The Illusion of Control

August 9, 2026 | The Illusion of Control | Ecclesiastes 8

JD Cutler

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Good morning church family. This morning we are continuing our look at the Old Testament wisdom book of Ecclesiastes. Each month, we step into this book to learn about finding purpose in life. As we've journeyed through Ecclesiastes together, the Preacher has systematically dismantled many of the false places we, as human beings, look for meaning and security in life.

In chapter 1, we saw the futility of life under the sun. Left to ourselves, life feels like an endless cycle where nothing ultimately satisfies. In chapter 2, the Preacher pursued pleasure, possessions, accomplishments, and success, only to discover that even the greatest earthly achievements cannot satisfy the human heart. In chapter 3, we learned that while life unfolds in seasons we cannot control, God has appointed every one of them, calling us to trust His timing rather than our own. In chapter 4, Solomon exposed the brokenness of life—oppression, loneliness, envy, and selfish ambition—and reminded us that we were created to live in relationship with God and with one another. In chapter 5, he corrected our posture before God, teaching us to approach Him with reverence rather than empty religion, and to receive His gifts with humility instead of chasing wealth. Then in chapter 6, Solomon showed us that even abundance is meaningless apart from God. The difference between emptiness and abundance isn't how much we possess, but whether we know the Shepherd who gives life. Last month, in chapter 7, we entered what we called The School of Wisdom. Solomon shifted from exposing life's vanity to teaching us how the wise live in a fallen world. We saw that wisdom learns from adversity, receives correction, rejects nostalgia, and ultimately trusts God's providence—even when life doesn't make sense.

That brings us to chapter 8.

If you have your Bible, go ahead and turn there now.

If chapter 7 taught us to trust God's sovereignty, chapter 8 teaches us what that trust looks like in everyday life.

We’ll see that it addresses some of life’s hardest questions.

How do we experience peace when earthly authorities disappoint us?

When justice seems delayed?

When life feels unfair?

What happens when good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people?

The preacher’s answer is both humbling and freeing:

We find peace not by gaining control of life, but by trusting the God who is already in control.

Let’s read chapter 8 together this morning and then look at it under the heading, the Illusion of Control

Ecclesiastes 8 ESV

1 Who is like the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed. 2 I say: Keep the king’s command, because of God’s oath to him. 3 Be not hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. 4 For the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to him, “What are you doing?” 5 Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way. 6 For there is a time and a way for everything, although man’s trouble lies heavy on him. 7 For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? 8 No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it. 9 All this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt. 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. This also is vanity. 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. 12 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 him. 13 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. 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. 15 And I commend joy, for man has nothing better 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. 16 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, 17 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.

This section begins with a short poetic stanza that helps frame what follows.

Who is like the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a thing?

A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.

The preacher extols the benefit of wisdom, even in a fallen world.

Wisdom not only helps us understand how to live in this world, it affects our very countenance.

He says it makes our face shine and softens our face, literally causes his stern face to beam.

The preacher is going to go on to talk about wisdom in a difficult world, and I think this phrase captures what wisdom accomplishes in us. If we live foolishly, trying to control an unpredictable world through sheer human will. it will leaves us looking stressed, bitter, and grim If we live wisely, understanding that we are not in control, it will leave us looking content, bright, and calm.

This continues to support an observation made throughout Ecclesiastes. Wisdom is not the answer to the futility of life, but it is still valuable and desirable to have. Wisdom is good.

Ecclesiastes never suggests that wisdom can remove the curse or erase life's frustrations. However, it consistently teaches that wisdom helps us live faithfully while we wait for God's final redemption.

As the preacher continues our education in the School of Wisdom, he gives us three lessons about living wisely in a world we cannot, and do not, control. Lesson number one is…

I. Wisdom Recognizes the Limits of Human Authority

Before we can recognize the limits of human authority, we first have to understand it better.

If we're honest, most of us don't naturally enjoy living under authority. We want to make our own decisions. We don't like being told what to do. We resist parents, teachers, spouses, bosses, pastors, governments, anyone who threatens our freedom.

Why? Because beneath our resistance to authority is often something deeper: a desire to control our own lives.

That’s why the preacher begins here. Before the preacher walks us through authority and its limits he establishes one very important truth.

You might call it a foundational or controlling principle.

It is this. Authority is God's idea.

The New Testament builds on this idea.

In Romans 13 Paul says that God establishes all human authority and those in power have been instituted by God. So much so that he warns that resisting the authority that God has appointed will bring judgment.

In 1 Peter 2 Peter echoes this by calling Christians to be subject to every human institution whether it is emperors or governors as their representatives.

Jesus confirmed this when he stood before Pilate after Pilate said he had authority over him. “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.”

Now, we know that this doesn't mean that God personally approves of every ruler’s behavior, or that their authority is never to be resisted, rather the principle is that all human authority ultimately derives from God’s authority.

We know that there is such a thing as bad authority, or abused authority.

