Gain Wisdom from God | Ecclesiastes 8:1-9 | 09/13/26

Um this morning we're coming back into

the book of Ecclesiastes. We took a

break on heaven as you know. And we're

going to encounter a question today

that's going to force us to think

through the following problem.

What does it look like to walk in wisdom

when you have little to no control over

your situation?

What does it look like to walk in wisdom

when you have little or no control over

your situation?

What does wisdom call for when you

realize you don't have nearly as much

control over things as you thought you

did? And this is a question for all of

us, for young and old and rich and poor

and educated and not educated. This is a

question that touches everyone where

they live eventually.

You know, just by way of example, just

thinking about our budget. You know, we

started this year with a plan and the

plan was a good plan and we were going

along and then people somewhere far away

that I don't know and have never talked

to before made decisions that resulted

in conflicts that now it makes

everything way more expensive and my

plan's all in the toilet because of

things that I had no control over, no

influence on. It just it just happened.

And while that's not the end of the

world, it's a stark reminder of a

frustrating truth that we don't have

nearly as much control as we often think

we do.

things are happening around us that

shape and mold what our life is and is

becoming. I mean, think about just like

your job,

you know, think about what you're

working on at work. Did you decide that

that's what you're going to do or did

someone somewhere in some office higher

up in the building decide that that's

the project you're going to work on and

that's like what you do with your life?

Uh, it's kind of crazy when you think

about it. At school, your curriculum and

your reading list is set by a board and

probably in some other city or maybe

another state. Even for stay-at-home

moms who in my mind have like an

enormous amount of freedom, you know, I

watch my wife sometimes she'll she'll

get some idea of some great educational

thing she's going to do and she plans it

way in advance and spends money and buys

the tickets and packs the bags and makes

the food and then the day comes and she

wakes up with like half her kids sick

and it's like you we just don't control

the world.

This is not a new problem. This is part

of the human condition. I mean, think

about being a farmer in a rural part of

the world and you know, you sew your

seeds and you plant your crop and you

dig and you weed and you work and you

try to defend your crop from the wild

beasts and such, but at the end of the

day, you're fundamentally dependent on

the weather. If it doesn't rain, you

don't have crops. You don't have

control.

So, how do we respond when so much of

life is outside our sphere of influence?

How do we respond when you're like

reckoning with that? You know, obvious

the obvious truth is sometimes you feel

that more than other times, right?

There's some situations where it's like,

"No, I I kind of feel in control of this

one, but it's these other ones or

whatever." When you find yourself in a

situation where you don't feel like you

have control, what do you do? And what

most of us do is choose one of two

broken paths forward. The first thing we

try to do is we try to seize control.

You know, something feels out of our

control. So we try to with sheer

willpower, with with anxiety [snorts]

and manipulation and concentrated

effort, you try to force your

circumstances to bend to your desires.

And you know, sometimes when you try

hard enough, you can kind of sort of do

it, but at great personal cost to

yourself. That's not really healthy.

The other way we tend to respond is just

throw up your hands in despair. It's

like, what's what's the point? Why do I

even try?

You just stop caring. You just let

bitterness poison your heart until you

despise life itself.

Neither of those responses, I would like

to suggest, lead to life. And so, none

of those responses are wise.

So, what is the third option?

The third option is to live wisely with

the influence we do have while placing

our absolute trust in God who actually

holds all things in his hands. Which

brings me to my main point today. In a

life we can't control, wisdom teaches us

perspective and trust under God's hand.

In a life you and I can't control, what

wisdom teaches us is to have perspective

and to trust under God's hand. Please

open your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter

Ecclesiastes 8 · chapter mention

8.

I know it's been a month since we've

been in this book, so let me take a few

minutes to kind of remind us of the

context before we read the passage.

I will say it's been a little bit of

like a psychological like whiplash to to

go from thinking about go seeing God's

face to being back here. It took me all

week to kind of get my brain back in the

Ecclesiastes space.

When we left Ecclesiastes a month ago,

the preacher Kohaleth had been teaching

us to look honestly at life under the

sun.

He began with the unsettling declaration

that everything is he vapor breath

fleeting frustrating impossible to

finally grasp. We live in a world where

generations come and go. The sun rises

and sets and our deepest longings for

whatever reason just remain unsatisfied.

And so he went about this project to

conduct a series of experiments and

tests to see if he could answer this

problem that seems to have plagued all

people everywhere for all the ages.

