As you take your seats, open with me to the book of Ecclesiastes. We have made it now to the fourth chapter of Ecclesiastes, and we'll be looking at the whole chapter this evening, Lord willing, 16 verses. And so I'll go ahead and read the whole chapter, and then we'll begin to go through it little by little. So let's read Ecclesiastes chapter 4, beginning in verse 1. Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the 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, who has never seen the evil activity that is done under the sun. 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 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. 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 thronged to the side of the second lad who replaces him. There is no end to all the people, to all who were before him, and even the ones who will come later will not be happy with him, for this too is vanity and striving after the wind." Amen. This is the word of the Lord. I mentioned when we began this series a number of weeks ago that Ecclesiastes is often considered the oddball of the scriptures. A lot of times it gets a bad rap. It's chapters like four, like chapter four of Ecclesiastes that give it a bad rap. It's often considered a depressing book and it's not hard to see why when we read chapter four. Better is the one who's dead. No, no, no. Better yet, even better than the one who's dead, is the one who never existed. Not exactly a word of encouragement to us tonight. There are hard sayings in the book of Ecclesiastes, hard things to make sense of. But God, through the book of Ecclesiastes, has a particular aim. He wants us, as we read Solomon's observations of life in this fallen world, he wants us to take a realistic, hard look at the reality of suffering, the reality of the transient nature of life, the reality of life under the sun in a world that has been cursed because of sin. And so as we read through the book of Ecclesiastes, we come across things that are very hard to understand, things that are very hard to deal with, And yet we also find that it's in dealing with those very things, having to get down into the real life, nitty gritty, hard details of life, that the book also begins to guide us into a path of joy, even in a broken, painful world. That's what Ecclesiastes 4 is doing for us this evening. It paints for us a realistic picture of a world full of problems. A world full of pain, a world that doesn't function the way that it was originally designed to function. And yet it reminds us that even in a world like that, there's a way to find happiness. There's a way to find joy and peace. Really what Solomon is doing in chapter four is continuing his discussion from chapter three. If you were here a couple of weeks ago when Anthony preached from chapter three, You remember that one of the conclusions Solomon reached was essentially, you know, the best thing you could do in your life is simply to enjoy whatever station of life God has placed you in. If you look back at chapter three, verse 12, up to this point, Solomon has described the various situations of life, the seasons of life. There's a season for this, there's a season for that. They come, they go, he says, all of them are in the sovereign hand of God. We have no control over them. You and I cannot make a season last longer than God intends it to. We can't make it pass more quickly than God intends it to. Every season of life is in the hands of a sovereign God. And so Solomon says in conclusion, in verse 12, I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one's lifetime. Moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor. It is the gift of God. He says something similar down at the end of the chapter in verse 22. I have seen that nothing is better than that man should be happy in all his activities, for that is his lot. There's nothing better for you, Solomon says, than for you to simply be happy in all of your activities in the particular season and station in which God has placed you in life. The temptation is to trouble ourselves with questions, uncertainties, the future, the past, the season we wish we were in, the season we wish we weren't in. It's easy for ourselves to raise all sorts of questions about the now, but Solomon says the best thing you could do is to trust and obey, to rest in the sovereign determination of your God, and to be happy in the situation that God has placed you in, being thankful for the things that he's given you. But he admits that's not an easy thing to do. I think that goes without saying for most of us, we know that it's not an easy thing to do to be happy in our circumstances, at least not always. A couple of weeks ago, Anthony raised the question that's raised in chapter three, what about wickedness? What about injustice? If God is sovereign and we're called to find enjoyment in every season of life because we know he's sovereign, then how do we deal with wickedness? What do we do with that? How can a sovereign God who has control of all seasons, all circumstances, allow wickedness to be in the world? And so there was a problem that had to be dealt with. Solomon deals with it ultimately by reminding us that God is also the judge, both of the righteous and the wicked. And even though there may be wicked in this life, God will bring them to judgment. But there are more problems that Solomon now brings up in chapter four that make it difficult to enjoy