Those Who Keep the Good King’s Command
1Who is like the wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed. 2I say, “Keep the king’s command!” because of the oath to God. 3Don’t be hasty to go out of his presence. Don’t persist in an evil thing, for he does whatever pleases him, 4for the king’s word is supreme. Who can say to him, “What are you doing?” 5Whoever keeps the commandment shall not come to harm, and his wise heart will know the time and procedure. 6For there is a time and procedure for every purpose, although the misery of man is heavy on him. 7For he doesn’t know that which will be; for who can tell him how it will be? 8There is no man who has power over the spirit to contain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day of death. There is no discharge in war; neither shall wickedness deliver those who practice it.
In life nothing is more important than judging rightly how the world works, responding in the right way, and discerning well how a matter will unfold and end. Happily, we already know from the Bible what God has planned and how it will all conclude. Because of that, we are not swept away by our feelings but meet things well.
Stephen’s story makes this plain. Because he knew God’s will, Stephen was sure that God was with him even when he was persecuted for preaching the gospel. So he could show a face as peaceful as an angel’s to the very people who were throwing stones at him. He responded this way because he believed without a doubt that heaven is real; the world no longer had a hold on him.
We are not people thrashing about to survive in the world; we are God’s people, set apart from it by his grace. Knowing this, we have the ease of mind to keep, as a matter of course, the moral laws that people ought to keep. The apostle Paul urged those who believe in Jesus Christ to be subject to the authorities of the world for the sake of the gospel. We are to do this so that we can share the gospel. Of course, this does not mean we should submit to those who persecute our faith. If we are persecuted we must stand against it, but the moral laws set for human life we must keep.
Paying taxes is an obligation every citizen is naturally bound to meet. But if someone breaks the law out of greed for money and is judged by the authorities, a person who cannot keep even the petty laws of the world will not be able to preach the holy gospel of God. If a Christian cannot preach the gospel because they have not kept the laws of the world, they are committing the sin of hindering God’s work. That is why the apostle Paul tells us to be subject to the authorities of the world for the gospel’s sake.
Ecclesiastes 8:3
3Don’t be hasty to go out of his presence. Don’t persist in an evil thing, for he does whatever pleases him,
When a relationship is good, we do not hurry away from the other person’s presence, be it king or friend. To withdraw hastily from a king’s presence is a sign of disloyalty that only a strained relationship would produce, and it can provoke the king’s wrath. Failing to show courtesy to a king who holds our life in his hands is something no one should ever do unless prepared to die. Since the king has the power to do whatever pleases him, to betray him and defy his command is foolish.
Because judgment is certain to follow disobedience to the king’s command, it is the duty of a servant to fulfill with all diligence whatever the king has entrusted. If anyone does it carelessly or halfheartedly, the one who fell short must answer for having slighted the king’s authority. The work God, our King, has commanded you is not something you may do if you feel like it and skip if you don’t. To become one of God’s people is already to have sworn an oath to serve God as King, so we must obey the word whether anyone is watching or not.
Solomon received great blessings from God, but in his pride he made himself king of Israel in God’s place. Job 41:33-34 describes Satan: “On earth there is not his equal, that is made without fear. He sees everything that is high. He is king over all the sons of pride.” Those who exalt themselves and all the proud are servants of Satan. Under the influence of this evil spirit, Solomon made himself king of the world, threw away all the grace and the charge God had entrusted to him, and ruled the people with a hard and fierce face. He oppressed the people with absolute power, and when he sank into sensuality and pleasure, he in his pride broke the promise he had made to God.
Satan, having seen God receive worship, wanted to be worshiped by people, and Solomon, under that evil spirit’s influence, loved to be worshiped by everyone. Until then Solomon had ruled the nation by God’s grace and lived a prosperous life, but because he grew proud, he wasted his years. When he realized that he was a frail human being who could not know what was to come, only then did he understand that he must rely on the Almighty. Watching people grovel before the powerful, and the powerful crush the weak by force, he saw that worldly power and knowledge are not true wisdom.
Human beings are frail creatures who cannot help crumbling before the passing years. However strong a warrior may be, time bent his back, dimmed his eyes, and made his hands and feet tremble. Only then did Solomon realize that a life submitted to the word is a life of worth, and that whoever lives such a life is truly wise. Look at the world today. People forsake the word of the living God and serve as gods idols made of dead stone and wood, and even people. As a result, fewer and fewer long earnestly for God’s wisdom and holy grace.
Clay cannot ask the potter what he is making, nor can the work look at what he has made and say that he has no hands and has made it badly. People are like clay, and we must know that if they treat with contempt the God who made them and governs their lives, they cannot help becoming servants of Satan in the end.
