Counseling for Kohelet: Honest Questions for an Unfair World

Transcript

Friends, our brother, Oshawa, is going to be serving us with the Word today. Oshawa and his wife, Sharon, are faithful members at Trinity Church. And if you haven’t met Oshawa or had a chance to get to know him yet, shame on you. I love this brother. I get to work with him, do some non-profit work in ministry in Portland, beyond my ministry here. And I’ve had a chance to learn from him a lot. If you don’t know, Oshawa is an entrepreneur, a pastor. He served as a pastor, a church planner, a missionary, and he’s a gifted preacher and truly a gift to our church. So I’m grateful for you, brother, and I’d love to pray for you as you preach to us from Ecclesiastes 9. Thank you. That’s very kind. Father, we thank you for this gift of men who can faithfully preach your Word that you’ve given to Trinity Church. We thank you specifically for Oshawa, for the way that you have uniquely gifted him, the way that you’ve uniquely wired him, and for the fact that you have given him to our church as a gift. Would you bless him as he opens your Word? Would you give him the words to say that you need us to hear? Would you remove anything that maybe he’s prepared that you don’t want us to hear? Would your Spirit fill my brother, strengthen him, embolden him, and use him as you see fit? We pray in Jesus’ name and for the good of your people. Amen. Thank you, Andre. That was very kind. Thank you. Well, good morning, everyone. Let me just get set up here momentarily. Okay, so we are going to be in Ecclesiastes chapter 9, starting in verse 11. If you’ve been with us the last couple of weeks, you heard Thomas give an overview of the book, kind of get us back up to speed after, I think, a couple years away. He said that basically Kohelet, or this like teacher, creature from the book of Ecclesiastes, does a royal experiment pursuing as many different pleasures in life and things that people try to build their identities upon. And he comes to the conclusion, basically, been there, done that, and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. And he describes the frustrations in life with the word of hevel, right? So that’s the Hebrew word for pfft. Okay, that’s it. Is Jan here, our local Hebrew professor? Is that right, Jan? Okay, he’s not here. Good. I can get away with it. No, okay, really, in the Hebrew lexicon, it doesn’t say pfft. But actually, my favorite translation of that word comes from the message. It’s kind of a loose paraphrase translation of the Bible, and it translates the word hevel as spitting into the wind. Spitting into the wind. Kids, have you ever tried that? Okay, so go out on a really rainy day and face the wind, and no, no, don’t do that. Don’t do that. You’ll get in trouble, or at least have a wet face. But that was Thomas’ work, and then Andre started chapter nine, and in that passage, we were reminded that even in the midst of the hevel, the vanity of vanities, God makes life enjoyable. So enjoy life. Now I’m going to read our text. Please stand as we read our passage together. And again, we’re in Ecclesiastes chapter nine, starting in verse 11. Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. For man does not know his time, like fish that are taken in an evil net, like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared in an evil time when it suddenly falls upon them. I’ve also seen the example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me. There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siege works against it. But there was found in it a poor, wise man, and he, by his wisdom, delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man. But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man, wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard. The words of the wise, heard and quiet, are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good. You may be seated, and let’s pray. Lord, thank you for your word, how it speaks to our human experience in deep and surprising ways. Lord, help our hearts to be fertile ground to receive your word, that it would be planted, find good soil, and bear much fruit. And Lord, help me, by your Holy Spirit, to speak with truth and conviction and the power that only comes from you. In Jesus’ name, amen. Any cup is half empty, people here. Come on. Come on. You can be honest. It’s okay to be a pessimist in church. Okay. Yes, my friend there. Okay. We’ve got a few. How about any… The cup is probably filled with something nasty, and if we drink it, we might all get sick and die, people. Okay. There you go, Joe. I hear that. So I used to work with someone like that, always planning for all the ways that things can go wrong, thinking about and preparing for the worst situation, and honestly, that’s really helpful, isn’t it? Right? Those kind of people are great to have around. They think through the contingencies and help us make sure our