The Just Man May Perish, As the Wicked Lives On

Ecclesiastes 7:15

15 I have seen everything in my days of vanity:
There is a just man who perishes in his righteousness,
And there is a wicked man who prolongs life in his wickedness.

I have spent a day or two trying to figure out how to split up these verses is Ecclesiastes chapter 7, it seems we’ve been moving slowly through it for a couple weeks now, and were still only half way there. However I have come to the belief sometimes it’s not a bad thing to take it one at a time. As Solomon the worlds wisest man, inspired by the Holy Spirit pens these words, the least we can do is to pause and listen.

Here in verse 15 we see Solomon speaking to the same question people ask today. As he looks around, he notices that sometimes good men die, doing good things. And sometimes the wicked live long doing wicked things. Basically Solomon sees bad things happening to good people, and good things happening to bad people.

As we look around today, we see the same thing. Just pick up Fox’s Book of Martyrs for starters, or speak with missionaries who are on the front lines of the battle of lost souls. People, who have been kidnapped, beaten, imprisoned, tortured, sometimes these men and women even lose there lives serving the Lord. And it seems so unfair. On the home front we may not be losing our lives, but I think of the father, who is trying to raise a Godly family only to have his wife run off with another man. I think of the parents who try to raise godly kids only to have society rip them away. I think of the God fearing pastor whose church votes him out well he’s on vacation, because he doesn’t think outside of the box. And it all seems so unfair.

On the flip side of that, I see pro athletes, get in trouble with the law, spit on their public, and still sign million dollar contracts. I see reality TV "stars" lie, cheat, and manipulate there way to a million dollars. I see pot dealers and pornography publishers getting rich, well causing the masses to fall into sin. And it all seems so unfair.

So what’s the answer, you may all be waiting at the edge of your seats, to find out, why bad things happen to good people. However I don’t know. But I do know this, and although perhaps not an answer to the question at hand, it gives us hope in the outcome. Romans 8:28 tells us. "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." And as a wise man once told me, all means all and that’s all, all means.

Perhaps today bad things are happening to you. Or bad things are happening to those around you, let me encourage you by saying remember God is in control. And we may not see the good for the kingdom that comes out of it now, and we may never live to see it. But someday when we are with God in paradise, we will know.