by  John G. Reisinger

The writer of Ecclesiastes keeps reminding us that life under the sun has no real meaning. Everything is meaningless to the man who views the world apart from any revelation from God. Thus far, in chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes, we have seen that God sovereignly ordains every event as well as the timing of that event. While this leads an unbeliever to question the meaning and purpose of work, it is a great comfort to a child of God. The believer knows that everything God ordains will ultimately be for God’s glory and the believer’s good.

Walter Kaiser calls the section that runs from 3:1 through 5:20 "Understanding the All-Encompassing Plan of God." He suggests the following outline for the section.

We saw how verses 2-8 show that God controls everything that happens, as to both substance and timing. His control covers the day of our birth and the time of our death. God ordained your birthday and your funeral and everything in between. Likewise, God fixed the seasons for planting and harvesting. Whether we look at man’s life or the world of vegetables and fruits, we see God’s sovereign control. God’s reign extends even to timing. Useless stones are discarded, but the same stones may later be gathered to be used in a building. Sometimes God’s providence puts us in a place where we are stirred up to anger and in other times and places we are stirred up to love.

In 3:9, the Seeker again asks the nagging question he first asked in 1:3: "What does the worker gain from his toil?" The answer is "nothing." That answer is both clear and frustrating to an unbeliever, but very reassuring to a child of God. Since every event in life has its origin and its timing from God, nothing man does can control or change the timing or circumstances of those events. Everything unfolds under God’s sovereign control, right on schedule: birth/death, growth/harvest, joys/sorrows, acquiring/losing, speaking up/being silent, and war/peace.

Verses 9 through 13 address the theme of the vanity of toil. The author begins the idea back in 2:4-26, references it from the point of view of time in 3:1-8, and then directly confronts it again in 3:9. Even though it is vanity, God has laid work on humanity (vs. 10: burden in the NIV, busyness in the ESB, and tasks in NKJ). What function does all this toil serve, since all things come in God’s timing (the point of the preceding passage, verses 1-8)? Why bother to work for anything since it really accomplishes nothing? It is not men who make things beautiful by their effort (toil), but God, who makes everything beautiful in its time. As if the idea that work is a waste of time were not disheartening enough, God has put this idea of timelessness into the psyche of human beings. We are limited creatures stuck in a limited function called time, doing work that accomplishes nothing, and we know that there is more to life than this. We do not know what eternity is like, nor can we find out through all our efforts. The Seeker concludes that since we cannot find out what God has chosen not to reveal, the best response is to enjoy what God has given—food, drink, and work—and to appreciate them as gifts that direct our attention back to God, and not as ends in themselves.

Although sin has made everything ugly, including work, God’s grace will make everything "beautiful in God’s time." In God’s world, he has made everything fit together in a perfect whole. The old saying, "A place for everything and everything in its place" reaches it highest fulfillment in God’s good work. Everything fits into its appointed time and place.

The Seeker’s comments in verse 11 go past mere acknowledgment of the sovereignty of God’s ordaining of each event. He adds that everything God does is beautiful in God’s time. Walter Kaiser has caught the essence of verse 11.

Man must come to terms with his limitations. He must bow to the sovereignty of God and learn why godliness with contentment in every situation is the real goal of life. He can only know that as God sovereignly reveals it to him. Not only is every good thing we have a gift from God, but even the ability to receive and enjoy it as such is also a gift from God.

In 3:12, the writer uses what will later become one of Paul’s favorite expressions, "I know." The KJV and the NIV each have a different slant on this text. The KJV says, "I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life." The NIV says, "I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live." The KJV would emphasize that there is no good in any and all work, so man must find his meaning and purpose some other place. The NIV emphasizes the best thing a man can experience is true happiness in whatever God’s providence gives him. In verse 12, the writer knows the secret of life. This is the same idea that Paul expresses by "godliness with contentment is great gain" (1 Tim. 6:6). Before we were Christians, we failed in all our attempts to hang on to happy relationships or joyous occasions. Now we can say, "There really is a ‘joy unspeakable’ and it really is lasting."

In 2:24, we encountered the beginning of a radically different worldview. Secularism had begun to give way to theism. God had come into the picture. The Seeker repeats that focus in 3:13. Here, secularism gives way to theism. Pessimism gives way to optimism. Human autonomy gives way to the humility of faith. Philosophy gives way to biblical revelation. The song now becomes, "What ever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well, with my soul."

In verse 14, the writer again says, "I know." Two of Paul’s favorite phrases are "I know" and "I am persuaded." If you want a good Bible study, look up the specific things that Paul knows and of which he is persuaded. Our postmodern culture "insists that objective knowledge is neither attainable nor desirable."² This translates into boasting about its ignorance and its lack of assurance about anything. To be open-minded is to reject all absolutes and to be sure of nothing. "All truth claims are merely true for some people, even if not for all people at all times and places."³ The problem is that when you are sure of nothing, you are ready to believe anything that comes down the pike (See Acts 17:19-21). It is no accident that our present society has produced so many weird and wonderful cultic religious organizations. The strong postmodern voice in our society is positive that you cannot be sure of anything except that you cannot be sure of anything. In their dogmatism, they do not realize how inconsistent their statement is. How can you be positive that you cannot be positive about anything? Contrast their anti-foundational stance with the words of the Seeker, "I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it." The absolute language is striking: know, everything, forever, and nothing. The Seeker uses unqualified terminology to convey his faith in the full-blown sovereignty of God.