He he began trying to figure out like

will pleasure satisfy will

accomplishments will work will beauty

like what the the typical answers if I

just get more of this then I'll be

satisfied do any of them work and his

answer was no wisdom cannot ultimately

conquer death pleasure cannot satisfy

the soul work and achievement cannot

secure a lasting legacy wealth it turns

out doesn't actually give you more

control over your life just the

appearance of

Even the good gifts of God become

frustrating when you try to make them

carry the weight of ultimate meaning.

You know, eating, drinking, enjoying the

wife of your youth are good, but they're

not ultimate. You can't milk ultimate

meaning out of things only meant to be

good.

And Ecclesiastes keeps bringing us back

to the same hard reality that we're just

not in control. There are times to weep,

times to laugh, times to build, times to

tear down. God's making everything

beautiful in its time, we were told, but

we just can't see the whole picture as

it truly is.

We cannot straighten the things that God

has made crooked and we cannot know what

tomorrow will bring. And we've kept

insisting as we've gone through this

book that the preacher is not telling us

that life is meaning us meaningless.

He's teaching us that life becomes

meaningless when we demand from this

world what only God can give.

The answer is not to escape God's world,

but to receive his gifts with humility,

fear, and to enjoy humility and fear,

and to enjoy him and what he's given us.

Which brings us back to Ecclesiastes 8.

If this is what life is like under the

sun,

a world that we don't really understand,

a picture that's incomplete, a world

that has both good and bad, folly and

wisdom, justice and injustice, authority

and oppression, things we understand and

things we don't understand, then how are

God's people supposed to live in a world

like that? How are we supposed to

comport oursel towards a world like

that? So, let's now humble our minds and

open our hearts for the reading of God's

word. Ecclesiastes 8:es 1-8.

Who is like the wise? And who knows the

interpretation of a thing? A man's

wisdom makes his face shine, and the

hardness of his face is changed. I say,

keep the king's command because of God's

oath to him. Be not hasty to go from his

presence. Do not take your stand in an

evil cause, for he does whatever he

pleases. For the word of the king is

supreme. And who may say to him, "What

are you doing?"

Whoever keeps the command will know no

evil thing, and the wise heart will know

the proper time in the just way, for

there is a time and a way for

everything, although man's troubles lie

heavy on him. For he does not know what

is to be. For who can tell him how it

will be? No man has power to retain the

spirit or power over the day of death.

There is no discharge from war, nor will

wickedness deliver those who are given

to it.

This is the word of the Lord. God, would

you help us to hear and understand and

do this in Christ's name. Amen.

All right, we're going to look at three

things today and we'll spend a little

time on application at the end. The

first is we're going to think about

wisdom in the presence of authority. So,

we used a bunch of examples of ways that

you're not in control. One of those ways

is when you have an authority over you

who sort of dictates to you what life is

going to be. Wisdom in the presence of

authority. Two, wisdom and proper

perspective. And three, wisdom facing

reality. So wisdom in in authority,

wisdom and proper perspective, and

wisdom facing reality. Let's start by

looking down at verse one.

It's important to hear these opening

words against the backdrop of chapter 7.

And I realize it's been a month since

we've been in there. Let me just quickly

say this. Ecclesiastes 7 has in the big

picture been kind of vacasillating back

and forth about the goodness and the

limitations of wisdom. Wisdom helps us

sort out what matters, but it doesn't

seem to be able to teach us what really

matters. Some things are better than

other things, we were told. Some things

are worse than other things, we were

told.

But wisdom truly matters, even if it

doesn't really matter.

And so, Cohelith asks us to think about

this again. Who is like the wise and who

knows the interpretation of a thing?

This offers us a couple of really useful

in pieces of information. First, wisdom

or being wise causes you to stand out.

This says, who is like the wise?

You stand out when you're wise, not in

the negative, arrogant way. You stand

out in the way that someone who

repeatedly has helpful thoughts and

insights to share with you eventually

begins to stand out in your mind as a

wise person worth consulting with.

People tend to notice when you are

constantly adding value to the

conversation or to the decision-m

process. And where people tend to

notice, they tend to gravitate towards

that person for input and insight. The

wise person tends to get promoted and

consulted and valued for what they say

in whatever community they're in. And

that's just always been the case.

So like, is wisdom ultimate? No. Is

being wise really like useful and

helpful in the world as a general truth?

