Latest / Reformed Thinking / Shadows on the Dial: Sovereignty, Depravity, and the Certainty of Judgment in a Vaporous World (Ecclesiastes 3:16-4:16)

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Shadows on the Dial: Sovereignty, Depravity, and the Certainty of Judgment in a Vaporous World (Ecclesiastes 3:16-4:16) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. So think about the last time you
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went to a doctor for a physical injury.
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Oh yeah, like a broken bone or something.
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Right. Let's say you took a hard fall
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and your wrist is swollen. You're sitting in that.
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You know that sterile, brightly lit clinic room and there is a
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very specific expectation you bring into that environment.
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You expect answers. Yes, you expect absolute
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precision. You want the doctor to take an
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X-ray, clip it up on the light box, point to a tiny jagged
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white line on the film, and say there is the problem.
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Your bone is fractured right here.
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That is the comfort of a mechanical worldview.
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I mean, it really is. It is a binary reality.
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You look at the film, the fracture is undeniable, and the
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solution is, well, it's pretty clear.
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The doctor applies a cast, prescribes a timeline, and you
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have a solid road map for healing.
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Yeah, we crave that kind of certainty in almost every area
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of our lives. We really do.
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We want things to be visible, neatly categorized, and easily
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fixable. Like we want a cast for
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everything, right? But then you open up biblical
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wisdom literature. Specifically, you step into the
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world of Ecclesiastes and it feels like someone just took a
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baseball bat to that X-ray machine.
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Yeah, that is a great way to put it.
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It shatters the illusion that human brokenness can be
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diagnosed with a simple glance or fixed with a five step
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therapeutic program. So today we are analyzing a very
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specific and honestly a very heavy block of text for this
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deep dive. It is heavy.
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We are looking at Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 16 through
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chapter 4, verse 16, and the material we are reviewing lays
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out five distinct storm clouds of life that the author observes
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when he looks at the world under the sun.
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We are going to look at injustice, oppression, envy,
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isolation and political vanity. And we really need to set
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expectations right away for you, the listener.
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If you were tuning in today hoping for a light, positive
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thinking seminar, this text will feel incredibly jarring.
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Absolutely. To the modern ear, parts of
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Ecclesiastes sound almost like the cynical despair of a secular
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philosopher. But the mission for our
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conversation today is not to hand out shallow platitudes.
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No, we don't do that here. Right.
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The objective is to look squarely at a fallen, cursed
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world. Strip away the illusions we use
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to comfort ourselves and discover true, sober joy.
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That kind of joy only comes through absolute dependence on a
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sovereign God. But to grasp what these five
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storm clouds mean for you on a Tuesday morning, we first have
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to understand the very specific lens the author is looking
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through. Right.
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Context is everything here. We cannot just pull verses out
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of a hat and make them mean whatever we want.
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The historical and covenantal background sets the stage for
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the entire diagnosis. Spot on.
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So let's anchor this. We are looking at the 10th
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century DC. The author calls himself
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Kohelith. Translate that for us.
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You know, give us a picture of the man holding the.
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Pen. Yeah.
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So Kohelith translates to the preacher or the computer of the
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assembly. Historically, this is King
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Solomon writing in his twilight years.
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All right. You have to picture a man who
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has lived a life of absolute indulgence.
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He possessed unparalleled wealth, international influence,
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and a, well, a tragic track record of idolatry and pursuing
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every earthly pleasure imaginable.
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Now he is old. He's looking back, right?
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He is looking back, writing as a repentant man, surveying the
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ruins of human wisdom when it is pursued apart from the fear of
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the Lord. I want to stop you right there
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because there is a massive debate about this in academic
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circles. Oh sure.
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The material we are reviewing notes that higher critical
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scholars often reject the idea that Solomon wrote this.
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They claim it is a post exilic document written hundreds of
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years later during the Hellenistic period.
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Why do they argue that, and why does our text push back so hard
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against it? That is an excellent question.
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The liberal critical approach often points to certain lone
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words or stylistic shifts in the Hebrew to argue it was written
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much later. But the underlying motivation
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for that argument is often an attempt to undermine the
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inspiration and the prophetic authority of the text itself.
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By divorcing it from Solomon, they turn it into a generic
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piece of late stage philosophical music.
