We are, by God's grace, returning tonight to something that we haven't taken up in quite some time, Ecclesiastes. I had been from time to time preaching through that and we had made it all the way through the third verse of chapter 10, beginning from 1.1. It's been some time and I'd like us to pick that up again tonight and we're willing also in coming months Tonight, I'd like us to look at chapter 10, Ecclesiastes 10, verses 4 to 7. I'm talking a little bit here so you can remember how to get to Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 10, 4. Good, buddy. You can look at 10, 4 through verse 7. And I would like to, Brother Van Vuren, the title I've changed the title. I gave the pastor this earlier in the week and I just wrote this. It's a different title. So it's a particular interest to you, I think. It's called Faithful, Humble Living in Foolish, Harsh Times. Faithful, Humble Living in Foolish, Harsh Times. Let's hear God's word. If the spirit of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your post, for conciliation pacifies great offenses. There is an evil I have seen under the sun as an error proceeding from the ruler. Folly is set in great dignity, while the rich sit in a lowly place. I have seen servants on horses, while princes walk on the ground like servants. Thus far, God's holy word. May he bless it to each heart. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, do guide us now as we approach this wisdom. Grant us such, Father. We may walk in wisdom all the days of our lives through Christ, who is wisdom incarnate. Amen. The Lord of Misrule was the title bestowed usually by lot on some servant during the pagan Roman Saturnalia festival. It was a portion of the festival in which the servant would preside this Lord of Misrule over a short session of misrule in which all was turned topsy-turvy, and among other things, masters became servants, and vice versa. There was a lot of debauchery, there were all sorts of things that went on, but particularly there was this turning of the tables. This practice continued in the Christmas festival in England, which was sort of taken over, Saturnalia, and elsewhere, though it was condemned by the church. The pagans and Christians, everybody recognized the backwardness of this misrule festival, And this is why it was seen as so outrageous. Well, here we have, in no small measure, in Ecclesiastes 10, 5-7, a story of similar misrule. So this is not unfamiliar in the whole broader literature. Fools ruling, while those who are gifted are reduced to serving. That, taken together with verse 4, paints a picture for us of harsh and foolish rule. How is such rule to be met by the godly? Well, here is the lesson and theme that we would draw then from these verses, Ecclesiastes 10, 4 to 7. Harsh, foolish rule should be met by humble, faithful response. Harsh, foolish rule should be met by a humble, faithful response, seen as we examine, first of all, the curse of foolish leaders And then secondly, the call for faithful followers. The curse of foolish leaders and the call for faithful followers. The curse of foolish leaders. What do we mean, you might ask, by foolish or harsh and foolish leaders? Well, foolish leaders, verse six, are those who lack wisdom. They may even be smart or rich. But they have no discretion in applying whatever gifts they may have. They're morally unskillful. That's really, if you recall, what the fool is here. And this moral unskillfulness, of course, renders him unfit really for service or glorifying God, even though he may be very smart or in other ways gifted. Morally unskillful, not knowing how to apply experience to knowledge to arrive at wisdom, which again is the formula here in all of this wisdom literature, here in Proverbs particularly. Such are often impulsive. flailing about so as to do something. You know how people sometimes a crisis is presented or some immediate situation and people are up flatter and somebody says, will somebody do something? Well, the fool is the leader who does something simply rather than saying, oh, but wait, here's what we're going to do. We're going to think this through. We're going to be patient. But this one who is a fool just does something. The foolish are those suited not for high, but only for low places, meant, as verse six says, to be followers or servants not having or rightly using gifts, temperament and other things necessary for leaders. The picture here in verses five to seven is clearly one of those out of their place. That's the picture here. More specifically, this is a picture of perhaps a ruler who makes an error. Notice there in verse 5, there is an evil I've seen under the sun as an error proceeding from the ruler. The ruler has made a serious blunder and the thought here is that he has appointed a fool to rule. I'm not trying to rhyme there. Perhaps a monarch, in other words, appointing a fool to be a cabinet minister. Or, in a republic, you say, well, we don't have such. It could be the people electing someone unwise, or someone who is elected, thus appointing unwisely. I know none of us can imagine any of this, so I'm just trying to describe this in a way you can imagine what the text is getting at here. For any listening on Sermon Audio, we are in the