Commentary on Ecclesiastes 7:15

Ecclesiastes 7:15 - "All things have I seen in the days of my vanity there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness."

This verse is seemingly contradictory to Proverbs 10:27 saying, "The fear of the LORD prolongeth days but the years of the wicked shall be shortened." It's indeed quite true that many people in this world die early but sadly many of them are also good Christian workers aside from the heathen people. On the other hand, there are many bad people who can really live long which develops the statement that bad grass doesn't die easily. It's a shame that some Christians die of fatal illnesses or accidents while it took a long time to get rid of the world's greatest terrorists. There's indeed a huge gap between a good Christian who dies at 35 years old or even less (such as the case that a good Church worker died at only 22 years of age) to an antagonist of the Gospel of Jesus Christ who dies at 76 years old or even at 90-100 years old.

So why do such evils happen? It's simple. God allows it so and He has His purpose to reach out to sinners and give them just enough time to repent and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. 2 Peter 3:9 says, "The LORD is not slack concerning His promise as some men count slackness but is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance." That should be a reason why he would allow wicked dictators not to be immediately dead, why he would allow long and painful deaths to the wicked is in order for them to realize their need for repentance. Unless a person repents of their sins, they'll never repent of their unbelief because they don't see the need to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Also, if He was to be the dictator god of works salvation, there will be nobody to reach out to, nobody to soul win and nobody will ever enter Heaven because in His standards, everybody deserves Hell anyway regardless of their claims they've done nothing wrong and for anybody to say they have no sin is a LIAR (1 John 2:18). But in His mercy, He sent His Son who knew no sin to become the sin sacrifice for mankind (2 Corinthians 6:21).

Here's a reason that would be adequate to explain the life of the wicked being cut short- for a Christian to die physically- it's merely asleep. The Bible calls them to be physically dead yet they have eternal life in Heaven (John 3:16-18) while those who will be at the Lake of Fire will be their second death (Revelation 20:14). A Christian today may live a very short life but an eternity in Heaven is forever. An unbeliever (who is deemed wicked despite his efforts to be a good person- Romans 3:10-23) may live up to 100+ years old but that's just a mere nanosecond to eternity before that person is cut short for all eternity in the Lake of Fire. Why did they reject Jesus? Simple. They don't fear God at all even after hearing the warnings to trust His Son to cleanse them of their sins.