The world praises as wise anyone who is useful to it, so if you love the world more than God, the world will surely praise you. If at that moment you are not dazzled by the praise but discern carefully, you can see that the world’s praise is mockery aimed at God. In these last days, spiritual discernment matters more than ever. Worldly power, and the wisdom and wealth people hold, have all been entrusted by God, and depending on how we use them, they can give life to souls or destroy them. Take care, then. If we use the wisdom God has given us, as Solomon did, to exalt ourselves, in the end that very wisdom will drive us and other souls into hell. Only when we first admit that even our life is not our own can we become truly wise.
What have you received from God? After many years had passed, when Solomon realized that nothing in the world was his own, he felt the loss of the time he had spent without meaning. Looking at his own face now, when he had true wisdom, and at the face he had worn when the wicked woman held him captive, he saw how great the difference was. While he thought that he himself had to bear the burden of ruling the nation and its people, his face grew hard; but once he learned that he could entrust even his human zeal to God, his heart grew peaceful and his face began to shine.
1 Kings 18:3-4
3Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household. (Now Obadiah feared Yahweh greatly; 4for when Jezebel cut off Yahweh’s prophets, Obadiah took one hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.)
Anyone who believes they belong to God’s people will make the same choice Obadiah made. True to his name, which means one who serves Yahweh, Obadiah, in the most dangerous situation, where he could have lost his life, showed his faithfulness by gladly offering his own life to save the prophets of Yahweh.
He served in high office under King Ahab, who worshiped Baal, yet he used his position to save Yahweh’s prophets. He could have been put to death if discovered; he took that risk because saving the prophets was God’s work. Ahab’s wife Jezebel was hunting down Yahweh’s prophets and killing them, and in that desperate situation he did not spare his own life to save them. Had Ahab or his followers discovered him then, not only the prophets but Obadiah too would not have escaped death. Even so, he hid as many as a hundred of the prophets Jezebel was persecuting, and provided everything they needed at his own expense.
Though Obadiah was in a situation that risked his life, he was serving faithfully for the Kingdom of God, so his heart would have been full of joy. His face, lit by the peace within him, would have been like an angel’s, and his heart would have been full, because he was confident that God would take care of his future.
Your face when you have strayed from the word and your face when you are full of the word are visibly different. It is astonishing, but true, that fullness of spirit can darken a face or make it shine. It is very easy to find out whether you are inside grace or outside it, because you can examine your faith by looking at your face in a mirror, without asking anyone else.
The word of wisdom never once left Solomon. But when he grew proud, his face turned hard; when he repented and turned back, it became gentle and peaceful. Sadly, though, while Solomon ruled with a strong hand, the people raised no revolt and did not defy the king’s will. Once Solomon was born anew as one truly wise and ruled with goodness, the people took the king’s commands lightly, behaved insolently, and challenged his authority.
Had the people behaved this way before, he would have flown into a rage and ruled them by force. Now, though, just as God had waited for him, he could deal with them with a good heart, entrusting these foolish people to God. He knew that God would deal with their sin even if he did nothing, so all he felt was remorse for his own sin of having failed until then to serve God as King.
This is common in the world too. When we meet someone kind and gentle, at first we respect them as a good person, but as time goes on we often see that respect give way to careless treatment. Foolish people bow in fear to those who use violence and threats, even if they have no willing obedience in their hearts. People treat the good carelessly and give in to the wicked because they do not know what it means for a person to be respected and treated with dignity.
Such things happen all the time in families, in the church, and in society. When parents give their children freedom so that they can grow up bright, the children often overstep the bounds and behave in a disorderly way instead of respecting their parents. Then the parents, though it pains them, have no choice but to rebuke and restrain them. And then we see the children obey well, because they are afraid of their angry parents.
God too has given us freedom to live by faith of our own accord, but because we do not fear a God who does not rebuke us, we sin. He has told us plainly what we must do and what we must not do, yet people treat lightly the God who does not rebuke them at every moment, and then meet great suffering. I hope you will know what a great blessing it is to obey God of your own accord.
When I founded this church, I vowed that I would not use the blessings of the world to frighten the congregation with the word or drive them by force. As I vowed to God, for more than twenty years I have done my best to bring you to give yourselves to God willingly. I have worked to make the relationship between God and you a personal one, so that you might live as God’s children of your own free will. Yet people in the church think they will be blessed just by coming to church, or by doing whatever the pastor tells them to do; it is by believing in Christ that we can be blessed. If you truly believe in Jesus Christ, you will have a true hope and become holy, with nothing in you to rebuke; you cannot help but be blessed. If I were to tell you that you must give large offerings to be blessed, or that your children will be blessed only if you work hard at church, you would probably serve zealously to gain the blessing. But that kind of faith is useless; it falls at the smallest stumbling block.
