BIG IDEA:
SINCE GOD IS SOVEREIGN, THE WISE MUST BENEFIT FROM SORROW AND SUBMIT RATHER THAN EXPRESS PRIDEFUL IMPATIENCE AND FRUSTRATION
INTRODUCTION:
Walter Kaiser: Present grief and pain may prove to be more beneficial in their effect on us than all the festivity, mirth, and jovial laughter of the outwardly prosperous and successful person. Solomon makes his point with various proverbs and with Hebrew words of similar sound (a figure of speech called paronomasia). For example, this occurs in verse 1 (“name,” in Hebrew pronounced shem, and “perfume,” Hebrew shemen) and, as we pointed out above, in verses 5 and 6 (“song,” Hebrew shir; “pot,” Hebrew sir; “thorns,” Hebrew sirim, or as we say in English, “As the noise of nettles under the kettle[s]”). . .
The truth of the matter is that affliction is from the appointment of God (7:13-14). The “crooked” that needed straightening (v. 13; cf. 1:15) is perhaps found in the presence of afflictions and adversities in life. No wonder the text exclaims (to paraphrase the point): Look with wonder, admire, and silently wait for the result of God’s work! The contrasts of life are deliberately allowed by God so that men should ultimately develop a simple trust and dependence on God.
For prosperity and the goods from God’s hand, be thankful and rejoice. But in adversity and the crookedness of life, think. Reflect on the goodness of God and the comprehensiveness of His plan for men.
Therefore, although men appear to be treated irrespective of their character in the providence of God (7:15), the just man perishing in his righteousness and the evil man apparently prolonging his life in his wickedness, this is again only “judging a book by its cover,” or using external appearances by which to judge the whole case. Such a verdict is premature and improperly grounded. We must penetrate more deeply beneath the surface if we are to properly evaluate either of these men or the plan and ordinance of God.
Douglas Miller: Moving now to develop his theme of human knowledge of the good (ob), Qohelet in this section presents a series of proverbs and good/better than sayings on such traditional wisdom topics as name (reputation/legacy), wisdom and foolishness, pleasure, inheritance, patience, and arrogance. We should not misunderstand this section as a simple list of the Teacher’s wisdom, for the introduction indicates that he is presenting material to make his case that many words increase vapor (6:11), and to pursue the question whether anyone knows what is good (6:12). On the other hand, he does not reject the advice of these sayings outright either (7:1-12). They are of partial value, but nothing upon which one can completely rely.
Tremper Longman: That 7:1 begins a new section may be observed most readily by the shift in literary form. The first twelve verses of the chapter are proverbs, many constructed according to the “better-than” pattern (see 4:2). While R. N. Whybray is correct in saying that “attempts to see a logical progression of thought throughout the section are probably wasted,” there is nonetheless a noticeable change of content in this new section as well. There is a link with the question posed at the end of 6:10–12, “who knows what is good for people during the few days of their meaningless life?” That question was rhetorical, indicating that Qohelet felt that there was nothing absolutely good. By the use of the “better-than proverb,” however, Qohelet does indicate that some things are better than others. That is, he gives expression to what he believes are relative values. While some of these values are commonplace in wisdom literature (vv. 1a, 5a, 9), others intend to shock the reader familiar with wisdom orthodoxy (vv. 1b, 2, 3, 11). Two themes dominate vv. 1–12 and unify the section:
- death (vv. 1b, 2, 4, and perhaps 8)
- and wisdom and folly (vv. 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12).
Van Parunak: In answer to the challenge, “Who can tell man what is good” (6:12a), Qohelet here does! Of the 52 occurrences of “good” or “better” in Eccl., 14 (1/3) are in this chapter! v.14 similarly corresponds to the second half of 6:12.
Ironically, the “good” that Qohelet singles out is sorrow! It has much to teach us about life and God’s ways with us. Note how incongruent this all is with a Santa Claus god (but entirely consistent with a holy and loving God, whose law requires sorrow to result from sin, and whose love turns that sorrow into a means of blessing).
We can discern a simple ABBA chiasm here. The outer members (1-6,13-14) tell why to bear sorrow, from two perspectives, while the center members (7-10,11-12) tell how, first negatively, then positively.