state of Illinois, but anyway, we'll just let it go at that. An unseemly selection. This is what we have here, an unseemly selection made by a ruler who passes over those who are, notice here it says rich, but that rich there would be taken to mean rich in gifts or rich in judgment, not simply rich in material wealth, though that wouldn't be excluded. Because material wealth may well have a play. In other words, would someone be properly thought to administer a treasury who hadn't in some way well administered his own and perhaps knew how to administer a significant amount of wealth? We, of course, look in terms of qualifications for office that one must manage his own household before he is given to manage the household of God. And so of course it would make sense that one manage affairs in a variety of ways with some demonstrated skill before being elevated to manage the public affairs. Well, what misrule it is? for servants to ride. Again, that's what you have in verse 7, this picture. This picture of misrule. The servants riding. The foolish are like the princes. And for the princes to walk. Those who should lead are reduced to servitude. We see this sort of thing in government. We see this sort of thing in the workplace. Perhaps nepotism. Nepotism literally is the appointing of one's nephew. But it doesn't simply mean that. It means the appointing of one's relative. Now, it's not nepotism to appoint a competent relative. But it's appointing someone to a place because they're your relative, though incompetent. Or favoritism of some other sort. A person being put into a position. I remember very keenly at one particular point in my father's career where he had been put into a position of some authority over some others, and the man who was over him, he had a very, very difficult time. Now, I wasn't thinking about this when I say the man over him. I see somebody here who actually works for me, so don't listen too closely here. But I recall what a difficult time it was that this person clearly was incompetent and knew nothing. about the position, but had been put there because of favoritism. And that was a very difficult situation to work in. Or even in the home, this sort of incompetence in the home, where, say, the children are calling the shots. God has created an order, and it's to be observed, or all is topsy-turvy and misrule. That's what the preacher here, Solomon, recognizes. Well, such backwardness is a curse. Verse 5. There is an evil I've seen under the sun. And this error that proceeds from the ruler that sets folly where it oughtn't to be and witnesses servants riding and princes walking is an evil, as verse 5 says, under the sun. It's expressive, isn't it, in some way or another of the rebellion and folly of Adam and of Satan before him. Think about that. What folly for Adam to think that he knew better and could better decide for his life than God. I mean, isn't that what that was about? Isn't that a sort of attempt at misrule? Isn't that the temptation of Satan? Grab the reins and call your own shots. Write your own ticket. Don't listen to him. You're in charge of your destiny. And Satan before him not only wanted to manage his own affairs, but we know from Ezekiel and Isaiah, we read that he said, I would be exalted above God. He wanted to sit as God. He wanted to be God. We've been turning things topsy-turvy ever since, haven't we? It's more than a little ironic that we seek to cure our sin by what caused our misery in the first place. Do you think about this? We rebelled and that plunged us into sin and to pain. Separation from God and each other, which we seek to ease by more rebellion, which only deepens our pain. You think of you think of the condition of man in his rebellion, and how does he respond? How does man respond? I mean, just look about you, pick up the paper, look in your own heart. And our response is, there's this fire, quit, give me some gasoline. Let me throw more gasoline on the fire. I'm alienated from God and my fellow man, so let me do that, which furthers the alienation. Man's entire program, the building of the Tower of Babel, that's about furthering the alienation. It's indeed an evil under the sun, isn't it? It's such a ruler, verse 4, as verse 4 speaks of, an unwise one, a harsh one, whose spirit is roused to persecution. It's this one set in a position A fool set in dignity who indeed, we read in verse four, is that one who rises against you. The implication here is clearly unjustly rises against you. I mean, this doesn't mean you've done something worthy of opposition. No, it means you haven't. This speaks of the spirit of the ruler rising unjustly without proper cause against you. And then the temptation that then comes to leave one's post. In verse 4 you say we have another picture similar to 5-7 of this unworthy ruler whose anger is aroused against the innocent. It seems particularly here to depict a monarch or other ruler who is angry with a courtier or a civil servant. That's the picture for no good reason. like a boss or a parent who is unjustly irate and would rain judgment down on their victims. When fools rule, they persecute the wise, calling good evil and evil good, all of which is a curse, and we are likely at some point to suffer persecution