The Question of Authority - Ecclesiastes 8
Read: Ecclesiastes 8
Listen: A Song - “Vapor” by The Liturgists
Listen: A Meditation – “Vapor Meditation” by The Liturgists
If we were to assign a theme to Ecclesiastes 8, we could likely call it “authority.” According to the Google dictionary, authority is “the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience.” In our current culture, authority is often relative and subjective. We like to be our own authorities, for who else knows us as well as ourselves? Who else could possibly make decisions better than we ourselves? We know everything, right?
I do hope you read some sarcasm in the last few sentences. Ecclesiastes 8:17 reminds us well that the author “observed all the word of God and concluded that a person is unable to discover the work that is done under the sun. Even though a person labors hard to explore it, he cannot find it; even if a wise person claims to know it, he is unable to discover it.” God’s ways and thoughts are so much higher than our own (Isaiah 55:8-9) that we cannot possibly hope to attain them. We do not know everything, so perhaps we should pause before assuming we have any sort of authority at all.
How can we possibly think we have much claim on authority in this world when God spoke “Let their be…” (Gen. 1) and it was. Authority tends to mean having power or control over another. So, it would follow that the one who created something should likely be the one to have power over it. The creator would determine the creation’s degree of autonomy from or the dependence on the creator.
Yes, God did create us, but we were created in His image (Gen. 1), and God is a being of communion, relationship, and love. He did not desire puppets but people who could respond to Him and have relationship with Him. God did not force a choice on us, but gave us the freedom and will to choose for ourselves. Would we choose Him or ourselves and our own desires? We chose the lesser option allowing sin to break our relationship with God and the world itself in the process. We often ask why does God allow bad things to happen? When humans allowed sin into the world, we allowed brokenness, darkness, disease, chaos, pain, and death to wreak havoc. It is the consequence of our fall from grace.
The Preacher observed these consequences as well, which was in part why he sought to write the book of Ecclesiastes. In Ecclesiastes 8:14 he remarks, “There is a futility that is done on the earth: there are righteous people who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked people who get what the actions of the righteous deserve. I say that this too is futile.” Our modern-day translation would say something like, “Why do bad things happen to good people and good things to bad people?”
Life is not fair. As a teacher, I often hear the refrain, “But that’s not fair!” Normally, I just say, “Bummer,” a great non-answer that keeps me from getting caught up in an argument with my students, and which drives them somewhat batty. But essentially, I’m telling them, “Life’s not fair. Get used to it.” The Preacher would say, “Everything is futile.” Life is not fair, but it’s all meaningless anyways, so what’s the point of getting too worked up over anything?
When we read Ecclesiastes in light of the fall, we find little hope for humanity or the world in general. So, it makes sense when the Preacher tells us, “I commended enjoyment because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat, drink, and enjoy himself…” (Ecc. 8:15). He’s not wrong; we should enjoy the gifts and blessings that God has given us in this life. However, we have hope for more than this mere life under the sun.
Paul in Romans 8 writes about this hope:
“For the creation was subjected to futility – not willingly, but because of him who subjected it – in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. Not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits – we also groan within ourselves, eagerly awaiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Now in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? Now if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly await for it with patience.”
Did you catch the connection to Ecclesiastes? Even creation was “subjected to futility.” If something is “subjected” then it is placed under another’s authority, in this the case the futility of a life without God. When sin separated us from God, we were saying to God, “We no longer want to be under your authority. We want to be in charge of ourselves.” Isaiah 29:16 puts it another way: “You have turned things around, as if the potter were the same as the clay. How can what is made say about its maker, ‘He didn’t make me’?…” We have turned things around, and our lives are no longer in the proper order. It is no surprise that, like creation, we too groan – for adoption, redemption, and salvation. We long for the wholeness of God and what creation was before the fall. We hope for wholeness, healing, peace – we hope for a new creation.
Thank God, He is a God of impossible things. Isaiah 65 says, “For the former troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my sight. For I will create a new heaven and a new earth; the past events will not be remembered or come to mind” (65:16b-17). All that is futile in our broken world will no longer trouble us because all that was broken will be restored and made new. We will enjoy our lives; our work will not be done just to be enjoyed by others. Death will no longer steal our joy and peace because we will “be a people blessed by the LORD” (Isa. 65:23b). The righteous will no longer receive that which the wicked deserve. Isaiah writes about the righteous and the wicked when he records the following: “I [the LORD] will look favorably on this kind of person: one who is humble, submissive in spirit, and trembles at my word…I will choose their [the wicked’s] punishment, and I will bring on them what they dread because I called and no one answered; I spoke and they did not listen; they did what was evil in my sight and chose what I did not delight in” (Isa. 66:2b, 4). Those who have not chosen to fear God should be afraid of what awaits them. The Preacher even says that it will not go well for them and that it is far better to fear God and be reverent before Him (Ecc. 8:12-13).
There is a bigger picture than the momentary futility and evils in this life. Life is not fair, but this is not the end of the story. When we choose to live under the authority of God and give up our own desires to be the gods of our lives, we acknowledge Jesus as the “KING of KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (Rev. 19:16). He is the one who conquers sin and death and offers us new life when we give Him our lives. He is the Creator, so when He offers us a new life, it is something vastly different from what we had before. This new life will be exactly what we need for the new heaven and the new earth. All will be restored. All will be made new. And all will be accomplished by the One who is the ultimate Authority.