life. Makes it difficult to find happiness right here, right now, in the season that God's placed us in. So chapter four then is really a continuation of this discussion from Solomon. How can we be happy? How can we find joy in life when the world is so full of problems? And in chapter four, he outlines at least four different main problems that need to be addressed as we think about finding joy in this life. There are four problems listed in chapter four. The first three verses have to do with the problem of oppression. Verses four to six have to do with the problem of rivalry. Verses seven to 12 have to do with the problem of isolation, loneliness. Verses 13 to 16 have to do with the problem of fickle leadership. I thought since Anthony used the word fickle Sunday, I will use it again tonight. Fickle leadership is the last problem in verses 13 to 16. So how can we find happiness and joy as Solomon tells us to do in a world full of problems. First of all, how do we find it in a world full of oppression? Look with me at verses one to three. Once more, we'll read those together. Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the 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. Let's stop there for now. So Solomon is, he uses this phrase often throughout the book of Ecclesiastes in one way or another, then I looked. So if you look at the first couple words of chapter 4, verse 1, then I looked. In other places in Ecclesiastes, he says, I have seen, or I see. That phrase, whether it's, then I looked, or I have seen, or I see, is used by Solomon almost 20 times in the book of Ecclesiastes. And it gives us the idea of what Solomon's doing. Basically, Solomon is standing at ground level on the earth, under the sun. He's looking at life on the earth as everyone experiences it, whether godly or ungodly, righteous or unrighteous. Life under the sun is life that all of us experience. And Solomon is looking out at that life and he's making certain observations about it. And in this case, as he looks out at life in a fallen world, he sees oppression. Three times we read of oppression in verse one. I saw all the acts of oppression. I saw the tears of the oppressed. On the side of their oppressors was power. Three times he talks about oppression. The powerful inflicting affliction or suffering upon the less powerful. That's what oppression is. And so Solomon looks out and he sees the pain, he sees the tears and the suffering of the powerless as they suffer at the hands of the powerful. And yet in all of their tears and all of their suffering, they have no one to comfort them, Solomon says. Over in Lamentations in chapter one, as Jeremiah explains his own sorrow over the collapse of the city, he says in verse 16, For these things, I weep. My eyes run down with water because far from me is a comforter, one who restores my soul. As the tears run down Solomon's face, he says, I have nobody, there is absolutely no one on the earth who can come to my aid right now and offer me any measure of hope. There's no one who can restore my soul, Jeremiah says. And as Solomon looks out at the world and he witnesses the suffering of the oppressed, he comes to the same conclusion. The only people who would have power to deliver them in their particular instance are the very ones oppressing them. There's no one to comfort them. There's no one to give them relief from their affliction. They're in a miserably hopeless situation. And then Solomon draws a pretty surprising conclusion. in verses two to three, so I congratulated the dead who are already dead more than the living who are still alive. But better off than both of them is the one who has never existed, who has never seen the evil activity that is done under the sun. That is a surprising statement from Solomon. But as surprising as it is, I would imagine that it's not hard for us to understand where he's coming from. It doesn't take too much imagination on our part to understand what it is Solomon is communicating there. He is saying, the grief over the suffering of this world can be so severe at times that I would prefer to never have breathed a breath at all, to never have witnessed the kind of suffering that my eyes have seen. And I think, at least in some measure, we can relate to that. We can understand something of what Solomon is saying. The wicked, sinful world around us is full of acts of oppression. Things like spousal abuse and child abuse and slavery and sex trafficking and terrorism and genocide and the list could go on and on and on. I've made the mistake at times of reading the news headlines shortly before bed and coming across an article that has literally kept me up because of the agony of the suffering. I'm sure we've all had experiences like that. You come across something that makes you so sick in the deepest part of your gut because it is a situation of oppression and suffering that seems so utterly hopeless. As Solomon looks out at the world, he sees that sort of thing. And he draws the conclusion that at times, it seems almost better to have never lived at all. We have the benefit today of many distractions that Solomon perhaps didn't have. And we can easily divert our attention away from the acts of oppression in the world. We can pull out our phone and look up entertainment, which has its place in its proper context. But imagine if your eyes were so fixed on affliction and suffering in the lives of the people around you