Trusting God's Divine Providence

So, Ecclesiastes, trusting God's divine providence this morning.

Small topic, so we should be done pretty quickly.

It's a big topic.

And the question comes to our mind: what is Providence?

What is Providence?

What is God's providence?

Well, John Piper in his um not so small book, Providence, uh, writes this in the introduction.

He says this.

So even if you just make it to the introduction, you'll be blessed.

Page nine, he says, God has revealed, this is what Providence says, God has revealed his purposeful sovereignty over good and evil in order to humble human pride, to intensify human worship, worship of God, to shatter human hopelessness, and put ballast on in the battered boat of human faith, steel in the spine of human courage, and gladness in the groans of affliction, and life in the heart that sees no way forward.

So this morning, trusting in God's divine providence.

You know, this is one of the most probably important and wisest things that we can do, focus on, talk about in the Christian life is the providence of God.

There is no shortage of wonderful material and theological thought regarding the providence or the sovereignty of our great God.

And as John Piper had mentioned in that quote, the providence of God requires a humility on our part.

As we trust his leading, we trust his doing.

And in doing so, the providence of God leads us to a place of rest.

And so this is what John Piper goes on to call a shocking and hope-filled reality.

For something so important, though, it can also be so difficult because it can be a struggle.

But as we wrestle with it and we work through it, and as the Holy Spirit of God works in us through this amazing doctrine, in the midst of the messiness of life, in the midst of the joys of life, contemplating the providence of God is so beautiful and freeing.

So this morning, I hope that your heart is blessed.

I don't know what you've been through this week.

I know some of us have been struggling this week.

Maybe you've been struggling with sin this week, with a relationship, with an illness.

Maybe this week has been a week of joy.

Maybe you've gotten some good news.

There is something on your calendar you are looking forward to.

Wherever it is and wherever we are right now in our life, as we even mentioned last week, I know the Lord has something to speak to your heart about his providence this morning.

So this morning, we're going to see how trusting in God's divine providence means first being wise about our influences.

Second, being wise in our character, and third, being considerate of God's great work.

Because as we're considering his providential working in all things, we see that he gives us direction and gives us help and gives us wisdom and gives us everything we need to navigate the influences of life as we're going to talk about.

But also, what does it look like to be a child of God, trusting in the providence of God and living in that wise character of the one who trusts in the providence of God?

So the last point really is one, uh they're all important points, but the last point is very important because without the last point, the first two points need the last point for the foundation.

So we're going to start with this.

Trusting in God's providence, divine providence, means being wise about our influence.

Verses 1 through 6, we see this.

Now, some of you might be familiar with the um Ash Conformity experiments that were done back in the 50s.

A few of us here were here in the 50s.

Um, a few of us weren't.

But uh Solomon Ash was a uh a psychologist.

And so what he did was he conducted a series of studies where he took several participants uh in this study and he put them in a room together.

And I'm really I'm summarizing it.

There's there's more to it.

I'm just trying to get to the point, the point of it here this morning.

You can look into it further.

But he he takes all these participants and he and he puts them all in a room together.

But here's the thing all of them were actors, except for one innocent, unsuspecting guy.

Poor guy, right?

Um, and they were given this test.

They had two cards in front of them.

One had uh just one line on it, the other card had three different lines at three different lengths, three different options.

And they were asked to take the card with the one line on it and match it with the card with the three lines on it.

Which card does it match with?

Well, the answer was so obvious.

I mean, a toddler could have nailed this test, uh, but one by one, the actors purposefully chose the wrong line.

And this confused and dumbfounded at first.

Uh, the individual that wasn't acting, he's like, what's going on here?

But however, as as uh as Solomon Ashe did this test, he found that when it finally came time for the non-actor to respond, uh, they would often succumb to the peer pressure of the group and give the wrong answer.

You know, we know this is an important life lesson, right?

But who we're around and where we go and what we're around has a tremendous influence on who we are.

