WWUTT 1689 The Tears of the Oppressed (Ecclesiastes 4:1-16)

The Comfort That Comes Only in Jesus Christ

Whether a person is oppressed, or a person is an oppressor, neither of them receive comfort in any of the things that are under the sun. The only comfort that we can have is in Jesus Christ 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.

Reading Ecclesiastes 4 and the Preacher’s Shift to Oppression

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the book of Ecclesiastes today. In our Old Testament study, we're up to chapter 4. If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there, I'm going to go ahead and read through the entire chapter, 16 verses, out of the Legacy Standard Bible.

This is the word of the Lord through the preacher, writing in Ecclesiastes. Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun. And behold, I saw the tears of the oppressed, and that they had no one to comfort them.

And on the side of their oppressors was power, but they had no one to comfort them. So I lauded the dead, who are already dead, more than the living who are still living. But better off than both of them is the one who has never been, who has never seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

I have seen that every labor and every success of the work is the result of jealousy between a man and his neighbor. This too is vanity and striving after wind. The fool folds his hands in embrace and consumes his own flesh.

One handful of rest is better than two fists full of labor and striving after wind. Then I looked again at vanity under the sun. There was a certain man without a second man, having neither a son nor a brother.

Yet there was no end to all his labor. Indeed, his eyes were not satisfied with riches. And for whom am I laboring and depriving myself of good? This too is vanity, and it is a grievous endeavor. Two are better than one because they have good wages for their labor.

For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not a second one to lift him up. Furthermore, if two lie down together, they keep warm. But how can one be warm alone?

And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can stand against him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart. A poor yet wise lad is better than an old and foolish king who no longer knows how to receive warning.

For he has come up out of prison to become king, even though he was born poor in his kingdom. I have seen all the living who walk about under the sun go along with the second lad who stands in place of him.

There is no end to all the people, to all who were before them, and even the ones who will come later will not be glad with him. For this too is vanity and striving after wind. If you were thinking about how all of that flows together as I was reading through that, well, there are a couple of statements in there that are kind of stand-alone statements.

They are their own proverbs, just like we would have in the book of Proverbs, where you would have a different proverb per verse. So it's the same way here in Ecclesiastes 4. There's a few statements in here that just kind of stand by themselves, but still considering it in the context of what the preacher is pondering.

The Tears of the Oppressed and Comfort Beyond the Sun

Right at the start of the chapter, then I looked again. Now that's telling us there's a change going on here. He's thinking about something else now. So going from the ponderings that we finished up in chapter 3, and now he's pondering something new.

So he says,. Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression, which were being done under the sun. And behold, I saw the tears of the oppressed, and that they had no one to comfort them. It's interesting to be reading that this week in particular, with what we've seen in the news.

The most recent story, just a couple of days ago, was a school shooting that happened in Uvalde, Texas. 19 students dead, 19 children, and 2 teachers. And such a wicked, heinous evil. And now what's going on, in the absence of the dead, are people that are bickering and arguing and fighting with one another over what things could have been done to prevent this, and what can be done to prevent it from happening again.

While children are dead and parents are mourning, and there is no one to comfort them. You know, no matter what can be done, as far as the law is concerned, maybe somebody does come up with some brilliant plan that prevents something like this from happening again.

But it's still not going to return those children to those parents who lost them. And they are still going to be grieving and mourning and feeling that loss that cannot be filled by anything under the sun.

So behold, I saw the tears of the oppressed, and that they had no one to comfort them. And on the side of the oppressors was power. That's the next part of the verse. But they had no one to comfort them.

So whether it's the oppressed or the oppressor, they're both human beings. And they're both going to be affected by death. The oppressor is mourning, or sorry, the oppressed, rather, is mourning their loss at the hands of the oppressor.

But the oppressor also loses, and there's no one to comfort him either. So the one who is the oppressor also experiences loss, and it's not like his life is any better off. Both of them mourn and cannot be satisfied by anything that is under the sun.

How is it that we do have a comfort in our loss? It is only by faith in Jesus Christ. And that doesn't mean that by faith in Jesus, we won't ever experience loss or pain. We most certainly will, but God will comfort us in the midst of those things.

The Apostle Paul talks about being comforted at the beginning of 2 Corinthians 1. With all the afflictions that they were facing, though they were out there sharing the gospel, Paul and his missionary brethren, he says they were comforted by God.

Opens the letter by saying, blessed be the God of all comforts, the Father of mercies. And the difficult things that he went through, he said, were meant to bring him closer to God, who raises the dead.

That we would rely not on ourselves, but on God, who has conquered death. Jesus, who died on a cross, who rose again from the dead, so that all who believe in him will be forgiven their sins, and we have the promise of eternal life.

And it's only in Jesus Christ that we can find comfort. Now, notice here, again, and I pointed this out the last couple of weeks, but in Ecclesiastes 4, verse 1, it says, I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun.

So the key words there are done under the sun. It's not that we cannot receive comfort in any way, shape, or form at all. We can be comforted, but only by those things that are beyond the sun. You know, talking about in the heavenly places.

