13. Talking of Oppression

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Hymns: 335 Keep On Believing 337 Never Give Up 546 For All the Saints 

Study of the Book of Ecclesiastes

(Remember Now Thy Creator)

– Talking of Oppression

Ecclesiastes 4:1-3

1 So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter. 2 Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive. 3 Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

 

OUTLINE

  • Tears of the Oppressed (v1)
  • Praise of the Dead (v2-3)

 

INTRODUCTION

Man’s history is a sad history of violence, hatred and oppression among men. The strong man bullying weak man. Might is right is the rule of the jungle of human civilisation. The law of the fallen man is to squeeze his fellow men to reap personal benefit. This led to untold sorrow and tears in human history.

God’s law protect the weak. The law in Israel protects the widow and the orphan. These are those who often have no means of personal support and most vulnerable to be preyed by wicked men.

If you analysed human situation, the world political situation, you would realize that it is quite worrying, isn’t it? It tells us the problem that is plaguing man, the problem that is within him, that he cannot solve! What is wrong with the human heart? I submit to you that it is the problem called “sin” a nature that man has inherited when the first man Adam departed from obeying God, the God who made him, the God who placed him in a paradise and he gave it all to the devil, to Satan. The man who leaves His Creator often becomes a beast!

Solomon turns his attention to human oppression. He wants us to see the hopeless state of man without God under oppression.

Two thoughts:

  • Tears of the Oppressed (v1)
  • Praise of the Dead (v2-3)

 

(1) Tears of the Oppressed (v1)

1 So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.

 Solomon speaks of the cruelty of men against their fellow men. A reference to the Bible dictionary tells us how “oppression weighs down a person with physical or mental distress (Job 35:9); causing the oppressed to weep and mourn (Eccl. 4:1), citing our text. And how at one time the city of Samaria was filled with many oppressions, physical, political, military, or economic (Amos 3:9) and how it came under God’s judgment.

Amos 3:10 For they know not to do right, saith the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces. 11 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; An adversary there shall be even round about the land; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled.

When a nation rules by law, punish the wicked there is peace in the land. But when the law is spurned and not enforced, we see how oppression and sorrow come to its citizens.

Solomon surveyed all the oppressions that are done under the sun. He observed “and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.”

He tells us of the injustices that come to men causing untold tears and sorrow. He observed how depressing to see the oppressed totally suppressed finding no comforter to free them from their oppression.

The British author, John Blanchard said, recording this for our learning. Out of the past 4000 years there have been less than 300 without a major war. This is the plight of man. And that is why God had to send the global flood. Remember in Genesis chapter 6, the Bible tells us that the heart of man was evil continually.

And God sent a global flood and none survived except Noah and his family – his wife, three sons and the three daughters-in-law. A miserable plight! How God had to judge the entire world by a global blood-bath by water and if you were to analysed human history closer to our time, John Blanchard’s research tells us that from “1480 to 1941, Great Britain was involved in 78 major wars, France in 16, Spain in 64, Russia in 61, Austria in 52, Germany in 23, the United States in 13, China in 11 and Japan in 9.”[1] That is the past 400 years of men’s existence, plagued with violence, oppression and trouble. Solomon is right. This is life under the sun.

And the 20th century, the century that just passed, “was hailed by many as the beginning as a millennium of peace and prosperity, but this claim was nothing but an empty idealism” this writer tells us. He recorded that “in World War 1 (1914-1918), many believed that this will be “the war to end all wars”, and yet “30 million people were killed.” Man just could not solve his problems. And every time he could not find a solution, he would trigger the panic button, that is violence. And if you were to look nearer history after the First World War, we saw the League of Nations was founded in 1926, its role was to maintain world peace or international peace. By 1928, some 58 nations had signed its covenant of membership, yet eleven years later almost all of them were embroiled in World War II, which eventually cost 90 million lives. The League of Nations was formally wound up in 1946 when its functions were taken over by the newly-founded United Nations”[2] and its goal was in succeeding generations freedom from the scourge of war and human oppression.