And what happens here in this passage is this literary style shifts from chapter 6 into chapter 7 with these uh wise sayings, and but they they predominantly in the first in these first six verses kind of focus on the influences of life.

And so we see this in chapter 7.

Beginning in verse 1, it says this a good man is better than, or a good name is better than fine perfume.

So is a good man, by the way.

But a good name is better than fine perfume.

You know, this is similar to what we see in uh Proverbs 22, 1, that a good name is to be chosen over great wealth.

You know, perfume was generally pretty expensive back in this time period.

And uh in the ancient world, it was kind of difficult for them to come by.

And so the idea here is that your reputation matters more than your bank account.

What you believe about life and how you conduct yourself in life matters more than the things you have.

It's better to be honest, it's better to be selfless and kind than to ruin your reputation in order to gain wealth, in order to gain power.

And so another thing, too, that this might happen with perfume is that perfume helps us in the sense that it helps us to uh identify, um kind of mask what might be smelling bad sometimes.

And if you if you think about it about it this way, um perfume masks what could be selling bad, but a good name doesn't have anything it needs to mask.

And so we know again, this is an important life lesson, that wealth and prestige, perfume, those kinds of things, are nothing compared to our reputation.

Your reputation matters.

And then the verse goes on to say, and the rest of verse 1 and in verse 2, and the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth.

Interesting proverb, as David pointed out.

It is better to go into the house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, since that is the end of all mankind, and the living should take it to heart.

So here the uh teacher, or collet, or colate, however you want to pronounce it, he begins these reflections on death and mourning.

It's interesting.

And it's important as we go through this to reflect on this.

He he brings up death and he brings up mourning.

So why would he do such a thing?

And I think one of the main reasons he's doing this is he's helping us to keep death in perspective because it's important in life to be in grief over things.

It's important to remember death, and it's important to remember that uh all of mankind at some point comes to an end.

Because remembering death helps us to take life seriously as we should.

Helps us to, as Psalm 90, verse 12 tells us, teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts.

Psalms 90:12

I mean, there is lots of wisdom in keeping death in perspective.

Also in verse 2, we begin to see that where we go and who we're around matters.

If you notice that in verse 2, and then again in verse 4, it talks about how it's better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting.

And later we kind of see the same familiar language uh being used in a house of mourning and in a house of pleasure.

And so again, what the teacher is doing here is he's showing these are these are places we go that we're influenced by.

In verses three to four, um we see this striking statement made about grief.

It says in verse three, grief is better than laughter.

For when a face is sad, a heart may be glad.

In verse 4, the heart of the wise is in a house of mourning, and the heart of the fools is in a house of pleasure.

I mean, here in these verses, we reflect on how grief is actually a good thing.

Grief isn't something to run away from.

If you have your Bible with me, turn with me to Psalm chapter 30.

Psalms 30 · chapter mention

We get this understanding that again, there's grief in life.

Psalm chapter 30, verses 4 and 5.

Psalms 30:4

He says this sing to the Lord, you his faithful ones, and praise his holy name.

For his anger lasts only for a moment, but his favor a lifetime, weeping may stay overnight, but there is joy in the morning.

Weeping, joy.

It's all a part of the experience of human life.

And here, our teacher in the passage, he is saying, grief is good.

You know, it's good to grieve our loved ones.

Some of us are doing that right now.

I didn't say it wasn't painful.

It's painful.

But it's good.

It's good to grieve the loss of something or someone.

It's good to grieve our sin.

Matthew 5, 4, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Grieving is inevitable as long as sin is present in this world.

And what grieving does is it takes us to a place of comfort and hope where we look at Jesus with excitement for the day when he will wipe away all of our tears.

And if that's the case, I want to be as our teacher is encouraging us to be.

I want to be with the mourners.

I want to be with the grievers.

I want to be counted among the saints who take seriously this life and don't live to ignore the reality of death.