A. (:1-6) Why Bear Sorrow? Human Perspective
B. (:7-10) How Not to Bear Sorrow
B1. (:11-12) How to Bear Sorrow: Wisdom
A1. (:13-14) Why Bear Sorrow? Divine Perspective
I. (:1-4) SORROWFUL TIMES ARE BETTER THAN PARTYING TIMES
A. (:1a) Internal Integrity Is Better than External Deodorant
“A good name is better than a good ointment,”
The inward reality of proven character is to be preferred over the external embellishment that dresses one up and puts on a false front to go out and party with others.
David Thompson: Now to the Jewish mind and to the mind of God, a good name was something of extremely high value. A good name is the same as a good reputation or character (Prov. 22:1). A name was “no mere label” in Solomon’s day, but was intended to express an underlying nature. Now good ointment in Solomon’s day, like ours, was expensive. What Solomon is actually saying here is that a good character that is internal is far more valuable than a good perfume that is external.
Craig Bowen: Think of the difference between your reputation & your deodorant: being known as genuinely godly is better than just covering up what’s bad underneath (a dirty armpit still stinks when the roll-on wears-off)!
Walter Kaiser: This may well refer to the practice in Biblical times of anointing a dead body with spices and perfume to make the corpse more presentable, but Solomon’s retort is that it is more preferable to have a good reputation (“name”) than a sweet-smelling body on one’s deathbed.
B. (:1b) Death Is Better than Birth
“And the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth.”
Craig Bowen: Birth introduces you to who knows what! A baby’s future is filled w/ big questions. Will he choose the path of the wise or the broader path of the fool? Destruction or life? Certainly years of difficulty lie ahead (Job): As surely as sparks fly up, so a man is born to trouble.
David Thompson: When you think about it, if one has a good name in the sight of God, the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth. When a person is born, he/she has all of life before him and he will make sinful choices and there is no guarantee one will wind up with a good character. But if, at the end of life one has a good name, from God’s perspective he is much better off.
Mike Miller: On the day of one’s birth there are certainly many terrible things that he will inevitably experience as he lives on this earth.
- Pain – physical, mental, and emotional.
- Injury – physical, mental, emotional – a broken heart.
- Injustice
- Sorrow and suffering …and crying
- Loss
- Trouble of all kinds
- The presence of sin every day they live.
On the day of the death of a person who is ready to meet God there is nothing but good things that await him in the future.
C. (:2-4) Sad Times Are Better than Party Times
- (:2) Mourning Is Better than Feasting
“It is better to go to a house of mourning
Than to go to a house of feasting,
Because that is the end of every man,
And the living takes it to heart.”
Peter Wallace: The “house of mourning” is not just a place where people weep. It is also a place where the body of the deceased is prepared for burial.
Douglas Miller: Since house of feasting (v. 2a) was a common designation for a marriage celebration, Qohelet is claiming that going to a funeral is better than going to a wedding. The basis for this claim is, first, that death is the end/destiny for every human being (also at 3:11; 12:13), and second, that wise persons will ponder death at a funeral and thereby gain something better than the pleasure found at a feast.
Chuck Swindoll: A 30 min. stroll in a cemetery will do you more good than a weekend in Vegas!
Douglas Sean O’Donnell: How does a funeral help with this task [of making a good name for ourselves and glorifying God’s name on earth]? At a birthday bash, frat party, wedding reception, or whatever other kind of party one might attend, people do not normally evaluate how well and wisely they are living their lives. Even the most celebratory New Year’s Eve parties are superficial. We would do better to stay home that night, shake our heads in dismay, and read Ecclesiastes until falling asleep. Do not underestimate the divinely appointed opportunity that every funeral allows. Outside each funeral home God holds up his picket signs: “Life is brief.” “Death is inevitable.” “Walk wisely!” And within each funeral home, every casket cautions us (“redeem the time!”) and questions us (“how are you spending your time?”). What will be said of you when people gather at the house of mourning to mourn over you? Will you be remembered as someone wise or foolish?
- (:3-4) Sorrow Is Better than Laughter and Pleasure
“Sorrow is better than laughter,
For when a face is sad a heart may be happy.
The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning,
While the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure.”
Walter Kaiser: While often laughter is good for the soul, yet a sad face may open up the heart more than the hollow ring of robust joviality. Some are not even capable of facing death (7:4), for they flee from death and try to drown any thoughts about it with alcohol and anything else except sober reflection.
Craig Bowen: V.3 assures us that mourning isn’t a bad thing! The bereaved learn lessons in trusting that God is in control. A sorrowing countenance can reflect a heart that is doing business with eternal truths.
