What No Man Can Find Out — Ecclesiastes 7:19–8:17

Introduction

I invite you to open your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter seven and in particular, Ecclesiastes chapter seven in verse 19. We’re gonna be looking today at this last portion of Ecclesiastes seven all the way through the end of chapter eight and I wanna remind all of us of the question that Solomon asked in chapter six and verse 12. The first of two questions he asked in that verse will frame again what we’re thinking about today. He asked this, who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life which he passes like a shadow.

That’s what Solomon is still seeking to answer in our passage today. And as we’ve been doing throughout this series, we’re going to sit with the preacher under the sun, we’re gonna feel all the stuff, and then we will make our way above the sun.

Now that you’ve had a moment to turn, listen as I read our text beginning in Ecclesiastes seven and verse 19. This is the word of God.

Scripture Reading: Ecclesiastes 7:19–8:17

Wisdom gives strength to the wise man, more than 10 rulers who are in a city.

Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

Do not take to heart all the things that people say lest you hear your servant cursing you.

Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.

All this I have tested by wisdom.

I said, I will be wise, but it was far from me.

That which has been is far off and deep, very deep.

Who can find it out?

I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom in the scheme of things and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness.

And I find something more bitter than death.

The woman whose heart is snares and nets and whose hands are fetters.

He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her.

Behold, this is what I found, says the preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things, which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found.

One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found.

See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

Who is like the wise?

And who knows the interpretation of the thing?

A man’s wisdom makes his face shine and the hardness of his face is changed.

I say, keep the king’s command because of God’s oath to him.

Be not hasty to go from his presence.

Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases.

For the word of the king is supreme.

And who may say to him, what are you doing?

Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way, for there is a time and a way for everything, although man’s trouble lies heavy on him.

For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be?

No man has power to retain the spirit or power over the day of death.

There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it.

All this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt.

Then I saw the wicked buried.

They used to go in and out of the holy place, and were praised in the city where they had done such things.

This also is vanity.

Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.

Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him.

But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.

There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous.

I said that this also is vanity.

And I commend joy, for man has no good thing under the sun, but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.

When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one’s eyes see sleep, then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun.

However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out, even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out.

We thank God for his word today and every day. My plan is for us to consider the latter portion of chapter seven in three sections. We’ll make our way through that fairly quickly.

And then I will offer a brief point of meditation, application, reflection. Then we’ll consider chapter eight in three sections, and we’ll conclude with more of that meditation, reflection, application stuff, okay? I’ll try to make it clear to you as we go through.

Point One: Wisdom Is Valuable, but Sin Undermines It (7:19–22)

So point one from chapter seven, verses 19 through 22. My heading reads this way. Wisdom is valuable, but sin undermines it. Wisdom is valuable, but sin undermines it.

In these verses, 19 through 22, we see a series of proverbs. And how we interpret these proverbs has a lot to do with how we understood verses 15 through 18 that we covered last week.

So I’m gonna lean on that a little bit. And because I love you, I will not take the time to preach those verses again. You’re grateful I know. Solomon says something genuinely positive about wisdom in verse 19, if you put your eyes on it.

Wisdom gives strength. It can make a wise person stronger than 10 rulers in a city. Wisdom has real value and can produce real benefit.

And then comes verse 20. Immediately, Solomon pumps the brakes. Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. There is no one who does not sin.

And so, sin, being so common, is going to obstruct and diminish, maybe even blow up the benefits that wisdom might otherwise bring. Verses 21 and 22 illustrate this point.

You can put your eyes on them. Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.

Now, very briefly, before we get to the point that Solomon is making, this is a little practical wisdom for us, is it not? Don’t be overly concerned with what other people say because you’re likely gonna hear something negative said about you. I mean, I’ve never had anybody say anything bad about me, but maybe you have. But you know what’s up with that, right?

You know your own heart. You know how many times that you have said or thought something negative about other people. Happens all the time. We all know how easy it is to speak or to think badly of others.

And in context, that is exactly what Solomon is getting at. How easily does even the relatively upright person stumble? There isn’t a person on earth who doesn’t sin. Exhibit A, how often do we think and speak negatively of other people?

It’s as natural as breathing. He’s driving the point home. Even the upright and the wise among us sin regularly. And sin can wreck the benefits that wisdom brings.

So temper your expectations.

Point Two: Wisdom and Solomon’s Unsuccessful Search (7:23–25)

Point two, from verses 23 to 25, my heading reads, Wisdom and Solomon’s Unsuccessful Search. Wisdom and Solomon’s Unsuccessful Search. The language of these verses calls us back to the latter half of chapter one, and really to everything that Solomon has been considering since then regarding wisdom.