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But the historical data and the internal claims of the text
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aligned with Solomonic authorship.
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When we affirm Solomon as the author, the book carries the
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weight of a man who actually had the resources to test every
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single worldly pleasure to its absolute limit, only to find it
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completely hollow. His vantage point is so unique
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because he is the king of Israel, the covenant nation, but
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his gaze extends far beyond those borders.
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Yeah, he is looking everywhere. He is looking at the surrounding
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ancient Near East. He sees Egypt, Syria, Babylon,
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and what he sees completely destroys the modern narrative we
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are fed about human evolution, right?
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We are constantly told this myth of moral progress, the idea that
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as time goes on, humanity becomes kinder, smarter and more
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enlightened. But Solomon looks at human
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history and sees a slaughterhouse.
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Yes, the historical reality of the ancient world is a bloody
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witness to total depravity, and the concept of total depravity
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means that every part of human nature is corrupted by the fall
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and humanity is naturally implying toward evil.
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Solomon is operating under this post fall reality.
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He uses a specific phrase a lot, right?
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Yeah, you will notice he relentlessly uses the phrase
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under the sun. He does this deliberately.
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He's examining life strictly from a horizontal earthly
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perspective, temporarily leaving out the special revelation of
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God to prove a point. He is asking, what does life
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look like if this is all there is?
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And his conclusion is that when humanity is severed from
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communion with the Creator, we descend into a state that looks
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very much like brute beasts. Which makes Ecclesiastes such a
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strange book compared to something like Proverbs.
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If I read Proverbs it feels very normative.
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It tells you work hard and you will have food.
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Do not be lazy or you will be poor.
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It gives you the baseline. Right.
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It establishes the rules for a well ordered society.
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But Ecclesiastes feels like drinking bitter medicine.
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It shows you the glaring exceptions to those rules.
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It completely dismantles any hint of prosperity theology.
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It forces you to look at the fact that sometimes the most
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righteous person suffers terribly and the most wicked
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person prospers immensely. Proverbs provides the baseline
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wisdom for daily living, but Ecclesiastes is the divine
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hammer designed to break the anvil of human pride.
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It shatters the illusion that we can manipulate God or the
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universe into giving us a perfect life through good
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behavior. And to drive that point home,
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Solomon relies on a dominant Hebrew motif and that is the
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word hebel. It appears over 30 times in the
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book. It is often translated as
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vanity, vapor or breath. I think we need a really
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concrete image for Hebel because vanity can sound like someone
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staring at a mirror too long. Right, like arrogance.
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Yeah, and that is not what it means here.
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Think about waking up in the dead of winter.
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It is freezing outside. You step out your front door and
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you exhale. You see this thick white cloud
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of breath right in front of your face.
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OK, I see where you are going. For a split second, the
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condensation is so thick it looks like a solid physical
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object. It looks like a wall of fog.
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You could physically lean your shoulder against, but the moment
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you reach your hand out to grab it, what happens?
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It's just air. Exactly.
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I mean, right. Your fingers close around empty
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air. It dissipates into the cold that
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is Hebel. It is something that appears
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incredibly substantial, but when you try to grasp it, it
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vanishes. That is the perfect illustration
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of Hebel. Now apply that to a human life.
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You spend 40 years building a career.
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You finally get the corner office.
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You accumulate wealth. You retire.
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Six months later, the company has replaced you and barely
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remembers your name. That is terrifying.
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It is. The substance you thought you
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were building was just a puff of smoke in the freezing air.
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It is fleeting. It is enigmatic.
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And it is, in the end, completely outside of your
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control. But here is where I struggle,
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and I know many listeners will struggle with this too.
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How do we balance the majestic theology of God's total
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sovereignty with this chaotic, freezing fog?
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That is the tension. Because just a few verses prior,
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in Ecclesiastes 3.1 to 15, Solomon writes this beautiful
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sweeping poem about how God makes everything beautiful in
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its time. He controls the time to be born,
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the time to die, the time to weep, and the time to laugh.
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If God is completely in control, why does our daily experience
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feel like we are just grabbing at empty fog?
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How do we reconcile that beautiful sovereign picture with
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the ugly reality of Hebel? You are hitting on the
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unbearable tension that Solomon deliberately constructs.
