All things [come] alike to all one event to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good, and to the clean, and to the unclean, to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good, so is the sinner; he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
The Preacher looks at life and finds that events sort nobody: good and bad, clean and unclean, the man who sacrifices and the man who never bothers all meet the same thing. If life will not mark the difference between godly and godless, does God Himself see no difference?
This verse sounds bleak because of where the whole book stands. It gives us man reasoning about what he can see, leaving out what God has revealed.
Remember that this book gives us the experience of man, and the reasoning of man, about all that happens under the sun. Then the passages that look like unbelief cause no difficulty. Man's experience is bound to be unbelieving. He admits he does not know, because experience can know nothing beyond the things he can see. But the answer to every moral problem lies above and beyond the things we can see.
The phrase "under the sun" marks that boundary, and the writer chose it on purpose.
What is "under the sun" is on the earth. There is also something above the sun — heaven, the heavenly things. So Ecclesiastes deals with earthly things, with what man does apart from God, that is the natural man… In all his searching and describing of the things under the sun, the writer does not lean on divine revelation, on what is above the sun. He reaches his results by the light nature gives; his resources are inside himself… Ecclesiastes is in the Holy Scriptures for one purpose: to show the natural man how hollow and empty everything under the sun is, and so to move him to seek and find what is better, what is above the sun.
Read inside those limits, the verse does not deny that God rules. It denies that present events show us how He rules.
Present events do not reflect God's government closely enough for anyone to draw a right conclusion from them. Yet the Preacher sets down two truths that cannot be disputed: the righteous and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; yet no man knows either love or hatred — it all lies before them. On the surface the same end comes to all; one thing happens to bad and good.
The same thing still happens today. One writer traces it to laws that came into the world with sin.
We live in a world where certain laws came in with sin and now work as part of God's government. These laws make no distinction between saint and sinner. Nobody gets special treatment. These laws visit saint and sinner with strict impartiality. An epidemic rages. Christian and unbeliever alike fall victims.
Some have taken the words just before this verse and used them against a believer's confidence. One writer sets out that objection in a conversation between two men:
They will not allow you, James, to have confidence in the love of God, or to be assured. They cite the words — "no man can know love or hatred by all that is before him," to prove that no Christian can be assured.
The answer in that conversation points away from circumstances and back to what God has already done.
Suppose a Christian believes that God gave His only Son for him while he was a poor sinner. Add to that His love poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. I do not see how he can doubt that God loves him.
If the way life turns out will not tell us what God thinks of us, something else must.
God's ways in governing this world are past understanding. A soul under discipline understands nothing. "The same event happens to the righteous and the wicked"; it stays a puzzle for them until God judges. These ways we cannot explain will never show us for certain what God is. The sinner, man, needs something; then Jesus appears… Impossible to find more love and grace than in Him.
People in the days of the prophet Malachi made the same complaint: God treats good and evil alike. One writer shows how the prophet answered them.
They had said, "Those who do evil get on well; yes, those who put God to the test escape" — as if God were wiping out every moral distinction. But the prophet now tells them this: when God appears for the weak few who had thought about His name, these same people — the ones who had challenged the rightness of God's ways — will once more see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.
- Under the sun. The verse reports what a man can see without revelation. Past that line, experience knows nothing.
- Sorted alike. Events do not sort the righteous from the wicked. The laws of a sinful world strike saint and sinner alike.
- Held anyway. Yet the righteous and their works are in the hand of God — this is not abandonment, only silence.
- Assured elsewhere. Circumstances cannot show God's love, so no one can use this verse to prove a believer must live unsure of it.
- Settled finally. The puzzle lasts until God judges. Jesus shows what God is, and the coming day will make the distinction plain.
This is an evil among all that is done under the sun, that one thing befalleth all yea, also the heart of the children of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live; and after that, [they have to go] to the dead.
Ecclesiastes 9:3 lands like a verdict. The same end comes to everyone, and meanwhile the human heart is full of evil and madness. Read alone, it sounds bleak. Is this God's final word on man, or an honest report of what a man can see from this side of the grave?
The Preacher has been watching how life actually runs, and what he sees does not sort people out. One writer notes that outward events give no reliable reading of God's dealings.
What happens here does not show God's government clearly enough for anyone to draw a right conclusion from present events. Yet the Preacher lays down two facts beyond dispute. The righteous and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God. Yet no one knows either love or hatred — the whole is before them. Outwardly there is the one issue alike to all; one thing happens to bad and good.
This explains why parts of Ecclesiastes can sound like the talk of an unbeliever. The book keeps to what a man can observe and reason out.
This book gives us the experience of man, and the reasonings of man, about all that happens under the sun. Remember that, and the passages that look like unbelief cause no difficulty. By its nature, the experience of man is unbelieving. He confesses his ignorance; for beyond what he can see, experience can know nothing. But the answer to every moral problem lies above and beyond what he can see.
The "evil" here is not that people die guilty. It is that death falls on everyone alike. Ecclesiastes looks at death from an unusual angle.
Death is the wages of sin, but it is not viewed in this aspect in Ecclesiastes. Solomon does not dwell on the reason death entered the world. He dwells on its presence here, like a worm at the root of the tree of pleasure. It spoils pleasure and chills enjoyment. It cuts a man off just when he would sit down, after years of hard work, to reap the fruit of his labour... This book looks at death from this side of the grave.
The strangest part of the verse is the link between the certainty of death and the state of the heart. Men know where everyone is heading, and live as though they did not.
The grave is the one common goal. In that goal there is the end of all human toil and ambition. But man knows that all go one way, and he knows it for certain. Still he does not reckon with it at all; "the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live." They live on with madness in the heart; then comes death.
The description here is not one gloomy man's mood. The same finding about the heart runs through every part of the Bible.
Here I would pause on that solemn thought — the heart of man! The Law says of it, "Every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5). The Prophets testify, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9). The Psalms bear witness that "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God'" (Ps. 14:1). The Gospels — in the words of Jesus — record that "from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit..." (Mark 7:21-22)... It is the one universal testimony of every section of the Word of God.
The verse ends with men going to the dead, and stops. Commentators say this darkness was real for the writer, and that Christ has since answered it.
Sin has ruined and confused all things here below. To look to One above the ruin, who stays the same for ever, was the only wisdom and righteousness. Now that He has revealed Himself in His Son, this is far plainer. Death is the end of all here below; but in Him is life, and those who believe have it in Christ. Before He came, death could only be dreadful, because even for the believer the light beyond was so dim... Now we can call it gain, and much better than the life of this world; for it is to depart and be with Christ.
- One event. The same outward end comes to good and bad alike, so no one can read present circumstances as God's verdict.
- One viewpoint. Ecclesiastes reports the reasonings of man about life under the sun. Experience knows nothing beyond what a man can see.
- One diagnosis. Men know the grave is the common goal and still refuse to reckon with it — evil in the heart, madness while they live.
- One witness. Law, Prophets, Psalms and Gospels agree about the heart. This verse is not pessimism but an accurate report.
- One answer. What death closed in darkness, Christ has opened: in Him is life, and for the believer to die is now gain.