You can put your eyes on verse 23. All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, I will be wise. As we have observed before, Solomon is both using wisdom as the means by which he is conducting his search, and wisdom is his goal.

He seeks to be wise. But notice where he ends as verse 23 closes. But it was far from me. Neither wisdom as a category, nor his own growth in wisdom, has given him what he’s looking for.

And in verse 24, he intensifies the point. That which has been is far off and deep, very deep. Who can find it out? The language conveys that what he’s seeking for is unattainable.

And the rhetorical question expects a negative answer. No one can find it out. You’re used to him writing this way by now. You’re not surprised.

Then in verse 25, he emphasizes again the thoroughness of his search. His failure, in other words, is not because he didn’t try hard enough. I turned my heart, or I and my heart turned. All of him is engaged.

The search is personal, it’s deliberate, and it’s comprehensive. You can see that he considers wisdom and folly, righteousness and wickedness, even madness. He’s considering every available path in the search for how things work under the sun. No stone is left unturned.

Point Three: What the Preacher Finally Finds (7:26–29)

Which brings us to our third point, as we’re gonna conclude chapter seven here from verses 26 to 29. My heading reads, “What the preacher finally finds.” What the preacher finally finds.

Verse 26 introduces something that he has found. Something that he says is more bitter than death. The woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters.

Now this language, if you’re familiar with the scriptures, it brings to mind proverbs and the language of the adulterous woman, does it not? But this is not yet the final pronouncement from Solomon. That’s gonna come in verse 29. Realizing that his final pronouncement comes in verse 29 is going to matter for how we understand these verses.

Because it’s not hard, I mean you can read them, it’s not hard to imagine how people might rip these out of context and conclude things that aren’t helpful. He gives a proverbial statement in the latter half of verse 26. He says, “He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her.” Generally true. But the rest of the paragraph undermines an optimistic or easy use of this proverb.

What Solomon is gonna discover is that there are really hardly any people who qualify as righteous, who qualify as upright, even in a relative sense. In verse 27, the preacher reiterates the method and aim of his investigation. He’s adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things. He’s meticulous, he’s assembling the facts, he’s trying to figure out the design of it all.

And then in verse 28, he almost breaks off his argument for a minute. Trying to figure out the scheme of things, which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. And you can hear yet again his exasperation. I don’t know if you’ve ever felt the way Solomon does, as you look around at the world and you try to make sense of it and you think, “I got nothing.” Then Solomon makes a statement, latter half of verse 28.

“One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found.” Now remember, this is a human being writing about his lived experience under the sun. And if you know much about Solomon’s life, that should shed some light on this for you. He knows personally almost no men whom he would describe as upright, and he doesn’t know personally any woman that he would describe that way. But his own life and choices matter here.

You remember the kind of women that Solomon pursued. You remember how he pursued women who were bad for him and bad for Israel, despite God’s warnings. They worshiped other gods and pulled him away from the Lord. There were many of them in his life, but the women with whom he associated fit the description of verse 26.

So we shouldn’t read this as a universal claim that women are morally inferior to men. And then verse 29 is the real key. See, this alone I found. Significant words.

That God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. God did make humanity upright.

Genesis one and two are clear about that. God made all things, he said it’s good. He finished making human beings in his image, he said it’s very good. But Adam and Eve sinned.

Adam broke the covenant, God made with him. Humanity fell, the curse comes, human nature is corrupted. The language of mankind seeking out many schemes is thoroughly negative. This is not like, oh, isn’t mankind awesome?

They’re clever, they’re creative, they’re problem solvers. No, this is a negative connotation. It calls to mind Genesis chapter six and verse five, if you remember those words, where the Lord looks at mankind, and he sees that the thoughts and the inclinations of man’s heart are only evil continually. That is what Solomon has found.

The universal indictment is of men and women. It’s of everybody. This confirms, verse 20, that there is not a righteous person who does good and does not sin. One of the significant problems in Solomon’s search to understand things is the fallenness of mankind.

It’s an issue.

The Universality of Sin and Its Implications

I wanna talk with you for just a minute, wanna consider with you for just a minute. The universality of sin and its implications. And you’re like, brother, that’s kinda academic sounding. If you prefer something a little more down to earth, everybody sins, and that means some things.