for such unjustified anger. What do we do when fools rule? And perhaps these same fools who We don't think should be dog catcher. You know, sometimes we'll look at a politician and say, well, do you think that person should be a representative or a senator or whatever? And you say, I don't think they should be dog catcher. We all understand what that means. They don't have it. Well, what do we do when these fools are unjustly harsh with you as a civil servant or when a boss is with you as an employee? Despair? Give up? Quit? Well, the call for faithful followers here arises. Now, we've been thinking about the curse, the curse of foolish leaders, foolish and harsh leaders, but here the call for faithful followers arises because harsh, foolish rule should be met by a humble, faithful response. Please hear this, and please hear it in the proper context. Not certainly, first of all. Harsh, foolish rule should not be met, first of all, by revolution or leaving your post. Now, we have to hear this carefully as Americans, as 21st century Westerners, people living in the Western world particularly. The picture here, as we see in verse 4, is perhaps that of a courtier or a civil servant who is suffering under harsh, foolish rules. Shouldn't he just bail out? No. No, Solomon says, stay at your post. Anger begets anger. It's so easy in a situation that's gone awry or going awry to throw in the towel and say, I'm done. to pity ourselves and to believe that we're owed the relief of a quick exit. I'm out of here and we dream, we fantasize about seeing this institution in our rear view mirror as we go by, by, driving away, looking at that gate receding into the past. I'm not coming back here. You know anything like that? Now, as is true in all proverbial instructions, this is proverbial literature, we have to remember something. And it's been a while since we've talked about this, so I just remind you that this is not Torah, this is not the law, but it's Chokmah, it's wisdom. And it does not equally apply in all cases. A lot of people just frankly don't know how to read this, to be very blunt. I mean, even Torah says, for example, thou shalt not unjustly kill. That's what the word really means in the Hebrew. I mean, the word doesn't mean that there are no circumstances in which one may kill. We understand that there are in terms of self-defense or justified war or the state executing someone. There are circumstances in which these things may be carried out, but all unjust killing. And the Bible defines that. All unjust killing is forbidden, as well as adultery and stealing and lying and coveting. We know the things in the second table now particularly we're talking about. But that's not what you have in wisdom literature. You have wisdom literature setting forth some cases, giving you some illustrations. And I simply say this to say that Paul, who says to be content. He's learned in whatsoever state he is to be content. He also says to the Corinthians in chapter 7 that they can serve God in any lawful calling. You remember the Corinthians are concerned, well, we're Christians now, Paul! What do we do? We've got wives or husbands that don't believe. We've got these jobs. We must Leave our wives or husbands, I guess, huh? Or quit our jobs?" And Paul's like, no, no. Stay with your wives and husbands if they're willing to stay with you, basically. And then he says, your job, no. You don't need to leave it. But he says at the same time, if you can better your circumstance or situation, and he's particularly talking about slaves. If you can gain your freedom, well, go ahead. But I mean, if you can't, that's not as if you can't serve. So, I mean, there are other things in scriptures. Keddie says about this that Kohelet, Kohelet, you recall, is the speaker. Solomon isn't saying that we should all be doormats and let everything go by without a word. But grace and practical wisdom can be allies, he says. Why stoke the fire when it is already overheating? So, other places in the scriptures would address how one may or even should, in some cases, oppose an unjust leader. You might say, but if the spirit of the ruler is unjustly worked up, shouldn't you in some way seek to correct that? Perhaps so, and in right circumstances. This isn't saying that can't be done. But let me submit to you that what is being said here is either an option that we often think little about or don't care to take. And we need to think about it. And we need to hear it. We need to hear what is being enjoined on us here. The first response, the first response, and as I say we need to hear this in our highly mobile, self-centered, readily rebellious culture, should not be to leave. at the sign of trouble, but to stay at one's post and to do so as long as possible. Self-centeredness often masquerades as idealism. Some people excuse leaving post frequently. Well, I guess I'm just an idealist or I guess I'm just a perfectionist. Well, maybe you're a hothead. Maybe you need to think a little bit more. Maybe you need to read this and really think about it. And that's why I say this doesn't apply equally in every situation. But think about Ecclesiastes 10.4. How might this apply in my situation? What might God be saying to me? How might this truly be very