When it is present, those are the times where we need wisdom to know how to live peaceably with all, how to submit to God through authority over us, and when submission to God requires resisting authorities in our life.

Not every act of resistance is rebellion. Sometimes faithfulness requires saying no to human authority. But our default posture should be humility, because our hearts naturally prefer our own authority over God's.

See, the answer to bad authority is not no authority, but rather good, Godly authority.

Notice what the preacher says. Keep the king’s command, because of Gods’ oath to him. He is rooting the king’s authority in God’s authority.

Then he offers some practical wisdom.

Don’t be hasty to get away from the king.

Don’t take your stand in an evil cause, specifically here against the law of the king.

Obey the king’s command.

Wisdom helps us know when and how to do that.

That’s what he means by the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way. Even, by the way, if your trouble lies heavy on you, there is still a right time for everything.

Knowing when to speak up and when to hold our tongue.

Knowing when to submit and when to resist.

We need wisdom in these moments, precisely because we have limited knowledge. He says, ‘We do not know what is to be.’ I would press even further.

We don’t know how God is using even bad authority to accomplish his purposes. We don’t know why God allows certain things, but wisdom says that if God has allowed it, it will serve his purposes.

The preacher isn’t trying to simply make us admire kings, nor is he presenting them as unquestionable representatives of God. He’s preparing us to remember that even kings answer to Someone greater. That’s the reality he wants us to see. Even good, Godly authority has limits.

Look at Verse 8. No man, not even the king, or emperor, has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. Even if you are the man on top, sitting on the highest throne on earth, your authority is limited. There are many things that have always been beyond your control.

By the way, that doesn’t just apply to kings. Parents, pastors, husbands, bosses, employers, governing authorities. There are all kinds of God appointed authorities, and none of it is absolute. They are all limited in someway.

By now, we have come to hear this common refrain during our study of Ecclesiastes. Death comes for all. Even the king who has control over a whole kingdom and the highest authority on earth will face death.

Why is this important?

I think the preacher is reminding us that there are limits to human authority. So many of us think that authority is the key to happiness or contentment. We work and strive, we resist authority, we declare our own authority. We’re constantly trying to gain and keep control.

The greatest threat to my peace isn't merely bad authority over me. It's my own insistence on sitting in the seat of authority.

The preacher quietly reminds us, that even if we had all the authority in the world, we do not control life.

So if earthly authority cannot ultimately control life, who can?

This brings us to our second lesson…

II. Wisdom Trusts the Certainty of God’s Judgment

The preacher continues exposing why life sometimes seems puzzlingly unfair to us as we experience it unfolding. He reflects back on a personal experience. He had watches as a wicked person was buried, and yet while they were alive God allowed them to go in and out of the holy place (presumably the temple), furthermore the people around them praised them. He echoes his now well know to us statement, this also is vanity. Frustratingly mysterious.

Then he invites us to think about how the wicked escape punishment, or at least seem to. He presses in on the reality, that this often emboldens mankind to do even more evil. When one person isn’t punished for doing something wrong, not only are the emboldened to keep going, others observe that they get away with it, so they set themselves to do wrong as well.

What profit is there then to do good?

Why not just do what everyone else seems to be doing?

If society praises us for wickedness, why pursue holiness?

In verse 12 he arrives at the pivotal statement.

Ecclesiastes 8:12 “12 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 him.”

Observation can only take us so far. Even someone who spends their days observing and thinking deeply as the preacher has. He moves beyond what he can see to what he knows to be true. Yet, I know…

Even though it seems that those who do evil over and over again are prospering, though it seems that they are getting away with it, though it seems that they are often even praised for it by the world. It will not be well for them because they do not fear God.

The preacher has already touched on this before.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

16 Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. 17 I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work

English Standard Version Chapter 5

7 For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

8 If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them.

Here’s the application, there is coming a day that God will judge the righteous and the wicked. Therefore, the wise man lives in light of that certainty.

The New Testament says it this way, sounding very Ecclesiastical in nature.

Hebrews 9:27 “27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,”

One day we will all have to answer to the supreme authority in our lives. Here is the reality many of us may not like. One day We will have to give an account for how we lived under the various authorities God placed in our lives. Our parents, our husbands, our pastors, and so on and so on.

The certainty of God’s judgment ought to affect how we live in this life. Not just in how we see and interact with authority, but how we process the things happening around us.

That person who seems to get away with sin, that religious leader who abuses his congregation or fleeces them for money, that elected official who seems to get ahead while actively doing evil.

That’s not the final word.

The righteous person suffers unjustly, the righteous person is persecuted, the righteous person gets overlooked, passed over, and rejected.

That’s not the final word.

Because judgment belongs to God, I don't have to carry the weight of making every wrong right today. I can know that there is nothing right that will not be recognized and nothing wrong that will not be punished. Scripture teaches us that Jesus Christ is coming back to judge the world in righteousness.

