”It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.“
Ecclesiastes 9:2-3 ESV
It’s easy to misread Scripture. A hundred heresies come from poor exegesis that fails to follow the golden rule of Scriptural interpretation, which is, of course, to let Scripture interpret Scripture. A man’s mind being the final standard of truth and appeal is the very thing that sets man against God in the first place, so we’re right to mistrust humanistic reasoning. Think of it this way: whatever it is that is the final authority in our reasoning is God.
To that end we look to our verse today, and all of Chapter 9 for that matter, in light of the rest of Scripture. Lest we do that we’re most certainly going to end up with a depressing view of the Preacher’s words. Many commentators fumble here because of that says Leupold.
The critical context is that “all this I laid to heart, examining it all…” (9:1) and “…this is an evil that is done under the sun…” (9:3). The evil in life is self evident to man’s eyes, according to man’s standard. Life being brutishly short and illogical, and that there’s no true value in being righteous rather than wicked since the same happens to them all, lays heavy on the heart. Let’s not deny the obvious. The Preacher isn’t. But what he isn’t doing is forgetting the context. All are in the hands of God, he says. There are perhaps no greater statements of God’s sovereignty in all the Bible than right here. What he’s doing is stating that, gasp, even believers are quite prone to evaluating events “under the sun.”
To say, “under the sun” is to call it “out of biblical context.” Under the sun is to say that man’s mind, unregenerate and thinking independently of God and His word/law, is fit to judge good and evil. Under the sun accuses God of not being in charge on the one hand and then excoriates Him for being in charge. Man the sinner is invariably man the irrationalist because he must, outside of God, judge all things according to his experience rather than God’s. The clearest evidence that the Preacher is only showing us the consequences and danger of thinking “under the sun” is in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14. God will, Koheleth promises, bring every deed into judgment. Thus, the evil done under the sun is a problem that melts away when our basic attitude is the right one, which is that man must wait on God’s plan and judgment to be revealed.
Under the sun means to use a humanistic standard of judgment; it means, in all, to be conformed to this world rather than transformed by the renewal of our mind – in direct contradiction to the biblical mandate of Romans 12:1-2.
The madness in our hearts is the crazed insistence upon the humanistic worldview. How insane is it to “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” and think, even if only for an instant, that this is a world of chance! Indeed, the heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1) and there’s no logical reason for unbelief or doubt. To doubt God is to use the very mind He’s given us to think thoughts against Him! To say He doesn’t exist requires the air He provides to speak such a monstrous lie.
The “proof” of Christianity lies in the impossibility of reasoning against Him without presupposing His creation in order to do so.
But let us for the moment consider again the pertinent fact that the Preacher has called together the very people of God for this sermon. Ecclesiastes is not a message for the pagan nations, but for Israel. Isn’t true that even God’s chosen people can live and think and reason “under the sun?” Unequivocally, yes!
Consider that it was Israel that was witness to that epic showdown between the true and living God and that false god, Pharaoh. At every turn the people grumbled and moaned not only under the burden of Pharaoh’s tyranny, but then also under the stress of the deliverance that they’d prayed to God for as well. That God’s messengers and pastors are maligned, as Moses surely was by the people, is due to the people’s constant war with God Himself. Did they hear the warnings and the promises? Without doubt. Did they see those great cosmic beatdowns, coming in horrible and terrifying waves of judgment and power? Did they witness the frogs and the darkness and the bloody river, and the execution of the firstborn? They saw it all. What’s more, they knew what it all meant too. Moses told them.
And then they were loaded with booty from the quivering and faltering nation that had enslaved them but was now humbled and battered by the true God. Ah, and then they were brought to a sure defeat at last! Trapped against the powerful sea and Egypt’s angry army, intent on bloody vengeance, they were miraculously delivered and crossed the sea unharmed. Then they watched that same sea swallow their pursuers.
Do you now yearn for God to show you His power? Do you struggle under the weight of some trial or another? Well, the Preacher would have us beware of bitterness due to our looking at life under the sun rather than through eyes of faith. After all Israel had seen, you would think they would have trusted the Lord and Moses, their leader. But we know what happened. In the wilderness they were tested…and failed. They worshipped Baal. They grumbled and complained. They were fed supernaturally and then griped about the lack of variety in their diet.
Sin is always griping because at heart sinners want God’s blessings upon their sins and He won’t do that.
This is the madness of which Solomon speaks. It’s living as if one were God and refusing to worship Him in truth and spirit. Leupold speaks to this when he says that there’s a deep logic to Ecclesiastes: it rules out the “mercenary spirit” as he calls it. True Christians love God and trust Him. They will struggle and grieve when battered by life’s storms but love and wait on the Lord through it all.
Here’s the straight truth: what differentiates true believers from everyone else is worship. Those Israelites witnessed God’s power but had the mercenary spirit. Loving God means reveling in His attributes; using God is the counterfeit of worship, it’s the attempt to wrest blessings from Him without renouncing one’s sin. Faith is full surrender; false conversion is mercenary at heart, and that’s why false religion is humanism’s most sinister creation. False religions are said to be “works based.” But this is only partially true. In truth, they’re all attempts to manipulate the Almighty One, as if He’s a dupe and a rube.
Bitterness isn’t a mental health crisis as they say. Rather, it’s the logical result of one’s crazed endeavor to control and finagle the great God of the universe to bless our sins rather than repent of them. Bitterness is a consequence of treating God like a love-sick chump who’s too blind with love, too naive, to notice that He’s being played. Bitterness and anger are the effect; the cause is the hidden agenda of sin.
An entire generation died there in the wilderness and went to hell. They saw God’s power on full and radiant display but never saw it as a reason to be humbled. They wanted that power. That’s all. Sin makes animals of men and women. Unreasoning and driven mad by short-term passions.
Are we living under the sun? Are we trusting in the God of our salvation or trying to use Him? The pressures of trials and suffering prove one’s faith. Why? Because as Christians we’re called to follow Him – Christ, our Lord and Savior. As we look to Him, we grow more like Him. We grow to see Him and His joy even amidst our struggles and sufferings. This frees us from the “tyranny of now.” It makes us eternal minded.
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