Please turn with me to Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3.
As we jump in, I want to remind us of the book's basic message: the author repeatedly uses the Hebrew word “hevel,” which means futile, meaningless, temporary, vanity. He plays the part of a cynical philosopher and observes that if life under the sun / under the heavens is all there is, nothing is worth anything, and we should despair. If there is nothing above the sun, if there is no eternity, everything is meaningless, futile, hevel.
In today’s passage, the teacher tackles the tough issue of the unfairness of life head-on. That those among us who are charged with and have the power to uphold the rules, to uphold the law, to do justice, to make fair judgments, are often infected with wickedness. This is maddening, a cause for despair.Let’s read, then we’ll reflect.
Ecclesiastes 3:16–4:3 (CSB)
16 I also observed under the sun: there is wickedness at the place of judgment and there is wickedness at the place of righteousness.
17 I said to myself, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, since there is a time for every activity and every work.”
18 I said to myself, “This happens so that God may test the children of Adam and they may see for themselves that they are like animals.” 19 For the fate of the children of Adam and the fate of animals is the same. As one dies, so dies the other; they all have the same breath. People have no advantage over animals since everything is futile. 20 All are going to the same place; all come from dust, and all return to dust. 21 Who knows if the spirits of the children of Adam go upward and the spirits of animals go downward to the earth?
22 I have seen that there is nothing better than for a person to enjoy his activities because that is his reward. For who can enable him to see what will happen after he dies?
1 Again, I observed all the acts of oppression being done under the sun. Look at the tears of those who are oppressed; they have no one to comfort them. Power is with those who oppress them; they have no one to comfort them.
2 So I commended the dead, who have already died, more than the living, who are still alive. 3 But better than either of them is the one who has not yet existed, who has not seen the evil activity that is done under the sun.
Some definitions
Because justice and oppression are hot-button terms in our culture today, and we may be bringing with us our own definitions, or our culture’s definitions with us, I wanted to be clear about what the Bible means when it refers to them. There is danger of our political or cultural definitions of these terms warping our understanding of the Bible, so it is important to understand what God means when He talks about justice and oppression.
There is no question that God cares deeply about justice and the protection of the oppressed. There are over 300 verses in the Bible, and 2/3s of all the books in the Bible address justice and oppression directly!
Defining Justice and Righteousness
The word “place of judgement” or “place of justice” in 3:16 here refers to government and authority. Governments, courts, police, those charged with upholding the law. “The place of righteousness” here is an amplification of this same idea. Here are two examples of where the Scriptures speak to rulers and authorities charged with carrying out justice and righteousness.
Proverbs 31:8–9 (CSB)
8 Speak up for those who have no voice, for the justice of all who are dispossessed. 9 Speak up, judge righteously, and defend the cause of the oppressed and needy.
Jeremiah 22:3 (CSB)
3 This is what the Lord says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from his oppressor. Don’t exploit or brutalize the resident alien, the fatherless, or the widow. Don’t shed innocent blood in this place.
Defining Oppression
Oppression is basically the doing of injustice to those over whom you have power. Conservative theologian and scholar Ronald Allen writes that oppression is defined in the Scripture as:
…acts of abuse of power or authority, the burdening, trampling, and crushing of those lower in station.
Oppression, hence, is a grievous sin against which Israel was warned in stern terminology. One is never to oppress or rob his neighbor (Lev 19:13), or his hired servant, whether a fellow Israelite or a foreign sojourner (Deut 24:14). Those most likely to be mistreated and oppressed were those without adequate defense of their rights, i.e. the widow, the orphan, the sojourner and the poor.
Such acts of oppression are a breach of faith against Yahweh (see Lev 6:1–7). Nevertheless, one of the pervasive and persistent sins of many Israelites was the oppression of the poor and the weak and the committing of gross acts of extortion against the sojourner (Ezk 22:29, Hos 12:7).
The teacher’s Observation
In verse 3:16 and 4:1, the Teacher of Ecclesiastes is pointing out the maddening fact that, despite God’s command and great concern for justice for the vulnerable and needy, often times in our world, those charged with upholding God’s law, with upholding justice and righteousness, are infected by wickedness and instead oppress the vulnerable.
