Much of what we read in
our Bibles is not what we might call “inspired”: the choice of English words
made by translators; the marginal commentary; beginnings and ends of verses;
chapter and passage headings ... all these things were simply not
subjected to the same level of divine control which the writers of scripture
claim for the Greek and Hebrew text itself.
This being the case, once in a blue moon something done by a translator or publishing house works against
our ability to discern the meaning of a text. One of my brothers is fond of
pointing out how many times a chapter division in our English Bibles has obscured
his understanding of a passage which should rightly flow right on without pause,
and did so in its original form. Sometimes the answer to a question posed at
the end of chapter 3 (where you probably stopped your daily reading) is to
be found three verses into chapter 4 (where you have probably
forgotten what it is answering by the time you read it tomorrow).
These are not big problems if you read regularly, pay attention to context, and love the word of
God. You might miss something the first time out, but you will certainly pick
it up eventually.
But sometimes formatting is a problem too. My ESV formats Ecclesiastes 7:13 as a proverb, the last
in a series of eleven, and formats verse 14 as the first sentence in a new
text paragraph. In fact, I suspect verse 13 is the first sentence of
the new paragraph, and that verse 14 amplifies and explains it.
Verse 13 may be a little difficult if we insist on reading it alone. So let’s run the
two verses together and see what happens ...
Ecclesiastes 7:13-14 — Prosperity and Adversity
Things God Made
“Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.”
What does it mean that
God makes things “straight” or
“crooked”? That almost sounds a little bit like an accusation. One might think
the Preacher means to say that God is to blame for the evils and temptations we
encounter in this world. On its own, the verse might be taken to mean that God
arbitrarily and deliberately makes things difficult for men and women. And
maybe there is a very limited, extended sense in which we can say such things
are true: after all, as the ultimate power in the universe, nothing bad can
occur within creation unless God provides both the opportunity and the energy
for evil to operate. In allowing men to choose their own paths, he opens up the
possibility they will choose the wrong one and that you or I may be hurt
as a result of those choices. In providing strength for each day and wisdom to
the wise, he opens up the possibility that the strong man may injure his weaker
neighbor, or that the intelligent man may use his wits to gain an unfair
advantage. In causing creation to “fall” along with mankind, he allowed for
situations in which nature itself appears to be trying to exterminate its
God-given stewards.
But reasonable people do not blame God for days of adversity. If we are honest, the root cause of
“straightness” or “crookedness” often lies much closer to home, usually where
you and I can see it plainly. It may lie in our own hands, or in those of
people we normally love and admire. Fobbing blame off on the Source of Everything
is just a way of overlooking our own complicity in the crookedness of the world
and our own regular and willing self-identification with Adam in his rebellion.
Good and Evil
The two terms translated “prosperity” and “adversity” in verse 14 are simply the very ordinary
Hebrew words for good and evil; exactly the same two words God used in the
Garden of Eden to describe the knowledge that was to be obtained from the forbidden tree. The meanings of both words are very broad indeed: towb [“good”] is used 559 times and ra` [“evil”] 663 times in the Hebrew Old Testament. The word
for “prosperity” can mean everything from “morally good” to “agreeable” to
“tasty” or “attractive”. The word for “adversity” can mean everything from “unfavorable”
to “untrue” to “starving” as well as referring to bad moral choices.
I do not think either word is being used here in a moral sense, so it seems to me the ESV translators
did a cracking job. I believe when the Preacher refers to things that God
makes “straight” or “crooked”, he is speaking about good times and bad: God’s
sovereign hand in world affairs, and the effect that has on men and women at ground
level. Nobody minds when God showers us with blessings, and Christians are
usually quick to gratefully attribute favorable occurrences to God’s love and
generosity.
Man May Not Find Out Anything
The “day of adversity” is not always viewed so optimistically, as we are currently able to observe all
around us. People who thought they had their retirements all sewn up are
watching their savings get eaten away in a falling stock market. People who
presumed their current state of health and security would continue indefinitely
are shocked to discover how quickly things can change in ways none of us has
the slightest hope of controlling. People who thought that a dozen rolls of
Cottonelle they threw thoughtlessly into their shopping cart in the first week
of March would do them just fine are now starting to think creatively about their
rather limited options. (But enough about me ... First World problems,
I know.)
I keep hearing a global flu pandemic referred to as an “act of God”. That is certainly one possibility.
But the source of any particular “day of adversity” or “crooked” event is
really quite irrelevant. No matter whether it turns out the
COVID-19 virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, or else made its debut in a wet market under unsanitary conditions deemed acceptable in Chinese culture, making God personally responsible for our new and highly contagious flu variant seems a little like shifting blame. Still, from the
Preacher’s perspective, the “day of adversity” is something God makes, and we
must acknowledge that even when God does not initiate any particular cataclysm,
it is always within his power to put a stop to it, mitigate its effects, or do
with it anything he pleases.
The truth of the matter is that we will probably never know the whole truth about this flu outbreak or
much of anything else that goes on in our world. We will eventually be
presented with some official narrative by a scaremongering media, and it will
consist largely of lies and obfuscations. In such an environment, waxing
dogmatic about the root causes of any great global ill is an exercise in
futility. It is truly a vain pursuit.
A Problem of Perspective
This is the fundamental problem with a merely earthly perspective, as Solomon has adopted in writing
Ecclesiastes. When he says, “man may not find out anything that will be after
him”, that is not quite true for the Christian. We have the whole story of
human history laid out for us in a way the Preacher did not. We know it ends in
the New Jerusalem, where God is all in all and no harm can ever again come to
those he loves. We also know a great deal of detail about what God plans to do
between now and then which nobody in Solomon’s shoes could ever have imagined.
But we know it by revelation, not because we have been able to intuit it from
observation. Nobody could infer the city foursquare, the river of life and the
Lord God who will be the light of those who dwell there eternally from the
things which have been made. It simply isn’t possible.
As I have said many times during this series, I view Ecclesiastes as the Bible’s primary evidence for the
necessity of divine revelation. It is passages like this one which make that
need so achingly clear, and provoke me to give thanks for a God who has
voluntarily and graciously made his plans, purposes and nature known to those
of us who live at the far end of history.
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