That’s how I would frame it. Not all doctrines in Scripture, so especially if you’re sitting here today and you’re newer to considering Christianity, maybe you don’t even understand yourself to be a Christian. I hope some of this is helpful to you. If you’ve been a believer for some time, maybe this will reinforce and help you as well.

Not all of the doctrines, the teachings of Scripture, perhaps not even many of them, are empirically verifiable. The doctrine of original sin is empirically verifiable.

What do I mean? I mean that human corruption and human sinfulness are universal. Every human being does things that anybody, every human at some point or another, does things that anyone would look at and say, that’s wrong. When I say it’s empirically verifiable, what I mean is you can see it with your eyes.

That what the Scripture teaches about human nature is true. We know this intuitively.

Think about the phrases we use. Well, I mean, I’m only human. Interesting. We all know.

There are roughly eight billion people on the planet right now. Forget all of human history for a minute. Every single one of those eight billion people, we all think, we feel, we do things that are wrong. Eight billion out of eight billion, man.

Statistically speaking, that’s wild. If human nature were not corrupt, you would think that morally speaking, with billions of people having every opportunity to make of themselves good or evil, every now and then, you flip that coin and it would come up good. But it doesn’t. That means some things.

In the immediate context of Ecclesiastes 7, it means that wisdom and its usefulness in this life is limited. So let this be a word of tempering and cautioning to those of us who are prone to trust in wisdom or to think that if we can be wise enough and discerning enough that we’ll thread the needle somehow. Do not overestimate your own wisdom or what it might bring you.

At the same time, don’t underestimate what the sin that still runs in your flesh might bring. Yeah, you might be generally wise, but you’re also a sinner and that could wreck you. Even in our very lenient assessments of ourselves, we know that there are plenty of times that we act sinfully out of our cravings and desires and passions. We all have done things and will do more things that we regret moments, days, or even years later.

So let this temper your earthly expectations. And also, let it produce charity in the way that you engage other people. But there’s an even greater implication.

The fact that everybody sins must inform how we think about our standing before God. I’m talking here to people who don’t understand themselves to be Christians, and I’m talking here to people that have been trusting Christ for a long time. This applies to all of us. Sin is prevalent in all people, even the upright.

We are far worse than we care to admit. Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. That applies to every human being alive today. It applies to every human being who has ever lived, save one.

That applies to those of us who are in Christ. We still have a corrupt flesh. We do not, brothers and sisters, have a righteousness of our own. This truth of the universality of sin and the prevalence of sin, even amongst the upright, should cause you to consider how you would have peace, hope, confidence, as you consider standing before the Lord.

How is it that you would bring your tainted works, your half-baked obedience, and hold these things before the Lord as a piece even of why he would accept you? I say this because the broader church culture many of us have grown up in has conditioned us to look within, to look in, to assess ourselves, and to hopefully find something in there, obedience, affections, sincerity, devotion, find something that we can hold onto, which we can hold out and say, “Okay, I now can have peace with God.” Whereas the gospel, beloved, calls us not to look in but to look out, always, to Christ, to Christ in my place, Jesus for you is the only hope that you could ever have because it is a true statement that surely there is not a righteous person on earth who does good and never sins. You need a savior, you need a representative, you need a substitute. You’ll always need one this side of the resurrection.

Point Four: Wisdom Before Human Power (8:1–9)

We now head to point four as we move into chapter eight. We’re gonna consider verses one to nine of chapter eight.

My heading reads, “Wisdom Before Human Power.” “Wisdom Before Human Power.” We’re gonna power through these verses, no pun intended, after we consider verse one a little more slowly. If you put your eyes on chapter eight and verse one, it functions as a kind of pivot, it’s a transition point. And this verse is interesting. It raises the possibility that perhaps a uniquely wise man could provide the answer that Solomon is looking for.

Who is like the wise? The implied answer is nobody. The hypothetical wise man is unique. And who knows the interpretation of a thing?

Now up to now, nobody has been able to answer that question or the questions with which Solomon’s wrestling, but maybe this uniquely wise person can. The last part of the verse heightens the tension. Wisdom is beneficial, man. Maybe an answer is finally coming.

He’s been at this a while. Kind of discouragement on loop. Maybe we’re gonna get somewhere eventually.

Then in verses two to four, Solomon tests wisdom in the presence of a king. The basic counsel is simple. Obey the king. That’s wise.

His authority isn’t to be treated casually. Don’t respond to him rashly. Don’t align yourself with a cause or a course of action that opposes his command. Why?

Well, verse three, he does whatever he pleases. His power is unrivaled, his word is supreme, and no one can challenge him by saying, hey man, what are you doing? Given all of that, obedience to the king is wise. But the problem is that this wisdom still can’t accomplish what we might hope.