helpful? If the spirit of the rule arises against you, do not leave your post, for conciliation pacifies great offenses, humility, in other words. And again, I know the pastor has been mentioning that lately, and I just wanted to go on in Proverbs and I mean, excuse me, sorry to keep saying Proverbs. It's very similar literature, Ecclesiastes. And I really wasn't thinking about this theme so much being there, but it's there. It's very clearly there. Humility is very much here. A faithful following is called for. Humility, bowing, submitting with contentment is possible, you see, only when we have a perspective greater than an under the sun one. Now, that helps us to think about this. This is an evil under the sun. A harsh ruler, a foolish ruler is not. We're not here celebrating tonight. Harsh, foolish rulers, they're not to be celebrated. They're an evil under the sun. But thanks be to God. What is under the sun does not define our existence as a whole, because we know him who is above. We have our hearts set on things above. There our treasure is. Not where thieves can break in and steal or moth or rust corrupt. No, we have an incorruptible treasure, an inheritance undefiled, Peter says, that fades not away, reserved for us in heavenly places. We have an eternal treasure that permits us to say what Luther said as we sang it earlier. today, let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also, the body they may kill, God's truth abideth still. That's what we have. That's what we have. And so, you see, we can submit in this way and exercise humility because we have a perspective greater than a mirror under the sun one. Yes, as verse 5 says, you may encounter what is truly evil under the sun in government, in your family, among your neighbors, on your job. What are you going to do? That comes very clearly. Do you quit? Murmur? I can't take this. Well, tell the Lord you can't take it and continue on. You know him who is above the sun and thus you can be empowered to endure, to not leave your post, to press on. Because things below are not ultimate, but He is. And again, I didn't really think about this too much, but maybe this particularly needs to be heard now. I mean, now, if you've ever been, in all honesty, a bit prickly, a bit of the type who's quick to say, I quit. This probably isn't a good economy to do that in. This stuff is very practical. It isn't practical to say, I quit. In this economy. I'm of the school. Is this in the Bible? Well, I think it's savers of this kind of wisdom, you know, and my father always said, you don't quit a job unless you've got another one. You know, you don't quit a job unless you've got another one, and that's similar kind of of a sanctified wisdom that we find here. This is how you can live. You can live this way because, well, it's what you're called to in Romans 12 that the pastor read, right? As peaceably as possible with all men, as much as lies in you. How? Because you know him. This is how you can do it. You can live, as Paul said, and as Jesus. This is a big theme of the Sermon on the Mount. In the face of harshness, humility, Jesus has turned the other cheek. Go the extra mile. You know, so often we spend a lot of time saying, well, the Sermon on the Mount doesn't mean this or that or the other. The Sermon on the Mount really does mean that we and our personal dealings are to conduct ourselves with this kind of radical humility. I'm not so sure we in the reformed faith have come to good terms with that. I mean, we look at our Anabaptist friends and we see how they take it. And of course, that means for them the dissolution of government, really. Absolute pacifism and all that. And we say, well, it doesn't mean that, does it? You know, and I've spent my fair share of time saying what it doesn't mean. But what does it mean? It must mean something. Think about it. Jesus' sermon on the mount. And he goes on at length about turning the other cheek. And they want your coat. You give them the cloak. He doesn't say you put up your dukes and you show them who's boss. He doesn't say that. He says the opposite. I'm not sure we take that very seriously. Maybe it's just me in the flesh. I have to really hear that. Maybe you all do. I mean, I'm just. Maybe I just have to really have it banged into my head. This does not come natural to me. What comes natural to me is if it looks like somebody wants a fight, I'm more than happy to give them one. That's not what we find in the Sermon on the Mount. Well. We know mercy is really what's being said. If you think of the way that the attitudes come in, right? We know mercy. That's we can show it to others. That's the reason we don't have to fight everybody. Because if there was a fight to be had, we're the ones to be fought and God could whip us real easy. That's what he wanted to do. Well, why, you might say, why, why ought we? To not just bolt. Why aren't we to stay at our post? Well, pastor, you just told us because God commands it. Yes. And, you know, it might even be better for us. It might be better for our health or our blood pressure. To live in this way, yes, but verse 4C gives us a real reason, even in addition to many others you might could think of. It says conciliation pacifies great offenses. In other