Ecclesiastes 8:14-17

Elysiasis chapter 8, I’m going to read verses 14 to 17 for our text and study this evening. 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. Then I commended mirth because a man hath no better thing unto the sun than to eat and the drink and to be merry, for that shall abide with him of his labor, the days of his life, which God giveth him unto the sun. When I applied my heart to know wisdom, to see the big, business that is done upon earth where there is that neither day nor night sleepeth or seeeth 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 labor, 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. May God bless to us his sacred and holy word this evening. I read about a judge who decided he was going to set the record straight. He felt he had made an error in his passing of judgment on a young man earlier in his career. 15 years earlier, to be exact, he had convicted this young man of a misdemeanor weapons charge. Now he realized that it was a miscarriage of justice, and he wanted to correct it. Since he didn’t know how to reach the man, he paid $500 to run an ad in one of the major newspapers in the United States. Details concerned. the wrong decision were provided, and included among them were the judge’s phone number and address. The article read, If the man calls, the judge plans to write or file a writ of error, Corum, nobus, admitting that his ruling was faulty and asking another court to erase his conviction. You live in a country that proclaims liberty and justice for all. The truth is, sometimes there isn’t any real justice. In fact, it’s more common than we’d like to admit. Sometimes the crook gets off. Sometimes the innocent person gets convicted of a crime he didn’t do. There is no problem. perfect system of human justice. There is inconsistency in human justice, which can be very frustrating. Solomon has been addressing the problem of human justice and delving into the mysteries of divine justice. Now, he doesn’t have a formula that somehow we can, you know, sit down and figure it all out. There’s no formula for that. We can’t figure out how God works. but he ventures to offer a strategy on how to handle the circumstances when there is injustice that takes place. So, where he speaks tonight on the problem of the reversal of natural justice here. Let me begin by saying this. You shouldn’t be surprised at the reversal of natural justice. Look at verse 14. 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 and again there be wicked men to whom it happeneth according to the work of righteous i said that this also is vanity people have trouble when things don’t work out the way they ought to the righteous man sometimes gets with the wicked deserve and the wicked man sometimes gets what the righteous deserves. There are stunning examples of this. I guess the most startling one, though, is the case in scripture where we have the Jews’ rejection of Jesus and the choice of Barabbas. Think about that for a moment. Barabbas was convicted of being a robber and a murderer. He had led a rebellion against Roman rule and in that he had murdered someone. Also was a robber to boot. Pilot confessed that he found no fault after carefully examining the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have an obviously guilty man and an obviously innocent man. Both of them are put up before the people who do you want me to release? And the notorious prisoner, the robber and the murderer is the one they want released. And they want crucified the innocent man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it happens. Just like that. The very opposite of what should happen happened. And certainly what puzzled Solomon 2,500 years or so ago still plagued society today. My friends, you read about injustice in the newspapers. Thieves sue the very homes they’ve robbed because they got injured, breaking into the home for while they were there. I slipped on the sidewalk. The ladder I put up against the upstairs window fell while I was trying to climb into it. And they win. These kind of lawsuits. It’s It’s absurd. Rapists and murderers are set free on legal technicalities. We’ve had that happen recently. It really isn’t anything new under the sun. What Solomon’s complaining of here is something that’s happened forever. As long as there’s human justice and divine justice is left out of the picture. That’s what happens. Hopefully it doesn’t happen too often, but I’m afraid it’s happening more and more. in our society. In the political realm, there are those who sell Senate seats. There are those who are bribed for their votes. Years ago, I remember one of the congressmen had a whole freezer full of cash. Say, where’d you get that money? Whole freezer full of it. Somebody was paying them off. There’s votes. It happens all the time. these kinds of things. Even if you were involved and you saw corruption in your local government and you turned them in, you may be the one that gets up and gets attacked. You