Why? Well, because human government is made up of human beings who are capricious, not always sound in their judgment. The nature of human government is often arbitrary. The king’s gonna do whatever he wants, regardless of what a wise man may or may not do.

Now verse five and the beginning of verse six sound a little bit hopeful. Keeping the command is wise because the one who does so avoids harm and the wise person should know the proper action at the proper time, for there is a time and a way for everything.

But then the preacher, as he is so prone to do, man, he’s a downer. There’s gray clouds everywhere. The latter part of verse six through verse eight, he introduces the caveats. Life is full of trouble.

You see this, man’s trouble lies heavy on him. Hardship, suffering, tragedy, all those things can make it difficult to know what should be done and when. You ever had your judgment compromised by those things? I have.

We also don’t know the future. You can see he does not know what is to be. For who can tell him how it will be?

And then we also lack the power to control what happens. Verse eight, we have no power over life and death. There is no discharge from war. Once the battle starts, you ain’t leaving.

And wickedness won’t deliver those who give themselves to it. And then in verse nine, Solomon concludes the section by broadening the focus even beyond the power of a king. You see the language at the very end of the verse. When man had power over man to his hurt.

So here’s a general principle for life in a fallen world. When one person has power over another person, that power is often used to harm.

So the wise man has to navigate the arbitrary nature of human government. He has to navigate his own inability to always know what’s right at the right time. He has to navigate his own lack of power to control what happens and has to navigate the reality that people in power tend to use that power to hurt other people. Things are not looking very hopeful.

Point Five: The Righteous, the Wicked, and the Apparent Disorder of Providence (8:10–15)

We now move to our next section, point five, verses 10 to 15. Hopefully you’re able to continue tracking here.

My heading reads, “The righteous, the wicked, and the apparent disorder of providence.” Long heading, I’ll repeat it. “The righteous, the wicked, and the apparent disorder of providence.” Beginning in verse 10, Solomon pivots from the arbitrary nature of human government to the seeming arbitrariness of God’s government of the world. Verses like these in the scriptures make us uncomfortable, and that’s appropriate. You need to sit in it, though.

Remember, Solomon is looking at all of this under the sun. And he’s gonna consider it through the lens of what happens to the righteous and to the wicked. And let’s be real, from our perspective, life on earth often looks like there is no justice whatsoever.

This is why people sense forever, look around and they say, all right, God exists, help me. Help me, understand. You’re saying that there is an all good, all powerful, all sovereign God, and I’m looking around at this world, help me. You feel that.

And Solomon doesn’t pull any punches with it. Thank God for words like this in the scriptures. He begins with the wicked in verse 10.

You can put your eyes there. “Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things.” Now, this is a scandal. This ain’t right.

Wicked people can be publicly honored in the very place where their wickedness is known, even while maintaining some outward connection to the work of God. And the ministry and the worship of God. Solomon’s conclusion is blunt. This also is vanity.

It’s futile, it’s wrong, it shouldn’t happen, but it does. And then verse 11, shed some light on why wickedness is prevalent. And why it flourishes.

Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. Now, human justice might be in view here. But divine justice is particularly in view here. God does not immediately judge every wicked act.

People do wicked things all the time, and nothing seems to happen to them. There seems to be no consequence, and so people conclude, apparently, we can do what we want. We’ll come back to that.

Then in verses 12 to 14, there’s an important movement of thought that we need to grasp. Put your eyes on verse 12.

So first, Solomon describes what happens in alignment with what he’s just been writing. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, dot, dot, dot. People do evil repeatedly and yet live a long time, they don’t seem to bear the consequences.

Then Solomon interrupts his own argument with an orthodox confession. Latter part of verse 12, he begins, “Yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, and it will not be well with the wicked.” It’s effectively what he says. That’s true. That’s what Solomon knows.

That’s the way things ought to be. But under the sun, that’s another thing.

Then in verse 14, Solomon returns to what his eyes have seen. So he writes about what happens, orthodox confession of what’s true or how things should be, but then he comes back to what his eyes have seen. There is a vanity that takes place on earth. Solomon, what’s the vanity, bro?

It’s that righteous people receive what the wicked deserve and wicked people receive what the righteous deserve. And wicked people receive what the righteous deserve. And Solomon’s problem is that this seems to be a regular state of affairs. This is not just the rare exceptional case.

This happens all the time. So the movement of verses 12 to 14 is something like this. Here is what happens. Here is what I know.

