Ecclesiastes 8:1-17

The Teacher searches for
the purpose of our lives

Book of Ecclesiastes

Hilda Bright and Kitty Pride

Chapter 8

The wise way to obey the people who have authority – Ecclesiastes 8:1-9

v1 Nobody else is like a wise man.

Nobody else can explain things so well.

Wisdom takes away the severe expression from a person’s face.

It causes a person to smile.

v2 You made a serious promise to God that you would serve the king. So you must obey the king’s commands. v3 Do not be in a hurry to leave the king. Do not argue with him. The king can do anything that he wants to do. v4 The king’s word is the law and king’s word is very powerful. So nobody would dare to ask what the king is doing.

v5 Whoever obeys the king’s command will not have trouble.

Wise people will know how to approach the king.

They will know the proper time to do things.

v6 There is a proper time and a proper way to do everything.

But a person may be unhappy because of his troubles.

v7 Nobody knows the future.

So nobody can tell a person what will happen.

v8 Nobody can control the wind.

And nobody can choose the day when they will die.

The army will not allow a soldier to leave during a war.

And wicked acts will not free a wicked person.

v9 I saw all these things and I thought seriously about them. I studied everything that people do on the earth. Sometimes a person has the power to hurt other people. But, in the end, a person who does that hurts himself.

Verse 1 The Teacher is telling us what a wise person is like. People’s faces usually show what sort of character they have. A wise person will not have a severe expression. Instead, wise people will have pleasant faces. This will show that they are kind people.

Verse 2 People made a serious promise to obey their king. All King David’s important officials and David’s other sons promised to be loyal to his son, Solomon (1 Chronicles 29:24). They asked God to be a witness to their promise. They made a serious promise to God. So they had to do what they had promised. If not, they had agreed that God should punish them.

Verses 3-4 To act against the king would be foolish. The king had absolute authority. So it was better to remain loyal to him. The king could punish people in whatever way that he chose. Nobody should ask him to explain his actions. Before the *Israelites had a king, God’s servant, Samuel, warned them. If they have a king, then they will have problems and difficulties (1 Samuel 8:10-18).

Verses 5-6 Wise people will choose the right time and the right way to approach the king. They will do right things and they will do them in the right way. Esther is one example. She chose the best way to speak to the king on behalf of the *Jews. She invited the king to eat some wonderful meals with her. So he became very curious (Esther 5:1-8). In every difficult situation, you must be wise and you must think carefully. You must consider the most suitable time and the most sensible way to act in that situation.

Verse 7 People feel unhappy because they cannot know their future. And nobody can help them to know about it.

Verse 8 There is a limit to people’s authority. Nobody can control the ‘wind’. This is the *Hebrew word ‘ruach’, which also means ‘*spirit’. So this ‘wind’ includes people’s *spirits. The same word also means ‘breath’. Death happens when a person does not breathe. Nobody can choose the day when they will die.

During a war, the army do not allow a soldier to leave. And, in the same way, wicked people cannot win the war against death.

Verse 9 People cannot choose how long they will live. But they do have the power to affect other people’s lives. They can cause trouble and pain for other people. And sometimes they can control other people. The *Hebrew words do not make it clear which person has the pain. It may refer to the person who is causing the pain. Or it may refer to the person who is receiving the pain. Both meanings are true. Those people who cause pain to other people damage their own character.

Things happen that are not fair – Ecclesiastes 8:10-14

v10 Then I saw that wicked people received honour at their public funerals. They went often to the place where we *worship God. And people praised them in the city where they did their evil acts. These things are difficult to understand. v11 When nobody punishes people quickly because of their crimes, then everyone wants to do wrong things. v12 Wicked people may have done many crimes, so they are very guilty. But they may have a long life. However, I am certain that God’s way is the best way. He will *bless all those people who are afraid to make him angry. v13 God will not *bless wicked people. Because they are not afraid to make God angry, their life will not be long like a shadow.

v14 There is another thing on the earth that is a problem. Some people always obey God. But they get the punishment that wicked people deserve. And some wicked people get the reward that good people should have. This is impossible for anyone to understand!

Verse 10 The Teacher saw many wicked people. They would visit the place where people *worshipped God. Perhaps this was in the city called Jerusalem. But they did not *worship God sincerely. They would act in evil ways. And the Teacher could not understand why other people respected those wicked people. He thought about why people gave honour to wicked people at their funerals. Perhaps people believed that they were *worshipping God in the right way. Or perhaps a person’s wicked deeds had gained wealth and success for him. Then people might praise him because they wanted to benefit in some way.

Verse 11 It is not good to delay the punishment that people get for their crimes. It encourages bad people to do more bad things. Because everything seems normal, sometimes other people start to do bad things too.

Verses 12-13 Wicked people think that God does not care about their actions. They forget that he is patient. God’s time is different from our time. And God wants everybody to have the opportunity to change their behaviour. Finally, God will punish wicked people. They may live for a long time, but one day they will die. A shadow becomes long in the afternoon, but it disappears quickly at night. God will *bless those people who are afraid to make him angry.

Verse 14 The Teacher repeats the problem that is a puzzle to him. People who deserve rewards receive punishment. But wicked people seem to receive rewards.

The Teacher’s advice – Ecclesiastes 8:15

v15 So I advise everyone to enjoy their life. That is the best thing to do in this world. There is no better way to live. So eat well and drink well. Then you will be happy while you work hard. God has given a certain time on the earth to each of us.

Verse 15 Many things are not fair in the world. But there does not seem to be any immediate answer to this puzzle. So the Teacher encourages people to enjoy their life. He has already given this advice 3 times Ecclesiastes 2:24-25; Ecclesiastes 3:13; Ecclesiastes 5:18). God decides how much time each person can live on this earth. So, people should enjoy all the days that God gives to them. Then they will enjoy the hard work that they do.

Nobody can understand God’s ways completely – Ecclesiastes 8:16-17

v16 I could not sleep during the day or during the night because I was trying to understand everything. I wanted to be wise. And I wanted to watch everything that people do on this earth. v17 I saw everything that God has done. But nobody can understand completely what happens on the earth. People may try very hard to understand. But they cannot discover what everything means. A wise person might say that he knows. But it is not possible for him to discover everything about God’s actions.

Verses 16-17 The Teacher was eager. He wanted to discover the purpose of our lives. So he spent days without rest and he spent nights without sleep. He thought in the end that there is a limit. People cannot understand everything about God’s ways. Even wise people cannot do that, whatever they might say. They will never understand everything about the purpose of people’s lives. Because we are human, we must just trust God.

Israelite ~ a person that belonged to the nation called Israel.
Israel ~ the nation that God chose to be his special people or their country.
Jew ~ a person who was born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
Hebrew ~ the language that the Israelites spoke.
Israelite ~ a person that belonged to the nation called Israel.
Israel ~ the nation that God chose to be his special people or their country.
spirit ~ part of a person that we cannot see and that remains alive after death; sometimes it may refer just to a person’s or to an animal’s breath.
worship ~ to thank God and to praise him.
bless ~ to be especially good and kind to someone.