THE PROBLEM OF MORALITY
Opening Prayer
Almighty God, thank you that I can come to your Word waiting on you to teach me, expecting you to change me, and trusting you to use me for your glory.
Read ECCLESIASTES 7:19–8:17
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
19 Wisdom makes one wise person more powerful
than ten rulers in a city.
20 Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous,
no one who does what is right and never sins.
21 Do not pay attention to every word people say,
or you may hear your servant cursing you—
22 for you know in your heart
that many times you yourself have cursed others.
23 All this I tested by wisdom and I said,
“I am determined to be wise”—
but this was beyond me.
24 Whatever exists is far off and most profound—
who can discover it?
25 So I turned my mind to understand,
to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things
and to understand the stupidity of wickedness
and the madness of folly.
26 I find more bitter than death
the woman who is a snare,
whose heart is a trap
and whose hands are chains.
The man who pleases God will escape her,
but the sinner she will ensnare.
27 “Look,” says the Teacher,[a] “this is what I have discovered:
“Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things—
28 while I was still searching
but not finding—
I found one upright man among a thousand,
but not one upright woman among them all.
29 This only have I found:
God created mankind upright,
but they have gone in search of many schemes.”
8 Who is like the wise?
Who knows the explanation of things?
A person’s wisdom brightens their face
and changes its hard appearance.
Obey the King
2 Obey the king’s command, I say, because you took an oath before God. 3 Do not be in a hurry to leave the king’s presence. Do not stand up for a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases. 4 Since a king’s word is supreme, who can say to him, “What are you doing?”
5 Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm,
and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.
6 For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter,
though a person may be weighed down by misery.
7 Since no one knows the future,
who can tell someone else what is to come?
8 As no one has power over the wind to contain it,
so[b] no one has power over the time of their death.
As no one is discharged in time of war,
so wickedness will not release those who practice it.
9 All this I saw, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun. There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own[c] hurt. 10 Then too, I saw the wicked buried—those who used to come and go from the holy place and receive praise[d] in the city where they did this. This too is meaningless.
11 When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong. 12 Although a wicked person who commits a hundred crimes may live a long time, I know that it will go better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him. 13 Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.
14 There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless. 15 So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.
16 When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the labor that is done on earth—people getting no sleep day or night— 17 then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.
Footnotes
- Ecclesiastes 7:27 Or the leader of the assembly
- Ecclesiastes 8:8 Or over the human spirit to retain it, / and so
- Ecclesiastes 8:9 Or to their
- Ecclesiastes 8:10 Some Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint (Aquila); most Hebrew manuscripts and are forgotten
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
‘… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.’1
Think Further
Having understood the limitations of human mortality, the Teacher shifts his attention to the idea of morality. Throughout the rest of chapter 7, we see him applying his wisdom to search out a righteous person – but he is unable to find one. Verse 29 is particularly damning of humanity – God created us upright but instead we have gone astray after our own schemes. The Teacher’s words here could be lifted from the prophecies of Isaiah, or from Galatians or Romans. Indeed, Paul himself quotes Ecclesiastes in Romans 3:10–12. The Teacher has understood the problem of the human condition, but what is missing here is a solution. We do not have here Isaiah’s prophecy of the sacrificial lamb,2 nor is there an explanation of the cross and resurrection as a means of atonement, as in Romans and Galatians.
This lack of a solution to the problem of morality leads the Teacher to some difficult conclusions in chapter 8. After arguing that one should obey the king in verses 2–8, he then seems to be confused over whether it is better to be righteous rather than wicked. On one hand, in verses 12 and 13 he knows that it is better to be righteous, as those who are wicked will eventually receive their due. Verse 14, however, goes on to conclude that the righteous get what the wicked deserve and vice versa – thus it is all meaningless.
As yesterday, it is important to ground this passage in the wider biblical message. The heart of the gospel message is about hope after death, as well as forgiveness and redemption from our sins. We do not have to justify ourselves to our loving Father when we stand in judgment: as Isaiah reminds us, the Lord has laid on him (Christ) the iniquity of us all.3
Apply
Spend some time in confession before God. Do not just reflect on your shortcomings but hand them over and receive the grace of Christ.
Closing prayer
Lord God, I confess that your wisdom is unsearchable and that I must continue learning to trust in your providence and care. Thank you for your Spirit who is committed to teach me.
1 Rom 3:23,24 2 Isa 53 3 Isa 53:6
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