A "Wise Parable

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 57

Psalm 57 ESV

To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave. Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by. I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. He will send from heaven and save me; he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness! My soul is in the midst of lions; I lie down amid fiery beasts— the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth! They set a net for my steps; my soul was bowed down. They dug a pit in my way, but they have fallen into it themselves. Selah My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast! I will sing and make melody! Awake, my glory! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn! I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!

Scripture Reading: Romans 11:33-36

Romans 11:33–36 ESV

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Sermon:

Well, good morning church. I was glad when they said to me, let us go and Worship in the house of the Lord. Well, this morning, we turn our attention to the end of chapter, 9 of the book of Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes, 9, 11, through 18. And by way of preface, I want to do two things.

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One remind us of what we're doing in the end of Ecclesiastes, but then also have us think about the type of passage that this might be First. What are we doing in Ecclesiastes? Well, if you've been here for the past few weeks, maybe you've forgotten the end of Ecclesiastes.

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I've been calling lessons in Practical wisdom, right? Wisdom that has practical application to our lives. Last week, we were exhorted. Be joyous have joy. The Practical wisdom here is the world's broken. It's difficult. Your options are have joy or not. It's better than probably definitely certainly To have. This idea that we can't know, All of God's ways, we can't understand those things knowing who we are.

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That work in toil and all of these things God. Grants us peace. And so we work, that's practical wisdom. Sure, it's broken. This isn't sitting around philosophizing, this is when the rubber meets the road. And so here again, we're going to deal with practical wisdom. But how is Solomon going to give us practical wisdom today?

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Well it's a type of Passage when we went through Matthew. We were very familiar with in Ecclesiastes. We haven't seen it so far. It's a bit of a parable. Sullivan is going to teach us. Through a story through a picture made with words. And he's going to teach us what, wisdom is what it looks like?

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And why we should have it Ecclesiastes chapter 9, starting in verse 11. Again, I saw Under the Sun. That the race is not to the Swift. Nor the battle to the strong nor bred to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent nor favor to those with knowledge but time and chance happen to them all.

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Fermand does not know his time. Like a fish that are taken in evil net and like birds that are caught in a snare. So the children of man are snared at an evil time when it suddenly falls upon them. I have also seen this example of wisdom Under the Sun and it seemed great to me.

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There was a little city with a few men in it and a great king came against it and besieged, it building great Siege Works against it. But there was fail. Did it a poor wise, man? And he by his wisdom, delivered the city. Get no one remembered that poor man.

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But I say that wisdom is better than might though. The poor man's 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.

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These are the words of the Lord for us this morning. Let's open with a word of prayer. Dear Lord. We thank you for today. We thank you for your grace and mercy. Thank you for the kindness that you have shown to us. We thank you for your delivering us.

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Redeeming us calling us out of Darkness and into light. We thank you that we can be in Christ. And there we are a new creation, made new teach us according to these things help us to see clearly what you have done. I pray that you would use this time, use your word.

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To conform us into the image of your son. Jesus Christ, Our Lord for it's, in his name that we pray. Amen. And amen. So what's going on here? Well, there's these weird things about Nets. There's this man who saves the city and no one seems to care and overarching one, thought we hear again.

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And again, we've been hearing wisdom is better. But, but how do we get there? What's going on here? Well, as we walk through this passage, this is how I think through it. How I read through this passage to help me understand. What is Solomon driving us to see allowing him sort of to take us on a journey?

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And so we start with the setting. What is the setting where is he telling us this story? Like what is the the But the place that this story exists in. And he starts by showing us an upside down world. This is a little nicer than the word. We've been using to describe the world which is broken.

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But upside down here is I think a bit more appropriate, As we read through verse 11, what Solomon's showing is isn't just like broken and not working, right? He's showing us that it's actually the opposite of what we would think and expect or even we could say the opposite of what it should be.

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Again, I saw Under the Sun that the race. It's not to the Swift. I I look here under the sun, And the race, which races go to the person who finishes it the fastest, right? How do you finish a race? How do you win a race? You are the fastest But here under the sun, The race is not to the Swift.

