Ecclesiastes Chapter Eight, Kingly Power & Future Judgment

Ecclesiastes 8:4 Where the word of a king is, there is power; and who may say to him, “What are you doing?” [5] He who keeps his command will experience nothing harmful; and a wise man’s heart discerns both time and judgment, [6] because for every matter there is a time and judgment, though the misery of man increases greatly. [7] For he does not know what will happen; so who can tell him when it will occur?

Verse 4, and the beginning of verse 5 both speak about the king’s power (authority) and the hearer’s wisdom to obey his command. Doing so (that is, being lawful in the country one is a citizen of) will keep said citizen from experiencing harm. This harm, of course, would come from law infraction and the penal consequence it incurs.

The king of the OT translates into the authority of the NT. And what does the New Testament say about obedience to civil authority? “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same,” Romans 13:1-3.

Why does the Bible put such a concerted emphasis on the idea of civil, human, temporal, authority? The representative authority is a minister of God, in the civil sense, Romans 13:4. How is that? The government, in whatever form it takes, represents authority over the land it occupies and the people governed therein. In other words, human government is a reflection, however pale and imperfect, of God. God is King of kings, and Lord of lords. He is the ultimate Potentate, 1 Timothy 6:15. Focusing on this section of 1 Timothy, we learn a few things about the sovereignty of God. He gives life to all things, verse 13. He is the blessed and only Potentate or sovereign. He alone possesses immortality, dwells in unapproachable light, and is conceded to have both honor and everlasting power, verse 16. It is this same God who commands Christians to obey the civil authority, just as He commanded the Jews to obey their kings during the monarchy.

To preach a disregard to the civil authority flies in the face of the express command, “Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor,” Romans 13:7. Seeing as how this verse follows Paul’s explanation on civil obedience, one may assert that our government and its authority are in view presently. The latter portion of the verse contends with the idea of rebuking the king for a decree he has made. The king possesses authority; as the ruler or head of state, he does not have political peers, so no one may address him as such.The latter portion of verse 5 speaks of the wise man practicing discernment regarding the time and place for judgment. This still alludes to the idea of kingly judgment due the authority vested in him by his position. The king may pass sentence upon a subject to determine the guilt or innocence of a man, and those who keep the king’s command will not experience a harmful judgment.

Verse 6 refers the reader back to the opening passage in chapter 3, that under heaven there is a time and season for all things. Now the preacher offers a variation: that there is a time and judgment for every matter. Despite this, the preacher notes the quantitative accumulation of misery in mankind, as we ponder what will happen, or come. The fixation of what is future paralyzes the best of us, and the preacher attributes mounting misery to the anticipation of the unknown bringing calamitous misery on man. The future, like death, is a mystery so immense that it is (humanly speaking) beyond comprehension. Many people, for valid reasons, opt to avoid serious consideration of it. Others obsess, as if knowing might garner them some kind of control over it. Verse 7 borders on the concept of paranoia; man is oblivious of what is next, or about to happen, so who can possibly relate when that unknown thing–whatever that “thing” is–will occur? The king in his authority is among those who cannot do this. The civil position accorded to earthly rule is fixed in the present. No man on earth can see what even the next moment will bring. This domain is God’s alone, see 1 Corinthians 4:5. Rather than focusing on what is to come, that is the time and judgment of a matter, we ought to focus on the present. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation,” 2 Corinthians 6:2.