Ecclesiastes 5:8 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

Navigator

Ecclesiastes 5:8

Comments

Solomon now deals with a number of myths that the world tells us about God and faith in God, and he exposes the errors in them. He quotes things which all would affirm and then knocks them down. In this passage there are no shock tactics; what we have here are myths: everyone thinks they are true, but they are not.The first myth is that there are great human beings, and that man is essentially good. If you see violence and perversion of justice, that is life. Don’t think people can be great other than in some very limited respect. There is no fairness for you in this life. You will be cheated; the world does not keep its word. Humans are not fair and you will be cheated in life and they do not care. This applies far beyond the justice system. We are not to be naïve. Most don’t realise that Christianity teaches the fall. We should not marvel if we find that where there should be equity and good order, there is in fact oppression, extortion and violation of justice. The word translated ‘violent perversion’ is a word meaning ‘robbery’. Justice which belongs to the poor and the oppressed has been stolen from them. If you understand the nature of man, you will not be surprised to find such things in the world and you will not be unduly depressed or downcast to discover it there. It is only because of the strong public scrutiny in our day that there is not even more of this, for wherever men and women think they can get away with it, they will pervert justice for their own selfish ends. The second myth is that there is no day of account and things are unfair, no resolution to current injustices. Yes, there is. Our culture does away with the day of judgment and so is left without a solution to the injustice of this world. Human justice is often flawed, or at best partial. What about all the crimes which are never solved? There will be judgment in the end, but no complete justice on earth. While people trust human nature, they don’t worry too much about divine judgment. But when they begin to see human nature for what it is, they start to ask, where is justice? Yes, there is a judge. God will bring all things to account, including all that you have done.

Application

Solomon says these things to encourage that disillusionment with the world that the unbeliever must go through if he is ever to understand what the world really is. We have to lose our naïve trust in human nature if we are ever to see the world from the Bible’s perspective. One feature of the unbelieving mind is an unwarranted trust in the basic goodness of human nature, a reluctance to give up trusting in human society.

Most justice systems have an appeal process. Failure of justice at a lower level can be corrected by proper justice at a higher level. What really matters is the nature of the highest court in the land. Where earthly justice fails, heavenly justice will correct all things. That is the answer to all the unsolved and unpunished crimes that take place in this life, but it also means that we too are going to be judged. Are we ready for that? How can we hide what we have done?

Questions

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Ecclesiastes 5:8 Commentary and Bible Study