plans are not vulnerable to the unexpected. But even for the optimists among us, sometimes we wake up like the boy in the book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Kids, have you… Any of you guys… There’s not tons of kids left in here. Any kids read that book? Any adults read that book to your kids? Yes. Right? So it’s a story about the boy who wakes up with gum in his hair, and there’s one miserable thing after another. No prize in his cereal. Kids, you don’t even know what that is. Back in the day, we used to convince our parents to buy boxes of cereal because there were plastic doodads in them, and a lot of sugar. He had a bad seat at school, a cavity at the dentist, lima beans for dinner. So kids, right? Have you ever experienced that? Have you ever had a day like that? So in the book, the boy threatens that he’s gonna move to Australia to get away from his hard day. But his mom gently reminds him that some days are just like that, even in Australia. Now, personally, I’m very much a cup is half full kind of guy, generally optimistic, hopeful about the future. But I’m also a realist, and I appreciate brass tacks honesty when it comes to what life is really like. So in other words, I’m kind of like a mean optimist, an optimist that doesn’t mind bursting people’s bubbles when their optimism is unfounded or just based on the fact that everyone is afraid to tell them that they have a bad idea. You can tell me your idea. I’ll tell you if it’s bad. That’s my spiritual gift. So for me, Ecclesiastes is awesome because it’s ultimately a hopeful book about a God who is good, who provides good things for his people, who invites them to enjoy life while also being utterly honest about the frustrations that actually exist in the world. It shows us the absurdity of all the ways people try to build meaning for themselves in absolutely foolish ways. And so it pushes us to the ultimate, it pushes us to the eternal. Ecclesiastes says that God has put eternity in our hearts, and so everything finite in this world will come up short. Even good God-given things like family, work, and ministry, Ecclesiastes, so in doing this, it challenges some of our over-realized eschatology, big word, but it’s trying to think that more of heaven is going to be here on earth than actually is promised, right? It takes our K-love, power-verse, God is good, pat answers for hard questions kind of Christianity, and it forces us to deal with our finitude and the fact that Romans 8 says that we have been saved in hope. So our inheritance and our total healing is still in the future, and the book of Ecclesiastes is more about the not yet than the now experience of our life and our salvation. So don’t get me wrong, it’s good to come to church, it’s good to be encouraged, to be optimistic, to be hopeful when you’ve had a hard week, right? You feel disappointed with yourself and others, it makes all the difference in the world to show up, hear God’s promises, and be encouraged. But at the same time, at least I know I need to hear someone say, I know, I get it, life is hard. And so Ecclesiastes gives us the permission to be honest about how hard life can be, but still find joy. in it and it helps us laugh at the absurdity of it all. So just bear with me for a couple minutes. In that vein, unless we take ourselves a little too seriously, let’s have a little bit of fun with Ecclesiastes chapter 9. So we’re gonna look at Ecclesiastes chapter 9 just briefly expressed as corporate motivational posters. Anyone in a corporate office with motivational posters on the wall? Come on, anyone. Don’t be… I apologize, Sean. I’m sorry about that. Are they like the really cheesy ones? Like, yeah? Okay. Okay. Well, these aren’t cheesy. These are honest. Okay. So throw up the first one. Ambition. Okay. For those listening to the tape, this is a trout jumping up a river into the mouth of a grizzly bear. Okay. So Ecclesiastes reminds us that sometimes the journey of a thousand miles ends very, very badly. Like a bird caught in a trap or a salmon in a grizzly’s mouth. That’s literally from our text. The next one is endurance. But hey, just because we’re all going to die eventually, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try hard, right? I mean, the passage last week earlier in chapter 9 says that what your hand finds to do, do with all your might. But here Ecclesiastes reminds us that the race is not always to the swift, but it’s to those who keep running. And guess who runs 24-7 without lunch breaks, paychecks, or whining? And it’s a picture of a hand… like a corporate hand shaking hands with a robot. And yes, maybe the robots will replace us and we’ll just have to find new jobs. Now, okay. The third one. Sacrifice. Now think about this poor wise man who delivered the city and was forgotten. He made a real sacrifice and surely that’s meaningful. And it’s a picture of a pawn, right? Stepping out in front of a whole row of