may be the one that’s under the lawsuit. This is an ever-present reality in our society. And he says it’s vain. It’s vanity. But let me put it in a very simple way. Let’s put it into our home life for a moment. I read a story about a woman who revealed as a youngster. She had been guilty of deceit. And one of the incidents that stayed with her for 35 years and bothered her conscience was this. She had playfully inserted pins in a bar of soap. Hiding, you know, the pin into the soap where you couldn’t see the head. And her mother had washed her hands with the soap and got all scratched up and cut by these pens that were in the soap. Our brother, being of a mischievous nature, was the one who got severely punished for it. And she never opened her mouth. She didn’t say a word. She was never questioned by her mother about the soap, but she knew justice wasn’t prevailing in this situation. Her innocent brother was punished unfairly and she got off completely free. So this whole issue of reversal here of natural justice or what should be true justice often happens and even in everyday life it happens. So you shouldn’t be surprised at the reversal here of natural justice. Secondly, you should find contentment in God’s good gifts to despite the reversal of natural justice. Verse 15 says this. Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing unto the sun than to eat and to drink and to be merry, for that shall abide with him of his labor, the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun. Now, We have to be careful here. Solomon is not recommending the Epicurean philosophy, eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. Carefully note that he bases the content suggested here, the contentment suggested on the fact that God has given various gifts to you. It’s not a humanistic philosophy. God would not have you to fret and worry about the miscarriage of justice, which you may perceive all around you. You can’t do anything about it. You have to leave this in the hands of God. Be cheerful. Enjoy what God has given you and be married. In other words, be content and make the best of the situation that you’re in, though it’s be less than what you would like to see. There’s no better thing under the sun. Now the Christian has better things above the sun. There’s heavenly things that are better. But as far as the earthly life is concerned, this is the best you can do, he says. God, who is just and good wants his people to enjoy his good gifts. This is the motivation behind the lighting in the blessings you’ve been granted in this life. In other words, God wants you to do what he says here. In faith, eat and drink and be married. Not without faith, but in faith, do so. Don’t let the perplexities of life poison your God given enjoyment of the things that are provided for you. The living God giveth us richly all things to enjoy as first Timothy 617 tells us. Every creature of God is good. Nothing is to be refused if it be received with Thanksgiving for to sanctify by the Word of God in prayer. Whatever we eat. I don’t care, you know, how many anchovies you put on your pizza or whatever, you know. It doesn’t matter. Be thankful. God’s giving you the food and you eat it. with a joyful heart. You know, the Christian life’s always, you know, this sad, that portrayed as sad and narrow and sort of a solemn thing, but really, and the truth of the matter is God doesn’t begrudges enjoying the things that he’s provided for us in this life. The world find pleasures in sin, but the Christian finds pleasure and enjoys all the good gifts that God has provided for. Be happy, be happy, You have plenty of things in this life that he’s given you. An abundance of things. There was a young officer that was blinded in a battle in World War II and ended up in a field hospital, and nothing could be done to restore his sight. He had become permanently blinded, and they couldn’t fix the problem. But while being cared for at the hospital, He met, and he later married one of the nurses who took care of him. One day, he overheard someone speaking about himself and his wife. And they said this. It was lucky for her that he was blind since he never would have married such a homely woman if he had eyes. He rose to his feet. He walked toward the voices that he had heard, and he said this, I overheard what you said. I thank God from the depths of him. my heart for the blindness of my eyes that might have kept me from seeing the marvelous worth of the soul of this woman who is my wife. She has the most noble character I have ever known if the confirmation of her features is such that it might have masked her inward beauty to my soul, then I am the greater gainer by having lost my sight. Now, like these two. detractors, the world may look upon us and laugh at us, because we don’t have much, perhaps, of this world’s goods. And perhaps what we have is flawed or limited or second rate. I remember when I was growing up, there was a man in the church who, he