So the question becomes, how do we live until then? If human authority has limits, if God’s authority is certain as well as his judgment, how do I approach the day wisely?

This brings us to our last lesson.

III. Wisdom Receives the Gift of Today

We might say it like this. Once I stop trying to sit on the throne, I can finally enjoy the gifts the King gives.

Let’s recap. The righteous suffer, the wicked prosper. It frustrates us, it confuses us.

How should we respond?

Should we spend our day fighting injustice, warring against wickedness, encouraging the righteous? Possibly all these. It depends on where God calls you and where he places you.

But the preacher’s answer is surprising and much simpler.

The preacher says, I commend to you, joy.

To commend means to officially praise something, to recommend it as worthy.

The preacher says, in all my pursuit of purpose, in all my evaluation of life under the sun, let me show you what is worth having.

Joy.

What?

He has just spent a considerable amount of time describing how life under the sun is often unfair, that it is frustratingly mysterious, that often it seems that wickedness is rewarded and righteousness punished.

His answer? Be joyful.

Far from being dismissive of the difficulty of life, or oversimplifying the issue, he is telling us the secret to living wisely in this life.

Let’s see if we can unpack some of the layers to see how he gets to this surprising answer.

At the end of the day, are we in control of the things that happen to us?

Does worrying about circumstances or events actually fix anything?

Does anxiety?

Jesus says that worrying cannot add one hour to our life.

Does brooding over the difficulties and unfairness of life actually change our days?

Or does it slowly morph us into people with victim mentalities who are constantly looking for things to offend us?

Does our face become hardened and our countenance become dark?

By the way, if you are looking for an offense, you will always find one.

Imagine for a moment, if you could look down the halls of history to your own life in 10 years, 20 years.

Do you want to be more jaded and angry than you are now?

Would you like to be more pessimistic, more offendable?

Would you like to be more bitter?

Who do you know that's become bitter?

No names. But almost all of us can call someone to mind. That didn't happen overnight. That's the slow work of trying to control life rather than trusting the one who does.

Would you like your face to shine more or less that it does now?

I think most of us would say we want to have more peace and more joy not less.

The preacher says the best thing that you can do to ensure that kind of future is to simply receive each day as a gift.

Enjoy the simple pleasures God has given us.

To eat and drink.

To spend time with loved ones.

To enjoy God’s creation.

To work at what is in front of us today.

Knowing that God is in control and that one day he will make everything right.

Living wisely isn’t figuring everything out, but it is figuring out what is important.

The Preacher concludes his school of wisdom here in verses 16 and 17.

Why should we enjoy life each day as it comes?

Because you are never going to figure it all out. You can put in long hours, work hard, think deeply, and you will not find out everything that God has done. Hard work won’t get you there, and even wisdom cannot get you there.

There is a humility here. The preacher pursued wisdom as hard as anything else, and he comes to the place where he says.

I cannot know everything.

I don’t have to know everything.

But I know the one who does, and I trust him.

Chapter 8 of Ecclesiastes strips one more thing away that the world tells us will bring us lasting satisfaction and purpose. Control.

In some way, every one of us wants control. The young child wants to be more independent, the older child wants their driver’s license so they can exercise more control over their life, the young adult can’t wait to get out of the house so they can be in control. The adult wants to climb the ladder, get the degree, so they can be the boss, so they can have control. All of us tend to resist authority and try to claim more than we have.

It’s in our nature to want control over. our health. our children. our finances. our jobs. our future. our reputation. our death.

Ecclesiastes 8 says, You don't have it and any bit of control you think you have is an illusion.

But, you’re not alone in that.

The king doesn't have it.

The wicked don't have it.

The wise don't have it.

Only God has it.

The question isn't whether someone is in control.

The question is who is in control?

Joy and peace are found when we embrace the truth that God is in control. Peace doesn't come because God explains everything. Peace comes because we realize that God doesn't have to explain Himself in order to be trustworthy.

The Bible talks about a peace and joy that the Christian have that surpasses understanding. I think the preacher is hinting at something very similar. Because we know that…

The peace that the Christian has is not found because life finally makes sense. It doesn’t. The peace that the Christian has is not found because life only includes good things. It doesn’t.

The peace that the Christian has is found in Christ. The joy that the Christian has is found in Christ. The one who governs life and is perfectly wise, perfectly just, and perfectly good.

Even more than that he is perfectly loving. In that while we where still sinners, Christ died for us. While we were rebelling against God and enemies of God, Christ died for our sins, so that we might trade our wickedness for his righteousness.

If you are struggling for peace, or joy I hope you understand this morning that we don't find peace by gaining control of life. We find peace by trusting the God who is already in control.

That same God has made himself known through his son Jesus Christ. If you have never responded to the gospel, or the good news that Christ has made a way for us to be reconciled to God the Father, let me encourage you to come during our next song. I’d love to tell you more, to pray with you, or set up a time to meet with you.

Let us pray.