What should we do? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
Here is the next part from Ecclesiastes 3:
9 What gain has the worker from his toil? 10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, 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. 12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.
14 I perceived 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. 15 That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.
A socialist today could think this is a critique, possibly, of capitalism. What has the worker gained from his toil? The Teacher does not have economic concerns in mind. He has concerns of meaning. What will it benefit a man to work? What does he gain? He dies in the end.
I do appreciate the emphasis on beauty. God makes things beautiful when such is proper. Christians need to reclaim a Christian view of beauty. No Christian should say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
The Teacher also says God has put eternity into the hearts of man. Man has a concept of the past, present, and future, and he can glimpse an idea of eternity. It is still incomprehensible. We cannot fathom God existing for eternity and for many of us, there has been at least one point in our lives where the idea of Heaven being forever has been frightening.
And in all of this, what does the Teacher say is God’s gift to man? It is to enjoy his life. This is also done with the toil that a man does. A man should work, and when he is done working, he can enjoy his life. This is the gift of God to mankind.
What God does will in some way endure forever. Many Christians have this idea of the Earth being destroyed in their eschatology. Not at all. That would have been unthinkable to the Jewish mind. This is God’s world. No. God is going to redeem the world instead. We will look at this more later on as we go through the book.
All of this should leave us in awe of God. The Teacher, whatever his other views are, does have a great awe of God. He struggles to make sense of the world around him and that can lead him to both despair and awe.
The Son of Man came to seek and save that which is lost. The Father does the same. One thing the Teacher tells us God seeks is what has been driven away. This could be a rare hint of evangelism of a sort in the Old Testament.
Tomorrow, we’ll start discussing death.
In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)
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