Did you notice how Solomon has come full circle here? The guy he felt sorry for and led us to feel sorry for. In verse 8, that guy on the, you know, who really wasn't registering on the totem pole of power, the day laborer, kicking a fair shake in court. or in the corporate world. That guy, all of a sudden now, has the advantage when the lanterns are turned off and the stars come out at night.
Now look at him.
Now look at them. He's fallen asleep. How well do you sleep? I know that there can be medical issues and other factors that can have a negative impact on our sleep. But does your mind ever keep you awake?
If so, What thoughts consume your mind to the point where you cannot sleep? What worries or cares come rushing in when it's time to close your eyes? For King Solomon, the king That thing was money. Today on Wisdom for the Heart, Stephen Davey continues through Ecclesiastes. Stephen has some lessons for you from Solomon's financial worries.
and shares some practical steps for sound, worry-free sleep. Here's Stephen. My wife and I were watching television show together this weekend and a commercial. kept coming on. with a guy Sell him a pillow.
It was called My Pillow, and he was hugging his. pillow protectively as he We watch that commercial. 37 times at least. It made me sleepy, so I don't know if that was a good sign or not. The pillow is popular, we can laugh, but he has sold 41 million of those pillows.
And he's done that because People want the same thing. We all want a good night's sleep and He guaranteed it. Maybe you're old enough.
Now, to know that the average amount of sleep that you need is just one hour more. I'll go slow this morning here. It's still early. Many times the problem is you can't fall asleep. Right, you try everything, you read all the ads in the back of the newspaper, you Count sheet.
You thumb through good housekeeping, that ought to knock you flat out, but it doesn't. You're still awake. One of the first things you have to deal with as a young parent, right, is. Teaching, training, developing. that little toddler to To be alone.
and to learn to settle in and down and go to sleep. At least that's the The theory. And the hope. This past Christmas we had a house full of grandkids. Our youngest daughter flew home.
So with her Son, her husband had to work, he wasn't able to come, but she braved the flight and arrived, and of course. She was exhausted. Little Tucker, who's one year old, a little bit more now, was exhausted as well, but he didn't want to lay down that night. And this is a new environment, this is a new crib. This is sort of unknown territory.
Schedule's all off. Marcia and I could hear him downstairs. You know, he'd kind of settle down, and then he'd. He began to wail. And uh Didn't want his mother out of the room.
Finally, it was around 10 o'clock at night. All the other grandchildren were asleep, and we wanted to keep it that way.
So I just thought, you know, I'll volunteer and go upstairs and uh and uh see if I can still Uh manage. It's been a while. Told my daughter to go ahead and and go off to sleep. if she could. And so she laid him back down on the crib.
and slipped out Before he knew it, and I slipped in. and all the lights were off. And I stood there till Just a little less than two feet away from. Uh the crib. And because the lights were out and it was completely dark, Um He couldn't see me.
Um But I could see him. Because of that glow in the dark pacifier. What a great invention they came up with after we raised our kids. That's like a beacon. I uh y it was just going back and forth and up and around and I could just Follow it, and then he stood up and began to wail.
I knew if he stood up, we weren't gonna win.
So he stood up, and I just stepped forward without saying a word. and laid him back down. put the pacifier back in his mouth and then stepped back. And that really kind of messed up his mind because an invisible person. picked him up and laid him down.
And he lay there for a little bit. And then realize, wait a second, I'm not happy. came around and then he stood up. Began to wail it, I laid him back down. He lay there a while and he'd stand up.
I'd lay him back down. He stood up. This went on for. At least an hour. Until finally.
I fell asleep. Ha ha ha ha. I wanted to. Actually, he finally fell asleep. The text we're going to look at in a moment tweaked my thinking, and I did a little research.
A survey I came across recently said that Americans. have the hardest time falling asleep. In fact, the survey revealed that the United States France. And Taiwan rank among the top three most sleep deprived nations In the world. That kind of took me off on a little sidebar tour of expensive hotels.
