8
📚Who is like the wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the sternness of his face will be changed. 8:1 In this chapter Solomon continues to give out some matters his wisdom has taught him.⚜
2 📚I counsel you to keep the king’s command, because of the oath before God.
3 📚Do not be in a hurry to go out of his sight. Do not stand up for an evil thing, for he will do whatever pleases him.
4 📚Since the word of a king has power, who may say to him, “What are you doing?”
5 📚Whoever keeps the king’s command will experience no harm; and a wise man’s heart will discern both the proper time and procedure.
8:2-5 See Rom 13:1-7; Titus 3:1; 1 Pet 2:13-14. A wise man knows that disobedience to the rulers God has appointed will bring even more misery to men. Of course, men’s supreme obedience must be to God the heavenly King. If earthly rulers command things contrary to God’s commands we are at liberty to disobey them (Acts 4:18-20; 5:29).⚜
6 📚Because for every matter there is a time and procedure, though the misery of man is heavy on him.
Ignorance of the future
7 📚For he does not know what will be, so who can tell him when it will be?
8 📚There is no man that has power over the spirit to retain the spirit 📖; neither has anyone power over the day of his death. And there is no discharge in war; nor will wickedness deliver those who practice it 📖.
9 📚All this I have seen, and have applied my mind to every deed that is done under the sun. There is a time when one man rules another 📖 to his own hurt.
10 📚And so I saw the wicked buried, those who had gone in and out of the holy place, and they were forgotten in the city where they had done so. This also is emptiness.
11 📚Because sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men among them is fully set on doing evil.
8:11 When there is no punishment for wrong doing people may think they can get away with anything. So God has appointed those who bear the sword (Rom 13:3-4).⚜
12 📚Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and his days are prolonged, yet I know definitely that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear in his presence,
13 📚But it will not be well with the wicked, nor will he prolong his days, which are like a shadow; because he does not fear in God’s presence.
8:12-13 He knew what all truly wise men know. But he did not know how and when it would go better with God-fearing men. The New Testament reveals it fully (e.g. Matt 25:31-46; John 5:28-29).⚜
Justice is often not seen on earth
14 📚There is an empty thing which is done on earth; there are righteous people to whom things happen in accordance with the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom things happen in accordance with the work of the righteous. I said that this also is emptiness.
8:14 This shows that what Solomon said in vs 12,13 was a matter of faith, not of observation.⚜
15 📚Then I commended pleasure, because a man has no better thing under the sun than to eat and to drink and to be merry, for this will remain with him in his labour during the days of his life which God gives him under the sun.
16 📚When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on the earth (and one’s eyes may not see sleep day or night),
Man by his wisdom cannot understand what God is doing
17 📚Then I saw all the work of God, and that a man cannot discover the work that is done under the sun. Because though a man labours to search it out, yet he will not find it; yes and though a wise man may think he knows, yet he will not be able to discover the truth about it.