The Story:Wicked people die, but – Solomon seems to muse – not soon enough. Everyone knows they’re wicked; they do their evil right out in public, even managing a veneer of piety while they prosecute their wicked deeds (v. 10). Yet their lives continue, without justice being accomplished. This only encourages others to follow in their ways. And thus wickedness proliferates among men (v. 11). However (v. 13), this will not always be so. Judgment against the wicked will come soon enough; but those who fear the Lord need not fear death. God will make sure that all is well with them. “Think about the day of your death, my son,” Solomon seems to say. “You may be getting away with a lot of foolishness now in your rebellion against God, but it won’t last.” Augustine wrote that there is no such thing as a bad death for those who have lived a good life. The truly good life is life “under the heavens” in the fear of God.

The Structure:Solomon is keeping the pressure on his son. Fearing God or not is a life and deathmatter. One of the reasons so many unbelievers in our day are not troubled by the thought of going to hell is that the Church has failed to impress on them the eternal consequences of resisting the grace of God. “People don’t want to hear about hell,” the contemporary preacher complains. Well, of course not! But that doesn’t mean we should reduce our preaching to telling stories, focusing on the feel-good, and promising God’s love without responsibility. Perhaps if more believers actually feared the Lordthis might make their witness to the lost world more urgent and complete.

How would you explain to someone considering the Christian faith what it means to fear the Lord?

Each week’s studies in our Scriptorium column are available in a free PDF form, suitable for personal or group use. For this week’s study, “In Your Face: Ecclesiastes 8,” simply click here.

T. M. Moore

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.