Ecclesiastes - Chapter 8
Respect for authority (1-9):
The first human sin was a contest for authority. What God had ordered, our first parents rejected. They pitted their will against God's word and set a pattern of rebellion that all of their descendants (except one) have followed.
Probably no book in the O. T. better shows the feelings of sinners toward authority than Ecclesiastes. With sharp insight, Solomon observed the ways of kings and their subjects and the conflict between them caused by the use and abuse of authority. The problem with authority that he saw was a part of the mystery that marks our lives.
Just as wisdom, pleasure, and wealth offer much less than they appear to offer, so authority as a goal in life has the same emptiness which deceives those it seeks to serve.
The deeper question is the way in which human authority is outranked by death and its refusal to operate on a predictable schedule. Authority has its dangers. The preacher knew them well. The first danger that he saw was that it often seeks to intimidate. Disobedience to the authority of the king is here described as an “evil thing”.
It appears he thinks of this type of disobedience to the king as an act of rebellion, a change of loyalty, or a conspiracy against the king.
Much authority works in unhappy ways however. The purpose in which it is given, the care with which it is supposed to be exercised, and the obligations it carries, are blurred when the ruler becomes arrogant in power.
The second danger Solomon saw was that authority sometimes shows an arrogance that rejects limitations. The power to that comes in wielding authority can easily be confused with the right to exercise total authority, perhaps without mercy.
Our preacher is teaching that all authority except God's must work under severe limits. He brings a lesson in humility on this matter in verses 6-8. The advice in these verses is that the limits to govern should be shown by patience and prudence. Affairs in government are not exempt from God's sovereign control. He says these are included in “every matter”.
In this regard we are given in verses 7-8 what may be the most powerful thought in all of the Old Testament concerning the absolute sovereign rule of the Lord over our life.
God's purposes have all their own seasons of fulfillment. All life is ordained and known by God, fixed in divine purpose, fixed in His unfailing wisdom, fixed in His boundless love for each of us. No man knows the future and those who are His saints submit and are faithfully glad to do so. They see a Father's hand and a Savior's sympathy. They would not alter it if they could and in faith they meekly leave the future to the Lord who wills it.
For all of his amazing accomplishments, man knows almost nothing more of the mystery of the spirit than Adam knew in the beginning. We still cannot explain how the Holy Spirit dwells within flesh, how the two are bound for a time in unity after the human heart says yes to the Lord. We still cannot explain how these two part ways at the death of the body when Solomon tells us there is no power within us to retain the spirit.
God wills it and does not explain how or why. He speaks, unheard by us, and immediately it is done and the spirit returns to Him who made it.
Our efforts are understand are truly vanity. Ignorant, reckless, and sinful man cannot slightly affect these things. Our remedy, planned before the foundation of all things is Jesus Christ, in whom the Father has placed the judgment of all things, including each and every soul.
Since Adam's day, the war of death has continued. There is no cease fire, no exchange of prisoners, no treaty except that written in blood on the cross. Here is our hope of peace for our soul for those who die in faith die only in body, not in spirit.
No spiritual death visits those who are His.
In verse 9 we see the preacher's added warning that authority can be dangerous when it is misused and becomes abuse. He tells us he has seen it happen and his conclusion is that when it does, it is hurtful to those oppressed. As a result any hope was clouded.
One reason why the message of Jesus exploded through the ancient world like a gust of fresh air was that it carried new hope. It shed brilliant light on a future that in the time of Solomon had been wrapped in gloom. The answer of Jesus was encouraging because it was the hope of a glorious coming, bright with power and righteousness.
Solomon taught that death was too certain to allow for hope and that the uncertain time of death (which no man knew) was dark on the future. Jesus brought the answer that it did not matter when death visited because there was the promise of resurrection and life eternal.
The mysteries of divine justice (10-14):
It seemed to Solomon that divine judgment lingered so long for the wicked that the fear of it did not correct society's inclination to sin. His view was that there was a mystery in which wicked people were not condemned and righteous people were not rewarded in this life. The death of the wicked seemed slow in coming.
The mysteries of divine activity (15-17):
With no answer seen to the mystery of divine justice, Solomon now turns to the thought of trying to understanding divine activity.
The simple graces of the hand of God are the daily food of life. It is these daily graces that we should lean on when we may be baffled and close to spiritual defeat.
Now he turns to what is the heart of his search throughout the book of Ecclesiastes which is seeking the wisdom to understand divine activity. In these verses he teaches us that he has reached the end of his limits and concludes in verse 17 that he knows he will not be able to find it. He reaches back to the despair of chapter 7 but with even greater intensity.
His final thought is dominated by the repetition of the failure of the quest, no matter how resolved a man may be in his intentions. The problem seems to defy solution. More time devoted, greater intelligence brought to bear, better methods, or new researchers are not the answer. The problem lies in the difference between the activity of the divine and the strongly limited grasp of those He created.
The eager quest Solomon began at chapter 1, verse 13, and its unsatisfied conclusion in chapter 8, verse 17, says that we are called to live as well as we can within the limits imposed upon us by the basic differences between us and God. To seek to go beyond those limits is dangerous.
The preacher will reserve his strongest words of advice on these matters in the remainder of the book in chapters 9 through 12.