THE BETTER LIFE, LIVED UNDER THE SON
“In the Midst of Life’s Enigmas”

Ecclesiastes 8:9-17
Bob Bonner
May 2, 1999

Recently, I have noticed three major annoyances or irritants in our lives that really seem to bother us. Each of them has its root cause in our inability to be in charge of the situation. For if we were in charge, we often think that these things would not happen the way they do, or if they did, we would have a reasonable answer for why they did happen.

The first major annoyance has to do with facing unfair treatment or injustices from those in authority over us. To make matters worse is when those in authority are evil or wicked and they seem to get away with their wickedness. Why?

A second irritant or disturber of our peace and contentment that really appears to eat at our souls is when we see those who are not good moral people getting all of the perks in this life. Why?

The third major annoyance that gnaws at our sense of peace and contentment are those disasters that make no sense or have no answers as to why. We were all probably on emotional overload with all of the news coverage of the Littleton, Colorado tragedy, the war in Kosova and the death of little Justin Perez. Yet, these events highlight our ongoing struggle with the enigmas of life that cause all of us to pause and ask that age-old question again, “Why?”

These injustices force those who have any form of faith in a personal God to ask the question, “God, if you are good and just and loving and all- powerful, why would you not stop or prevent such a horrible event?” The answer to which we will never know in this lifetime. And that’s the point. Not knowing eats away at us, and if allowed to continue, will cause us to lose perspective.

We have limits to our understanding and limits to our ability to see things from God’s perspective and to grasp the reasons for such events. So, where do we go from here when events happen that are beyond our scope of understanding? Are there any answers, even partial answers, to some of these enigmas of life? How do we move on with life when these kinds of events hit us personally and our soul aches from such tragedy? That’s what our passage of study for this morning touches upon, in Ecclesiastes 8:9-17.

The entire subject matter of this chapter deals with the value and limitations of wisdom. In the first half of the chapter, which we looked at a couple of weeks ago, we found what tremendous value true wisdom offers one’s life. That was spoken of in verses 1-8. In those verses, Solomon got very specific and gave us a practical example of how applied wisdom at the right moment can bring contentment to life. The specific case that Solomon chose to deal with was how wisdom can protect you or deliver you from the wrath of a wicked authority figure who has been placed over your life.

The second half of the chapter, which we will look at now, concerns some of the limitations of wisdom. Wisdom doesn’t grant us the answers to all of the why questions, but sometimes it gives us enough of a partial answer that we can continue on, if we allow the Lord Jesus Christ to be Lord over our lives.

Last time we noted that the first half of this chapter was introduced with a verse that magnifies the value of wisdom. This morning, you will see that this second half ends with a verse that summarizes Solomon’s second major point of this paragraph, that wisdom has its limitations. These two verses, verse 1 and verse 17, are like a pair of bookends on the same shelf called “wisdom.”

In this second half of Ecclesiastes 8 Solomon wants us to know that even though wisdom does have its limitations, there is some good news along with bad news. The good news about obtaining and applying godly biblical wisdom to these situations is that the result will be that you live a more meaningful life, even amidst the enigmas and tragedies that befall everyone.  However, the bad news is wisdom will not remove the tension that arises when we can’t square the reality of our lives with the character that we know is true about God. 

For instance: We know that God is sovereign, that there is no authority that rules above Him or that no one is more powerful than He is. In addition, we know that God is just and there is no evil or wickedness in Him. That being true, why would He allow the apparent injustices or enigmas we see in life? That tension will exist with us forever. All the wisdom in the world won’t enable any of us to ever answer why this is so.  But this tension between what we know to be true about God’s character and what He allows to happen around us need not cripple our lives.

So, where does that leave us?  How do we get on with life when injustices seem to swamp our boat? Let’s see as we look at God’s Word together.

As we look at this next section, notice that familiar phrase, “under the sun” is repeated here again in verse 9. That’s a signal to us that once more, Solomon is not speaking here so much from a divine perspective, but from the perspective of a very smart but limited human on earth, who is looking at life apart from God. Whereas, in the previous section, in verses 1-8, Solomon was writing as one who was looking at life from God’s perspective. So, there is a definite change in perspective here. Even so, it provides us with some limited answers.

 In this next section, Solomon is being up front with us. He wants us to know that apart from God, life will appear meaningless or futile.  Yet, even with God, sometimes life just doesn’t make sense. For instance: Solomon presents two basic enigmas of life that have troubled the human race ever since the Fall. The first one is given to us in verses 9-11. In a nutshell it is this: Enigma #1: men do evil and appear to get away with it in the here and now, encouraging more evil. 

Look for yourselves at what Solomon writes: “All this I have seen and applied my mind to every deed that has been done under the sun wherein a man has exercised authority over another man to his hurt.” In other words, Solomon is saying that as he looked at every evil deed wherein a wicked one in authority had deliberately brought hurt upon another person beneath him, for the authority figure’s own selfish motives, the following is what he learned from each of those cases that he observed.

I’m going to read this verse from the NIV translation, because I believe the NIV translation reads best here. It reads this way: “Then too, I saw the wicked buried--those who used to come and go from the holy place and receive praise in the city [meaning the very same city] where they did this [where they practiced their wicked rule]. This too is meaningless.”

