"The Divine Aristocracy"
An examination of Ecclesiastes 9 & 10 and how it applies to the contemporary church..
Download or email this sermon Who Are the Truly Rich?
Continuing with Ecclesiastes 10:5:
"There is an evil I have seen under the sun, like an error which goes forth from the ruler: Folly is set in many exalted places, while rich men sit in humble places."
Who are the rich here? Those with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. Who are the poor? Those who lack the same. Laodicea says "Blessed be the Lord, I have become rich and have need of nothing", not knowing that they are truly impoverished. Smyrna cries, "We're being persecuted!" They had nothing, but Jesus told them they were rich. Again, the meek shall inherit the earth.
Think of the Gospel in the same way you think of the novel by Mark Twain, The Prince and the Pauper. That book was a docu-fiction based on King Edward VI of England, son of Henry VIII. In it, Edward who was heir to the kingdom found a look-alike who by some genetic accident was the spitting image of him: a peasant boy from the streets of London. He persuaded this peasant boy to switch places with him, so the peasant began living like the prince while the prince began living like the peasant.
This teaches us a couple of things: First about Jesus – the theological term is “kenosis”, meaning that although He was God, Jesus came in human form, in the form of a servant. Jesus never once used His divine power while He lived here on earth, though He could have. He only did what He saw His Father doing. (Jn. 5:19) Satan tried to tempt Him to use His divine power, but He refused. Jesus only did what the Father did through Him by the Holy Spirit. He came in the form of a servant, identifying with us in order to save us.
Second, this novel teaches us about the present condition of the Western church: In The Prince and the Pauper, the prince finds himself out on the street. And although he is the genuine aristocrat, the real heir and noble, his power does him no good. The pauper begins to take the game seriously: he pretends he is really the heir to be king, and in an attempt to keep himself in that position he begins doubling the guard and other similar things.
Ultimately it is straightened out, but while the pauper was playing prince, he displayed his ignorance of affairs of state. He was not groomed for a position of authority and had no understanding. For example, he did not know what the royal seal was and was using it as a nutcracker. He did not know what he was doing and that is exactly what we have today in the church: we have peasants in pulpits. They don't know what they are doing, though they are in the position of authority and most often are trying their best to safeguard their position. In fact, they will go so far as to prevent those who should have the position from getting it: all they are really about is self-preservation. Those who know what to do with power and resources, the true nobility, are in humble places. "I have seen an evil under the sun" – God calls this evil and folly: "Folly is set in exalted places while rich men sit in humble places." (Ecc. 10:6) The pastor who preaches the truth has a small church while the peasant who is churning out an endless diet of hype from his pulpit has a huge church. This is not right; God calls it evil.
Once I was watching the news in Japan right after North Korea had fired a missile over Japan and the Americans were scrambling to stop the North Koreans. Korea was a country that could not feed its people, yet found the resources to build missiles. Countries like India and Pakistan have behaved in much the same way – they cannot feed their populations, yet they attempt to acquire weapons of mass destruction while developed countries are attempting to shut them down.
To return to this news report in Japan, however, it stated that in Korea the government was distributing what it called “New Food” to the people. This “New Food” resembled green fettuccini, but was only 30% wheat; the other 70% of its makeup was leaves. The manufacturers put it through a chemical process in order to make it resemble pasta, but it actually had no nutritional value whatsoever. The cellulose content of this “New Food” was extremely high, and the digestive enzyme for the metabolism of cellulose is synthesized in the appendix. The human appendix, however, is too small to enable us to digest cellulose, though animals such as rabbits are able to because of their relatively large appendixes. The result was that the people who ate the “New Food” became bloated: it gave them the sensation of fullness, of having eaten food, yet they were in reality dying of malnutrition. This is a precise parallel to what is served in many churches today: “New Food”. What the people are fed has no nutritional value, yet because it creates a false sensation of fullness they don't know they're starving to death. All the false prophecy, verses taken out of their proper context, hype artistry, pop-psychology and God knows what else is “New Food”.
Peasants, you see, can only give out peasant food. "Folly is set in exalted places, while rich men sit in humble places." The people who have true wisdom and understanding tend to be found in the smaller churches, although there are exceptions.
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Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.