ECCLESIASTES 8
1 Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man's wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed.
His face shine
This has both a present and a future application. To shine is to reflect glory, as in II Cor. 3:18,
"With unveiled face, reflecting in a mirror the glory of the Lord." *
6 Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.
Time and judgment
It is a sad thing that the millions that form the population of the earth should be so out of fit with their God; for He is their God in so far as He is their Maker. All their ways belong to Him. It is a very sad spectacle, in all towns, in all countries, to see so many perishing hopelessly from the fact that they know not God. It is so very sad that if we did not impose limits upon our sadness, our sadness would be liable to become too sad, too utterly distressing.
It would be so sad and distressing as to incapacitate a man for a reasonable and joyful attitude in God. We must look all round to get away from this effect.
...We are God's workmanship; beautiful workmanship - the finest piece of mechanism under the sun - constructed for a certain purpose. Every part of the machine has its perfect place. The law of God defines the place, when we set aside this law, the machine gets out of gear, and there is derangement and misery.
This is what happened at the start. Adam sinned, and everything got out of order and brought death. It is all to be put right by-and-by; but not yet, and therefore we suffer.
"Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him."
If for everything there is a time, then there is a time for what we are suffering now, a time for evil and misery, because it is a time of sin - a time when God is disobeyed, and has been so long disobeyed.
...Now is the time for evil. God has a purpose in the earth, and the realization of that purpose requires that the evil now present should be the rule. It is what Paul says in Rom. 8, -The creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but
"by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope."
God has subjected us to misery "in hope". That is the explanation, the full explanation, the perfectly satisfactory explanation of the presence of evil and death in the earth. God has done it; and there is hope in connection with it.
Seasons 2.11.
8 There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.
Brightening powers in the article of death
-Doth the flaring up of an expiring wick indicate that combustion is not the result of chemical action? And why not? In some cases, the brain is the last organ but one to die. In this event, all the energy of the expiring man is concentrated on the heart and brain, and increased action is the temporary result.
The cerebral manifestations become exalted, and the ordinary thinking of the brain is brightened, and its folly, or wisdom, if it had any, finds a more brilliant expression than when its vitality was more generally diffused. This seems to me the physiology of the matter, in which I can discern no evidence at all of a spark of immortality peculiar to the animal man. His candle goes out, and in departing he flares up in the socket, and is gone.
Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, May 1855
13 But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.
The wicked are all outside the purpose of God. It shall not be well with them. Regardless of present circumstances and appearances, faith knows that at last righteousness will be rewarded and wickedness punished, and therefore, is content to wait in patience.*
14 There is a vanity [hevel] which is done upon the earth [ha'aretz]; that there be just men [tzaddikim], unto whom it happeneth according to the work [ma'aseh] of the wicked [haresha'im]; again, there be wicked men [resha'im], to whom it happeneth according to the work [ma'aseh] of the righteous [hatzaddikim]: I said that this also is vanity [hevel].
From Moses to Solomon is a long stride in point of time (as men reckon), but it is not leaving one system of teaching for another. We are with the same spirit of wisdom in Ecclesiastes as in Deuteronomy, but the same spirit applied to a different topic: In Ecclesiastes, we have such a picture of the present state of existence as is not to be found in any other book under the time. It is a picture differing from all others in its truth, and therefore in its gloom.
Mere human writers paint life in gay colours, and deck human nature in tinsel-partly as the result of the theory that man is immortal and full of latent excellence, and partly as the result of the limited view of existence that is visible from the standpoint of mere human sensation. Solomon writing by the Holy Spirit in his opening sentence dashes all complacent views of human life to the ground. He strikes a bold key-note, which sounds harshly but not discordantly, through all his piece:
"Vanity of vanities," saith the Preacher, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labours which he taketh under the sun?"
By a certain class of thinkers, this is considered misanthropy. Deeper thought will find it simple truth. It harmonises with experience. Human life in its completeness, is not the good thing it is pictured, either by the writers of this world, or the ardent imagination of our own breasts in youth. Its efforts, its aspirations, its enjoyments, end in weariness, decay, and death. Its programme is an abortion at the end.
From Moses to Solomon is a long stride in point of time (as men reckon), but it is not leaving one system of teaching for another. We are with the same spirit of wisdom in Ecclesiastes as in Deuteronomy, but the same spirit applied to a different topic: In Ecclesiastes, we have such a picture of the present state of existence as is not to be found in any other book under the time. It is a picture differing from all others in its truth, and therefore in its gloom.
Mere human writers paint life in gay colours, and deck human nature in tinsel-partly as the result of the theory that man is immortal and full of latent excellence, and partly as the result of the limited view of existence that is visible from the standpoint of mere human sensation. Solomon writing by the Holy Spirit in his opening sentence dashes all complacent views of human life to the ground. He strikes a bold key-note, which sounds harshly but not discordantly, through all his piece:
"Vanity of vanities," saith the Preacher, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labours which he taketh under the sun?"
By a certain class of thinkers, this is considered misanthropy. Deeper thought will find it simple truth. It harmonises with experience. Human life in its completeness, is not the good thing it is pictured, either by the writers of this world, or the ardent imagination of our own breasts in youth. Its efforts, its aspirations, its enjoyments, end in weariness, decay, and death. Its programme is an abortion at the end.
Bible revelation comes as a solution. It is the only solution. It may be an unwelcome solution to our feelings, but it is inexorable as the facts of chemistry and as futile to quarrel with it.
The revelation is that God and man are not friends, that human life is consequently in an abnormal state upon the earth at present which nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit can attend.
Man disobeyed God at the start and has disobeyed Him ever since.
God having left man to shift for himself, man the noblest creature upon earth, for the time being, is the greatest failure. The vanity is inevitable. Man was made for God, and by his constitution, cannot be satisfied without Him. Two things cannot be denied, not even by unbelievers: first that man is seen at his best when controlled by the fear and love of God, and animated by hope of promised goodness to come, and second that few men upon earth are now to be found in that state.
Here man is without God, and preferring to be without Him with ignorance of His highest need. Therefore the misery of man is great upon him. If this were all that is revealed, it would not be much comfort. It would be satisfactory as the explanation of a dismal phenomenon, but it would not bring the comfort that God has associated with it. The revelation goes further: it tells us not only that man is estranged from God, but that God has a plan in progress by which man will at last be reconciled - not every man of the race as it now is, but every man at last found upon earth.
Bro Roberts - Understanding according to the word
15 Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.
Mirth and merry in verse 15 give the wrong idea. They have changed in meaning since King James' day. It should be gladness and glad, as in the Rotherham translation. It is so translated in other parts of scripture. It can refer either to religious or to worldly gladness. Here, it is gladness in God.*
17 Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.
Verses 15-17 condemn the inquisitive restlessness of man, especially modern man, to probe all the secrets of the universe, when he should be, as in verse 15, giving himself to the simple thankful enjoyment of God's blessings, and the fulfillment of the labour that God has put in his hand, to serve God practically and prepare himself for eternity.*
*Bro Growcott - Fear God and keep his commandments