WWUTT 1724 The Righteous in the Hand of God (Ecclesiastes 9:1-9)

Ecclesiastes 9:1-9 and the Righteous in God’s Hand

If God has already determined the way that things are going to go, and we do not know tomorrow from yesterday, then how are we supposed to live our lives? We live life to the glory of God when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky.

In our Old Testament study, we've been in the book of Ecclesiastes, and we're up to chapter 9 this week. I'm going to look at half the chapter. So we're going to do the first 9 verses, and then the next 9 will be next week.

This is the Word of the Lord through the preacher writing in Ecclesiastes chapter 9. For I have given all this to my heart, and explain it, that righteous men, wise men, and their service are in the hand of God.

Man does not know whether it will be love or hatred, anything may be before him. It is the same for all. There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked, for the good, for the clean and for the unclean, for the man who offers a sacrifice and for the one who does not sacrifice.

As the good man is, so is the sinner. As the swearer is, so is the one who is afraid to swear. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts throughout their lives.

Afterwards, they go to the dead. For whoever is joined with all the living, there is confidence, surely a live dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know they will die, but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.

Indeed, their love, their hate, and their zeal have already perished, and they will never again have a portion in all that is done under the sun. Go then, eat your bread in gladness, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already accepted your works.

Let your clothes be white all the time, and let not oil be lacking on your head. See life with the woman whom you love, all the days of your vain life which he has given you under the sun, all the days of your vanity, for this is your portion in life, and in your labor in which you have labored under the sun.

So as we have seen in kind of this middle section of Ecclesiastes, the first verse generally translates the rest of the chapter. If you can understand what's being said in the first verse, then it's easier to follow the flow of thought in what's going on in the rest of the verses that follow it.

At least according to chapter. The chapter divisions are pretty accurate in the book of Ecclesiastes. So here at the start of this chapter, we have this statement, for I have given all this to my heart and explain it that righteous men, wise men, and their service are in the hand of God.

Now all of that seems to be the same. We've seen these dichotomies, and we've seen that even in the section that we've read here that oftentimes when you have a righteous man mentioned, he is contrasted with the wicked man.

Or you have a wise man who's contrasted with the foolish man. But here you have the righteous man, the wise man, and the works that they do. They all kind of seem to be the same. These are the people we should aspire to be.

These are the ones that we admire the most. It's who we want to be like. This is the counsel that we trust. We would trust the word of a righteous man, of a good man, of a wise man, and we can test them by their work.

All the service that they have done is in the hand of God. For I have given all this to my heart and explain it that righteous men, wise men, and their service are in the hand of God. Now that could mean a couple of things.

That could mean that all that the wise and the righteous do is by the sovereign hand of God. This man has come into his righteousness. He has come into his wisdom because that is the way that God decreed it would be.

From before the foundation of the world, he had decided this man would be righteous. This one wise. All the work that they do is according to what God had predestined. That's one way to read it. Another way to understand it is that the righteous man and the wise man are in the hand of God.

Like in other words, God holds them close. It is talking about how they have fellowship with God because they desire righteousness. They desire wisdom. The foolish man does not want God, right? We can just go ahead and throw the contrast in there even though it's not deliberately made.

The fool is not seeking the knowledge of God. But the wise man does. The righteous man does. So he is in the hand of God. But then look at the next sentence. Man does not know whether it will be love or hatred.

Anything may be before him. Now there's a couple of ways we could interpret this. A man does not know whether he will go the way of love or he will go the way of hatred. So when a man is born, how does he know which path he is going to choose?

He doesn't. He doesn't know from the beginning of his time whether he's going to live a life that is a life of love or he's going to live a life that is a life of hatred. So that's one possible interpretation.

The other possible interpretation is that this is talking about God. Man does not know whether God will show him love or God will show him hatred. Anything may be before him. God knows the way this man will go, but the man does not know the way that he will go.

And so is it going to be in God's love or will it be under his hatred? Just like the Lord had said about Jacob and Esau, Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated. And of course that would have been, you know, a long time before the events that we're reading here in Ecclesiastes.

So surely Solomon would have known about that. That may have been on his mind if that is his understanding here. Man doesn't know if he's going to be in the love of God or under his hatred. Anything may be before him.

Okay, so does man know whether he is going to be under God's love or under God's hatred during the course of his life? Anything may be before him. He doesn't know what is the conclusion that the wise man comes to at the end of this particular section, these nine verses here.

So he goes on in verse seven to say, go then eat your bread in gladness and drink your wine with a merry heart for God has already accepted your works. Let your clothes be white all the time and let not oil be lacking on your head.

In other words, be righteous and be wise. That's what those references mean. To wear white is to be clothed in righteousness. And we see that throughout the scriptures. Even Jesus saying in the book of Revelation, clothe yourselves in white or to the church at Laodicea.

