Frustration with Injustice (Pt 1)

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

Well, you can take out your copy of God’s Word this morning and turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 8. Now, I remember very distinctly the first time I heard a story of injustice. I remember this very clearly, very distinctly. Undoubtedly, I had heard about stories like this before, But I remember the first time hearing the story of injustice when I was in junior high, I was in history class, and our teacher read for us a story about a guy who fell through somebody else’s skylight and broke his leg and sued for a million dollars and won. And I thought that was kind of excessive. I thought that maybe was going a little bit overboard to give the person a million dollars for following through somebody else’s skylight and breaking their leg.

But then the rest of the story was that the guy who fell through the skylight was trying to rob the house. So here’s the robber up on the roof trying to figure out a way to get in. Falls through the skylight accidentally, breaks his leg. The robber breaks his leg in the house that he was going to rob, breaks his leg, sues for a million bucks, and won. I can picture the ugly color green on the walls of that room at my junior high. Absolutely over the top. Now, we hear stories like that at this point on an almost daily basis, it seems like. And to some extent, we are probably a little bit desensitized. You can’t watch more than 10 minutes of the news at night or look through the paper without seeing all kinds of stories like this.

So to some extent we’re probably desensitized a bit, but I remember that first time I heard such outrageous injustice and how not just being surprised, but I was mad. Because that’s wrong. That is stupid, but that’s wrong. Where do you find a judge and a jury like that who hears those kinds of facts that the guy is robbing the person’s house and breaks his leg, falling through the sky roof and wins the case? Where do you find those kinds of people? And like I say, that did not just surprise me. That made me mad. That frustrates me. And that will frustrate you when something like that happens to you. And in this next section of Ecclesiastes, even though there are some repeated things that he’s already kind of said, and nothing’s going to be too surprising based on the fact of what we have learned from Solomon so far, the last half of chapter 8 is so necessary if you want to have any kind of joy at all.

In the midst of this stupid, stupid, stupid world we live in, if you want to have any kind of happiness that lasts for any length of time, any kind of real joy, then you have got to get the truth in your mind and more so you have got to get the trust in God that he points us to in this passage. Like I say, if you want to have any kind of joy in this vanity of vanities, all is vanity kind of world. We tend to think that joy is elusive. That is, that it’s slippery. That is, you can only hold on to it if the situation is right. If all of the circumstances are working out for your benefit. I think we tend to believe that joy is only possible as long as there’s justice.

When justice is done, then we can be happy. We can be pleased with that. Psalm is going to tell us that we can have joy even in the midst of injustice. Whether that’s something we see in somebody else’s life or that’s something that we are experiencing in our own lives. Like I say, among the top joy-stealers in our world, injustice is probably near, if not at the top of the list. Solomon is going to identify three common or three typical joy-stealers that we see in our world. We think joy is out of the question when those who do wrong get away with it, when When those who do wrong seem to prosper, and when we can’t figure out how God could let that happen.

When those who do wrong get away with it, when those who do wrong seem to prosper, and when we can’t figure out what in the world God is doing, we can’t come to grips with how His sovereignty is at work in those kinds of situations. Those are things that will frustrate us and make us mad. And so three frustrations that come from injustices under the sun. Ecclesiastes chapter 8, starting verse 10, Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. And I would add in where they had done such wicked things. They’re wicked people.

died and now they’re being praised by the very people that saw their wickedness not too long ago. This also is vanity because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily. The heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God because they fear before for him, but it will not be well with the wicked eventually, ultimately. It will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow because he does not fear before God. This is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous, I said that this also is vanity, and or but I commend joy.” That’s unbelievable to me that that verse can make its way into this passage. But I commend joy for man has no good thing under the sun but to eat and

drink and be joyful for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun. When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one’s eyes see sleep, then I saw all the work of God that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out, even though a wise man claims to know he cannot find it out. And what we see are three sections, three paragraphs in this final part, final half of chapter 8 that are pointing out to us three causes for frustration, three injustices that we see under the sun.

