In our devotional today, Solomon, the King shows that when you have good leaders in office, the land in which they govern, prospers.  On the other hand, when you have deadbeats there, the people suffer: 

Ecc 10:16  What sorrow for the land ruled by a servant, the land whose leaders feast in the morning.

Rather than getting their affairs in order and serving their constituents, the leaders; wicked leaders in this case, would rather serve themselves first….which is why the language says, feasting in the morning, the first thing they do is help themselves, when their leadership role is defined as serving the people or doing the jobs that they were elected to do, but instead of doing those jobs, they are focused on enriching themselves and often times, their cronies.  

The next verse offers insight on what a real leader should look like:

Ecc 10:17  Happy is the land whose king is a noble leader and whose leaders feast at the proper time to gain strength for their work, not to get drunk.

The effective cabinet here is focused on getting the job done, they know they are in the highest office, and with great power, comes great responsibility…instead of gratifying themselves (we note that the language here in “not getting drunk”) through booze or adulterous affairs, or living it up on the golf course, the biblical definition of a leader is defined as one who knows a proper time and place, and is noble, or righteous.  

Looking at the different rulers throughout the Bible, none of them got it completely right.  Solomon, the writer of this, had his own hang ups with idolatry, just like his Dad David did through adultery.  The only righteous King that we ever had was Christ who was without sin, and still rejected by the masses.  He could have performed worldly miracles and humbled all of His oppressors, but He didn’t.  Instead HE lived the most meager life and died the most horrific death for our sakes, because HE loved us.  That is real sacrifice, something we should keep in mind when society tries to put leaders on god-like pedestals.  Christ is the only true King and His term is eternal!