Dealing With the Powerful: Ecclesiastes 8

Even as we learn to give up seeking control of our lives and their future courses, we are nevertheless faced with the control others may have over our lives. How do we deal with that? The Preacher has some ideas for us.

Ecclesiastes 8

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.

I say: Keep the king’s command, and do not rush into a vow to God. Go from his presence and 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. 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? 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.

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. 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. 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.

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.

1. Because there is no way to control or predict what will happen in your life, because life is frustrating and control is futile, you will need wisdom for how to behave before ultimate human authority.
   1. You will need the ability to be expressionless in the face of difficult matters
   2. You will need at times to simply comply with the decision of ultimate authorities because you cannot change them.
   3. There may be times when you must take a contrary stance, and to do so will be to suffer.
   4. Ultimately even the ultimate authority is not the ultimate authority and lacks power that only God has to determine life’s outcomes, so don’t fret too much about this.
2. Because there is no certainty about justice being meted out in every situation you must find your joy in your relationship to God and the work He gives you to do along with life’s necessities.
3. God has made life this way on purpose, that is, frustrating our ability to predict or control its outcome, so it will be impossible to figure it out. We’ll have to rely on the certainty that it will ultimately go well for those who fear God.