Prosperity - Adversity

"In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity (evil) consider. God also hath set the one over against the other, to the intent that man should discover somewhat at his latter end" (Eccl.7.14).

The final phrase in that verse is not as rendered in the A.V. As there presented, it declares that God has arranged prosperity and adversity in order that man should find nothing at the end. That does not make sense, and in consequence this verse has been one of the obscure statements of Scripture. But modern Hebrew Bibles omit the prefix lo which is the negative, so that lo-meumah, meaning "nothing", becomes meumah which means "something, anything, somewhat". Now this opens the way to a notable reflection on the Divine way with man and the permission of evil. Prosperity and adversity have been set by God "the one against the other", as though effecting the balancing of a scale by equal weights, "to the intent that man should discover somewhat at his latter end". Prosperity and adversity in the Old Testament are indistinguishable from good and evil; the same Hebrew words—tob and ra—do duty for both ideas. The age-old question "Why does evil exist; why does God permit evil?" is answered in this verse, but man does not find the answer until his "latter end".

In the day of prosperity be joyful! There is good reason for accepting such of the good things of this life as come our way with joy and thanksgiving, and making use of them to the fullest degree. These things are the gifts of God, part of the design He has drawn up for the life of man. There is nothing meritorious in rejecting them for the sake of a too sombre view of religious devotion. And they can be means in our hands for the greater benefit of others. The Divine intention is for the happiness of mankind and in the final outworking that intention will be fully achieved. In the meantime we do well to make full use of such means of happiness as are afforded us by life as it is.

In the day of adversity be thoughtful and reflective! At such times life is of necessity lived in a minor key. The outward signs of exuberance can hardly be expected and are perhaps not appropriate, even although there is peace and content in the heart. This is the time for a more than usual quiet contemplation of the work of God both in the individual life and in the world. Adversity can develop character in a manner that the mere bestowment of gifts and blessings can never do. The fires of affliction can purify and temper a man's inner being so that he emerges at the end a better man than he would ever have been otherwise. Adversity tests and proves a man's inward strength; as Solomon said in Prov.24.10 "If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small."

After this acceptance of the sunshine and shadow of life's experiences, the man is still left without the final achievement or even the final answer. There is a Divine law of recompense as there is one of retribution—what a man soweth that shall he also reap—but in neither case does the final balancing of accounts take place in this life. That must wait until man's latter end—which is of course really a new beginning, for there is much to come beyond the present proverbial threescore years and ten. One might ask why God does not give a more evident revelation of these things to man and so save the doubt and perplexity and unbelief. The answer to that is surely that too clear a revelation now would stultify (impede) man's progress toward that understanding which alone will make him fit for the life of the eternal ages. Like the emerging butterfly, struggling to free itself from the encumbering chrysalis, a struggle essential to bring its newly developed organs of flight into operation, so must man develop under the twin forces of prosperity and adversity if one day he is to emerge into the "glorious liberty of the children of God". In that manner, at last, man will "discover somewhat at his latter end".

AOH