WISDOM TO DEAL WITH LIFE’S FRUSTRATION
Ecclesiastes 8:1-17 / Keywords 8:12
Although
a wicked man commits a hundred crimes and still lives a long time, I know that
it will go better with God-fearing men, who are reverent before God.
8:1 Who is like the wise?
Who knows the explanation of things?
A person’s wisdom brightens their face
and changes its hard appearance.
Obey the King
2 Obey the king’s command, I say, because you took an oath before God. 3 Do not be in a hurry to leave the king’s presence. Do not stand up for a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases. 4 Since a king’s word is supreme, who can say to him, “What are you doing?”
5 Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm,
and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.
6 For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter,
though a person may be weighed down by misery.
7 Since no one knows the future,
who can tell someone else what is to come?
8 As no one has power over the wind to contain it,
so[a] no one has power over the time of their death.
As no one is discharged in time of war,
so wickedness will not release those who practice it.
9 All this I saw, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun. There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own[b] hurt. 10 Then too, I saw the wicked buried—those who used to come and go from the holy place and receive praise[c] in the city where they did this. This too is meaningless.
11 When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong. 12 Although a wicked person who commits a hundred crimes may live a long time, I know that it will go better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him. 13 Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.
14 There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless. 15 So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.
16 When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the labor that is done on earth—people getting no sleep day or night— 17 then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.
Footnotes
a. Ecclesiastes 8:8 Or over the human spirit to retain it, / and so
b. Ecclesiastes 8:9 Or to their
c. Ecclesiastes 8:10 Some Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint (Aquila); most Hebrew manuscripts and are forgotten
1. Wisdom brightens a person’s face as it helps him overcome frustrations in life (1). The teacher
brings up an example of the authority of a king. In ancient times, the king
held power over the subordinate’s life. And the Teacher advises us to honor that
authority and follow the proper protocol when we appeal to the king. The advice
may sound apprehensive. But the wisdom is to refrain from acting emotionally in
the moment and instead seek the right time and course of action to address the
matter (5).
2. We expect to see the miserable end of the wicked and
the exaltation of the righteous.
So, when we find the evil and righteous ending up in what they do not seem to
deserve, we feel frustrated. But wisdom is living in the reverence of God
instead of trying to make sense of what we receive in the world, whether good
or bad (12). When we know that God is in control and has a purpose and goodwill
above all our wisdom, we can find peace in him (17).
Prayer Father, thank
you for showing me that there is much more than our physical world. Knowing you
are much bigger than what my wisdom can ever comprehend helps me to have the
strength to hold on to you and live according to your will.
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