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Eccl 8:9-17

9 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. 10 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. 11 When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong. 12 Although a wicked man commits a hundred crimes and still lives a long time, I know that it will go better with God-fearing men, who are reverent before God. 13 Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow. 14 There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: righteous men who get what the wicked deserve, and wicked men who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless. 15 So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun. 16 When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe man's labor on earth — his eyes not seeing sleep day or night— 17 then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all his efforts to search it out, man cannot discover its meaning. Even if a wise man claims he knows, he cannot really comprehend it.

NIV

Life happens, sometimes things just seem like they are the way they are supposed to be, at least how we think they are supposed to be. There are people who use others for their own benefit, but instead it is to their own hurt or it turns out evil for them as the Hebrew word implies. We might think this is what the wicked do, but not the righteous. Yet who is it that comes and goes from the holy place? Are they just the church goes, the pretenders of religion, or are they actually the righteous? It seems they would be the pretenders, for what they do is so they can get praise from men. Righteous people would not do that. We would not do that, doing works for the praise of men, would we?  No, we would do things for the praise from God. Solomon is inspired to voice a thought about civil or criminal law and the need for swift court judgement and the punishment of wrong doers. It seems in the day of Solomon it was not much different than in our days. When wrong doing is not punished, then people think they can get away with wrong doing. Just think how many people exceed the speed limit, no one gets caught and so everyone speeds, although it is still against the law. It seems the same way with bigger crimes as well. No swift punishment and more people commit crimes thinking it will be years before they receive their due punishment. Living to please God, to revere God is always the better course of life. This type of life does lengthen our days, like forever, for all eternity will our days be. Surely we will face death in the flesh, but we will live as the shadow lengthens. It just keeps getting longer and longer as long as it is day. The wicked will not enjoy that experience no matter how great their life seems at the moment. But then sometimes it seems the opposite is true. As far as this life in the flesh is concerned, the righteous could die young and the wicked could live a long and prosperous life. It’s meaningless, in the grand scheme of things, according to God. The best we can do is to live our life pleasing to God, but at the same time enjoying the life he has given us. Enjoy our spouse, our children, our work, the labor of our hands, enjoy the provisions of the Lord. Enjoy knowing he loves us and cares about us. Living with joy is so much better than with gloom. Being content in life is so much better than living with wanting more and more, always being discontent with our lot in life. Man might labor, but what has God done? It is better to trust in God than in our labor. Yet in all our efforts we still cannot fully comprehend all that God has done. No matter how long we study and apply all the skill and knowledge of all who have gone before us and add the great minds of today, we will never completely grasp everything that goes on under the sun. God has created far more than we will ever be able to understand. How awesome is God? Far more awesome than we can ever imagine. So we live with the peace of knowing we are his people and he is our God.