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You have this Lochte transcendent view of God's
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perfect sovereign plan. But we do not get to live in the
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heavenly control room. We live in the dirt.
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So in verse 16, Solomon violently Yanks the reader back
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down to the grim reality of the pavement.
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He transitions to empirical observation.
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He looks at the storm clouds that obscure God's perfect plan
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from our limited, finite perspective.
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The 1st and most jarring place we see this fog of human failure
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is in the very institutions that are supposed to uphold right and
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wrong. And if the courts are
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fundamentally broken, who pays the price?
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It is not the wealthy or the powerful.
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The failure of justice at the top creates a vacuum, and that
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vacuum is instantly filled by exploitation.
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That is what Solomon sees next. Which brings us to the first
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storm cloud. This is the scandal of injustice
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and the certainty of judgement found in verses 16 through 22.
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Solomon says he looked under the sun and saw wickedness sitting
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in the very seat of justice. When you walk into a courtroom,
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that is the one place on earth where you expect fairness.
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Right, the blindfold. Yes, you expect the blindfold on
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the Statue of Justice to mean something, but his empirical
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observation is that the institution itself is rotten to
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the core. To understand the weight of
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this, we need to look at the Hebrew syntax, which is
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incredibly stark. Solomon points to the place of
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mishpat, which means justice, and the place of zedek, which
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means righteousness. To an ancient Israelite, the
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local courts at the city gates were not just civic buildings
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where disputes over property lines were settled.
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Those seats of judgement were considered the literal proxy of
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God's throne on earth. They were supposed to reflect
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the holy, unchanging character of God Himself, but Solomon
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observes that they are corrupted by Russia, which is wickedness.
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So when a judge takes a bribe or represses the innocent, it is
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not just a civic failure, it is a cosmic betrayal.
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It is a direct insult to the nature of God.
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Precisely the text diagnosis. This is the tragic reality of
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total depravity. When fallen humans are given
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authority over their fellow man without the restraining grace of
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God, corruption naturally and inevitably follows.
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The very seats designed by God to restrain evil are occupied by
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men who perpetrate evil. And Solomon's reaction to this
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observation is fascinating. He does not just write a
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political manifesto demanding new judges.
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No, he goes way deeper. He presents a biological
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humiliation of mankind. He makes this shocking
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comparison between humans and beasts using the Hebrew word
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behema. Biologically, he points out that
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both humans and animals share the exact same fate.
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They breathe the same air and they both rot in the same dirt.
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This is a direct call back to the curse in Genesis 3.
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Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.
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He is doing this to completely crush human arrogance,
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especially the arrogance of corrupt judges.
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It is a devastating blow to our pride.
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We like to think of ourselves as elevated, untouchable beings,
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but Solomon reminds us that we share the same micor, which
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means fate or chance, and the same Rouge, which means breath
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or spirit. As the cattle in the field, we
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both return to the Afar, the dust.
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It's so humbling. And here we must correct a major
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misunderstanding pushed by liberal critical scholarship.
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In verse 21, Solomon asks A provocative question.
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He says, Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and
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the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?
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Some scholars argue that this verse teaches annihilationism.
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Annihilationism meaning what? The idea that when we die we
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simply cease to exist like an animal.
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They claim Solomon was completely agnostic about the
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afterlife. Wait, so Solomon looks at human
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death and animal death and says there's absolutely no
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difference, We just return to the dirt like a dog and that is
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the end of the story? That sounds incredibly bleak.
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Isn't that dangerously close to saying there is no eternal soul
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at all? Why would the Bible include
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that? It sounds like that if you
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misread his intention, which is why those scholars make that
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argument. But if you look closer at how he
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is arguing, he is setting a rhetorical trap.
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He is using a rhetorical question to mock the functional
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agnosticism of the secular mind. He is putting himself in the
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shoes of the unregenerate person who lives purely under the sun.
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He's saying if you reject divine revelation, if you live entirely
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based on what you can observe with your physical eyes, you
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have no logical, empirical grounds for eschatological hope.
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Look at a dead animal and a dead human.
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Biologically, they look identical.
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So he's exposing their worldview, yes.
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He's not expressing his own theological ignorance, he is
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forcing the reader to realize the sheer bankruptcy of a purely
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secular existence. If there is no God, there is no
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justice and we are just smart animals waiting to become
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fertilizer. But Solomon does not leave us in
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that nihilistic void. He has an internal theological
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answer to this rampant courtroom injustice.
