As we continue in this eighth chapter, remember that this entire book is written to the man that walks in the flesh body, the man that walks under the sun. It is not addressing the spiritual side of man, but the nature and reactions of the flesh nature of man and women. Ecclesiastes is written to us to tell us how to control the flesh body for the short time we are in this time of testing in the flesh. The purpose is to tell us how to find peace of mind, and how to keep our flesh nature happy.

Because it is written in the Bible, and the rest of the Scriptures are written to the spiritual side of man, it is easy to apply this book also to the spiritual nature of man, but is is written to the physical, the man that walks under the sun. In the deeper places of this book, the spiritual side of man is discussed, because it shows us that the spiritual side of man must control the flesh, or you will never find peace of mind. However, this book tells us what we can expect out of our flesh body, if we allow the flesh to rule over our minds.

Remember from the last chapter, where there is not a just man that liveth that doesn't fall short of the glory of God. It seems that we all sin at one time or another in our lives, and that brings us the freedom that we have in Christ, through repentance in Jesus name. It cost an awesome price for us to go to the cross of Christ and have our sins removed from us. That we can have forgiveness both from ourselves, and from the heavenly Father.

Ecclesiastes 8:1 "Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man's wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed."

The wise man usually can give you an interpretation of any troubling thing. When you take a parable of God's Word, and a wise man can give the proper interpretation of that parable, because wisdom does not come from the flesh, but from God. He thinks in the spiritual, and the spiritual controls the flesh in him, and allows the Holy Spirit to flow through him.

All wisdom comes from God, and the lack of wisdom is darkness. What is in your mind controls your countenance, and you eyes mirror what is in your soul. Then as your wisdom and knowledge of God's Word increases, your fears of the unknown decrease, and changes your very countenance. When you have wisdom from our heavenly Father, then you can see through those things with understanding, and that understanding can bring you through your difficulty. With understanding, the man's [women's or child's] countenance naturally lights up and that person becomes sure of themselves.

So what we are asked to do when we look at life in the flesh, is to use wisdom in all that we do.

Ecclesiastes 8:2 "I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God."

We are told to keep the laws of the land, obey them along with the commandments of God. If you break the laws of the land, the punishment is the restriction of you rights. If you speed, not only does it cost you money in the fine, but you could lose your right to drive. It doesn't matter what period of time you live in, there are laws of the land that are set by those ruling over that land. God's commandment orders us to obey the common laws of the land. Even in taxes, Jesus ordered us to pay the taxes that are due, To give to Caesar what belonged to Caesar, and to God that which is God's.

lWe are to keep all laws, "that in regard of the oath of God". The oath of God, is what is written in the Scriptures, laid out that man in the flesh is to follow. When the laws of the land prevent you from following after what God has commanded, and you simply cannot follow the laws of the land, it is time to relocate to where it is possible.

Ecclesiastes 8:3 "Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him."

Don't be to hasty to leave that land and not do your job, and get out of the kings sight, but stay away from trouble. When you simply cannot conform to what the king orders because of your conscience, be silent for the king, or those ruling in the land will find pleasure in destroying you. This is becoming common in our land today, for the evil forces in charge of our government are finding pleasure in disobeying God commandments, and mocking God in all avenues of your life. When you break the laws that are set in your community, those that rule find great pleasure in giving out the punishment.

If you want to find trouble, that is the easiest way, to break the laws of the land that are not harmful to you, and most of those simple laws are made for our benefit, and the protection of our lives. Most laws are made for our good, and this is why we should obey them, and use common sense.

Ecclesiastes 8:4 "Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, `What doest thou?"

Where the laws of the land exist, there is enforcement of those laws. When you break the law, and come before the judge, you can bet that question will be asked, "What did you do that for?" It is time then to use common sense when giving your answer for your actions. You can bet that the judge will be reasonable with those that have a humble and repentive heart in their answer.

Ecclesiastes 8:5 "Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment."

When you start breaking the law, you can bet that calamity will fall on you. In the wise man's mind considers both the time and the judgment. The wise man is the one that uses God's laws to run their life, and even if the one that is power wrongs us, God has said that vengeance is His, in all matters.

When a young person is murdered or raped, and it seems that the murderer or rapist will never be caught, don't worry, for God knows all things, and the minds of all. There will be a judgment and the answering for all sin, whether in this life or at the judgment seat of God. The second death is far worse then the first, for it claims the soul and spirit of that individual eternally. No sin is committed that goes unpunished, and a wise person still knows that they didn't get away with it.