Number one is found in verses 10 to 13. Wicked people go unpunished. That is not right. Wicked people go unpunished.

society, in our world. This is not just during Solomon’s Day. This is happening somewhere in the world right now. It will happen tomorrow. It will happen the rest of your life. In society, the wicked people are not always punished, at least not right away. They do not receive retribution. Retribution is the big word to describe penalty or punishment that is right and is equal to how bad what you did was. That’s retribution. So everybody knows that what you did is wrong and the penalty or the punishment that you take is commensurate, is of equal proportion to how bad the thing you did was. Where is the retribution for the people who are doing all of the wrong things? We don’t often see it. And verse 10 provides for us the outrage. Then I saw the wicked buried, they used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity. This is the outrage, the scandal. This is the unbelievable thing. Now verse 10 begins with then. And I’m pointing

that out because it’s clearly connected with what we’ve already studied in the beginning, first half of chapter 8 related to authority. In fact, a lot of commentators think that this new section actually starts with verse 9. I think verse 9 kind of ends the previous section and then this moves us into a new section, but a lot of commentators actually think that the section starts in verse 9. And you remember that in verse 9 we talked about those who have power over man, men who have power over men to their hurt. We’re We’re talking about unjust authorities, those who have power and use it to their advantage and cause others pain and suffering and grief.

Then I saw the wicked buried is how Solomon moves in. So, I think he’s starting a new section. He’s got a shift in his subject just a little bit, but it’s clearly connected to those who are in authority. He says, I saw the wicked buried. Now obviously he’s referring to some funeral or some memorial service, but who are the wicked people that he has in mind? This is, I think, important. I’m going to hope to show you it’s connected with those who are in authority. I think that Solomon is specifically referring to those people who had at least some measure of standing in society.

position where they were seen, some position where others were under them. I think that for three reasons. First of all, I think that he’s referring to people who had some kind of standing because the entire chapter, the whole context of chapter 8 so far has been about authority, in particular those in positions of authority who could cause hurt to other people who would do wicked things with their power. Like I just said, that was verse 9, Then I saw the wicked barrier. I think that the context points us to consider that the wicked who are buried here are those likely who have some position or some standing in society. A second reason that I think Solomon is not just referring to the common man is because Solomon as king would not have been going to funerals of common men or of just common criminals. So while it’s certainly possible that he could have gone to those, I don’t think in his own experience in his schedule on his calendar, he was making sure he went to people’s funerals that nobody knew about, let alone him as king. So his

own life context would have been one where he was more familiar with other people who were in positions of authority underneath him as the king. Third, the wicked people here are those who are visible, talked about people. It’s not just Joe Hebrew who dies, I kind of like that name, it’s not just Joe Hebrew who dies and then people are praising him in the city. We are getting the idea, the picture here is of somebody who has standing, likely somebody who has some authority who caused hurt to other people and everybody knew that they died and perhaps most of them went to the funeral and now they’re being praised by the very same people who they were hurting. So again, I don’t think Solomon is just saying in general that your common wicked person, your criminal, is somebody that people praise once they’re dead, as much as he’s specifically referring to those with authority and visibility in society, probably then somebody in some position of authority.

Now it’s interesting to identify the one thing Solomon describes about their life. Look back at verse 10. Out of all the things he could have chosen to mention that these wicked people did while they were alive, he says they used to go in and out of the holy place. Now I think that the holy place is probably the temple. And you get the impression that this was not just a one-time event, a one-time deal. This was their regular practice. They went and worshiped on a regular basis. Now normally we would think that being faithful to go to the temple worship was the thing of a righteous man, but Solomon already said that this is the wicked person.

And what this wicked person did was always showed up for worship. is the extreme of religious hypocrisy. And we’re talking about then hypocrites who saw it as convenient and profitable for them to go to the right place where the right people were so that they could be seen. These are like the politicians who set up the place to go so that they can see people of all different colors and all different ages and both genders, and they just look like they’re totally in love and for everybody. And here what you have are these authorities, these leaders who made their way to the temple to show off that they were righteous, even though the exact opposite was true.