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He says to his heart, God will judge the righteous and the
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wicked. Yes, he uses the word shafat,
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indicating a comprehensive, flawless rendering of divine
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justice that will completely rectify the corrupted earthly
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mishpat. And then he explains the concept
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of God actively testing humanity.
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The Hebrew word is barar, which means to sift or to separate
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grain from chaff. So God is sifting them.
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Exactly. God is actively orchestrating
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the circumstances of human mortality and even allowing
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systemic failure to prove a point.
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Humans are absolutely nothing without His grace.
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He allows the wicked to act like brute beasts, to prove to them
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their complete unworthiness before a holy God.
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Let me play devil's advocate for a second on behalf of the
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listener, because this is where the rubber meets the road.
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Go for it. If God is completely sovereign
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and He has an appointed time for perfect justice, why does He
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allow the wicked to prosper in the courts right now?
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Why let a corrupt judge destroy an innocent family for decades?
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If God has the leverage to stop the abuse, why the delay?
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That is the agonizing cry of the human heart throughout all of
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history. How long, O Lord?
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The text commands us to understand that God is currently
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testing mankind, and the delay in justice is not an absence of
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justice in a strange, difficult way.
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It is a severe mercy. How so?
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Think about it. If earthly courts were perfect,
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if human justice never failed, we would build our permanent
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utopia right here on earth. We would become so comfortable
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in the city of man that we would never long for the return of
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Christ. The failure of human
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institutions forces us to detach our hope from this world.
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It breaks our idol of a perfect society.
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Right. The delay forces us to leave the
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final scales of justice in the hands of the Lord.
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Meanwhile, verse 22 commands us to rejoice in our earthly labor
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as a daily gift. We execute our duties today
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knowing tomorrow's judgement is completely secure in His hands.
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And the failure of justice at the top creates victims at the
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bottom. When the courts are corrupt,
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people get crushed. That brings us to the second
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storm cloud found in chapter 4 verses one through 3.
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This is the tears of the oppressed.
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Solomon looks again and the scene is terrifying.
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He sees the tears of the oppressed, and he notes a
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chilling reality. The authority is entirely on the
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side of their oppressors. The abusers hold all the cards
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and the victims have absolutely no leverage.
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The Hebrew root word used here is ashek, which means to
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oppress, to extort or to defraud.
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And the grammatical form Solomon uses do not describe a one time
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event. He described an ongoing
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relentless state of violent exploitation.
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This is the reality of ancient empires with the week we're
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literally work to death or sold for dead.
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And the most heart wrenching part of his observation is a
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phrase he repeats twice for emphasis.
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He says they had no one to comfort them.
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The word for comforter is manamim.
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Yes, the absence of a Menachem highlights the complete vacuum
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of grace in the earthly city. It is one thing to suffer
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physical pain or financial ruin. It is another thing entirely to
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suffer in absolute isolation, knowing that the structural
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framework of society is weaponized against you and no
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one is coming to your rescue. Solomon's reaction to this
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unmitigated cruelty is a lament that takes your breath away.
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He looks at the suppression and declares that the dead who have
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already died are far better off than the living who are still
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enduring it. It's a dark thought.
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And then he goes even further, saying that the unborn, the ones
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who have never even drawn breath to see the evil under the sun,
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are the most fortunate of all. You cannot read this violent
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language and walk away believing that humanity is basically good.
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You absolutely cannot. This passage forces the reader
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to confront the horrific, rotting consequences of the
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fall. It is a severe diagnosis of
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human nature, and this text forces us to look critically at
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how we try to solve oppression. Today we see a massive clash
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between the biblical worldview you presented in this text and
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modern sociological frameworks. That is a crucial discussion to
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have. The research we are reviewing
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points out how modern frameworks, specifically
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mentioned in critical race theory, attempt to locate the
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source of oppression primarily in systemic power dynamics and
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intersecting societal structures.
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These secular frameworks offer political restructuring and
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social activism as the final savior.
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Yes, that's their claim. The argument from that modern
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perspective is that if we can just rearrange the social
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structures, dismantle certain hierarchies and pass the right
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legislation, we can cure the oppression.
