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Poise in Life
How Should I Act When There Doesn’t Seem to Be Any Way to Win in Life?
Solomon teaches us how to survive in a fallen world. In chapter 6 of Ecclesiastes, he tells us that evil people may prosper, but that doesn’t mean they’re happy. In chapter 7, he reminds us that suffering is not the worst thing that can happen to us.
In chapter 8 of Ecclesiastes, Solomon shows us that wisdom endures even when it doesn’t understand. Life is not fair, and God almost never gives us answers.
Solomon emphasizes the importance of poise in the face of trials. Do you know what poise means? It’s related to the word “pose”—to freeze and not move. A “posit” is a truth you believe and hold onto. Poise means that you don’t shift due to outside circumstances.
Who is like the wise? Who knows the explanation of things? A person’s wisdom brightens their face and changes its hard appearance. – Ecclesiastes 8:1
Solomon begins this chapter by saying that in a world full of questions, it’s wonderful to know the absolutes of life. Some things in life we can’t understand but some things we can understand—what the moral will of God is, who He is, and who we are in Him.
Obey the king’s command, I say, because you took an oath before God. Do not be in a hurry to leave the king’s presence. Do not stand up for a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases. Since a king’s word is supreme, who can say to him, “What are you doing?” Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm, and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure. – Ecclesiastes 8:2-5
The command of the king was meant to be obeyed because he was under the leadership of God. However, history is a track record of bad kings. Solomon is reminding us that we are called to obey authority. Don’t abandon that position. Even if you have an evil king, don’t panic.
Who is the greatest example in the Bible of a young man who endured an evil king? One time when the king was trying to kill him, the young man had the opportunity to kill the king.
David wouldn’t kill Saul because of the oath he had given to God: “I will not stretch out my hand against…the Lord’s anointed” (1 Samuel 24:10). David would not be ruled by his feelings, circumstances, or peers. David chose to be ruled only by the will of God.
That is poise. When you’re in a cave and the man who is trying to kill you relieves himself and is within your reach, it takes poise not to take him out. Even though God had ordained David to be king some day, he didn’t take matters into his own hands.
If your life is characterized by submission and obedience, there will be a “proper time and procedure” for dealing with problems. When you’re obeying the will of God, you don’t have to worry.
Sin is like potato chips; you can never eat just one. Once you sin, inevitably you’ll be tempted to sin more to cover it up.
But the truth is that you don’t have to lie and sin to make your situation better. God will make things right in His good time. God can change everything at the proper time through His procedures.
A wise man knows God can change things in a heartbeat. Anytime God wants to, He can turn your world upside down. So a wise man rests in the sovereignty of God, rather than taking matters in his own hands.
For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a person may be weighed down by misery. – Ecclesiastes 8:6
When my life is burdensome and my heart is broken, I need to remember that there is a proper time and procedure for every delight.
Verse 6 indicates you need not worry about the things you can’t change. Rest in the sovereignty of God.
In verse 7, Solomon reminds us that God makes time, but men make watches:
Since no one knows the future, who can tell someone else what is to come?
Don’t keep a stopwatch on God. Don’t put Him on your timetable so that He has to perform.
Remain poised. Keep going to church, keep singing, and keep listening. Take the first fruits of your wealth and give them to the Lord. Spend time every day in your Bible and prayer. Check yourself for moral purity. Guard your tongue. Look at the relationships you have and ask yourself if you are sharing the gospel. These are things you can control and in which your wisdom can make your stern face beam. Be Illumined by them.
As no one has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has power over the time of their death. As no one is discharged in time of war, so wickedness will not release those who practice it. – Ecclesiastes 8:8
As Jonathan Edwards said, God holds evil men like little spiders over the fire. He will let them kick and thrash until He is tried of using them for His purposes. Then He drops them in the flames.
All this I saw, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun. There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own hurt. Then too, I saw the wicked buried—those who used to come and go from the holy place and receive praise in the city where they did this. This too is meaningless. – Ecclesiastes 8:9-10
Wicked people flaunt God. Solomon says that he learned a long time ago that evil does not ultimately win. God can take it out whenever He pleases. In verse 10, Solomon points out that men are forgotten, and we can’t control the sovereignty of God.
When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong. – Ecclesiastes 8:11
The Bible doesn’t give a knee-jerk reaction to either good or evil. Instead, it talks in terms of sowing seeds and reaping.
The sons of men (also known as the “sons of Adam”—fallen man) are people who don’t know God. They are at the mercy of their own ignorance.
The same thought is found in 2 Peter 3:3-4, “Mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.’”
Another great example of poise comes from the Book of Daniel. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were told they must bow down to idols. They refused and were thrown into a fiery furnace.
Instead, they said to the king who issued the edict for everyone to bow down to an idol, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (Daniel 3:16-18).
They were willing to trust God no matter the outcome.
You will have to decide on your poise some day.
God will not give you reasons, and you’ll have to rest in that silence. Remember Ecclesiastes 8:5—“He who keeps a royal command experiences no trouble.”
Although a wicked person who commits a hundred crimes may live a long time, I know that it will go better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him. Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow. There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless. – Ecclesiastes 8:12-14
Psalm 73:13 says, “Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence.” Life is not cause and effect, like we expect with American Christianity—based on our performance-based culture.
In verse 15, Solomon reminds us again that we should enjoy right now. Don’t let what you can’t control tomorrow ruin today.
So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun. When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the labor that is done on earth—people getting no sleep day or night—then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it. – Ecclesiastes 8:15-17
It is foolish to go through life letting your happiness wax and wane according to the circumstances.
You’ll never figure out what God is doing. Enjoy life. Don’t let what you cannot understand destroy what you can enjoy and what you know to be true.
Let’s break into chapter 9 to finish Solomon’s final thought: So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them.
Famous Pro Golfer Bobby Jones contracted an illness that kept him from playing golf. He gave an interview to a reporter, following this diagnosis and made the statement that became his epitaph, “You play the ball where it lies.” You take life as it comes.
Have faith in your loving Father, who gave up His own Son to be reconciled to you, providing His ultimate lasting love for you regardless of what current difficulties may cause you to think. Obey what you know to obey, enjoy what you can enjoy and, for the rest, wait on the timing and purposes of God. When life throws you into a bank of clouds, be sure and fly by the panel.