“The
Life and Death of the Wicked and the Righteous”
Part 1
A
Sermon on Ecclesiastes 8:9-15
February
2, 2003
by Rev. Stephen C.
Magee
Ecclesiastes 8:9-15
9 All this
I have seen, and applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun:
There is a time in which one man rules over another to his own hurt. 10 Then I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone
from the place of holiness, and they were forgotten in the city where they had
so done. This also is vanity.
11 Because
the 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.
12 Though a
sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know
that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him. 13 But it
will not be well with the wicked; nor will he prolong his days, which are as a
shadow, because he does not fear before God.
14 There is
a vanity which occurs on earth, that there are just men to whom it happens
according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men to whom it
happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is
vanity.
15 So I
commended enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under the sun than to
eat, drink, and be merry; for this will remain with him in his labor all the
days of his life which God gives him under the sun.
Introduction: A Wise Ruler and a Wicked Ruler (9)
Last week we thrilled with Solomon's
words concerning a wise
and powerful king. What a
blessing to consider that we have such a King as Head of the Christian church
throughout the world - the Lord Jesus Christ.
To use Solomon's words, the wise King's "heart discerns both time
and judgment." This means that he
not only knows what to do, but also when to do it.
As Solomon indicated, to find such a
King with such wisdom is a one in a million jewel (Solomon says one in a
thousand - but this is very much like our common phrase using the world
million). What we see in today's
passage is that not every earthly ruler in church or state is wise. In fact, there are so many rulers who rule to
the hurt of those who they are supposed to serve. This is a part of the vanity that we contend
with in this fleeting world.
Even in the case of a wise human
ruler, we recognize the obvious limitations concerning what he can
accomplish. Yesterday our nation faced a
horrible disaster in the loss of the space shuttle, which was destroyed upon
reentering the earth's atmosphere. Even
the best human rulers can not prevent every disaster or trial. Beware those who claim that kind of power
Also, when you consider a trial or
evil that puzzles you, beware of answers that are too quick to the question
"Why?" We simply do not have
the answer to every question. Our
heavenly King does all things well, but we do not understand all his actions,
or even all of his words, with equal clarity.
If we wonder why those who may seem
to many to be among the "better" in this world live a life of
suffering or die an untimely death, there is another question that is at least
as perplexing. Why do those who seem
particularly wicked prosper and live?
Not every ruler is wise. Many are
wicked, and they use their power not to build others up, but to hurt them.
Appearance and Truth - The life and
death of the wicked (10)
We immediately run into a difficult
challenge when we try to understand which rulers (and subjects) are the wicked
ones and which ones are the good ones.
What we perceive by way of appearance is not necessarily the reality of
the situation. Appearance is not a
perfect indicator of truth.
Furthermore, our memories on these
matters are not perfect or particularly long-lasting. A wicked ruler may fool us during his life
time by frequenting some place of holiness and covering himself with a cloak of
pretended righteousness. Even if we are
able to see the truth of his wickedness during his time in power, we may forget
about it by the time the man actually dies and goes to meet his Maker. This is what verse ten tells us. The lesson of a wicked man's life and death
may be completely lost
upon his neighbors in the city where he once ruled. The man seemed to get away with all types of
evil during his life. By the time he
dies, people don't even remember that he must now give an answer for his
selfish oppression of the poor and the weak.
One reason why the wicked continue in
wickedness (11)
To state the point in more general
terms, it is apparently God's good pleasure to order the affairs of men in such
a way that his judgment against a vile action or word is not always
immediate. Mind you, it can be
immediate, but it normally is not. If it
were immediate, one would think that there would be much less wickedness. But it is God's good pleasure to do something
quite different. He seems to delight in
the internal transformation of a life over a longer period of time as the will,
the heart, the mind of an individual is brought into
ever-close conformity to His pathway of righteousness.
The other alternative is the
attachment of electrodes for more immediate feedback - something like a high
voltage conscience. This does not appear
to be God's way. Instead over the course
of life-long trials we are humbled before Him, and become His willing people. In any case, all of this makes it difficult
for us to assess just who the wicked and the righteous are with full
certainty. This too is apparently part
of God's excellent management of such things - that we need not spend our lives
focusing on the sins or achievements of others, but devote our energies to a
closer pursuit of Him with our own lives.
The end of the wicked contemplated by
the righteous (12-13)
Hear me rightly. This passage does not instruct us to simply
throw our hands up in despair as if there is no right or wrong after all. In verses 12 and 13 Solomon, who understands
that we are all sinners before God, yet makes some very important distinctions
that we need to consider this morning.
He says that there are those who fear God, and there are those who do
not. He further unequivocally states
that he knows that it will be well with the first group, but it will not be
well with the second. While we all
violate God's laws, and are deserving of His wrath and
curse, yet some do in fact fear God and come to Him for forgiveness. They hear His call to a fuller life of
following Him, a life, as the prophet Micah explains, which is quite simple to
hear about and to appreciate. This is
what he says:
Micah
6:8
He
has shown you, O man, what is good;
And
what does the LORD require of you
But
to do justly,
To
love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?
Who can sort it all out rightly? (14)
Still, there remains the difficulty
of rightly judging the condition of others, and learning the correct lessons
from the lives and deaths of the wicked and the righteous. The problem remains that sometimes the man
who appears to be one of the righteous, yet seems to suffer the loss or death
of the wicked, and one who seems to have chosen the way of the wicked seems to
prosper and live on unharmed, as if he were one of the righteous. Who can sort all of this
out? Not even Solomon can do so, with
all his wisdom. What are we to do
then? Verse 15 tells us very plainly.