and you had no opportunity to look away. You just had to look and look and look at the suffering and the affliction and the oppression of life in this world. I think we would be led to a similarly despairing conclusion, at least at times, as Solomon's. So what's the solution to all of this? Why is Solomon wanting us to see that the oppressed have no comfort? No one to comfort them, no one to wipe away their tears. What's the solution to all of it? If you look at verses one to three, you'll find that there is no solution. At least none given in verses one to three. Solomon doesn't say, but it's going to be okay. Don't worry too much about oppression, it's only temporary. We know that that is in part the answer, but Solomon doesn't go there originally or immediately. The truth is, Solomon doesn't offer us any comfort in verses one to three. And his goal at this point, I believe, it seems, is to simply make us take an honest look at the real world, the real life experiences of the people around us, and to come to grips with the wickedness, the inescapable wickedness of a world that has been cast under sin. It's something that's necessary for all of us to do. It's necessary because it's only when we feel really experience in the depths of our souls something of the hopelessness and despair of the life that this world offers us, the life that many experience in this world, that we're more fully able to appreciate the hope of the gospel and the comfort of the gospel. David Gibson, in his commentary on Ecclesiastes, he points out something helpful looking forward to the life of Jesus. In Mark 7, there's the account of Jesus healing the man that was born blind, one of the men that was born blind. And in that account, we read that as Jesus healed this man and put his hands on this man, he looked up to heaven with a deep sigh. In Mark 8, we're told that Jesus was interacting with some of the Pharisees And there again, we read that in seeing the hardness of their hearts, he breathed a deep sigh. In Romans 8, when the Apostle Paul is talking about the curse that is upon this fallen world, he says that all of creation groans and suffers under the pains of childbirth until the redemption that will come at the return of Christ. The whole creation groans because of the curse, Paul says. And that word groan is the same word used of Jesus when he sighs deeply. There is a deep, groaning sigh that Jesus breathes when he considers the fallen condition of his world. Gibson draws the conclusion in His comments on those passages, he says, when the Lord Jesus came face to face with his good world, twisted out of shape, whether outwardly in damaged body or inwardly in calloused heart, he groaned at the curse. Making the application to our evangelism, Gibson says, as believers, we must never be trite and simplistic when relating the good news of Christ to a world of pain. Solomon wants us here in these verses to groan with Jesus at the oppression of a cursed world. He wants us to sigh deeply when we consider the pain of many, even in these moments in this world that we live in. Because doing so then helps us to understand just how desperately the world needs the hope and the comfort of the gospel. Let me pause there and make one clarifying statement. Perhaps none of you were going down this route, but it's worth clarifying that Solomon is not preaching a social gospel here, nor am I. He is not saying that man's greatest problem and his greatest need is to be relieved from human oppression. That would be what's called liberation theology. That man's greatest problem is that he's oppressed by others, and the gospel is the good news that Jesus brings deliverance from human oppression. That's not what Solomon is saying. The greatest need that every person has, whether in the place of the oppressor, or in the place of the oppressed, or in neither of those two places, the greatest need that everyone has is the forgiveness of sins, because we are all guilty, and reconciliation to a just and holy God. So Solomon is not preaching a social gospel, but he is reminding us that there is a world full of hurt and the only answer for that world is ultimately found in the gospel. The world has no answer for suffering. Not any real answer. Can't give any real comfort. There's no hope either for the oppressed or the oppressor if all we consider is life under the sun. The only conclusion we can really draw is what Solomon says in verses two and three. But the gospel does provide the answers to a world full of suffering. And it offers the only true source of comfort in a world full of oppression. It offers us the love and the grace of a God who would send his son into the world to deliver the guilty, like us, whether we're oppressed or the oppressor. And it's in the message of the gospel, then, that whether oppressed or not, we find comfort The Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. The Apostle Paul, in the context of the mercies that flow through Jesus Christ, wants us to know Whether there is someone in this world to comfort you right now or not, there is a God of all comfort who can comfort you. Whether you can find comfort in life under the sun right now or not, there is a God who loves you and who sent his son to die for you, who cares about you, and who gives comfort to you by his grace. And so when there is no comfort to be found under the sun, when we're tempted to despair even of life as Solomon is