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And we must be careful to accurately report what our
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source material argues In response to that.
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The commentary we are analyzing notes that the biblical text
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draws a sharp contrast with those modern frameworks.
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According to the sources, Ecclesiastes diagnosis the root
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cause of oppression strictly as the direct result of total
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depravity. The root cause is not just a
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flawed system, it is the darkened, thoroughly corrupt
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heart of the individual center. The individual heart.
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Yes, the text asserts that while systems can certainly be
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corrupted, as we clearly saw with the courts, trying to cure
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the disease of sin solely with sociological frameworks or
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legislative changes is fundamentally insufficient.
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You cannot legislate a new heart.
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The argument from the text is that until the human heart is
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regenerated by the Holy Spirit, fallen humans will always find a
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new way to exploit one another, regardless of what structural
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system is put in place. It is the difference between
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treating the symptom and treating the disease.
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So while some people are being completely crushed by those in
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authority, others look at that dynamic and say I never want to
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be the victim. I'm going to exhaust myself
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trying to acquire leverage, or at least acquire enough wealth
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to build a wall between myself and the oppressors.
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That's human nature. Yeah, this internal motivation
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that drives our daily labor leads us into the third and 4th
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storm clouds. This is the rat race of envy and
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the tragedy of isolation, covering verses 4 through 12.
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Solomon introduces the third cloud by turning his gaze to the
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marketplace. He looks at the vast majority of
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human industry ambition and toil, and he realizes that it is
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not fueled by noble motives, is not fueled by a desire to
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glorify God or even to provide a basic living.
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It is fueled by kena, which is envy or jealousy of a neighbor.
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Think about your own life. If you're listening right now,
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think about the last time you checked a professional
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networking site and saw a former Co worker get a massive
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promotion or a new title. What was your immediate physical
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reaction? Probably not joy.
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Right. Was it pure joy for them or was
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there a tightness in your chest, a sudden feeling that you are
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falling behind? We tell ourselves we are working
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80 hours a week to provide for our families or to achieve
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excellence, but the text exposes the rotting disease underneath
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it all. It is idolatrous rivalry.
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We just want a bigger house than the guy next door.
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We want to prove we are better. It is exhausting and it is a
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chasing after the wind. Solomon presents the two ruinous
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extremes that humanity usually falls into.
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On one side you have the frantic, envious toil of the
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ambitious workaholic he is endlessly producing, driven by
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rivalry, running on a treadmill that never stops.
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On the other side. On the other side, you have the
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self-destructive laziness of the sluggard, the text says.
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The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh.
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He drops out of society, refuses to work, and starves to death.
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Neither of those is the answer. The sluggard starves and the
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envious man has a heart attack at 50 for a title no one cares
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about. So what is the prescribed remedy
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here? The biblical middle ground is a
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brilliant image. It is one handful with
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quietness. The Hebrew word is nahath,
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meaning rest, quietness, or tranquility.
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It represents the golden mean of godly contentment.
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One handful. Picture it physically.
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One open hand holding a modest sufficient provision accompanied
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by Peace of Mind is infinitely better than two clenched fists,
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white knuckled, full of exhaustion and striving after
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wind. That imagery of the clenched
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fist versus the open hand is striking.
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It perfectly sets up the 4th cloud.
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This is the solitary accumulator.
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This is the tragic figure of the isolated workaholic.
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Solomon describes a man who has no son, no brother, no family.
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Yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never
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satisfied with his riches. He never stops to ask the most
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vital question For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of
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pleasure? He is entirely self enclosed.
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He is amassing massive amounts of wealth, but it's completely
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forfeited the capacity to enjoy it because he has rejected
21:45
shared relational bonds. If you look at modern culture,
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this ancient text reads like it was published this morning.
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The data is staggering. Nearly half of American workers
21:54
identify as workaholics, sacrificing sleep, health and
21:57
family on the altar of career advancement.
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Oh, the statistics are grim. Simultaneously, we're living
22:01
through loneliness epidemic. Over half the population reports
22:04
feeling persistently lonely. The number of men claiming to
22:07
have zero close friends has skyrocketed in the last few
22:10
decades. It is like someone playing a
22:12
massive multiplayer video game. How do you mean?
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Well, they spend thousands of hours farming gold, buying the
22:18
best armor, leveling up their character.
