The Holy Spirit, Who Becomes Our Comforter
1Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter. 2Therefore I praised the dead who have been long dead more than the living who are yet alive. 3Yes, better than them both is him who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun. 4Then I saw all the labor and achievement that is the envy of a man’s neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. 5The fool folds his hands together and ruins himself. 6Better is a handful, with quietness, than two handfuls with labor and chasing after wind.
Once people are born into the world, they have no choice but to live a hard life, whether they want to or not. They have to work to provide food, clothing and shelter, and they have to fight evil spirits to reach heaven. Because of that, Solomon said there must be a comforter who embraces such a painful life and gives it hope. People go through hardship for all kinds of reasons, but Job, unusually, came to suffer trials he never imagined because God had boasted of his faith to the angels and to Satan.
Satan, hearing God’s words, slandered Job, claiming that Job’s faith was good because God had blessed him so much. God knew that Job was faithful, so to prove Satan wrong he gave permission for everything Job owned to be taken away. It makes me envious to think how much God must have trusted Job to be able to say such a thing.
To bring Job down, Satan brought on him suffering no human being could bear, but the outcome showed Satan that it was not because of his wealth that Job’s faith was full. Job believed that God is the almighty King and that there is an eternal kingdom, so his faith did not waver. In the end, it is those who keep their faith to the end like this who are blessed.
Unlike Job, there are also people like Doeg, who live for the world. Doeg told on the priest Ahimelech to King Saul, reporting that he had helped David. On the king’s order, Doeg killed eighty-five priests who wore a linen ephod, and went further still, killing everyone in the city of the priests: men and women and nursing babies, and cattle and donkeys and sheep. Unlike Doeg, who betrayed God to get ahead in the world, there are also people like the apostle Paul, who of their own accord gave up power and honor for the gospel of Christ and carried out the mission of spreading the gospel with the heart of one who carries the cross.
You can see how varied human lives truly are. People like Doeg, who receive eternal punishment for their greed, come under God’s judgment, and so there was no comforter to wipe away the tears they shed. But those who devote themselves to the gospel, like Job and the apostle Paul, have the Holy Spirit, who comforts them every moment, and so they are protected by the Spirit and the angels until they enter the kingdom of God. When the people of the world look at the fierce spiritual war between believers and Satan, it may look as though believers are suffering greatly. But believers who are led by the Spirit do not lose heart, because they know for certain that their suffering is a spiritual war.
Whatever its cause, it is true that the suffering people go through is painful and frightening. In a dark world where no one can see even an inch ahead, suffering that strikes with no way to prepare for it cannot be escaped, and so it is painful in itself. Job was faithful in his faith, but he was human, and the shock of losing not only his property but his family and his health was so great that he cursed the day of his birth. And he went through a trial so hard to bear that he said none of this suffering would have happened if his mother had not given birth to him. No one living in this world wants suffering. Yet God may allow believers to suffer as a way of making his children grow. We must know that if something can make believers grow, God does not hesitate to use it, whether it is a storm, a whip or a fragrant flower.
A tree with deep roots is not shaken even by a strong wind, so the flowers that bloom on it are beautiful and its fruit is rich. A deep spring does not dry up even in a drought, so its water flows on to become a stream, then a river, and reaches the sea. That is why a deep-rooted tree does not fear or complain about the wind that shakes its branches as it passes. Wherever we are in the world, we may meet a fierce wind while we live. So in the end, it is our faith that decides how deep our suffering goes and when it comes.
Are you well prepared? Or do you perhaps have a faith that is pulled up by the roots when something merely brushes against it, like a passing wind? Wind brings the rain a tree needs to grow, so even as a believer you can mature only when suffering comes. Depending on the faith you have been living by, the time it takes for suffering to pass will differ, and so will how quickly you grow after it has passed. A tree cannot move to another spot because it dislikes winter. Only by enduring winter where it is planted can it meet the spring. You can grow only if you endure well in the place where God has set you.
Solomon caused his people great suffering to make his kingdom rich and strong. Listen to the conversation between the people and his son Rehoboam, who grew up watching such a Solomon. Then you can see how wrongly Solomon had lived.
1 Kings 12:4
4“Your father made our yoke difficult. Now therefore make the hard service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, lighter, and we will serve you.”
Jeroboam had fled to Egypt to escape Solomon, and when he heard that Solomon’s son Rehoboam had become king, he came up to Shechem. Jeroboam asked Rehoboam whether he knew that his father Solomon had made their yoke too heavy. That yoke was the building of cities, and the more power Solomon gained, the more the people had to suffer hard labor out of sight.
