“That’s not fair!” I guess you have heard someone say that or maybe you’ve said it yourself at times when things just don’t go your way or a friend or family member are having a hard time. Well, sadly, there is a certain truth in the fact that life is not fair for so many people in the world who suffer (often no fault of their own) as the result of war, oppression, homelessness, hunger and the list goes on.
So, here in chapter 3-4 we find Qoheleth joining with some of the psalmists and prophets in expressing this truth that at times life is not fair. He writes:
16 And I saw something else under the sun:
In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,
in the place of justice—wickedness was there…
4 1 Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun:
I saw the tears of the oppressed—
and they have no comforter;
power was on the side of their oppressors—
and they have no comforter.
He says a similar thing in chapter 7:15 as follows:
15 In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these:
the righteous perishing in their righteousness,
and the wicked living long in their wickedness.
This being relevant to what I quoted from C Wright in my last Post as follows:
There “is a tension that we will find pulling in opposite directions all through the book, between the uncertainties of what we observe and the certainties of what we know by faith.” (#60)
So, Qoheleth acknowledges this tension between justice and injustice and knows that the only answer is to bring God back into the picture. So, he writes:
17 I said to myself,
“God will bring into judgment
both the righteous and the wicked,
for there will be a time for every activity,
a time to judge every deed.”
Kidner writes concerning this issue of injustice in Ecclesiastes: “It becomes an issue on its own for a short while in chapter 4, and will return at intervals in later passages (see 5:8–9; 8:10–15; 9:13–16; 10:5–7, 16–17). First, though, it is seen in the setting of life’s reversals and sudden shifts, which are the dominant interest of chapter 3. For if anything cries out to be reversed it is injustice. Here at last is some obvious gain from the twists and turns of our affairs. The fact that everything on earth is seasonal promises an end to the long winter of evil and misrule. It reinforces the purely moral conviction that God will judge (17), by the realization that for this event, as for everything else, he has already appointed its proper time.” (# 59)
In the New Testament we read:
Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.(Hebrews 9:27)
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. (Revelation 20:12-13)
The good news though is that because of the grace of God and faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus who came to reconcile us to the Father Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1-2)
And so Paul exhorts us as believers:
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. 14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. (Romans 8:12-14)
Even when it seems that “life is not fair”, we can rest on the truth that God is just and in his proper time He will judge and in the words of Abraham, Will not the Judge of all the earth do right? (Genesis 18:25b) And implied in his question, the answer is, Yes!
Worship and Wisdom - Psalms, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. 