Ecclesiastes 3:9-22
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Eternity in the heart
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.
The purpose of this book is to provoke the reader to think and
to rightly assess his life and actions. Too many go through the motions of life
with no regard to the purpose, for which they live. They tend to be mechanical,
functioning like a machine, habitual and routine. The practice of preaching is
designed to disturb the sleeping conscience and warn the soul of the startling
speed, at which he is hurtling towards his destiny. The question, with which
this section begins… “What gain has the
worker from his toil”… is directed towards the individual to cause him to
sincerely consider, if there is any real purpose in his actions (v.9). The
answer is not given, but it is assumed that there is no real profit in that for
which the bulk of the world’s population is involved.
Solomon observes the labor around him and sees it as the result
of the curse upon mankind, because of his sin (v.10). God declared to fallen
Adam, “Cursed is the ground because of
you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles
it shall bring forth for you… By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground” (Ge.3:17-19). The consequence of sin is a
miserable existence. Yet, there is a beauty in store for the one, who responds
to the timely opportunities that God gives (v.1-8): Times of healing, of
building up, laughing, dancing, embracing, peace and love come to break the
monotonous routine of life.
Man has the potential to respond from the heart to these heavenly
blessings. The original Hebrew word translates eternity, which God has placed within the heart (v.11), denoting
something beyond his intellect or consciousness, reaching outside of his limited
ability to comprehend. In a given moment, heavenly reality crosses his path,
more beautiful than anything that can be described or understood by human
language. He enters uncharted territory, the earthly fades, and the past,
present and future disappear, while eternity begins to unfold. The mighty work
of God fills his heart and gives him a small taste of the work that God has
been doing throughout history on a grand scale, far beyond the scope that his
intellect can grasp.
For the person that responds to eternity in his heart, the
drudgery and tediousness are removed, even from his earthly tasks. The king
gives us two characteristics for his life here: Joy and righteousness (doing
good) (v.12). These are two of the three ingredients that Paul places in the
Kingdom of God. He said that it is not “a
matter of eating and drinking (by religious rules) but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Ro.14:17).
Life is lived on a higher level, when the Kingdom of God reigns in the heart.
The apostle John declared, “Whoever
practices righteousness is righteous” (1 Jn.3:7). He does good, joyfully, by means
of inward righteousness. Now, even eating and drinking has purpose and his work
is a pleasure (1 Co.10:31).
This person has found purpose in life, because he has found the
eternal plan of God. Only that, with which God is involved, is real and true
and is a never-ending work (v.13,14). Let’s take a little time to study this
principle. In John 6:32-35, Jesus contradicted the claim of the Jews that
manna, given through the instrumentality of Moses, was bread from heaven. He
answered them, first of all, pronouncing twice that word of absolute authority…
“Amen, amen”. Only the direct
intervention of the Father indicates that something is true: “My Father
gives you the true bread from
heaven.” He added that the true bread is He, “who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” It was
the beauty of heaven, expressed on earth, and the life, which he spoke about,
was eternal. Manna ceased when Israel entered the Promised Land, but this bread
satisfies eternally (Jn.6:35).
In John 15:1, Jesus taught a parable about a vine. He said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is
the vinedresser.” Because the Father is working with this vine, it is true
and eternally valuable. Notice Hebrews 8:2: “The true tent that the Lord set up, not man.” The writer is
speaking of the heavenly, eternal holy of holies, in which man did not have a
part. That is the true holy place. In the previous chapter, he writes about the
high priesthood, explaining that there were many, because they were mortal and
had to be replaced. Because Jesus lives eternally, He alone is the true high priest, ordained by the Father, since he intercedes eternally
for the believer. “He is able to save to
the uttermost those who draw near to God through him” (Heb.7:23-25). To the
uttermost means entirely, perfectly and eternally. Your eternal salvation
rests upon your Priest; if it is a human being, including yourself, or any
other being, you do not have true salvation, and your faith is in vain.
Nothing human can be added to improve on Christ’s work, so it
must be received by faith alone. Solomon’s father, David, understood “the blessing of the one to whom God counts
righteousness apart from works” and the apostle Paul teaches that the
blessing comes by grace, “to the one who
does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly” (Ro.4:5,6).
Paul affirmed the same truth to his disciple, Titus: “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but
according to his own mercy” (Tit.3:5). He summed it up in his letter to the
Colossians: “In him the whole fullness of
deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled (you are complete) in him” (Col.2:9,10).
Salvation is a pure work of God, in which nothing can be added
or taken away. Anything less or outside of God will make the cross of Christ
null and void. He has warned that no one must alter His word, by which He has
communicated His salvation to us. “Every
word of God proves true… Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be
found a liar” (Pr.30:5,6). Moses twice warned against adding or subtracting
from his inspired word (Dt.4:2; 12:32) and, when John closed the complete canon
of the Scriptures, he gave the severe consequences of tampering with them: “If anyone adds to them, God will add to
him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words
of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life
and in the holy city” (Rv.22:18,19). God’s work and His word must be handled with
godly fear.
