The Mystery of Perceived Injustice
Ecclesiastes 7:15-29
September 5, 2021
This morning we approach a topic that many have struggled with
And it is the mystery of perceived injustice.
(15) “I have seen everything during my lifetime of futility; there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his wickedness.”
Have you ever been perplexed or bothered by such things?
Our preacher was, and he’s not beyond addressing those hard questions.
In fact, this isn’t the only time he brings it up.
Ecclesiastes 8:14 “There is futility which is done on the earth, that is, there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked. On the other hand, there are evil men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I say that this too is futility.”
Maybe you’ve wondered that in your life.
• Certainly antagonistic men like to sit in judgment of God over such issues.
• Or maybe you’ve been caught seeking to defend God in the face of such
perceived injustice.
My dad was 60 years old, a Sunday school teacher, a faithful husband and a good father. He continually shared the gospel, he was faithful to provide for the poor, he helped the down and out, he honored his parents, but he died young.
And that can be hard enough to swallow,
But especially difficult when you see a supposed godless man
Live into his 80’s or 90’s.
It is a perceived injustice and it confuses us.
WELL THAT IS WHERE THE PREACHER IS THIS MORNING.
• He’s now in his new segment of the book which we have called “The Noble Pursuit”
• That is, after having exposed the false allurements of the world, the preacher is now telling the young man what he should pursue in life.
AND THIS MORNING, we might say his main objective is
To teach THE NECESSITY OF ENDURANCE
Even more specifically it would be to teach the young man to fear God and hold fast to Him even in the midst of confusing circumstances.
(18) “It is good that you grasp one thing and also not let go of the other; for the one who fears God comes forth with both of them.”
That is his main point.
We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so let’s start looking at it.
#1 THE SERMON
Ecclesiastes 7:15-18
To help you understand where we’re going,
Let me give you the outline a little early.
What we have here in these first 4 verses is the preacher’s entire sermon.
• This is the point he wants to make to the young man.
However, it is a hard point, and he realizes that
We may be found wanting for some explanation.
So after giving the sermon, he then turns around and takes us through his thought process and search for how he arrived at it. (vs. 19-29)
• So we’re calling verses 15-18 – THE SERMON
• And we’ll call verses 19-29 – THE STUDY
I think that will help us understand a little better what is happening in the text.
But here is THE SERMON
• We start with the obvious problem.
• It is the perceived in justice.
(15) “I have seen everything during my lifetime of futility; there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his wickedness.”
THIS IS THE DILEMMA.
Certainly on one hand there is the ISSUE OF RIGHTEOUS SUFFERING.
That is one dilemma that is seemingly hard to swallow for some.
• That was the entire issue with the book of Job.
• That sort of mentality has tried to resurface in past years with the prosperity gospel.
It is the failure to understand why someone who does what is right
Would then seemingly be punished for it.
But that is only half of the dilemma here.
On the other hand it is the ISSUE OF THE WICKED PROSPERING.
In our minds people who do good should have good lives
And people who do bad should have bad lives.
It is actually the pagan belief known as “KARMA”.
That good deeds get rewarded with good
And bad deeds get rewarded with bad.
And when that doesn’t happen we are confused.
Yet the preachers says “I have seen [it] during my lifetime of futility.”
This confusing reality was the very issue to Psalms 73.
• You’ll remember Asaph’s confusion as to why he could follow God and suffer
while the rich mocked God and enjoyed prosperity.
• The confusion led him to a temporary rant against this perceived injustice.
Psalms 73:12-14 “Behold, these are the wicked; And always at ease, they have increased in wealth. Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure And washed my hands in innocence; For I have been stricken all day long And chastened every morning.”
Surely you have seen it in the world.
Well, immediately the preacher tells you how to deal with it.
(16-17) “Do not be excessively righteous and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself? Do not be excessively wicked and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time?”
OK, well that seems strange.
In fact it sounds totally unbiblical.
• “Do not be excessively righteous..?”
• “do not be overly wise..?”
• I thought the chief command of God was “be holy as I am holy”.
• Jesus said, “You are to be perfect as Your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Well let’s take a little crash course on Biblical hermeneutics this morning.
Hermeneutics is “the study of the general principles of Biblical interpretation.”