would go around and collect old bicycles, I guess, at the dumps, and people throwing them out. And he would fix them up and make a bike that was usable out of it. And we got a couple of those bikes when I was growing up. And I was glad to have it. I was happy. I got a bike to ride. Now, it wasn’t a brand new swin. You know, I didn’t have a gear shift on it or anything like that. It was one of those simple pedal braking bikes and so forth. But I was happy to have it. And I think that’s the way the Christian should be. you know, okay, we don’t have this or that, but I do have a home, don’t I? It may not be the greatest home in the world. May have a lot of work, but it’s done. But it’s our home. And God has put a roof over my head. You may not have the best car in the world, but you got a car. You know, I remember in the early years of our ministry, my ministry, I didn’t make very much money. I still don’t make much money, but. Back in those days, it was really tired. I had four children, and it was really tight, where we were struggling to even get enough food to put on the table. And Raina got into this kick. I don’t know why she did this, but she got into this kick of making tuna fish casseroles or something. She was going to enter, she said, I’m going to enter this contest, and we’re going to try all these casseroles. So every night, I mean, we’re trying this casserole, that casserole. I mean, I got burnt out on tuna fish. But we had tuna fish. I had something to eat. And so we were thankful. We prayed. We thanked God for the food we had. And I think that’s the way you have to be in this life. We shouldn’t think poorly of what God is. given us, be thankful what we do have. Like the blind man, you’re truly thankful what you possess from God’s good hand. You see a beauty in it the world never sees. How can that guy be happy with what he’s got? Because you don’t need much. If it comes from God, and it’s a good gift from him, my Heavenly Father has provided this for me. I can be happy. I can rejoice in this. We can take pleasure in something. the world cannot possibly understand. Cannot possibly grasp. They have no clue. And you realize your lack of wealth, like the soldier’s lack of sight, makes you appreciate more the gifts that you do have. Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith, Proverbs 1560. It’s better to have a little bit. and fear God. They may have a big meal, but maybe they’re fighting all the time. Isn’t it better to have a loving family and eat your tuna fish salad? Better is little with the righteous than great revenues without right, Proverbs 168. Hey, there were times of buy $100 in the bank. I was happy. I have $100 in the bank. You know, somebody with, you know, $10,000, $15, $20,000, you know, laying around. to me think, well, that’s, you know, that’s nothing. Hey, it was a lot to me to have $100 in the bank at the time. So all of them, the Solomon here urges you not to worry so much about the common injustice. You can’t fix it. You can’t straighten it out on this, you know, it’s not an easy thing to do. Be content to live a quiet life and enjoy the gifts that God has given you. Find, find that. to be your contentment in life. The third thing, you should not fret because you cannot comprehend God’s purpose in the reversal of natural justice. Versus 16 and 17. When I apply my heart to know wisdom and see the business that is done upon the earth, for also there is that neither day nor night seeeth 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 laborer 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. There is a legendary Arabic writer. whose name was Lockman, who was originally a slave. And he had always been treated well by his master, but one day he was given a rather bitter melon to eat. And he ate it without saying one word. Didn’t complain, didn’t say a word, he just ate it. Afterwards, his master looked at him with a smile and said, how could you eat it? that. That’s nauseating. How could you eat that fruit? And here’s what the slave replied. He said, I’ve received many good things from you. Shouldn’t I also be willing to take the bitter from your hand? This response so pleased his master to such a degree that he decided to free Lachman from being a slave. Gave him his freedom. You’re never going to fully understand the problem. of God. There’s a deep mystery to it. Let’s face it. All things are sent by God for your good, and there may be some bitter melons you have to eat. The best thing to do is to simply accept the bad with the good and not fret over it. The world’s philosophy has no God, which brings justice in the end. So they try to get justice in this life. And so that’s why there’s so many lawsuits and people are trying to even the score all the time because they figure if I die, I’ll never get justice. Because there’s no ultimate justice in their thinking. So they can’t be content. That’s why you have all these million dollar lawsuits. As I have people go to Mickey D’s like