‘Do not be surprised at such things’
[Ecclesiastes 5:8-9]
On Tuesday afternoon, there was the funeral of Mr. Kim. Arriving at Skyrose Chapel in the Rose Hills Cemetery, I first walked over to the coffin where Mr. Kim was lying and put my hand in his hand. His hand was cold. When I laid my hand on his hand in the St. Vincent Hospital intensive care unit to pray to God, his hand was warm. But after he passed away, his hands were cold. After greeting the family of Mr. Kim, I went to the solitary area and prepared the funeral service. When I saw the paper that I received from the worker who was in charge of the Rose Hills cemetery funeral, I found out that Mr. Kim 's birthday is same as my first deceased baby Charis’ birthday. So when I preached about the "love of God" to the bereaved family, I shared my experience of my first baby Charis in the funeral service. Although I got to know Mr. Kim only three weeks ago, the Holy Spirit led my heart during the service and enabled me to proclaim the Word of God to the families and relatives of the deceased. That evening I went into the room of my beloved daughter and told her about the funeral. I told her there are two high school daughters to the deceased and they cried a lot because of their father’s death. So I prayed for them. After my daughter heard this, she asked me, ‘When I and my sister become high school students, are you going to do that for us too?’ I think she meant that if she and her sister would become high school students, I might die and they had to come to my funeral service. Haha. So I told her: 'Even if dad dies, when you believe in Jesus, you will have a hope of resurrection so that we will meet again in heaven.' And when I saw her yawning, I said: ‘You are like your mom because whenever I said some serious stuff your mom yawned too. Haha. And she laughed.
After I talked to my daugther, one of the thoughts that came to my mind what maybe I talked about too serious topic, death to too young child. On the one hand I thought so, but on the other hand, I just want my daughter to prepare her heart to say “Good night” to my and my wife because someday for sure I and my will die. So I wanted her to know and believe in Jesus and hoped that the Lord plant in her heart the hope of resurrection and the hope of heaven. This conversation about death is not a remarkable conversation in our home. However, sometimes I am surprised. Whenever I had a chance to talk about death and faith with my children, I often had a surprise when I hear the words of my youngest daughter Karis. For example, when I went out to LA in a car with my children, I told the children that I went to the hospital of Rev. Gomez, who is in charge of our church's Hispanic ministry. Then Karis said ‘God will rescue him, because he loves God, and he is a preacher.’ I was surprised by her saying because she said things that I didn’t expect at all. I think her mind is becoming spiritualized. I think that she has begun to think everything in God-centered. That’s why I often find myself surprised by the child.
In today's text Ecclesiastes 5: 8, King Solomon, says, "do not be surprised at such things.” In other words, ‘Don’t be surprised.’ What is King Solomon telling us not to be surprised by? It is ‘the poor being oppressed’ and “justice and rights denied” (v. 8). In other words, King Solomon is saying that we should not be surprised to see that poor farmers are being abused and are being deprived of their rights. Look at Ecclesiastes 5: 8 – “If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things … .” King Solomon saw in this world that the poor were abused. How did King Solomon see who abused the poor? King Solomon saw a higher official abusing the poor by denying the justice and rights of the poor. What is interesting, however, is that King Solomon says not to be surprised by such things. Why shouldn’t we be surprised to see such sinful things? First of all, what we must be sure here is that King Solomon never approved the illegal act of the higher official oppressing the poor (Wiersbe). King Solomon said, “do not be surprised at such thing” because he saw all the abuse under the sun (4:1). In other words, King Solomon says that it’s not surprise to see that those who arr in power abusing their power in oppressing those who are weak. More specifically, since King Solomon saw that there was evil in the place of judgment and of justice (3:16), it wasn’t surprising to him that those with evil powers oppress the weak and poor.
It is no surprise to us that as we live in this world, poor and powerless people are being abused as they are deprived of their rights by wealthy and powerful people. The reason is that things are so prevalent in this world. There is a book called “The Unheard Truth: Poverty and Human Rights” by Irene Khan, the seventh Secretary General of Amnesty International, the world's largest human rights organization. This book is an intensive analysis of human rights problems caused by poverty (Internet). The author, Irene Khan, said in this book that people are poor because they are discriminated against, not because they earn less. When she came to South Korea and had a special meeting with 400 members of the International Amnesty Korea branch under the heading 'It is now human rights' at the Ewha Women's 100th Anniversary Memorial Hall, this is what she said: “The poor live in insecurity, are alienated, and can not speak out. Particularly, their basic rights such as education rights, health rights, and housing rights are also deprived. 70% of the world's poor are women, which is not a coincidence. Among the poor, there are many minorities, migrants, and natives. The reason is because the poor are discriminated against because they are poor and the poor are discriminated against because they are in poverty” (Internet). In addition to this, one of the things we see and hear through the media is"child slavery." It is said that children are deprived of their rights and abused while working, especially in the poorest countries. According to the announcement of the International Labor Organization in 2005, there are 12.3 million who are in child slavery. International trafficking, a modern slave trade is estimated to be between 800,000 and 900,000 people, or between 10 billion and 32 billion dollars a year. Modern slavery is a global phenomenon. The Middle East is home slave, South Asia is a mortgage labor slave to pay the debt, Uganda and Sri Lanka are child soldier slaves, and advanced countries are sex slaves. Slaves are produced by all means, including violence, kidnapping, fraud, intimidation, medication, etc. There is a trafficking organization that hunts slaves with promises of free sightseeing, and there are poor parents who sell their children to modern slaves. Modern slave industries are growing because of the development of traffic, low sentences, poor border control, consensus between high rank government officials and international slave trade organization, etc.. Internationalization and globalization help the slave industry (Internet). Therefore King Solomon is encouraging us not to be surprised by the poor people being abused by their wicked oppressed officers who deprive the right of the poor.
