Year 2, Day 338: Ecclesiastes 8

Authority of Government

As we begin a look at this eighth chapter in Ecclesiastes, I’m going to begin with a bit of a discussion that you might not agree with at first.  That’s okay.  Know that I’m going to intentionally paint a one-sided picture in the beginning.   I’m doing that because when we get to verse 10 and the verses that follow it I’ll be able to paint the other side of the picture and give a nice well rounded perspective.

Solomon tells us to obey the king’s command.  Of course, whenever we talk about this chapter we always talk about worldly authority and spiritual authority.  Inevitably there is someone who wants to rise up and say, “I follow nobody but God alone.  I’ll resist anyone who tries to govern me.”  It is to those people primarily that this chapter is written.  It is also for that perspective that Romans 13 is written.  Or take Matthew 22:17-22 as another example.  It is good to be obedient to worldly authority in worldly matters.  The stuff of this world is not where our focus should be, so why should we get too concerned when people – or governments – make demands upon our stuff?

Is this not why Jesus gives us the hard teaching in Matthew 5:38-40?  If someone demands your tunic, give them your cloak as well.  Or what about the teaching in Luke 6:29?  If someone strikes your cheek, offer the other.  The things of this world – materialism, of course – are just not worth going against legitimate government.  It’s not worth going to jail or getting on someone’s watch list for the stuff of this world.  In fact, doing such things can even impair our proclamation of the Gospel.

The Rest of the Story

Then we turn to the next section in this chapter and get the complete story.  Those who fear God will do well in the long run while those who do evil will eventually get what is coming to them.  In the end, God will level the playing field.  Even if it is not in this life, God will bring justice.  Therefore, there is no greater authority than God in our life.

Martin Luther himself supported the idea of a spiritual authority and a worldly authority.  In various writings he talks about the “Two Kingdoms.”  Specifically in the book On Secular Authority, Luther says,

“The laws of worldly government extend no farther than to life and property and what is external upon earth. For over the soul God can and will let no one rule but Himself. Therefore, where temporal power presumes to prescribe laws for the soul, it encroaches upon God's government and only misleads and destroys souls. We desire to make this so clear that everyone shall grasp it, and that the princes and bishops may see what fools they are when they seek to coerce the people with their laws and commandments into believing one thing or another.

We are to be subject to governmental power and do what it bids, as long as it does not bind our conscience but legislates only concerning outward matters.  But if it invades the spiritual domain and constrains the conscience, over which God only must preside and rule, we should not obey it at all but rather lose our necks. Temporal authority and government extend no further than to matters which are external and corporeal.”

So here we have what I believe is the complete picture.  So long as government and temporal leaders govern the external matters of this world – taxes, curfews, laws governing human social interaction, military service, etc – they have the right to govern the matters of the world.  However, when secular and temporal authority strays into governing things like religion, ethics, morality, spirituality, or salvation then they have gone too far.  To this end, I love Luther’s final line.  Temporal authority can extend no further than to external and corporeal matters.  I think this is a beautiful principle when considering our role as Christians to following secular and temporal governance.

Knowing What God Is Doing

As we finish this chapter, we go out on a note of sincere reality.  Can any of us know the work of God except in hindsight?  And by know, I mean absolutely know in confidence.  I daresay, “No.”  We can absolutely have a guess as to what God is doing.  We can absolutely feel an inkling towards the direction God is calling.  But no single person can tell with absolute confidence what the mind of God is.  No person – okay, save those few people who receiving a direct message of God from a vision or one of His angels – can know with absolute confidence how something will turn out and how God will use it.

Now, this doesn’t mean that we don’t try. I hope that prior paragraph doesn’t come across as defeatist – because it certainly could easily enough.  We try and discern God’s will.  We absolutely try to be the hands and feet of Christ as we discern God’s will.  But we do it humbly knowing that we won’t really know if we are doing God’s will until after the fact and we see God’s hand at work.  This is why humbleness is so very important.  We step forward, believing that we are following God.  We step forward trusting that if we should misstep that God can and will forgive our trespass.  But when we are humble, we remember and learn that we aren’t stepping out on our own will.

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