Now, even though everybody knew better, everyone knew they had done such things. That’s the end of the verse. He’s talking about the things of injustice, the things of wickedness, the things of hypocrisy. Everybody knew better now that they’re dead, now that the wicked person is dead, they’re being praised. I need to make a comment on this. I was actually, I wasn’t gonna make any comment on it at all but once I looked at the new American standard and the new King James, I realize we need to talk about it just a little bit, because how many of you have a New King James or an NAS? S has nothing about praise, does it?

No. How many of you are looking at the ESV or the NIV? Yours says praise, right? Let me read the ESV for you again. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. Well, listen to the NAS, and it’s close enough to the new King James that we can just go with the one. The New American Standard says, I have seen the wicked buried, and those who used to go in and out from the holy place, and they are soon forgotten in the city where they did thus and thus, where they did such. So in the ESV, the key idea is that they’re praised, and in the New American Standard, the key idea is that they’re forgotten.

Now, there’s an explanation for why the two translations go totally different. And I think that there is some help as to figure out which one is better. Well, what’s interesting is that the Hebrew words for praise and forget are only separated by one letter. And the letter actually looks very similar in Hebrew. The two letters look very similar in Hebrew. So some Hebrew manuscripts have the one letter that makes you want to translate it as forgotten. And then some manuscripts have the letter that makes it be for praise. However, while that’s the case, that there are manuscripts that have both, that one letter difference, the context really suggests one instead of the other.

The conclusion at the end of verse 10 is what? This is vanity. This is wrong. This is not good. I don’t think you would make that conclusion if you said the wicked people did what was wicked and they were hypocrites and treated people with injustice but we forgot all about them. We would probably think, yeah, that got what they deserved.

At least nobody is talking about them, nobody cares about them anymore. We forgot about them, we don’t even like them. I don’t think that that makes as much the point as saying that here these wicked people did wicked things, they die and now we’re naming streets after them. We’re making a national holiday on their behalf. We’re building libraries, naming libraries after them. I mean that is what is outrageous is when you see on whatever level somebody who is totally unrighteous. I don’t know if this has ever happened to you where you have gone to a funeral and you have listened to people get up and say such positive things, it has to have been about somebody other than you knew. It could not possibly be about the person that you knew who had passed away just saying such positive things. And here it goes beyond just saying nice things about them at the funeral. It’s celebrating and praising them. The people are talking about how great they were when they were alive and yet it was the exact same people who were likely hurt by those authorities.

And so Solomon concludes there at the end of verse 10, it is vanity when the jerk is praised. I mean, no doubt that is vanity. What a pain! That not only did these wicked authorities get away with hurting others, It doesn’t seem like they ever had to face the music or pay the penalty or be punished for the wrong that they were doing, for the wickedness that they did. They got away with it while they were living. And even once they died, nobody stood up and told the truth about how awful they really were. Even the opposite, they were praised. Where is the justice in that? There is no justice. That is outrageous. also is vanity. Now there’s an outcome. So that’s the outrage in verse 10. The outcome in verse 11 is very interesting. What follows from the fact that certain people in visible positions get away with their wickedness and unrighteousness, there is an outcome that everybody else who sees that the person with position didn’t get in trouble, they decide, Oh, I can do that too.

Look at verse 11, because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. This is insult to injury. This is extra pain in the posterior to the already pain that you had from the fact that they didn’t get punished. Now the outcome is that other people are going to be excited to do wickedness themselves. Now, it seems like the situation is a little bit different in verse 11, because at least here, it seems like there’s the possibility that the person could get punished, even if that is delayed. But whether punishment is avoided totally or delayed somewhat, other people are encouraged to disobey when they don’t see consequences for other people’s disobedience.

I’m going to love talking about this for a few minutes here. Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily. Here we’ve got the wrong that is done. And apparently we have the wrong that is done and noticed. Nobody is questioning that it was an actual wrong that was done and it doesn’t seem to be hidden. We have wrong done and acknowledged. We all see that what was just done was unrighteous, was unholy, was wicked, whatever it is. It was judged as wrong, but the punishment was not executed speedily. That is, the punishment was either withheld or obviously delayed. And that results in the heart of the children of man being fully set to do evil.