Because that's the flip side in these verses.

Wisdom and going down to a house of mourning, but then foolishness to a house of feasting, a house of pleasure.

And what he's explaining here is that these two extremes, house of mourning is wisdom, because we're putting life into perspective, an eternal perspective, but a house of feasting and pleasure.

And what he's talking about is those people who do all they can to ignore the inevitability of death.

Our culture is obsessed with this right now.

To stop aging, to stop dying.

But here we have it.

There's wisdom in being in the morning.

There is foolishness in the ignoring.

And so we see that as we trust in the providence of God, we see his hand even in this, that he's working through this and living out the wisdom that he's called us to live out through the influences that we're around.

And so the influences are are we around people that help us with that, or are we around people that discourage us from that?

And then here we get in the verse five and six where he uh he talks specifically uh about a people, kind of like people of influence.

And starting in verse five, he says, It is better to listen to rebuke from a wise person than to listen to the song of fools.

For like a crackling of burning thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool, this too is futile.

And so here we have rebuke is better than praise.

And it's, again, with mourning and grieving, it doesn't feel good, but we we know that because of the fruit the fruit that that rebuke from a wise person brings, uh, it doesn't just leave us in that in that sense of feeling uh forgotten and feeling broken and feeling like down and rebuked.

But we know that when we are uh have that conversation with somebody that comes to us and shares with wisdom and with grace into our life, even though it's it's difficult and hard, it always it always brings about or should bring about fruit in our life.

But you see, what this also is, is it it's not an invitation for us to be in this open season rebuke whenever and wherever one sees fit.

See, this would be foolish and divisive.

But this is the what we're talking about here, and what he's talking about here is wise and loving rebuke from a wise person.

And if we allow it, a wise person's rebuke will accomplish far more in our lives than the flattery coming from fools, which is again a theme in Proverbs.

But here how he describes this in verse six for like a crackling of burning thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool.

So uh, I mean, when you're at a campfire and you hear the campfire going and it's and it's burning, I mean, it can be pleasant to hear the crackling of that, but it's futile.

I mean, what does the crackling add to the fire?

It doesn't add anything, it's just it's just noise.

And so he's saying, he's making this connection that the laughter of a fool is futile, but the rebuke of a wise person, that's where fruit remains.

That's where fruit is.

And so this brings us to the question, and the reflection, I think, for us is the people we surround ourselves with is important.

And also, what kind of influence are we being on one another?

Are we promoting wisdom in our relationships and our conversations?

Or are we promoting foolishness?

When we're faced with the brevity of life and the reality of death and the providence of God in all things, it changes our perspective on a lot of things.

And all of a sudden, the things, right, when you're dealing with grief and you're dealing with the brevity of life, all of a sudden, things that mattered so much to me and to you and to us don't in those moments, right?

It changes what we fight for if we fight at all.

It changes how we treat others.

Do you know what else grief does and rebuke from a wise person?

It changes our character, and that's where he goes in the rest of the passage.

Trusting, and this is what we're gonna see, trusting God's divine providence also means being wise in our character, starting in verse 7.

It changes our character.

You know, this reflection in these verses between 7 and 12 on what the character of a wise person looks like is a direct result of having wise influencers around us.

And what we understand from scripture and we also understand from experience is that age doesn't necessarily guarantee wisdom.

I mean, the Bible and experiences in life will tell us that foolishness comes in all shapes and sizes, foolishness comes in all ages, and likewise so does wisdom.

The Bible tells us of some of the stories of these young people that God has had used in such an incredibly wise way to do incredible things for the kingdom of God.

We think of King Josiah in 2 Kings, verse 22.

I mean, the guy becomes king when he's eight years old.

And then through his kingship, he leads Israel in a revival back to the Lord.

Amazing.

