Politics and Justice Are Meaningless without Jesus

Ecclesiastes 3:16–4:3 and 5:8-9

Main Idea: The meaninglessness of justice and politics in this cursed world cries out for a Savior.

1. Justice Is Meaningless (3:16-17).
2. We Receive Death for Our Part in the Sin and Injustice of the World (3:18-22).
3. Politics Is Meaningless (4:1-3,13-16; 5:8-9).
4. Ecclesiastes Cries Out for a Better King, a Resurrection, and a Final Judgment (12:12-14).

Why am I here? What’s the reason for my existence? Those are gigantic questions. Most people know things like pleasure or possessions or the pursuit of money are not high enough values. Most of us recognize that those aims are too low and inadequate for life. There has to be more to life—something more meaningful—than money and pleasurable experiences. As people ask the question about the meaning of life and come to believe that they are here for a “higher purpose,” many conclude, “I am here to make the world a better place.”

People try different routes to accomplish that purpose. Some people go the route of politics. That is the path “cultural Christianity” has chosen. They put their hope in politics. That was the narrative I was raised on as the Moral Majority wedded evangelical Christianity to hope in the government. There was a lot of preaching on politics and even the end times, and the message was that America was going to receive God’s judgment if we did not return to the faith of our founding fathers. It was determined that the path to reaching that return was electing the right people who would pass the right laws. We were told that if we could elect the right people who would pass the right laws, then America would be blessed again.

That was the path I gravitated to both personally and professionally. The first time I was ever published was in a book of poetry in the sixth grade in which I wrote a poem about abortion and called pro-choicers “liberal rats.” I was passionate about politics, so passionate that I initially chose that career path. I entered the University of Kentucky as a political science major hoping to change the world through politics. But God ultimately had a different path for me, and one of the ways He accomplished that was causing me to become jaded with the political process. I looked over the course of my life and saw that there were times we had a conservative president, a conservative Congress, and a mostly conservative Supreme Court, and yet nothing really changed. Even recently, in 2015, once the conservatives won back the congress, the pro-life congressmen and women tabled a bill on late-term abortions for the sole purpose of currying favor with female voters. There was an opportunity to push for real change, but being electable won out over defending the defenseless unborn. These realities jaded me, and they revealed to me that politics ultimately does not change the world.

Many people are jaded with politics and think that nothing really changes, so they choose a different route to find meaning in life by changing the world. The second option is grassroots work for social justice. People fight against the system in order to see real change. They work to help the poor, defenseless, and disenfranchised. Many young people—who cannot seem to clean their rooms—desire to clean up the world, and so they gravitate to this path. They get excited, and rightly so, about causes like orphan care, sex trafficking, endangered animals, and the environment. Some work hard to make a difference, but let’s be honest, in most cases there is little actual change. Just look at recent news reports that claim the Red Cross overpromised and way under­delivered on compassion efforts in Haiti, where some allege the charity raised half a billion dollars and yet only built six homes despite pledges to rebuild entire communities (Sullivan, “In Search”).

That is Solomon’s point in Ecclesiastes. If this cursed world is all there is, then all of our actions, even actions to promote the common good, are futile. In Ecclesiastes 3:16–4:3 and also 5:8-9, Solomon indicts both politics and justice as ultimately fleeting and meaningless.

Justice Is Meaningless

Ecclesiastes 3:16-17

Solomon has made the point throughout Ecclesiastes that if this cursed world is all there is, then nothing you attempt to find meaning in will satisfy and work. His purpose in pointing this reality out is to expose the foolishness of trying to live life without God in order to drive us to enjoy God and His gifts. Now Solomon’s discussion of time in Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 leads into a discussion of politics and justice.

This passage actually starts with a heading in Ecclesiastes 3:15c, whose translation is much debated. Literally the text should read, “God seeks the persecuted” (Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, 300–301). What does God seek? He seeks justice for the persecuted, which means He will hold the persecutors accountable. Since, as Solomon has stated, there is a time for everything in God’s plan, Solomon acknowledges that there is a time to judge the wicked for their role in injustice in the world. The problem with history is that there is not only little or no progress (3:1-15), there is also little or no justice (3:16–4:3) (Keller, “Problem of History”). This is the background to the current passage.