Where most of us probably haven't stayed, it starts at about $1,000 a night, that have. Resident Psychologists and hypnotherapists, and heat treatment, and even a lullaby library, and all kinds of things to help. They're guests. Fall asleep. I found it interesting.
And not surprising really that Seventy percent. Of sleep-deprived individuals can't sleep because they're anxious, or troubled, or worried in one way or another with issues. related to Money. Finances. Job security would be related to that.
Retirement savings, investment accounts, income levels, bills coming due, possible losses on. Wall Street, corporate changes that might affect Job security, college bills, home repairs, on and on and on. Even as believers. We know what that's like. Our minds are spinning, our hearts are troubled, our stomachs are churning.
We so easily forget that even though we can't see him. Our Heavenly Father. He's in the room. less than two feet away. And some of the most Practical homespun advice.
Solomon. Essentially, it informs us of a couple of issues that can rob us of peace and trust. And even take away from us a good night's rest. Money's involved, but that's not all. Take your copy of Solomon's.
Private journal. And let's go back to chapter 5 and pick our study back up where we left off. We're now at verse 5. Eight. And I want you to notice just the first part.
Oh, verse 8. As he begins this subject. If you see in a province the oppression of the poor, and the violation of justice and righteousness. Do not be amazed at the matter. Let's stop for a moment.
Solomon is referring to the poorest. Of the poor, most believe he's referring to the day laborer they worked, were paid at the end of every day. They're being oppressed. in some matter In fact, the word here for violate or violation comes from a Hebrew word gazelle, which actually refers to. to robbery or plunder.
They're having their things taken away from them. Stolen from them. It could be their land, could be their fruit or produce. They're being robbed. You could expand it with the implication here of a just.
Verdict in court because he's poor, he doesn't have the money for defense lawyers, he can't afford to take time off from that day labor. To mount a defense. He can't afford to wait. He can't afford to speed up the process. He's at the low end of the totem pole, so to speak, and he has no way up.
And he has no way out. And Solomon, it's interesting. He doesn't say, here's how you fix it. He says Don't be amazed by it. The verb to be amazed means to be.
startled or bewildered or fearful There's a sense of Anticipate it. That because of Fallen mankind, this is the way it might be. He'll talk about God's purposes as he works through this chapter. But Solomon here Is describing a situation out of our control that may not be fair. It's the kind of thing that can keep you up all night.
And there's nothing you can do about it. He is essentially defining The typical bureaucratic system. Even the governmental systems of the world. Notice Further in verse eight, Where Solomon writes, don't be amazed at the matter, that is, here's how it works. For the high official is watched by a higher official and there are yet higher ones over them.
He's describing the bureaucratic food chain. High officials are watched by even higher officials who are watched by even higher officials.
Solomon says they're all watching each other. It's kind of hard to. to define what This verb watching means, it's probably a negative thing in the context. It's It's not clear if they're watching each other. To protect each other from being caught in some scam or trick.
Or if they're watching each other to make sure nobody takes more of the cut than they're supposed to. Either way, either way you interpret it. The guy at the bottom. The poor guy. Losers.
Yeah. And with that, Solomon goes on to cynically add in verse 9, but this is gained for a land in every way, a king committed to cultivated fields. You can sort of paraphrase that to understand the phrase again in its cynical, negative context. He's saying that everybody is in on the take. Everybody out there It is looking out for number one.
And they'll cheat you every chance they get. In fact, the New Living Translation reads that last phrase about the king this way: And even the king milks the land for his own profit. Even the king isn't Part of the solution, he's part of the problem. He's patting his own pocket. He's just describing human nature, isn't he?
And the totem pole of power. You travel around the world today, you read. You watch the international news, the majority of governments. are described in some way right here in Solomon's journal. It's all this sort of food chain and the guy at the bottom, tough.
