The Hebrew language did not lend itself easily to blunt or direct literal statements. Good Hebrew was loaded with imagery and parabolic expressions. Here, Solomon paints a scene of serving in his courts. Who wants to be a wise servant of the king? Solomon builds an ethic by hints that indicate something far larger, something difficult to render in English.
Wisdom makes you preferred company, while ambition makes you enemies. You’ve already committed yourself to obey the king, to be a loyal servant with no hidden agendas. God is watching your heart, so try to make the most of it. In Ancient Eastern courts, one never betrayed a distaste for the king’s personal presence, and silly fear only got you into trouble. Just relax and do your job. Few people can keep up a pretense long enough to get away with plotting against something the king really wants. Cynicism is no sin in carrying out his orders, but never doubt his ability to keep an eye on you. Acquaint yourself with his ways and what pleases him; develop a sense of timing that makes him smile. A king with a thousand concerns has no time for you to get your act together. You probably cannot imagine the creativity of a king who intends to punish disobedience, though.
But even a king cannot know the future. He can’t even restrain the wind, so how could he hold back the hand of death? Once you are deep the middle of things, you can’t bail out. In the heat of battle, your commander isn’t going to dismiss you from your place in the ranks. Stand your ground; uphold moral honesty. If immorality owns you, it will always betray you to your enemies. With all his grand wisdom in the flesh, Solomon could not understand how it was some people were given power over others. No matter how wise the king, somebody would be crushed by his most benign choices. No man can change that, so get used to the idea that you can’t pick your kings or your superior officers.
That’s not the worst of it. In every sector of life there are bad people who gain fame and fortune. The text in this portion varies wildly among the various manuscripts, so don’t get hung up on the precise wording of your favorite translation. What the manuscripts have in common is the image of someone who rejects all moral standards and God doesn’t strike them dead, even if they come into the Temple itself. We fallen humans are very temporal creatures; when justice doesn’t fall in what seems to us a timely manner, we think justice has failed. Solomon warns this is something we all must fight against. Human wisdom cannot unravel the mystery of God’s work, His inscrutable choice that seems to violate His own revealed Law. You cannot know who will be hurt when you let that mystery hinder your own holiness.
Don’t get lost in such mysteries. Rid yourself of the instinct to correct everything you see, to demand action from some human agency, or worse, as if you could correct God by calling Him on the carpet for offending your grand logic. Find your role in the scheme of all those things you can’t possibly control and be faithful with what lies in your power. Don’t worry about things you can’t fix. Enjoy the simple good things God brings your way and trust Him. Solomon had already gone the route of trying to figure it all out, worrying about all the things that affected him but that he couldn’t do anything to alter. Could he have stayed awake endless days, there wasn’t time enough in a human life to figure it all out. Don’t believe anyone who claims to have it all worked out on the level of human intelligence. Some things will never make sense.