Solomon looks to the place where justice and righteousness should be—the courts—and instead sees wickedness. In this cursed existence, even where you should find things made right, there is injustice. What does this mean? It means the innocent are found guilty and the guilty are acquitted. The rights of the poor and defenseless are not protected (which was a key function of the authorities in the Old Testament). Isaiah 5:23 acknowledges that this was a problem in Israel—the guilty were acquitted for a bribe. Whether one was guilty or innocent was not the deciding factor but rather how much money a person had.

While we would like to think things are different in modern America, they really are not. The rich can get away with murder if they can afford the right defense team. There is a person who works at LifeWay right now who spent decades in jail for a crime he did not commit. He was exonerated by DNA evidence that showed he was never at the crime scene. But his life was torn apart. We live in a world where a thief can fall through the roof of a house he is attempting to rob, sue the homeowner, and win a settlement. Our system often is less about justice and more about having the right lawyer and having the right money (Driscoll, “Gift of Death”). We view this reality and are outraged, and rightly so. There needs to be accountability. Things need to be set right, but that does not happen!

People are pained over this reality. Children do not get far into life without uttering the phrase, “That’s not fair,” to which we parents respond, “Life’s not fair.” And that is true. Life is not fair. But something deep inside of us says that it should be. That is why songs like John Lennon’s “Imagine” and John Mayer’s “Waiting for the World to Change” endure. We long for justice because we were made in the image of a God who is just. We wonder, When will God do something about this? When will things be made right? When will ISIS pay for crucifying children? Beheading innocents? When will the sex traffickers get what’s coming to them? We recognize that there needs to be a final and ultimate accountability. After all, if there is not a final reckoning, then the 9/11 hijackers never got what they rightfully deserve. They received the same fate as the people they killed. We cannot accept that as reality, and for good reason: it is not. The Bible cries out for this as well. We watch in the news that ISIS beheaded 21 of our Egyptian brothers, and we cry out with the martyrs in Revelation 6, “How long until You judge and avenge our blood from those who live on the earth?”

Solomon answers this cry. He says that there is a set time for God to judge the righteous and the wicked (3:17). This phrase repeats 3:1. God has a carefully timed plan, but we cannot know when it will be executed. Even Jesus, when He laid aside His glory in the incarnation, admitted that the Son of Man did not know the time and hour (Matt 24:36). Of course, He knows now in His exalted and glorified state! But even though he does not know the timing, Solomon trusts that God will set things right and that injustice will finally be reversed. The wicked will not ultimately get away with it (Greidanus, Preaching Christ, 99).

While we know God will make things right, the problem lies in that we cannot see it happening right now and we do not know when He will act. This is a tough reality for us all—stuck between confidence in belief and concern about reality. We are suspended between belief in the end times and uncertainty about what comes next (Webb, Five Festal Garments, 94). Meanwhile, the wicked continue to prosper, and the poor are oppressed. We live in a Psalm 73 reality where the believer is tempted toward skepticism because of the prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the faithful, and yet like the psalmist we are called patiently to trust God and His timing! But for all of our longing and calls for justice, we have a major problem facing us, and that is what Solomon turns to next.

We Receive Death for Our Part in the Sin and Injustice of the World

Ecclesiastes 3:18-22

Solomon shifts the discussion to the fact that, just like the band Maroon 5 says, we are like animals. Solomon says that we are like animals in that we all ultimately die. Here is his point: We want justice and we want things to be set right, but what about our part in this injustice? That is our problem. God cannot hold evil and injustice accountable without holding us accountable for our part in it. The problem is that we do not recognize our own unjust acts. When someone wrongs us—they steal our identity or break into our house—we want justice. But when we are pulled over for speeding, we want mercy (Driscoll, “Gift of Death”). We want justice for others and mercy for ourselves.