Yeah. Learning to walk in wisdom is like

good for your career? I know that's a

weird way to think about it, but it's

true.

The thing about wisdom is that it is

100% democratic and egalitarian.

Wisdom wants to be found by anyone who

will look at it. The book of Proverbs,

look for it. The book of Proverbs

describes wisdom as like shouting in the

streets like, "Hey, look at me. I want

to teach you."

It doesn't matter if you're black or

white or brown or green. It doesn't

matter if you're a boy or a man or a

girl or a woman. It doesn't care about

degrees and certificates. A wise person

is valuable for their wisdom regardless

of any of the other facts about them.

The wise person stands out and stands

apart. Wisdom is valuable even if it's

not ultimately valuable.

And wisdom is valuable in verse one

because one of the very important ways

it expresses itself is in being able to

interpret a thing. Being able to assess

what something is and offer an

explanation of what it means.

It's difficult to know for certain what

Cohelith has exactly in mind here. He

might be thinking of something like

Joseph or like Daniel and their ability

to interpret dreams. That's a very live

option for what that might mean.

But he also might have something way

less miraculous in mind, like being able

to assess whether it's going to rain or

something. What a diplomatic negotiation

tactic implies about the other side.

Something more like that. I'm more

inclined to think the latter because

being able to interpret is going to be

connected to wisdom, not necessarily

special revelation. I could be wrong

about that, but if that's correct, being

wise means being able to accurately

assess what's going on. You know, the

the definition we gave for wisdom years

ago when we did a summer series on

wisdom is being able to see the big

picture, understand what's good, and

respond in a way that leads to life.

That's wisdom. Being able to properly

understand what you're looking at, see

what's true about it, and then

understand how you ought to respond in a

way that's lifegiving.

Becoming a wise person in some ways is

getting better at pattern recognition.

I've seen and observed this in the wise

people I've known throughout my life.

It's not that they get better at reading

people necessarily. It's that people are

not that different from each other.

People behave and respond in similar

ways, in predictable ways that become

more predictable and more obvious over

time. And learning to see that, learning

to discern that is to attain wisdom, to

gain insight on human nature.

And this says where wisdom increases,

the countenance changes. The wise person

is not hard. He's not defensive. He's

not fearful. Wisdom isn't anxious. It's

confident and hopeful. This says it

literally changes a person. Hardness of

face is like a euphemism for hard

negative emotions. It's descriptive of a

person in self-defense mode.

You go into self-defense mode when you

feel vulnerable to attack or you fearful

of humiliation or exposure or something

like that. The wise person is not

worried about those kinds of fears

because they have a humble confidence

about what they actually know.

This wonderful thing called wisdom that

sets us apart, that teaches us how to

interpret what's going on, which changes

us and causes our faces to shine, then

needs to be expressed in the context.

And often the context in which it needs

to be expressed is precarious and

dangerous.

You have to learn to express wisdom

around people who are not as wise as you

and who might even resent you for your

wisdom. That can happen.

You have to learn how to express wisdom

in a work context where your boss is

afraid that his higher-ups will think

that you're smarter than he is or she

is.

Across all time, wisdom has been needed

to learn how to express itself in

contexts where wisdom can itself easily

perceived as a threat rather than a

friend.

In this passage,

you're supposed to imagine that this

wise person is like a court counselor,

is someone who is a court official

appointed by the king to stand in the

throne room and consult about matters of

state.

The king in the ancient world had

absolute authority. His word was law.

The king is the law. What he says goes.

And if you please him, if you say things

that make him happy, he with a word can

cause you to prosper.

If you say things that displease him,

that make him upset, he can end your

life.

That's the context in which Solomon is

describing the need for wisdom.

It's kind of crazy when you think about

it.

Now, obviously, in one sense, that

context is like seems like a distant

context to us. No, none none of us have

ever probably even met a king. Has

anyone in here met a king? You've met a

king. Wow, dude. You are so interesting.

Well, there you go. Someone's met a king

in here. Crazy.

I have so many follow-up questions. No,

come back to the sermon. I can do this.

What I was going to say was since no one

in here has met a king, uh there's no

way to like exactly extrapolate this

precise application. But we all know

what it's like to be in situations with

people who are like in authority over us

that have like a measure of control over

what happens to us. We've all been in

that situation. If you ever been pulled

over by a cop, you've been in that

situation.

