Living a Good Life: Making Sense of Justice, Part 1

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. With the presidential primaries upon us, it's a good time to ask ourselves, how does God call us to treat those put in authority over us? How should we react in the face of injustice? Today's broadcast addresses these questions using Ecclesiastes 8, 1-13, and this message titled Making Sense of Justice.

The title of the series is Live a Good Life, Making Sense of the Journey. Today we're going to look specifically at making sense of justice, Ecclesiastes 8, verses 1-13. Justice is a huge word today.

In fact, for many, it's almost an inflammatory term, justice, because they're demanding justice and they see so much injustice. So Solomon is going to help us make sense of justice this morning, and he begins with a call for wisdom. Look with me at the beginning of chapter 8. Who is like the wise and who knows the interpretation of a thing?

A man's wisdom makes his face shine and the hardness of his face is changed. Speaking much about the disposition of a person, but the idea of wisdom is, and the definition of wisdom is, life lived well, life lived well. That is what wisdom is.

That's what Solomon calls for. The problem is you have to define what that means. A life lived well assumes that there's some kind of criteria, there's some kind of standard for that, some kind of an objective standard. But wisdom is a life lived well, and so he says, and who knows the interpretation of a thing, what he's asking there is, who knows what is right and what is wrong?

How do you define that? How can you live life well if you don't have some way of knowing what is right and what is wrong, and what is the best path to take? That's why he's calling for wisdom, and Proverbs teaches us very clearly that wisdom comes from God. And so a man's wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed. What he's saying here is he's making a contrast between discipline and burning passion. Burning passion, the changing of the face from the hardness of the face. James 4 teaches us that wars and fights come from what? The desires of the heart.

I will have what I want, and I will fight for it. That's burning passion. But there's a difference between that and discipline. The discipline of a life lived well. And there is also the difference, not only in the facial presentation of a person, but in their disposition to others. A life of wisdom will generally be friendly, and a life of burning passion will have a hostile disposition, because we fight for what we demand. This is what James 4 teaches us. And so he begins with a call for wisdom when we're talking about justice, making sense of justice.

Where does it begin? A life of justice begins within. So many people today are looking outside and demanding justice in others when they've not even considered their own hearts and minds. There's no justice going on in there.

And we talk about that a little more. And so, with a matter of justice, Solomon talks about civil authority. Now listen to what he says, I say, this is Solomon writing this, right? I say, keep the king's command.

Now that's pretty self-serving, wouldn't you think? He is the king after all. So it's like Solomon saying, you need to do what I tell you to do.

Where's the justice in that? Well, this is not what he's doing. When he says keep the king's command, he is simply saying there is a matter of civil authority. There are structures of authority. It is God-ordained.

This is how life works. If there were not structures of authority, what would be left? Anarchy. Civil authority is God-ordained. And so, he gives us reflections here. He's presenting to us reflections in verse 2. Keep the king's command.

Why? Because of God's oath to him. Some of your translations may say because of your oath to God or because of your oath. It is unclear which one is the right way to translate this, but both of them can be correct.

Two reasons why. First of all, it's necessary to understand that civil authority is about the moral law. And if there is a moral law, then that implies a moral law giver.

And civil authority is a reflection of the moral law giver. And when it says God's oath, it invokes the name of God, the character and the purpose of God here. God has given an oath to the king of Israel. That is the context of much of the Psalms. When you read the Psalms and the protection in there, the king of Israel and the king of Israel was a foreshadowing of the king who was to come.

Those promises pertain to him as well. God's protection and God's electing of him for this purpose. God's oath to the king.

That's the Davidic Covenant, by the way. But also, the people were under oath to obey the king. They had made an oath to God to obey the king as God's representative. So there was an oath involved there.

And so they should honor that. The whole point that is being made here in verse 2 is this. One's disposition to authority reflects one's disposition to God. One's disposition to authority structures reflects one's disposition to God. Because the moral law is a reflection of the moral law giver. And so he calls the people, now Solomon does, to do the right thing. Instead of demanding justice in other people, you be just.

Do do the right thing. He says, continue in verse 2, do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. He's speaking of the king. For the word of the king is supreme and who may say to him, what are you doing? Again, civil authority reflects God's authority. God is sovereign. Now no human king is absolutely sovereign, though many of them thought they were. The fact that they thought they were sovereign meant that they believed they were absolutely free to do whatever they wanted to do.

Here's the problem. When you bring in the human nature into that self-serving greed, then that sovereignty, if you will, turns into oppression. And that has happened all too commonly in human history. And so in that context, he says, do not depart from. What he's talking about is the nuance here is to storm out of the presence of the king, to separate yourself from him, to cause a divide among the people. Generally, as he says in verse 5, whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way. Verse 5 is telling us that generally those who are law-abiding experience well-being. That is a generality.

It's not true in all cases, but it is a generality. But it all depends on the seeds that you sow. Your life, if you are doing the right thing, are you sowing seeds of justice? Because if you are sowing seeds of justice, you will experience fruit in due time. We are called to do justly. As the Lord calls his people in Micah 6-8, what does the Lord require of you but to do justly and to love mercy.

What is that? That's planting the seeds of doing right, planting the seeds of justice. You do the right thing.

It's far too easy to observe other people and critique them, particularly from a distance, and just broad stroke them and tell them that they're bad. And you do nothing about it. Meanwhile, you have evil in your heart as well.

It's too easy to demand justice of other people while not looking at your own heart. And in his book, Generous Justice, Tim Keller talks about the sequel to the Good Samaritan. The Good Samaritan walks on the path and he sees the man who has been beaten and he picks him up, puts him on his donkey and takes him to be ministered to.

And he cares for him. What if that happens again the next day and again the next day? And then what happens if you lift up your eyes and you see people all over the hills who are beaten up? The sequel to the Good Samaritan. Eventually you have to get to the point where you have to address the issue that is causing these conditions. Like the Good Samaritan, are you planting seeds of justice and loving mercy?

That's a life of wisdom. There is something that we have to reckon with here, and that is injustice. Because when we're talking about civil authorities, it's far too easy to recognize that there is injustice there as well. There is injustice in civil authorities. Injustice is a thing in a fallen creation because man is corrupted within.

And it's not just those in leadership, we are all corrupted within. But here's the truth that we need to understand, that is there is a higher authority. Verse 6, for there is a time and a way for everything, although man's trouble lies heavy on him. For he does not know what is to be. For who can tell him how it will be?

No man has power to retain the spirit or power over the day of death. There is no discharge for more, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on Weekdays at 10am. We'll see you next week.