ECCLESIASTES 4.1-3

1 Again I looked and considered all the oppression that was taking place under the sun; and behold the tears of such as were oppressed [injured], 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 that are already dead more than the living that are yet alive;

3 But better than they both is he that has not yet been, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

“What a wonderful world!” says the old Louis Armstrong song, but the world, or age, we inhabit is not wonderful at all. Nor is it just a little bit imperfect – but evil and full of oppression, as the news media make plain on a daily basis and as Paul also points out when he says that Jesus Christ, Quote: “Gave himself for our sin to rescue us from the present evil world” (Galatians 1:4).

Wisdom is all very well, Solomon seems to be saying, but many, perhaps most, people have little hope of achieving health, wealth and happiness in this present evil world, system or age -- one that is increasingly racked by misery, despair, pain, poverty, pollution, disease, hunger, violence and death, with so many of its inhabitants enslaved, oppressed or injured, in mind and body, by ignorance and superstition, false beliefs and toxic attitudes, warped personalities, phobias and anxieties, stress, lusts and perversions, addictions, anger and malice, disease and disability . . . as well as by the cruel actions of their fellow human beings.

Solomon saw that the oppressors of humanity possess power, the kind of power that Chairman Mao said comes out of the barrel of a gun. The apostle Paul, however, interprets this section for us and identifies the real source of that evil and the highly organised power behind it when he warns Christians that, Quote: “We are not fighting against human beings but against the evil spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age” (Ephesians 6:12) – a point we shall return to later.

Perhaps it is significant that at the start of his ministry, Jesus went into the synagogue and stood up to read the following proclamation of Good News for oppressed humanity from the book of the prophet Isaiah, saying, Quote: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour” (Luke 4:18-19). There is a new world coming, and it is called the Kingdom of God.

Having rejected God’s direct guidance, Adam and Eve, the first human beings, chose to go it alone in the world, confident that they could reason everything out for themselves. Observing the resultant painful struggle in so many lives, Solomon saw that people had no comforter -- and perhaps it is also significant that very near the end of his earthly ministry, Jesus promised his disciples, Quote: “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever” (John 14:16). That Comforter [Helper, Counsellor, Encourager ] is the Holy Spirit (John 15:26) that God gives to those who asks him (Luke 11:13).

Many, however, will never be comforted in this present life, as we read in Jesus’ parable describing the fate of a rich man who dined sumptuously every day whilst callously disregarding the cries of the sick and hungry beggar named Lazarus, lying at the gate of his mansion (Luke 16:19-31). The parable describes Lazarus, being comforted (verse 25) by Abraham at the resurrection of the dead, whilst the rich man suffers in a fearful place of torment.