Ecclesiastes 2:26 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

Navigator

Ecclesiastes 2:26

Comments

The living God is a discriminating God. He makes distinctions between those who know him and love him and serve him, and those who are far from him – there are only really these two classes of human beings in the world that matter. The meaning of the verse is that we must admit that the godly have a far better policy for life than the ungodly.To understand Solomon here, we must grasp that God’s favour comes by grace alone. No man is naturally good or pleasing in God’s sight, but all come into the world in a state of sin and it is only the grace of God through faith in Christ that reconciles him. The only righteousness that the believer has is the righteousness of Christ imputed to him. When therefore Solomon speaks of those who are good in God’s sight, we must not make the mistake of thinking that they are naturally good. They have been made righteous by God’s undeserved favour. This is the teaching of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Solomon cannot therefore be saying that if you live a good life, God will take the wealth of the wicked rich and gives it to you as a reward for your goodness, so that if you want to be rich, be good first. Instead, he is continuing the point made in verses 24 and 25. In this world, there are those who, like Solomon when he started his experiment, are convinced that the world is all they need for satisfaction and who do not seek their all in God. But there are others who love the Lord, and who trust ‘in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy’ (1 Timothy 6:17). These are the meek who will inherit the earth. They may not enjoy any great riches in this life, but all things are theirs, whether ‘the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are [theirs]’ (1 Corinthians 3:21-22). They alone have the capacity to enjoy God’s creation.

Application

From the perspective of the sinner, all labour is worthless and futile, for while he thinks that he is working for himself and storing up treasure for his own enrichment, in reality he is doing it for another. What is more, this other is probably the last person that he would like his riches to go to. When God takes the wealth of the wicked and redistributes it to his favourites, he is putting the final seal on the worthlessness of the lives of the wicked. For, having deliberately rejected all spiritual good and having set their sights on earthly riches alone, they focus entirely on obtaining these. They sacrifice everything else to get them. They know that they have forfeited heaven but they count that as worthless. As far as they are concerned, the righteous can keep their future spiritual reward; they will have their reward in the here-and-now. It is then the ultimate bitterness for them that God takes what they sacrificed their eternal souls for, and give it instead to those who did no work to obtain it, but rather lived to please the Lord. This, to the wicked, is vexation of spirit. All their labour is turned into service for their enemies. This redistribution of wealth takes place to some extent in this world, but in its fullness is in the future.

Questions

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Ecclesiastes 2:26 Commentary and Bible Study