Introduction: The Preacher Solomon continues to debate the issues of life with his family, friends, and servants. In 8:2, we find three words which keep this study in perspective, "I counsel thee..." He is offering counsel to the people he loved. (You will note that "counsel thee" is in italics in your Bibles. This simply means that the translators added English words to complete a Hebrew phrase in order to make it understandable to English-speaking people.)
Solomon is spending these days counselling those about whom he cares the most. We enter now into chapter 8 of this very practical study. Here, he makes several observations about life.
1. Concerning understanding.
- Wisdom will brighten a man's countenance, "Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man's wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed." (Ecclesiastes 8:1) Wisdom does something that knowledge can never do. This wisdom is true wisdom that comes from God Himself. According to the Bible, there are two kinds of wisdom:
* Wisdom from beneath, "But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work." (James 3:14-16)
* Wisdom from above, "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." (James 3:17)- True wisdom comes only from God, "When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:) Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it." (Ecclesiastes 8:16,17)
2. Concerning unquestioned obedience.
- Obedience to the king was a God-given directive, for the king's word was considered supreme, "I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God. Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him. Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou? Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment." (Ecclesiastes 8:2-5)
- We are living in a time which promotes the questioning of authority and obedience to it. There are still directives in the Word of God concerning our responsibility to those who are in authority over us.
- Note the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 13:1-4, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."
- The balance of this truth is found in Acts 5:29, "Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men."
3. Concerning the uncertainty of life.
- There is not a man upon the earth who will escape death in this life. Solomon wrote, "Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him. For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be? There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it." (Ecclesiastes 8:6-8)
- The only exception to this would be the rapture. Are you ready for it? If Jesus were to return today for His saints, would you be included in that number?
4. Concerning unfairness.
- Solomon recognized a great unfairness in this life. He asks two questions:
* Why do the wicked often receive that which the righteous deserve, "All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt. And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." (Ecclesiastes 8:9-11)
* Why do the righteous often receive that which the wicked deserve, "There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity." (Ecclesiastes 8:14)- There is an interesting truth found in verse 11 which states, "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." When justice is not carried out swiftly, good men's hearts faint. This is why it is so wrong to wait for a very long time to execute judgment upon lawbreakers.
5. Concerning the ultimate.
- Solomon did recognize that all good things come from God. Notice his words in verse 15, "Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun."
- It is important to enjoy what God has given us to enjoy.
Conclusion: I'm sure Solomon must have raised a few eyebrows when he debated these issues with those around him. It matters not how many eyebrows are raised, because Solomon had some truths he wanted to share. He wanted to make a difference in the lives of those around him. He knew that if he did not teach what he had learned, the chances would be greater for others to follow the same wrong path he took.
I believe there are many Christians who feel just as frustrated as Solomon felt when they see good men live in despair and evil men live in prosperity. What you have to remember is what Solomon realized in 8:12-13, "Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him: But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God." God will eventually punish the wicked and reward the righteous. He understood the truth found in Genesis 18:25, "That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"