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[chapter 8]
1Who 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.
2I say: Keep the king's command, because of God's oath to him. 3Be not hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. 4For the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to him, "What are you doing?" 5Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way. 6For there is a time and a way for everything, although man's trouble lies heavy on him. 7For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? 8No 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.
10Then 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. 11Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. 12Though 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. 13But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.
14There 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. 15And 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.
16When 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, 17then 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.
[chapter 9]
1But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. 2 It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. 3This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. 4But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. 6Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.
Much of what we read in this text has to do with being under authority and how we cope with it. There is political authority, or a king's command, as 8:2 says. The king's power is God-given, so, "Keep the king's command, because of God's oath to him." But even though God puts people into positions of power, he will often permit this privilege to be abused: "Man has power over man to his own hurt” (8:9). This rendering of the world of politics is neither enthusiastic nor patriotic. It is merely realistic.
But power in the hands of weak and sinful human creatures is not even the greatest evil that we face. We are in the hands of God, the ultimate authority: “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” (8:8). This “man’s trouble” lies heavy on him, and it is trouble that is the result of a broken relationship with our Maker.
It is not that our text leaves us with no hope. The author states in 8:12-13 that wickedness will eventually catch up with the sinner, and that those who fear God will be well. However, I would relegate this assertion as pertaining to the judgment and the afterlife. As far as life under the sun is concerned, the author finds it difficult to discern a pattern that will allow him to assess the outcome for people, whether there will be a happy end or whether it will be disaster. It is nearly impossible to tell by the way things are whether a person is ultimately blessed or not. To be sure, God gives good gifts that we may enjoy, but in Qoheleth's view, there is too much evidence raising daunting questions about life and man's relationship with God.
In 9:1 he brings his concern to a point:"…The righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hatred man does not know; both are before him." This saying is not contrasting the good and the bad. These are all the good guys, the "righteous and the wise" being a merism for those who fear God. "Whether it is love or hatred, and does not know," refers to the happenstances of life. It is impossible to decide the true nature of things as they appear to us. What seems good may turn out to be meretricious, while a bad thing could be a blessing in disguise. Who knows? So it is impossible for us to find out by mere observation whether God is ultimately blessing a person or not. We can only conjecture and guess, because we cannot take a peak into God’s game plan for the individual's life and all that is to happen in it.
But while we plead ignorance with respect to the definitive meaning of events in an individual’s life, God's Word does not leave us blind. We need to have our eyes opened to the invisible things. "We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18). May we not forget to put on the right lens today.
The author of these devotionals, the Rev. Martin Emmrich, is an ordained OPC minister (Westminster OPC, Corvallis, Oregon) as well as the author of Pneumatological Concepts in the Epistle to the Hebrews, a book on the teaching of Hebrews on the Holy Spirit. We are happy to make these devotionals on Ecclesiastes and other passages of Scripture available to you.
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