13 Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to take warning. 14 The youth may have come from prison to the kingship, or he may have been born in poverty within his kingdom. 15 I saw that all who lived and walked under the sun followed the youth, the king’s successor. 16 There was no end to all the people who were before them. But those who came later were not pleased with the successor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
Here is Mark Driscoll`s explanation of this passage....
Our society is filled with institutions and organizations. At the top of those institutions and organizations, there is a leader. Here, it is the king. What happens is this. That the people become unhappy with the quality of their life. In alignment with what we’ve just studied, probably a lot of that has to do with the condition of their relationships. Their friendships, their family, their community is not coming together. It’s not well organized. They’re not well connected. It’s lonely, isolated. It’s depressing. It’s sad. And it’s highly individualistic. So, what they tend to do, then, is people try to find a reason for that. They try to figure out why is it that my life looks like this? Why is it that my life is this way?
Now, we only have two options when we start to investigate why we’re unhappy with the quality of our life. We can put the blame out there or we can put the blame in here. What is our greatest propensity? Out there. Just like Adam in Genesis 3. “Gonna find somebody else to blame for the condition of my life and the unhappiness that I live in.” What inevitably happens then is that people look at institutions because they’re more visible and they blame the leader. “I’m not happy. I don’t have friends. My life is not going well because it’s his fault. We need a revolution. We need to overthrow. We need a new leader.” And what happens then is that there will be a movement of criticism against organizations. They tear down that leader. They tear down that organization. They usually thrust up some young guy who’s got all these great ideas. This naïve optimism and hope, but pretty soon, he’s the king. He’s put his plan in place and what happens to him?
The next guy comes along and says, “You know what? I’m not happy. It must be that new king. We need another one.” This is where children blame their parents. This is where students blame their teachers or their principles....
The reason you don’t like your job is not because of your boss. The reason you may not like your church is not because of me. The reason you may not like Christianity is not because of Jesus. The reason you may not like your family is not because of your mom or dad. The reason that you may not like your social circle is not because of the most influential person in that social group. The real reason why you and I fall into despair, and loneliness, and isolation, is because the problem isn’t just out there. The problem really is in here. It really is....
Am I saying that your boss, your pastor, your parent is perfect? No....But, that does mean that you and I need to own the underlying causes that he has just listed for us, which are covetousness (4:4). And greed (4:8) . And laziness. (4:5) And apathy. And selfishness. And pride. And work. (4:6) That those aspects of our life are under our jurisdiction. Your life is your life. What you do is under your jurisdiction. And what I wanna invite you to today is to take it back. And don’t waste all your time blaming institutions. Blaming organizations. Blaming leaders....Changing one person, without changing the hearts of everyone else involved in the system, is just really silly. And when people are dissatisfied, it’s easier to blame someone else than it is to own your own participation in that culture and be an agent of change. It is. It’s easier to blame than to do.
Sin is our problem. Sin results in envy, greed, laziness, apathy, selfishness, pride and overwork - all of which threaten our relationships. We were built for relationships. When we have a system of love and support in place we are happier, we receive (and give) love and affection, we are more secure, and we are protected - far more than when we are alone (yesterday`s passage!) Our friends and memories of our friends are all that we can take with us to heaven when we die. That is our wealth. That is what we need to spend our time and energy on - relationships.
Jesus came to die and rise again to tether us back to Him. Not just so that He could forgive us and we could have relationship with Him alone, but also so that we could forgive each other and have relationship with each other. Not only will that give us satisfaction in this life, it will also be one of the most effective tools for witnessing to those around us - by our love for each other.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Ecclesiastes 5:1-7
1 comment:
Ooooh, very good. I like this post.
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