"8 Who is like the wise?
And who knows the interpretation of a thing?
A man's wisdom makes his face shine,
and the hardness of his face is changed.
2 I say: Keep the king's command, because of God's oath to him. 3 Be not hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. 4 For the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to him, “What are you doing?” 5 Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way. 6 For there is a time and a way for everything, although man's troublelies heavy on him. 7 For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? 8 No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it. 9 All this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt.
10 Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity. 11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. 12 Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him. 13 But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.
14 There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. 15 And I commend joy, for man has no good thing under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.
16 When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one's eyes see sleep, 17 then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out."
Ecclesiastes 8:1-17
Since there is an ultimate vindication of right, as was indicated at the end of the previous Note, and a visitation on evil, the man of faith can therefore face life, and even enjoy its limited pleasures in detachment of spirit (as Paul did in prison, Philippians 4:11ff), and even laugh at despair. This is the real point in 15 - it is not that the Preacher is advocating a life of empty pleasure - 'eat, drink and be merry' - but rather that there would be a glad acceptance of the good gifts of God in the knowledge that they are simply good gifts, to be enjoyed but not regarded as sources of heart-satisfaction or fulfilment, which can come only in fellowship with God Himself, and that not in this life, but only in the life to come. It is the lesson we have already seen at several points in the book, and so beautifully expressed in Adelaide Anne Procter's words:
I thank Thee, Lord, that here our souls, Though amply blest,
Can never find, although they seek, A perfect rest,
Nor ever shall, until they lean
On Jesus' breast.