Ecclesiastes 9:1 - Meaning and Application

People have often observed that those who claim to search for the philosopher’s stone, though they never found what they wanted, still uncovered many useful things along the way. In a similar way, Solomon, after he had tried hard to understand God’s work at the end of the previous chapter, did not reach full understanding. Yet he did find enough to repay his search and give him real satisfaction, and he now shares that with us. He had thought it through carefully so he could speak for the good of others. What we are to say, we should first think through. We should think twice before we speak once, and then say what we have considered. “I believed, therefore I have spoken.”

The hard thing Solomon faced when studying God’s rule over the world was this: there seems to be very little difference between the way good people and bad people are treated in outward life. They often share the same comforts and the same troubles, and events happen to them alike. This has troubled many wise and thoughtful people. Solomon speaks about it here, and while he does not fully solve the mystery of God’s work, he does say enough to keep it from becoming a stumbling block.

Before he describes the temptation at its strongest, he first lays down a sure truth that he means to hold on to. If we believe it firmly, it will weaken the force of the problem. This has always been how God’s people have faced this question. Job first spoke of God’s perfect knowledge (Job 24:1). Jeremiah spoke of God’s righteousness (Jeremiah 12:1). Another prophet spoke of God’s holiness (Habakkuk 1:13). The psalmist spoke of God’s goodness and special favor toward his people (Psalm 73:1). Solomon rests on the same truth here: even if good and evil seem to be handed out without distinction, God still has special care for his own people.

The righteous and the wise, and everything they do, are in God’s hand. That means they are under his special protection and guidance. He orders all their affairs for their good. Their wise and righteous actions are held by him to be rewarded in the world to come, even if they are not rewarded here. They may seem to be handed over to their enemies, but that is not the full story. No one has power over them except what is given from above. What happens to them does not happen by chance. It all comes according to God’s will and plan, and he will turn what seemed most against them into good for them. This should calm us, whatever happens, for all God’s saints are in his hand (Deuteronomy 33:3; John 10:29; Psalm 31:15).

Solomon also lays down this rule, that we must not judge God’s love or hatred by a person’s outward condition. If prosperity were a sure sign of God’s love, and trouble a sure sign of his hatred, then it would be a fair offense to see the wicked and the godly treated alike. But it is not so. No one can know love or hatred by what lies before him in this world, by outward things that can be seen and touched. We know these things by what is within us. If we love God with all our heart, that is a sign that he loves us. And if we are controlled by the fleshly mind that is hostile to him, that shows we are under his wrath. The final proof will come later, in people’s lasting condition after this life. It is certain that people are happy or miserable according to whether they are under God’s love or hatred, not according to whether the world smiles or frowns on them. So if God loves a righteous person, as he certainly does, that person is happy even if the world is against him. And if God hates a wicked person, as he certainly does, that person is miserable even if the world favors him. Then this offense caused by the equal outward treatment of people is removed.

After laying down these principles, Solomon admits that outwardly all things happen alike to all. That has always been true, and so we should not think it strange if it is true now, whether in our own lives or in our families. Some think that what follows, down to Psalm 31:13, is the bad reasoning of atheists against God’s providence. But it seems better to take it as Solomon’s own concession, which he can make freely after establishing truths strong enough to protect us from any wrong use of what he admits.

Here we see the clear difference between the character of the righteous and the wicked, even though the same outward events may happen to both. Solomon sets them side by side to show that, while all things come alike to all, that does not erase the lasting difference between moral good and evil. That difference remains fixed.

The righteous are clean, with clean hands and pure hearts. The wicked are unclean, ruled by unclean desires. They may think themselves pure, but they are not cleansed from their filth. God will certainly make a difference between the clean and the unclean, between the precious and the worthless, in the world to come, even if he does not seem to do so now.

The righteous sacrifice, meaning they take care to worship God according to his will, both inwardly and outwardly. The wicked do not sacrifice. That is, they neglect God’s worship and are unwilling to give anything for his honor. “What is the Almighty, that they should serve him?” The righteous are good, good in God’s sight, and they do good in the world. The wicked are sinners, breaking God’s law and harming both God and people.

The wicked man swears. He has no respect for God’s name, but uses it carelessly and falsely. The righteous man fears an oath. He does not swear lightly, but only when required, and then with great reverence. He fears to take an oath because it is a solemn appeal to God as witness and judge. And if he has taken one, he fears to break it, because God is righteous and will punish falsehood.

Yet for all these deep differences, there is little difference between the outward conditions of the righteous and the wicked in this life. One event happens to both. Is David rich? So is Nabal. Is Joseph honored by his king? So is Haman. Is Ahab killed in battle? So is Josiah. Are the bad figs carried to Babylon? So are the good figs (Jeremiah 24:1). The same event has very different origins, purposes, and natures for each one. Its effects and outcomes are also very different. The same providence is, for one person, a sign of life leading to life, and for another, a sign of death leading to death, though outwardly it looks the same.

He admits that this is a very serious trouble for wise and good people. “This is an evil, one of the biggest problems among all the things done under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 9:3). Nothing has disturbed me more than this, that the same thing happens to all people.

This also hardens atheists and gives strength to evil people. That is why the hearts of human beings are full of evil and completely fixed on doing evil (Ecclesiastes 8:11). When they see that the same thing happens to the righteous and the wicked, they wrongly conclude that it does not matter to God whether people are righteous or wicked. So they feel free to follow their own desires.

To make this hard question clearer, he begins with the happiness of the righteous and ends with the misery of the wicked. No matter what righteous people suffer, they and their work are in God’s hands, and that is the safest place they could be. No one could be in better hands. But no matter how well the wicked seem to do, madness fills their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

So do not envy the success of evil people. They are mad people now, and all the pleasures they seem to enjoy are like the pleasant dreams of a confused person. They are mad about their idols (Jeremiah 50:38) and mad against God’s people (Acts 26:11). When the prodigal son repented, he “came to himself” (Luke 15:17), which means he had been out of his right mind before.

And they will soon be dead men. They make a great noise and stir while they live, but after a while they go to the dead, and that ends all their pride and power. Then they will answer for all their madness and their violence in sin. On this side of death, the righteous and the wicked may seem alike, but on the other side of death there will be a great difference between them.