Yesterday, I mentioned that we are given six more ways that man views things, “under the sun” from 3:16-4:16. This morning let’s look at the first three. So, what does man see, under the sun?
First, where is justice? 3:16-17
Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. 17 I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work.
Solomon says that you look for justice and even where you are supposed to find it, even where you would assume to find it, under the sun, among men and yet what do you find? You don’t find justice, you find wickedness…you find corruption. Where supposedly you are to find righteousness, you don’t…rather iniquity is there. The abject failure of our political leaders, courts and those who are to enforce the law fairly is being lived out daily in full color before our eyes, it is almost too hard to believe! And what are we to do with this, what are we to think, how are we to make sense of all of this?
Well, we know that God will set it right. We fight for justice and fairness, but not thinking that, under the sun, we will see it. Rather, we know that God will cause all of heaven and earth to behold true justice, He will set it right at the Coming of Christ and because of that…we press on as His ambassadors for the cause, His cause of right and wrong.
In Bible Study some time ago I told the story that Walter Wangrin recounts regarding his four-year-old son. It seems that he was best friends, this little boy, with the four-year old red-haired girl next door. He can still see these two children walking hand in hand with their bucket of strawberries, eating them as they meandered through the grass. And then, out of the blue the parents of the little girl said, no more, she was not ever to play with the little boy again…ever. The little boy did not understand, and his parents could not explain it to him…at least not yet.
The boy grew up and was the constant barb of jokes and ridicule…even singled out by the police one evening for simply walking down the street as he made his way home. What was the problem? Walter Wangrin’s son, his adopted son, is black, and a target of injustice many times in his life. The story teller’s point is simple: If you teach your children to demand justice, under the sun, you will teach them to be bitter, angry, vengeful, hateful people…Instead, you must teach them forgiveness. Fight for justice…live by forgiveness.
You see, brothers and sisters, forgiveness does not come from this world…it comes from another world, it comes from above the sun and is characteristic of the heavenly existence of God’s people. Forgiveness is profoundly eschatological drawing as it does from the King of glory and from a world unknown to this one. Our refusal to forgive, our insistence in carrying around a bitter heart and an unwillingness to forgive your brother, your sister, your husband or your wife, maybe your parents…this is what binds you to this world and to the despair that this world offers, remember, that is all it CAN offer. We must not think of forgiveness, true forgiveness as being that which comes from within man, as if it comes from this world as if it is innate within us. It is supernatural…it is other-worldly.
Second, Solomon speaks to the fact that under the sun, what is the difference between animals and man? 3:18-22
I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. 19 For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. 20 All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.21 Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? 22 So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?
He says, what’s the difference? Both live, both die, and both are put into the ground. Some men today, are perfectly content with this explanation. They have given up what is true by the light of nature, and followed their inclinations right down the highway of despair with foot on the accelerator. Others know they are different from the animals, but have a dickens of time trying to explain how and why.
The irony of our public school system is almost humorous if it wasn’t so damning. Today’s kids sit in Biology where they are told that they are accidents, the result of climbing out of the primeval goo, that they really ARE no different from the animals. But then we still expect them to take us seriously when we teach them about self-esteem and how valuable they are. Pastor Doug Wilson concludes: “In the last analysis scientism can only measure how fast we rot. Knowledge of the final judgment and how men as men will stand before a great throne does not come from dissecting frogs.”
Third, in verse 4:1-3, Solomon mentions how it is that those in power abuse those who are under them.
Again, I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them.2 And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. 3 But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.
And who is there, under the sun, to comfort those who are so abused, the weak who are taken advantage of, those who are oppressed by the powerful? Nothing to be done…it is just the way it is. Mankind lives by the golden rule, namely, he who has the gold makes the rules. But of course the life above the sun, the life of heaven that we are to live as a light in the darkness is completely antithetical to that.
Our powerful and influential, in fact every one of us, are to embrace justice, back to point one. We are to care for the powerless and the weak, even as our Father in heaven has them in His heart. The principles from OUR kingdom, the one bestowed upon us, the one above the sun, speaks to other realities and therefore a completely different life, as it is set with the power of the resurrection, the power of the Christ. There is nothing more sad than the church of Christ not living in her identity, not understanding the life that transcends this world, the life that is ours to live.
I had a Christian man, who was dealing with some great difficulties between himself and a brother, tell me: “I know pagans, outright pagans, that I trust more than this Christians, because at least the pagans won’t lie about me.”
It is sad when the children of darkness are at times more wise than the children of light. And brothers and sisters, nowhere is this seen more profoundly than in the way we, Christians abuse power. Ironically, even when we have very little power, we still find a way to exert it unrighteously over the weak. I have watched children hurt or ridicule others who are weaker than them either by raw force as is common for boys, or by manipulative power, which is more common for girls…with words and actions that are purposed to inflict pain and simply because they can. No concern for the weak, no concern for the one with little clout in that situation.
We must teach our children to understand and to submit to the glory that is ours in Christ to care for the weak, to protect the downtrodden…But maybe our kids don’t know this, because we don’t know it! Maybe they often act this way, because it is what they are having modeled for them. Often children act this way because this is the way we parent them. We use OUR power, our authority as bullies and tyrants and we are teaching them to do the same.
This is inbred in all of us, this perversion of taking our strength and punishing and even destroying those who do not have our power or our position. It is, when you boil it down, it is what prompted Hitler to the extremities that his evil embraced and it knows no place in the kingdom of heaven. And when we are the recipients of this oppression at the hands of others, we are to remember the judgment, remember what our God promises. And we are to remember the God of all comfort, who is OUR God.
We are not bound to life under the sun, not in our practice nor in our responses. It doesn’t mean that we are never going to be oppressed by the powerful, it just means that we are called by faith to see it differently and to respond differently. Not only are we not depressed or feeling despair we, with our eyes set on the promises of the eschaton, the promises of Jesus, we rejoice…we rejoice and we trust.
We can understand why it is that man DOES despair, what else is there for them to do? What is there under the sun that they can embrace that sets them free? Nothing…nothing at all. But if we are distressed by the same things, then what do we, more than other men? Other men do not have our God to run to. They have never proved his faithfulness as we have done. Solomon is telling us that it is no wonder if they are bowed down with alarm and cowed with fear…but we are of another spirit, we have been born again unto a new hope and our heart lies in heaven not on earthly things and if we are as distracted as any other man or woman would be, under the sun, what is the value of the grace and of the presence of the Holy Spirit that causes us to embrace another world? (Adapted from Charles Spurgeon)
You see, your eschatology governs everything, even your moods! Depression, anger, sullenness, all of these and such things are put to flight with one faithful look into heaven!
Prayer: Father of mercies, I too often live my life in a manner that does not set me apart from those who do not love you. Forgive me. In all circumstances I pray that I would trust You and not fear. I know there are consequences for sin, in the world and in my own life, I humble ask that you would give me the grace and strength to endure whatever Your kind hand deems right to set in mine, through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.
Psalm Chant: O Give Thanks Unto the Lord