words, healing, the word there is really healing, brings peace where there is great strife. So an attitude of gentleness, of meekness, of humility can bring peace where there's great strife. Your godly humility and patience might actually be able to bring healing to a situation of great hurt. This is true. But we disbelieve it. And we cynically, faithlessly can't be bothered to practice or even try it. Or we justify our not doing it by saying, if I'm like that, he'll run me over. I'll be dead. We need to think about this. There's a lot of places that says this in Scriptures. Proverbs 15.1 says a soft answer can turn away wrath. I don't know about you, but I need to practice that a lot more. Do we believe the Bible? Now, you say, yeah, but you said the Proverbs, that doesn't mean in every case you would give a soft answer. I agree with that. I agree with that, you know. This is not a brief for Neville Chamberlain. All right. We understand this. But we, I'm just very convinced we spend so much time telling ourselves what the exceptions are to some of these things that we never quite get around to saying we're being told something here that we need to really listen to. We really need to listen to this. We need to humble ourselves. We often fail in patience and we excuse it when it all goes further awry by claiming it would not have ever worked to begin with. Paul says to the believing party, let's go back to 1 Corinthians 7 for just a minute in our minds. Remember, he says to the believing party, no, well, don't just leave the unbeliever. I mean, if they leave you and don't want to stay, they can go in peace. But if they're well pleased to dwell with you, he says, basically, how do you know that you might not win them over? Again, he doesn't say, surely you will. I mean, he doesn't put a law down there and say, you know, if you continue living with this difficult, unbelievable, they're going to become a believer. He doesn't say that. But he says, how do you know? How do you know what might not happen here? Let's rather be committed in every situation, as I think this verse would urge us, to bit by bit, patiently going forward in all of our difficulties, in all of our dealings. And if you're going to fail, let failure be in that way. Do you get it? See, a lot of times we fail and we say, see, that didn't work. I had somebody say once to me, see, the soft approach didn't work. And I said, could you show me where you took that? I must have missed it. I didn't see it. That was a soft approach. You know, sort of like, wow, boy, I'd hate to have seen the hard one. No, we really, you know, that did work. Why don't we, why don't we approach it this way? And then we've done what we can do. See, this is saying when the trouble comes, verse four, I know you want to get out of Dodge, but don't just do that. Don't bail out. Stay there and stay there with the knowledge that you could bring by your humble patience a kind of healing into the situation. And, you know, I mean, In more recent years, I've seen this. I look back on some early ministry and some things that happened in early ministry, and I say, I was at fault here. I wasn't meaning to be at fault. I was upholding righteousness. But I wasn't patient enough. And I jumped the gun. And maybe I could have told myself, well, I didn't jump it as bad as this guy did. OK. You get an award, I guess. But I jumped it enough. And of course, a lot of people, you have people and church leaders have to be very careful. They cannot give way even to other church leaders who say, come on, we've got to get on with this. A lot of times the get on with this argument isn't very good. We need to be very patient. Do you realize how patient God is with everybody in this room? Do you realize it? I mean, you all deserve the flaming fire of hell and me too. And he's remarkably patient with us, more than we can ever give words to. And yet, you know, the ruler's mad. He's mad. It's unjust. I have every right to leave my post. Yeah, OK, well, don't leave your post. For conciliation pacifies great offenses. Yeah, this is all theoretical, I know. We far too quickly chafe under harsh, foolish rule and we want to throw it off as if we're always so wise. You know, you have to think, well, what about the people under my rule? God help them. God have mercy on them. If we would realize that ultimately we wear his mild yoke and can give him our heavy burden. Perhaps we would increasingly discover the beauty and joy of meeting harsh, foolish rule with a humble, faithful response. Amen. Our Father, we really have a great deal to learn, and we acknowledge here tonight we've only just begun. So, Father, we pray that you would bless us in this. Teach us more and more. how to respond to each other, those within the household of faith and those outside of the household of faith, and how to even respond to harsh, foolish rumors over us. Lord, teach us the patience and the humility of faithfully serving and of making being willing to make a faithful contribution and to understand and to see, as we have seen in a variety of cases, how you do use this to turn situations around. We often act as if you don't or you want, but we're just not willing to do it. Grant us such, Father. Teach us this word in Jesus name. Amen.