From his human perspective, it drove Solomon nuts to see the openly wicked leader play the religious game of going to church or the temple, feigning worship of God, going to political prayer breakfasts to appear spiritual, and then when he is dead and buried, the very society in which he openly practiced his wickedness, rises up and ignores his evil and praises the man instead as a godly man, a humanitarian. Solomon says “This is nuts! It makes absolutely no sense to me that just because this immoral murderer or philanderer is now dead that we should show him the honor that is only due saints. It is meaningless.” 

Rather than pointing a finger at any one in the United States, which we could do and seems to be in vogue today because we have so many examples to choose from, let’s look at a historical example from outside our country. A good example of this was the Soviet Premier Brezhnev. If you were old enough to remember the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, you remember that Brezhnev personally gave the order for the destruction of millions of innocent people. But at his funeral, none of this was mentioned. Instead, he received glowing tributes by world leaders who knew of his atrocities and he was buried as a hero. 

That’s craziness, says Solomon, and we would agree. But what really bothered Solomon when he observed the same kind of thing in his day is given us in verse 11. He states, “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.” The idea is that if we do not quickly sentence and judge evil persons, either through NATO or other human institutions, then the Brezhnevs, the Hitlers, the Milosevics will keep on ruthlessly murdering people, and their like kind will multiply. 

In the expression “given fully to do evil,” the word “fully” connotes the idea that the cup of evil is already full and overflowing and we are encouraging evil to take place, or for that matter to grow even worse, when we don’t punish those who do evil. It’s almost as if Solomon were hinting at the idea that if he was God, he wouldn’t allow this insanity of evil to go on unpunished. For those of faith, this verse echoes the cry of many a heart, “God, why don’t you do something that will halt the crazy sinful actions of those evil people who live amongst us?”

In verses 12-13, we return to God’s point of view and the wise man’s approach to living with this first enigma, in which persons can do evil and appear to get away with it. Here, Solomon writes, “Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and may lengthen his life, [literally, the Hebrew is “longer to him,” meaning he may think he is lengthening his stay here on earth, but he really isn’t, is the implication. In contrast, Solomon adds] still I know that it will be well [meaning they will live longer, i.e. forever in eternity] for those who fear God, who fear Him openly. [In other words, they are not worshipers when it is politically expedient to be so. But rather, one can tell that another is a true worshiper of the living God because of his moral behavior.] But it will not be well for the evil man and he will not lengthen his days like a shadow, because he does not fear God.”

The shadow lengthening refers to the shadow getting longer as the sun goes down in the west, until the shadow becomes so long that it is mixed with darkness that surrounds the earth as the sun totally goes out of sight. This long shadow is to picture the lengthening of an individual’s life. His point is that the shadow, like the lifespan of the soul, becomes so long, that it gets lost in the ultimate shadow of eternity. In other words, this is a picture of a person’s everlasting life. 

Solomon’s point in using this shadow is to say that the days of the wicked people who refuse to delight in the Lord and make Him number one in their life, will be shorter than they could have been, had they followed the Lord. They may think they are lengthening their lives and getting away with evil, but what they don’t see is that they are shortening their lives here on earth and for eternity. 

In these verses, Solomon is assuring us that a righteous and just God won’t allow these wicked authority figures to spend any additional time on this earth and for certain, in eternity in His holy presence, because they are practicing evil.

In other words, I can’t answer the “Why?” that a righteous God would allow the wicked to appear to be getting away with evil and living longer. But I do know this. They are not. God is promising here that the wicked one’s life will be cut shorter here on earth, with no eternity with God; while the lives of those who fear God, will be lengthened to the end of eternity with God.

When I think of a little baby dying in an auto accident, and from my point of view, dying at what would normally be considered an early age, to God, it was not an early age. That baby’s “early” death was not early to God, but right on time, His time. Furthermore, that baby’s eternal soul is present in the hands of a loving and just God. If I were the parents, I would deeply grieve over the loss of my baby, my infant child. Yet, I would find comfort in knowing that even though not knowing the why, my loving heavenly father is now taking care of my baby.

There is a second enigma given in verse 14. It concerns the observation that the wicked seem to get what the righteous deserve.  The Scriptures teach that as a general rule, if you are honest, work hard, love your brethren, etc, God will bless your life with good things. But as we move through life, we see that this isn’t always the case. In fact, it almost seems that the opposite happens more often than not. The wicked appear to end up with all the fun things that this world has to offer, while the righteous end up with very little.

Solomon writes in verse 14, “There is futility which is done on the earth, that is, there are righteous men to whom it happens [literally, “personally touches” them] according to the deeds of the wicked. On the other hand, there are evil men to whom it happens [again literally, “personally touches” them] according to the deeds of the righteous. I say that this too is futility.”

Here these good people are doing what God tells them to do, and suddenly, they get a report from their school that their child has been killed by a fellow student, and the murderer got off with a plea of momentary insanity. The righteous parents and righteous student are personally touched or their life is personally affected in a way in which we would suspect that only the wicked should be treated. The innocent shouldn’t be murdered. The wicked should be murdered. But the wicked get to write a book in prison, make millions that they can put in the bank, so that when they get out of jail, they can retire in a life of ease. That is wrong, and our souls know it.