Hermeneutics deals with how we interpret Scripture.
There are many principles of hermeneutics that help in understanding Scripture, such as:
• Every passage has 1 meaning.
• The simplest and most obvious explanation is usually the meaning.
• Context is king
But one I want you to see this morning is this (and it is vitally important)
SCRIPTURE INTERPRETS SCRIPTURE
“Scripture never contradicts itself”
So when we read a verse like “Do not be excessively righteous”
We may not know immediately what it means,
But we do know immediately what it does not mean.
It DOES NOT mean that righteousness is not important.
NOR does it mean that there are instances where a person should be lukewarm.
Scripture clearly indicates the contrary.
OUR JOB THEN is to look at the text as a part of the Bible as a whole
And determine what the preacher means.
Well in this case A SIMPLE WORD STUDY sheds light on the issue.
“Do not be excessively righteous and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself?”
The key is found in the word “ruin”.
SAMEM (shaw-mame)
It means “to be appalled” or “to be stunned”
And so “ruined” here does not refer to moral ruin or spiritual ruin,
But rather to emotional ruin or disheartenment.
And the understanding is this.
• If you think that righteous perfection in life will insulate you from hardship or suffering then you are going to be shocked and appalled in life.
And the command then
• Is not to seek out righteousness with the expectation that it will secure you from hardship.
That also helps us understand the next statement.
“Do not be excessively wicked and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time?”
This references the sort of knee-jerk reaction of the man
Who is shocked that his morality didn’t spare him.
That man might see the wicked prospering while the righteous suffer
And come to the wrong conclusion that being wicked is no big deal.
Remember, that was the conclusion Asaph nearly came to in Psalms 73.
Psalms 73:13-14 “Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure And washed my hands in innocence; For I have been stricken all day long And chastened every morning.”
But the preacher reminds that this is a faulty mindset as well.
For if you live in wickedness
All you are doing is provoking God to anger
And you might bring on yourself a severe punishment for your sin.
SO THE COMMAND IS
Not to expect that your righteousness will spare you from suffering
And not to assume that wickedness will go unpunished.
And then comes THE APPLICATION / EXPLANATION.
(18) “It is good that you grasp one thing and also not let go of the other; for the one who fears God comes forth with both of them.”
The preacher warns against choosing one side over and above the other.
• Don’t be the man who forsakes wickedness only because he thinks it will keep
him from suffering and who ultimately ends up shocked in adversity.
• Don’t be the man who embraces wickedness thinking he can escape
unpunished.
You need to hold on to two understandings.
1) Hold on to your awareness that the righteous can and do suffer.
2) Hold on to your understanding that wickedness is very dangerous.
DON’T LET EITHER OF THOSE GO.
(even if circumstances confuse you)
BUT SADLY, THAT’S WHAT PEOPLE DO.
They see a perceived injustice and immediately want to doubt God and get angry and fall into foolishness.
But “the one who fears God comes forth with both of them.”
• The one who fears God trusts Him even when the righteous suffer.
• The one who fears God trusts Him even when the wicked prosper.
The man who fears God doesn’t let confusing circumstances
Shake him from his steadfastness.
NOW, THAT IS THE SERMON.
But, as we said, there isn’t much explanation there.
• That is more of a, “Trust me and get over it type sermon”
So, the preacher does a favor.
After the sermon, he then backtracks
To tell you how he came to that conclusion.
So, after the sermon, let’s look at the second point.
#2 THE STUDY
Ecclesiastes 7:19-29
Here is going to explain how he got to the conclusion
• That even though there is confusing injustice in the world,
• You should maintain your fear of God
• You should not be shocked at suffering and still abstain from wickedness.
Here’s why he says that.
Let’s break his study down into 3 points.
1) WHERE HE STARTED (19-22)
These 4 verses represent his initial understanding of the issue.
(19-20) “Wisdom strengthens a wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city. Indeed [For], there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.”
It will help you understand this better if you change the word “Indeed” in verse 20
To “For” which is a perfectly allowable translation.
The preacher says men should pursue wisdom
Because none of them are perfectly righteous.
IN OTHER WORDS: Since no man is righteous enough to be able to expect that his righteousness can spare him from trouble, all men should pursue the wisdom to cope with such circumstances.