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The fastest one doesn't win the race. We have a whole sort of modern Parable about this called The Tortoise and the Hare. Right, we say slow and steady wins the race. But it's a race. Shouldn't the fastest win? That's not the way it always works. The world is upside down.

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The battle. Doesn't always go to the strongest. Who wins this battle. This weak guy or this really, really strong guy. You think the straw? Who wins the battle, right? This will be the parable that we're going to get later the small City with only a few men in it or this great king with his great large army, who's going to win the battle.

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Well, if I were a betting person, I'd put money on the great one, the strong one, the more powerful one, but Solomon says, Under the Sun. This world is upside down. The battle doesn't always go to the strongest. We can keep going the bread to the wise. Your wisdom won't always feed you.

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Why is it that the fools prospering it has food, but the wise is struggling. The world's upside down. Riches to the intelligent. Hey, we like to think the richest people are the smartest people, and even in our minds, right? When you start to think of the richest people, other Geniuses.

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They're smart. They're they did this. They did. That Solomon said, that's not always the case. There's a lot of real smart people who are real poor. And there's a lot of real dumb people that are real Rich. It doesn't always work the way that it should. The world is upside down.

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Favor doesn't always go to those with knowledge. In fact, sometimes the one with knowledge is looked down unfavorably because we just don't like that. Again, we can look to Modern stories, right? The Emperor's New Clothes. Everyone's lying to the emperor. Everyone thinks they have this. The one who has the guts to stand up and tell the Emperor, the truth, the one who has knowledge here.

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He's looked it up poorly in some versions of that story. He's thrown in jail for speaking. His mind until the emperor finally realizes the truth. Favor, does it always go to the ones with the most knowledge? Why, why is the world upside down? Why is the world broken? Because Solomon, says time and chance happen to them all.

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Time here. Solomon is getting us to look back to Ecclesiastes chapter 3. We can't as you read through Ecclesiastes you cannot forget the time poem. There is a time and a place for everything for laughing and for crying. So no matter how rich, how wise you are. That doesn't mean you will always have riches because there's a time for riches and a time for not having And time will happen to you.

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It will happen to all of us and maybe you're a foolish person living in a time of riches. Congratulations. Maybe you're a wise person living in a time of poorness. Congratulations. Time happens to them all enchants. We need to understand chance here doesn't refer to what we sort of think of.

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Dumb. Blind luck. That Sullivan's not saying some people are lucky and some people aren't There's really no such thing as luck when God is Sovereign over all things, especially over time. So what does Solomon say?

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Some people live at certain times. That's their lot. Some people live in. Not so great times. That's their lot. If we go back to the Old Testament, there was this idea of casting lots, you cast lots to determine something that you couldn't know or understand or decide. But it wasn't like we're just gonna get let luck solve this.

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This is a be a concept for into Ecclesiastes. Instead chance here is sort of To describe a theologically for us the will of God that we cannot see know or understand. So it feels like blind chance, it feels like luck but that's not ever what's happening. And so Solomon's saying the world's upside down things are broken.

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Time and chance time and things. We don't understand times and things we cannot understand or see or fathom These things happen to us all. Verse 12 for man does not know his time. Like fish in a net like birds in a snare. That's what happens to us. We are scared at an evil time when it suddenly falls upon us.

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The fish as he's swimming along, cannot see, or know, or sometimes, I think it's right to even say cannot even fathom that a net is coming. And then all of a sudden, he's on the deck of some dude's ship and he's going to be dinner. That's just what happens.

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This. Flight along about to perch on a branch, doesn't see or know anything. Probably doesn't even know of the existence of snares. And yet, here it comes and gets it. So, to our lives. Solomon says, You're walking along. You have no idea, you cannot see, no or even fathom.

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What is about to happen to you. And here it comes. Evil here. I don't think necessarily means evil as in Wicked. But bad. A Calamity. Some disaster that falls upon you. These things come to us. It suddenly happens. The world is upside down and broken. That's the setting. If the setting we all live in it's the place we all know to be true because we've lived it, we've seen it, we know it.