But here is what I see. Here is what I see. You ever been there?

Here’s what happens. Here’s what I know to be true.

Here’s what I see. Solomon is not denying God. He’s not denying truth. He’s trying to process life in this world.

This is existential. He’s trying to make sense of his own experience and what I see and he can’t. His conclusion again at the end of verse 14, I said that this also is vanity. It’s futile, it’s senseless, it’s not right.

This is one of those places where we might wonder, like is it okay for Christians to talk like this? Is it okay for God’s people to say such things? Thank God that when we’re wrestling with these realities of life in a fallen world and the brokenness of it all, that he has given us words to speak and words to pray. And he also demonstrates to us that none of this is lost on him.

He knows. And that’s a comfort.

Verse 15, put your eyes there briefly. We’re gonna come back to all of these things in our concluding thoughts.

Verse 15 gives us the by now very familiar response. It’s effectively a resignation given all of this. Enjoy what you can. Given that we can’t make sense of things, given that we don’t know the future, given that we can’t figure out how the world works, the best thing you can do is receive and enjoy the good things God gives you for as long as he gives you life.

There you have it.

Point Six: The Final Answer — Man Cannot Find It Out (8:16–17)

Point six, from verses 16 and 17 of chapter eight, my heading reads, the final answer, man cannot find it out. The final answer, colon, man cannot find it out. These two verses serve as a summarizing and concluding statement.

In verse 16, the preacher reiterates both the aim and the intensity of his search. He’s given all of himself to this. He’s trying to understand how it all works and trying to discover what’s good for man. And my man has lost sleep trying to figure this out. It’s effectively what he says.

Then in verse 17, he gives the conclusion. Then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. Now when he says the work of God, he’s referring to the way that God works in and governs the world. He’s talking about providence. He’s talking about God’s hidden will.

You understand God’s revealed will is this. That is God’s revealed will for your life, this right here. Okay, but then there is something called the hidden will or the sovereign will of God that is not revealed to us.

So when Solomon uses the work of God, he’s talking about providence and the hidden will of God and the way that God ordains and brings all things to pass. And Solomon recognizes that this work is beyond human comprehension. And again, it’s not for lack of trying. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out.

You will exhaust yourself. If you’re on a quest for some kind of airtight, watertight religious certainty based upon what your eyes see, God help you.

And then Solomon slams the door completely. Last sentence, even though a wise man claims to know he cannot find it out. The very person that we might expect to explain the world, the uniquely wise man that is kind of implied in chapter eight and verse one, he can’t do it either.

So verse 17 answers chapter eight and verse one, who knows the interpretation of a thing? Nobody.

Y’all know I love 90s R&B. All the time when I’m doing this rhetorical nobody thing, I’m thinking about Keith Sweat. Y’all just need to know. For the five people in the room that appreciated that, you’re welcome.

Constantly, who can find it out? Nobody. Who knows the interpretation of a thing? Nobody. Who can put this together? Nobody. Chapter six and verse 12, who knows what is good for man during the few days of his vain life? Nobody.

There is no answer to the preacher’s search.

Wisdom cannot unlock the scheme of things. It can’t explain how the world works. It can’t tell us what’s good for man because man cannot find it out. Hope you’re encouraged.

This resonates with our experience though. Even as Christians, there is so much that we struggle to process and understand. It’s very liberating to be honest according to the word of God.

Above the Sun

So now we’re gonna go above the sun and you say thank you. We’re gonna have an above the sun perspective from here to the end. We’ve got a few pieces here. I’ll give you the headings as we go.

The Delay of Judgment and the Kindness of God

First, I want us to think together about the delay of judgment and the kindness of God. The delay of judgment and the kindness of God. I’m getting this from chapter eight and verse 11.

Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. It is undeniable that people can do grievously wicked things and face little or no apparent judgment now. From Solomon’s perspective in Ecclesiastes, that helps explain why wickedness is so prevalent and why it flourishes. But thinking about this from above the sun, listen to these words.

“Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself because you the judge practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man, you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?

You pass judgment on other people for the wrong things that they do. And as soon as you do that, you have damned yourself because you do the exact same things. Do you suppose that other people will face the judgment of God for the bad things that they have done, but you will somehow escape God’s judgment though you do the same thing?” Then this verse, this is Romans 2, verse 4. If you’re a cross-referencer and write your own in the margin, next to Ecclesiastes 8.11, I would put Romans 2, 4.

“Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” So hear this. God’s delay in administering justice does not mean that he’s asleep at the wheel. Nor does it mean that he doesn’t care about wickedness, evil, injustice. His delay in administering justice serves a redemptive purpose.

You feel me? Why does God delay judgment?

Because he’s saving people. Somebody should say amen.

Because the only reason any of us sit here today in Christ is because this is true. God could have brought all of it to an end the moment that Adam and Eve sinned. When Adam broke the covenant, it could have been over. I mean, he could have said, God could have said to hell with it, literally, pulled the sheet over the whole thing.

And he would have been perfectly just and good to do so, but he didn’t. And when I say pulled the sheet over the whole thing, I don’t mean not let the rest of world history bear out. He could have let all of us be and never sent a redeemer. You understand this.

He delays his justice so that he might save his people through Christ. That is evident in even how God pursues Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. When they sin, what does God do? God comes after them.

Does he ask them to do anything? No. Does he tell them to do anything? No.

What does he say? He talks about what he will do. Okay, but here’s the reality. God delays his justice so that he might save his people through Christ, and yet fallen humanity continually abuses that, abuses his patience.

Rather than agreeing with God and turning from our sin and pride to Christ and faith, we think, well, I’m not facing judgment. People get away with evil all the time. Apparently, I can just keep doing whatever, or I’ve got time. I’ll get right with God eventually.

Friend, if you sit here today, don’t be a fool. Whoever is wise, let him consider the word and the love of the Lord. God’s patience with you is not evidence that he condones your sin. God’s patience with you up to now is no guarantee that he will give you longer.

His kindness is meant to lead you to repentance. Turn from yourself. Turn from your pride and your sin, and turn to Jesus in faith.

To everybody sitting here, including myself, consider this, Jesus is the only one who can do anything about your corruption, about your sinful record, and your lack of righteousness. If you keep following Paul in Romans, after those early verses of Romans 2 that I just talked through and read, God is a just and impartial judge. He will reward those who do good. He will punish those who do evil.

Those who patiently seek glory, honor, and immortality, he will reward. But there is a problem, according to Paul. There is no one good. No one seeks for God.

There is none righteous, no, not one. We need a righteousness that is not our own, which is exactly what the gospel reveals. The righteousness that God gives to sinners, apart from the law, apart from our ability to keep it, God gives righteousness to sinners through faith in Jesus Christ, and it is for all who believe. It can’t be by our works.

All have sinned, all have broken God’s law, all have fallen short of the glory of God. It is only through faith in Jesus Christ that anyone is ever forgiven, declared righteous, or promised eternal life. There is no other way.

So trust him today. Take hold on him today. Christ is yours. Receive him.

And you are his. Rest in him.

God Has Declared the End from the Beginning

Next piece that I want us to think about together. This is an above the sun perspective. God has declared the end from the beginning.

So God is all wise and all knowing. Amen, yes? But that’s not all that the scripture reveals about him. He governs all things according to his wise and holy providence.

He knows the future, not because he’s really smart, but because he has planned the future. He has declared the end from the beginning, and from ancient times, things not yet done. He says that he accomplishes all of his purposes, that his counsel always stands, and that no one can stop him from accomplishing what he means to accomplish. And he incorporates into his wise and holy providence even the sinful actions and intentions of human beings.

Break your brain. Scripture is explicit and clear about human responsibility, human culpability, human agency. We reason, we desire, we make choices. Those choices matter.

We are accountable. And God’s purposes are never thwarted. How all of this hangs together in every detail is not ours to know. It’s beyond us.

The secret things belong to the Lord. What has been revealed belongs to us and our children. But there are some things we can say, these revealed things, and these should encourage our souls. It is not just that God takes bad things.

Here’s where I’m going, ’cause sometimes you hear people talking to each other, Christians, well-intended, largely true. People are going through stuff, and they look at each other and say, “Hey, you know, God’s gonna work it for good.” It’s gonna turn out for good. It’s not just that God takes bad things, bad decisions, wicked intentions, evil schemes, and then somehow works them for good afterward. You tracking?

It’s not that he takes all these bad things and works them for good after the fact. Scripture says something much stronger. Through the evil intentions, plans, and schemes of human beings, God means to accomplish good, and he does.

Genesis 50, 20 is an obvious example. Joseph’s brothers meant him evil and harm. They acted out of envy, jealousy, hatred, malice, all that. What is the word that Joseph speaks to?

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. You meant evil, he meant good. God was preserving a people in Egypt. Remarkable, but the even better example, many of you know where I’m going, is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Acts chapter two, Acts chapter four. In those places, we read that wicked people did what wicked people wanted to do. Wicked people had wicked motivations and acted out of them. At the very same time, God was purposefully saving the world through Christ.

