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"Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which He hath made
crooked?" (7: 13).
Contrasted with the works of God are the works of man.
"I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and
vexation of spirit. That which is crooked cannot be made straight" (1: 14, 15).
When the Apostles came first to Thessalonica they were styled "These that have
turned the world upside down" (Acts 17: 6). It is the world that is in reality upside
down. The very word rendered "crooked" is so translated in Psa. 146: 9, "The way of
the wicked He turneth upside down". We do well therefore, before hastily espousing
some cause of the world, to "consider the work of God". If the deranged affairs be a part
of His doing, shall we lead men to fight against Him? Then consider again, Have all the
revolutions that have arisen on earth ever made crooked things STRAIGHT? At best
they have made the crookedness less apparent, or cause the pressure to be felt in another
direction, but God and His people are concerned with utter rectification, not mere
palliatives, and that awaits the day of the Lord. The word "straight" occurs again in
Eccles. 12: 9, "set in order". In the Chaldee of Dan. 4: 36 (33), it is rendered "I was
established", with reference to a kingdom.
Such straightening out of the crookedness of Adam's race can never be accomplished
by man. We patiently await the day of Christ. We shall not sit inert, we shall not be idle,
but rather shall be occupied with nobler and more fruitful service by a due recognition of
the true dispensational character of many of the things around us.
#15.
The practical problem of good and evil (7: 14).
pp. 115 - 118
Four times in chapter 7: does the Preacher bid us "consider".
"Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which He hath made
crooked?" (13).
"In the day of adversity consider . . . . ." (14).
"Consider, this have I found . . . . ." (27).
"Consider, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have
sought out many inventions" (29).
Let us look at verse 14.
"In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath
set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him."
It is sometimes helpful to work back through a passage and it may help us here.