Wrestling with Ecclessiastes 3

So far there seems to be an overwhelming bitterness in Solomon's tone. Everything seems unsatisfying, and there are a lot of observations followed by questions. If all of scripture is about Christ, then we know the answer to Solomon's questions is Jesus Christ. I have some questions, starting with verse 10:

I have seen the business that God has given to children of man to be busy with.

What is this “business”? It’s not literal work, I don’t think, although Solomon talks about a life of work in Ecclesiastes 2:18-23. The first time he mentions this same phrase “business that God has given” is in chapter 1:

And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. (1:13)

So is the “business” the task we are given to understand God? Because of our sinfulness He is not with us the way He made us to be, so since the beginning of Adam’s fall man has had to “figure out” who God is. That’s philosophy.

When I was growing up I believed you couldn’t really know who God is for sure, you just had to speculate and figure Him out on your own. This is why there are so many different religions and philosophies, people say “This is God” or “I don’t like your god so I’m going to change him (or her, dang it!) to fit my own box.” Not all of these perspectives are right – and we can see how frustrating it is to define God with human logic. Perhaps this is what Solomon is talking about in 1:13.

But Solomon knew God! He grew up with a father, King David, who loved and revered God. Solomon had the Scriptures to learn about God. He even saw God twice. Is it the task of philosophy he is lamenting over?

Back in chapter 3, Solomon writes:

I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 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.

Maybe this business is referring to our life in a fallen world. God has been gracious and given us jobs, work, families, things to busy our lives iwht , but it still is terrible because He is not here with us. I wrote before that being a Christian can be awful at times because you realize you’re not with the one you love the most. It’s like your dad is off at war and until he gets back you’re not complete. There’s a vacuum in your life that He is supposed to fill but because of sin we have death and we are apart from God.

It’s almost more frustrating, then, that God makes everything “beautiful in its time” (3:11) because it reminds us of the beauty and the glory we’re missing out in.

The phrase that sticks out to me in this passage is “he has put eternity into man’s heart” (3:11). Maybe that’s the reason we hate death so much – it isn’t natural, or, it isn’t in our nature. We aren’t supposed to end, and we know that. Why is death so scary? If we were fine with “ending” why does every human being find death so unappealing, so hateful? We try to comfort ourselves with silly platitudes like “the circle of life” but that’s not comforting because that circle promises more life! It doesn’t express the finality of death that we are faced with. It promises a new beginning which doesn’t exist after death (that is, apart from Christ).

Some people say “I don’t want to live forever after death, I want to finely being at peace.” Yet in this line of thought they are expressing the desire to be “at peace” – clearly something that can only be felt when one exists. To be honest, I can’t even fathom what it would mean to not exist – what would happen to my consciousness? Would I feel nothing? Would I still be? Even non-Christians tend to think of some form of existence after death, usually in the form of peace or calm (which is funny, because this is exactly what we are promised in living forever with God).

So why is this sentence contrasted with “he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end” (3:11)? This text was written before Jesus, before His death – maybe Solomon is lamenting that this world sucks and it doesn’t make much sense that God appears to be sitting around doing nothing while evil and injustice happens every day. Why doesn’t God take care of sin? Solomon can’t see what’s going on.

Maybe Solomon thought that everything was about Israel – that was the way God would fix the world. And once Israel had a good king (like Solomon himself) everything would be fine. Israel could crush the bad guys in the world and build a kingdom for God. That should fix the world – but it didn’t. Solomon himself turned away from God and worshipped idols. Perhaps he realizes that although he started out righteous (in his eyes) he has ended up sinful.

Permit me some creative license. Maybe Solomon’s thoughts were like this: “I know the Lord is righteous and holy, and I know there is evil on the earth, but he set apart Israel to be His own people, through us He will bless the nations and fix them.

God has made me king of this nation and has given me great wisdom. If only people had wisdom, maybe then there would be no sin! How much sin and folly happens because of ignorance? I know the Lord and I fear Him, I wrote hundreds of proverbs about Him and I, in all my wisdom, said

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proverbs 1:7)

I was given knowledge by the Lord and I wrote proverbs for my people, wise sayings with true and good advice. I said

The integrity of the upright guards them,
but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them. (Proverbs 11:3)

I’m the smartest man in the world and I can see that it’s good to be good and bad to be bad. The LORD our God has given us statutes and commandments, Israel, let us walk in them!

A good man obtains favor from the LORD,
but a man of evil devices he condemns. (Prov. 12:2)

See! I’ve got this all figured out! We need to be good and through my wisdom and others we can be on our way to a world without sin! The world as it should be! The world before the fall!

