Ecclesiastes 7:15 Commentary and Bible Study

Here is an example of the sort of adverse situation that threatens to offend the seeker’s sense of propriety. You will find such things in the world, Solomon agrees; you will find situations which you cannot reconcile with your limited view of what God ought to allow to happen. There are men whose lives earn the approval of their fellows and judged by human wisdom they ought to prosper, and yet their lives are cut short. There are others who prolong their existence on earth and yet it seems that justice should not permit them to continue to live. Why does God run the world in this way? The seeker is in danger of taking offence at the state of the world and must learn to suspend his own judgments about things that are too deep for him. This world is not the place of ultimate justice and God allows many things in it which will not be allowed into the perfection of heaven. He has significant reasons for doing this, but for the most part he does not explain his working to finite human beings and especially not to those who are in rebellion against his government. By ‘the days of my vanity’ Solomon, means the days of his earthly life when he is subject to the universal rule by which the world operates under the curse. Is there justice on earth? There is the imperfect justice which human courts deal out, but as far as God’s justice is concerned, there are only a few notable instances of it recorded in Scripture; in many cases justice is deferred until that glorious last day when Christ will return. For the most part, providence operates on the basis of mercy not of strict justice. God does not immediately judge every act of wickedness but gives men time to repent and again and again puts before them his warnings, which ought to induce us to turn from our evil ways.