We need to recognize that even though we cry out for justice, we do not exactly want it. Are we not glad judgment day was not in 1968 (Keller, “Problem of History”)? Many of us would never have existed. Are we not glad God does not set evil right immediately? None of us would be here! Solomon tells us in this section of Ecclesiastes 3 that the wages for our part in the injustice of the world is death!

We are like animals in the way we oppress one another (Murphy, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, 189). Solomon says God tests Adam’s sons to show them they are but beasts (3:18). Later Solomon contends that God delays judgment to show we are inclined to wicked acts. He says in Ecclesiastes 8:11, “Because the sentence against a criminal act is not carried out quickly, the heart of people is filled with the desire to commit crime.” God delays justice to show how wicked and beast-like we are. Thus, there is increasing wickedness, and that makes us like animals.

Animals have no concept of justice or right and wrong (Greidanus, Preaching Christ, 99). Contrary to the scene in Finding Nemo, sharks do not create societies for the humane treatment of baitfish. Yet, even though we have moral sensibilities, we treat one another like animals. We deal with one another in the most disgusting ways imaginable. From Hitler to Stalin to Polpot and the Khmer Rouge killing fields, we see barbaric acts that humans commit against other humans. My first mission trip was to Cambodia where the Khmer Rouge wiped out so much of the population. As we walked over the killing fields with the missionaries, they showed us trees where babies were bashed to death. The barbarism was sickening. That is Solomon’s point. Wickedness increases, and like the days of the flood where both animals and humans died, judgment is needed!

There are echoes here in Ecclesiastes 3 to the fall of humanity in Genesis 3. Words like “Adam’s sons,” “beasts,” and “dust” call us back to the early chapters of Genesis. God created Adam to rule over the beasts. Humanity was distinct from and superior to the beasts, but in Genesis 3 Adam and Eve submitted to a beast—the serpent. As a result, God imposed a curse on the world. Now, in this cursed existence, we do not rule the beasts but instead are like them. There is so much chaos in this cursed world that we act like beasts. We see this reality described repeatedly throughout the Bible. The evil nations that attack Israel are called beasts (see Ps 80:13; Dan 7:3); the antichrist and the false prophet are called beasts (Rev 13). The animal kingdom is red in tooth and claw, but so is the human kingdom. Might makes right, and oppression is everywhere. The ways we treat one another are so often utterly despicable.

Solomon reveals an explicit similarity between men and beasts to show why we have no advantage over them—we both die. Each has the same “breath,” which could be translated “soul” or “life.” Again, this alludes to Genesis 1–3, where God breathes life into creation, but sin steals that “breath” away and brings death. Life is fleeting for animal and human alike. As Matt Chandler says, the opposable thumb is of no advantage to humans because it will decay just like the claw (“Out of Breath”). Humanity was intended to eat from the tree of life and live forever, but we all die because of sin. Death equalizes animals and humans. Death renders everything meaningless. Nothing we do matters, just as nothing animals do matters. No one writes news reports about animals when they die. And we all go to the same place. We are from the dust, and we return to the dust.

Big questions are asked in verses 21 and 22: “Who knows if the spirit of people rises upward and the spirit of animals goes downward to the earth? . . . For who can enable him to see what will happen after he dies?” The expected answer to these questions is, “No one” (Murphy, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, 189). Man’s knowledge is truly limited to his current experience and cannot stretch beyond that. No one truly knows what happens beyond the grave because there is no way of knowing for sure. We do not know if something happens that distinguishes man and beast or that makes our actions matter more than the animals’ actions.

Let us take a quick aside to explain an issue that this verse raises. This verse is not a comment on the age-old question of whether only humans have souls and animals do not, or whether animals go to heaven. I cannot see how a cat would go to heaven, but that’s for another day’s discussion. That is not Solomon’s purpose here. He simply wants to expose the fact that we do not have certainty about what happens beyond the grave, so we are no different from animals.

