Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the children of men is fully set in them to do evil.
When punishment is slow, people grow bolder in doing wrong. That raises two questions: why is the sentence delayed, and what does the delay show about the human heart?
The verse starts with justice among people. Israel's law set penalties that were meant to follow guilt at once. One writer notes that Israel had already let that slip by Solomon's day.
These penalties were to be carried out as soon as the offender was proven guilty. There were no long drawn out court cases and no appeals once guilt was clear. Even in the days of Solomon, Israel had failed to carry out these penalties quickly... In western countries today, such long delays have made people mock the justice system.
Behind human courts stands a sentence God Himself has not yet carried out. There is a reason for the wait, and it is not weakness. One writer draws it out from Peter's answer to those who mocked the delay:
The Lord is not slow to keep His promise. He is patient, "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance". In His grace God gives room to repent before the judgment falls. In his unbelief man uses the delay as an excuse to deny that judgment will ever come.
People read the same delay in two opposite ways. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon was warned by a dream, yet it seems he thought the warning would never come true. One writer calls that thinking both dishonouring and destructive.
God is endlessly patient, and He gives people a chance to repent. To take that as a sign He does not care about a life of evil-doing dishonours the Lord and destroys our own souls. Yet this is often what we naturally think.
The pattern is old. One writer points to Sodom and to the people before the flood. They made plans as though nothing would ever interrupt them, while God let evil grow to full size.
God is waiting until the sin of the earth reaches its full height, until it is all out in the open, before He brings judgment. The world takes advantage of this... This is what unbelief has always believed and always done. It was the story of the people before the flood and of the doomed cities of the plain.
Some hope that God's patience will win the world over in the end. One writer uses this verse to argue the opposite. Kindness alone does not soften a heart set on evil.
All this patience and restraint and grace of our God only make people bolder in sin. So how can a time marked by perfect grace bring blessing to the whole world? We should not expect it. Isaiah 26:10 says the same thing: "If favour is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness."
Delay is not cancellation. One writer names the trade the verse describes, and then names its end.
God holds back from punishing, so people hold back from repenting. God is not only gracious; He waits to be gracious. But though men set no limit to their sin, God sets a limit to His patience.
Another writer turns the verse around. He points to John weeping in Revelation 5. If unpunished evil makes people bolder, evil never punished at all would be worse still.
It would be the worst disaster of all if the sentence were never carried out, and John might well weep at that thought... God is going to judge the world in righteousness by a Man, and that Man has won and now holds the right to do it.
The passage does not end in despair. One writer holds two things together: a true picture of a world where evil thrives, and God's steady moral government.
Evil spreads and flourishes until the Lord comes. Yet God's moral government just as surely secures good for those who fear Him, and punishment for those who do not... God is not mocked, and no one is overlooked. But the day has not yet come when righteous power allows no evil and good openly wins.
- Delay — The verse names the cause: a sentence not carried out. Slow penalties make people bolder, in a courtroom and under God.
- Grace — The delay is not slackness. God is patient, giving room to repent before judgment falls.
- Misread — Unbelief reads that patience as indifference, and decides judgment will never come.
- Limit — People set no limit to their sin. God sets a limit to His patience. The sentence is postponed, not cancelled.
- Day — Evil flourishes until the Lord comes, yet God is not mocked. The day when good openly wins is still ahead, and God will judge the world by the Man who holds the right to do it.
Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and prolong his [days], yet I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, because they fear before him;
Just before this, the Preacher noted how a delayed sentence hardens people. Here he holds on to a certainty he will not give up, though what he sees around him argues the other way.
A man does evil a hundred times and still lives on. Watching that, people conclude that God does not care. One writer traces that mistake back to God's own goodness.
The execution of the judgment of God will most surely come, though, in the goodness of God, it may be long delayed. In His goodness God holds back from judging and bears long with evil... Because of this "forbearance" men think that God will never judge; because of His "longsuffering" men think that God is indifferent to evil. So men despise the goodness of God, not seeing that the reason God holds back and bears long is to give men space for repentance.
His confidence does not come from what he sees around him. One commentator describes the strain that puts on his reasoning.
He is in perplexity. But his reason has approved of "fearing God", and by it he knows that it will be well on earth with the righteous. That reason is now staggered. He sees just men who get what the wicked deserve, and wicked men who get what the righteous deserve. Nothing but contradictions!
The verse says they fear before Him. One writer describes what that fear does to a life.
A God-fearing man is one who walks in the conscious sense of being in the presence of God, and who owns his responsibility to God. Such a person will not only tell right from wrong. He will also see the path that God marks out for His people in the middle of the surrounding darkness and confusion.
The promise does not remove trouble. One commentator, writing on a similar promise elsewhere in Scripture, says what the good actually is.
When a soul is kept in holiness before God, it enjoys the sense of His favour. This is soon found to be the secret of all true happiness... The godly Israelite was taught that he might still have sorrows and trials to pass through. Even so, God's eye was upon him, and good would be the certain outcome of God's government and ways.