other chess pieces. But Ecclesiastes reminds us that your role may be thankless, but if you’re willing to give it your all, you might just bring success to those who outlast you. And then finally, teamwork. And it’s a picture of someone passing a baton but dropping it in the past. So finally, our passage warns us that wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good. That kind of reminds me of doing group projects in high school where teamwork ensured that your hard work could always be ruined by someone else’s incompetence, aka teamwork. Okay, you can put that one away. So it’s important that we can enjoy the scriptures. So I hope you enjoyed that a little bit. And I honestly think that whoever wrote up those posters was inspired by the book of Ecclesiastes. So I really love what we call the wisdom literature. And the book of Ecclesiastes falls within kind of that that genre within the scriptures. It’s a portion of scriptures that are not mainly prophecy or narrative or like the logical arguments of the Apostle Paul, but instead they’re poetry that exemplify what the early church father Augustine, his motto, which was, believe so that you may understand. Or the medieval theologian Anselm, who said, faith-seeking understanding. He described that. So the book, the wisdom literature is kind of how we we operate as faith-seeking understanding. And each of those wisdom books touch on a different theme and kind of answer those questions differently. We have Proverbs. It kind of asks, hey, what is the good life? And it describes walking in wisdom and flourishing and delighting in God. Job asks, how do we live life in the absence of God? How do we find an answer to life’s atrocities? Song of Solomon asks, what is love? There’s a great song about that. Psalms looks at the life of faith and the worship of God’s people. And then finally Ecclesiastes probes that question of what does it mean to be human? And how do we live in our finitude under the sun? Now I kind of like to imagine the books of the wisdom literature like friends that have their own quirks and temperaments. And maybe this will help you understand and get more familiar with these books. So wisdom literature is very practical, right? It’s not just grounded in God’s prophetic revelation, but also in God’s creation and observations of how God has made his world and the laws that govern it. Okay, we turn to these books when we need guidance about a decision or comfort when things are hard. The wisdom literature is meant to be meditated upon and sung. It’s full of riddles and poetry that rewards deep thinking and praying over them and memorizing them and just going deep, living in them. But as I mentioned, each has its own personality. So here’s how we’re going to go through this text. We’re used to putting up a like an outline up here, okay? I’m just not good at organizing things, okay? My brain just goes like this. So there’s no logic here. So this message is going to be shaped not around a logical progression, but around a conversation. In fact, it’s going to kind of be like a counseling session for Kohelet, okay? Remember, Kohelet is the teacher, kind of narrator of the book of Ecclesiastes. And frankly, he needs some counseling. He needs some encouragement. He’s had a hard life. He’s had a lot of disappointments where things haven’t gone as he planned or hoped. He needs some encouragement. So we’re going to let the wider canon or the wider kind of genre of the wisdom books provide some wisdom and counsel to Kohelet and to us. And maybe this morning you’re feeling a little bit like him. You’re feeling like Alexander with his very bad day and the gum in his hair. There’s real regrets that you hold on to. You’re trying to process through some disappointments. So we’re going to listen in on this counseling session. And each of the different wisdom books, they’re going to hear out Kohelet’s kind of like deep and thoughtful questions. And then they’re going to provide some wisdom and comfort to him. And my hope is that if, as we’re in the room, as we’re listening in on this, if we feel the depth of that futility and frustration in life, my hope is that we’ll be helped alongside our friend Kohelet. And, okay, just frankly, for those that have sat through decades of church and have never heard a sermon like this, and you’re thinking, I don’t know. This is kind of weird. I’ve never heard a sermon before. That’s an imaginary counseling session for a book of the Bible. I agree with you. It’s weird. I’ve never preached a sermon like that before. But I like listening to Psalms and Proverbs and Job, and they’ve helped me deeply. So I would ask you to kind of put on your sanctified imagination and enter with me into this counseling session. And let me introduce you to our friends, to our counselors. First is the Wise Sage Proverbs. Reading Proverbs is kind of like talking to an old, wise grandfather. You bring him any question or any issue, and he’s got a pithy statement for everything. He who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit. Go to the anto sluggard. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like an armed robber. And you’re like, thanks, Grandpa. I needed that. But in the back of your mind, you’re also might be thinking, is life really that simple? Does life always work out like that? But you find that if you take his advice, your life begins to flourish. As you delight in wisdom, as you delight in the things that he gives you, you find that your life starts to take the shape of the world that God has created. And honestly, things get less frustrating. Then we have the psalmist. The psalmist, he’s like your really spiritual friend who’s maybe a little bit charismatic. And you bring your problems to them, and they’re like, oh, let’s just pray. Hallelujah. Okay. Hey, you’re struggling? That’s nothing a little worship can’t fix. Let’s just praise the Lord. Right? And they’re deeply in touch with their emotions. Whatever you’re feeling, they’re right there with you. There’s a psalm for every season of the soul. And they’re like the poetic, creative musician type that can find a way to put into words and music the depths of human experience. And for each of us, we probably have that artist or that album that does that for us. That’s the book of Psalms for the church. Then there’s Job. He’s the friend with the deep soul who has suffered and he’s just been through stuff that you can’t even imagine. And you share your burdens with him, and he’s like, bro, I get it. I’ve been there. Let’s just sit with it. You’re confused. You’re angry at yourself and at God, and life’s been hard. But you know what? God is God, and you can trust him. And I know it doesn’t make sense, and I know that all the voices you’re hearing are either accusers and doomers or blind optimists. But you know what? Sometimes you just need to get in the presence of God, recognize that he is God, that he is good, and you can trust him even when you cannot see him. That’s what Job’s like. Then there’s Song of Songs, or Song of Solomon. And if you read that book, you know it’s kind of like a duet of love sonnets. There’s the husband and wife, two lovers singing love songs to each other, and they’re like your two friends, or Sarah who just got engaged, and and they just fell in love. And they just won’t stop talking about how amazing their beloved is. And you get to see this couple madly have head over heels in love, and frankly it’s a little obnoxious. In some parts of the book you’re like, wow, TMI. But then as you spend time with them, as you spend time in the book of Song of Psalms, they make you want to love your spouse more deeply, and more faithfully, and more romantically, and to pursue their hearts. Or for the single folks, it can inspire you to pursue marriage as the promises and delights of covenant love are presented to you, and your heart is stirred up for it. As you read it, you’re also compelled to ask yourself, do I desire Christ as much as this couple desires one another? And then when human love and romance fails us, Song of Solomon, when read in light of the gospel, reminds us that marriage is but a shadow and a sign that points to Christ and his love for the church, and we are assured that Christ, the lover of our souls, will never forsake his bride. This is the the counselors for Kohelet this morning. And then finally, just a little framing of Ecclesiastes, though I know we’ve already talked a bit about this. He’s like the deep, introspective philosopher friend that loves rainy days in Portland, sips green tea in a coffee shop while reading Nietzsche and listening to Johnny Cash or maybe NF. And you bring him your questions and your problems, and he’s like, brother, it’s even worse than you think. You’re having a good day, feeling good about your new accomplishments, and he’s your new accomplishments, and he’s like, you know you’re gonna die, right? But you know what you don’t know? When you’re gonna die. And it could be tomorrow. And on top of that, you’ll be forgotten, and all you work for and built, someone else will enjoy it, and he’ll probably be a fool. Literally, I’m just like quoting Ecclesiastes. It’s just spitting into the wind, but I’m going to tell you the truth. God is in the wind. And walking with God is not about getting some pie in the sky. It’s about getting your fingers in the dirt. So we need all these friends. And honestly, if you don’t remember anything from this sermon, if you remember that the wisdom books are your friends, and we should turn to them when we need to grow in godliness, we need wisdom, love, joy, compassion, truthfulness, when we need comfort and direction, if you learn to sing the Psalms and memorize the Proverbs, then I think God has used this message. With all that intro, okay, let’s sit down a little bit into this counseling session for Kohelet with the wise sage, the