Ecclesiastes 8:10-15

Ecclesiastes 8:1-17

1-9 10-17

Ecclesiastes 9:1-6

1-6

1

Ecclesiastes 8:1 “Who 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.”

Chapter 8 is all about wisdom and how to apply good Godly wisdom in a fallen world. Verse one starts off with two rhetorical questions, “Who are like the wise?” and “who knows the interpretation of a thing?” The questions are not saying that there are no wise men but that they are a rare thing here in this fallen world, and when you meet one it will be very apparent, he says that their face will shine, which also implies the opposite that when a non-wise man is met it will also be very apparent.

Verses 2-9 contain wisdom about dealing with and living with our rulers, or wisdom on politics, 10-11 are an interlude between the first section about rulers and the second section on the wisdom of fearing God and trusting in his sovereignty. Then verse 15 has wisdom on what overall we should do with our time here on earth, which is to eat, drink, and be joyful. None of these wisdoms are new in Ecclesiastes, rulers are discussed in 5:8-9, trusting in God sovereignty and fearing God is in many places most recently in 7:18, and the wisdom on enjoying your time here is also in several previous verses, last in 5:18. So while these are not new topics to this study, every one of them are repeated by God and we should pay attention and see that if it is often repeated in the bible than it is important to God that we truly understand.

2-5

Ecclesiastes 8:2–5 “I say: Keep the king’s command, because of God’s oath to him. Be not hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. For the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to him, “What are you doing?” Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way.”

Ecclesiastes 5:8 “If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them.”

Proverbs 21:1 “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.”

All earthly rulers are put in place by a sovereign God, Jesus also said that we are to submit to our rulers. Matthew 22:21 “They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.””

The phrase “because of God’s oath to him” is also translated as “because you took an oath before God” This can both be referring to God’s promise to the Kings of Israel from David’s line and that He appoints all rulers, also our oath in salvation to obey all of God’s commands, which include obeying our rulers, because they are put in place by God. Two sides of the same coin.

We should not be quick to try and brake away and start a rebellion, taking a stand in an evil cause. Unless the commands of our rulers go directly against the commandments of God, and then we should be prepared and ready for the price of our revolution, as Apostles were in Acts 4, and again in Acts 5. Acts 5:27–29 “And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.”

Verses 3-5 can also be seen as wisdom for the counselors of earth rulers, if the king’s rule and command are supreme it is hard to question such a ruler, or say “What are you doing”. Great wisdom is needed to keep themselves following the will of God in their duties so they will not be blindly following evil commands, “the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way” to question the ruler and be an instrument of God to steer the heart of the king like a stream of water.

We must always pray for wisdom to know in the possible gray areas of the political landscape what the will of God is for us.

6-7

Ecclesiastes 8:6–7 “For there is a time and a way for everything, although man’s trouble lies heavy on him. For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be?”

God has and is ordaining all things, and God has set a time for everything under the sun. Ecclesiastes 3:1 “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:”

But we as the created creature without God’s perfect knowledge and wisdom do not know what is to come. The decisions that we must make to both obey God’s command for us to be subject to our rulers and also firstly and foremostly obey all other commands and statutes sent from God can weigh heavily on us. Which is why we must rely heavily and solely on God as sovereign in all things and at all times, always be in the scriptures and praying for guidance and wisdom that God will freely give to all who ask in His name.

8-9

Ecclesiastes 8:8–9 “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. 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.”

A ruler, king, or tyrant may have absolute earthly power, that corrupts absolutely, and can use this power to injure or hurt other men, but he or she does not have power over death, not theirs or ours. God and God alone has numbered our days and there is nothing that any man, woman, angel, or demon can do to alter God’s will. There was a note that an ancient rabbi once observed that David was called “King David” fifty-two times but when David’s life was coming to a close in 1 Kings 2:1 he is simply called David, because at the time of his death he had no more authority.

1 Kings 2:1 “When David’s time to die drew near, he commanded Solomon his son, saying,”

Everyone will die, but no one has the power to change the time we have here, because our time is appointed by God, down to the millisecond, and there is nothing that we or anyone else can do to change that.

10-11

Ecclesiastes 8:10–11 “Then 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. Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.”