How is it that many an honest businessman doesn’t get rewarded for paying all of his taxes and operating by the rules, but goes broke, while many crooked businessmen often never get caught and get to live high on the hog? Those kind of scenarios really bother those who live uprightly. When we do what’s right and lose it all, how do we approach the days ahead so as to find peace and contentment in life?

Solomon shows us how to approach our efforts at hard and honest work. He shows us what we should be focusing on that will lead us to peace and contentment. Solomon tells us in verse 15, “So I commended pleasure, for there is nothing good for a man under the sun except to eat and to drink and to be merry, and this will stand by him in his toils throughout the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.”

First, let’s understand that this is not an encouragement to “eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die.” This is not a validation of Epicurean hedonism, which tells you to party until you drop because that’s all there is to life. This is a Middle East picture of community or joyous fellowshipping with those you love over a basic meal. Hence, the message is, the approach to a joyous life is not found in pinning your hopes and dreams on possessions or trips or whatever else your earnings can afford you in this world. Rather, the most rewarding approach to life is to enjoy the process of your work and the food and friendships it presently allows you to enjoy. When you know you have friends to fellowship with and food to eat, then that joy of fellowshipping will carry over into your work, regardless of how difficult or boring your work at home, the office or school may be.

This is true for those who live in poverty in third world countries. This is true for those who will spend the rest of their lives in prison. This is true for those who spend their lives in a retirement center. This is true for those who get back on their feet, by the grace of God, at the Gospel Rescue Mission. When we get right down to it, friends, fellowship, and food to share together is what makes life enjoyable. It matters not if the meat you eat is New York steak at a summer B-B-Q in a palace, or a “tube steak” cooked on the B-B-Q of your apartment complex. It’s the basics of food, friends and fellowship around the Lord that brings joy to life. To put it in the form of a principle: True joy in life is not found in what this world has to offer, but in fellowship with a community of other believers who worship God.

This should be a strong exhortation to those of you who are not involved regularly in some kind of accountability group or a fellowship group. You are missing the joy that the Lord offers in serving Him together with other saints. Those kind of meaningful and caring relationships that help you get through your tough weeks, whether they be in high school or out of school. Just as youth need to meet together weekly in their youth groups to be encouraged and hold each other accountable, we as adults need the same thing.

In conclusion, Solomon wraps up this section with verses 16-17, “When I gave my heart to know wisdom and to see the task which has been done on the earth (even though one should never sleep day or night), and I saw every work of God, I concluded that man cannot discover the work which has been done under the sun. Even though man should seek laboriously, he will not discover; and though the wise man should say, ‘I know,’ he cannot discover.”

Bottom line, Solomon says, “Seeking after wisdom is a good thing, but it has its limitations.” Because even after you think you know it all, that you have the solution to all of the dilemmas of life, or you think you have the solution to even one of the enigmas of life, don’t believe it. If somebody else comes up to you and says that he knows the answer to the inscrutable events of life, don’t believe him. Face it, we are unable to unscrew the inscrutable things of life. Only God has all of the answers and He has chosen not to share all of them with us. So, we are forced to leave it with Him, to trust Him.

So, what are we left with, as we live in this wicked world? How are we to approach all of life? Solomon pointed to it back in verse 12. Our approach to life in the midst of the enigmas, is to begin with fearing God and joining in fellowship with those who do likewise.

Please turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Psalms. King David wrote a psalm that I believe his son, Solomon had in mind as he wrote these words in Ecclesiastes. It is a psalm that primarily deals with living in the midst of injustice and how to face life in that situation. I also believe the principles in this psalm apply to other difficult challenges we all face in life. This psalm states clearly the principle behind what Solomon has been telling us.  Look with me at Psalm 37:1-12.  As we read through this psalm together, if you are facing some injustice or some other form of enigma, ask yourself, “Am I doing what David is doing in this psalm?”  King David writes in the beloved Psalm these words: “Do not fret because of evildoers, be not envious toward wrongdoers. For they will wither quickly like the grass, and fade like the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it. And He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; do not fret, it leads only to evildoing. For evildoers will be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land. Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; and you will look carefully for his place, and he will not be there. But the humble will inherit the land, and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.”

So, what is the answer to those times when you feel blasted by an injustice? What is the wise godly person’s approach when the wicked have their foot on your throat? What is the answer when a tragedy strikes that makes no sense? Answer: Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. We are to turn our hearts toward Him, the lover and redeemer of our souls, Jesus Christ. We are to seek Him and to allow His strength and courage to be lived out through our lives, by seeking Him and believing Him to do so. We are to submit our lives to His plan for us, not our plans for us. That’s what it means for Him to be Lord and not us.

If you want to become a wise person, the Proverbs tells us that the beginning of wisdom starts with making God number one. Seek Him first. Making that which delights Him be what you seek after. When you do that, then you will discover along the way that those deep innermost needs and desires of your heart will be met.

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