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distrust our own hearts too much to allow ourselves to be drawn beyond the
divine limits.
When the reader opens the sacred Volume, he soon becomes aware that
much must have taken place which is unrecorded. He can discover by what is
written in Isaiah 45:18, 'God Himself that formed the earth ... He created it
not in vain', and in Jeremiah 4:23, that the earth was not created 'without
form, and void', but that it became so. He can further discover that 'the
world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished' (2 Pet. 3:5,6),
but he will not find recorded the many details which his natural mind would
lead him to inquire into. In the third chapter of Genesis, the serpent, who
is afterwards discovered to be Satan, is introduced without any explanation
as to how he came to be in the condition of enmity against God that we find
to be the case. The Scriptures reveal glimpses into the exalted rank, awful
ambition, and fearful fall of Satan, but why he was thus allowed to sin, and
all the many problems of the philosopher regarding the origin of evil remains
unsolved.
Is it for us, when Scripture is silent, to attempt to force an answer
by turning to the oracles of philosophy and human reason? If God has hidden,
shall we not rather bow the knee in submission? Must we know all? Is there
no room for faith? Are not the words of Job 42:1 -6 a more fitting attitude
of mind? Job was troubled by the problem of evil. His friends sought to
administer comfort, but in vain. He never received an answer to the problem.
All that we can learn is recorded by James, 'that the Lord is very pitiful,
and of tender mercy' (James 5:11).
There are many expressions in Ecclesiastes which teach us that a calm
rest in the Lord, whether we fully understand all His ways or not, is His
will for us here. 'God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, for there
is a time There for every purpose and for every work' (Eccles. 3:17).
'Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad' (Eccles. 7:7). Those who fail to
see that God's purpose is overall, must, when they contemplate the oppression
on every hand, feel driven almost to desperation, but the consciousness that
though Here evil prospers, 'there is a time There for every purpose and for
every work', will keep us in the right attitude before God. The reason for
the dissatisfaction of the writer of Ecclesiastes is recorded in 7:25 -29.
It is written as an example and a warning. He did not abide by what was
written; no, he would find out 'the reason of things'. What did he find? He
found, by bitter experience that wrecked his whole career, truth which he
could have known by what had been written for his guidance in the book of
Proverbs. In those Proverbs, written for the guidance of the young Solomon,
we read again and again warnings about the flattering woman. To Solomon was
given in Proverbs 31:10 -31, a description of the woman God would have him
choose for his wife. Instead of this he wanted to know by experience the
'wickedness of folly', and he says:
'I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and
nets, and her hands as bands ... Behold, this have I found, saith the
preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account: which yet my
soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found;
but a woman among all those have I not found' (Eccles. 7:26 -28).
Poor Solomon! We see him with his 'threescore queens and fourscore
concubines, and virgins without number' (Song of Sol. 6:8) still unsatisfied
(for 1 Kings 11:3 reveals the fact that Solomon had 700 wives and 300
concubines, making a thousand in all). What a pitiable object lesson! In