Jesus saying in Matthew chapter 6, store up for yourselves treasures above. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So we are to desire those heavenly things. Matthew 6, 31, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

And all the things that you need here under the sun will be added to you as well. So we cannot find any meaningful comfort in the midst of our circumstances in anything that is under the sun. It is only in Jesus Christ that we can be comforted.

A lot of people out there trying to find comfort in all different kinds of ways. Changing the laws, maybe that will bring me comfort. Drinking this drink will bring me comfort. Taking these pills, getting this kind of therapy.

Maybe I just need to veg out and watch TV and I will experience comfort. All of that will lead to meaninglessness. None of it will comfort you at all. It will still leave you coming up empty. The only comfort that we have is knowing that Jesus died for our sins and He rose from the dead.

So that by faith in Jesus, our sins are forgiven. And we too will be raised from the dead. In fact, by faith in Christ, we're raised from the dead now, risen to walk in newness of life. And then we also have the promise of eternal life, our resurrected bodies, which we will receive in the new heavens and the new earth when we are with Christ forever in His heavenly kingdom.

We will still experience death in this body, but we will go on living forever by faith in Jesus Christ. And so we go on here in Ecclesiastes 4 -2, where the preacher says, So I lauded the dead, I praised the dead, who are already dead, more than the living who are still living.

Why? Well, the dead have no oppressor. There's no one oppressing them in these things that are going on here in this earth. They're not mourning for loss. There's no mourning for the dead. They're dead.

And I lauded them more than the living who are still living because they're still experiencing oppression. They're still experiencing the meaninglessness and emptiness of things that are under the sun.

The dead, they're no longer striving for anything. They're dead. They're in a place of rest. But those who are still alive are still laboring and toiling on and not finding any meaning or purpose in any of these things that are under the sun.

Now, the preacher is speaking here, I don't want to say parabolically, proverbially. There we go. So it's more like a proverb where he talks about the dead getting rest from the toil that is under the sun.

He's not saying here that those who go down into judgment are therefore better off than the living. That's not what he means. But again, speaking proverbially, he's talking about how the dead get to rest.

They're not laboring and toiling or being oppressed by anybody or trying to find comfort in their oppression. They're just dead. But the living who go on living, they have to deal with oppression, they have to find meaning and purpose in life, so on and so forth.

So that's the way that the preacher is speaking there with regards to that statement in verse 2. In verse 3, he says, but better off than both of them is the one who has never been, who has never seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

And once again, speaking proverbially, or even philosophically, you could consider it that way. Since there's no such thing as a person who has never been, right? He's never been, so therefore he doesn't exist.

The point there is that death is still an enemy. So the person who's died is actually not better off because he is under the oppression of the enemy, which is death. Remember 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul says that the last enemy to be destroyed is death.

So the preacher even here considers that, that death is an enemy. So it's not that the dead are better off than the living. Better off is the person who's never even been. So he doesn't have to experience the meaninglessness of trying to find purpose in the things that are under the sun, and then have to be oppressed by the enemy of death and go down into the grave.

So better off than both of them is the one who has never been, who has never seen the evil work that is done under the sun. And indeed, there are all kinds of unspeakable evils that are going on in the world.

I do not have the time to even list them. And what good or what purpose would it serve for us in this devotional lesson to just go down a list of evils? But even as it says in Romans chapter one about those who do wickedly, they invent all kinds of evil.

They're inventors of evil. They find new ways to rebel against God and oppress or harm others. Evil continues. Tragedies abound. Many more lives will be lost. A day of judgment is coming for everyone.

Make sure you are right with God by faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Those who do not have Christ on that day of judgment, it will be better for them to have never been born. Jesus said in Luke 13, five, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

Labor, Jealousy, and the Folly of Isolation

And so we continue on here in Ecclesiastes four, verse three, or sorry, verse four. But I have seen that every labor and every success of the work is the result of jealousy between a man and his neighbor.

This too is vanity and striving after wind. So the thing that the preacher observes here is that when a man does a hard day's work, he's doing it because he's jealous of his neighbor. He sees his neighbor does things or has stuff and thinks to himself, I can do it better, or I want the stuff that my neighbor has.

How do I get it? Well, I got a labor. And then as I toil, I'll get those things. We might watch TV and see these commercials and we see these products and think I have to buy those products. So we go do a job that we can make money and buy these products that are never actually going to give us any satisfaction anyway.

They might make us happy for a little while, but then that product breaks down or they come out with a new model and we have to get the other thing in order to feel like we are truly happy. And so the preacher is observing this here and he says it's vanity.

It is striving after the wind. In verse 5, the fool folds his hands in embrace and consumes his own flesh. So you have these two men that are laboring. They're kind of competing with one another or they're jealous for each other and that's what motivates their work.

But then you've got the fool who doesn't do anything. He just sits and folds his hands, but he's not any better off. He consumes his own flesh. He just withers away and dies because he doesn't labor for anything to feed himself, to be able to sustain himself and survive.

