Where Is the Justice?: What Ecclesiastes 8 Says About Unfairness
from a sermon by Lucas Johnson on September 20, 2026
For seven chapters, the Teacher of Ecclesiastes has hunted for meaning. Can we find it in our work? Our pleasures? Our wisdom? Every time, he comes back with the same word: hevel. Vapor. Smoke rising off a fire. You can grab at it all day, but it slips through your fingers.
In chapter 8, the book shifts. Now the question is different. Even if you could find meaning in life, what do you do with the bad things in it? Why do bad things happen to good people? Or worse, why do good things happen to bad people?
When the Boss Is Bad
Let's start close to home. Who has had a bad boss? Maybe they were incompetent, lazy, or dishonest. Maybe they took advantage of the people under them. We hear "leader" and picture presidents and kings, but bad leaders turn up in offices, classrooms, churches, and homes too.
In an ideal world, every leader would be qualified, experienced, and godly, leading for the good of others instead of personal gain. This is why George Washington is so admired. After the Revolution, he chose to be president instead of king, and then he walked away. Our world is not full of Washingtons.
So what does a king near the end of his life tell us to do with bad leaders? Verses 2-4:
"Obey the king, since you vowed to God that you would. Don't try to avoid doing your duty, and don't stand with those who plot evil, for the king can do whatever he wants. His command is backed by great power. No one can resist or question it."
Disobedience is an option, and nobody is taking it from you. But the Teacher urges obedience and warns against joining a mutiny or revolution. Romans 13 tells us all authority comes from God, from the highest office to the lowest. If following a leader doesn't require us to disobey God, we should follow, even when the rule is silly or inconvenient. Verse 5 keeps it practical: those who obey will not be punished.
Still, verses 5-6 add an important note: "Those who are wise will find a time and a way to do what is right." Sometimes a leader asks for something against our faith, and disobedience is required. The trouble starts when we confuse things we dislike with things violating our beliefs. We have all known the coworker who threatens to quit every time something goes wrong, so when a real complaint finally comes, nobody listens. Believers are called to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, even with bosses who should know better. We need discernment, found in a close walk with God, to know when to disobey and how to do it in a God-honoring way.
Wicked People, Honored
Bad people aren't confined to positions of leadership, of course. Why do they get praised? Verses 10-11:
"I have seen wicked people buried with honor, yet they were the very ones who frequented the temple and are now praised in the same city where they committed their crimes. This too is meaningless. When a crime is not punished quickly, people feel it is safe to do wrong."
Two details matter here: the temple and the burial. Leviticus is full of laws about being clean enough to enter the temple, where God dwelled in the Old Testament. Unclean people who got too close to a holy God died. Yet these wicked people were welcomed in anyway, and their wickedness was honored.
Then there's the burial. Personally, I'd be fine with the body farm at the University of Tennessee, where forensic students study decomposition. I'm getting a new body from God anyway. But in the ancient Middle East, going unburied was a shame and a curse, and burying a stranger was as honorable as feeding the hungry. The Teacher is showing us the full extent of injustice: in life and in death, the wicked are honored, and they never get what they deserve.
And when we see it, we want to get even.
Justice Is Not Revenge
This is not our job. But don't misunderstand me. Believers are not called to sit idly by. Shepherds protected their flocks from wolves, literally fighting them off with sticks and slings. We have a duty to protect those in our care, push back against injustice where we can, demand justice for wrongs, and shine the light of truth on a fallen world.
Justice and revenge are different things. Justice is righting wrongs. Revenge watches a bad person prosper and decides to make them suffer, not to fix anything, just because they deserve it. Paul writes in Romans 12:19, "Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God." We don't get to be God.
And honestly, it makes me mad too. Verse 14 says:
"In this life, good people are often treated as though they were wicked, and wicked people are often treated as though they were good. This too is meaningless."
Backwards.
There Are No "Good People"
Before the Teacher gives advice for good people, we need to be honest: there are no good people, at least not the way we usually mean it. The hardest job for Christians in America may be convincing people they need God, because so many of us have been fed a lifetime of "You're perfect just like you are. Just listen to your heart." But the Teacher says he searched a thousand people and found one righteous, and Psalm 14:3 says, "All have become corrupt. No one does good, not a single one."
The first time I preached on this, my grandma was in the room. It is hard to tell your grandma she's a sinner. But she is, and so am I.
We compare ourselves to other sinners and always find someone worse. It's like lining up a group of ordinary people against Usain Bolt in the 100 meters. A good sprinter runs it in under 12 seconds. Bolt runs it in under 10, topping out around 27 miles an hour. In his 2016 Olympic win, the gap between him and second place was a tenth of a second, and the gap to last place was under a second. Where are you in that picture? Nowhere. The best you can be is the fastest slow person. Next to the goodness of God, the best we can be is the least-worst sinner.
I get what people mean by "I'm a good person." Not all sins carry the same consequences. They mean they don't steal from their families to feed an addiction, or run a Ponzi scheme on retirees. Fair enough. But then the questions come. Why am I the one who gets sick? Why am I struggling to pay my bills? Why am I so lonely? How do you keep your sanity in a world this upside down?
How to Live in a Backward World
The Teacher's usual advice shows up in verse 15: eat, drink, and enjoy the pleasures of life. Find happiness where you can, because every bit of it is a gift from God. Then comes something new, in verses 12-13:
"But even though a person sins a hundred times and still lives a long time, I know that those who fear God will be better off. The wicked will not prosper, for they do not fear God. Their days will never grow long like evening shadows."
Don't read this as "I've been good and gotten nothing, so I might as well sin." Sin is no ticket to the good life. The only thing it guarantees is separation from God. Wisdom is fearing the Lord and letting him guide your life.
This life is temporary, about 75 years for most of us. But we are promised eternity in God's presence, with no more sickness, death, or tears, and no more upside-down morality. We will finally see true justice. And the best news is we don't deserve it. Heaven is not something we earn. It's a gift.
What We Can't See
So what about the here and now? Why doesn't God make everything good today? The only answer I can give is verse 17: "I realize no one can discover everything God is doing under the sun. Not even the wisest people discover everything, no matter what they claim." Just as revenge isn't our job, neither is telling God how to run things. We don't see what he sees.
If you're new to faith, or in a hard season and feeling abandoned, this may sound like an insurance policy. It isn't. I'm not selling anything. I'm pointing you to the one true God, who is jealous for your attention, love, and affection, and who wants to give you good things, even if not on our timeline. I don't have it all figured out. I'm just another sinner who was pointed to God by someone, who was pointed by someone else, and so on.
If you haven't received this gift and want to know more, or you're walking through something hard and need prayer, reach out. We would be honored to pray with you.
Lord, give us patience and discernment, and open our eyes to your plan.
Think About It
Ecclesiastes 8:2-4 urges obedience to leaders, and Romans 13 says all authority comes from God. Where do you find it hardest to submit to a leader you disagree with? How can you tell the difference between something you dislike and something that truly violates your faith?
The Teacher points out that the wicked were honored in life and in death (vv. 10-11). When have you watched someone do wrong and seem to get away with it? What did it stir up in you?
The sermon drew a line between justice and revenge. What does each look like in practice? Where is the line between "shining a light on sin" and taking matters into our own hands (Romans 12:19)?
Most of us are tempted to compare ourselves to someone worse and call ourselves "good." What does the Usain Bolt illustration change about how you see your own goodness? How does the truth of Psalm 14:3 make the gift of grace look different?
Verse 17 says no one can discover everything God is doing under the sun. Which "why" questions are you carrying right now, and what would it look like to trust God with them while still enjoying the good gifts he gives today (v. 15)?
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