However, the Bible is clear that God gives the breath of life to man and animals alike. Some like to point to Genesis 2, where God forms Adam from the dust and breathes life into him, as evidence that God gave souls to humanity but withholds that from animals, but that is simply going further than Scripture goes. The same thing said of humanity in Genesis 2:7 is also said of animals in Psalm 104:29-30. God gives the breath of life to all living creatures, and the withdrawal of that breath means death.

One major problem with contemporary Christianity is the tendency to compartmentalize soul and body (material and immaterial), so that some preachers say, “The soul is the real you—the you on the inside.” But that is not biblical. The Bible shows the whole you, soul and body, is what is most important. God did not just concern Himself with the human soul and consign everything else to hell. God loves the world, including the animal kingdom. He is making all things new, including trees, dogs, and clouds. The final state of humanity is not floating body-less on a cloud engaged in a never-ending choir practice. We are headed to a new creation where we dwell with resurrected bodies surrounded by animals, grass, and trees.

The issue Solomon addresses here is that no one knows what lies beyond death. The world is fascinated by this question, and that is why books about near-death experiences and “firsthand” accounts of what happens after death fly off bookshelves. The questions are many. Do people go to heaven and animals to nonexistence? Do all dogs go to heaven? Certainly all cats go to hell, right? Some speculate there is annihilation beyond the grave, or reincarnation, or good people go to heaven and really bad people go to hell. Solomon says no one really knows for sure. It does not matter what you think of books like 90 Minutes in Heaven or Heaven Is for Real. There has never been a person who definitely died, stayed dead for several days, and then came back to life and wrote about it. That has not happened; so Solomon says, based on our limited knowledge and experience, no one can be certain about what happens after death. There is no verifiable proof; the best we can do is guess and hope.

Since we do not know what happens beyond this life, we have to rely on the eternal God who put eternity in our hearts. We are told to enjoy His gifts while we can. Ecclesiastes 3 ends with another carpe diem passage that tells us to live life to the fullest. Ecclesiastes does not deny the afterlife, but it does commend us to take death seriously. Just as the psalmist tells us to number our days (Ps 90:10-12), Ecclesiastes says that life is short and we need to make the most of it (Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, 305). I remember watching an episode of Friends a few years back where Ross was on a ride-along with a police officer. The officer made him sign a waiver that said he could not sue the city if he “scratched his knee or got his head blown off.” The waiver really freaked Ross out. When a car backfired later during the ride, Ross thought someone had taken a shot at him, and when he survived, it caused him to have “a newfound respect for life.” He wanted to seize every opportunity and live life to the fullest because life is a precious gift. That is kind of what Solomon is talking about. Enjoy life because it is a gift. Eat well, drink well, enjoy work, spend time with your family, and drink deeply of life!

Politics Is Meaningless

Ecclesiastes 4:1-3,13-16; 5:8-9

Solomon begins chapter 4 by observing oppressions done under the sun and how the oppressed shed tears but no one can comfort them. People do such cruel things to one another, and no one can stop it. No one can make the oppressed feel better or set things right. Solomon expresses much angst over the situation. The reason no one can comfort the oppressed is because power is on the side of the oppressors. They can do as they please (Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, 305).

Therefore, politics in this fallen world is meaningless. The people elected to uphold justice, set things right, and pass laws to protect the hurting are the ones who ultimately end up doing the oppressing. The problem is that power corrupts, so even if someone sees the evil of the system and gets involved with a desire to reform things, once he has power, he is then corrupted and nothing changes (Kidner, Ecclesiastes, 44). In our political system, often people have to compromise their ideals in order to climb the ladder, and once they get to a position of influence they no longer are the same person anymore. Politicians, judges, and the rich can oppress the poor and the outcast who have little, if any, recourse. The powerful can do what they want to the weak, and no one can stand up for the weak, whether it is an unborn child or a slave-traded little girl. Sex traffickers pay off police to look the other way, and Liam Neeson is not flying in to save these girls. It seems hopeless.