The Bible shows this throughout its narratives, and our own experience tells us it's true. God commands his people thoroughly and repeatedly to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly (Micah 6:8), but they continually ignore Him.
We don’t have to read very far in our Bibles before we come upon a story of an unrighteous ruler. We don’t have to stretch our memory too far to recall a news story or a world event where a government commits injustice against those in a vulnerable position.
It’s easy to go big picture on this and think of world events and corrupt governments and corrupt leaders and corrupt police forces. But I wonder if one of the reasons we focus so much on those things is that its easier to be mad at big picture injustice “out there” than the injustices that happen to us. The times we’ve been treated unfairly. The times we’ve been cheated or scammed or passed over. Most of us have personally experienced the injustice that the Teacher is speaking of, in one form or another, to one degree or another.
The Teacher’s lament
In verse 4:2-3, the Teacher issues his judgment on the situation.
Injustice is hard to deal with. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you’ve asked “Why is this happening to me?” Can you relate to the teacher’s lament:
“So I commended the dead, who have already died, more than the living, who are still alive. But better than either of them is the one who has not yet existed, who has not seen the evil activity that is done under the sun…”
Are we better off dead? Are we better off if we’ve never existed?
The teacher is describing an honest feeling that we can have in suffering. He’s not afraid to acknowledge it. But please, don’t take this as the Bible authoritatively saying that this is the case. If you are in a place where you feel that life isn’t worth living, know this: God sees you, we care for you, and there are safe people to talk to here.
Before we turn to the solution that the teacher offers, and the better solution that the rest of the Bible offers, we have one more very difficult question posed to us, and it comes with a difficult answer.
Why does God allow injustice and unrighteousness?
Please understand that the answer The Teacher gives is just one aspect of a multi-pronged answer that the Bible’s wisdom literature gives to this question of why God allows suffering. A fuller treatment is found in the book of Job.
And the big answer is along the lines of “God has a massive plan He is working out, and there are spiritual realities and dimensions to our life that we do not see, but just remember that God has promised good to those who love and trust Him, even when we can’t see it in the moment.”
But there is an honest aspect of the answer The Teacher gives. God allows these things to humble us.
He says, “We are no different from the animals,” and remember, he is saying this from his thought experiment: “if all that there is is this life under the sun, under the heavens, and there is nothing above the heavens, then we’re no better off than the animals.” He’s showing the logical consequence of atheist thinking. But there is an element of truth for us, even with God and eternity in mind.
Verses 18-21 remind us that we are mere creatures. One thing this tells us is that our perspective is limited, our righteousness is imperfect, and our justice is imperfect. In some ways, we are no different from the animals; we are both bound for death. Please also remember that the Bible clearly teaches that we are more than mere animals. This statement of his is intentionally blunt for effect to get us thinking in this direction.
The Teacher’s solution: God’s Justice.
Woven in to his observations about the futility of life in an unjust world, is the beginning of an answer. A solution to the seeming futility:
Ecclesiastes 3:17
I said to myself, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, since there is a time for every activity and every work.”
He says later in chapter 11 verse 9 that “we are going to answer to God for everything…” he hints at the afterlife, the judge that is above the sun…
Notice that the solution is not more justice/righteousness from us. Not our performance or cleaning ourselves up, or getting better, or deconstructing the world’s systems. Ecclesiastes is not an activist manifesto, rallying an army to take care of the problem of injustice.
But we do have a tendency to think: keep unrighteousness out, and you will be safe… We cloister ourselves in our subcultures and communities. We imagine that if we just “play by the rules” and live “good moral Christian lives,” we can expect that no harm will befall us. A generation ago, there was a joke that I don’t hear as much these days: in reply to someone telling you that something went wrong in their day, you’d say, “Well, you must not be living right…”
This is a subtle kind of prosperity gospel error.
In our futility-infested world, no amount of righteousness will keep you from injustice. It is part of the human experience in a broken world.
The Teacher points us to God’s justice as our source of comfort in the futility.
