Futile Frustrations
Not only that, but I have seen the wicked approaching and entering the temple, and as they left the holy temple, they boasted in the city that they had done so. This also is an enigma.
When a sentence is not executed at once against a crime, the human heart is encouraged to do evil.
Even though a sinner might commit a hundred crimes and still live a long time, yet I know that it will go well with God-fearing people – for they stand in fear before him. But it will not go well with the wicked, nor will they prolong their days like a shadow, because they do not stand in fear before God.
Here is another enigma that occurs on earth: Sometimes there are righteous people who get what the wicked deserve, and sometimes there are wicked people who get what the righteous deserve. I said, “This also is an enigma.”
So I recommend the enjoyment of life, for there is nothing better on earth for a person to do except to eat, drink, and enjoy life. So joy will accompany him in his toil during the days of his life which God gives him on earth.
When I tried to gain wisdom and to observe the activity on earth – even though it prevents anyone from sleeping day or night – then I discerned all that God has done: No one really comprehends what happens on earth. Despite all human efforts to discover it, no one can ever grasp it. Even if a wise person claimed that he understood, he would not really comprehend it (Ecclesiastes 8:10-17).
We have some unanswerable questions about the way things seem to work in the world. These questions display our frustrations with the capriciousness and unfairness we see in the world. The Preacher addresses them, but few will appreciate his “answer.”
Throughout Ecclesiastes 1:1-6:12 the Preacher meditated upon the hevel of life under the sun: all is vain, futile – truly absurd. He compares most human endeavors toward meaning as “chasing after wind”: people pursue pleasure, wealth, wisdom, or other things looking for ultimate purpose and satisfaction and will be disappointed and frustrated by all of them. To rage against such truths is itself futile and striving after wind. God understands better than we do. In Ecclesiastes 7:1-8:9 the Preacher seemed to have set forth a series of aphoristic exhortations not unlike the proverbs for which he is well known loosely organized around the theme of wisdom. In Ecclesiastes 8:1-9 the Preacher would continue in the same aphoristic vein and loosely organized his exhortations around wisdom in terms of the exercise of and submission to power.
The Preacher made a series of “observations” regarding life “under the sun” and drew some conclusions about it all in Ecclesiastes 8:10-17. Our understanding of the first observation is complicated by textual ambiguity in Ecclesiastes 8:10. A good number of translations try to make sense of the Masoretic Text as is, reflected in the ASV: “so I saw the wicked buried, and they came to the grave; and they that had done right went away from the holy place, and were forgotten in the city: this also is vanity.” The NET follows a slight emendation of the Masoretic Text, as above. Thus the Preacher has either observed how wicked people were buried while righteous people would go to the temple and enjoyed no regard; or he has observed how the wicked enter the temple and would then boast in the town, ostensibly justifying themselves in their wickedness by claiming God’s provision, protection, and thus justification. Either way the Preacher observed how the wicked could justify themselves and rationalize their behavior and the righteous would receive no such benefit. People then and now have become quite frustrated with such a miscarriage of justice and perpetuation of oppression. The Preacher considered it hevel, futility or absurdity, here well understood as an enigma, something which we cannot and will not be able to understand.
The Preacher followed up with an apt observation in Ecclesiastes 8:11: when justice is not meted out quickly, the human heart can easily rationalize evil behaviors. This is a premise few would dispute; people everywhere can point to examples of people behaving badly in flagrant ways, and the lack of punishment emboldened them, and perhaps others, to continue in such behaviors. There will always be people who will push the envelope regarding the kinds of behaviors with which they can get away; if such people receive no consequences for what they do, they will keep doing it until consequences are thus meted out.
Ecclesiastes 8:10-11 would be enough to leave almost everyone in despair regarding righteousness and wickedness. The Preacher might have sensed as much and would not allow this to be the last word. In Ecclesiastes 8:12-13 the Preacher conceded the strong likelihood of some among the wicked living long and peaceful lives despite their flagrant sinfulness yet still maintained greater confidence in the righteous who stand in fear before God. We do well to hold firmly to all dimensions of the Preacher’s words here. There will be some people who flagrantly sin and disregard God and who do not get struck down immediately. But those who fear God will be vindicated at some point or another; the lack of a fear of God will eventually cause great pain, distress, and downfall for the wicked, whether in this life or in the hereafter.
The Preacher then set forth his second “observation”: he has seen how some people suffer despite or even for being and doing good, while others live in wicked and sinful ways yet seem to prosper and succeed as God had promised for the righteous, or, as we would put it, good things happened to bad people while bad things happened to good people (Ecclesiastes 8:14).
Such is one of the most pressing questions for many modern people, part and parcel of the challenge of theodicy: how can a good God allow such evil to take place? Many might imagine such a question and challenge would be thoroughly examined and explained in Scripture, but the matter is only addressed in such terms in Ecclesiastes 8:14 and in the book of Job.
And modern man, in his quest for knowledge unto mastery, cannot help but be all the more frustrated with the Preacher’s “answer”: yes, good things happen to bad people, and bad things happen to good people, and it also is hevel; futile, absurd, an enigma. It seems to be the “non-answer answer,” yet there is great and profound wisdom in it. The Preacher understood two important premises: there is a Creator God who shows covenant loyalty to His people, and bad things happen to good people while good things happen to bad people. How the former could allow for the latter is beyond our understanding. Why it all is the way it is remains well beyond our pay grade. In no way, shape, or form is the Preacher justifying or commending wickedness; he pointed out how we cannot get any of the answers we seek.
As a result, the Preacher commended enjoying life: under the sun we do well if we can eat, drink, and to enjoy life and the work we do (Ecclesiastes 8:15). We will easily drive ourselves to despair and defeat if we obsess over the questions we cannot know and understand. A better life can be enjoyed by coming to grips with our finite, limited understanding and ways and to find enjoyment in what we can in life. Such is not a call for epicurean hedonism; remember well how the Preacher has commended righteousness in the fear of God. But it is a reminder we can drive ourselves to despair by trying to figure out the things we were never meant to understand.
And such ultimately represents the conclusion from the Preacher’s “observations”: in trying to obtain wisdom and to understand the way of all activity on earth, even though to do so would mean to never sleep, he could see the hand of God since there was no way he or any other human being could understand it all (Ecclesiastes 8:16-17). The “wise” person who claims to understand it all must be deluded, for it is beyond him.
If there has been anything our modern scientific and technological advancements have demonstrated regarding the wisdom of the Preacher, this is it. Yes, indeed; we have a far better and greater understanding of the way things work than the Preacher could ever imagine. And yet every time we learn more about how something works, we open up new questions and horizons for consideration. Our scientific and technological advancements are like climbing the foothills of a mountain range: every time we reach a new height, an even greater mountain will appear before us. We keep reinforcing Socrates’ maxim, which is very consistent with the Preacher’s wisdom: the more we learn, the more we recognize we know nothing.
If such is the case in terms of how the material universe operates, how much more then in terms of the ways of cosmic justice and morality? Our frustrations regarding matters of theodicy and injustice are understandable, and we are not the first to express them. We do well to cry out to God in lament regarding the injustice of the prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the righteous. Yet in the end, as in the Psalms, we do well to confess God is our Creator and is faithful, and to humbly submit to Him, recognizing we do not and cannot understand how everything works, but remain confident that He does, and that He will strengthen and sustain us until we can share in the resurrection of life.
Ethan R. Longhenry
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