Injustice and Eternity
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Introduction
Introduction
Big questions require big answers, but we humans aren’t big enough.
What can we do about injustice and wickedness in the world?
Who knows what will happen to us after we die?
Who can see what will happen to those we leave behind?
These are big questions that only a big God can answer.
[ILLUS] The Christian singer/song writer, Chris Rice, had a song years ago called, “Big Enough.”
In that song he had a lyric, which I think is appropriate to this section of Ecclesiastes. He wrote, “Three-and-a-half pounds of brain trying to figure out, what this world is all about, and is there an eternity? Is there an eternity?”
And then the reassuring chorus, “And God I hope you don’t mind me asking these questions, but I figure you’re big enough, I figure you’re big enough.”
Indeed, God is big enough. He’s the only One who is big enough to answer the big questions we have in life, the big questions that Solomon has in this section of Ecclesiastes.
[CONTEXT] So far we’ve seen Solomon’s first catalogue of vanities, the first catalogue of things under the sun that he finds ultimately unfulfilling.
He has lamented the “vanity” of creation (1:4-11).
He’s lamented the “vanity” of wisdom and knowledge (1:12-18).
He’s lamented the “vanity” of pleasure, possessions, and accomplishments (2:1-11).
Then because he was so wise, he lamented the “vanity” of wisdom again (2:12-17).
And then he lamented the vanity of laboring just to leave it all to someone else (2:18-26).
The theme that he began with has been his theme all along. He wrote in ...
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
That too is a big question, and [CIT] now in our passage this evening, Solomon tackles another: his three-and-a-half pounds of brain are trying to figure out what this world is all about in relation to injustice and eternity.
Why is there wickedness where we should find righteousness?
And now in our passage this evening, Solomon’s three-and-a-half pounds of brain is trying to figure out what this world is all about in relation to injustice and eternity.
Why is there injustice where there should be justice?
Given the way we so poorly treat one another, are we humans any better than beasts?
And who knows what will happen to us from here?
Would it have been better if we had never been born?
[PROP] God is under no obligation to answer our questions, but he graciously does so in his word. Our part is to receive his answers and trust his goodness.
[TS] This passage breaks down into three PARTS...
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
vv. 16-17 - justice/injustice, righteousness/wickedness, and God’s judgment
The theme of justice/injustice, righteousness/wickedness is one that Solomon will return to.
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.
In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing.
Ecclesiastes
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. 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.
Eccleas
There is a time for everything. That’s what Solomon said in 3:1-8. The exclamation point at the end of that theme is— there is a time for God’s judgement.
This is what Jesus said in ...
Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
vv. 18-22 - Beasts (like the land animals of ) / Is it injustice where there should be justice, wickedness where there should be righteousness that makes Solomon conclude that we are the same as beasts?
same death
same breath
same place (dust)
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Genesis 3:1
same ignorance (Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? 21 / Not about heaven or hell, but the limitation of human knowledge)
same joy (So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. 22)
vv. 21-22 - Two big questions: (A) Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? (B) Who can bring him to see what will be after him?
The answer to both big questions is GOD!
See He knows all and sees all, we should trust Him!
That’s doesn’t mean, however, that we don’t work and pray to end injustice. It doesn’t mean that we don’t identify injustice that remains in our hearts and ask the Lord to help us repent and act justly toward our neighbors.
However, our ultimate hope for justice is not in our efforts or even in our repentance but in the Lord who will judge the righteous and the wicked and not be confused about which is which (16).
AND our ultimate act of justice is declaring the Gospel so that people can be ready for that day.
Jesus was perfectly just and yet suffered unjustly on the cross as the payment for all our acts of injustice toward God, which we normally refer to as sin.
He was raised on the third day, and any who trust him as Savior and Lord receive his perfect justness before God.
That’s the justice we should all be hoping in and telling others about!
4:1-3 - Solomon sees oppressions and even more personally, the tears of the oppressed. He laments that they had no one to comfort them. Although the oppressors had power, the oppressed had no one to comfort them.
In Solomon’s estimation it would be better to be dead rather than oppressed. But better yet, it would be better to have not been born yet—to go back to the womb—back to the innocence before we saw the evil deeds done under the sun.
Conclusion
Jesus said that we would always have the poor with us. In the same way, there will always be injustice this side of eternity. That’s because in order for injustice to be eradicated, not only would every human heart have to be transformed by the Gospel, every human heart would have to be completely perfected by the Gospel! That won’t happen until Jesus returns, so injustice will always be present until then.
That’s doesn’t mean, however, that we don’t work and pray to end injustice. It doesn’t mean that we don’t identify injustice that remains in our hearts and ask the Lord to help us repent and act justly toward our neighbors.
However, our ultimate hope for justice is not in our efforts or even in our repentance but in the Lord who will judge the righteous and the wicked and not be confused about which is which (16).
AND our ultimate act of justice is declaring the Gospel so that people can be ready for that day.
Jesus was perfectly just and yet suffered unjustly on the cross as the payment for all our acts of injustice toward God, which we normally refer to as sin.
He was raised on the third day, and any who trust him as Savior and Lord receive his perfect justness before God.
That’s the justice we should all be hoping in and telling others about!
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Matthew 25:41-
For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.