They had to build cities for Solomon’s wives, who numbered as many as a thousand, and the more dealings there were with the nations, the more the people had to be pressed into forced labor. Jeroboam told Rehoboam that his father had made life hard for the people, but that if Rehoboam lightened their heavy yoke, they would serve him well as their king. When people are in so much pain that they plead like this, Rehoboam, of course, ought to look into their hearts and grant their request. Even so, foolish Rehoboam refused, saying that he would raise up even greater labor than his father had, and so he could not listen to them.
It was a good chance to win the people over, but Rehoboam gave a foolish answer, and so he lost the chance to embrace them. If Rehoboam had been a wise man, he would have been a good comforter to the people worn out by Solomon. Had he comforted them, telling them that their suffering under his father must have been severe indeed for them to say such a thing to him, and had he soothed their hearts, the united kingdom would not have fallen, and he would have been remembered forever as a kind king. This shows that in human relationships, what matters has to rest on the good character each person has.
In my experience, a person of good character, even if their faith is still weak, does not easily change heart once they come to trust that God is their protector. Their gratitude toward God their protector does not change.
Jeroboam, who pleaded with Rehoboam, had been the overseer in charge of building the cities. He was the one who had stood against Solomon on the people’s behalf over Solomon’s reckless expansion of power abroad, his taxes, and the forced labor that laid compulsory duties on them. After hearing Rehoboam’s disappointing answer, Jeroboam had no hope left, so he founded the northern kingdom with those who followed him and became its first king. Up to this point, Jeroboam certainly knew the people’s suffering. But once he took power, he too ended up committing the very same sin as Solomon. There seem to be few people like King David, who, resting on good character, serve God well and rule the people gently even when they hold great power.
Although Solomon had made a promise directly with God, he used a policy of marrying foreigners to extend his power abroad. Because of it, Israel grew more and more corrupt through the idols brought in by his pagan wives and concubines. As the years passed, Solomon watched the youth, passion and desire that had seemed as if they would last forever fade away, and he felt that all that had gone before was vain and useless.
He looked back with regret on how he had thrown away the Word to gain more power and wealth, like a beast with no spirit. He thought himself pitiful for having neglected and oppressed the weak and poor people for the sake of his own honor and power. He repented of the wrongs of his past, when he had taken the side of the overseers who caught the people fleeing the hard forced labor and cruelly oppressed them, but by now it could no longer be undone.
With what heart are you living now? I am asking whether you, like Solomon, might be throwing away holy faith and good character so as not to lose what you are clutching in your hands. The words you speak and the things you do today are who you are; they are your life. You may excuse them as mistakes, but God will look at your words and actions and judge your life. So be careful not to throw away holy faith and good character.
Someone once asked me a question. They said they wondered what Job’s three friends could have said to him in his suffering that would have been right in God’s sight and a great comfort to him. Certainly, the friends came to the suffering Job with a good heart, wanting to comfort him. I answered that if they had loved Job, then rather than comforting him with words, sharing what they had with Job, who could not even provide himself with food, clothing and shelter, would have been good comfort in God’s sight. Comfort that is only words, without sharing what you have, is not comfort. Words without sincerity are pretense, and faith without deeds is only a faith that looks good on the outside.
Look at how God was angry with Job’s friends; it tells us that we must share what we have received from God and live unselfish lives. If the three friends, who were better off than the suffering Job, had become his protectors and helped him, God would have filled them to overflowing. Just as God set up all leaders as comforters, he set Solomon up as Israel’s comforter and protector, but Solomon failed to be a good comforter to his people. Too late, Solomon regretted a life spent looking at the world more than at God. But now he had no chance to comfort his people in their pain, and so his regret only grew deeper.
John 14:16
16I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever,—
The Counselor, who will be there forever, not only in this world but also after death, is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is comforter, helper and the Spirit of truth. Because the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, is with believers, they do not despair however much the powers of the world persecute them. Those in power treat believers carelessly, thinking believers have no protector. The forces of darkness abuse believers spiritually and whip them, but they cannot bring believers down, because the Holy Spirit is there as their comforter and protector.
The Holy Spirit is God the Holy Spirit, present within the “us” of “Let us make man in our image.” We can call this a privilege we enjoy as believers. It was the Holy Spirit who came down like a dove when Jesus was baptized, and it was the Holy Spirit who helped with all his might when Jesus accomplished the work of salvation on the cross. That same God the Holy Spirit is with you now as your protector, and is being your comforter so that you can overcome every hardship in the world.