psalmist, and Job. So I invited the couple, Song of Solomon, but they wanted to take a date night at Cunard, the fancy French restaurant. Thanks, Andre, for that recommendation. So they’re right now sipping wine, enjoying finger foods with French names we can’t pronounce. For now, we’ll be okay with them, but when you’re ready, you can go talk to Song of Songs. So we’re going to sit down together. I’ll just set the stage a little bit. Maybe it’s a kind of little safe counseling room, or maybe they’re out in a quiet park sitting on a bench. Job begins, Kohelet, how are you doing? What’s been going on? The psalmist asks, how are you feeling, brother? Really? How’s your walk with the Lord? Proverbs, the wise sage, he just sits back and listens. Kohelet starts to open up. Guys, it’s not been easy. I’m trying to trust God, but I see things in life that just don’t make any sense, and I see it everywhere. The race is not to the swift, the battle’s not to the strong, bread’s not to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. That’s the end of the quote. My sense of justice tells me that those that work hard should get the reward for their labors. Those that are lazy, those that are unjust, those that are wicked, they shouldn’t be rewarded for bad things that they do. But everywhere I go, I see that people don’t get what they deserve, but rather seemingly random time and chance happen to them all. Someone is in the right place at the right time, and things go well for them. And for someone else, everything goes wrong. I can’t make sense of it, and it makes me feel vulnerable. It makes me feel unsafe, like life is outside of my control. I try to do what is right. I try to set myself up for success, and it just never ends up working that way. And I look at other people, I pull up my Instagram feed, and they seem to have everything going right for them. The rich and the powerful, the Epstein class, they abuse and take advantage of the poor, yet justice never seems to come to them. But still I tell myself, if only I was a little stronger, a little smarter, a little richer, things would be better. But the more I try, the more I feel like I’ll never be good enough. Sometimes people cry in counseling sessions, so forgive me. And then when I consider real tragedies, I just don’t know what to do with them. I think of the flood in Nepal. We’re just out of the blue. You could be a family having a picnic by a river, and the next thing you know there’s a wall of water that consumes you. Thousands of people dead. I just don’t get why God allows these things to happen. And sometimes I’m worried about how I would respond if something like that happens to me or my loved ones. Like fish being caught in a net or a bird in a trap. These things suddenly fall upon people and they don’t seem to make any sense. That’s what I’m wrestling with, guys. After a long silence, Job answers first. I understand what you’re feeling. I know what it’s like to sit alone in my grief, feeling rejected by people and by God. I did everything right. I was a righteous man, a leader in my community, a faithful husband and father. I honored God and people respected me, and then tragedy struck. It was at a family meal and a tornado came out of the wilderness and the house where my children were feasting collapsed, and they all died. On that same day, I also lost my wealth and my good reputation. Even my wife was telling me, curse God and die. I lost it all. Then my friends lectured me about what a bad person I was, how proud and arrogant I was, and that I must have done something to deserve all of it. If that wasn’t enough, I experienced deep physical pain and my health was wrecked. I felt like I wanted to die. The pain was great. I couldn’t think clearly. Some days all I could do was to curl up in a fetal position and pray to God to take me home. I was honest with God. I told him how I felt. I told him things didn’t make sense. I argued my case to God and to my friends, and then something happened that changed everything. God showed up. And do you know what he didn’t do? He didn’t give me any answers as to why my children were taken or my health was devastated. In fact, he didn’t answer a single one of my questions. Instead, he asked me questions. This is from Job 38. He said, where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? And were you there when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? He asked me, do you command the morning since your days began? Do you cause the dawn to know its place? He asked me if I enter the springs of the sea or walk in the recesses of the deep. Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth. He asked me if I could bind the chains of Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion, if it was by my understanding that the hawk soars and spreads its wings or is it at my command that the eagle mounts up. And finally he asked me, shall a fault finder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it. And I couldn’t answer. I put my hand on my mouth and listened. Then Job continued. This is from Job 40. Sorry, and then God continued. This is from Job 40. He said, dress for action like a man. I will question you and you make it known to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God and can you thunder with a voice like his? Who has given first to me that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine. That’s what God said to me. I was ruined. I thought that I had earned every good thing that I had. I thought I deserved it. I thought it was mine to demand from God and that he owed me an answer for why he took it away. But then when God appeared to me and I saw him in his glory, I began to comprehend that God was God and I was but a man. All I could say in response. This is a quote from Job. I know that you can do all things and no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore, I despise myself in dust and ashes. And that’s the end of the quote. And now as I look back on it and I see that God was sustaining me when everything was falling apart around me. And in his kindness and mercy, he restored my fortunes. He restored my wealth. He gave me seven new kids. But you know what? I still don’t have answers to my questions. And yet somehow it’s okay. I’ve come to peace with it. Kohelet sat in silence for a while considering Job’s words. Then the psalmist spoke up. He said that Asaph in Psalm 73 had the same experience. He looked at the wicked. He saw their wealth and ease and that they committed injustices and were never held accountable. They mock God and say, how can God know? Asaph says that as he tried to understand it, it seemed to him a wearisome task. He felt like Kohelet. Until, until, this is in Psalm 73, he went into the sanctuary of God. Then he discerned their end. He saw that God is just. He will bring all things to rights in the end. And all the envy that he felt fell away. He confesses in that Psalm, when my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant. I was like a beast towards you as he was envying the wicked. He says, nevertheless, I am continually with you. You hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. And he prayed this, whom have I in heaven but you, and there is nothing on earth that I desire beside you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Asaph didn’t need answers to his questions. He didn’t need the complexities of life, the problem of evil and suffering solved for him. He just needed a change of perspective. He needed a change of setting. He needed to come into the presence of God and to see that there is a day of justice coming, and God will be with him no matter what comes. Kohelet listened silently and looked to the old wise sage who hadn’t said anything yet. The sage looked at him knowingly and just said, Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad. Proverbs 12.25. Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the Lord. Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off. Proverbs 23.17. And finally, as a father speaking to a son, he said, My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof. For the Lord reproves whom he loves as a father, the son in whom he delights. Proverbs 3.11.12. And at that, Kohelet’s hardened face began to soften. He felt known and understood, and though his questions had not been answered, and though the looming possibility of tragedy still existed, he was beginning to trust that his heavenly father was good and sovereign and would do all things well. Kohelet thanked each of them for sharing, and then began to tell a story. He shared about a small city with only a few fighting men in it. A great king came against it and besieged it, and just as it seemed like the city would be lost, an unknown poor wise man used his wisdom to deliver the city. All the city rejoiced at the deliverance, but they soon forgot the poor man who delivered them, and indeed they despised him for being such a poor and lowly savior. Kohelet shared this story and then confessed how much he struggled with pursuing a way of life that the world despises and mocks. He said, I clearly see that wisdom is better than might, but it seems like everyone around me believes God’s wisdom is actually foolishness. I see clearly I see clearly that the words of the wise, heard and quiet, are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools, and that wisdom is better than weapons of war, and yet so often sin seems to triumph. Just one sinner, just one foolish decision can destroy so much good. An expensive ointment can take months to make or weeks of wages to buy, and it only takes one measly fly to spoil it. I can spend my whole life building something good and beautiful, and then one act of injustice or one moral failure can tear everything down. How do I make sense of this? How do I deal with this reality where sometimes it feels like evil