Now one might object, “That is not true! Much can be done to help the oppressed.” Yes, people can help the oppressed, but Solomon’s point is that there is no net gain (Kidner, Ecclesiastes, 43). You cannot end oppression altogether. You might work really hard to end oppression in one little corner of the world and see a degree of success, but the oppression pops back up again in another place. The twentieth century saw Hitler overthrown, but then there was Stalin, and then there was Polpot, and now there is ISIS.

Certainly we should work for justice. We should engage in mercy ministry. This is near God’s heart and talked about repeatedly throughout the Bible, especially in the wisdom literature. But without Christ, it will not be completely changed. We need to recognize that the purpose of Ecclesiastes is different from other books. While other books intend to encourage concern and help for the poor, Ecclesiastes intends to expose the meaninglessness of life in this fallen world. The whole thing is discouraging. We live in a world where it is in vogue to end injustice and put red X’s on your hand. However, ours is a world where powers are corrupt, and they even use mercy for their own benefit. For example, half of the millions that have been donated to Haiti go to American companies and NGOs instead of local efforts. It ensures a culture of dependency.

This reality is so painful that the Teacher says it is better to be dead or never to have been born. The dead do not have to see what we do to one another anymore—injustice can be worse than death. Plus, those who have never been born have never had to see how we treat one another like animals under the sun. They have never seen ISIS behead or crucify children. Such chaos abounds in this cursed and broken world. Solomon is exasperated and says death seems better than life.

The Teacher returns to politics in Ecclesiastes 4:13-16 with a much-debated translation and interpretation.^[6]Here is basically what is happening: A poor but wise youth supplants an old, foolish king who will not listen to counsel. Usually youth is associated with folly and age with wisdom, but not so here because the king will not listen to advice, which is the mark of foolishness (Prov 12:15). Also, Solomon’s son Rehoboam was brought down as a young king because he would not listen to the counsel of the elders. Here in Ecclesiastes, the old king is inflexible and forgets what it was like to be young and fiery (Kidner, Ecclesiastes, 51–52). The youth becomes king instead. But then the youth is supplanted by a second youth, and the point is that the cycle never ends. As Duane Garrett points out, the fulfillment of political ambitions is transitory, and the praise of the masses is vapid (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, 308–9). The masses are fickle and flip-flop from one politician to the next. No matter how good the politician might be, nothing lasts forever. A young man may rise through the ranks and do good but become inflexible like the old king and lose the heart of the people. There is no lasting change in the political realm. They dispensed of the previous political leader, and they will dispense of you (Begg, “All Those Lonely People”). After all, Churchill was voted out of office!

Ecclesiastes 5:8-9 touches on the meaninglessness of political realities as well. It says that we should not be amazed by oppression and injustice. Again, these are difficult verses to figure out, but basically what is happening is that bureaucratic hierarchy makes oppression predictable (Murphy, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, 195). The bureaucracy was put in place as a safeguard of checks and balances, but instead of serving that purpose, it enables oppression by high officials, even up to the king! The citizen who wants justice can be endlessly deflected (Kidner, Ecclesiastes, 54–55). The idea is that government officials protect one another, so rooting out corruption is impossible (Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, 312). Cronyism is the inevitable result of politics. If you scratch my back, I will scratch yours. If you back this bill that I want passed, then I will make sure Nebraska gets what they want in the farm bill.

This type of bureaucratic deflection is seen in countless stories around the world. Consider the Hillsborough disaster, in which 96 people were crushed to death at a soccer match in 1989. It happened because of a poor decision by the chief superintendent—the lead police officer on the scene. And yet initially the soccer fans were blamed for the disaster because officials said too much drinking was involved. It took the victim’s family members decades to clear their loved ones’ names because of a bureaucratic system that covered up the police officials’ poor decisions (Scraton, Hillsborough, XX).