Human beings meant malice, hatred, envy, murder, death. God meant salvation. Marvel at that. Marvel at that.

Humans mean one thing. God has no fellowship with anybody in their sin, nor is he the author of evil, but through those evil, wicked intentions, God means salvation and he accomplishes it. Give him praise and honor and glory for that.

Here’s something really important though. We cannot see how both things are true in the moment. You feel me? We can’t see how both are true in the moment.

This is very instructive for our hearts, for our lives. We cannot see how human evil and the good purposes of God are hanging together while the thing is happening.

Think about the disciples when Jesus was crucified. They couldn’t see it. They didn’t understand everything God was doing. I mean, I don’t even know that they understood the first thing that he was doing.

From where they stood, their Messiah had been arrested, condemned, beaten, crucified, and buried. They couldn’t see salvation being accomplished through this even though Jesus had told them repeatedly. That it would, but couldn’t see when it was happening. And you and I, we are just like that.

We can’t see it when it’s happening. There is much of the work of God we don’t or can’t see.

Do Not Become Job’s Friends

I’m pivoting slightly here. I don’t wanna snap anybody’s neck too hard, okay? ‘Cause we’re going in a different direction. Same truth, different application. In our text today and throughout Ecclesiastes, we’ve seen that part of the problem the preacher’s grappling with is the reality of human sin.

But that’s only part of the problem. The preacher is also having an impossible time making sense of God’s providential rule over a fallen and broken creation.

You can put your eyes back on chapter seven and verse 13 so that you don’t think that I’m misquoting the Bible. Consider the work of God. Who can make straight what he has made crooked? When Solomon says that God has made things crooked, he isn’t saying that God originally made creation evil.

God made all things good. Sin is what has wrecked it all. What he’s referring to is the fact that God has allowed the broken order of the world and all of the frustration and exasperation and the wickedness to remain. And this order doesn’t change.

There’s nothing new under the sun. No matter how much we try to change it, we can’t. That’s what Solomon is referring to. God lets things remain as they are for now.

He does reign sovereignly and providentially over it, but he does so in a way that is beyond us. We are not privy to everything he’s doing. And so we have a really hard time assessing suffering and pain and injustice and a whole host of other things that we encounter in this life. Our vantage point is quite limited.

But that does not keep us from getting out over our skis and making pronouncements that we ought never make. So this is another admonition to us all. My pastoral word of caution to myself and to us, do not become Job’s friends. Do not become Job’s friends.

We are prone to take general principles scripture gives us and over apply them without taking the entire witness of scripture into account. Think about Job’s friends. You know the situation. I don’t have time to give you the backfill.

Job wasn’t suffering because of some particular sin that he committed. God was doing something. Job’s friends, they sit with him for a little while and then they start talking. And as soon as they open their mouths, things start to go downhill quickly.

Their reasoning, we’ve talked about these things before. It’s like, look bro, you’re suffering so you must have sinned. God is just. You had to do something to deserve this.

This is divine retribution, bro. You need to search your heart. You need to find the sin. You need to root it out and confess it.

And then maybe things will get better. How many pastors and Christians think and talk this way? Somebody is suffering, life isn’t going well and the counsel is search your heart. Identify that hidden sin.

Root it out and the suffering may very well end. That kind of counsel is often completely unhelpful.

That kind of counsel is often completely unhelpful and can do a lot of damage to another believer. Because it may not be the case at all. We’re not privy to the hidden will of God. We’re not privy to all the things that God is doing in the lives of each of his people.

We might see one or two out of the thousands of things that he is doing in the lives of each of his saints. We don’t know.

Think about Paul. He does not interpret his sufferings as evidence that he has failed, as evidence that he has sinned, or that God is paying him back for some particular wrong. He understands suffering as part and parcel of being united to Christ, of being called by Christ, and of living in a fallen world that is hostile to Christ. His suffering, you know what he wrote, becomes a setting in which the grace and power of Jesus are made manifest.

John chapter nine gives us the same thing. Who sinned, Jesus? This man or his parents that he was born blind? Jesus rejects the whole premise, neither actually.

It’s so that the works of God might be displayed in him. There was no hidden sin in that blind man’s life for him to root out and confess. God was doing something. I’m gonna let that sit.

Don’t hear what I’m not saying. Don’t hear what I’m not saying. So, brother, what you’re telling me is that we should just never counsel each other, we should never correct anybody, we should never rebuke, we should never talk like God’s law does. Absurd.