To discern time and judgment means that God knows the act that was committed, and they will pay many times over when it is left to God for the judgment. In the case of murder, even if there is repentance, their will be a payment required for that act, and that is in the fact that our heavenly Father is fair.

We will see in Ecclesiastes 10:2; "A wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart at his left." Right is righteous, and left is darkness. Socialism, and Anti-God Communism is left, and against God's blessings. It is man taking something undeserved, and sharing it with the unblessed. When man follows God's ways, God blesses him for it; however socialism is the taking of God's blessings from one blessed of God and giving it to one that is unblessed of God. It is the way of Satan.

Jesus sits on the right hand of the Father in heaven, and the right hand is the symbol and authority for power. All power is given by God, both in heaven and on the earth. This is why we must keep focused on the right, for only a fool goes left. Remember that also when you go to vote, and you will be in line with God's Word.

Ecclesiastes 8:6 "Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him."

There is a reason for you being in trouble, if it seems that you are always in trouble, and that reason is you. If you do not consider the time and judgment to your acts, then you are not wise and the misery that comes upon you will just deep on growing. When it seems that things are just getting worse, that is the time to get into God's Word, and realigning your mind to get it in tune with His Word.

Everything that you do, whether milking the cows, flying an airplane, cutting down a tree, or selling groceries at the store, there is time and judgment in what you do. If you don't know what you are doing, then what you do will only cause misery to you. If you don't know your job, or the things that are going on around him, he fall into all sorts of traps in his life. If he doesn't know why he is even here in this flesh body, or what purpose he is to accomplish in his life, he becomes a confused person wondering through life.

It is time to get your heart and mind on the right, into your heavenly Father's Word, and apply it to your life. Then through understanding you have peace of mind, and know what the future has to bring.

Ecclesiastes 8:7 "For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?

He doesn't know the future, for the only way to know the future is by the knowledge of His Word is shown you by the Holy Spirit. When you live from one day to the next, you are living in darkness. When you understand the prophecies and parables then the future is known, and you have understanding why all the things are taking place in the world, and coming to pass. It is time to get started in that understanding, for the time is getting late.

Ecclesiastes 8:8 "There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it."

Remember that we are talking about flesh man here, there is no man in the flesh that has the power to hold the wind, or ruach [spirit] in the Hebrew. Can you hold back the wind? Only God can change the jet stream over the face of the earth. Only God can change God's creation.

This also is aimed at the spirit that is within flesh man. When it is time for your spirit to be claimed by God, no man can prevent that from happening, only God can give life and extend life beyond God's appointed time. There is nothing you can do in that war that goes on between life and death of your soul and spirit.

When you were born, God gave you the instinct of survival, and all flesh man fights to maintain the flesh body that his soul and spirit has. That is good, it is a war of survival between the death of the physical body, or the life that is within it. Whether you are righteous or the most wicked in the world, it will not matter when the soul leaves the flesh body, for no possessions will help the physical body after it has died, and rots back into the dust of the earth.

When the silver cord of life breaketh, and your bowl of clay decayeth, your soul is out of here friend, and your soul then stands before your makers, and it is time to give account of yourself where it matters.

Ecclesiastes 8:9 "All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt."

As long as you leave a physical man in control, in time there will be a tyrant rise in power. This is obvious as we reflect back in history, for most all centuries have had their tyrants. Keep in mind that the tyrant is a fool, that rejects God's ways. That is time to use the knowledge that God gives you, and out think that fool.

Your soul should know the time and judgment with God, and that he will not get away wih anything with God. He may ruffle your feathers a little, but God will provide the way for you to see through that time of trouble. God is always in control, even when there is an evil ruler on the throne, but in the end all things are made right.

Ecclesiastes 8:10 "And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity."

This has a two fold meaning. First, this so-called "place of the holy" is what we call the cemetery. It is the place where after a man dies, the community comes in and dresses that old wicked man up, and says good things about him, and covers over all the evil acts that made up his life. It is the time where every one tries to forget the thousands of evil acts, and focus only on the one or two thing of good that that wicked man did.

How soon those people in the community forget that he was a wicked bum and no good fool, that deserves the judgment that he will get. Maybe this is a good mark of our people, but that is the way that it is. At death they all forget the wicked that was within him, as soon as they try to remember a good that he did. This old boy is heading for hell, yet the town is still talking what a nice guy that he was. Have you ever heard people talking at a funeral of what a nice guy this man was, and you almost went up to see if it was the same man that you knew, and the evil thing that you knew he had done. You get the point?