I will clothe you in white garments, garments that come from Christ washed in the blood of the lamb. They are washed white by the blood of the lamb, as it says in Revelation. So we have our sins, our transgressions cleansed from us by the precious blood of Jesus.

And we're clothed in white. We're pure. We are not stained by sin anymore. So that reference to wearing white is a reference to righteousness. Let your clothes be white all the time and let not oil be lacking on your head.

Remember what we said earlier about oil in previous studies in Ecclesiastes. The reference to oil is a reference to perfume. It's not like oil for a lamp, but it's something fragrant. It's something that smells good.

And so oil for the head, that's an anointing. And when you're talking about a fragrant head, you're talking about having wisdom or possessing knowledge. So we start with that. We come to that at the end of the section.

Again, we have the mention of the righteous man and the wise man in verse one. And then the instruction from the preacher here is to walk in righteousness and have wisdom. And where do those things come from?

They come only from God. You cannot know the way that you are going to go. And you cannot know whether you are going to be in God's love or under his hatred. So what's your responsibility going to be?

It's going to be to do what God says is right and to seek his wisdom. See, you don't know. You do not know the plans of God. Go back to what we finished up with in chapter eight, verses 16 and 17. When I gave my heart to know wisdom and to see the endeavor which has been done on the earth, and even though one never sees sleep with his eyes day or night, I saw every work of God.

I concluded that man cannot find out the work which has been done under the sun. Even though man should seek laboriously, he will not find it out. And though the wise man should say, I know, he cannot find it out.

And so now we get to the start of chapter nine, where he's saying a man cannot know the way that he is going to go, if you read it that way, or he cannot know the way that God is going to choose for him.

He cannot know whether God will have love for him or hatred for him. So not knowing anything about our future, what should we do? We should seek righteousness and we should seek wisdom. And both of those things come only for God.

Seek after the righteousness of God, seek forgiveness for sins and cleansing from all unrighteousness and seek God's wisdom, knowing the way to go, knowing what is good and pleasing and perfect in his will.

This is what we should seek out. We do not know our futures. We do not know God's will. So what responsibility do we have? To do what is right and to please the Lord, to seek God, Jesus said in Matthew chapter six, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all the things that you need will be added to you as well.

That's basically what the author of Ecclesiastes is saying here as well. You can't know your future. So what you should do is seek the Lord. Seeking his righteousness, seeking his wisdom and growing in these things, man does not know whether it will be love or hatred.

Anything may be before him. And verse two, it is the same for all. There is one fate for the righteous and one for the wicked, for the good, for the clean and for the unclean, for the man who offers a sacrifice and for the one who does not sacrifice as the good man is.

So is the center as the swearer is. So is the one who is afraid to swear. So what is this? What is this? That is the same for all. What is it that the preacher is referring to death? We all die. We're all going to die.

We all come to the same end, the same conclusion, the same for all. There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked. There's one fate for the righteous and for the wicked. They both die. That's what the preacher is coming to.

So therefore, knowing we're all going to the same place, how should one live their life? You should live in righteousness and in the wisdom of God. And all of these things belong in God's hand. Remember that that statement was at the very beginning of this chapter as well.

All their service are in the hand of God. And so we must do what is pleasing to the Lord. Verse three, when talking about the same fate for all, there's one fate for all. In verse three, the preacher says, this is an evil.

In all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and madness is in their hearts throughout their lives. And they go crazy because they don't know anything.

They can't know their future. They don't know the meaning and purpose of life, and they cannot find fulfillment in anything that they do. So all of it is vain and it's madness. Madness in their hearts throughout their lives.

Afterwards, they go to the dead. And the preacher says, this is evil, that this is the way that it is. And he's right. It is evil that we all die, that even the righteous die and even the wicked die. We all have the same fate.

What is it that makes that evil? Well, it's because of sin. I mean, he's observing the fallenness in the world. There's a certain sense in which the preacher is judging by his own human standard. He's not judging by God's standard.

That's definitely true. But he still recognizes that all is fallen in the world because of sin. Mankind is fallen. We die. Death has come into the world because man sin. Death is the consequence for our sin.

So whether a man is righteous or whether a man is wicked, he has still sinned. And what he deserves is death. Whether a man sacrifices or a man doesn't sacrifice, that man is still sin. Why is he going to the temple to sacrifice?

Because he sinned against God. And the man that doesn't go and sacrifice has still sinned against God. He just doesn't sacrifice. What's going to happen to the two of them? They're both going to die. They go to the same place and it's evil.

And of course, that's the case, because all of this is happening in the world, in creation, because mankind rebelled against God, because mankind sinned. Verse four, for whoever is joined with all the living, there is confidence.