That’s not what I mean at all. We can and should hold out God’s law as the perfect guide for all of our lives. God uses his law and the lives of his saints to convict us of sin, to show us the depth of our need, to humble us, to drive us yet again to Christ. Pursuing what God calls good is good.

Encourage each other in that. Please, encourage me in that. Fleeing from what God calls sin is good. Exhort each other like that.

Exhort me. We should exhort, admonish, and encourage one another. May that never be a question. But we should not look at somebody who is suffering and presume to know the cause and then make very specific pronouncements as to why.

Because we are not privy to that information. This is in italics in my notes. You do that what you will.

We can be clear about what God has revealed in his law while remaining humble about what he has not revealed in his hidden will in providence. Make sense? Clear about what he’s revealed in his law, humble as it pertains to what he has not when it comes to his providence and his hidden will. That gives us perspective.

We should be slower to speak. We should be thoughtful when we do. This sermon has been very long. I’m about to land it, and you’re all thankful.

Final Thoughts: The Troubles of This Life Will Not Have the Last Word

Final thoughts. The troubles of this life will not have the last word. Amen, someone? The troubles of this life will not have the last word.

There are senseless things that happen in this life, to be sure. There are things that are not as they should be, no doubt. That can, we all know. It can discourage us.

It can lead us to despair, frustration, anxiety, depression, all of it. Solomon has poured his heart out about all of this, and we resonate with him. But none of these things will have the final say viewed above the sun because of God and God alone. We can even say above the sun that the troubles and trials and sufferings of this life for the believer, far from being pointless, actually serve God’s purposes.

Is that not a welcome word in light of Ecclesiastes? Everything’s vanity. Everything’s futility. Everything’s senseless.

Not if you’re in Christ. We can even count it joy when we meet trials of various kinds, says James.

Now, that’s not because trials are good. They’re not. That’s not because suffering is good. It’s not.

The calamity and the suffering and the sickness itself is terrible. But what God does through these things in the lives of his children, now that’s marvelous. That’s supernatural. Grace all in it.

And most notably, what does he do? He works steadfastness in his children. We continue to trust him. We continue to trust Christ in spite of all the experiences that might seem to give us reasons to do the opposite.

And that preaches a word to us. We’ve said before, not original to me, we need to rip our eyes out and put ’em in our ears. What I mean by that is don’t live by what you see. We don’t live by sight.

We live by faith, according to the word of God. Life in this world often presents us with very messy and unclear pictures. But from God’s perspective, nothing is unclear.

Now, the thing is, the hard part for us is that he doesn’t often give us that perspective. We’re not afforded that. He gives us glimpses sometimes, and we thank him. But ultimately, we live by faith.

We take him at his word. We trust that our trials and sufferings have a purpose even when we can’t explain them. And that doesn’t mean that we deny the hardness of suffering. It doesn’t mean that we just throw platitudes around.

I wanna reiterate something that we’ve considered before. If you or I look at our lives, our circumstances, our sufferings, our trials, our pain, we will often struggle to find evidence that God is for us. He’s promised us what the end will be. He’s told us how he loves us.

He has told us how he sees us in his Son. But we will struggle to see that if we are always looking at our lives and our circumstances.

So put this on your refrigerator if you’re that kind of person. The evidence of God’s love, grace, and mercy toward us is not our lives or circumstances. It is Jesus for us. Jesus, who he is, what he did, and his heart toward us is the evidence that God is for us.

How great is God’s love? To what length has he gone to save? Look at Christ. What’s God like?

Is he compassionate? Is he gentle? Is he merciful? Look at Christ.

As has been said, we don’t have answers for skin, knees, and cancers. But we do have a Savior that bears them with us. It’s a scandalous message, you know. We have a God who bleeds, took on flesh and bled to save his people.

Look at that to know God is for you. Because like Solomon, we live under the sun. We’re gonna keep seeing the way things are. We’re gonna have many of these same reactions that he does.

The preacher’s final answer is not that the world has no God or that the world has no truth. It’s that life under the sun cannot be mastered. It can’t be decoded. It can’t be made safe by human wisdom.

His conclusion is that we do not know the whole work of God. And so our conclusion is that we live by faith. We receive the good gifts that he gives. We don’t hope in circumstances.

We don’t lean on our own understanding. We hope, we trust, we rest in Jesus Christ who loved us and gave himself for us. This is where we pillow our head.

This is why we can go to sleep in peace. And now we close in prayer.