Psalm 146:5–9 (CSB)
5 Happy is the one whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, 6 the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them. He remains faithful forever, 7 executing justice for the exploited and giving food to the hungry. The Lord frees prisoners. 8 The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord raises up those who are oppressed. The Lord loves the righteous. 9 The Lord protects resident aliens and helps the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
God’s coming justice is the source of comfort for the unending stream of injustice that we witness in our world. But the fact of His coming justice should also cause us to pause and examine ourselves.
Honest reflection shows us, and the Bible teaches us, that all of us stand unrighteous before a holy God, because we all fail to manifest justice perfectly. We have been personally guilty as well, perhaps not all to the same degree relative to one another, or to the rest of the world, but relative to God’s standard.
The Apostle Paul picks up on this in his letter to Titus. He addresses two issues in one stroke. The first is that Christians should be good citizens even under unjust governments and unjust authorities. Not because they deserve it, but because of the second issue: those rulers are fellow fallen humans.
Titus 3:1–8 (CSB)
1 Remind them to submit to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, 2 to slander no one, to avoid fighting, and to be kind, always showing gentleness to all people. 3 For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another.
4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, 5 he saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy—through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 6 He poured out his Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life.
8 This saying is trustworthy. I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed God might be careful to devote themselves to good works. These are good and profitable for everyone.
God ultimately deals with the all the injustice and unrighteousness of humanity, through the life, death, resurrection, and coming return of Jesus.
In the worst injustice ever committed by man, Jesus died for all man’s unrighteousness. Perfectly innocent Jesus took the vulnerable position of weakness: a homeless, poor, wandering preacher of righteousness.
He was accused of crimes he did not commit, but we did. He took upon himself all the guilt of sin that we committed, and he was punished through torture and death, in our place, dying the death we deserved, so that all our debt of sin could be cancelled.
He is coming back someday soon to judge the world, and finally bring all injustice and unrighteousness to an end, and usher in a perfect new world of peace and prosperity. Sin, sickness, and suffering will be gone forever, and we will live with him in this perfected world for eternity. That is our great hope, and because that is coming, it changes the way we can live now.
Application:
Jesus Christ’s righteousness and perfect justice put all the unrighteousness and injustice we experience and witness today in perspective. In light of his promises to bring about perfect justice, here are some practical helps in dealing with the despair that creeps around the edge of our soul:
Take care about how you process the onslaught of current events. Unplug when you need to. It isn’t burying your head in the sand; it is acknowledging your limits as a finite creature.
Share the hope that you have!Jesus gave you his righteousness when you didn’t deserve it! And tells us that our response is the great commandment: love the Lord with everything you have, and to love your neighbor as yourself, showing that same love toward them.
Advocate for justice and righteousness. Now those are loaded words, what do we mean by them?
Loving our neighbor is what we’re talking about when we hear about working for justice, according to the Bible’s definitions that we discussed today. But we are to work toward it with an eternal perspective. This perspective affects our hearts and attitudes as we engage in the world.
What kind of political engagement does Paul tell Titus that Christians should embody? Think of the opposite of what he tells Titus: Slander, fighting, unkindness, lack of gentleness - doesn’t this describe much political engagement on the news and social media?
Why does he call us to be different? Because we have experienced God’s ultimate solution: His mercy, His forgiveness, His salvation, and because of that, we have an eternal perspective and a mission that is different from the world’s political missions. Our mission is to win the hearts and minds of the people we interact with. And this is why we’re urged toward gentleness and kindness.
This eternal perspective, this biblical perspective, also results in an earthly realism. Jesus told us, “The poor will be with you always.” This isn’t a warrant to ignore them, but it does set our expectations on the amount of impact we’ll be able to have. Jesus’s brother James taught us:
James 1:26–27 (CSB)
26 If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself. 27 Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
As we think about how to work toward justice in our media-driven world, this verse helps. We support many widow-and-orphan-type ministries locally through our financial giving and service projects. That’s a good place to start. Operate primarily within your spheres of personal influence. It’s not on your shoulders to stop all the problems in the world. And don’t underestimate what God might do with your consistent, faithful service of your actual neighbor.Let’s pray.
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