Ecclesiastes 8:12

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Articles, Bible studies, and sermons that contain Ecclesiastes 8:12:

Ecclesiastes 8:11-13
Excerpted from: The Sin of Self-Deception

Let us go back to Ecclesiastes 8, because we see here a principle that is at work in human nature, and we have got to be aware of this. Thinking about what Jeremiah said—the people love to have it so—Solomon says in verse 11, by reflecting on his observations, watching people, thinking about himself, watching events occur in his land:

Just because the penalty does not occur immediately does not mean it is not going to come. Be aware! Adam and Eve set aside the teaching of God because they became convinced that the penalty—death—would not occur. When they sinned and death did not occur immediately, they were even more convinced. But death did occur and other evil things happened in their lives that did not have to happen.

We have got to understand that it is part of the way God operates, that He gives us time to learn lessons; that He give us time to come to a better knowledge of Him; that He give us time to understand cause and effect. If God reacted immediately when we sinned, it would be all over the very first time. There would be no building of character; there would be no learning by experience; there would be no growth in wisdom; there would be no understanding of human nature.

Do not be deceived because the penalty does not seem to fall quickly.

Ecclesiastes 8:12-13
Excerpted from: Justice and Grace

Do you see what that is saying? Human nature is so tricky that it can deceive even one who is converted to begin to take the grace of God for granted. Human nature has the tendency to pull the human being further and further into sin. If God does not execute His wrath and His justice immediately against a person and instead gives him grace, He gives that person an opportunity to continue to live longer in order that grace may be able to work in his life, and that he be led to repentance instead. "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?"

Solomon had enough wisdom to understand that in the end they are going to get it. The wheels of God's justice may work slowly, but they work, and they never stop working. Perhaps the supreme folly of all is that man deceives himself, that because it is customary for God to be patient, longsuffering, and slow to anger and forbearing of us, we forget that His forbearance is designed to lead us to repentance. Instead of taking advantage of His patience and to come to Him for forgiveness, we have a tendency to continue in our revolt through sin. The supreme folly of a converted person is to delude himself that somehow he is going to get away with it.

Articles
'Unless Those Days Were Shortened . . .'
Ecclesiastes and Christian Living (Part Fifteen): Deference
Playing With Fire
The Fruit of the Spirit: Patience
The Sovereignty of God: Part Nine

Bible Studies
Parable of the Barren Fig Tree

Sermons
Ecclesiastes Resumed (Part Thirty-Three): Ecclesiastes 8:10-9:1
Avoiding Detrimental Assumptions
Secret Faults and Presumptuous Thoughts
Honor Before Love
The Sovereignty of God (Part Nine)
The Sovereignty of God (Part Nine)
How Satan Destroys Faith
Forbearance
Sovereignty and Submission
Deuteronomy (Part 4)
God Will Understand
You Have Not So Learned Christ
The March Toward Globalism (Part 8)

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