AND THIS IS IMPORTANT.
Sometimes when we talk about the perception of unjust suffering
It is because man thinks that he does not deserve suffering.
You see those sort of arguments…
• “I go to church…”
• “I give to the poor…”
Like I mentioned with my dad earlier, we could say, “I teach Sunday school, I share the gospel, I’m a faithful husband…”
And because of the good we do we think that we should escape suffering.
But notice the preacher DOES NOT think that.
That was not his belief even when he started this journey.
He is well aware of the fact that “there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.”
• He knows that.
• He understands that even the best of us commit sin that is worthy of discipline.
And he even gives a little illustration of that.
Verses 21-22 are sort of like a “For instance…”
(21-22) “Also, do not take seriously all words which are spoken, so that you will not hear your servant cursing you. For you also have realized that you likewise have many times cursed others.”
To prove that even you have done things to deserve punishment,
The preacher appeals to the tongue.
It starts with a premise.
Do you get angry when you find out someone was talking bad about you?
(of course you do)
The implied question is, “Do you think you have the right to get angry about such things?” (And again we’d say, “Of course I do”)
Then the preacher reminds, “you also…have many times cursed others.”
Who here can deny that?
• Who here can say that never once in their life have they ever talked bad about
another human being?
Well then, “there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.”
YOU SEE HIS POINT.
• No one can claim that they are righteous enough that they shouldn’t suffer.
• Every man should seek the wisdom to cope with that.
So, HIS ISSUE IS NOT that he thinks that there is some righteous man
Who does not deserve punishment or even death.
THAT IS NOT HIS PROBLEM.
His problem IS that justice seems to be handed out disproportionately.
It’s not that the righteous suffer it’s that at times they suffer worse than the wicked, and that doesn’t make sense to him.
IN HIS MIND,
• If the righteous die at age 70, then the wicked should die at age 40.
• But when the opposite happens, he doesn’t understand that.
And this is where he started out in his journey.
This was the launch pad of his understanding.
Where He Started
2) WHAT HE SEARCHED (23-26)
He says, “I tested all this with wisdom”
• “all this” is the confusing realities of the perceived injustice.
He went looking for an explanation as to
Why the righteous at times suffer worse than the wicked.
(25) “I directed my mind to know, to investigate and to seek wisdom and an explanation, and to know the evil of folly and the foolishness of madness.”
I wanted to know why folly is so evil and madness is so foolish
Since often times those people suffer less than the righteous.
That’s a fair search.
You say wickedness is wrong, but I see the righteous suffer worse,
SO TELL ME WHY WICKEDNESS IS SO WRONG.
That is his search.
But here is the astounding part. HE NEVER GOT HIS ANSWER.
(23-24) “I tested all this with wisdom, and I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. What has been is remote and exceedingly mysterious. Who can discover it?”
He went searching for an explanation to the mystery
Of why the righteous suffer more than the wicked and he said,
“I couldn’t find it.”
He could not make sense of those seemingly senseless situations.
He would in essence say to me, “Rory I wanted to find out why your dad died at 60 but wicked men kept on living.”
But he returns and says, “I searched, but I couldn’t find the answer.”
ALL I SAW WAS THIS:
(26) “And I discovered more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are chains. One who is pleasing to God will escape from her, but the sinner will be captured by her.”
Let me help you a little here as well.
Solomon is NOT saying, “I couldn’t figure out why the righteous sometimes suffer more than the wicked but I did learn that you should stay away from women.”
That is not the point.
You have to know Solomon to fully grasp this.
If you’ve read Proverbs you know that throughout that book
Solomon speaks of wisdom and folly as two contrasting women.
• You have the adulterous woman and you have virtuous woman
• You have the wise mother and you have the contentious wife
Proverbs 9:1-6 “Wisdom has built her house, She has hewn out her seven pillars; She has prepared her food, she has mixed her wine; She has also set her table; She has sent out her maidens, she calls From the tops of the heights of the city: “Whoever is naive, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks understanding she says, “Come, eat of my food And drink of the wine I have mixed. “Forsake your folly and live, And proceed in the way of understanding.”