here, we're reminded that there is a God who meets us in our affliction with the comfort that flows through Christ. So that's the first problem that Solomon deals with, chapter four, the problem of oppression. We can enjoy God even in a world full of oppression because God remains the God of comfort. But then secondly, there's the problem of rivalry. If you look at verses four to six, the problem of rivalry, 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. So look with me again at those verses. I want you to notice that there are three different positions of the hands talked about in those verses. The first position of the hands is mentioned in verse five, the fool folds his hands. Then the second is there's one hand full of rest. And then the third is two fists full of labor. So really there are three different kinds of people described in verses four to six. There's the man with his hands folded on his belly. There's the man with his fists, both fists, full of toil and labor. And then there's the man with one fist of rest. What Solomon is saying here is that we live in a world full of rivalry. Two fists full of labor, of striving, of toil, He says, every labor and every skill which is done is the result of rivalry between a man and his neighbor. That's the man with two fists full of striving after the wind. He works hard, he's diligent in his efforts, but his diligence is motivated by a desire to outdo his neighbor. It's motivated by envy and jealousy and rivalry. And yet rivalry, and the heart poisons almost everything we do. Our friendships become nothing more than another step in our own ladder. Even relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ can become nothing more than competition. Rivalry poisons everything that we do, no matter how much we labor, how diligently we pursue our goals. At the end of the day, it is vanity. James 3 says, where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. Where there is rivalry in the heart, there is every evil thing. If we see that our motives are rooted in a desire to prove ourselves better than our neighbor, or to possess what our neighbor has, or to outdo our neighbor out of an effort to prove ourselves, James says nothing good can come from that. Where rivalry is, where bitter jealousy is, where selfish ambition exists, there is every evil thing. Not only does it ruin relationships, but rivalry and envy is vanity because at the end of the day, we never achieve the thing that we're pursuing. No matter how far we make it in life, there's always something more to accomplish. And no matter how much we gain or what advantage we might gain over the person that we're attempting to outdo, there's always someone else who's one or two steps ahead of us. We might think we're better than this person, but then there's that person who's still one or two steps ahead of us, and so we have to pursue outdoing them with toil and striving after the wind. There's always something more we have to prove, something more we have to do when our motive is rivalry or envy. Proverbs 14.30, a sound heart is life to the body, but envy, rivalry, is rottenness to the bones." But then there's the second imagery here of the man in verse 5, the fool, who folds his hands. And the folding of the hands in the book of Proverbs is a reference to the sluggard. Proverbs 6, verses 9 to 11. How long will you lie down, oh sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. Your poverty will come like a vagabond, and your need like an armed man. That's what Solomon is describing here, the lazy man. This man's given up on the rat race and outdoing the Joneses. He's given up on all of that, or keeping up with the Joneses. He's done with all of that. He's not worried about proving himself. Instead, he's pretty much just decided to lay up at the house and rest, relax, do nothing, accomplish nothing, have no real drivenness, no real ambition. He's lazy. He folds his hands, and Solomon says he consumes his own flesh. In other words, he's lazy, so he's not gathered what he needs. He's not gathered the harvest. And once he eats what he has in his house, the only thing left for him to do is eat his own flesh. He's lazy, and he ends in poverty and destruction. So you've got the man with two fists striving after the wind. You've got the man with his hands folded across his belly in laziness. But then you've got the man with one fist full of rest, or one hand full of rest. One hand full of rest, verse six, is better than two fists full of labor and striving after the wind. The word rest there could be translated quietness. I think that's the way it's translated in the ESV. could be translated tranquility. It's the idea of quiet, restful contentment. So it's not the lazy person who's sitting back with his hands on his belly doing nothing, but it's also not the two-fisted person who's driven by selfish ambition and never rests because he's never satisfied. But instead, It's the person who, yes, works hard, fulfills his responsibilities, but isn't trying to attain anything beyond what the Lord has granted him. He quietly rests and trusts in the Lord's portion. Derek Thomas tells a story about Abraham Lincoln's sons. He says, Abraham Lincoln was walking down the street one day with his children, and his children began to fight with one another, as boys do, and an observer asked Abraham Lincoln, what's wrong with your boys? And Abraham Lincoln, after thinking for a