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But they are playing on a server entirely by themselves.
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There's no one to trade with, no one to share the victory with.
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The gold has an artificial value, but it's functional value
22:29
is absolute 0 because the relational economy is completely
22:33
missing. That analogy captures the utter
22:35
desolation of this lifestyle. We are working ourselves into an
22:39
early grave to buy things we do not actually need, to impress
22:43
people we do not actually like, and we are dying in well in
22:48
deafening isolation. We build financial empires, but
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we starve relationally. The text reveals that God's
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provision for this hostile world is covenantal companionship.
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He says 2 are better than one. Yes, and he lists the practical,
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life saving benefits of companionship in the ancient
23:03
world. They have a good reward for
23:05
their toil. If they fall into a pit, one
23:07
will lift up his fellow. They can keep each other warm on
23:10
freezing nights and if an attacker comes against 1-2 can
23:13
withstand him. Practical Survival.
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Right, and the threefold cord mentioned at the end of this
23:17
section represents robust covenantal solidarity.
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This finds its highest earthly expressions within the bonds of
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Christian marriage and the thick fellowship of the local church.
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These relationships act as a vital shield against the
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materialistic rat race. When you are bound to others in
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love, it breaks the spell of the solitary accumulator.
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But humans are stubborn. Exhausted by our personal
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striving in the rat race, terrified by the oppression we
23:43
see in the news, and disillusioned by the corrupt
23:45
courts. We look for an easy way out.
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We look to the horizon for a hero.
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We want someone to fix society on a macro level so we do not
23:52
have to deal with the micro level of our own hearts.
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And this brings us to the final storm cloud in verses 13 through
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16, which is the vapor of political saviors.
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The text presents a classic revolution, a story as old as
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time. We see an old, foolish king who
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refuses to take advice anymore. He is stubborn, entrenched and
24:11
out of touch. Suddenly he is overthrown by a
24:13
poor wise youth, who rises from the prison from complete
24:16
obscurity to take the throne. It is the ultimate underdog
24:20
story. You can imagine the crowds
24:21
absolutely loving it. The approval ratings go through
24:23
the roof. The parades are endless.
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Everyone thinks finally this is the guy.
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He is the new savior who's going to fix all the systemic
24:31
oppression and fix the courts we just talked about.
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But Kohelith analyzes this with piercing realism.
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He observes that while the current multitudes rejoice in
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the new king, those who come later will not rejoice in him.
24:45
The phrase Striving after Wind or Ruth Rush acts as a literary
24:50
bookend here. The cycle repeats.
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Exactly. The crowds are utterly fickle.
24:55
Today's political savior inevitably becomes tomorrow's
24:58
despised tyrant, or at the very least, tomorrow's massive
25:01
disappointment. The analysis we are working from
25:03
issues a very strong critique here of the modern evangelical
25:07
obsession with pragmatic politics.
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The author's warned against conflating the Kingdom of God
25:11
with the political machinations of the city of Man.
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It is so easy to get caught up in election cycles.
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It really is we. Start to believe the rhetoric
25:19
that if we just get our guy into the executive office or if we
25:22
secure a budget in the legislature, the storm cloud
25:25
clouds will finally part and we will have heaven on earth.
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The source material identifies this as political idolatry.
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Human government is a vapor. It is necessary for civil order
25:36
to restrain blatant evil, but it is highly flawed and entirely
25:40
transient. No human office, no matter the
25:43
political affiliation of the person holding it, has the
25:46
capacity to reverse the curse of Genesis 3 or satisfy the eternal
25:50
longings of the human soul. But let me push back on that.
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If human government is just a vapor, and public favor is
25:56
guaranteed to fade within a generation, should the listener
25:59
completely check out of the political process?
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Should Christians just withdraw to a compound in the woods, read
26:05
their Bibles, ignore the news and let the city of Man burn to
26:08
the ground? The sources are clear that
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believers are not to embrace escapism or monastic withdrawal.
26:13
Believers are commanded by Christ to act as salt and light
26:16
in a decaying world. We are commanded to act justly,
26:19
to love mercy, to vote or step up where Providence permits, and
26:23
to prefer wise leadership over foolish leadership.
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So we do engage. Yes, we do not despise civil
26:28
order. We recognize it's common grace
26:30
value. However, the critical
26:33
distinction is where we place our hope.