And as we think of the last 60-70 years, statistic has for us that life has not been so peace for “man for the silenced guns of global conflict were followed by the so-called Cold War, when for nearly half a century the world lived under the real threat of nuclear extinction. At one point the nuclear powers had stockpiled the equivalent of 320,000 million tons of high explosives, over 100 tons for every man, woman and child on earth. The United States had enough aerosol nerve gas to kill all life in an area of 455 million square miles, 8 times the area of the whole surface of the earth.”[3]

With sin comes sorrow. He cannot avoid it. Grief is an inevitable result of this fallen world. Broken relationships, broken family bonds, broken marital bonds plagued our human existence. Somehow, we just don’ know how to live peaceably, joyfully with one another. What is wrong with us? How it that we cannot, much as we tried, what is that missing ingredient in our lives?

Psalm 119 describes the key to victorious living in the midst of trials and afflictions and oppressions. God’s Word is the key to our survival in this coming period of famine.

As you read through all 176 verses, notice that the psalmist is crying almost throughout the whole psalm. Indeed, life is full of trouble, tears and sorrow because this is a fallen world that we live in. Yet there is peace, hope and joy in the psalmist’s heart. What is his secret? It is the Word of God that keeps and sustains him through his afflictions and trials. Below are four sections in the study of Psalm 119 for your encouragement in times of trials and afflictions, especially during the economic hardships that will come with the collapse of the world monetary system.

Psalm 119 is an acrostic psalm with each of the 22 sections of eight verses beginning with succeeding letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This is done to facilitate learning — it is a memory aid. The psalm is written in thanksgiving to God for the blessings that come from embracing God’s Word in a believer’s life. The psalmist praises God for giving him His Word and is resolved to allow the Word of God to guide his life. How about you? How much is God’s Word an integral part of your life? In the deepest afflictions, the psalmist receives hope and comfort from God’s promises. God’s Word keeps his soul alive.

Jesus says, “Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me … Peace I leave with you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” When we commit our troubles to our heavenly Father in prayer, we receive from Him peace and faith that remove all our fears.

Such comfort encourages us to go on trusting Him amidst dark circumstances, even horror (v53), that we cannot understand. The psalmist speaks with the hindsight of an experienced faith, a tested faith to encourage us that even when everything seems to be at its bleakest, the believer can, like the psalmist, continue to hope in God. He relates how the songs of God’s promises accompanied him through his darkest nights. They were effectual to comfort his aching heart.

 

I know the Lord will make a way for me,

I know the Lord will make a way for me,

If I look to Him in prayer, darkest night will turn to day,

I know the Lord will make a way for me.

 

The psalmist says, “Therefore I love thy commandments above gold … Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right …” He experiences the trustworthiness of God’s Word. God means what He says and has the power to bring His promises to pass. With confidence that comes from experience, the psalmist declares that there shall not fail one word of His promises but that all shall be fulfilled.

He testifies that he has obeyed God’s Word (v121) and he is being persecuted. The oppression is so great that he cries out to God for salvation and mercy. Will God not show mercy to His people who cry out to him in agony? Certainly He will. He will not fail to show mercy. His mercy never fails. This is one aspect of God’s character that the psalmist appeals to in his prayer.

Unless the LORD intervenes, his situation is really precarious. “It is time for thee, LORD, to work,” he says. His reason for God’s intervention is that God’s law has been trampled upon and made void by ungodly men. Will God not defend His own name? He certainly will and He certainly has. That is why the psalmist is able, with conviction, to esteem highly His Word because it does not fail.

And Jesus spake a parable in Luke 18:1 to this end, that men ought (a necessity of law and command, of duty) always to pray, and not to faint.

And He spoke also a parable to them, the King James translator correctly translated in the italics “to this end” to show purpose. Jesus speaks this parable “to this end”, to this purpose, “that” He is speaking to encourage, exhort, give confidence in the heart that “believers must always pray and not faint”.

The literal translation can be “it is necessary always to pray and not to faint”. The word “ought” is used to carry the sense of necessity of duty or command”. Notice also this word for “pray” always refers to “prayer to God” in the NT. The disciples are to pray under all types of necessity.

The key word is the adverb “always” – it connotes “time”, it means “at all times”, it speaks of constancy in prayer, a consistent prayer life.

