Ecclesiastes 8:1-6

Rachel Workman: How wonderful to be wise,
    to analyze and interpret things.
Wisdom lights up a person’s face,
    softening its harshness.

² Obey the king since you vowed to God that you would. ³ Don’t try to avoid doing your duty, and don’t stand with those who plot evil, for the king can do whatever he wants. ⁴ His command is backed by great power. No one can resist or question it. ⁵ Those who obey him will not be punished. Those who are wise will find a time and a way to do what is right, ⁶ for there is a time and a way for everything, even when a person is in trouble.

We are to submit to those in authority. Are we ever in trouble with this next generation.

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John Burnett:  8 Who is like the wise man and who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man’s wisdom illumines ^[a]him and causes his stern face to ^[b]beam.

² I say, “Keep the ^[c]command of the king because of the oath ^[d]before God. ³ Do not be in a hurry ^[e]to leave him. Do not join in an evil matter, for he will do whatever he pleases.” ⁴ Since the word of the king is authoritative, who will say to him, “What are you doing?”

⁵ He who keeps a royal command experiences no ^[f]trouble, for a wise heart knows the proper time and procedure. ⁶ For there is a proper time and procedure for every delight, though a man’s trouble is heavy upon him.  God appoints our leaders and a wise man in God’s eyes will obey those who He puts into power, no matter how hard that is to do.

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Tomorrow’s reading for Ecclesiastes 8:7-8

⁷ Indeed, how can people avoid what they don’t know is going to happen? ⁸ None of us can hold back our spirit from departing. None of us has the power to prevent the day of our death. There is no escaping that obligation, that dark battle. And in the face of death, wickedness will certainly not rescue the wicked.