The Scandal of Injustice
For Meditation
Our teacher Qohelet has been systematically guiding us through an exploration of the meaning of life, trying to answer the question: “How do we live good and meaningul lives in a world as baffling and broken as this one?” In our text this week, he does a deep dive into one aspect of the “hebel” that we find ourselves in that makes life in this world so complicated and difficult. He addresses the issue of injustice.
“And I saw something else under the sun:
In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,
in the place of justice—wickedness was there.” – Ecclesiastes 3:16
Qohelet observes that not only is there terrible injustice in the world, where so little often happens in the fair and just way it is supposed to. But he also observes that the very places that are meant to enact justice or often infected by wickedness instead. What hope do we have in a world where there is so little recourse for those who are oppressed?
We will see in our text this week that Qohelet is torn. On the one hand, he believes in a God of judgment, on the other, he doesn’t see this judgment being carried out. So it leaves him feeling bereft. As those who live after the coming of Jesus, we have more clarity about God’s plan to bring ultimate justice to our world, even as there are many ways we still must live in the hebel.
As you prepare for worship this Sunday, read and pray through Psalm 146, and meditate on the promise of God to bring justice to our world.
Ecclesiastes 3:16–4:4
16 And I saw something else under the sun:
In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,
in the place of justice—wickedness was there.
17 I said to myself,
“God will bring into judgment
both the righteous and the wicked,
for there will be a time for every activity,
a time to judge every deed.”
18 I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. 19 Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”
22 So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?
1 Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun:
I saw the tears of the oppressed—
and they have no comforter;
power was on the side of their oppressors—
and they have no comforter.
2 And I declared that the dead,
who had already died,
are happier than the living,
who are still alive.
3 But better than both
is the one who has never been born,
who has not seen the evil
that is done under the sun.
4 And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.