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So then when the setting is set, we can now get the picture the parable here. He says, I've seen this example of wisdom Under the Sun, I've seen this. This is Solomon saying, let me just share with you. In a verbal picture. What this looks like and specifically, how do we handle this life in an upside down world?

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This, this example seems great to him, the way, I read this, here's a great story, I have a great story for you. And he paints the picture. A tiny little village, maybe two or three men. Small little village. And here comes Nebuchadnezzar. Here comes the Great and Mighty King.

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Here Comes the army of the Philistines. Pick your villain here. And this King not only does he have the great Army. He also has the superior War tactics. Tiny Village, tiny homes. Maybe a little tiny little wall. It looks cute. It's more quaint than anything else. Little wall around it.

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Here Comes This King with a full-size, battering, ramp and trebuchet and all these other Siege Works trying to attack this small village. Well, who's gonna win? Well, we would think the great king but wait this is an upside-to-held. The battle does not always go to the strong. And here we will see it.

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Why doesn't the great king win verse 15? There was failed in it, a poor wise man and by his wisdom He delivered. The city. Here in this picture wisdom. Is exemplified. Wisdom is shown to us in its most beautiful, most powerful, most important way that it can be used.

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And here again. It's practical. The wisdom that this man has, we don't know what it is. Okay, maybe he's clever. Maybe he negotiated with this King, we don't know. Maybe he saw some fatal flaw in the plans. Maybe he knew a way to hide away and do this or do that.

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Maybe this old man was the king of guerrilla warfare. We don't know how his wisdom was. But this is what we do know, wisdom is what turned the tide and allowed this small City to take advantage of the upside downness of the world. This is what I mean by that.

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We look at here. The battle doesn't go to the strong. And that's like, that's not how it should work. The world is broken. Was Sullivan saying is wisdom allows you to take these things and use them. It can be good for you. The battle doesn't go to the strong, so be wise and figure out how to make that work.

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If you go and do these things, it doesn't matter. If you're poor, you can still be wise the world's upside down. It doesn't matter if you feel this that or the other thing use wisdom. And when you use wisdom, the upside downness of the world can be Counteract it maybe that's the best way to say it.

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Here. This old man. That we don't know him. We don't know what he did. The few things we know about him. Make you think? Maybe I don't want to be like him? There was a poor wise, man. It's 50, 50. I'd like to be wise, don't want to be poor.

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So Pick if you want to be this man or not.

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By his wisdom. Deliver this in. He used what he had. No doubt what he did it. Another part of this picture is the great king with all of his riches and power and building these Seas Siege engines Couldn't do anything. So, in fact, Wisdom, defeated the king. But the port is The the poverty, that's the word Portis is not a word.

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The the poverty of this wise, man, defeated the riches. Of the

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Use the upside downness of the world. That's wisdom. Because wisdom, what solid was is to see should be prioritized.

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This poor wise, man, verse 15 delivered, the city It's better to be wise.

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But no one remembered the poor man. You should still want to be wise. Should you imagine you are this man. This great king is coming against you. Your options are. Live with Fame and have people remember your name? Or be wise. Wisdom's better. Should you if you are this wise, man?

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Or you're living at this time? Should you want to be the powerful king? Or the wise, man? The powerful loved King. Or the poor man that is looked down upon and hated. But I say Solomon says, wisdom is better than might Wisdom should be prioritized. It is better to be wives.

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We could push this right. You have a choice. Read a book. Go to the gym. This is an extreme version. Most of the time you can do both and you probably should do both. But in this extreme picture, Go to the drip. Read a book and get one which should you do?

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Solomon, says read the book. It's better to be wise. It is better than might.

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Even though. This poor man's wisdom is despised. Here's an interesting line here, and his words are not heard. No one listened to him. And yet. Right? If your options are to be wise and have everyone know, you are wise

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Or. To have everyone. Hear you right? Sorry to be wise, that no one know you're wise or to have everyone. Think you are wise, which is better. It's better to be wise. Wisdom is to be prioritized. Even if his words aren't heard, even though this man's words were not heard, he was still able to deliver the city.