Proverbs 9:13-18 “The woman of folly is boisterous, She is naive and knows nothing. She sits at the doorway of her house, On a seat by the high places of the city, Calling to those who pass by, Who are making their paths straight: “Whoever is naive, let him turn in here,” And to him who lacks understanding she says, “Stolen water is sweet; And bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” But he does not know that the dead are there, That her guests are in the depths of Sheol.”
Wisdom is compared to a wise woman
Who provides for her guests and grants them understanding in life.
Folly is compared to a boisterous and even adulterous woman
Who entices the naïve and leads him to death.
That same poetic understanding is at work in Solomon again here.
(he’s talking about “folly” analogized by the adulterous woman)
(26) “And I discovered more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are chains. One who is pleasing to God will escape from her, but the sinner will be captured by her.”
This is his point.
I can’t explain why the righteous suffer and why the at times
They suffer more than the wicked, but I did learn this.
You still don’t want to go down the path of wickedness.
There is nothing but snares and nets and chains down that path.
Instead you should seek to please God so that you can avoid that house altogether because it will capture you.
So he didn’t get a full explanation but he was reminded that
Even though you may not understand
You should still stay away from evil.
Where He Started What He Searched
3) WHAT HE SAW (27-29)
HERE COMES HIS FINAL REPORT.
He didn’t find all the answer he wanted,
But he did find the answers God wanted him to have.
(27) “Behold, I have discovered this,” says the Preacher,
Here is my report.
He goes on to say, “adding one thing to another to find an explanation, which I am still seeking but have not found.”
So I started putting two and two together to gain understanding,
But again he reminds that he doesn’t have all the answers.
He still can’t tell me why my dad died young but a wicked man lives on.
He still says, “I don’t know”
But he can say this:
(28b) “I have found one man among a thousand, but I have not found a woman among all these.”
So he says, “Righteous men are hard to find and righteous women are even harder to find”? REALLY?
Now look, I can’t speak for the intent or the heart of the preacher here.
I can’t fully tell you what is in his mind in regard to every aspect of that statement.
And no, I can’t rule out the fact that perhaps he has a low view of women.
Go read 1 Kings 11:1-13 and you’ll find that Solomon’s love for women
Was his chief downfall.
Maybe Solomon was a little prejudiced, I don’t know.
I KNOW THAT GOD IS NOT.
• God makes no such distinction.
• God doesn’t trust men more then women or love men more than women
God gave men and women different roles and responsibilities to be sure,
But He is no chauvinist.
God paid the same price to redeem women that He paid to redeem men. He gave His only begotten Son.
But, here we are talking about Solomon’s search
And he makes this bizarre statement.
“I have found one man among a thousand, but I have not found a woman among all these.”
Here is what you need to understand.
There is a literary tool at play here, and one we find often in Scripture.
IT’S CALLED PARALLELISM.
It is a literary tool to make a clear and memorable point.
I can give you a secular one you’ll all know.
“Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach him how to fish, feed him for a lifetime.”
What is the point of that statement? (It’s not about fishing)
• It’s about knowledge.
• Knowledge is important.
If you get stuck on the fishing reference you might miss the whole point.
Well Solomon here uses parallelism to make a point.
“I have found one man among a thousand, but I have not found a woman among all these.”
What does he mean?
He went searching for a good man.
• He went searching for one who lives upright and who pleases God and who escapes from the snare of the woman of folly.
And what did his search yield?
NONE
He says,
• “You’re asking me how many good people there are out there. Maybe 1 man in 1,000 is good, and no women.”
• “You’re asking me how many people truly seek to please God and thus escape from folly? Maybe 1 in 1,000.”
What’s his point?
• I went looking for sinners to find out why they at times are treated so good.
• I found plenty of sinners, what I couldn’t find are any who are good.
Now perhaps that shocks you, but I have to tell you first of all
Scripture whole-heartedly affirms his findings.
Romans 3:10-12 “as it is written, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”
Man is never good.
Man is devious and sinful and perverse and wicked.
So listen to the preacher here.
I set out to understand
• What is the deal with folly and wickedness?
• And why it was so bad since it appeared to me that at times the wicked were treated better than the righteous?
He says, I never found that answer.
But what I did find is that there are none righteous.
• I found out that the sin problem was worse than I thought.
I knew there was (20) “not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and never sins.” I knew that.