When I officiate a funeral, my preaching goal is to address the living, not the dead. My experience has been that funeral congregations are the most attentive groups I stand before, and I don’t want to waste that solemn opportunity. What better time to tell someone that life is short and judgment is real and eternal life is offered to those who still live!
Fools would rather sport that little black dress than wear that sad black suit!
Douglas Miller: Qohelet has no respect for a life philosophy rooted in prosperity and pleasure. True wisdom must grapple with absurdity, tragedy, and the puzzles of life.
II. (:5-6) WISE WORDS OF REBUKE ARE BETTER THAN
EMPTY WORDS OF A FOOL
A. (:5) Preference for Listening to Wisdom
“It is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise man
Than for one to listen to the song of fools.”
Craig Bowen: A rebuke is a form of confrontation, when someone tells you you’re wrong (sinning). A rebuke appeals to your conscience. A song appeals to your feelings (often to pleasure). A fool cares about fun, but not about anything eternal. He sings his song for you…under the sun. A wise friend cares about your soul, enough to rebuke you if needed. Scripture says faithful are the wounds of a friend.
Joe Erwin: The praise of fools doesn’t accomplish anything more than puff a person up. However, it doesn’t make the person better. However, when one is corrected by a wiser person, if the one who is corrected would listen, they would learn. The hard part with this better thing is to discover that correction helps me more than praise. Correction is a form of encouragement. When I rebuke someone, it should always be to make the person better – to correct a flaw, to teach a lesson, to improve something. Inherently, correction can be encouraging and healing. This is why it is better than praise. Praise is letting me know I do something well. But correction helps me to do something I don’t do well in a better way.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jimerwin/2017/06/13/ecclesiastes-71-14-wisdom-better-life/
B. (:6) Futility of Listening to Fools
“For as the crackling of thorn bushes under a pot,
So is the laughter of the fool, And this too is futility.”
Walter Kaiser: Thorn bush fires flare up quickly into a huge fire, but they also just as quickly die down and are therefore short-lived.
Trevor Longman: The point seems to be that a fool’s laughter has no connection with reality and is irritating. In regard to this image, James Crenshaw points out, “Thistles provide quick flames, little heat, and a lot of unpleasant noise.”
Craig Bowen: The song (laughter) of a fool is like the short-lived popping and crackling of poorly fueled fire. A lot of noise but not much lasting heat; it won’t do you much good. You’ll be eating cold uncooked stew for dinner!
John MacArthur: (:2-6) — The point of this section is to emphasize that more is learned from adversity than from pleasure. True wisdom is developed in the crucible of life’s trials, though the preacher wishes that were not the case when he writes “this too is futility” (v. 6).
III. (:7) DANGER OF WISDOM BEING COMPROMISED
A. Compromised by Oppression
“For oppression makes a wise man mad,”
Tremper Longman: The wise are not above suspicion. There are factors as to why their advice and/or rebuke may not be reliable, and one is explained in this verse: the wise person’s judgment may be affected by extortion (ʿōšeq), that is, blackmail. The term is the same as that rendered “oppression” in 4:1–3, but in this context the more specific rendering is appropriate and attested elsewhere (Lev. 5:23 [English 6:4]). As we will see, this provides a perfectly acceptable parallel to bribe (mattānâ), which we find in the second colon. . .
Specifically, wisdom is weakened by extortion, on the one hand, and bribery, on the other. Extortion requires payment from someone in return for silence, and bribery is the receipt of money from someone in return for some desired action. The former makes the wise person a fool by surrendering control of life to another; the latter clouds one’s judgment by introducing bias.
Craig Bowen: Solomon has written often about corruption and oppression. Because man is sinful, oppression is everywhere and there no solution under the sun! A man who is troubled by injustice but won’t understand it & address it God’s way will go crazy with cynicism & doubt!
B. Compromised by Bribery
“And a bribe corrupts the heart.”
Craig Bowen: Here’s a second common cause of spiritual heart disease: the bribe. A bribe entices you to ignore the law & your conscience for personal gain. The attraction of riches and advantage can lure you off the narrow way. And the man who accepts the bribe can fall under the power of the one who offers it.
