A Plea to God

Are we just a twisted thing that cannot be made straight (Eccles. 1:15)? We grow in wisdom, yet folly remains (Eccles. 1:17); fools walk in darkness as wisdom grows (Eccles. 2:14), but the wise are forgotten (Eccles. 2:16). We despair all the gains we have made (Eccles. 2:20), but they, too, will be forgotten as the wicked are rewarded.

Koheleth says “Sometimes someone upright is requited according to the conduct of the scoundrel; and sometimes the scoundrel is requited according to the conduct of the upright” (Eccles. 8:14). The wise are forgotten but hate lives on in the foolish followers of the wicked. What good is enjoyment if it never lasts? We wonder at the suppression of right and justice (Eccles. 5:7), but the time of death comes to all. No favor is granted for the learned (Eccles. 9:11), and the warring winds that die return on their rounds (Eccles. 1:6).

The people have become numb to the ideals of a better society that does not scorn the wisdom of the poor. The bounds and checks against human flaws are disintegrated as wisdom and expertise are rejected for neutrality and Nihilism. Fence-sitters equate good with evil, so both are forgotten, and the wicked are acquitted. Those who choose neither evil nor good sit there and sway in the wind back and forth, not going anywhere and trapped in an endless stagnation with no pleasure, no pain, no joy, no sadness, empty and void.

Is there nothing new to be had under the heavens? You blast the deep with Your thunder, split the waters that flee, set bounds they cannot pass (Ps. 104), but the waters that exit come back around (Eccles. 1:7) and satiate the people with war and hate. Your horn sounds, thundering a covenant as the people pass the depths of exile. Soon, the waters settle in their place, and the people cover their ears at the ten words, distancing themselves from You (Exodus 20). What was once spewed from the depths runs back to the boat (Jonah). Courts are trampled, assemblies are formed with iniquity at the people, and orphans are created (Isaiah 1). What was great among the nations has turned bitter, betraying allies as the gates dwindle. We have become a mockery, plagued by hate homegrown (Lamentations 1) as covenants are made with false oaths (Hosea 10:4), Samuel’s warning falling on deaf ears (1 Samuel 8:10-22).

Koheleth says “If the wrath of a lord flares up against you, don’t give up your post; for when wrath abates, grave offenses are pardoned” (Eccles. 10:4). Fake outrage thunders as false prophets promise immunity and material wealth for unwavering loyalty to Idols. It is not godly. The rejected prepare to raise the voices God gave them; we may not have the U.S. or our rights soon, but what God has given us is a new prophetic calling out toward morality, a new way forward that does not just account for individual autonomy and rights, but also social responsibility for our communities, the stranger, and humanity as a whole, the combination of experience and rationality and mysticism that has always been there in the scriptural tradition, underneath its misuse. May God be with us and save us as a society.