moment, he said, it's what's wrong with all the world. I have three walnuts and my boys want two each. That's a picture of the world that we live in. Abraham Lincoln, he had three walnuts, he had two boys, and each of them wanted two walnuts. Rather than each child being content to be given the one and a half walnuts that could be evenly shared between the two, they were both toiling and laboring and striving against one another in order to get the two. They wanted to be the one who gets the two. And much of our misery in life is the result of following their example. Instead of resting content in what God has given us, in the lot, in the portion that God has given us. We strive after what he hasn't given us. To quote David Gibson again, he says, people normally think that to achieve contentment, you have to attain whatever it is you desire. Our possessions need to be raised up to the level of our desires. That's what people normally think. But the Christian has another way to contentment. He can bring his desires down to his possessions. Of course, that's only really possible when we possess Christ. It's only when we realize that we've already been given everything that we need in Christ that we can let go of rivalry and endless and meaningless striving after what God has not given us. We don't need to be fueled by envy and jealousy because Christ has already given himself to us. The Apostle Paul says in Philippians 4, where he says, I've learned the secret to contentment. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I have Christ. And because I do, I can lay aside rivalry, envy, discontentment, jealousy. So the world is a world of rivalry. But Solomon says, we work hard, but with quiet contentment in the portion that God has given us. One hand full of rest is better than two fists full of striving after the wind. Well, thirdly, the third problem that Solomon addresses is the problem of greedy isolation. Verses 7 to 12, but let's look just at verses 7 to 8 to begin with. Solomon looks out again at the world, and this time he sees the problem of greedy isolation. He says, 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. Some of you may know the name John Paul Getty. John Paul Getty founded the Getty Oil Company, and he died in 1976. And at the time of his death, his net worth and today's equivalent was about $25 billion. So John Paul Getty died an extremely wealthy man. But for all of his accomplishments in business, John Paul Getty lived a very sad and lonely life. At the end of his life, before he died, he said, I've never known love or what it means to have a friend. I've never known love or what it means to have a friend. John Paul Getty, in many ways, is the man described by Solomon in verses 7 and 8. And unfortunately, he's not the only one. There are many men and many women described by verses 7 and 8. It's the person whose life becomes about nothing more than gaining more and more wealth, more and more success, more and more possessions, more and more prestige, more and more recognition. More and more advancements in the workplace or in the home. No matter how much this person gets, he or she always wants more. His eyes are never satisfied with riches, Solomon says. And at the same time, Solomon says, this person never stops to ask the question, the question that matters. Why am I doing all of this? For whom am I laboring? What's going to become of all of my efforts and all of my striving and all of my labor and all of my gain? Who's going to get it when I leave? Because he has no one, no dependents, perhaps not even a wife, no friends, no one to leave his possessions to. He spent his entire life pursuing gain, which will be gone when he dies. And so the problem really is twofold. On the one hand, this man is greedy. His eyes are not satisfied with riches. He keeps pursuing more and more. But on the other hand, his problem is also isolation. This man has fallen into the trap of thinking that he can live a full and satisfied life without true companionship, without meaningful relationship with others. He's believed the lie that he can make it on his own, that he can be happy just by getting more stuff, more achievements, more attainments. And he works hard. to get them, but he's alone. And so the problem that Solomon sees here in this man is greedy isolation. And what's the solution to the problem? Well, at least in part, Solomon gives a solution in verses 9 to 12. The solution is true companionship. Look at verses 9 to 12. 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 will 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. These verses are often used in weddings to refer to the relationship between a husband and a wife. That doesn't seem to be Solomon's particular application of these verses In this case, certainly it does apply to marriage. But what Solomon is saying is simply that there is value in not living life alone. There is value in not striving in isolation, like the man that we just considered. He says in verse 9, two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. In other words, you can do far more in partnership and fellowship with another person than you could ever accomplish on your own. And to prove that point, He gives three illustrations. And these illustrations in verses 10 to 12 seem to come from traveling in the wilderness. So put yourself back in Solomon's day, a day in which obviously there were not many options when it came to how to travel through the desert and through the wilderness. And so when you traveled, it was important for you to have a companion, a travel partner. And so first, he gives the illustration in verse 10, 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. So if you picture two men traveling through the wilderness, one falls and breaks his leg. Thankfully, there's a person there with him to help him up, get him safely to the next city. Solomon says, but woe to the man who falls and breaks his leg in the middle of the desert with no one around him and no one to help him. Solomon's saying there is a need for us to have another person in our life, other people in our lives to come alongside us when we fall, when we stumble. That's what the Apostle Paul describes in Galatians 6. Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself so that you too will not be tempted bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. Paul is saying what Solomon is saying. Brethren, you need to be the one who comes alongside your fallen companion. And to all of us, by implication, he's saying, we need to have companions like that. We need to structure our life and our relationships in such a way that if we were to stumble, there is someone in our life who's there to pick us up again and help us along. And then verse 11 gives another illustration. He says, furthermore, if two lie down together, they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? That illustration may seem a bit strange to us, but again, it's taken from wilderness imagery, a journey through the desert, perhaps, The cold night comes, a man's traveling alone, he's going to freeze on his own. If he's with a companion, they can sleep back to back and keep each other warm. And so Solomon is saying there's advantage to traveling the road of life with a companion, with someone who is present, can come alongside us through difficult and lonely seasons of life. And then in verse 12, he gives another illustration. He says, And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart." So here the imagery is of someone traveling through the wilderness. If he's alone, think of the Good Samaritan. What happened to the Good Samaritan? He was overcome. He was overtaken by robbers. And they left him essentially for dead, beaten and bruised and bloody on the side of the road. Did I say that happened to the Good Samaritan? It happened to a Jew. And the Good Samaritan came along and helped the Jew. Imagine if that Jew had not had that Good Samaritan to come along eventually. He would have very likely died. But he did. But imagine if that Good Samaritan were right beside the Jew in the first place. He probably wouldn't have been overtaken at all. Robbers would be far less likely to attack two traveling together than there would be one who's alone. And then Solomon takes it a step farther. If two are good, then three are even better. A cord of three strands is not easily broken. Again, a lot of times that's applied to marriage. The husband and the wife together are two strands, and then God is the third. That's a fine application. It actually is a very helpful imagery to have. But I don't think that's Solomon's main point here. He's simply saying there is advantage to companionship and to company and to community. If two are good, three are even better for safety, for protection, for comfort, for help. We need companionship, he's saying. And this is, again, especially true at the spiritual level. God has created you to live in fellowship with other believers. He has created you to need the help of others. When we isolate ourselves like the man of verses seven and eight, when we think that we can get happiness in life alone, pursuing our goals by ourselves, we're putting ourselves in a very lonely and dangerous and vulnerable position. All three of these illustrations given All four statements given in verses 9 to 12, they all prove the same point. The remedy for greedy isolationism is genuine, meaningful companionship. That costs us. Two might be better than one, but two are also more difficult than one. Relationships mean more problems sometimes, things we've got to work through that we would rather not deal with. Sometimes it's harder, but it's better. And so Solomon is saying it is better to be in companionship, even with all of the difficulties it might bring, than it is to go at life alone. Rather than spending our life to get more, to gain more stuff and more recognition and pursue our goals in isolation, Solomon is saying we ought to live for the things that really matter. Not more stuff, not more possessions, not selfish ambitions. We should work hard in our labor. but we shouldn't neglect the cultivation of real, deep, meaningful friendship with one another. And then lastly, we'll end with this, verses 13 to 16. Solomon looks out again, he sees the world, and this time he sees the problem of fickle leadership. Fickle leadership. How can we enjoy life here and now, when we're constantly disappointed and disillusioned by political leaders. That's really the question Solomon is raising in verses 13 to 16. 