In chapter 2, the arguments of the Book of Ecclesiastes are repeated, in a different form. You will recall there that certain sentiments were said to be true for life on the earth, life under the sun, but not for life above the sun, that is, the divine life of the soul which continues after this pilgrimage of ours to physical death. Thus, Wisdom says:
For the ungodly said, reasoning with themselves, but not aright, Our life is short and tedious, and in the death of a man there is no remedy: neither was there any man known to have returned from the grave. For we are born at all adventure: and we shall be hereafter as though we had never been: for the breath in our nostrils is as smoke, and a little spark in the moving of our heart: Which being extinguished, our body shall be turned into ashes, and our spirit shall vanish as the soft air, and our name shall be forgotten in time, and no man shall have our works in remembrance, and our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist, that is driven away with the beams of the sun, and overcome with the heat thereof. For our time is a very shadow that passeth away; and after our end there is no returning: for it is fast sealed, so that no man cometh again. Come on therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are present: and let us speedily use the creatures like as in youth. … Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds, before they be withered: … Let us oppress the poor righteous man, let us not spare the widow, nor reverence the ancient grey hairs of the aged. (from 2:1-10)
I have quoted this at some length because it is so poetic, especially the line about making a crown from rosebuds before they wither. There is a certain irony, people are saying this because they wish to seize what joy they can, and exult in their supposed glory, but inherent in this sentiment is the acknowledgement that flowers do not last for very long. Their crowns will soon be dry, fall part, and thrown away on a stinking pile.
These ideas, including the exploitation and abuse of the helpless is continued in mockery of the good and virtuous: hence in verse 18, the scornful say of their victim to be: “… if the just man be the son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies.” This is, as you will see at once, an anticipation of what was said of the Lord on the Cross: “He trusted in God, let Him (meaning God) deliver him (meaning Christ)” (Matthew 27:43) Wisdom says of this, as if to correct them:
Such things they did imagine, and were deceived: for their own wickedness hath blinded them. As for the mysteries of God, they knew them not: neither hoped they for the wages of righteousness, nor discerned a reward for blameless souls. For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity. Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it.” (2:21-24).
This is an extraordinarily significant passage in the Old Testament. Note first what it says, and then its significance. It teaches that because of evil, we are unable to perceive certain truths. Chief among these matters which the wicked cannot understand are what is called “the Mysteries of God.” Evil not only corrupts our intellects, it also distorts our values so that we do not care for “the wages of righteousness.”
Then, in one of the most important lines of all the Old Testament, Wisdom makes explicit what is implied in the teaching of Genesis 1:27, that Man is made in the Image of God. That includes, immortality. It makes sense. But more than that, it is revealed. Then, it alludes to the Fall of Man through the temptation of the devil.
That is what it says: its significance is that the full teaching of the immortality of man, with eternal life or damnation awaiting us, was being revealed. That is, the closer the Old Testament books were to the time of Christ, the closer they came to revealing truths of the Incarnation and eternity. And this is why Luther could not accept them: it is because they supported the understanding of the universal Church from which he broke.
Then follow some beautiful verses on the fate, or rather the hope of the good and virtuous:
But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery, And their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace. For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality. And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy for himself. As gold in the furnace hath he tried them, and received them as a burnt offering. And in the time of their visitation they shall shine, and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble. They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their Lord shall reign for ever. (3:1-8)
To be continued