Morning Devotion - Eccl 8

Read Ecclesiastes 8

The prior chapter began the body of the third and final cycle of this book. There we saw the problem of sin. Wisdom in suffering is better than the pleasures that we crave because we live in a world of sin. Yet you are not to seek out suffering as a righteousness extremist, because you would only destroy yourself, just like a person who would dedicate his life to the pursuit of wickedness would die before his time. Here again there is a realization that we live in a world of sin and misery, and that we need to learn how to navigate as peacefully and profitably through this vain world as those who fear God and are the beneficiaries of His merciful and powerful work through Jesus Christ.

This is a very wise insight. Living in the light of this truth involves an awareness that in this fallen world God has ordained systems of human power, systems that are populated by sinners, but that these people are not safely resisted or ignored. In the eighth and ninth chapter we have two sections that speak of kings and two sections that speak of joy despite the inevitability of death for both the righteous and the wicked. In the eighth chapter the order is kings and then joy, and in the ninth chapter the order is joy and then kings. At the end of the eight chapter is the insight that is the main point of this section of the book.

First, concerning kings, you need to be aware that God has made things such that man has power over man. The word of the king is supreme among men, and you cannot say to the powerful, "What are you doing?" There is a time and a way for everything, and the servants of the Lord who navigate their way through this world under the sun need not only to be as innocent as doves, they also need to be as wise as serpents. More on kings in the ninth chapter.

Second, concerning joy, recognize that it will not ultimately go well with the wicked, but the timing of justice may not be easy for you to understand. Sometimes the lives of the righteous are cut short, and the sentence against a wicked man is not executed speedily. Despite these puzzling providences and your own coming death, you should enjoy the gifts that you have
been given by God in the midst of your toil under the sun. More on joy in the ninth chapter.

Verses 16 and 17 are at the center of this third cycle on the pursuit of wisdom.

Ecclesiastes 8:16-17 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.

Even a wise man who thinks that he has figured out all the workings of this life is wrong in his assessment. He cannot find it out. God has made our lives to be beyond us, beyond our own ability to finally figure it all out. This does not mean that we are permitted to embrace folly and abandon our pursuit of wisdom. It does mean that we should not rest in a false confidence that we can fully understand the providence of God.

Our Lord, through whom all things were made, and who governs all things through the Word of His power, entered into such a world. In His human nature He is aware that He does not know the time of the culmination of all things. In that human nature he grew and became strong. "Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered." (Hebrews 5:8)

In His divine nature, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The wisdom and knowledge of God admit no possibility of variation. It is marvelous that He entered this world and died on a cross under the authority of a human ruler here below for our salvation. The exalted Christ, fully human and fully divine, knows the beginning from the end. Let us fear God, and humbly live in the order of the world that He has created, trusting that He will accomplish all of His perfect plan, and remembering the love of the cross.