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Why? Because he was wise. Here's the the payoff then. How do we live in a broken world? With.

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How do we flourish in a broken world in an upside down? Be wise. But wait. I've seen Under the Sun Solomon said in verse 11. Go all the way back. Bread. Doesn't always go to the wise. It's okay. You should be wise. Cuz here ultimately, then is the lesson.

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The lesson of this Parable. Is that wisdom? Is still. Better. In any time. In any situation in any moment, in any place that you find yourself, wisdom is still better. It's still better to be wise, but what if I can't eat, it's still better to be wise but what if no one listens to me?

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It's still better to be wise but what if the king comes against me, it's still better to be wise but what it's still better always better. To be wise. The wise words, verse 17 said the words of the wise, heard and quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools, it's better to be wise.

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You know, no one hears you even if no one knows, it's better to be wise. Wisdom is better than weapons of war. Well, in our Parable. Because wisdom defeated, the great Siege work. The most powerful weapons of war. The most well-trained Army, the most whatever it is, wisdom is better.

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One sinner can destroy much good. It's still better to be wise. The idea here Solomon's saying the world's upside down things. Don't always work the way we think they should. Sometimes things are broken. Often things are broken. Heck always things are broken. Wisdom helps you maybe use that Brokenness to your advantage but maybe not.

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It's still better to be wise. One wise man can deliver a city one sinner, destroys much good. It's better to be wise. Would you rather be delivering the city or destroying everything? Everyone tried to build, it's better to be wise. Wisdom is still. Better. This is the point Solomon, driving home again, and again, and again, in a broken world in an upside down world in a painful, World wisdom is better.

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As I read through my commentary, it was like dove into this passage this week. There was one thought that. Sort of kept coming up again and again, and again.

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Ecclesiastes calls us to look back. All right, we have to look back to Genesis multiple times. We've been looking back in Genesis 1 2, 3, especially But here, especially Ecclesiastes best Helps us look. To our Savior. Here for Solomon then it wouldn't be looking back would be looking forward for us.

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It's still looking back. That's the blessing of the time we live in.

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But as we think through when we think of our savior,

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His greatest. Victory.

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When he was despised. His words were not heard like this poor man.

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Though, the armies.

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Of the Were encamped against him.

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And, In a real sense. The power of Rome. The power of the Pharisees and all their great Siege Works. We're surrounding him. And his 12 disciples.

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And it gets worse. Because we drive this Parable, right? We want to drive this Parable to see our savior in it. This small town of only 12. Became just, Jesus.

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That rich. Even the fox has a place to lay its head. We read this in Matthew, but the son of man has no bed to lay his head on.

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Isaiah, it talks about the suffering servant. We look at him. There's not much that we think. That's great. That's awesome.

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And yet. He didn't just deliver the city. He delivered all mankind. For all, who trust in the name of Jesus will be saved.

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Not by might, or by strength not by our ability to wield. The sword are we delivered. Rather it is through the wisdom of God given to us in Jesus Christ. The word of God that we find our Deliverance. This is why wisdom is still better.

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I don't think this is a large or inordinate jump to make. How can we see what Solomon's saying come true we look to our savior. The one who delivered us, who saved us, who cared for us, who bore the Wrath that we deserve so that we might be made free.

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The one who willingly if we want to just fully use all of this passage, right? The one who. Though, he was in the form of God, did not count equality of God. A thing to be grasped but instead humbled himself. Right? You want to talk about an upside down world?

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How about this? The god of the universe entered into creation, that's pretty upside down. That's how we're saved. And he was humble. He humbled himself. He was despised and rejected so that we might be made whole that's upside down, that's how we're saying.

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And he delivers us. It's better. It's not with the clanging swords that we've conquered, it's through the work of Jesus. The quiet wise words of Our Savior are far better than shouting Trust in him. Look to Him. The world is broken. And Solomon says use wisdom. It'll help you see that.

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Sometimes you can use the upside down nature of the world. For good. In Jesus the most upside down thing to ever occur happened and it was for our good. May we trust in him? Let's pray.