In this world there is a thing that we should be surprised at. It is that the wicked officials who don’t know that when they abuse their power to the poor, they will be punished by the the higher Lord than they. Look at Ecclesiastes 5:8 – “… for one official is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still.” King Wisdom King Solomon was not surprised to see the oppressed officials in this world depriving the poor and abusing them, but he could not help but wonder that the unscrupulous officials did not know that they had the higher Lord over them. Of course King Solomon knew that there was a higher King, the King of kings, because he had wisdom. But the kings, who had no wisdom like King Solomon, did not know that there was a higher Lord than them. So they abused their power and oppressed the poor. And even though they were abusive, not only they had no fear of judgment but also they didn’t even know that they will be punishment. King Solomon could not help but was surprised by their ignorance. In particular, he could not help but wondered why they were abusing the peasants, because the ruling kings and officials lived in the interests of the land obtained by the poor peasants. Isn’t it strange that the president, the politicians, and the civil servants all live in the interests of the farmers and the common people, but some of the wicked officials oppress them and deprive the right to farmers and ordinary people.
When I was meditating on this, I remembered the words of Ephesians 6:9 – “And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.” Why is the boss in the workplace, who taking people in their appearance, abusing people? The reason is because he does not know that his Master Lord is in heaven. Although he knows his Master Lord is in heaven, he does not acknowledge the Lord in his workplace. Therefore, he has no awe toward God. As a result, he is not afraid to commit the sin of abusing the poor because he is not afraid of the just God. In other words, he is bold to commit sin. The reason we abuse God's given rights is because we do not fear God. That’s why King Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 5:7, “Therefore stand in awe of God.” We must stand in awe of God. We must fear him. And we must keep in mind that God is observing us all. In particular, we should know that God is observing orphans, widows and the poor who are being oppressed. So we should not oppress them and deprive their rights. Rather, we should take care of them. And we must ask the Lord, who is higher than the wicked officials, when the wicked officials are abusing their power in oppressing the powerless, the moneyless and the poor. We must pray for God's deliverance.
How many sinful things have we seen, heard, and felt in our lives? Even if we watch news on TV, we hear news of killing another person, and we are no longer surprised. Although we hear the news about a killer who killed people brutally and thus we think about ‘How much is the cruelty of a person," but we are no longer surprised by the news. The reason is because this is the true reality of sinful human beings. So, I am not so surprised to see the brutal officials that King Solomon spoke of in Ecclesiastes 5: 8-9 who eradicated the justice of the poor. I am no longer surprised when I see and hear the sinful actions of those wicked people. But these days, I have something more strange than before. Actually I am surprised by them. d
The reason is that I am amazed when I see with my spiritual eyes and ears that the Spirit working in my life and in the lives of the people around me. For example, today when I went into my car to go to a Morning Prayer meeting, I turned on my cell phone and heard a voice message. The person who sent the voice message was Pastor Kim who loves me and our church. The content of the message was "I found a good pianist now.” When I listened to that voice message I smiled and I thanked God because God is sending the pianist to our church so precisely in His time. Actually, last Monday, I talked to my cousin who was helping our church as a pianist for a month. And I told her that since a month is over, she could go back to her church with her husband. I told her not to worry about our church because the Lord will build His church and He will provide a pianist for us. But my cousin said she can’t go back to her church until we find the new pianist. I am often surprised when God lets us see that God works in our church. However, the strangest thing I have in my life is that I am amazed at why Jesus was crucified for such sinner like me.
We will all be amazed at what will happen to us soon. And that is the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. On that day we will witness and experience amazing things that we can not imagine. We will be amazed at His glorious Second Coming and will experience our glorious change due to His Second Coming. Although we no longer are surprised by the sinful and evil things done in this world, let us see with our spiritual eyes and experience what God does in the midst of them. As we pray for that day and wait in anticipation, let us give thanks to God and praise and worship him.