Who wins the battle in the end? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
Who would you put your bets on in a race? What about a game of Chess? What about a fight? Normally, you would look to the fastest, the smartest, and the strongest respectively.
That doesn’t always work. The Teacher reminds us of this as we go through Ecclesiastes 9.
11 Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. 12 For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.
I wrote about this that:
In v. 11, the Teacher sees another paradox. The swift runner does not always win the race, nor the strong warrior the battle. The wise does not always have food and the brilliant and learned do not always have wealth. Sometimes they do, but time and chance always plays a role in their lives. The Teacher says that the time could come for anyone at any moment and he gives two examples with men interacting in the animal world. Noteworthy is that none of these are natural examples. The Teacher could have spoken of a gazelle being attacked by a lion or a frog catching a bug on his tongue, but instead, he points to something unnatural, which could indicate his mindset going back to Eden of death as an intruder in the world.
In the cases he gives, a fish can swim happily in the ocean one minute, and in the next minute, a net has captured him and soon someone will have him for dinner. In the same way, a bird can go on his way and get caught in a snare and again, his time has come as someone else has him for a meal. None of these creatures expected death to come upon them, and yet it did. In chapter 3, the Teacher wrote about men having eternity in their hearts and that animals have the same fate as men. People early on in their lives know of death as a reality. Animals have instincts, but do not have philosophical musings about the nature of death and so have no idea of death coming.
Generally, you could place your bets this way, and in temporary events, it would be wise, but in the long run, excellence in an area is no guarantee of success. Sometimes people who are fools have great success. Sometimes, marvelous people do not. A fleet fish can be swimming happily in the sea only to be scooped up in the net and then what all does that speed that he had do him?
Enjoy your life and do not take pride in it. You could be great in many ways, but you are not so great that you cannot fail.
In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)