Verse 6, this is also having to do with labor. One hand full of rest is better than two fists full of labor and striving after wind. In other words, if you can find a manner to rest, work and find rest, that would be better for you than to just constantly be working and never really finding satisfaction in the things that you are working for.

It's just two fists full of labor striving after the wind. Verse 7, then I looked again at vanity under the sun. I looked again at those things that are worthless and meaningless under the sun. There was a certain man without a second man having neither a son nor a brother, yet there was no end to all of his labor.

Indeed, his eyes were not satisfied with riches. And for whom am I laboring and depriving myself of good? That's a quote then coming from that single person who is laboring for himself. For whom am I laboring and depriving myself of good?

This too is vanity and it is a grievous endeavor. What the preacher is setting up here is basically it's better for a person to have somebody than be by themselves. We really were not meant to be hermits and reclusive.

We were meant to be in community. And in fact, if we are in Christ, then we are part of his body. If we have been called out from the world to be in Christ Jesus, then we are part of his church. We should go to church.

We should be with other believers rejoicing in God, encouraging one another, loving the Lord, loving each other, that we may build one another up in this faith that we have been given by the declaration of the gospel.

And so we are meant to be in community for we're going to be in community forever. We're going to be with God around his throne, singing his praises with people from every tribe, tongue, and nation on earth.

And so what we do together as a church is heaven practice, right? We're practicing for that glory that we're going to be in on that day when we will be singing the praises of God around his throne. So we're meant to be in community.

And that's what the preacher here is saying even. It is more vain for a person to be by himself than it is for him to labor with others. So he goes on in verse 9 to say, two are better than one because they have good wages for their labor.

They both make money and they're both able to help one another do a good job. In this particular case, it's not one man being jealous of another and striving against the other because then you still have that thing of a guy is on his own.

He's not working with anybody else. He's working for himself. The preacher is saying it's better to have two people. Two heads are better than one. That's essentially the lesson that he's encouraging here.

The two of them work together and then they have good wages for their labor. They're able to help one another get the job done so they have something to show for it. In verse 10, for if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion, but woe to the one who falls when there is not a second one to lift him up.

If they were just jealous of each other and competing against one another, do you think the jealous guy would help the other guy up who's not getting his work done? No, now he feels like he's getting ahead of the other guy because he's fallen in his job.

These two persons should become companions. They should be friends. They should be helping one another instead of being jealous of one another. Verse 11, furthermore, if two lie down together, they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?

And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can stand against him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart. In other words, when adversity comes, one person is easily overcome. Two people can stand stronger against that adversity and a cord of three strands are stronger still.

Now remember in the law that every charge in the law has to be established by what? The evidence of two or three witnesses. So this kind of applies in the same way. A person who keeps the law, who strives morally to please God, to do what is right.

Two are able to help one another do the right thing. Three, even better. Three brothers in the Lord helping to build one another up, not easily overcome by adversity or false teaching or won over by lies.

For though one might believe the lie, the other two are able to correct the brother and say, no, see, this is the truth. This is what we should be committed to walk in. And a cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.

A Wise Young Ruler Versus an Old Foolish King

Verse 13. A poor yet wise lad is better than an old and foolish king who no longer knows how to receive warning. I've experienced that before. Have you? The old guy who is not going to take instruction anymore?

It's better to have a young poor lad who is able to take instruction than the old foolish king who won't listen to anybody. For he has come, and talk about the poor lad in verse 14. He has come out of prison to become king, even though he was born poor in his kingdom.

I have seen all the living who walk about under the sun go along with the second lad who stands in place of him, in place of the old fool. There is no end to all the people, to all who were before them.

And even the ones who will come later will not be glad with him. For this too is vanity and striving after wind. So the thing that the preacher is pointing out here is whether you have a wise young lad or a pitiful old fool ruling over a kingdom, whatever they accomplish is not going to be appreciated in the later generations.

But as the preacher had said previously, it is better for him to strive and do what he must do as a king for his kingdom and do it to the glory of God. And enjoy those things to the glory of his name in the time that we have been given under the sun.

For this time will be short. We will die. And then another generation will come along after us and they may not take care of those things that we labored so fervently for in the time that we had. But that matters not.

Work for the Lord now. Give glory to his name. And whatever comes after us, the Lord will deal with in his good time. Let's finish there. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read here today in Ecclesiastes.

And I pray you would give us comfort in the midst of our difficult situations. In our difficulties, even in these things, they help us to see the mercy of God and draw us closer to you that we may be comforted by the God of all comforts and the Father of mercies.

We pray for those families that are experiencing loss in Southwest Texas after that school shooting. Be with them, Lord. And may even in the midst of this tragedy, your name be proclaimed. The gospel of Christ, come to that little town so that there are many who will hear of the hope that we have in the gospel, the everlasting life that is promised us in Jesus Christ.

And many will come to faith and so live. Be with us, Lord Jesus, as we go through our week and help us to do all things to your name, not for ourselves, but to you, O God. It is in the name of Jesus 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 and let your friends know about our ministry.

Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's Word when we understand the text.