Look at John 16:13. Jesus said that when the Spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth. He was saying that without the Holy Spirit we cannot understand the truth, and so we cannot fully meet Christ. The Holy Spirit has taught us that Christ atoned for our sins, and has taught us about sin, righteousness and judgment. It is because the Holy Spirit has led us that we are able to enter heaven.
No person, however good, can be a true comforter to another. Even the parents who gave birth to me cannot understand the deepest places of my heart or give me spiritual comfort, and they cannot help me hold on to the truth to the end. But the Holy Spirit is a true comforter at all times and in every place. To have a comforter who is always on my side in this harsh world is a great blessing indeed. That is why I hope you will lean on the Holy Spirit in faith.
Ecclesiastes 3:4
4Then I saw all the labor and achievement that is the envy of a man’s neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
Rather than working hard to achieve something, people waste their lives envying the labor and talents of others. When Solomon saw people who, instead of competing fairly, were gripped by comparison and criticized and slandered others, he thought that human life was vanity. A successful person can be brought down by those who slander and envy them, even when they have done nothing wrong. So the work of the world, successful or not, is as empty as chasing after wind. Even if people win by any means, driven by a fierce will to win that has no regard for others, the joy lasts only a moment, and they come to fear losing what they clutch in both hands. Because of this human heart, they end up, with no way out, committing even greater sins to quiet their emptiness, fear and guilt.
Solomon had pressed on with a single-minded resolve to make his nation a great power, but when he looked back, he realized that everything he had accomplished had come from human greed. Standing before death, he came to see that even the wealth and power so many people had envied were all vanity, and he regretted that he had not loved God more, given and shared as the Word says, and lived wisely. Solomon knew that his officials were using his authority to pile up wealth, but he needed their strength, so he turned a blind eye to their sins. The people suffered because of the officials’ crooked judgments. So God, who had entrusted the nation and its people to Solomon, would rebuke Solomon. Solomon, finding himself pitiful for having lived like a fool, tried to repent, too late, but there was no way to comfort his people in their suffering.
A leader needs the people who serve at their side to be honest and wise. We can say that a leader is someone who guides everyone. When those who serve the king make crooked judgments, the responsibility in the end is the king’s. So a leader must keep people of good character close. We do not have the wisdom to discern who has good character, but the Holy Spirit, whose character is holy, is with us, so if we live by the Word, we can always walk the good path of truth.
Ecclesiastes 3:6
6Better is a handful, with quietness, than two handfuls with labor and chasing after wind.
Solomon is saying that rather than living anxiously with two handfuls of what you want, it is a better life to have only a handful, even if that seems too little, with a spirit that is always at peace and free. However rich or famous a person is, if their heart is not at peace, there is no satisfaction in their life.
If believers are wealthy and famous, it will be a great help in spreading the gospel. But for believers this world is not the end, so they need true character and holy faith more than wealth. Solomon regretted the years he had lived without putting God first. I wonder whether Solomon is really the only one who has such regrets. We too live lives in which we must always think and decide, yet we compare ourselves with others, and sometimes we choose what we know is sin. And even as we regret it, we commit the same sin again.
If, after living as you please like Solomon, you realize that you have little time left and no chance to turn back, it will be a fearful thing. The wise person is the one who repents the moment they realize this. Now is not the time for you to judge other people’s faith. Just as the Bible records, spiritual strife in the world is growing fiercer and fiercer. That is why you must lay down your own righteousness and hold on to Christ.
The world lays out many events to shake your faith, but you can go to heaven only if your faith does not change. You may envy people who live comfortably with plenty of wealth in both hands. But if you live freely and at ease, with the wealth God has entrusted to you in one hand and faith in the other, Satan will not be able to attack you, since you are not greedy.
We may have nothing in the world to show off, but we have a protector to shield us from Satan’s attacks and a comforter to wipe away our tears of suffering. So we need not worry; we only have to live boldly. When we give Satan no pretext to attack, that itself is evidence that we are living by the Word. If we live with good character and an honest faith, we will live a life unlike Solomon’s, whose regret was as bitter and painful as eating his own flesh.
So as not to regret, at the far end of life, the years gone by that can never be returned to, we must always make right decisions and keep our faith to the end. It may not feel real now, but the day will surely come for you, too, when you stand in the last place of life where Solomon stood. So only by living out your faith today can you meet a day without regret.
Heaven and hell surely exist. You cannot choose to be born, but you can decide your life after death by faith. You have the Holy Spirit, who leads you to Christ, and you have Christ, who atoned for our sins. Do not forget this. I hope you will be children of God who fight against sin and win.