Sermon: Ecclesiastes Resumed (Part Thirty-Five): Ecclesiastes 9:13-10:4
#1788
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 26-Oct-24; 80 minutes
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In Genesis 1:31, we have the synopsis of the fall of man, from innocence to iniquity and the ultimate exclusion from the Garden of Eden. God delivered a double warning to our original parents that once they ate of the forbidden fruit they were as good as dead, and they would become aware of another way of looking at life or a profoundly unsatisfying and destructive admixture of competing ways and disparate choices leading to moral chaos and death. Solomon, who spent his life attaining wisdom, felt frustrated that even though wisdom was superior to political and military power, worldly wisdom is not always rewarded but is often unrewarded and forgotten. Though Solomon advocates using wisdom, he implies that the wisdom of this world is flawed, perhaps expedient for the time, but useless over a long period, temporal, but not eternal like godly, over-the-sun wisdom. Human wisdom has a "buy before date" warning or it will stink and putrefy. Ecclesiastes 9 and 10 show the ugly contentions of politics, in which the powerful and foolish often bully and dominate, ignoring the wisdom or common sense of the people, following an agenda designed to keep them in power, promoting foolish and dangerous policies. Though wisdom is superior to weaponry and political power, and acting wisely is better than acting with power, foolishness has sadly gained ascendency in human governments. Wisdom and common sense are rare. For every single wise person there are 50,000 fools. Sadly, it takes only a single fool to sabotage a wise decision. For God's saints, the best way to cope with a foolish, powerful, angry leader is to remain calm, ratcheting down the dangerous level of emotion or spirit, showing deference and submission.