Where there is no guidance, a people falls,
but in an abundance of counselors there is safety (Prov. 11:14)"

I (Nathan) may be going a little far here, but it is a danger to get caught up in practical ways to deter sin, like “Don’t do it”.

Maybe in the sentence “eternity into man’s heart” we could imagine a pre-Christ mindset. “I know the Lord, I know He is good, I’ve got to do good too. I don’t want to be punished by God and I want to live so I will do good.” I don’t know what they thought would come after death but I think Solomon at least anticipated judgment:

God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work.

So it would be like we commonly believe today – there is a God, He’s good, don’t do evil or you’ll go to hell. Be good and you’ll go to heaven. Yay! Solomon writes:

I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. (Ecc. 3:18)

The worldview we commonly have is that the world is nothing but a testing ground for God to see which of us is good and which of us is bad. The problem with this system is if taken seriously by God – and God takes our sin seriously – then the results would be:

Good people: 0 Bad people: 6,000,000,000,000+ (or however many people have lived ever)

The number of good people admitted to heaven would be zero. We’ve all screwed up. Even Mr. Perfect Smartest-Guy-in-the-World King Solomon screws up and sins greatly. He realizes that even among the “good people” on earth there is sin:

Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. (3:16)

Even the best people on earth are tainted by sin. Mother Theresa? She did something in her lifetime that was evil. For all her good works, she is not perfect.

Here Solomon sees our depravity and instead of remembering we are image bearers of God, he compares us to animals:

For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? (3:19-21)

So this leads Solomon to a great questions: “What is the point of it all?” God, what are You doing? So You’re good and You demand good. You punish the evil, but evil is everywhere! I’m the smartest guy in the world and I thought my wisdom would keep me walking in righteousness but I couldn’t help myself and I sinned! I thought I was a good guy and I’m a sinner. I thought You were testing us but instead we all deserve death and to go down to the depths. What’s the point? Should I just eat, drink, and be merry (3:12-13)?

The crappy thing on top of this is You’ve set eternity into my heart so I care about these things! I can’t just suck pleasure out of the world because You’ve got me pondering all this stuff and wondering what will happen when I die – because I don’t know! You’ve hidden stuff from us and I can’t see past death.

Who can bring him to see what will be after him? (3:22)

Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down in the earth? (3:21)

Who?

And the most frustrating thing about this is:

I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. (3:14)

I can’t see what You’re doing and there’s nothing I can do to change it! Are You going to just condemn everyone and let evil run its course? It doesn’t matter – I have no control and it seems like I’m doomed in whatever happens."

I (Nathan) am twenty years old and am a new Christian – this stuff (the book of Ecclesiastes) is hard for me to grasp and I may have been way off base, but I know the answer to Solomon’s “who” question, by the grace of God today we know it.

The who is the only good man who has ever lived: Jesus Christ. Jesus comes and tells us what “the point of it all” is – not death, but life. We are supposed to be righteous – but by God’s strength, not our own. We have hope because we know that God has forgiven all of our sins through his Son, God has created a way to know Him through Jesus Christ. And in its through Jesus that our toil - “What gain has the worker from his toil?” (3:9) – turns into joy:

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ…but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a goodwill as to the Lord and not to an, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free. (Ephesians 6:5, 6-8)

Our boring job turns into joy because it is a form of worship! We have Jesus to hang on to in the toughest times. In the boring times. Jesus to praise in the good, because we know the world is but a shadow of the things to come and that life comes from knowing Jesus Christ.

That is what we were made for – fellowship with the living God. And the beautiful thing is we are saved by grace – because we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, we have all rebelled against Him and no amount of good deeds, no amount of avoiding sin in the future can save us – by our own strength we will fail. It is foolish to put such faith in ourselves. We should put our faith only in the gospel, which renews me every day, which keeps me every day, which keeps me from guilt, shame, and evil – which makes me righteous before God!

Think about that. I – and people I know – could say with certainty that I do not deserve to stand blameless before God. My mother would certainly not call me blameless before her. And yet, through Christ, I am righteous before God. Because Jesus died in my place I am made new. What a profound mystery, what a horrible exchange (it would seem) for Christ – that He would lose his life and take on my sin, giving me his life and his righteousness.

Finally, Jesus satisfies our desire for truth: He tells us who God is, He makes us worshippers in “spirit and in truth” – for it is vain to worship a lie. Jesus offers clarity, peace, and joy. Jesus suffered it all for the joy set before him, so that he could come to each of us when we ask “What happens when we die?” and with a smile on his face, say “Believe in me, and you will have eternal life with the God everlasting. He’s your Father, He loves you, I love you, and I’m inviting you home.”