Ecclesiastes 8:1-9 – a verse-by-verse devotional commentary

Main Reading: Ecclesiastes 8:1-9

We pick back up in Ecclesiastes chapter 8, and the main subjects that Qohelet—

the preacher—will be harping on are wisdom, wickedness, war, and the wind.

v. 1 — “Who is like the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man's wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.”

You might not hear it immediately, but Solomon is speaking in terms we use often today. In the first line he’s basically admitting that being wise—or having some understanding of life—is a hard thing to acquire…not everyone has that ability. But he also says that when someone is wise—when they have wisdom—it isn’t hard to tell. We say “the lightbulb went off” [my goal as a teacher is to help you have that experience at least once]. We would say: “I can see it all over your face”—when someone knows something, you can tell. And when they’ve been through something, you can read their face.

A truly wise person doesn’t scowl down on others in disgust—they are joyfully aware of their own limitations and you can see it on their face.

And this isn’t just true for wisdom, learning, and realizations…it works the opposite way too. Your face changes when in fear or shock. Remember this story?

"King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand. Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote. Then the king's color changed , and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together" (Daniel 5:1-6).

Speaking of kings…Solomon now says this:

v. 2-4 — “I say: Keep the king's command, because of God's oath to him. Be not hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. For the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to him, ‘What are you doing?’”

His advice is: keep the king’s command—and don’t think Solomon’s just saying that ‘cause he was the king…There are good reasons to listen to what the king says. And notice the reason provided! He doesn’t say: “obey the king because he’s powerful” or “listen to him because he’s a good guy who knows what he’s doing…”

No, actually, the reason Solomon gives for why we should follow the king’s command has nothing to do with the king himself…but everything that God has done for the king.

God has made an oath to the king, Solomon says…I want to save some of my observations for later, but on the surface, here, we can acknowledge that God appoints kings and no one comes to power without His permission.

"He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding" (Daniel 2:21).

"Jesus answered him, 'You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above...'" (John 19:11).

"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God" (Romans 13:1).

Now, it goes way deeper than that…but I’ll leave it there for now. God appoints, so don’t rebel. God has made an oath with the king, so whether he’s good or bad,

don’t run away from him because God has made a promise to him that He guarantees to fulfill.

That being the case, you don’t want to leave the king’s court too quickly…

for one, that could be rude and you could be killed! And you also don’t want to advocate for a bad idea (evil cause) in front of the king… Think about it…if you convince the king to do something bad, you’ll both be idiots—and you’ll be blamed. Or if you try to convince the king to do something bad and he sees right through it, you’ll fall out of his favor. [Haman’s “evil cause” came back to bite him…Esther 7:1-10].

v. 5-8 — “Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way. For there is a time and a way for everything, although man's trouble lies heavy on him. For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it.”

Okay, I had to wrestle with these verses for a while because there’s a way of reading them that sounds almost too obvious to even explain. And there’s another way of reading them that seems contradictory to Solomon’s point…

You can hear it like this: “obey the command, walk wisely, and life will go better.”

In general, it’s true that wisdom corresponds with a well-ordered life and foolishness results in ruin.

But the big mistake would be to turn that into a guarantee of personal prosperity:

“if you just obey God/the kings, things will go smoothly.” Here, Qoheleth is not answering the question of how can we take control of our lives or predict and improve the outcomes of our actions… He’s actually going to remind us that our ability to figure things out and exercise control is very limited!

But, anyways, it’s true that if everyone kept the king’s commands and, if people followed God’s Law, there would be less misery and harmful circumstances in the world…It’s also true that if humans perfectly kept God’s law, there’d be no moral evil or self-inflicted destruction. And if humanity had remained obedient from the beginning, we wouldn’t know the evil we now experience.

But Ecclesiastes is not trying to get us to envision a hypothetical world where everyone has wisdom, obedience, and is in total control… Ecclesiastes is all about telling it like it is. And describing the world accurately. So, wisdom is real, commands are good, but wrapping our heads around everything is out of our reach. There is a “right time” & a “right way” for everything—and if you’re wise, you can pick up on some of that…But wisdom and knowledge do not make us masters. Under the Sun—in the world where we’re living—we are uncertain about the future. We don’t know “what is to be” Solomon says. We can’t see or guarantee that our compliance to any command will result in less calamity…

And on top of that, let’s just say you are wise, that doesn’t mean you possess the ability to carry out your wisdom perfectly and to always act accordingly.

And neither can you control the consequences of your actions, whatever they might be…So, yes, God has given us real and good structures in the form of the Law and wisdom.

By them, we know what is fitting and what’s right. But this wisdom does’t put the future in our hands… These things don’t give us any self-control or control over the world we’re living in. Whether you’re an obedient citizen and a faithful Christian or you’re a straight-up heathen, you do not have control over this world—not the wind [spirit], the wars, or the way & day you die.

v. 9 — “All this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt.”

So, these were The Preacher’s thoughts as he considered all the damage that has been done in this world, especially evil things going on because of people in power and the way people conduct themselves in their societal positions.

Solomon says that one man having power over another is not good…it’s actually hurtful & harmful.

And, remember, in the nation God had designed, there were no kings to start with…there were originally no sinful men ruling over other sinners…But you may remember that Israel rejected God as their king and begged Him for a human authority. And that didn’t go so well, as God predicted.

"Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the LORD. And the LORD said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them." (1 Samuel 8:4-9).

The kings of Israel would go on to be some of the most despicable human beings ever. But, of course, as you know, not every human ruler has been bad…in fact, the greatest ruler of all is a Man! And this man was wisdom personified. You want to talk about someone’s face shining with wisdom? Jesus’ face literally shines like no other! "And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light" (Matthew 17:1-2).

And anyone who got a good look at the goodness of Jesus walked away with a shiny face too! [Story of Moses in Exodus 34 and Stephen in Acts 6:15]

But there’s something more about Jesus than His glory that makes Him special…and it has to do with something this text already hinted at… Remember when Solomon said God made an oath to the king? Well, I don’t think you should hear that as a general rule…instead this ought to make you think about who had been king up until this point…who had been king prior to Solomon?

David, his father, was king. And God had made an oath to David. Or, as the Bible often calls these sorts of things, God had a covenant with David.

"Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’” In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David" (2 Samuel 7:8-17).

Now, what in the world is this oath about? It’s not merely about an earthly kingdom I can tell you that! This covenant promises a dwelling place without disturbance. No more violence. Total peace.

And who in the world is this talking about? Not one of David’s immediate sons, that’s for sure! This covenant is about someone who is king forever. With a great name in all the earth.

Someone who is God’s Son and who has God’s unending love always. Folks, the oath God made with the king, David, is all about Jesus Christ! And you might say: “wait a minute…the prophecy mentioned something about this promised son being punished for sin?” Well, what do you think Jesus was doing on the cross with stripes on His back? He wasn’t dying for His own sins—He had none—He was dying for yours. So…stick with your king.