In verses 10 and 11 we see a transition from the wisdom of obeying our earthly rulers because they are appointed by God to a more direct wisdom being spoken of, to fear God and trust and rely on His sovereignty. Since the wicked rulers, and those who profane the things of God and are praised for their profanity, cannot extend their lives beyond what God has ordained they are buried just like the good and righteous person.

When we see all the evil and wrongdoing in this world and also see that our perceived sense of justice is not carried out in a timely fashion we may be tempted to take matters into our own hands to bring justice or punish the guilty. But whether or not we see or if justice is done at all here on earth, punishment and wrath is the domain of God, and no evil escapes divine retribution. Paid out in Hell for eternity by the offender or placed on Jesus on the cross, all is paid in full. Quote from Douglass O’Donnell “If our government is not godly, the temptation is to forget God. Why? We can forget God because, obviously, he is indifferent, impotent, or inactive. Or if he is at all active, he is far too slow! So, then, if change is going to happen, let US mobilize first and pray second, or mobilize first and pray never.” Of course he is not advocating this course of action but illustrating what our mindset may lead to if we do not always remember that God is sovereign and no sin will ever be unpunished before God’s eyes.

12-14

Ecclesiastes 8:12–14 “Though 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. But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God. 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. I said that this also is vanity.”

No matter what happens on this earth, no matter what evils are done, those who fear God, the elect saints who can rightly call God their father, will be saved and all will be well with them. Maybe not while we are on this earth, that is not guaranteed, in fact the opposite is guaranteed, that we will be hated and persecuted, but this life is not what contains our eternal hope, it’s the life to come. Conversely those that do not fear God, again cannot extend their lives on earth anymore than what God has already planned. Even if in our limited view it may seem like the wicked are rewarded and the righteous are punished, our time on earth is vanity, it is brief and temporary, for the wicked this life is a good as it will be for all eternity, for them await the eternal punishment in Hell. We can be content and satisfied in the Holy sovereignty of God, that everything that does happen is according to his plan and his will. We do not need to fret or be filled with anxiety over whether or not the guilty and wicked find justice here, because they assuredly will for all eternity, unless they are to be called and saved through Christ’s blood and we can rejoice.

15

Ecclesiastes 8:15 “And I commend joy, for man has nothing better 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.”

I think every time we see this sentiment in Ecclesiastes we may think that it is out of place, but while we are to use our God given wisdom to know how to navigate our political landscape or not get discouraged in the face of unpunished evil, we are also to enjoy all that God gives us, no matter how little or great, because God is good and we can be content in what He provides for us. Enjoy our lives, enjoy the time we have with fellow saints, be of good cheer and give God all of the glory for everything we have in our lives.

16-17

Ecclesiastes 8:16–17 “When 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, then 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.”

No matter how much knowledge and wisdom we have, even with all the information on the internet at our fingertips, we do not and cannot know everything as God does. The wisdom and knowledge that we are given comes from God and we should always pray and ask for Him to grant us more Godly wisdom as He sees fit to grant it. Our trust should always be that God is sovereign and in control and we do not need to know everything.

9:1

Ecclesiastes 9:1 “But 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.”

God is sovereign, not even the smallest bird falls from the sky without the knowledge and will of God. Even what we see as evil will in the end be used for the good and glory of God, and whatever is happening in our lives, even our trials and hardships are the will of God. Not knowing if it is love or hate can be seen as referring to the possibility that trials are in response to a person’s sin, as in a consequence of it, or a loving correction from God to refine and lovingly chasten someone since no human has the perfect knowledge to see the status of another’s salvation.

2-3

Ecclesiastes 9:2–3 “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. This 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.”

Everyone dies. Good or bad, godly or unrepentant everyone dies. This fate is an evil and is a result of sin, and as a result of sin all humans are fallen, man, woman, and child. In our default state there are none that seek after God, and none that will or even can without the intervention of the Holy Spirit. Fallen man is mad, sinful, and Hell bound unless God has mercy and grace to elect one for redemption. Sin has corrupted this world completely and everyone, and also all of creation will die, that is the depth of what sin has brought into the world and no sin should be seen as small or inconsequential before a perfectly holy God.

4-6

Ecclesiastes 9:4–6 “But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For 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. Their 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.”

Humanistic speaking it is better to be alive than dead, a living pauper is better than a dead ruler.