Verse 9 could have two different meanings: positive or negative. The king might be for the good of the land, or the king might be taking advantage of the land. Garrett argues the king is a “necessary evil” because a community needs authority to regulate boundaries, property rights, the use of natural resources, and the like (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, 312). Others think the king is in on the corruption (Longman, Ecclesiastes, 158). Certainly Solomon was a king who violated the commands of Deuteronomy 17, which were meant to protect the people from the king. Either way this passage laments the political system in this corrupt world.

There is injustice in the world, so people are given authority to restrain evil and uphold good. The problem is that power corrupts, so those in authority often use their power for their own good and not the good of the citizens. As a result, we now completely distrust and reject authority. The way Christian people talk about the president and politicians on Facebook is absolutely sickening. The Bible commands us to pray for our leaders—believe me, you do not want to be in their position making the calls they have to make—but instead we tear them down. There is a definite tension here because absolute power corrupts, but we need authority for our own good.

Ecclesiastes Cries Out for a Better King, a Resurrection, and a Final Judgment

Ecclesiastes 12:12-14

Solomon lays out his exasperation over leadership failures (perhaps even convicted about his own failures), death, and the lack of justice in the world. The Teacher cries out for solutions to these problems, and Jesus is the answer to each! The problem of leaders who oppress rather than make the world a better place cries out for a king who is greater than Solomon and Rehoboam and the others. Our longing for righteous political leaders who set things right is a longing for King Jesus. In His kingdom there is no oppression. There is no inequality. We see this now in seed form in the church—the outpost of the kingdom. Rich and poor, slave and free, sit down together at the table. There are no needy among us (Acts 4). We show mercy to the hurting. We get a foretaste of this in the church, but we long for the day when Jesus establishes His kingdom from sea to sea, so that all oppression is ended (see Ps 72)!

We also see the reign of death. We die and decay just like animals, and we do not know for sure what lies beyond. We fear death, and we try to push it off with diet, exercise, and cosmetic surgery, but it pursues us still. We frustratingly long for resurrection, and the New Testament reveals that for which we long. We cannot know what will happen to us after we die because no one has gone into death and come back, except for one Man (Acts 13:30). Jesus did not decay into the dust, and by faith in Him you will be raised from the dead as well. Christ’s resurrection not only made it possible for us to be raised to eternal life, but it also showed us what resurrection will be like. Those who are united to Christ will live forever not as body-less souls that fly away but rather in glorified bodies where there is no pain, sorrow, or death (Rev 21:4)!

Finally, the Bible says there will be a final judgment where the wicked are raised to eternal punishment and the righteous to eternal life (Dan 12). There will be a final reckoning where all things are set right, and Ecclesiastes makes this clear as well (11:9; 12:13-14). The good news is that God brought final judgment into the middle of human history and judged sin in His Son’s body on the cross. Jesus took the judgment humanity deserved at the cross, so that by repentance and faith we could be declared righteous in God’s sight. He took injustice on Himself. He knows what the oppressed are going through because the greatest injustice in the history of mankind is the Son of God being murdered by evil men. Why did Christ endure that injustice? He endured injustice so that He could ultimately end injustice forever!

Conclusion

Preachers told me this narrative my entire life: all that needs to happen to change America is for us to elect the right politicians and pass the right laws. But that narrative has proven to be untrue. Building a nation on God’s laws will not change America any more than it changed ancient Israel because laws do not change the human heart. Only Jesus can do that. We live in a world of oppression and injustice, and only the gospel can change things. After all, as the Christmas song reminds us, “In His Name all oppression shall cease.” Even so, come quickly, King Jesus!

Reflect and Discuss

1. What do you think your purpose is in the world?
2. What ways have you sought to change the world? How have they worked?
3. What are some unjust things you see in the world?
4. What are some ways injustice rules even in America?
5. In what ways do we expect mercy for ourselves and desire justice for others?
6. What happens to us at death?
7. What should we do in light of the fact that our life on this planet is relatively short?
8. What are some ways politics encourages you?
9. What are some ways politics discourages you?
10. How can the church of Jesus Christ seek justice while waiting for Christ’s return?