Now think about that. The children of man is a description of who? This is the universal truth. The children of man is every human who has ever lived. They are a child of man. This is the universal condition. The children of man, a general universal reference. It’s not limited to a narrow group of people or to other really wicked people. That’s so key. This is not just when somebody in your class does the wrong thing and doesn’t get punished, that all of the other haters in your class are excited to do wrong. This is everybody, the children of man. Everybody sees and notices that somebody didn’t receive consequences for the wrong that they did.

Now, that’s total depravity. That’s universally the case. And their heart, it brings it right back to the heart. The heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. The heart is looking for an opportunity. The heart will take any open door it thinks it can find to do what is wrong if it can get away with it without consequences. These are not people who are confused about the rules. These are not people who are ignorant of what the rules are. Oh, they might say, oh, how many times have you had this conversation with somebody? Oh, I didn’t realize that was the rule. I just, I didn’t know. There’s a word for that.

The word is lie. There are other synonyms that can go along with it, but that’s a short one. You have space for that on your notes. That is a lie. There’s no confusion. We’re not talking about ignorance of the rules. We’re talking about deliberate disobedience to the rules you know because somebody else didn’t get caught who did the exact same thing. It is like students who deliberately, and I’m choosing something small, it’s like students who deliberately disobey the dress code because their friend didn’t get confronted on it. It’s not that they don’t know what the rule is, what the standard is. It’s that, well, the other person didn’t get caught.

They didn’t get confronted on it. So because the rule is not being enforced, they must not really be serious about that being a rule. This person didn’t get caught. This person didn’t get confronted on it. So, yeah, but what’s the rule? Well, I mean, what does it say? That’s exactly what happens. It’s purposefully disobeying because no one else is getting in trouble. One commentator observed this. quote, it is amazing how we have the capacity to dismiss the consequences of our actions simply because they are not imminent. I mean, we act differently when we know that the punishment is in the pipeline and the pipeline is aimed right at our head. But when it seems like nobody cares, nobody is really doing anything about it, we are looking for those open doors.

We respond, and this is sad, this is a statement on our hearts, because we do respond to threats and pain. A lot, not everybody, but most people learn from being threatened and or then receiving pain. But when it seems like somebody else’s threat is thin, Or when it seems like the penalty or the punishment is going to be postponed at best and maybe they’ll postpone it long enough they’ll even forget about it and we can avoid any kind of penalty at all, we’re walking through that door. The outrage in verse 10, the outcome in verse 11 is that other people see that and they run to do wickedness because the heart is fully set to do that.

Verses 12 and 13 give us the outlook. Because thinking that you’re going to get away with disobedience is very short-sighted. It’s not just wrong, it’s short-sighted. The fact is, and you can take this to the bank, you can get a safe deposit box, you can swallow the key, whatever it is you want to do, you think you’re going to make it secure. This is the fact. This is how God made it to work, that no one will get away with anything. Though a sinner, verse 12, does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God because they fear before him, but it will not be well with the wicked.

Neither will he prolong his days like a shadow because he does not fear before God. You might do the wrong thing over and over and over again, and nobody confronts you and nobody stops you, and you may think you’re getting away with it. You’re not. Your parents may not know. Your teachers may not know. The government may not know. But God knows. If you think that all there is is life under the sun, You can hide a lot of stuff. And sure, you’re going to look for those open doors to do whatever it is that you want. But there is more. And you know there is more because God has put eternity into your heart. It is built in, you know, with your conscience in your heart that there is a God and you know that He is a just God and that you are not getting away with anything.

You may suppress that truth, you may try to deny that truth, but it is nevertheless the truth. No one is going to get away with anything. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, it may seem like there’s no end in sight to how bad they can be. Solomon breaks in with a word of faith here and he says, yeah, I know. I know this to be the case. It may not look like it. It may not be our regular experience, but this is what I know. That it will be well with those who fear God because they fear before Him. At some point in time, those people who fear God will be vindicated. They will be proven right.

It may not be on this planet, but that doesn’t change that it is true. No matter how much it looks like, the wicked are getting away with it, and they may get Get away with it under the sun, and they may die, and they may get praised by other people who are still here.” That’s totally possible. They are not getting away with it before God. And do you realize that the more patience from God that they have received is how much greater their punishment will be from God. If they have received punishment that God didn’t immediately come down and strike them when they did some great injustice or some wickedness, if they have received God’s patience and even God’s temporal blessings to let them prosper, to give them a great family or whatever it is, wicked sometimes look like they’re prospering, the patience and common grace that they get will be used more against them.