IV. (:8-10) A PATIENT PERSPECTIVE IS BETTER THAN
A PRIDEFUL PERSPECTIVE
A. (:8) Impatient People Have a Short Term Perspective and a Haughty Spirit
- (:8a) Short Term Perspective
“The end of a matter is better than its beginning;”
Douglas Miller: Here what appears as a general principle may be referring more specifically to matters addressed in this list of proverbs, for example, the end of life as opposed to its beginning, or the result of discipline rather than its initial sting. At least with some matters, such confidence in outcomes is consistent with traditional wisdom.
- (:8b) Haughty Spirit
“Patience of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit.”
Walter Kaiser: “Patience” (7:8b) in waiting for God’s timing is better than fretting over the elusiveness of things (7:8-9). It may be that the impatient are those who have a haughty spirit and who try to fix things by using force or yelling at others. Persons who are quick to get angry (7:9) are those who carry over anger from other situations and often are unwilling to work through a problem before blowing up over it.
Craig Bowen: The patient man knows how to wait to see things all the way to their conclusion. His patience is grounded in God’s sovereignty; he believes the promise of Rm 8:28: For we know that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
That’s enough to tell us, right there, that patience is a mark of wisdom – seeing the world and what concerns me, God’s way. We also remember that patience is a fruit of God’s Spirit (along with love, joy, peace, etc.), as He works in the soul of the redeemed.
The opposite of patience is…haughtiness (v.8)? Well, if you said impatience, that is good too! But here Solomon contrasts patience with pride. Impatience believes my schedule is more important, my needs are more pressing, my ideas are more useful.
Me! Me! Me! The impatient man is a proud man. But patience understands how to defer, and to wait. The end will be better!
Van Parunak: Impatience is a species of pride! We insist on being in control, and do not wait for God to work out his way with us.
B. (:9) Impatient People Quickly Become Angry
“Do not be eager in your heart to be angry,
For anger resides in the bosom of fools.”
David Thompson: Now, the word “anger” is actually one that means to be one who becomes irritated or provoked (Gesenius, p. 409). Solomon’s point is the wise person is not one who is easily or quickly provoked or irritated. It is not that the wise person does not ever become angry or irritated, it is that he is not quick to become this way. Now he gives one simple reason why a wise person is not quick to become angry–because one who is this way is a fool. From God’s perspective, people who quickly or easily lose their tempers are fools (Prov. 29:8-11, 22). Wise people in Scripture are always controlled people. Spiritual people are controlled people. In fact, Paul wrote that the fruit of the Spirit was love, joy, peace, patience…gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23).
Philip Graham Ryken: One of the easiest ways to tell whether we really trust God’s timing or not is to see how angry we get when things do not go our way — the sin of exasperation. The Preacher gives us this command: “Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools” (Ecclesiastes 7:9). The connection between anger and folly is well known. Solomon gave similar advice in his book of Proverbs: “A man of quick temper acts foolishly” (14:17), and “he who has a hasty temper exalts folly” (14:29). Here the Preacher-King has a particular kind of anger in mind — the rash anger that explodes whenever we think that something is not happening as quickly as it should. Usually we tell ourselves that we have a right to be angry. But Ecclesiastes sees our anger for what it is — sinful folly, spiritual immaturity, and an underlying mistrust of the sovereignty of God. As soon as we start to get impatient, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to keep us from the folly of rash anger.
C. (:10) Impatient People Romanticize the Past While Complaining about the Present
“Do not say, ‘Why is it that the former days were better than these?’
For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.”
Christopher Lasch: We need to distinguish between nostalgia and the reassuring memory of happy times, which serves to link the present to the past and to provide a sense of continuity. The emotional appeal of happy memories does not depend on disparagement of the present, the hallmark of the nostalgic attitude. Nostalgia appeals to the feeling that the past offered delights no longer obtainable. Nostalgic representations of the past evoke a time irretrievably lost and for that reason timeless and unchanging. Strictly speaking, nostalgia does not entail the exercise of memory at all, since the past it idealizes stands outside time, frozen in unchanging perfection. Memory too may idealize the past, but not in order to condemn the present. It draws hope and comfort from the past in order to enrich the present and to face what comes with good cheer.” (“The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics,” Norton, 1991).
Derek Kidner: The clear-eyed Qoheleth is the last person to be impressed by this golden haze around the past: he has already declared that one age is very much like another. “What has been is what will be… and there is nothing new under the sun.”
V. (:11-12) WISDOM IS BETTER THAN FOLLY
A. (:11) Wisdom Offers Advantages
“Wisdom along with an inheritance is good
And an advantage to those who see the sun.”