We think of Naam's servant girl in 2 Kings 5, where he is struck with leprosy, and she tells him of Elisha the prophet, that he will heal her, and and or that he will heal Nahum, and Naam listens to his servant girl, meaning the step of faith from this little servant girl to tell her master something as such.

We think of King David in 1 Samuel, young but wise.

What about Abel?

Genesis 4, the younger brother, the wiser brother, the brother that knew what sacrifice before a holy God looked like.

Joseph, Genesis 37.

I mean, the Bible's full of examples of this.

And so from this, we understand that age, that experience, that education doesn't guarantee wisdom.

Our character does.

It's our

Character.

Starting in verse 7, it says this surely the practice of extortion, or some translations say oppression, turns a wise person into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the mind.

The end of the matter is better than its beginning.

A patient spirit is better than a proud spirit.

Don't let your spirit rush to be angry, for anger abides in the heart of fools.

And here, verse 7, we see that even a wise person can be susceptible to corruption and to foolishness.

We could be wise one day and foolish the next.

And this links back in a way to verse 5.

You look at verse 5 again, it is better to listen to rebuke from a wise person than to listen to the song of fools.

It's like having wisdom in that.

Having wisdom in who we're listening to and how we're listening to those around us.

And then we see verses 8 and 9, he drives home this point of character.

So he says, the end of a matter is better than its beginning.

A patient spirit is better than a proud spirit, verse 8.

Verse 9, don't let your spirit rush to be angry, for anger abides in the hearts of fools.

So we see that the rebuke, even if we're going with that example of the rebuke from earlier in the passage, the rebuke of a wise person may be unpleasant, but its end or its result will be good.

Be patient.

Don't rush to be angry about it.

Sleep on it.

Pray about it.

Give it to the Lord.

Process it.

Talk to somebody trusted about it.

Pray with them about it.

But don't rush to be angry.

Process the rebuke of a wise person with grace and with truth.

I mean, this reminds me of 1 Timothy chapter 5, where Paul is giving instruction to Timothy when it comes to rebuking older and younger people in the church.

1 Timothy 5 · chapter mention

If you have your Bibles, let's turn to 1 Timothy chapter 5.

1 Timothy 5 · chapter mention

You may be using your phone too.

Flip through there.

That works.

But 1 Timothy chapter 5, and this again, it's in the context of not letting anyone look down on your youth.

1 Timothy 5 · chapter mention

Don't neglect the gift of God that is in you.

And he and he begins chapter 5 in 1 Timothy.

He says this don't rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters with all purity.

Interesting.

I think the Apostle Paul's bringing out here.

He's not saying, like, don't exhort at all an older man to Timothy, but he's saying, exhort him as you would a father.

Exhort an older woman as you would a mother.

But then he's saying, those who are younger than you, Timothy, elevate them to the level of brother and sister.

And exhort them as you would, your brother and sister.

I mean, what a good principle for us in the church.

Those younger than us, brothers and sisters in Christ.

Treat them with respect as brothers and sisters in Christ with all purity.

And so we get lots of wisdom from Scripture when it comes to rebuke and what the teacher here is doing.

And he's bringing our ideas and our and our thoughts back to the goodness and the wisdom of God and the providential wisdom of God in receiving rebuke from a wise person.

But then he goes on further in verse 9, or verse 10.

So after in verse 9, don't let your spirit rush to be angry, for anger abides in the hearts of fools.

And verse 10, don't say, why were the former days better than these?

Since it is not wise of you to ask this.

That's an interesting verse.

You know, this idea of not idolizing the past.

And this isn't for pragmatic reasons that he's saying this, but it's for wise reasons that he's saying this.

And one commentator notes it this way.

He describes it this way.

He says, It has been said that the good old days are a combination of a bad memory and a good imagination.

And we see this even in Scripture.

Um, thinking of even the rebuilding of the second temple and Ezra 3, 12 to 13.

The previous generation who remember Solomon's first temple and remember it in all of its glory were there at this rebuilding of the temple.