Has anyone in here not been pulled over

by a cop? No. Never mind. Don't Don't

answer that. Don't answer that.

The first thing that God's word says to

do in that situation is to accept and

submit to your God-given authority. And

it's interesting because his answer is

both theological and shrewd. When the

king says, "Do something in this

context, you should do it because if you

don't, he might kill you."

It's very pragmatic and rational. When

the king says do something, do it.

You should recognize and respond

accordingly to the kind of authority

structure you are in. Wisdom requires us

to be rational. But at the same time,

wisdom requires us to recognize the

religious dimension to this submission.

Verse two, it says, "Obey the king

because of God's oath to him."

That sentence can be translated that way

or it can be translated as God's oath.

Uh

sorry, God's oath

far. There we go. I'm back. All right.

Um it could it could be saying because

of God's oath to the king or because of

your oath to God concerning the king.

When a court official was installed in

place, it was very common in the ancient

world that you were required to swear

oaths of feelalty to the king. But you

wouldn't make the promise to the king.

You would make the promise to God.

Promise God you will never betray the

king.

Um,

this might be God's promise to David and

the Davidic line. That's also possible.

I don't think it changes things too

much. Regardless, the underlying premise

is the same. You are called to fear and

obey God. And it's God who commands us

to submit to our lawful authorities.

It is wise to seek the prosperity of

those over you in authority. It is wise

to try and help them prosper because

more often than not, they will recognize

your contribution and reward you. Not

always, not in every case, but even when

they don't, the people observing from

the outside see and understand what it

is that you're doing, and so does God.

Verse three says, 'Do not be hasty to

leave. Don't be in a rush to leave a

ruler for any reason. This doesn't

explain itself very much, but you could

imagine a ruler doing something that you

deeply disagree with or failing to do

something that you think is really

important and smart.

There's a very normal human phenomena

when the person in charge does something

you don't like where we just think like,

well, I'm going to leave. It happens in

churches all the time, unfortunately.

Ecclesiastes says, "Doing that is not

wise. Don't be in a rush to leave a

ruler." And then he goes on to say, "Do

not take your stand in an evil cause."

I had some trouble with that one as I

was going through this text. It turns

out that the word for evil there does

not necessarily mean moral evil. It

could just mean like chaos or like

you're in opposition to the king. The

king says we should build a pipe over

there and you think I really think we

should build a pipe over there. And he's

like don't settle on a like don't be

quick to pick a hill to die on.

Don't be in a rush to leave. Don't be in

a rush to fight. Why?

Because he's going to do whatever he

wants anyway. Verse three.

There's a practical rational thing going

on here. It's like try to think through.

He says we're going over there. You

know, it's better if it goes over there.

You tell him, "Hey, it's better for

these reasons." And he goes, "Whatever.

I'm doing it over here anyway." You

could fight and risk displeasing him and

end up dead.

Or you can go, you know, okay. And

choose not to fight and wait to pick a

better time to engage about that.

So wisdom is deeply rational in the face

of authority. It recognizes and accepts

the limitations imposed on it given by

the kind of situation that you're in. A

lot of times the better part of wisdom

is self-restraint. Not saying what you

think because it isn't going to do

anything except cause problems for you

and not get achieve the outcome that you

desire. Wisdom recognizes there are

times when it's important to let things

go.

You have a strong thought, but it isn't

what your authority wants to do. And

rather than take a stand, it's better to

just go, you know what? I'll pick a

different spot.

Wisdom recognizes your place in the

chain of command. The word of your

authority might be supreme. That says it

might be less than supreme. Wisdom

discerns how to operate and communicate

effectively given where you're located

in the chain of command.

So that's wisdom and authority. It's

rational. It's theological, but it's

also shrewd.

Um, let's now transition to wisdom and

proper perspective.

Verse 5 says, "Whoever keeps a command

will know no evil thing."

So again, this sentence is a little bit

ambiguous. It could be referring to two,

maybe three things. It might be calling

back to verse two, the king's command,

or this might be talking about God's

commands, or it might be some other

command issued in harmony with God's

law. It's not clear exactly what this

means. Um, but it is clear that doing

it, obeying this command, wherever it

comes from, is good because it keeps

oneself from evil.

Given the immediate context, I think the

command is a just command given by a

king. If you obey the words of your

Lord, little L, then you won't get

wrapped up in scheming and undermining

and attempts to manipulate and control

outcomes that often happen in

governments.

