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Ecclesiastes 4_1-16 Sermon 8.pdf

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The Coming Crisis (Ecclesiastes 4:1–6)

A Vision of Oppression and Absence (v. 1)

• The oppressed weep with no comforter.
• Power is with the oppressors, and still no comforter is found.
• Solomon sees more than injustice—he sees a world morally abandoned, prophetically exposed.

Interpretive Tension: Who Are the Oppressed?

• Multiple readings—victims of injustice, souls under judgment, covenant outsiders.
• Raises the question: is this a social lament, or a prophetic sorrow about future divine judgment?

Better Off Dead or Never Born (vv. 2–3)

• The dead are praised over the living.
• More enviable still are those who have not yet been born who be born in a better time and place.
• The language echoes Job 3, Jeremiah 20, and Jesus’ prophecy in Luke 23:29—this is apocalyptic vision, not personal despair.

Strengthening the Prophetic Reading

• Solomon could not have meant his own reign—his was a time of justice and prosperity.
• The language mirrors other prophetic glimpses of coming judgment (Revelation 9:6, Jeremiah 30:7, Lamentations 1).
• This is a future time of horror and abandonment, one that aligns with the Day of the Lord and the Great Tribulation.

The Collapse of Envy and Striving (Ecclesiastes 4:4–6)

Envy-Driven Labor (v. 4)

• All work is driven by envy of one’s neighbor.