The sinner's added years are real. One writer weighs what they amount to, and names the day when good will openly win.
Evil abounds and flourishes until the Lord comes. Yet just as surely, the moral government of God secures good to those who fear before Him, and retribution to those who do not fear Him. Even if they were to live long, it is only a shadow... God is not mocked and man is not overlooked. But the day has not yet come when righteous power permits no evil and good openly triumphs. This is reserved for the kingdom, as the kingdom is for Christ appearing in glory and those who suffered with Him then glorified.
No amount of study cracks the puzzle, not even sleepless effort. That is not the end of the matter.
...the riddles, which escape even those who do not sleep day or night. They are beyond man's understanding to solve, however wise he may be. Christ alone clears them up, and the Spirit sent to dwell in all who are His; for He searches all things, yes, the depths of God.
- Delay. The human heart reads a delayed sentence as a sentence that will never come.
- Forbearance. The sinner's hundred crimes and long life are not God's indifference. They are room to repent, and despising that goodness is itself the sin.
- Fear. To fear before Him is to live in the conscious sense of God's presence and to own responsibility to Him. That, not your circumstances, marks the person the verse promises good to.
- Well. "It will be well" does not cancel sorrow and trial. It guarantees that God's eye is on you, and that good is the certain outcome of His dealings.
- Day. Long life without the fear of God is only a shadow. The open triumph of good waits for the kingdom, and Christ clears up the riddles left standing here.
but it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong [his] days as a shadow, because he feareth not before God.
The verse belongs to a chapter that has just said sentence against an evil deed is not carried out quickly, and that this delay is exactly why people throw themselves into wrongdoing. One writer puts the link between God's patience and man's boldness in a single sentence:
Sinners, the time is shortly coming when the drawbridge of mercy will be pulled right up. "Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil" (Eccl. 8:11). God holds back punishment, so men hold back repentance. God is not only gracious, He waits to be gracious (Isa. 30:18). But though men will set no limits to their sin, God does set limits to His patience.
A wicked man can live a long life. This verse still calls his days a shadow, so length of life is not the measure.
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What a vivid and unquestionably true picture of mankind as they are! Evil abounds and flourishes until the Lord comes. Yet God's moral government is just as sure. It secures good to those who fear before Him, and retribution to those who do not fear Him. Even if they were to live long, it is only a shadow.
Ecclesiastes records what a man works out by watching the world, and the observation here refuses to line up with the rest of what he has seen. Commentators read the surrounding verses as the honest report of a mind that keeps hitting a wall.
His reason has approved of "fearing God." By it he knows that it will go well on earth with the righteous. But now his reason is staggered. He sees just men who get what the wicked deserve, and wicked men who get what the righteous deserve. Nothing but contradictions! Think of a shipwrecked man striking out through the raging waves to reach land. The waves he tries to master keep throwing him back. So it is with all his wisdom, his searching, his conclusions and neat sayings. He is thrown back, and once more he cries "vanity."
The verse ends by naming the reason: this man does not fear God. One writer shows how much that word covers:
This is a very wide-ranging word. It covers feelings as different as a criminal's dread of his judge, a child's reverence for its parent, and a wife's respect for her husband. When Scripture says of Gentiles and Jews alike that "there is no fear of God before their eyes" (Rom. 3:18), it means that God has no place in their thoughts. They do not let His commandments restrain their ways. That is a terrible condition, when we remember that God created man for Himself, to walk with Him and to do His will.
If it will not be well with the wicked, why does it often go well with them now? Commentators answer that the accounts are settled on a day that has not yet come.
The world is now set against God and against His children. That very fact only proves the more that the righteous Lord will step in. In that day He will put right everything that looks tangled now. God calls Satan the god of this age. If that is what he is, the rest is easy to understand. Only in the age to come, when the Lord Jesus governs in open power, will the wicked as a rule be put down and the righteous prosper. The unbeliever is hardened at the sight of a righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and a wicked man prolonging his life in his wickedness. The believer waits for the kingdom of God and suffers for its sake.
The verse turns on fearing God. That is also as far as this book goes:
The only rule of life, then, is to fear God. He controls our life, and He judges every action all the days of the life of our vanity. In this book there is no question of grace or of redemption. It gives only the experience of this present life, and what God has said about it: His law, His commandments, and the judgment that follows. That is what is decreed to man.
- Delay. Men read held-back punishment as cancelled punishment. But God sets limits to His patience, even when men set none to their sin.
- Shadow. The wicked man may add years. Added years add nothing: a long life without God is still only a shadow.
- Contradiction. Watching the world will not settle this verse; reason is staggered and thrown back on the cry of "vanity."
- Cause. The verdict rests on one thing: God has no place in the man's thoughts and no restraining hold on his ways.
- Day. What looks tangled now is not the final picture. The kingdom is coming: the Lord Jesus will govern in open power, and then the wicked are put down.
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