Devotion 748

"The heart of the sons of men"

Reference: Ecclesiastes Chapter 8

The heart of the sons of man is set to continually do evil. The sons of men are all the children born through the bloodline of Adam.
This is because the sons of man have taken on the nature of the first Adam. This is the Adamic nature or the sin nature.

Because the sentence of death from Adam’s sin is not executed speedily, the sons of man do not see the need for repentance. Adam was judged with a sentence of death in the Garden of Eden, but it took about 930 years for that judgment to be executed in Adam. That means Adam had about 930 years to repent.

Genesis 5:5 "And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died."

That is the love of God. God doesn't want anyone to perish, not even the first Adam.
The sentence of God is carried out slowly, giving man the time to make it right, to turn it around, to repent.

Let's read:

Ecclesiastes 8:1-2 "Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man's wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed. [2] I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God."

To keep the oath of God is to obey the word of God. Love is the fulfillment of the law of God. This love comes when an individual becomes one with Love, who is Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, the Blood of God. An individual is one with Christ when they are removed from the blood of Adam into the Blood of Christ through death, burial, resurrection, and reception of the indwelling Holy Spirit. This is done when our light of faith is turned on and placed in the blood of the second Adam.

We continue our reading:

Ecclesiastes 8:3-11 "Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him. [4] Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou? [5] Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment. [6] Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him. [7] For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be? [8] There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it. [9] All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt. [10] And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity. [11] Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."

God has set up a sentence against evil work. It is a work of unbelief: the individual who refuses to place their faith in the shed blood of the Son of God. It's a gradual sentence of resurrection into damnation.

We continue our reading:

Ecclesiastes 8:12-13 "Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him: [13] But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God."


The unbeliever may live just as long as the believer and sometimes even longer. The unbeliever is a man or woman who remains in the blood of the first Adam. It is the love and patience of God, giving the unbeliever every opportunity to believe in Him and His blood sacrifice in the second Adam.

We conclude our reading:

Ecclesiastes 8:14-17 "There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity. [15] Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun. [16] When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:) [17] Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it."

The work of God is not revealed in the wisdom of man. The work of God is revealed in the wisdom of God, which is through the finished work of the Cross of  the second Adam.

1 Corinthians 1:23-24 "But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; [24] But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God."

The wisdom of God is the crucifixion of the second Adam, His shed blood for the redemption of the whole world.
Receive the wisdom of God. BELIEVE and confess Christ, the second Adam, as we revealed him in the first Adam. Escape an evil work from an evil heart, only in Christ!