The preacher had established that under heaven,
everything has a time and season. Though not very openly, he had affirmed the
Sovereignty of God, having asserted that from life to death there is a season
for everything under heaven. We all know that God has complete control of time which
He had granted to us men. In Ecclesiastes 3:9-15, Solomon then returned to talk
about work again. Here he asked the same old rhetorical question. “What gain
has the worker from his toil?” He was certainly interested to know what he
could get from the investment of his time and effort. Ecclesiastes 3:10 gives
us the conclusion of his observation of how busily people go about their work.
While he acknowledged that they were God-given assignment, he still wondered
whether it was worth all the effort at all.
The preacher probably still stuck to his belief expressed in chapter 2,
i.e. that every work under the sun is vexation.
A first impression of this book of Ecclesiastes is that Solomon
had a very pessimistic outlook of life and work. Yet there were moments when
his mind had got a better hold over his pessimism, and he caught a glimpse of
something positive out of all the seeming ashes of life. One such moment is
found in verse 11. In that moment, he saw that God was in control of time and
appreciated His sovereignty. So, he wrote, “He (God) has made everything
beautiful in its time”. His conclusion was that God has everything so well-ordered
that everything finds its place and season in His hand. He certainly will make
all things beautiful at the right time. This is a timely reminder, that all the
experiences we go through in life are never without God’s permission. It is His
design to bring about a complete us under His hand. Remember in those long
lonely hours, God is always on time.
Knowing that God has a part in everything we experience in life
does not mean that we will of necessity appreciate it. This is where the
dilemma comes from. Although God has put eternity in our soul, yet in our
physical body it does not seem so. We seem to be progressively weaker and frail
by the day. We are caught between time and eternity. God had made us eternal
creatures but we are made to live in a time-bound world. The eternal nature God
had created us to be makes us yearn for eternity, but the frustrating part is
that our time and sense-bound life, due to the fall, makes us incapable of
knowing everything ahead of us. And that’s frustrating. There is a huge divide
between our present mortality and our future destiny. This is expressed in
verse 11. “He has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he
cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” Our limited perspective
of life cannot grasp the complete picture of what God has installed for us. His
view of everything and everyone is wholistic. He can see our end from the
beginning. His is a whole view, ours is only a point of view. We can only see
it when we come to it. Ever wonder why
we get flustered in life here on earth? Here’s the answer, when we fall short
of God’s ideal for our life. While God has a perfect plan for us for all
eternity, it requires time to hone us while we are here on earth. But we want
to reach there immediately because of our instant mentality. And that’s where
our eternal nature clashes with our fallen nature, and we ended up flustered,
unfulfilled and unsatisfied. It’s our
eternal nature yearning for the home where we belong. Our hearts will always be restless until we
find our peace with God through Christ.
It is a certainty that we do
not know everything in the future. In the meanwhile, there are still things
that we can do in preparation for the unknown future. Solomon made two
recommendations in verses 12-15. Firstly,
we lay hold of the time God has granted us and usefully seize every moment and
joyfully live it in the service of God. Just be engaged and get busy in the
business of living for God. Learn to
enjoy life, factoring God into all our activities. The eating and drinking are
just an expression of the way we do life. Be grateful for life and work that
God has granted us. The second thing we ought to do is shown in verses 14-15.
Solomon knew that “whatever God does endures
forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has
done it, so that people fear before him. That
which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and
God seeks what has been driven away.” What he is saying here is that we
must trust the sovereignty of God. There is a season for everything under
heaven. We may not see it, but complementarily everything works according to
God’s ordination. When we are caught between time and eternity, we apply what
Hebrews 12:1b-2 tell us to do, “…run with
endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder
and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right
hand of the throne of God.” We emulate the Lord Jesus who has shown us how to
run the race before us!
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