And what were they doing?

They were weeping, they were grieving.

And then the new generation around them, what were they doing?

They were celebrating.

They were having a party.

They weren't there.

And you see this juxtaposition between the two.

And what the teacher McCollate does here in this verse is in his view and his understanding and in his way.

And by the way, this is coming from Solomon, right?

He says, Don't say, why were the former days better than these?

Since it is not wise of you to ask this.

You know, dwelling on the good old days is great.

I love it.

I look back and I thank the Lord for the goodness of his grace in my own life and in your lives and in the life of this church.

And we celebrate it here, and I love that we celebrate that here.

But sometimes we can get so distracted that it can rob us of seeing what the Lord is doing right here and right now.

This is even true of regrets of the past or stress about the future that can rob us of what we have right here, right now, in this present time.

And so the teacher gives us this sobering reminder this is not wise that we ask these kinds of questions.

And in verse 11, he goes on wisdom is as good as an inheritance and an advantage to those who see the sun, because wisdom is protection as silver is protection.

But the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of its owner.

And what Kohle does here is he captures this connection between wisdom and wealth.

And there is a positive sense to what he's saying about wisdom here.

But he connects them thematically.

And as you know, like last week we were going through uh chapter six, and it really hit hard that whole idea the love of money is is the root of all kinds of evil, as we talked about.

It really hit hard that that idea that we shouldn't be living for our wealth.

And so he isn't necessarily saying that wealth is bad, but he's he's connecting us thematically back to chapter six, and we're reminded about this earlier discourse that he gives, warning us against the love of money and how nothing comes from loving money.

And so, here what he wants us to do, he wants us to see this connection because he also named silver again, and he wants to remind us that neither wisdom, neither wealth will ever truly satisfy the soul.

We can have all the knowledge in the world and not have Christ and we'll never be satisfied.

All the wealth in the world and not have Christ will never be satisfied.

Yes, your life may be longer and you may be more comfortable.

Your physical needs are taken care of.

You didn't do anything really dumb to shorten your life.

All that stuff is true, but the character of wisdom listens to those who speaks words of wisdom, processes them with patience and anger, and then the character of wisdom lives in the moment, not dwelling on the past, and understands that even wisdom never truly satisfies.

But then we get to the final two verses of the passage, where we see all of this coming together in the divine providence of God and what it means.

Trusting in the divine providence of God means being considerate of God's good work.

These man, these verses, I love these verses.

I love that he brings this out.

So important.

Um, this kind of teaching, so important for the church today, so important for us today.

You know, making certain choices in life, and this, if you couple these verses with what we've just been talking about, making certain choices in life is significantly important, but it doesn't guarantee certain outcomes.

Who determines the outcome is God.

And this is why trusting in his divine providential work is so important, because even as we pursue wise influences and we live out wisdom in our character, all things are still under the almighty control and providential hand of our great God.

Everything.

I mean, this is those times in life where we're wondering, why is this happening?

I thought I was doing all the right things.

But you see, even us asking that question in that way points to our problem.

We expect things to work a certain way.

When we invest financially, of course, into a safe financial venture.

We expect to see a return of investment.

But when we ask these kinds of questions, Lord, Lord, Lord, I was doing everything right.

Why, why, what's going on?

Why is this happening?

We ask these kinds of questions, it's pointing to more of a theological struggle that we're having here, a theological misunderstanding.

We translate the everyday life kind of things.

You know, I plant seeds, they should grow.

I water them, they should grow.

We translate this into our spiritual life, thinking that if we act the right way, we do the right things, things will go a certain way, but this is not how our great God operates.

Look how he operates.

Verse 13.

Consider the work of God.

For who can straighten out what he has made crooked?

In the day of prosperity, be joyful.

But in the day of adversity, what does he say?

In the day of prosperity, be joyful.

But in the day of adversity, he's not saying you have to be joyful there, but he says this, consider this.