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We must absolutely refuse to place our main hope in the
26:38
ballot box. We must never view Earthly
26:41
Princess presidents or Prime ministers as messiahs.
26:45
We engage in the public square, but we do so with a measured,
26:48
sober realism, knowing that true justice will only arrive with
26:52
the return of Christ. So we synthesize these 5 heavy
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clouds. We have looked at corrupt courts
26:58
where judges take bribes. We have looked at ruthless
27:01
oppression where victims have no comforter.
27:03
We have exposed the rat race of envy that drives our careers,
27:07
the tragedy of the isolated accumulator dying alone, and the
27:10
inevitable disappointment of political saviors.
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So bleak picture. We are looking at a world that
27:15
is thoroughly broken at every level.
27:17
If I am listening to this on my commute to work, how can I
27:19
possibly carry this heavy diagnosis without falling into
27:21
total despair? It feels like we are standing in
27:24
the middle of a Category 5 hurricane and you are telling me
27:27
I do not even have an umbrella. If we stop our analysis at a
27:30
strictly historical reading of the Old Testament text, we would
27:33
indeed be left in despair. The book of Ecclesiastes, read
27:37
in isolation, is a closed system of vanity.
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But as our sources indicate, reading this without the lens of
27:43
the New Testament is entirely sub Christian.
27:45
Every single storm cloud we have discussed is basically a
27:48
diagnosis of a terminal disease for which Jesus Christ is the
27:51
sole exclusive remedy. Let's trace that out carefully.
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Let's not rush this. How does Christ specifically
27:57
fulfill and answer each of these 5 clouds?
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Let's start with the first one. This was the scandal of
28:03
injustice in the courts. How does Jesus change my view of
28:06
a corrupt legal system on a Tuesday morning?
28:10
Where human courts fail entirely, Christ succeeds an
28:13
absolute, terrifying perfection. Think about the life of Christ.
28:16
He himself stood before a corrupt human judgement seat.
28:19
He faced Pontius Pilate, the embodiment of a compromised,
28:22
cowardly human judge, and was condemned unjustly.
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But Christ is also the righteous judge.
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At his bodily return, at what the Book of Revelation calls the
28:30
Great White Throne judgement, he will execute perfect, unyielding
28:34
justice. Every crooked verdict, every
28:36
bribe taken in the dark, every lie told on the stand will be
28:40
exposed and rectified. When you understand that you no
28:43
longer have to carry the crushing burden of ensuring
28:46
cosmic justice happens. Today you can sleep at night
28:48
knowing the true judge is coming.
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What about the second cloud, the tears of the oppressed who had
28:53
no comforter? How does this theological truth
28:56
help the victim today? Jesus Christ is the prophesied
28:59
consolation of Israel. He did not remain distant from
29:02
human suffering. He entered into it.
29:04
He suffered under the grip of oppressors, crying out an
29:06
absolute forsakenness on the cross.
29:09
Because of that redemptive substitutionary work, he secured
29:12
the right to send the Holy Spirit.
29:14
Yes, in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is explicitly titled
29:18
the Paraclete, which directly translates to the Comforter, the
29:21
Advocate. The unregenerate world suffers
29:24
under oppression in absolute isolation, but the believer
29:28
possesses the indwelling presence of God.
29:31
Even in the darkest moments of systemic abuse, the believer is
29:34
never truly without a Comforter. Moving to the third cloud, the
29:38
rotting disease of envy and rivalrous labor, how does Christ
29:42
free the modern professional from the exhaustion of hustle
29:45
culture? Christ is the true and better
29:47
laborer when you look at His earthly ministry.
29:50
He never worked out of rivalry. He was not trying to outshine
29:53
the Pharisees or build a bigger earthly Kingdom than Rome.
29:56
His work was pure, humble, joyful obedience to the Father,
29:59
designed to secure a bride through His substitutionary
30:02
atonement. It's a completely different
30:03
motivation. Precisely when a believer grasps
30:06
that Christ has fully accomplished the work of
30:08
salvation, they are freed from the exhaustion of trying to
30:11
justify their own existence through productivity.
