THE `REASON' OF EVIL DISCOVERED
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`He hath made every thing beautiful in His time: also He hath set the world (olam, the age) in their heart, so that
no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end'.
So in 7:23,24 :
`I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me. That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out?'
In 7:26,27,28,29 the word `find' comes again and again, leading to the discovery that man has departed from his
original uprightness, and sought out many inventions.
The conclusion of this matter is reached in 8:17; 9:1 :
`Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because
though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet
shall he not be able to find it. For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and
the wise, and their works, ARE IN THE HAND OF GOD: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before
them (in the future)'.
The baffling experiences which have this effect have been `set the one over against the other' by God.
The word `set' is usually rendered `made'. It comes in 3:11 and 7:29:
`He hath made every thing beautiful in His time ... the work that God maketh ...' (3:11).
`God hath made man upright' (7:29).
The two experiences, prosperity and adversity, are made to balance one another, they do not always follow one
another as cause and effect, but as 9:11 says, `time and chance' enter in and prevent calculation. No one can foresee
what shall be `after'. God alone holds all things in His hands and works all things according to His purposes.
We are to rejoice in the day of prosperity. Blessings of health and friends, of happy labour and happy homes
come from the Lord:
`Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take
his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God. Though He give not much (cf. verse 12) yet he
remembereth the days of his life: because God causeth a response in the joy of his heart' (5:19,20 Author's
translation).
Those who misunderstand Ecclesiastes think that its teaching makes for gloominess, brooding, austerity and
cynicism. This is quite untrue. Only he who has faced the fact of death in the light of resurrection, only he who has
ceased from vain speculation and has reached the haven of peace in the will of God, only he who has gratefully
acknowledged the limitations set around this life and its possibilities, can really enjoy the blessings as they come
without being haunted by the shadow of the `one event', or being troubled by the oblivion of the `one place'.
The word rendered `prosperity' is tob which is the word `good'. We are not surprised therefore to find that the
word `adversity' is ra `evil'. This knowledge of `good and evil', with its concomitant sorrow and death, commenced
in the Garden of Eden and will go on until that day when God Himself shall wipe away all tears from off all faces.
The whole of the age is associated with the acquiring of this knowledge, and its application. When experiencing the
`good', rejoice. When experiencing the `evil', consider. Let the visitation not pass without profit. Let the
chastisement yield its fruit. Let the lesson be learned. Let patience have her perfect work. The day of prosperity is
not the time when we consider the purpose of the ages with so much profit as in the day of adversity. Then, says
Koheleth, consider the purposes of God and learn the humbling lesson. A word almost identical with `adversity' is
`sadness' (7:3), and the lesson is the same. Chapter 11:9,10 bases its teaching upon the same truth as does 7:14.
Youth will, and should rejoice, but let rejoicing be of that sort that remembers the fact of judgment. The presence of
`good and evil', and the right attitude of mind regarding good and evil enters into the warp and woof of life, and
Ecclesiastes rightly followed will cast many a ray of light upon the ways of God with man, `all the days of his vain
life which he spendeth as a shadow' (6:12).