Ecclesiastes 4

Jesus is incredible because not only is He the answer to the oppression mentioned in 4:1-3, He also fully experienced it on the cross.

Look at Solomon’s words and picture Christ handed over to be crucified:

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 oppressor there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. (4:1-3)

You want to see human evil? Look at the cross and you’ll find an innocent man bleeding and shaking. The righteous (Christ) was overpowered by unrighteousness. Does that sound like an event that is even possible for a righteous God in total control?

If I saw someone crucified I would probably think something like verse 3. “Better are the dead than this fellow”. At the end of “Braveheart” when William Wallace is tortured the crowd – who, upon Wallace's entry, mocked and threw rubbish – cries for mercy. Better is this one dead than to suffer what he is suffering.

Solomon raises a fundamental human question here: Why does suffering go on? If God is in control why does He allow women to be raped and people to be murdered? Like Solomon we look and see “all the oppressions that are done under the sun” (4:1). Things haven’t changed in the 2,000+ years since Solomon wrote this book.

The other day my roommate told me about a young woman about to be married, a grad student at an Ivy League school. One night she went into her building on campus to research (for which you need an access card) and she disappeared. Her body was found a week later in the walls of the building.

That kind of thing makes me want to cry out, “Why?” I’d almost rather she’d never been born than to experience that.

How is Jesus the answer to oppression like that? How can He possible undo such harm as afflicted upon that young woman? Or the Jews in World War II?

First, God is not uncaring. His “steadfast love endures forever” (Psalm 136). He is also good and is outraged at every rape, every murder, every story like the young woman’s. He’s seen every evil deed ever performed under the sun, and it angers Him. It grieves Him. It’s always grieved Him, from the beginning of evil in Genesis:

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. (Gen. 6:5-6)

But not only with rape and murder and great evil does God’s anger stop. He hates all of it. He hates our pride and arrogance, He hates our selfishness and He goes as far as to say just hating someone is murdering them. Just lusting after a woman is adultery. God doesn’t just perceive outward evil, He sees what we do and say in our hearts and minds.

There is evil in the earth, and that’s not the way it was supposed to be. We cry out “Why?” when we see suffering and evil and I think that’s appropriate, but we need to realize something – we’re not “separate” from the evil that goes on. We are apart of it and contribute to it! From God’s perspective, sin is sin. I am no better than whoever murdered that young girl because I have sinned, I have evil within me. To be judged by God’s perfection reveals me to be a filthy, selfish, proud, arrogant, perverted, hateful person. I would rather eat a gallon of ice cream than share it, I would much rather enjoy lusting after every girl I see than respect their husbands. I have transgressed God’s law, and I am part of the oppression.

Jesus is the answer because in the oppression He suffered on the cross He accepted the right punishment for me, for us all. In order for God to be just He had to answer our sin and oppression, and He expels His full anger on the cross. His perfect Son becomes sin for us to free us from the oppression of being under sin. He also frees us from our desires that oppress others. We are made new in His blood and we are promised to be heirs of a kingdom where there is no sin and oppression, where people listen to God and God can be seen fully by a people not marred by sin, but a people made righteous and clean by Christ.

This last bit of the chapter is fascinating and is definitely about Christ:

Better was a poor and wise youth…

Jesus was poor, wise, and young when He died.

…than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice.

Very similar to our friend Solomon.

For he went from prison to the throne, though in his own kingdom he had been poor.

Jesus came to the earth in flesh – which, being God, must have been like prison – submitting to our daily needs and feelings, our struggles and our pain. In the world He created He was poor.

I saw all the living who move about under the sun, along with that youth who was to stand in the king’s place. There was no end of all the people, all of whom he led. (4:13-16)

This sounds like an image from Revelation – everyone streaming to Christ, with no end to the people:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10)

Can’t wait to be there with Solomon, made new and pure by Jesus.