Plus, if you focus on obeying and

functioning like a loyal servant, there

will come a strategic moment when you

are able to use your wisdom to maximal

effect and to the benefit of as many

people as possible. This says, "Keep the

command. Don't participate in evil

things. And the wise person who does

this will know the proper time and the

just way for there is a time and a way

for everything.

That's saying you can be patient and

pick your moments because your time will

come.

We need we we often think we need to

create that moment. It's [laughter] like

I can't be I I need to do something

here. God says do what's right. Keep

away from evil and your moment will

come. And when it does, use it for

justice. Use it for righteousness.

So this brings out a few related ideas.

In the first section, we were told that

wisdom is good, but you need to be super

careful about how you use it because the

king has all the power. Here in the

second section, you are told to do good

and work hard and bite your time because

your moment will eventually come. Which

seems to imply

that there is another power at work in

the world.

The wise of heart will know the proper

time and the just way for there is a

time and a way for everything. In short

term, in the short term, it seems like

the king has all the power and so the

temptation is to try to control and

manipulate outcomes. But at the same

time, Cohelith assures us that the

king's will is not the final will in the

word world. At the proper time, God will

ordain an opportunity for you to do the

good that wisdom calls for.

But that waiting for that is stressful,

right? There's a time for everything.

Although man's trouble lies heavy on him

because he doesn't know what is to be.

For who can tell him how it will be?

There's a few ways you can take that,

but the one that makes sense to me is

it's hard to wait for God to open the

door. It's hard to be patient when you

think you know better than your

authority. God never specifically

promised that he will let you write

everything you think is wrong or fix

every error or redress every grievance.

He's just said, "Be patient. Your time

will come."

And who wants to do that?

It's it's so interesting. I think a lot

of times the way people first really

experience this outside of the home is

when you get married and you're called

to submit to your wives are called to

submit to your husbands and your

husbands have like a different way about

thinking about how to do stuff and

you're like I don't like that. I want to

do it the way that I want to do it. And

uh it begins this like beautiful uh push

and pull and tug to try to figure out

how can we how can we engage this world?

How can we engage problems in a way that

you and I are both happy with? In a way

that we both feel like we've been heard

and our things have been considered. And

even though God says it's ultimately on

me to make this responsibility, like we

always feel like we're making the

decision together.

Part of how we got there. It's it's I

was rethinking we were retalking about

it yesterday just about some of the ways

we've had to like work through stuff in

our marriage. And it's amazing. Like so

much of how we got here is my wife

picking her moments. So I didn't even

know I was gonna say this, so I'm just

gonna,

you know,

I'd been a Christian for like two years

when we got married. Do you think I had

a lot of wisdom and [laughter] thinking

about all this stuff? You know, no. I I

didn't. I was in seminary. I was

learning a ton. And so I was really good

at knowing verses to use to justify

getting what I want. I mean,

you think it's not real until it happens

to you. Um, but there was a lot of my

wife just like going, "Here's what I

think." And then just letting me make a

mistake.

And it was a painful series of lessons,

but God used that as his rod of

discipline to chasen and teach me. And

it turned out that it wasn't Janine

needing to like grab me and make me do

what she wanted. She could wait and pick

her spots.

I wasn't prepared to share that just

now. Hopefully that came out right.

[laughter]

In a situation where you have little to

no control over the outcome of things,

the wise of heart will know and wait for

the proper time and the just way.

A big part of how we do that is

recognizing that all of our immediate

authorities are not the final authority.

I am not sovereign over Janine's life.

God is sovereign over Janine's life.

God alone is the final authority. And we

can trust him with our tomorrows. We can

even entrust him with our today's. We

can entrust all of our lives to him and

focus on doing good and keeping away

from evil. Which brings me to my final

point is wisdom facing reality.

Where Cohelith takes this is the point

that you know at the end of the day none

of you possess any real power anyway.

Even the people who appear to have a

power all earthly authority is temporal,

fragile, and short-lived.

I mean gosh, think back

on how powerful some people have been in

history.

People you there was a time and a place

in this world that even saying the name

Attilla

would have caused fear to grip your

heart.

Where's that guy now?

Where's all of his power and authority

now? Where is all of his strength? Where

is his armies? Where is his nation

scattered to the wind?