If all that is under the sun is futile, transient, and unreliable, then security can be found only in God’s sovereign unchanging grace. God’s purposes are just as sure as his power in grace is sure. God’s work is effective and complete. In glorification, he will conform us completely to the image of Christ. God’s redemptive work, or new creation, is secure. Nothing can destroy or mar it in any way. It is not like the first work of creation. This kind of sovereignty fills a lost man with fear, but it fills a believer with joy and hope. I often tell people who are going through tough times, "I read the last chapter! We win – big time." We know that "he who hath begun a good work in [us] will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6). Likewise, we know we are sealed with no less a seal than the Holy Spirit himself, and that sealing is "unto the day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30). That seal remains until the day of our full redemption is reached. It is the absolute guarantee that we will make it to glory! Man cannot add to or take away one single thing from the sovereign purposes of God.

Verse 15 emphasizes the absolute unchangeableness of God’s purposes and plans. The Seeker offers a poetic expression of his conclusions about toil, beauty and eternity and introduces the idea of judgment, which will occupy the next several verses. "Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account." Derek Kidner, in his commentary on Ecclesiastes, writes,

Nothing is outside the scope of God’s providence or care. Even our tears are remembered by God:

"Whatever is has already been," means that the present is as sure as the past, because God’s decree is that trustworthy. We know that we cannot go back and change the past because the events have already occurred—they are historical facts. The present is just as secure, because God chooses to bring it to pass. "Whatever will be has been before." Like the past and the present, the future is secure because God has determined it. Nothing can change God’s decree, and nothing can escape his judgment. The past may be hidden from us, but God will call it to account.

Verse 16 introduces the subject of the rule of injustice and the harshness of life. At first glance, it looks like a new theme, but it is not. The thought of set times and their power over us is still present in verse 17. Justice may seem to be missing, but God has set a time for that as well. As D. A. Carson is fond of saying, "A time will come when justice will be done, and will be seen to have been done." Chapter 4 will elaborate on this subject. It will also come up at least five more times in the rest of the book.

The writer brings forth six facts of life as he sees and understands it that seem to contradict his thesis that God sovereignly controls all people and all events. How can God be in total control and allow even the courts of justice to be corrupted and used against the very people those courts were designed to protect? Are men no better than beasts? Is it true that the fortunate position is never to have been born?

In five of the six cases, the writer introduces his argument with "Moreover I saw" (3:16), "I indeed saw" (3:18; 4:4), or "Again I saw (4:1; 4:7); only 4:13 does not use some form of this introduction. Let us look at these problems one at a time.

First, there is wickedness in the courts. This seems to contradict the concept of a good God who is in charge of things. Surely, the one place that God would assure that justice prevailed is in the courts, but the writer sees the courts as hotbeds of tyranny and wickedness. After all, was not God’s purpose in setting up human tribunals for the express purpose of protecting the poor and vulnerable in society? "And I saw something else under the sun: In the place of judgment— wickedness was there, in the place of justice—wickedness was there" (v. 16).

As soon as the writer faces this troublesome fact, he immediately, in verse 17, proposes an answer to his distress. He knows that God has a time for everything, including the judgment of both the righteous and the wicked. "I thought in my heart, ‘God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed’" (v. 17). Wicked men may appear to prevail in their tyranny over the poor and helpless, but they will someday face the Judge of all judges, God himself. Just as the cold and bitter winter will come to an appointed end and spring shall come in all of its beauty, so the night of weeping will end and the righting of all wrongs shall take place. Kidner comments,

In 2 Kings 8:12-13, we find one of the most fearful incidents in the Old Testament Scriptures. The passage concerns a man named Hazael who would soon be king of Syria.

When the prophet told Hazael about the crimes that he foresaw Hazael would commit, Hazael was horrified. He sincerely protested, "What, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?" He could not believe that he was capable of such crimes, but Hazael became King of Syria and acted as the prophet predicted. Have not we all, under certain circumstances, been amazed at some of the things that we have done, or wanted to do, to get what we wanted? If anyone had told us that we would do those things, we would have protested with Hazael that we were not capable of such things only to discover that we, creatures made in the image of God, were more than capable of acting on a level lower than animals.

Our refusal to come to grips with total depravity in ourselves demonstrates the terrifying power of sin to deceive us. We can see a specific sin in another person and yet be blind to that same sin in ourselves. When David cried out to Nathan, "The man that committed that sin should die," he was not being a hypocrite. He simply did not see his own sin in Nathan’s vivid and accurate description. He was just as blind as Hazael and as you and I. Of all God’s creatures, only man can fall so far below his original creation. We who were created to be princes can sink to a position worse than pigs and snakes. It is this awful power of sin that makes people so very self-righteous and constantly critical of other people for the very thing of which they themselves are guilty.

In our next article, we will look at the other five disturbing observations of the Seeker in the rest of chapter 4.