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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.
Qoheleth gives us three reasons why life under the sun does not seem to reward righteousness and why man's trouble weighs so heavily on him. First of all, there is a delay of justice, which can give the wrong impression that there is no moral order, perhaps even that there is no God: "Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the human heart is fully set to do evil" (8:11). This is much is true. Why do we sin? If we took the consequences into account, we would not act against God's law or our own conscience. But because God in his wisdom and mercy often averts the immediate consequences of actions, we feel emboldened to have it our way. Such is the deceitfulness of the human heart (Jer. 17:9).
The second reason why life under the sun does not reward righteousness is because justice seems to be turned upside down. Not only is there a delay of justice, but we behold a perplexing measure of injustice in this world: "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" (8:14). This is injustice par excellence!
The third and final reason why the world is such a strange place is that we all end up in the coffin. "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 to him who does not sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner,…. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all" (9:2-3). The words speak for themselves.
How then does Qoheleth claim to know that it will be well with those who fear God, as he still maintains in 8:12? Is it love, or is it hatred? The love of God must be believed in. When you embrace his love by faith, you can be optimistic about the future simply because you know it is God's. There is a place in our faith for the kind of realism that Ecclesiastes offers, but we cannot waste our time with bemoaning the status quo. We labor for the advance of the kingdom of God, and our love and labor is not in vain.
We know this, because God’s love is unchangeable. As for us, we keep on changing, our bodies age and fall apart, and even our love is subject to change. It fluctuates from strength to weakness, it ebbs and flows, appears and seems to vanish, and so can never be relied upon. Like our hearts, our love is fickle. We change every day. But how different is God's love! If anything in us could stop God from loving us, then we should have been without God in the world a long time ago. But God's love is fixed forever in Christ, the Father himself loves us with an unchangeable love that is his will and purpose for us. This is why he shows you infinite patience and forbearance.
It must be for the same reason, God's love, that Qoheleth knows that in the end it will be well with those who believe in God's love. "It will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him." This is just another way of speaking of the proper response to God's love. Love and so fear God!
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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