Better is a live dog than a dead lion. So what are we what are we talking about there? What does it mean to be joined with the living? It means we're alive. And there is confidence there because there are things that we can know about being alive.

Like, you know, the sun's going to rise tomorrow. It rose today. It rose yesterday. So I can know something about tomorrow. But who knows anything about their death? Who knows what's on the other side?

Who can say even what that experience is like? Even those who have had near death experiences, they can't even really tell you what that that feeling of losing oneself was like, because they didn't really die.

I mean, when a person dies, they don't come back. Hebrew says it is appointed to a man once to die. And then after that comes judgment. So even if like a person's flatline or their heart stops beating or whatever, if they still get brought back, we say brought back.

And you put that in air quotes because they're not really brought back. If they were really dead, they could not be brought back. A dead body cannot be reanimated. So there was still there was some sort of failure in the body that they were able to jumpstart and keep the person from dying.

But it doesn't mean they actually died. When a person is dead, they are dead. They don't come back when the soul departs the body. That's it. There is nothing chemically different about a body that is dead versus the condition that it was in three hours before.

All the same chemicals are there. It's got the same organs, the same makeup, you know, just but something about the body is dead. There's nothing that you can do to bring it back. It's gone. You can never reanimate a body again.

There's a mystery that science has never been able to explain. How is it that all the elements are in this body for it to live and we can't bring it back to life? When a person dies, they die. And even those that have those near death experiences, there's a reason why we call them near death experiences and not death experiences because they don't actually die.

But even those that have those near death experiences, they can't really tell you what it was like. What was it like? What was the feeling like of leaving the physical world and going into, you know, what was happening after that?

There are people that will claim to have seen things on the other side and come back to talk about it, but they haven't. Maybe they had a vision or a dream of some kind, but they did not really get to see the other side and come back and tell us about it.

So nobody can talk about any of those things. There's no confidence in what comes after death, at least according to our human perspectives. Now, we do have confidence. We have confidence in Christ. He who came down from heaven to tell us what heaven is like and even about the judgment of hell for those who will not believe, who don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus died for our sins and he rose from the dead. He conquered death so that all who believe in him have this confidence. We will rise from the dead, too. But just going off of our own human experiences, there's no confidence.

A live dog better than a dead lion. Yeah, the lion may be an apex predator, but he's no threat dead. The dog is still useful alive. Verse five for the living. No, they will die. But the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward for the memory of them is forgotten.

They cannot labor for more because they're dead and whatever work they were doing on earth is over. And even as time goes by, it will be forgotten. You've probably heard the saying, preach the gospel, die and be forgotten.

Because I mean, when it comes down to it, eventually you are going to die and eventually the memory of you will be lost. There will come a point in time where it will be the last time anybody ever thinks of you.

And then that memory is gone. That sounds quite meaningless, doesn't it? Well, it would be if all there was to this life was this. But there is more to life than this. There is life everlasting with God in heaven.

If we turn from our sin to the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse six. Indeed, their love, their hatred and their zeal have already perished, and they will never again have a portion in all that is done under the sun.

And indeed, that's true. You know, as I talked about that verse being read back into verse one, their love, their hatred, their zeal, mankind, all of our the things that we loved, the things that we hated, the zeal that we had, the things we were passionate about.

All of that is gone and will never again come back to enjoy the things under the sun, which we may have even contributed to by the works that we did in this life. So we come once again to the conclusion in verses seven through nine.

What is there to do then if the fate of every single person is death and we do not know the path that we are going to go or whether we are in God's love or his hatred? What are we to do? Verses seven through eight.

Go then eat your bread in gladness and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already accepted your works. Let your clothes be white all the time and let let not oil be lacking on your head again.

Seek righteousness. Seek the wisdom of God. See life with the woman whom you love all the days of your vain life, which he has given you under the sun. Enjoy your marriage. Enjoy the companionship that you have with this one to whom you are betrothed all the days of your vanity, for this is your portion in life and in your labor in which you have labored under the sun.

All of these things that you do while on this earth will eventually come to an end. But continue to seek the Lord in all things, glorifying God and even what you eat and drink, right? Because what he said earlier, eat your bread in gladness, drink your wine with a merry heart.

What did Paul say in first Corinthians chapter 10? Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. That's what we are to do. And one day we will die. And how do you know you will be with the Lord in glory?

Because you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is your life. And when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3, 4. Let's finish there. Heavenly Father, we thank you that our life is in your hands and that you have determined the course that we will go, because if it were left to us, we would surely choose the rebellious thing every time.

May we see good in our days. May we rejoice in you for all that you have given us and help us to seek first the kingdom of God. That our clothes be white all the time and oil, the wisdom of God, would not be lacking for our heads.

We walk in wisdom these days until we join you in glory. And in this come quickly, Lord Jesus. It's in his name that we pray.

Amen. This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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