B. (:12) Wisdom Offers Protection
“For wisdom is protection just as money is protection.
But the advantage of knowledge is that
wisdom preserves the lives of its possessors.”
Douglas Sean O’Donnell: Money has its advantages. If you have money, when adversity strikes—the loss of a job, a sputtering economy, a natural disaster—you have some shelter and security. Similarly, wisdom protects. The wise know how to navigate through life’s deep and difficult waters. The wise know the wisdom of tempering the tongue, listening, waiting, and attending funerals. Yet human wisdom without a right relationship with God gets us only so far. Thus, there is another step, a final step forward, that we must take. The last step is the beginning of wisdom: to fear the Lord. This is how Solomon concludes our journey in Ecclesiastes 7:13–14.
David Hubbard: Both offer certain forms of protection or shelter (“defense” is lit. “shade,” relief from the heat that life “under the sun” entails). But “money” is no match for “wisdom” when it comes to giving life to those who possess it.
Douglas Miller: the Teacher believes wisdom is valuable to the extent that it preserves the life of the one possessing it, and he finds that ability to be restricted. He is giving positive answers to the questions of advantage and good, but the answers are highly qualified.
David Hubbard: Combined, “knowledge” and “wisdom” give “life” to those who have (lit. “own”) them. More is meant here than “keep alive” or “offer a livelihood,” though “wisdom” contributes substantially to both. What “wisdom” does best is to help us not only to use wealth well but also to develop a quality of “life” not totally dependent on wealth (Luke 12:15).
(:13-14) CONCLUSION: SUBMISSION IS BETTER THAN FRUSTRATION
Tremper Longman: The last two verses of this unit depart from the proverbial form of the preceding and comprise an instruction on God’s work. Qohelet urges his listener to be attentive to the work of God in the world. In conjunction with the next verse it is clear that his advice is not for the purpose of changing what God has done, but to go along with what God has done. After all, no one can influence his actions.
David Thompson: A wise person is one who realizes God is the one calling the shots. We are not able to withstand God on anything. What He bends, we cannot straighten. Even days of our lives are governed by Him. Our very life breath is governed by God (Dan. 5:23).
Wise people realize that when they are in times of prosperity, they can and should be happy. But they also realize that when they are in days of adversity, they can trust God’s sovereignty.
The last part of verse 14 is critical – “So that man may not discover anything that will be after him.” We do not know why God does what He does and we do not know what ultimately is going to happen.
Some people question God’s love if all positive things aren’t happening. I love the words of C. S. Lewis: “We want…not so much a Father in heaven as a grandfather in heaven…whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, ‘a good time was had by all’…I should very much like to live in a universe which was governed on such lines. But since it is abundantly clear that I don’t, and since I have reason to believe, nevertheless, that God is love, I conclude that my conception of love needs correction” (Cited from Chuck Swindoll, p. 199).
God’s plan for our lives includes days of prosperity and days of adversity. The wise way to live is to trust God no matter what is happening. We should not become anxious or angry. We should not live in the past, but remain faithful to God in the present. This is the wise way to live life. It is the key to a meaningful life.
Albert Mohler: Above all, let’s remember that, in good times and bad, it is the sovereign God we are always dealing with. Enduring the pain we cannot remedy and facing the outcomes we cannot predict, we are wise to stay humble before him (vv. 13-14).
David Hubbard: These words are,
- First, a call for sober reflection. “Consider” in both verses is the familiar word “see,” used so frequently by the Preacher to describe the sages’ task of scrutinizing with a gimlet eye and then reflecting on it with a tough mind (see 1:14; 7:15).
- Second, they are a confrontation with divine sovereignty. In the flow of the text God’s name has not appeared for more than twenty verses. Suddenly we are told to consider how “God” works in making life “crooked” and bringing “prosperity” (lit “good”; see 2:24) as well as “adversity” (lit. “evil,” see 2:21).
- Third, these verses are a caution to humility. Life at its crucial points is in higher hands than ours. See 1:15 for language close to that of 7:13 but without a specific mention of “God.” We cannot prevent what God wants to do (v. 13); we cannot predict (“find,” Heb. masāʾ; see 3:11) what God is going to do after we have passed from among those “who see the sun” (7:11). “After him” (see also 3:22 and 6:12) seems almost certainly to describe death, beyond whose horizons Koheleth and his fellow sages in the Old Testament had no power to see.