And it seems to be the more power you have, the better off. We're hearing a lot. Today. About the isms of governmental systems, whether it's socialism or fascism or Nazism. or capitalism.
Several years ago, I followed an article and came across it this past week. Which sort of clears the fog on some of these Is um This will give you a quick two-minute overview because it can be a little confusing. But I think that Solomon's readers through the last 3,000 years have been encouraged in any one of those isms. as correctly interpreted. Think of it in terms of a person who has two cows.
Dictatorships Communism? This is a governmental system. Where you have two cows. You have to give both cows to the government. and they may give you some milk.
In return, Fascism. Is where you have two cows. You have to keep them and work them, but then you have to give all the milk to the government, which they in turn sell you.
Socialism, we've heard a lot about that lately. You have two cows. You have to give one to the government and they give it to somebody else for free. You really ought to be taking notes here. This is free education, it doesn't cost you a dime.
One more, there are more, but one more. Capitalism, you have two cows. The government doesn't interfere, so you sell one cow and buy a ball. What happens when you're trapped In a governmental system that offers no help. No hope.
And the poor man is left trying to scratch out a living. It might be the terror. of Nazism or the corruption of Communism Or the unfairness of socialism, or maybe even the prejudices that can be built into capitalism. There's no perfect system because there are no perfect people.
Solomon's journal has been read by God's people. over the past 3,000 years and all of these and more. Uh as I've Tried to discern in study. How to boil this down to some principle, one principle, it would be this: trust the highest authority. of all.
No matter what system you're in, Solomon could be interpreted correctly for any of these isms. No matter what generation, no matter what culture, no matter what kind of government under which you may suffer or enjoy benefits, trust the highest authority. Of our The poor man? Who's at the bottom of the totem pole of power? The last thing he could do is get a good night's sleep.
If all he can think about is where he is on that totem pull, he has every reason to worry and fret and stay up all night and bite his nails. What's interesting is that Solomon says. Don't be Amazed. And then he hints at something he's going to lay out later in the chapter. We're not going to get there yet.
But I'll tell you ahead of time. He's hinting at it here. There's a high official who's watched over by a higher official, who's watched over by a higher official. And he's hinting: don't forget there is the highest. Of this job.
You've got a boss, and that boss has a boss, and that boss probably has a boss.
Now you can stay up all night worrying about that boss and his boss and that boss. There's a A greater boss. The higher authority. There's no one higher. Then God And you belong to him as a child of his by faith in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The softest. Pillow. And you can't buy this one. is trust. in that sovereign God.
His purposes are promised by him. to be fulfilled in your life. The Bible tells us there is no authority except from God. And those which exist are established by God. Romans 13.
Verse 1. In other words, any power, any governmental system, any boss, any corporation, whoever it is, whatever it might be, has that power because and only because God has granted it for a moment in time to fulfill his ultimate purpose. purposes. I love the way one. Author put it, God's hands are behind all the headlines.
Even when it doesn't look like it. Don't be amazed. Don't be troubled. Don't panic. Look up, trust in the highest authority.
over all the true and living. God. We allow the late news. To dictate what we think about when we go to bed, the last thing we hear. It's something on the news.
You might want to stop that. Read your Bible. Pray. But talk to the Lord as you As your head hits that Pillow. and and rehearse to him you will trust In his sovereign Even though it's dark and you can't see him, you will trust that he is essentially less than two feet away.
He can see you. One early believer wrote a document, now more than a thousand years old. and he recommended saying out loud this prayer at bedtime. And I quote. Be off, Satan.
Be off from this floor. And from these four walls, This is no place for you. There is nothing for you to do here. This is the place for the apostles. This is the place for the gospel.
And this is where I intend to sleep now that my day is done. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. It's not a bad prayer. Trust the highest authority of all.
The second principle from Solomon's entry here could be said this way: pursue the best treasure.