God has made the one as well as the other, so that no one can discover anything that will come after him.

You see, verse 13 is this answer to the question that the teacher asks in chapter 1, verse 15, when he says, What is crooked cannot be straightened, what is lacking cannot be counted.

Because the Lord makes things the way he makes them.

Crooked, he makes them straight.

Daniel Fredericks, in his book, Coping with uh Transience, he says in verse 37, and he's he's given a commentary on the book of Ecclesiastes.

He's saying the preacher here, or the teacher, presents a sovereign, predetermining God who acts in ways fully calculable, yet not calculable.

Another way of putting this the preacher presents a sovereign, predetermined God who acts in ways that we can that are fully, we can understand them, but also in ways we can't understand them.

And another commentator puts it this way: he says, neither achieving a good reputation, nor vexation or grief or mourning, nor listening to the advice of the wise person, nor turning to discern why the present is worse than the past, nor money provides an adequate answer to the question of what is good for humans.

But what does answer the question is the providential working of God.

And we see this also, same teaching illustrated Lamentations 3, where Jeremiah brings out the same teaching, and he and he's he's helping the people, he's trying to get the people to consider the divine providential hand of God in the things that are crooked, in the things that are straight, and the things that are evil, and the things that are good.

And what Jeremiah is saying, we experience all of these things in life, but it leads us to a place ultimately of worship, of repentance and praise, and that's similar to where the teacher is taking us here in this passage.

Everything made crooked, every heartache, every suffering point of suffering, everything we experience in life should turn our eyes to God.

And everything made straight should turn our eyes to our great God.

D.A.

Carson, in his book, Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility, puts it this way: Yahweh has prepared his throne and his kingdom rules over all.

All life is dependent on him.

Should he take away their breath, they would perish.

The idols of men are impotent.

But the God of Israel, whose abode is in the heavens, does whatever he pleases in every sphere of the created universe.

And it's not surprising to learn, therefore, that all of man's days are ordained by God.

Certainly no wisdom or counsel can frustrate him.

Yahweh is absolutely sovereign.

Wind, calamity, prosperity, all under his control.

And verse 14, he ends it.

And I love how he ends it again.

In the day of prosperity, be joyful.

So remember God, praise him.

But in the day of adversity, consider the working of God.

Remember God, praise him.

Our days of great prosperity should turn our eyes to our good and great God.

We then consider God has made this day.

God is in this day.

This isn't Him being sick and cruel and enjoying watching our struggle and our plight and our joys and all these things and enjoying all these all these experiences we have, the good, the bad, and the ugly within life.

But do you know what it is?

It's a reflection of his great love.

His love for righteousness that he wouldn't turn a blind eye towards sin.

His love for justice, that he wouldn't allow injustice to have the final word.

And his love for you and I, that our sin and our brokenness in this world would grieve him so much that he would send his one and only Son, God's one and only Son, to suffer the injustice, to suffer the divine providence of God's wrath, so that in his love for us, he would divinely and providentially save us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

I mean, this is wisdom at its core to look at and to consider, to contemplate.

Two times here we see that word, consider God, to chew on God, to reflect on God, and reflect on all that we see in this world and we trust in his providential working.

There are extremes in this life, there are experiences and struggles, but all of this is under his providential hand.

So let's turn our eyes to Jesus, for with him and in trusting in him, it is well with our souls.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your wisdom.

And we thank you for your providential hand in our life.

We thank you for your perfection and your holiness and your righteousness.

That in you there isn't a drop of sin.

We thank you that through your Son Jesus Christ, we get to experience fellowship with you.

We thank you that because of the work of your son Jesus Christ, we can walk in wisdom.

Wisdom in the influences we face in life, wisdom in our character.

Lord, we need your help with these things.

But this morning, Lord, we are praising you, considering you and your greatness.

Lord, minister to our hearts and our souls now as we close with this song in reflection of your great grace and mercy toward us, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.