What I want to ask of you is this: on the foundation of faith in Christ, obey the word of your own accord, and of your own accord give yourselves to God. The people needed to understand that the Solomon who had recognized his own folly and ruled by wisdom was a far stronger man than the Solomon who ruled by force. This was because God, who loved Solomon, would himself deal with those who defied Solomon’s commands. Solomon, who had once led the people by his own will, had now laid everything down and become a holy child who entrusted all to God. The people must not, then, think little of a king who did not rebuke them, because what people see and what God sees are vastly different.
If the Solomon who has been born again speaks sternly to the people, it is out of love and concern, and they must obey him. If he does not rebuke people who are going the wrong way, it is not because his nature is mild, but because he knows they will not listen however he counsels them. The rebuke of those who have not been born again is violence, but the rebuke of a person of faith is love, and we must recognize this and receive it with thankful hearts.
Ecclesiastes 8:5-6
5Whoever keeps the commandment shall not come to harm, and his wise heart will know the time and procedure. 6For there is a time and procedure for every purpose, although the misery of man is heavy on him.
Solomon said that the wise who walk with God discern the time clearly as they go through the world, and this is how they can live in peace. Anyone may meet hardship in this life, but that is something that inevitably happens while we live. Wise believers discern the time and procedure well before they decide, but the people of the world cannot, and because of that they may meet with great harm. So we need a faith that obeys the word. We must have the wisdom to discern what to say and what to do, and whether a thing may be done or must never be done; only then can we escape great harm on the last day.
Isaiah 48:18-19
18Oh that you had listened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. 19Your offspring also would have been as the sand, and the descendants of your body like its grains. His name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.”
Despite Israel’s disobedience, God taught them unfailingly and labored to lead them in the right way. But Israel disobeyed the word of God. Looking on such a people, God says that it grieves him that he could not give them greater blessing because they disobeyed.
God said that if Israel had obeyed, their peace would have been like a river and their righteousness like the waves of the sea; the blessing promised to Abraham would have come upon them, and their offspring would have been as the sand. But he also said that there would be no peace for the wicked who disobeyed. This means that Christians who live by faith, now and at the end of the age, are kept by God’s protection and so will receive eternal blessing, but the wicked have no peace.
We are free to live in obedience to the word or by our own judgment, but the outcome will divide into salvation and judgment. That is the reason we must believe in Jesus Christ now. Evil spirits labor night and day to hinder salvation, but those who obey the word are not deceived, because they have the power to judge by the wisdom they have received from God. That is why we must strive to live within the grace of God. But the wisdom we have is like a flashlight in the dark. It is a small light that shines only on the path just ahead, so we must not lean on it but rely on Christ, whose light is as bright as day. Only then can we choose our times under that bright light, judge rightly, and live wisely.
Ecclesiastes 8:7-8
7For he doesn’t know that which will be; for who can tell him how it will be? 8There is no man who has power over the spirit to contain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day of death. There is no discharge in war; neither shall wickedness deliver those who practice it.
No one can know what is to come, and no one can tell us what it will be. People may take good medicine and eat good food in the hope of living long, but when the time God has set arrives, they must lay aside the body. In war, some hide in a cave to save their lives and still die, while others stand in the fiercest battlefield under falling bullets, ready to die, and live. Life, then, belongs to God, and in every matter the final decision is his.
Because human beings are weak and powerless, they cannot set the day of their death, nor can they postpone it. However much we love someone, we cannot stop their breath from ceasing, nor can we give our life to another; that is how frail we are. If even our own life is not ours, then we must live relying on God, its owner. If Yahweh loves those who obey his word and the good who use their wisdom to save lives, then we must live as those who fear Yahweh.
Friends, while God is being patient, look back over your life, and if there was a time when you disobeyed, you must repent now, because, as Solomon said, God can do whatever he wishes, and he can also cast us into great suffering. The command of the good King is grace given to save his people. Having come to understand this, Solomon is now pleading with us to live as children who obey God.
Those who live in obedience to the word need not worry about the end of the world. The faithful need not fear God’s wrath, because their sins have been forgiven by the blood of Christ and because they have been saved through faith in Christ. None of us knows the future, but we know what will become of us after our own end and after the end of the world. Knowing that, we must live now with a wise faith. Because you belong to God and hold his wisdom, may you never forget to give thanks to him with hearts that fear Yahweh.