Now, what Solomon's going to do is he's going to begin to describe someone who accepts what God has provided with contentment. Contentment. which leads to Gratitude, and that's The greatest treasure. In this context, contentment with a grateful spirit is a treasure. far greater and far better Bigger than any paycheck.
And Solomon begins a rather frank discussion. About what that looks like here in verse 10. Notice. He who loves Money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income. By the way, would you notice Solomon is not right?
He who has money will not be satisfied with money. He who has wealth. No, he who loves Money. The key word is love. The Hebrew verb can be rendered desire.
You could. rather woodenly translate it to breathe after. To long. Four. Paul picks up the same idea as he writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:10: the love of money is the root of what?
of all evil. He doesn't say money is, he says the love of it. Breathing after it. Longing for it is the root. That is, it's the first step to the toward all kinds of evil.
The Hebrew verb is used most often positively. In the Old Testament, Jesus Choose for Ruth, loving Naomi. For El Cana, loving his wife Hannah. Hannah. For Abraham, loving his son Isaac.
For Rebecca loving her son Jacob. Jacob, for David the psalmist, loving the commandments, the precepts. Of God's word. It's used for believers loving God and for God-loving believers. It's even used by Jeremiah.
to accuse people for loving to wander. Obviously, the word is used for. For something someone is really committed to having or doing.
Solomon writes here: It's possible for somebody to be that. committed to that, devoted to money. And the word he uses for money here in verse 10. Is Kesa, if it's the word you could translate. Silver.
It's the word for silver. They're after all the silver. they can get their hands on. And there may be You work next to people like this, their desire, their Conversation, their longing is all about their silver, their money, their latest purchase, their latest. Commission check their latest raise, the stuff they bought, and the stuff they want to buy.
I mean, that's what they breathe, that's all they. converse about. is for material things.
Now, what Solomon does, because we as believers can fall into the same trap. Just as Paul warned Timothy. He's going to stay for the rest of the chapter, in fact, into the next one. But he begins to give very practical down to earth Warnings about why that kind of breathing, why that kind of longing will do a number of things. And among them rob you of a good night's sleep.
Let me give you three or four of them. The first warning or reason is this: number one, you'll never have enough. Notice again where Solomon writes in the first part of verse 10: He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver. But Solomon should know, by the way. He had a lot of it.
In fact, he really wasn't interested in him because he had so much gold. He imported twenty-five tons of gold Annually. for all thirty-nine years of his reign. His net worth would be estimated in today's money Two points. point.
Three trillion Dollars. He could pay off our national debt in nine years. To put that into another perspective, Solomon was ten. Times wealthier Then Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett Jr. combined.
He had a lot of money. In fact, nobody on the planet to this day comes close to Solomon. If anybody ought to be listened to about the emptiness of silver. It's him. And he says, This is what you're living for.
You're never going to have enough. Secondly, He warns, you'll never earn enough. Maybe you thought, if I could just make 50 cents more an hour, I'd be there. And you got 50 cents an hour or more. How'd you feel?
If I could just make a dollar more and yeah. You'll never earn enough. Notice. Nor he who loves wealth Hamaon refers to possessions. With his income, that refers to his annual.
Assets are revenue. It'll never grow large enough to where you'll put your pillow or your head on your pillow and say to yourself, my bank account is finally. Big enough. My paycheck is fat enough. My retirement account is large enough.
I think I'll go to sleep. Yeah. That's what you're living for. You'll never have enough. You'll never earn enough.
Number three. You'll never feel safe enough. Notice verse 11. When goods increase, they increase. Who eats them?
And what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? In other words, what advantage is it to see it all slipping through your fingers? Going to people who all of a sudden show up. Because you're making more. What's happening here?
He's essentially writing: the more you make, the more you multiply people who want to take it away from you. The message paraphrases it. The more loot you have, the more looters show up.
So who's that relative who suddenly surfaced? And you don't know they're from Adam. Who are those friends that now want to take you out to lunch? Will the government want more from you? Probably will.