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 throng to the side of the second lad who replaces him. There's 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." So here's the picture. You've got an old king. Perhaps at one point, this old king was a good king. Maybe at one point, he was a wise king. But at this point, he's become a stubborn, hard-headed king who no longer listens to counsel. He no longer listens to anybody. But thankfully this stubborn old king is now being replaced by this young up-and-coming king. And this young up-and-coming king is a wise king. He was brought up in the real world from poverty. He understands the needs of the people, of the streets. He will certainly lead a much better kingdom. the people might think, than this old stubborn king. And so they throng, they flock to this new wise king. And they say, this king will do all that we need as a nation, as a people. He will lead us well, this young wise king. Solomon says, as time passes, the people abandon that king too. And they move on to the next king. This king disappoints them, and you know what? The next king will disappoint them, too. And the one after that will disappoint them again. And then he'll be replaced by another, and that one, too, will disappoint. There is no end to all the people, to all who were before them, and even to the ones who will come later. No one will be happy with him in the end. That sounds familiar, doesn't it? This is a helpful reminder, I think, to us in an election season that no king lasts And no king can bring about ultimate change. The problem Solomon is addressing is that leadership is fickle. They're here today. They're gone tomorrow. They're popular today. They're unpopular tomorrow. They promise good things today. They disappoint tomorrow. And what's the solution to the problem? What's the answer to the fickle leadership of our world? The answer is a leadership That's not of this world. Every weak and flawed leader, like every leader is in this world, leads us to hope in the king who will never disappoint his people. Our hope is never found in the next person to be voted into office, neither is our ultimate despair dependent upon that. The next person in office will neither give us all the things that we hope and dream of, nor will they bring the world to absolute ruin. We should do our best to vote wisely, pray that God would cause our leaders to rule righteously, but at a far deeper level than any confidence we place in our leaders is the confidence we place in the King of Kings. The Lord Jesus Christ has been exalted to a throne that will never be overthrown, it will never be shaken, and he reigns today and forever with perfect righteousness and justice. Good presidents come and good presidents go, bad presidents come and bad presidents go, but the Lord has placed his anointed on his throne and he laughs at every person who rivals the authority of his son. The Lord has placed the Lord Jesus Christ, God has placed the Lord Jesus Christ on his throne and our hope is in that king, even while we vote for good kings in this life and pray for good kings and rulers and presidents in this life. And so what's the answer to the fickle leadership of this world? It's the unending leadership of Christ, the everlasting reign of our Lord. So in conclusion now, bringing chapter four to a close, Solomon doesn't shrink back. from declaring the hard realities of life in this world. He doesn't merely take a quick glance and then move on to the next more pleasant topic. He spends time meditating on the painful reality of life under the sun. He deals honestly with things like oppression and rivalry and loneliness and fickle leadership. But he also guides us, as do the rest of the scriptures, to the point that we understand that those things can't ultimately ruin our ability to live happy, joyful lives, even here and now in this broken world. In a world of oppression, we find the comfort of the God of all comfort. And in a world of rivalry, we find contentment in the portion that God has given us here and now. In a world of greed and isolationism, we find true and lasting companionship, especially in the household of God. And in a world of fickle leadership, we find hope in the unchanging and everlasting King, the Lord Jesus Christ. So Solomon presents to us the hard realities of the world, and yet we know that there's a greater reality, and it's the reality of our Savior and our God, and especially our risen and reigning King. So let's pray together as we finish up this evening. Our Father, we thank you that you have given us more than just the words that Solomon gives us in chapter four. We thank you that verses one to three are not the end of the story. We thank you that because the Lord Jesus Christ entered into the world to suffer in our place and to die in our place and to be raised on our behalf, we thank you that no matter what suffering or even oppression we might witness or even experience, We thank you that we do find ultimate, real, lasting comfort in your mercy and in your love toward us. We thank you that you have given us the life that you've given us. We pray that you would help us to be content with it. We pray that you would help us to live in real meaningful companionship and fellowship with one another, with the people in our lives that you've given to us. And we pray that you would help us to put our hope not in the fickle leadership of this world, but in the living and reigning king that you have established upon his throne. We pray all of this, trusting that you will continue to give us grace not to lose hope in a painful world, that you will give us grace to see and to hope in the unending promises of Christ. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.