30:14
You no longer have to prove your worth by out earning your
30:16
neighbor, because your worth is entirely secured by the finished
30:19
work of Christ. And the fourth Claire, the
30:21
solitary accumulator, the workaholic who locked himself in
30:25
his own mansion and dies alone. Christ provides the final
30:28
eternal companionship. He is described as the friend
30:32
who sticks closer than a brother.
30:34
Through his blood he broke down the dividing wall of hostility
30:38
not just between God and man, but between man and man.
30:41
He takes isolated, envious sinners and builds them into the
30:44
church, which Peter calls a spiritual house made of living
30:48
stones. We were built together, yeah.
30:50
He draws us out of our self enclosed vanity and places us
30:52
into a covenantal family, ensuring his people are never
30:55
truly abandoned. Finally, the fifth cloud, the
30:59
vapor of political saviors who eventually betray the crowds.
31:02
Christ is the ultimate King of kings and Lord of Lords.
31:05
The poor wise youth from the proverb inevitably loses his
31:09
popularity and his administration crumbles.
31:12
But Christ's dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall
31:14
not be destroyed. He's the only King who will
31:17
never face rebellion, who will never be corrupted by authority,
31:20
and whose glory will never fade. This completely changes the
31:23
paradigm of how we live our daily lives.
31:25
The text viewed through the New Testament gives us a Pilgrim
31:29
eschatology. The Church is not meant to
31:31
establish a flawless political utopia under the sun.
31:34
Right now, the believer eagerly awaits the bodily premillennial
31:38
return of Christ. We are waiting for the King to
31:40
physically return and make all things new.
31:43
We are a Pilgrim people. Our mandate is to preach the
31:47
gospel of sovereign grace and live as holy aliens in a foreign
31:50
land. We do not demand that God
31:53
explain every crooked thing we see today.
31:55
We trust His Providence, knowing He is sifting humanity, and we
31:59
patiently await His return. It is like being an ambassador
32:02
stationed in a foreign, collapsing nation.
32:05
Think about what an ambassador does if you hold that office.
32:08
You do your daily job with excellence.
32:09
You love your neighbors in that foreign country.
32:11
You help the poor. You engage in diplomacy.
32:14
You try to make the city better. But you don't just hide.
32:16
Exactly. But you do not tie your core
32:18
identity or your emotional well-being to that foreign
32:21
nations success or failure. Why?
32:23
Because your citizenship is elsewhere, you know the capital
32:26
city you represent is secure, and you know you are eventually
32:29
going home. That is the exact mindset
32:31
required to survive life under the sun, and it is why we must
32:35
firmly reject false gospels, particularly the prosperity
32:39
gospel, which falsely promises material ease, perfect health,
32:43
and unending success in this life.
32:45
Ecclesiastes shatters that lie. We are not promised a life free
32:48
of storm clouds. We are promised sufficient grace
32:50
to endure them and a future resurrection that will conquer
32:53
them. So we bring this full circle.
32:55
The mission of this deep dive was to recognize the absolute,
32:58
meticulous sovereignty of God over these five storm clouds.
33:02
God uses the corruption of the courts, the oppression of the
33:04
weak, the empty exhaustion of envy, the pain of isolation, and
33:08
the failure of politics as severe mercies.
33:10
Severe mercies, yes. He uses the sheer brokenness of
33:13
life under the sun to actively strip away our reliance on a
33:17
decaying world. He is prying our stiff, clenched
33:20
fingers off our earthly idols so our hands are open to receive
33:24
what He actually gives. He wounds our earthly illusions
33:28
so He may heal our eternal souls.
33:31
I want to leave you, the listener, with a final lingering
33:34
thought to Mull over. As you go about your day,
33:36
consider how the sheer transients of your daily
33:39
frustrations actually freeze you.
33:41
The fact that your career stress, your political outrage,
33:44
and your social standing are all just heble of vapor that will
33:47
blow away in the freezing wind of eternity means they do not
33:50
have to define you. They hold no lasting weight.
33:53
Right, If nothing under the sun is permanent, you are completely
33:56
liberated. You are free to simply sit down,
33:58
enjoy your dinner tonight, love your family, and approach your
34:01
quiet labor tomorrow not as a frantic rat race, but as a
34:04
totally unearned gift from a sovereign God.
34:07
Thank you for joining Reformed Thinking on this deep dive and
34:10
keep your eyes fixed firmly upward.