You're in a new bracket.
Well your investments How do I protect them? Do I do offshore? How can I? They might vanish overnight. Do I protect it in some manner?
Is that employee that I hired? Are they going to rip me off? Is that guy pitching that new investment plan for me to invest heavily in? Does he really care as much about me as he's saying he does? He's going to take care of it.
Where did all these people come from? It's the idea. You've heard that old saying: you never knew how many friends you had until you bought a beach house.
Well, that's the idea. And one of the things that can keep you up at night is wondering if Those friends that you now have are your friends. Because of What you own. or because of who you are. And you're not quite sure.
Anymore. And if you're living for things, Solomon is essentially saying you're going to grow more and more obsessed. with trying to keep it safe. and you'll never keep it quite safe enough. Because people keep showing up.
You'll never have enough. This is what you're living for. You'll never earn enough. You'll never feel safe enough. One more.
You'll never sleep soundly enough. Look at verse 12. Sweet is the sleep. of a laborer Whether he eats little or much, But the full stomach Of the rich will not let him sleep. He's had a great meal, he still can't sleep.
The idea. Did you notice how Solomon has come full circle here? The guy he felt sorry for. And led us to feel sorry for. In verse 8, that guy on the, you know, who really wasn't registering on the totem pole of power, the day laborer, kicking a fair shake in court.
or in the corporate world. That guy, all of a sudden now, has the advantage when the lanterns are turned off and the stars come out at night.
Now look at him.
Now look at them. He's falling asleep. And the text is understood to mean He doesn't eat too little. and he doesn't eat too much. And he's sleeping away.
What we have and what we own, if we live for all of that, it has the ability to keep us up at night, and this poor man. who has very little Has the ability to sleep, further described in chapter 5, because he is contented with what God has done. provided Do you want a good night's sleep? Perhaps it begins with these rather practical principles: trust the highest authority. of all.
In other words, place your head On the pillow. of God's sovereignty. It's the softest pillow. Money cannot buy. Trust in your sovereign.
purposeful Involved Lord, ye may not be able to see him in the darkness. All right. But he never left the room. Secondly, pursue the best treasure of all. This is contentment with where God has placed you.
This is trust in Him. No matter what governmental system or corporate structure or difficulty you're facing, Even now. Thank him for what you have. and what he has given you. and what he's promised you.
and where he's taking you. I close with this. A man I don't know much of, but came across his name. He went under the Title Uncle Bud Robinson. He preached.
A century ago, for many years. In small towns, primarily in the country, frontier towns, Uneducated Came to faith as a young man and gave his life to serve the Lord in preaching. And he Had a sincere end, and as I read about him an amazingly fruitful Minister. As an old man, Uh near his passing, he was taken by friends to See New York City. He'd never been to a big city.
And he'd never been to New York. But they wanted to show him the sights and take him to the biggest stores and let him see the inventions and just sort of blow his mind with this big city. all its sights and sounds. After showing him the sights of the city, The night before they left He was overheard praying as he knelt by his bed. These words.
Lord. Thank you for letting me see all the sights of New York City. But I thank you most of all that I didn't see a thing. I want it. And he climbed into bed.
And fell asleep. Isn't that a great perspective to have? We can trust God to provide for our needs. and sleep soundly without worry when we do. Thanks for joining us today for this message here on Wisdom for the Heart.
Your teacher, Stephen Davey, is working through a series from Ecclesiastes called Surviving Evil Under the Sun. The message you just heard is called How to get a good night's sleep. If you'd like more of this practical Bible teaching, Stephen's four decades of preaching is posted to our website. wisdomonline.org Go there anytime to access these messages and the written manuscripts. free of charge.
If you'd like to send Stephen a note, Address your email to info at wisdomonline.org. You can use that address to ask Stephen a question about the Bible. or share a comment about our ministry. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks for taking the time to be with us today.
Please join us next time to discover more wisdom. for the heart.