- Finally, these verses are a caveat against indignation. Bumping our heads against the stone wall of God’s sovereignty can make us downright angry. Why can’t we change what we don’t like? Are we stuck with the constant problems of joyless work, ceaseless pain, endless hassles in the home, fruitless efforts to make sense of life’s puzzles, pointless speculations about what tomorrow may bring? “Often we are,” says the Teacher. Better it is to let God’s sovereignty do its thing than spend our days flushed with anger, aglow with indignation. There is almost no malady in life which high blood pressure will cure. Anger, which we all feel at times and which great biblical figures like Jeremiah and the psalmists felt with keen intensity, will rarely improve our circumstances. It can, however, ruin our chance at any joy and can rain on the parades of everyone around us.
A. (:13) Submit Because We Can’t Change Things
“Consider the work of God,
For who is able to straighten what He has bent?”
Douglas Sean O’Donnell: The first question (“Who knows what is good for us?”) is answered in Ecclesiastes 7:1–12; the second question (“Who can tell what will happen to us?”) is answered in 7:13–14. The second question is rhetorical. The tone is negative, as in: “Who on earth can possibly predict what will become of us in the future? Will tomorrow bring feast or famine, work or unemployment, prosperity or adversity, happiness or sorrow?” What is the answer to these questions? Only God knows. It follows that to God we must go. We go to him not for answers but for shelter under his sovereignty.
Craig Bartholomew: Qohelet’s exhortation to “observe the work of God” alerts us to the fact that his autonomous epistemology has led him to this conclusion; one is unable to determine from traditional wisdom what is good for humans. Neither achieving a good reputation, nor vexation, nor listening to the advice of a wise person, nor trying to discern why the present is worse than the past, nor money provides an adequate answer to the question of what is good for humans. All is enigmatic.
Douglas Sean O’Donnell: Phil Ryken says that we should see these verses “not as an expression of fatalism but of Calvinism!” That is, they exhort us to see our situation—whether seemingly straight or certainly crooked—as ordered and smooth in the sovereign mind of God. The Scottish Presbyterian Thomas Boston titled a book after Ecclesiastes 7:13, The Crook in the Lot. By this title he did not mean that there was a thief in the backyard; he meant, rather, that things happen in all our lives that we wish we could change, but can’t. Boston writes:
While we are here, there will be cross events, as well as agreeable ones . . . . Sometimes things are softly and agreeably gliding on; but, by and by, there is some incident which alters that course, grates us, and pains us . . . . Everybody’s lot in this world has some crook in it.
We all struggle with the twisted expressions of divine administration. Why, when the world is in the hand of a good and sovereign God, is it such a crooked place? And why does the dial of his wheel of fortune more often stop on “Bankrupt” than on “Win a Trip to Hawaii”?
Yet part of the point of the crookedness is to straighten us out, as Pastor Solomon attempts to do in the final two verses. I call these verses Solomon’s “Job-moment” because they reflect both the beginning and the end of Job’s drama. At the end, in Job 37:14, Elihu exhorts Job to “stop and consider the wondrous works of God.” Then in chapters 38–41, God cross-examines his creature (Job) with his creation. God summons even the ostrich to testify against human arrogance, ignorance, and ingratitude. Finally, in chapter 42, the righteous man repents. “I have uttered,” Job admits, “what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me . . . . I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you” (vv. 3–5). What Job finally sees clearly is that he could not see clearly (cf. 1 Cor. 13:12). He acknowledges that the Lord is lovingly involved in the operations of an exceedingly complex universe; that God’s mysterious providence is too wonderful to comprehend; that human perceptions of justice are not the scales on which the righteousness of God is weighed; and that God has an inescapable purpose in whatever he does, even if that purpose is never revealed to the creature it affects.
B. (:14) Submit Because God Controls Both Prosperity and Adversity
- Perspective on Day of Prosperity
“In the day of prosperity be happy,”
Tremper Longman: The instruction of this verse follows up the previous one. Qohelet advises his listeners to enjoy themselves on a good day, while making the best of a bad day. God made both, and no one can change what God has done.
- Perspective on Day of Adversity
“But in the day of adversity consider—
God has made the one as well as the other
so that man may not discover anything that will be after him.”
Knut Martin Heim: He urges his audience to accept the alternation of good and bad times in life as a divinely ordered reality to motivate them to enjoy the good times in life on the one hand, while accepting without bitterness the inevitable difficult periods in life on the other.