Ecclesiastes Chapter Eight, Fearing Before God

Ecclesiastes 8:11 Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. [12] Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him. [13] But it will not be well with the wicked; nor will he prolong his days which are as a shadow, because he does not fear before God.

The idea is laxity of justice in government when law breakers are caught and tried. The sentence, or verdict, is not speedily carried out and therefore it emboldens future wrongdoers to follow in the footsteps of their progenitors. There is, in the United States, a strange amount of criminals condemned to death row that, rather than die because of their sentence, die from old age or sickness. Some inmates last 30+ years behind bars after being sentenced to death. Think of it, if a murderer is convicted at 30, lives 30 years behind bars and is finally then executed, he has doubled his lifespan since the time of the crime that put him in prison. Meanwhile, his victim remains dead, and their family awaits justice to be done.

Granted, the system–no system–is perfect. Innocent men go to prison while criminals wander free. The guilty can bribe their way out of jeopardy if wealthy or influential enough. But that should not and cannot stop the justice system from enacting their sentencing on the guilty in amends for what they have done. As God told Noah long ago, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed,” Genesis 9:6. Capital punishment is being defined to Noah and his sons; a mandate that has not been rescinded since the Flood ended. But judicial laxity creates boldness in the citizenry. Those bent toward taking advantage of their neighbor will only be more so if they feel that the governing authority vacillates as to how, and when, to punish for a crime. A speedy sentence engenders fear of the civil authority when considering wrongdoing. “And those who remain shall hear and fear, and hereafter they shall not again commit such evil among you. Your eye shall not pity: life shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,” Deuteronomy 19:20, 21.

Judicial law is not meant to be merciful or forgiving. It has to do with justice, and matters of objective right or wrong. Like the giving of the Decalogue to Israel, human government was given civil authority to control the outward expression of evil via violent crime with the deterrent of capital punishment. When a man sinned in Israel, and his crime was worthy of death, the sentence was speedily carried out by the community he was a member of. The guilty party was stoned to death. One of the reasons the members of his own community were involved was undoubtedly to demonstrate the severity of what happens when someone transgresses against the law, so that future persons would think twice before joining in such actions.

Because laws are so lax, and their execution so delayed, crime proliferates. Now one cannot undersell the power of our sin nature. All sins are derived from our innate sin nature. Sins are an expression of our perverse desire to serve self over God. Some sins do not merit death in the penal sense, and there is sin, according to the Apostle John, that does not lead to physical death, while others will, 1 John 5:17. All sin reveals that we are spiritually dead, and will be partakers in the Lake of Fire if we do not, by the gospel message, receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. But not all expressions of sin merit a death sentence, or a jail sentence for that matter. But for the ones that do, this warning from the preacher is to spur along the authority to do what is right, from the perspective of the ruling authority, on behalf of the commonwealth to deter violent crime.

Reaching back to verse 10, the preacher recalls the wicked. He speaks about a man who did evil 100 times and prolonged his days on earth, perhaps the same man buried in his home town as something of a celebrated hero or celebrity. Because justice is not swift, the sinner prospers in his ways, at least from an earthly perspective. And when an earthly perspective is all that one has, it might be easy to begin to warp or lose sight of justice, right, wrong, good and evil. These seemingly abstract terms begin to lose merit and even coherence in the face of worldly philosophy, which seems to reward evil and even punish good. But for those who fear God, we are told never to mistake right for wrong, or good for evil, Isaiah 5:20. Rather, the preacher observes that the one who fears before God will be well. Note that he does not use his typical contrasting word, “better.” No, better can denote two things that are actually bad, but by reason of comparison, one is simply not as bad. Better doesn’t mean good, it means a qualitatively superior choice than its alternative. The Hebrew for “well,” is “towb,” and is an involved word. It can mean, “good, favorable, festive, pleasing, pleasant, well, better, right, best.” As an adjective it denotes good in every sense of the word.

It is used twice; the first time in verse 12 to indicate that it will be well with those who fear before God, while verse 13 reveals that the wicked will not be well regardless of appearance. The one who fears before God accepts and recognizes Him for who and what He is. He is the all powerful Creator of Heaven and Earth. He is the Father of spirits, the Maker of life, the Giver of all blessings, the Holy One. When our understanding of God comes into focus, our worldview begins to shift accordingly, and we see ourselves and the world system through the lens of the Creator. We are blessed with coming near Him, and we fear Him; that is a reverent and worshipful attitude when considering His person and place  in our lives and life in general. Contrarily, the wicked, whose length of days the preacher likens to a shadow, will not be prolonged. Why? Because he does not fear before God. The Psalmist writes, “The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts,” Psalm 10:4. Furthermore, Asaph says of them, “And they say, “How does God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High?” Behold, these are the ungodly, who are always at ease,” Psalm 73:11, 12.

Verse 13 reaches beyond earthly time. From our finite and flawed view, the wicked may seem to get away with many things. But we cannot forget two things. One, is that you and I are also wicked as far as the flesh is concerned. We who belong to Christ are born again, but our sin nature lingers, and we think, say, and do things contrary to our Lord’s will and purpose. Two, God will recompense them in His time, demonstrating the perfection of His own judgment and authority, Deuteronomy 32:35, see also Romans 12:19. The wicked have no fear of God. That is, he has no proper perspective of God’s person and purpose. His view of God is deeply distorted. Our own view of God tends to be that way before we finally know Him. We conjure a deity in our own image, favorable to our circumstance, or follow religion where God is on the periphery while we and our wants take center stage. For God to reign, self must be dethroned. But God will not forcibly tear him down. No, we must willingly abdicate the throne to its rightful ruler, as stewards who were charged by God to govern not self, but the creation He put us on in His name.