Enjoy the
life that you have been given in the fear of God
The instruction given for us in the final
verse of this passage is clear. Our
peace and well-being in life is not dependent upon our perfect understanding of
the providence and justice of God in the lives of the individuals around us. Solomon tells us to eat, to drink, and to be
merry for as long as God gives you
life. This is what God has appointed for
you.
Enjoy your life without insisting on a god-like knowledge of the lives
and end-states of others.
When we consider this instruction,
we need to clarify two important points.
First, this is evidently an instruction for the righteous, and not for
the wicked. As Jesus makes clear in
quoting this instruction in Luke 12:13-21, the man who presumes upon the
goodness of God, and continues in a life of self-indulgent sin is not doing a
commendable thing, but is living in a very foolish way.
Luke
12:13-21
13
Then one from the crowd said to Him,
"Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." 14 But He said to him, "Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?" 15 And He said to them, "Take heed and beware of
covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he
possesses." 16
Then He spoke a parable to them, saying:
"The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. 17 And he thought within himself, saying, 'What shall I
do, since I have no room to store my crops?' 18 So he
said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I
will store all my crops and my goods. 19 And I will
say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take
your ease; eat, drink, and be merry." ' 20 But God
said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose
will those things be which you have provided?' 21 So is
he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
The righteous man that runs to Jesus
Christ for forgiveness and commits himself to the life of the fear of the Lord
- that man is the one who is instructed to eat and drink with joy, not the
greedy man who is running away from God and His commandments. The second clarification comes from a closer
consideration of the word translated "be merry." The word literally means "rejoice." It is not an invitation to a life of
undisciplined nihilistic revelry. It is
a call to true Christian joy, appreciating the goodness of God's common gifts
of food and drink, with a merriness of soul that comes from receiving his
special gift of forgiveness and peace because of the work of Jesus Christ for
us. This is the good life of the
righteous.
A raucous abuse of God's gifts is
prohibited, but so is a troubled life that insists on having God's knowledge of
individuals and futures before experiencing any moments of peace. The instruction that Solomon gives here is
real. These are not the words of a cynic
throwing in the towel. They are the
seasoned instruction of a man who tells us to eat and drink with joy as those
who know that we have peace with God because of His abundant mercy toward us,
through the perfect work of a substitute.
The instruction is both genuine and
clear. A man may have all the food and
drink in the world, but if he is unable to have joy, the food and drink will
not satisfy. It is true rejoicing of
soul that enables even the poor man to be satisfied, though his portion of food
and drink is relatively small. As Jesus has told us in Luke 10:20, we are able to have this
rejoicing "because your names are written in heaven." The Apostle Paul also instructs us that
"the
Before we conclude our consideration
of this text, we need to consider some thoughts on the ignorance of the
righteous and the matter of keeping a merry heart. Solomon has previously instructed us
concerning enjoying the gifts of this passing world. Here we have something new. We are given this direction in the midst of a
hearty consideration of the things that we do not know.
We think that we know...
We think that we know quite a
lot. We think that we know exactly who
is who in the
I was recently watching the movie
"Patton" again. Was he a hero
or a villain? What is the appearance and
what is the reality? How can we sort
these things out in a world of imperfect knowledge of the things of God?
I have also been reading the
autobiography of the Scottish Missionary John Paton. In the
We don't know...
It is a great challenge to sort out the faithful from the faithless in
our world. Can we have a happy heart
despite this difficulty? This passage
commands us to do so, in spite of our obvious ignorance. We may observe many things that do not appear
to be right to us as we consider God's government of all the
world - of all individuals - of all his creatures, and all their actions. We must finally and simply admit these
important words: "I don't
know." And we are still to have
merry hearts despite this honest confession.
What about "Rejoice" do you
not understand?
Why do we find this instruction so
difficult? There are several reasons:
1)
It is a world of vanity. Everything around us is fleeting, and that
hurts.
2)
We place too much hope in things that pass away.
3)
Every answer that we receive from God's providential hand is not
"yes" and "right away."
There is much that is in fact "absolutely not," and "you
don't even understand what you are asking for," and "certainly not
now." This puzzles us. It is God's will that we stay close to Him
through this all, and realize that all good things are in fact "Yes!"
and "Amen!" through Jesus Christ our Lord!
4)
There is
a devil who wants you to complain and dispute
about everything, to be continually
dissatisfied, to look for the final fulfillment
of all of your hopes right now, and to be severely and fatally disappointed that your every whim, has not been immediately granted,
and to furthervimagine that you deserve much
better treatment than this. He labors to convince you that the impulses
of your flesh and the
opinions of the world are correct when
they tell you
that this is all there is, and that to hope in heaven is to be a fool. He insists
that you stand
up for your rights, and that no one should have to take what you have been
through, that it is everybody's fault but your own, and that you should just give up, and be unhappy and bitter.
Brothers and sisters, this voice is not the voice of God.
What do we know?
Remember what we do know for
certain.
1)
There are those who fear God.
2)
There are those who do not fear God.
3)
It will be well with those that fear God.
4)
It will not be well with those who do not fear God.
Eternity is a long time. Be merry in Christ today, even though you do
not have all the answers to your questions.
Conclusion: Rejoice in the Lord!
Finally, my beloved, rejoice in the
Lord, and use the precious resources that He has granted to his children. Use the precious propositions of truth that
are recorded for you in the Scriptures. Use the precious privilege of prayer won for you through the blood
of the Lord, and enjoy His precious presence in your life through even
the greatest trials and uncertainties. I
know that it will be well with those who fear God. Amen.
- This page intentionally left blank -
-
This page intentionally left blank -