the one. One woman that I’d read about and bought one of those steaming hot cups of coffee, she decides she was going to put it between her legs while she was driving. Well, I guess she squeezed too hard and popped the lid off and this golden hot coffee went on her legs and so she ends up suing McDonald’s. It’s their fault. They made the coffee too hot. You would have become a complaint about it. It was too cold. otherwise when you got it. These are the kinds of things that happen. You don’t have a God, you don’t look at things and say, well, let’s see what he has in mind in this. I’ll accept it as it is. In contrast to this, God’s people know by faith in God’s word that they are already have what really counts and what really last. You realize there’s no ultimate answers in this life. to the reversal of human justice. The world is unjust. It’s evil. It’s wicked. That’s just the way it is. But you also know that everything is part of the outworking of God’s eternal plan. And it’s working out for the good of his people. Ultimately, there will be a judgment. Ultimately, there will be an evening of the score. And so why fret over the matter? You know, God is a good reason for what? what he brings into your life? He doesn’t do these things haphazardly. He’s a purpose to make various graces to develop in your life through these hardships that he sends. And so sometimes there is some sorrow and tears. Suffering is not easy to go through, but yet it’s part of God’s program. Solomon gave himself. labored to understand God’s ways of providence, but he could not unlock the mystery. Can’t do it. Don’t understand it. The wisest man on earth couldn’t figure it out. When you admit that you don’t understand all of God’s ways that his thoughts are above your ways and so forth, you’re not weakening your Christian testimony because we’ve already read and Romans 1133 earlier tonight. Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways are past, finding out. Now, this doesn’t mean we should cease laboring to try to figure out what God is doing in the province. Sometimes he will give us some hints about what he’s doing. But it is a vast deep, and we have a limited knowledge. The more you learn about it. God, the last year actually never about God. I don’t know if I don’t know how else to put this. You begin to realize how limited your knowledge is, how deep it is to deal with such a God as we have. You know, some of the heathen gods are pretty obvious. They’re easy to figure out. You know what they’re going to do. But the true God is much more deep. There’s a scope to him, a depth to him, which is hard to figure out. Now, what he does is he sometimes gives us bits and pieces of the puzzle so we can see the broad outline. You know when you’re making a puzzle, first of all, you do the border. Always do the border. You know the edge part. You get all those edge parts out and you make the border. God allows us to make the border, so to speak. And sometimes we get to see part, of what he’s doing. We don’t get to see the whole picture, but we get kind of an inkling. this must be what God is doing here without knowing fully all the details in the situation. And so there’s enough though to ensure you there is a complete picture. There is, you know, when I get this puzzle all put together, it’ll be a complete picture. You may not have all the pieces at the moment. But this is true. Our no matter how industrious you are, I labored to seek it out. How ingenious you are. He’s a wise man that’s doing this. How confident you are, you think to know it, you can’t fully comprehend the providence of God. So here you are placed in a position to live by faith. You’re just going to have to trust God. You don’t know what the end from the beginning. beginning like he does. And he doesn’t tell you what you know, you don’t always live to see the end. Say, well, the wicked aren’t getting punished in this life and they’re getting away with it. Well, how do you know what’s going to happen? Maybe you’re going to die someone along the line and they’re going to get it later. You just don’t know what’s going to happen. There are some secret things. The Bible says it belongs to the Lord. And he doesn’t tell you what he’s going to do. Well, the judge who admitted making a mistake, And putting someone in jail wrongly is just the tip of the iceberg, really, of mistakes that have been made. Justice is getting to be a more rare commodity in our society. Seems like the wicked always like to call evil good and good evil. Reverse things. That’s their way of doing things. When it comes to divine justice, there are some mysteries we can’t solve. There’s no formula here. You’re not going to figure God out. So here’s the point. Be joyful and content with his good gifts. Live your life happily in this life. And leave it in God’s hands. Eventually things will get worked out. Justice will prevail in the end. And I think he’s saying that’s the best you can do. Well, let’s close with a word of God.