Ecclesiastes 8
Evil People Sometimes Rule Over Good People
Who is like the wise man and knows the best way to handle certain situations? Having wisdom will light up your face and cause your stern demeanor to change.
I say you should just follow your king’s orders because of the oath before God. Don’t be in a rush to walk away from your king. Don’t stand up against his orders even when they’re evil, because he’ll just do whatever he pleases. The king’s word is the authority, so who could ever confront him about his actions?
Following his orders will keep you out of trouble, since a wise person knows the right way to do something and the right time to do it. (There’s a right way to act on every desire, and a right time to do it—even when you’re under lots of distress.)
No one knows what will end up happening or when it will happen. No man has the authority to hold back the wind with his breath, and no one has authority over the day of death. There aren’t any discharges during a war, and evil won’t save those who possess it.
I’ve witnessed these kinds of situations and contemplated all the circumstances beneath the sun where one person might hold another under his evil.
Good and Evil aren’t Properly Compensated in this Lifetime
I’ve seen people commit evil crimes even though they go to church—yet the towns that witnesses their crimes just let those criminals die and be forgotten about. Isn’t that pointless? The consequences for evil actions aren’t executed quickly, so then everyone ends up harboring more and more evil within their hearts. A criminal could commit 100 evil crimes and live a long life, but I know it will end better for someone who respects God and trembles before Him. It won’t end well for the criminal though—his days won’t extend further than a shadow since he doesn’t fear God.
Another pointless thing that happens on earth is when bad things happen to good people, or when good things happen to bad people. That’s such a vapor.
Just be Happy
So I decided to just praise happiness since there isn’t anything good for human beings to do beneath the sun except to eat, drink, and be happy. At least happiness can stay with you as you labor throughout the days God has assigned to your life here beneath the sun.
What is Humanity Even Accomplishing?
Committed to wisdom, I thought about the end result of all of humanity’s work beneath the sun… And even though the world never sleeps day or night, when I compared it to all of God’s accomplishments, I concluded that mankind will never know what all our busy-ness beneath the sun is actually accomplishing. Even if we try to figure it out with all our might, we’ll never know. There might be some smart people who claim to know, but it’s actually unknowable.