The point here is that people in the flesh body, the man that walks under the sun, just does not know how to judge. Once the tyrant is gone, people feel so good about it that they are willing to put out of their mind the evil cause by him. They leave God out of their thinking.

Now the deeper meaning. When the evil man dies, we see that it says, "gone from the place of the holy", that man's soul has crossed over the gulf to the place of the unrighteous. It is the place that Jesus described in Luke 16:19-31, concerning Lazarus the beggar, and the rich man, which gave us a view behind the vail that separates our physical realm, from the heaven. That evil man went to the side of the gulf were he could not cross to were God and righteous souls were. Why? He was a tyrant, and God will have nothing to do with them, except to judge him to hell.

No soul is in the hole in the ground with their decayed flesh body, but they are in heaven, in a special holding place awaiting judgment, or the millennium age. All souls of the dead return to the Father that gave it, upon death, and don't let any preacher tell you otherwise. At death, God separates the holy people from the wicked. There is no jury in God's judgment, and the punishment is always right and correct because God reads the mind and intent of the heart of all souls. The only witness are are the Father, the Son, and the Spirit of God.

Ecclesiastes 8:11 "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."

The United States of America is the greatest breakers of this teaching of God's Word, of all nations in the world. The "sons of men" are the people of the flesh body, and because they sentence is carried out so slowly for the evil acts that they do, they think that they can get away with the sins that they do. Today we call it plea bargaining, and man is the sorriest judge that can ever be. In our present generation, a man can even commit a murder, and expect at least ten more years of life. His victim is dead, and gone to the Father, and God is saying that if this killer was speedily executed and his soul sent to God the Father, man's minds would remember, and not set to do evil. Swift judgment with proper witnesses, as prescribed by God in Deuteronomy 19, would end the increase in murder and rape in our land.

The subject is the wise man knows time and judgment, Do you know the difference between the judgment of man, and the judgment of God? You will never find peace of mind if you don't. Before God, no man gets away with anything, and the escape of judgment here in the flesh, gets harder judgment by God.

Ecclesiastes 8:12 "Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before Him:"

Though a man keeps on doing the same old wicked act over and over, and he lives for many years in those evil acts, those that are righteous before God, and respect and revere God's ways will still do will even though those acts are committed against them. While you are living in the flesh, and seeing the injustice being done, don't let it bother you, for in due time justice will be done.

Ecclesiastes 8:13 "But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God."

How long does your shadow last? That is how long the wicked last. Friend the shadow only lasts a short part of one day. God promised man that the day that he sinned he would surely die. The wicked don't last long.

Ecclesiastes 8:14 "There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity.

There is an empty thing that mankind just keeps on doing over and over, and it deals with man's judgment. Man's judgment is not good, as he tries to understand himself. By man's judgment it appears that the righteous suffer what the wicked should, and the wicked get what the righteous should.

But God is saying to wake up and look behind the vail of this physical life, and see that there is absolute justice and righteousness in God's eternal judgment. The righteous will get their eternal live with all the rewards that come from it, while the judgment of God on the wicked is absolute, and the end is the second death, the death and destruction of their soul. What ever man thinks, void of wisdom of God, is vanity and emptiness.

Don't look at man's judgment and expect that that is the end of it all, there is still the judgment of God, and there no man gets away with anything.

Ecclesiastes 8:15 "Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun."

As long as God allows you to live under the sun, in this flesh body, you don't have any control over when you will die. If you are working and receive the wages from your work, be happy in your labor, and enjoy the blessing that God gives you from the fruit of your labor. You can be happy in your flesh life when you obtain wisdom from God. When others try to put you on a gilt trip for the blessings that God has given to you, they are in the wrong, so enjoy your blessing from God.

Ecclesiastes 8:16 "When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:)"

When I set my mind to know the wisdom of God, and how to live here in the flesh body and survive, it bothered me to where I could not sleep at night, and it bothered me during the day.

Ecclesiastes 8:17 "Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea farther; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it."

When I search for the answers, then I saw the it was all in the work of God. That everything that man does is part of the work of God. The administration of God's work is in His creation, yet you will not find it in the world. You can look at every business in the world, and you will not understand the work of God from them. If you only pay attention to the work that you do for a living, and you don't get your mind past that, you will never bring yourself to the understanding of the work of God.

The moral of this chapter is that there is no peace in the world, without the peace of God in your mind. We find that peace of mind in the Scriptures of God's Word.