Without God - Part 34: It Will Not Go Well With Them

 

“When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong.”

—Ecclesiastes 9:11

Inevitably, as we follow along with King Solomon’s examination of humans living their lives without the presence of God in their lives, we must look at those who behave as criminals. Notice how Solomon treats this subject, as recorded in Ecclesiastes 8:9-13:

All this I saw, as I applied my mind to everything done under the sun. There is a time when a man lords it over others to his own hurt. Then too, I saw the wicked buried—those who used to come and go from the holy place and receive praise in the city where they did this. This too is meaningless.

When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong. Although a wicked person who commits a hundred crimes may live a long time, I know that it will go better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him. Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.

Solomon makes three important points in this passage:

• First of all, there are those who, though they are evil, attend church (go from the holy place) and receive praise and recognition of others. We must guard ourselves when it comes to those individuals we choose to revere in this life. After all, we are all sinners. Putting one’s faith and trust in another human comes with a cost, especially if time proves that one is actually an evildoer.
  
  
• Secondly, a sentence for a crime must be swiftly carried out or the punishment will not deter others from committing that same crime. We clearly see this in our own nation every day. Just this week, a person in the city where I live who committed a murder three years ago was finally brought to trial. He was convicted by a jury of his peers of first degree murder. While I know nothing whatsoever about the details of this case, on the surface it appears to me that three years is far too long a time before this person came to trial. It will take many more months, even years, before his sentence will be implemented.
  
  
• Third, there is a contrast between the life of one who fears (reveres) God and a wicked person who does not fear God. Each may live a long life. But, the wicked person who does not fear God will have a miserable existence, no matter what the outward appearance may be. Why? Because life without God is a horrible existence.

As a new day begins, we do well to remain thankful that, in His mercy and grace, God has chosen to reveal Himself to us through His Holy Spirit, so that we might have a relationship with Him. Our lives with God are so much better than life without Him could ever possibly be.

 

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