one28 PodcastFollowing and Influencing the Man (Pt 1)
Interacting with Authority
Ecclesiastes 8:1-9
2007.10.28
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The reality is that we are almost always under authority, and perhaps there is no more common frustration than dealing with authority. Of course, we typically dislike authority, disagree with authority, detest authority, and disobey authority. And those things end up not really helping us much because that kind of attitude just makes authorities clamp down or tighten up or generally make things more unpleasant than we already thought they were.
Authority and those who have it over those who don’t is as old as the Creator over His creation. And looking around today we still see structures and systems of authority everywhere. Parents have authority in the house. Teachers and administrators have authority at school. Employers have authority in the workplace. Local law enforcement officers have authority. Federal/national representatives and officials have authority (in the United States all the way up to the President). You cannot look at any family, organization, community, or nation that doesn’t involve authority of some kind.
In a perfect world with perfect authorities, only the really rebellious would be rubbed the wrong way by authority. But there are no perfect authorities and sometimes (maybe even oftentimes) those in authority make it difficult. Some people seem to get foolish in the head when they get power. Others may have authority who never deserved it in the first place. And certainly there are times when we think our authorities don’t have all the information necessary to make a good decision. Or maybe they don’t communicate well. Maybe we just don’t like their attitude, or maybe something else. But when it comes down to it, they are in the position and they have the authority to do what they want. We are obligated to follow.
Solomon understood the system. All his life was spent in the palace, either watching his dad the king or being the king himself. No doubt he watched his dad make good decisions and some that were not so good, some that pleased the people and some that really got their goat. No doubt in his own rule, Solomon had people around him, those who were part of the king’s court of officials and officers and counselors who had ideas and suggestions and input.
And in this first half of Ecclesiastes 8 Solomon gives advice for those who are under authority (those who were under him). Specifically, Solomon tells us about the importance of following authority, some insight into how to influence authority, and some perspective for when it is difficult to follow authority, so, Following and Influencing the Man (where by the Man I’m referring to the authority figure).
The Possibility of Influencing Authority (First Bookend) v.1
Solomon was pretty pessimistic coming out of chapter 7. You’ll remember that he claimed he could find no upright women and only one upright man out of a thousand. His first circle of search would have been those most closely connected to him in his palace, and there is a natural progression into how all those same persons should act when under the king’s authority.
In the form of a proverb, verse one starts out with a couple rhetorical questions and then adds the potential positives of finding a wise counselor, even though in his own experience they apparently were a rare commodity.
1 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.
Who is like the wise? Or, what is better than to find a wise counselor? How great are they? And Who knows the interpretation of a thing? Who has discernment and perspective that is helpful and insightful? The implications are that this kind of person is very valuable and extremely rare.
And consider the outcome of the wise counselor: a man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed. We may be tempted to think that that it is the wise man’s face that shines, but that’s not the context or the best understanding of the phrase itself.
A man who influences his authority with wisdom makes the face of his authority shine. The king’s counselor makes the king’s face shine. I say that for a few reasons.
First and most importantly, the immediately following thought (in v.2) makes clear that the king is who we’re concerned about. And while it is true that a man’s wisdom has a self-referencing effect, the whole point of the paragraph is how we influence and encourage those over us. The context all the way through verse 9 (the second bookend) is about interacting with the king.
Second, another reason I say that is because if a man’s own face is hard then he’s miserable. But if his authority’s face is hard, that’s really bad for the counselor and everyone else who’s under the authority. Who really cares if the hardness of (the counselor’s) face is changed? In other words, who cares if the counselor is stiff, unyielding, irritated, tough, etc.? But if the king is like that, watch out.
And third, the phrase makes his face shine is always used in reference to a superior showing favor to an inferior. For example, we want God’s face to shine on us (Numbers 6:25).
the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The light of the king’s face is important (Proverbs 16:15).
In the light of a king’s face there is life,
and his favor is like the clouds that bring the spring rain.
It isn’t that we want His face to be bright, it’s that we want Him to be happy with us.
That point of verse 1 is that if you use your influence appropriately you can change the entire outlook of the king (and if the king, then certainly you can influence those in other positions of authority).
The Responsibility of Honoring Authority (Advice) vv.2-8
So how do you do that? Solomon shows the right way to follow and influence authority. This is his counsel in the context of powerful people in authority who may be unjust (as verse 9 concludes).
1. The Right Behavior v.2
2 I say: Keep the king’s command, because of God’s oath to him.
While it is true that we can have tremendous influence on our authorities (and we’ll see even more about that in verses 5 and 6), our general obligation to authority is very simple: obey.
I say is an emphatic way to highlight the bottom-line nature of what’s coming. “Here it is, this is what I’ve got to say, here’s the bottom line.” Keep the king’s command. The king is in charge. He has the position and authority to make rules and see those rules enforced. Those who are not the king have it easy, all they have to do is keep the…command. To “keep” means to pay close attention, observe, heed, do, follow the rules.
Obviously the point of the paragraph concerns following the king, but it certainly applies wherever there is an authority to follow, whether that is on a large government scale or a small household scale and everywhere in between.
The reason for this is because God Himself is the ultimate authority and He is the one who puts earthly authority in place. He makes kings, He makes presidents, He makes policemen, He makes parents, and so on and so forth.
With regard to the king, Solomon says follow the king because of God’s oath to him. There is a lot of question as to what this means. Most of the translations make it seem like this is an oath that men make to the king (for example, the NIV: “Obey the king’s command, I say, because you took an oath before God.”). And while that is certainly a possibility, the Hebrew doesn’t require that translation and I really think the better interpretation is that God has established authority and God has confirmed the king’s position. God expects us to obey to such and extent that when we disobey authority God disciplines us (whether through the king or in another way). When we disobey earthly authority we are ultimately disregarding God who put that authority in place.
We need to marinate longer on this truth. Even though we don’t have a king we do have people that God Himself has put over us that must be heeded.
Ours is an anti-authority culture. But don’t think that this is a cultural problem per se, it is a heart problem. It is a sin problem.
From the very beginning, the first two humans rebelled against the only authority they had, and that disobedience was costly. History is littered with authority haters and it is no less true among us. We talk bad about authority when they’re not around, we give attitude to authority when they ask us to do something, we act like we are equal authority and feel mistreated when they make decisions that we don’t like or don’t approve of.
Like it is even up to us.
No. What is up to us is to follow. We are to obey and respect our authority like we obey and respect God because God is the one who gave them to us.
Next time we’ll consider the rest of Solomon’s advice for following and influencing the man. In the meantime, let us submit with happy hearts to those God has put in authority over us.
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