It will make their punishment more severe, not less. Those who fear God and those who fear before Him are smart because they realize that God is the one with whom they have to do. And whether anybody else sees them or not, they know that God sees them. In the end, it will not be well with the wicked. I think that’s an understatement. It will not be well with them in the end. The time for judgment is coming. In fact, neither will He prolong His days like a shadow. That’s kind of a unique statement. But if you think about it, at the end of the day, when the day is almost done, the shadows get longer, right? And what he’s saying is that as the wicked are nearing the end of their days, there’s not anything they can do to make it even longer, namely so that they can avoid God’s judgment.

They may live to 90, but as they get closer to that appointed time, there is nothing they can do to escape that it is going to end, and they will be judged by God. They cannot lengthen their days like a shadow. This outlook requires on our part, this outlook requires faith, it requires trust, it requires patience. And I agree that if you don’t believe that a coming judgment is in the pipeline, if you don’t believe that God is paying attention to what’s happening, you will be miserable.

But it is coming. That’s the first frustration under the sun when wicked people go unpunished. The second frustration, the second injustice under the sun that Solomon mentions is in verses 14 and 15 and that’s when or the fact that wicked the wicked often prosper not only do wicked people go unpunished wicked people often prosper in life at least in life under the Sun people don’t always get what they deserve do they some criminals break their leg and get a million dollars that is not what they deserve. Sometimes the wicked don’t just go unpunished, but they prosper and the righteous people suffer. Psalm gives us the frustration in verse 14. There is a vanity that takes place on earth that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous.

I said that this also is vanity. Clearly verse 14 is about expressing frustration because he begins and ends with the statement of vanity. It is frustrating. It seems purposeless and meaningless. This is one of those age old universal truths that typically don’t bother us like they should until it happens to us or to somebody that we know or to somebody that we love. There are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked. That blows our minds, right? Because if God is righteous, and His word tells us to be righteous, then shouldn’t those people who live righteously receive the rewards of righteousness?

I mean, that’s how it should go. That’s what lines up in our minds. God is righteous. God says, be righteous. So why do people who are fearing God and being righteous suffer? Why does it seem like they’re the ones who have it hard, whose houses burn down, who lose their jobs, whose kids die young or they get cancer or whatever it is, why do righteous people suffer? And then the other side, there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. They’re the ones who get the job. They get the promotion. They live long lives. They buy big boats. They have stuff and prosper and are popular and all that kind of stuff.

It’s not necessarily that the wicked always prosper and the righteous are never rewarded, but it doesn’t seem like there’s a rhyme or reason to why that happens. And you know what? That feels wrong. And that’s frustrating. We sense that that is wrong. We’re not talking about wicked people getting more punishment than what their punishment deserves. We just want them to answer for what they did and be penalized or be punished in proportion to what their deed was. We don’t need them to be super punished. We just want them to answer for what they did. It’s not that we necessarily want the righteous people to… Every righteous person gets to be president.

I mean, that’s not what we want either. We just want them to enjoy the rewards, the blessings of their righteous life. It doesn’t seem to fit. God’s holy word that contains God’s perfect standard that comes from God’s righteous character. How can that fit that wicked seem to prosper? And Solomon says, this also is vanity.

Now my question for you is how do you respond to that truth? Cause that is true. Not only does Solomon say it, he doesn’t qualify it. We see it in our own lives. What do you do at that point? In light of everything we’ve talked about in chapter eight so far, especially from verses 10 through 14. How do you respond when hurtful authority go unpunished and then get honor? That’s wrong. What do you do at that point? What do you do when wicked people prosper and righteous people suffer? I mean, because it seems like there is no guaranteed solution to those problems. Even if you are not Eeyore, you still want to die.