Think about all the great kings and

emperors and shoguns and rulers

and where is their power? Now

verse 8 says, "No man has power to

retain the spirit." The word for spirit

there, ruach, can also be translated,

it's often translated as wind. I think I

think a better translation is no man has

power to restrain the wind, which is

something that Coel has said before.

No man can contain restrain the wind. No

one has power over the day of death. As

powerful as people seem, no one can

control the wind and no one can control

the day they're going to die. This text

says there's no discharge from war. You

can't just avoid war when it springs

upon you. Especially in the ancient

world, if if a nation decided they're

going to destroy us, there's no running

from that. You got to fight or you got

to flee, but they will hunt you down.

Where is the power of the powerful?

Where is wisdom in the face of a world

beyond our control? No one can control

the wind. No one can control their own

death. No one can start and stop a war

when it comes. No one is able to scheme

their way out of their predicament. Not

even by turning to the dark side. Not

even by employing evil. This says this

is the truth. This is the reality. This

is the way things truly are.

So what do we do with this?

Trying to scheme, trying to control

doesn't work. Recognizing human impetus

and impotence and inability doesn't

offer you anything concrete to build

your life on. So I agree with you, Josh.

All that's true. Now, so what do I do

with that?

And what you do with it is you go to the

scriptures and you ask, well, who does

control these things?

Psalm 147:18,

Psalms 147:18

God sends forth his word and melts them.

He causes his winds to blow and the

waters to to flow. Mark 4:39, he arose

Mark 4:39

and he rebuked the wind and the sea and

said, "Peace, be still." And the wind

ceased, and there was a great calm. He

restrains the wind.

He controls the day of death. Psalm

Psalms 139:16

139:16, "Your eyes saw my substance

being yet unformed, and in your book all

the days fashioned for me were written,

when as yet there was none of them."

Acts chapter chapter 17 26. He made from

one blood every nation of men to dwell

on all the face of the earth. And he has

determined their appointed times and the

boundaries of their dwellings. He

controls the day of your death.

Who ordains the days of war and peace?

Isaiah 45:7. I form the light and I

Isaiah 45:7

create a darkness. I make peace and I

create calamity. I the Lord do all these

things. Lamentations 3:37-38. Who is he

Lamentations 3:37–38

who speaks when it comes to pass? When

Yahweh has not commanded it, it's not

from is it not from the mouth of the

most high that woe and well-being

proceed.

Finally, God is the one who delivers us.

Evil can't deliver us. But Psalm 50:15

Psalms 50:15

says, "Call upon me in the day of

trouble, and I will deliver you, and you

shall glorify me."

Second Peterap 2:9, "The Lord knows how

to deliver the godly out of temptation

and to reserve the unjust under

punishment for the day of judgment."

What is left to do is to lift up your

eyes and put your faith in these words

to say to God, "I trust you.

I believe you are good and that you are

doing good. I believe that you have

chosen to express love to the world not

by going hey I love you and just sort of

like leaving us to ourselves but by

sending his only begotten son in flesh

to be crucified for sin to raise and

triumphant power over death and to

ascend to the father's right hand to

make intercession for us until we meet

him.

Being wise is not simply about knowing

what to do, but when to do it.

Being wise is seeing the world as it

really is and responding in a way that

leads to life.

Consider your life and the things that

frustrate you. Consider how much you've

prayed and asked God for the for what

you want.

How often have you prayed and asked God

for the wisdom to know when the proper

time is to deal with this thing that's

so frustrating?

Ask yourself in your situation, am I

trying to respond to my circumstances

from a posture of desiring to control or

from a posture of apathy? Or am I

deciding, am I praying and seeking God's

help from a confidence and trust?

If you're praying with confidence and

trust, that's usually a good indicator

that you're hoping in God's timing,

God's outcome.

For those in circumstances that feel

unfair or unjust. Consider the truth

that all powers at be are not the most

powerful powers.

Your present authority is not your final

authority. Death, time, and impermanence

is coming for everybody. And in the end,

God alone is judge, and God alone is

just.

This teaches us to think about our lives

with some perspective.

Am I being mistreated right now? That

legitimately might be happening to

someone in here. That doesn't mean

anyone's getting away with anything.

Even if even if you're nervous that

that's the case, no one gets away with

anything.

You don't live in a world of chaos,

though it appears that way. You live in

a world under the sovereign dominion,

the mighty hand of a loving God who's

doing good always for the glory of his

name.

In a life we can't control, wisdom

teaches us perspective and trust under

God's hand. Let's pray.