is winning and the world could care less about God? Is it even worth it to stand up for what is right and fight for the city that despises me and the God I seek to serve? That was Kohelet’s question. That’s what he’s wrestling with. This time the wise sage answered first. You are right that wisdom is better than might. A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might, for by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory. Proverbs 24 5 and 6. If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Rescue those who are being taken away to death. Hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, Behold, we did not know this, does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it? And what do they know? And will he not repay man according to his work? Proverbs 24 10 through 12. The reward of doing the right thing and defending the weak and innocent is in the act itself, not in any praise or reward that you may receive. And though the world despises God’s wisdom, all will be repaid in the end. At those words, Kohelet was emboldened. He stood up and declared, and this is a quote from the very last verses of the book, almost like he went through our counseling session, because he kind of has some clarity right at the end. Ecclesiastes 12 13 to 14. And he says this, this is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil. Right. The wicked will be punished and the righteous will be vindicated. And he’s emboldened by this and encouraged. But even as he stood and basked in his newfound conviction, Kohelet noticed that the psalmist didn’t seem to be as excited. In fact, he was stooped over and was writing something with his finger in the dirt. And there seemed to be tears in his eyes. All the men turned to him, and after several moments of silence, he began to speak softly. Yes, rescue those who are being taken away to death. Yes, fight for the city that will reject you. Yes, every deed will come into judgment. But we must not forget the story of our people. We are their forgetful city. Psalm 106 tells the story and is the prayer that ought to be on our lips. This is from Psalm 106. Both we and our fathers have sinned. We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedness. Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works. They did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. He saved them from the hand of the foe and redeemed them from the power of the enemy, and the waters covered their adversaries. Not one of them was left. Then they believed his words, they sang his praise, but they soon forgot his works. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt. That’s the end of the psalm. We are that forgetful city. We were under siege by mighty enemies that we cannot overcome ourselves. They come to steal, kill, and destroy. Those enemies are Satan, sin, and death. And they would have had their victory if a poor and despised man had not come and, in his wisdom, turned the power of evil against itself and accomplished salvation by dying on a tree. You see, Christ is the greater poor wise man. And in his death, which the world looks at as a meaningless absurdity, that death was actually God’s ordained plan to bring salvation to his people and to rescue the city that would reject him. We’re all born in Adam and inherit his guilt and his sinful nature. And so one sinner, just one, has destroyed much good in the world. But as Romans 5.17 says, if because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Christ offers us salvation, and his death alone gives dignity and meaning to our suffering. Trusting our Heavenly Father in the midst of life’s absurdities is the one thing that gives courage to face an unknown future and to live in a world where so much appears to be unfair. If you feel like our friend Kohelet this morning and you are wrestling with these sayings, hear the counsel of our friends from the scriptures. Put your hope in God and ask Christ to deliver you from the enemies that you cannot conquer yourself. In just a couple minutes, we will remember Christ through the Lord’s Supper. As Kohelet says earlier in this chapter, go, eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart. We can truly celebrate together because the righteous act of the one man Christ Jesus is turning everything sad, untrue, and making all which sin destroyed to be made new. Let’s pray. Lord, thank you for your victory. Thank you that your word counsels us, Lord, that we can bring our honest questions, our honest struggles to you and your answers don’t come back as we would demand or expect, but your answers are sufficient for our souls and they fulfill deeper needs than even we know about. And so we receive you, Lord Jesus, some of us for the first time by faith, and for many of us, again, we turn our eyes to you and we thank you for your work conquering our enemies. Lord, help us not to forget what you have done for us. In Jesus’ name, amen.