What I didn’t realize is that there was no man who ever does good at all.
“there is none who does good, there is not even one.”
I knew everyone is at one time or another bad,
I didn’t realize that no one was at any time good.
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT
Solomon wanted to know why God sometimes treated good men worse than bad men,
What Solomon ultimately learned was that:
From God’s perspective there are no good men.
Therefore there is no injustice in the way God treats any man.
I may think my dad deserved to live longer than some wicked man,
But from God’s perspective
My dad wasn’t better than that wicked man.
SO LOOK AT SOLOMON’S FINAL ANALYSIS.
(29) “Behold, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices.”
“upright” is YASAR (ya-shar)
It is a word that can mean “straight” or “level”
God made men correctly.
Adam was part of the good of God’s creation.
“but they sought out many devices”
Man corrupted himself.
Adam certainly did, and thus we have the fall.
And only 6 chapters into the Bible do we read God’s first assessment of humanity.
Genesis 6:5-7 “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.”
God started man out right.
• He created a perfect man, with a perfect woman, in a perfect garden.
And Adam blew it.
• Nothing about the fall was God’s fault. It was all Adam’s.
And when Adam was forced to leave the garden…
And when Adam had to plow his first field…
And when Adam had to bury his son…
One thing Adam could not say was: “I don’t understand why God is treating me so unfairly.”
Adam knew better.
Humanity forgets that.
The preacher forgot that.
But when he went on a search to find out the answers,
HERE IS WHAT HE LEARNED.
There is no such thing as a reality
Where bad things happen to good people.
Because there are no good people.
YOU CAN’T SAY that righteous men are unfairly suffering worse than wicked men IF from God’s perspective there are no righteous men.
No one can suffer and accuse God of being unjust.
But remember now that sermon up in verses 15-18.
The man who fears God will realize that
Adversity is going to happen even when you try to do what is right,
But even still wickedness should be avoided.
So listen to me this morning friends.
• Do not be shocked when you face adversity.
• Do not be shocked when bad things happen.
• And certainly don’t let adversity cause you to turn away from God.
• If anything you should be shocked by your prosperity.
Adam SHOULDN’T have been shocked that he had to leave the garden,
He SHOULD’VE been shocked that
God didn’t immediately kill him like He said He would.
AND THAT IS THE POINT THIS MORNING.
Don’t be shocked when bad things happen to you.
And don’t let it cause you to think wickedness is ok.
Fear God and hold fast even in your confusion.
BUT LET ME SAY THIS:
If you want to be shocked at something, be shocked at the gospel!
Romans 5:6-8 “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
• That is shocking!
That God would whom every single human has offended,
Would still be willing to sacrifice His perfect Son to redeem sinners.
2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
• That is shocking!
That God would treat the sinless Christ as though He lived my sinful life,
And would then in turn treat me as though I lived His life.
As R.C. Sproul once put it.
“Why do bad things happen to good people? In the history of the world that only ever happened once; and He volunteered.”
Do not go through this life with some inflated bitterness
As though God has treated you somehow worse than you deserve.
That is a pride and an arrogance and an ingratitude
That you must abandon immediately!
God has done unspeakably more for you than you can ever imagine,
And all of it is more than you deserve.
Leave your complaint, leave your arrogant notions of injustice,
And run to God in gratitude that He gave His Son on your behalf.
If you really want to read verse 15 accurately.
(15) “I have seen everything during my lifetime of futility; there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his wickedness.”
The only way to read that accurately is if
The righteous man is Christ and the wicked man is everyone else.
The only human who ever had a right to complain
About the injustice done to Him was Christ,
And the Bible says that “Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7b)
Christ bore injustice that you we might receive mercy.
It is an evil man who more consumed with perceived injustice
Than with unspeakable mercy.
We should be less shocked at the suffering we receive
And more amazed at God’s offer of mercy,
For suffering is deserved, mercy is not.
THIS MORNING I would invite you to stop sitting in judgment of God and start submitting to Him.
• Repent of your rebellion and ingratitude and arrogant judgments,
• And come to Him in humility and gratefulness for His willingness to save you.
• Place your faith in the perfect life and atoning death of Jesus Christ, and
publicly confess Him as your Lord.
Romans 10:13 “for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”