“To faint” is to lose heart, to let despondency take over, become discouraged, give up, grow weary, to despair, to be demoralized, to lose one’s motivation, to stop praying. It is necessary to pray in all circumstances especially in the afflictions and hardships of life.

Will the believer exercise faith to continually come to his Lord in prayer even amidst great persecution, unbelief and apostasy in the times nearing the Lord’s Second Coming? The time is nearing toward the formation of the one world church. Persecution will come when we hold fast to the old time gospel – Jesus only saves! When persecution comes, when we are helpless like the widow against overwhelming odds and enemies, we are exhorted to continue to pray.

True believers will persistently wait with patient trust. Will Jesus find faith on earth? The answer is “no”. What a grave state of affairs for mankind!

In the parable, our Lord turns His audience from the unjust judge to God Himself, who always do justice and does not fail in showing compassion for believers who suffer.

Luke 18:4-8 And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; 5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. 6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. 7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? 8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

 Even the unjust judge will not tolerate the pressing request of the oppressed widow how much more our infinitely just Judge? God will certainly respond to His beloved one “his own elect” by making right the wrong that they suffer when they cry to Him. Our God will always do what’s just and right and is filled with compassion to help His children who are suffering.

God’s respond will be swift and very reassuring, Jesus says, “8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.”

We shall study the martyrdom of Stephen this Lord’s Day. Our Lord Himself stood up to welcome him to heaven. As we said, did he lose anything. No! God will preserve His body and soul for eternity in tact!

As the Psalmist said to God’s people, in Psalm 121:7-8 “The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. 8 The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.”

 

(2) Praise of the Dead (v2-3)

2 Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive. 3 Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun. 

In the pulpit commentary, it is observed well, “It would be a mistake to regard this language as expressing the deliberate and final conviction of the author of Ecclesiastes. It represents a mood of his mind, and indeed of many a mind, oppressed by the sorrows, the wrongs, and the perplexities of human life.”

Jill observed well concerning this text, “He speaks here of the the evil works of oppressors, and the sorrows of the oppressed Yea, better is he than both they which hath not yet been, That is, an unborn person; who is preferred both to the dead that have seen oppression, and to the living that are under it; see Job 3:10.

Job 3:10 Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.

This supposes a person to be that never was, a mere non-entity; and the judgment made is according to sense, and regards the dead purely as such, and so as free from evils and sorrows, without any respect to their future state and condition; for otherwise an unborn person is not happier than the dead that die in Christ, and live with him.” [Jill].

Matthew Henry comments well, “The temptations of their condition. Being thus hardly used, they are tempted to hate and despise life, and to envy those that are dead and in their graves, and to wish they had never been born (Eccl. 4:2-3). And Solomon is ready to agree with them, for it serves to prove that all is vanity and vexation, since life itself is often so…

It grieved Solomon to see might prevail against right. Wherever we turn, we see melancholy proofs of the wickedness and misery of mankind, who try to create trouble to themselves and to each other. Being thus hardly used, men are tempted to hate and despise life. But a good man, though badly off while in this world, cannot have cause to wish he had never been born, since he is glorifying the Lord, even in the fires, and will be happy at last, for ever happy. Ungodly men have most cause to wish the continuance of life with all its vexations, as a far more miserable condition awaits them if they die in their sins. If human and worldly things were our chief good, not to exist would be preferable to life, considering the various oppressions here below.”

Truly, if there is no life above the sun, then it is indeed miserable. But for the truth that God revealed to us, there is hope in God. Death is not the end. It is the beginning of paradise for God’s children. This world is but a passing, temporal sojourn.

The Bible is the only book that has solution to problem of sin, sorrow and death.

We have to go back to the Maker who has the instructions, who has the specifications. But there is good news. There is indeed a solution to sin, oppression, sorrow and death.

 John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

 

CONCLUSION

The solution and hope is in Jesus Christ, the only Saviour of the world. May we proclaim Him to the oppressed that they may find liberty! Amen.

 

 

[1] John Blanchard, The Beatitudes for today. DayOne, 1999, 212.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.