Because that’s brutal. That is unfair. That is not right. That makes us frustrated. That makes us mad. To get out of it, it seems like, just kill me. Just take me to heaven, because I believe that will be better. Even if you’re not Eeyore and you want to die, it still has to make you depressed. A lot of people, they don’t kill themselves, they just whine to other people about how bad it is. Other people have different personalities, they don’t commit suicide, they don’t whine about it, but they just fight like nobody’s business to try to make it right. And they recycle, and they fight against it. But somehow, somehow, as pessimistic and irritable as Solomon is, he has the audacity to write verse 15. This is the recommendation. Frustration in verse 14, the recommendation, verse 15, And I commend joy, For man has no good thing unto the sun, but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun. The phrase, I commend joy. It means I praise. I lift up. I exalt. I am

telling you that this is where it’s at. Joy. I commend joy. Solomon endorses and advocates and recommends joy. Are you kidding me? Did you read what you just wrote? Joy? In that. This stupid, stupid, stupid world. Joy. Are you serious? Is he really saying that someone can be happy and have a life of joy under the sun? And of course the answer is yes. written in this verse. We’ve talked about it in chapter 2, verses 24 through 26. We looked at it in chapter 3, verses 12 and 13. We looked at it in chapter 5, verses 18 through 20. And this is when he again grabs us by the scruff of the neck and pulls us back up out of the water to get a breath again from how awful it seems like and how the The world drowns us with discouragement and disappointment under the Son.

He says we can have joy. Man has no good thing under the Son but to eat and drink and be joyful. That really could not be more simple. This is not a complicated thing, no good thing under the Son, at least that is guaranteed. There is one thing. This is it. The secret of life. Really the secret of life is Jesus, but we’re not in the New Testament yet. The secret of life is to enjoy the process. It is to fear God and trust God in such a way that you are just thankful He gave you another day to work. Not another day to go on vacation. This is again, not getting out of the process. He clearly connects it to our hard work and our toil and our labor.

This is the process that we are in. This is the life that he has given us. That is where we can have joy. Even when your authority doesn’t listen. When the authority treats you unfairly, when the authority gets away with his or her wickedness, when the wicked prosper and the righteous are hurt, you can be joyful. No one can steal that kind of joy. No boss, no spouse, no president, no government, no wicked person. If you fear God, look to eternity and enjoy the process. This will go with you in your toil through the days of your life that God has given you under the sun.” Like I said, the answer is not getting out of the process.

The right path to joy is not avoiding difficult people or hard work or hurtful authority. That does not guarantee you joy. But you can be thankful for the days He’s given you and the food and the drink He provides. Senior Chris McAuliffe put it this way, don’t let the actions of others dictate the happiness of your heart. That’s Solomonic. If you fear God, if you look beyond the sun to eternity, if you trust Him, and if He gives it to you, you can have joy in the midst of this ridiculous, stupid, unfair, not right, mean, hurtful, bad people world where it seems like they get away with it and it seems like they prosper, even when they’re doing it to you, you can still have joy.

you’re fearing God. We’ll have to talk about the rest of the passage next time, but let’s pray, Father. This kind of joy is sadly elusive to us. We are more miserable when people treat us poorly. Our joy is typically connected to our circumstances. It is typically connected to being treated rightly and being treated justly and even when we see other people being treated righteously and we just hate it when wicked people get away with it, especially then when they’re hypocrites and they don’t get punished and they prosper, we hate that. It drives us crazy and yet somehow, Somehow, you tell us we can still have joy in that process.

It’s because we’re not looking to life under the sun to give us satisfaction. It’s because we’re looking to you. We know that you are our greatest good. That it is more important to be rightly related to you, the just, eternal judge. And to know that you will take care of it in the end. You’re paying attention, you know, and for us to stop playing God and thinking that we need to fix all of the wrongs, that we need to fight for ourselves all the time or even for other people. Not that there isn’t a time and a place to stand up for what is righteous and just. The point is that ultimately, even when that doesn’t work or doesn’t work immediately, You are still sovereign.

You are God. And we want you more. Give us that kind of perspective for our joy. Cause us to be thankful for the food and the drink you give us even this week. The work that you have for us to do and the people that you have in our lives. Most of all, we give thanks for your son, Jesus. The guarantee of eternal life and joy that He provides. We pray in His name, amen.