is what happens in a sin-sick world. oppression and abuse of power with little comfort for the exploited. He sees rivalry and greed and people spending themselves in the pursuit of gain at the expense of community and companionship. He sees having people in their lives to support and help and protect. He sees the fickleness of man who have these ideals for this utopian society, but they have no ability to carry it out because they're way too flighty. They're too whim-driven. The popularity of one politician is quickly lost to the next one. And you realize this, Solomon bemoaned this very reality about the entirety of our life. We're born, we labor, we live, we die. We're forgotten. That's what he said. Our life is fleeting, it's temporary. Do you feel the weight of that? Or maybe the emptiness of it all? If you do, I think you're experiencing what Solomon hoped you would. Because man, if all you're looking at is at the horizontal, you're gonna be lost. You're gonna be in misery. The emptiness of this world devoid of a sovereign God, the senselessness of a world without God who gives meaning to life. What does the atheist answer to the abuse of power, the injustices of the world? They only have one. It stinks for you. That's all they can say. What meaning does he provide for our labor here on earth, or even the purpose to our fleeting lives? After all, we're just the result of random mutations over billions of years of mindless, purposeless chance. It's only the Christian worldview that says, as that great old hymn, this is my father's world. Oh, let me ne'er forget that though the wrongs seem off so strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my father's world. Why should my heart be sad? The Lord is king. Let the heavens ring. God reigns. Let the earth be glad. You take God out of the equation, you lose that. And Solomon knows that. He's come to see that. It is only in his acknowledgement of the Lord and his judgment that Solomon finds any meaning. In the meantime, he moves us through the sludge of this fallen world. So let us feel both the weight and yet be encouraged that this is indeed our Father's world. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for Solomon's brutal honesty, his raw observation, even his way of making us squirm in being uncomfortable with the way he's seeing things, and yet, Lord, we know from progressive revelation and even at the end of Ecclesiastes that it won't always be like this. There is a king and he rules. There is a king and he has ordered all things. There's a time for all things under the sun. And though the things that we see in this world seem off so strong and so wicked, you are indeed the ruler yet. Help that to be etched into our minds and our hearts. May that be the song of our days. May we rest upon your sovereign rule and reign and your promise to make all things right. Help us to trust you, we pray in your name. Amen.