Instrument-4-Christ

This is about as depressed as I’ve heard Solomon so far. He begins by lamenting over the oppressed who have no comforter, and he ends by expressing gratefulness over those who have never even been born.

How low can he get? His sorrow is understandable because it is true that many people are mercilessly oppressed by people more powerful than them. As Solomon said in verse 1, “On the side of their oppressors there is power, but they have no comforter.”

Yet Solomon looked at everything and concluded, “Yet, better than both is he who has never existed, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.”

I don’t know how bad things were when Solomon looked around his kingdom and the rest of the surrounding country, but apparently things were pretty bleak. In fact, he concludes that life isn’t worth living because of all the evil: “Therefore I praised the dead who were already dead.”

It’s somewhat difficult to pull a challenge from this passage, and even harder to find any form of encouragement. But it does remind me to look realistically at the world around me in its deprived state. The world is full of evil, and it’s sometimes easy for Christians to overlook it. It’s especially easy for me when I’m at FBBC during the school year, at IRBC during the summer, and at my house during all the times in-between.

I need to be aware of what is going on around me and do my part as light in this darkness to illumine the Truth, magnify Christ, and point the way to the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Look, the oppressed are full of tears,
Naught can relieve their sorrow.
The lives they live are full of fears,
Oppressed both today and tomorrow.

Better are those who are already dead,
Better are those who have never been born.
Better are those who o’er the earth will not tread,
For they never shall see evil or over it mourn.

Woe to a world that is known by its sin,
Woe to the sinners who have all gone astray.
Let the world know that God loves all men,
And to be freed from sin, He’s provided a way.

I’m kind of struggling with this passage, but the main idea seems to be found in verse 18: “I said in my heart, ‘Concerning the condition of the sons of men, God tests them, that they may see that they themselves are like animals.'”

What? God tests us to show us that we are like animals?

Just like the animals, men die. Just like the animals, men return to dust. “Man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity.” So our existence on earth is no more significant than that of any animal on the earth? That’s depressing. But I don’t think that’s exactly what this is saying.

Verse 21 says, “Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth?” So obviously man has to have more significance if his spirit goes upward (to heaven) when he dies and the spirit of an animal remains here on the earth after death.

Another version (ESV) says it this way, “Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?”

Now it all makes sense! God judges men, and those who waste their lives find out that their lives mattered nothing more than those of animals. They go through life wasting their energies and resources by accomplishing nothing of true value. They die and return to dust just like the animals.

But man cannot see the heart like God can, so only God will justly judge everyone’s works. Only God knows where the spirit of each person ends up, whether it goes to heaven or stays in the earth like an animals.

Just another reminder to make my life worth something for God.

When God judges man, His judgment is just.
Man truly sees the things he has done.
And just as animals return but to dust,
So do the men who worked in vain ‘neath the sun.