In the context that we have just studied, regarding God’s
eternal work, Solomon repeats the premise, which he announced from the
beginning (ch.1:9,10). There is nothing present or in the future, which has not
been in the past. God does not change and His word does not change. As the laws
of nature continue unchanging, do not expect that any changes will be made in
the future or that any new truth will be discovered, which will in anyway undo
what God has declared. As to the eternal destiny of mankind, there is a heaven
to gain and a hell to shun. “Forever, O
Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens” (Ps.119:89).
Confusion under the
sun
16.
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.
17. I said
in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time
for every matter and for every work.
18. 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.
19. 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.
20. All go
to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.
21. Who
knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes
down into the earth?
22. So I saw
that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for
that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?
God requires now, what He has always required and will be
required in the future. Anything that seems to be lost, will be regained. However,
under the sun, the unchanging
righteousness of God is not so evident. This is the key, in general, to the
book and certainly is the key to the following section. As we begin it, it is
imperative that we understand the scope of Solomon’s message, or we will be
terribly confused.
Does it seem that injustice reigns in this world and that wicked
men pervert justice? Are people maligned for doing what is right, godly and
biblical, while the wicked are given their “human rights”? Has righteousness
been misinterpreted and good been deemed evil and evil good? Mothers are given
the right to murder their unborn babies and sexual perverts are given the right
to marry (v.16), while those who protest may be fined or imprisoned.
With eternity in his heart, Solomon is able to discern that in
the end, God will hold court and a righteous judgment will take place. He will
judge the righteous and the wicked (v.17). He is not conformed to the day, in
which we live. He has not adjusted His law, in order to follow the whims of the
majority and the rule of the mighty on earth. People, do not make the mistake
of falling in step with the world’s system. Be patient, a day of reckoning lies
ahead and those who arrogantly scoff at true Christianity and make laws to
legitimize sin, will stand before an unchanging Judge (v.17).
God is giving men enough chain, so that their utter wickedness
will be free to manifest itself (v.18). How devastating was Adam’s sin and how
great was the fall of mankind? Society ignores it and even Christians have lost
the horror of it. The fallen race of man has left the fear of God behind and
sought his own independence from him, by refusing to recognize his Creator. “Evil people and impostors will go on from
bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Ti.3:13). The universal
acceptance of the Theory of Evolution is the proof of his mutiny. His behavior
is worse than that of animals. The human race wants to forget that there is
coming a day, in which each one will give account to God for his existence.
A Great Tribulation is coming, in which the bowls of God’s wrath
will be poured out. Instead of repenting and calling upon God for mercy in
their extreme suffering, mankind will curse Him (Rv.16:9,11). After 1,000 years
of paradise and peace upon earth through the reign of Christ, the devil will be
released upon the earth again. Even those, who experienced the Millennium, will
follow their fiendish champion all the way to the Lake of Fire! (Rv.20:7-10). It
is no wonder that God created hell!
As we approach verses 19-22, we need to be particularly aware of
the scope of Solomon’s message… “under
the sun”. He deals with the physical and the temporal, continually
referring to the way things appear on this planet. These are verses that sects
try to manipulate, notably the Jehovah Witnesses and the Seventh-Day
Adventists, to try to prove their assertion that everything ends with the death
of the body. As far as the natural human eye and mind is concerned, that is as
it seems to be. That is as far as Solomon goes in this book, because he is
writing to people under the sun to
show them that earthly life is vanity.
The Adventists believe in soul-sleep, claiming that when the
body dies, the soul sleeps unconsciously until the resurrection. I am not going
to get into any more detail, as to the history and beliefs of the two sects
mentioned. We cannot expect that false cults, who have not been born again and
do not have the Holy Spirit as a teacher, are ever able to properly interpret
the Bible. If you are interested in studying more about them, write in the
search space, Seventh-day Adventists. On
the same page, on which that article will appear, the article on Jehovah Witnesses
will come up, as well.
It is true that the Bible commonly refers to physical death as sleep. The Lord is the author of the
term. I find that to be a very comforting way for Christians to see their death
and the death of their loved ones. The proper term, when the separation of
death parts Christians from a believing loved one, is good night, not goodbye, for
they will meet again in a brighter morning.
Biblically, the term sleep always
refers to the body, the only part of the human being that we can see under the sun. The body is described in
the Bible as a tent and is only a place, in which the soul of man lives under the sun. When he leaves the body
behind, the true man goes directly into the presence of Christ in heaven (Ge.25:8;
Ge.35:29; G.49:33; Nu.20:24; Lk.16:19-31; Lk.23:43; Ac.7:56, 59; 2 Co.5:8; Phil.1:21-25.
A careful study of these verses will give a sincere person clear insight to
life after death for a believer.).
There would be no need of an explanation for these verses, if it
were not for the danger of confusion, caused by the doctrine of perverted minds
and hearts, who have rejected the true gospel. It is the devil’s work to bring
fear and doubt into the hearts of a child of God and take away the comfort and
joy that comes from the thought of leaving this world behind and arriving
immediately in heaven. The cultists are inspired by doctrines of demons. Don’t
listen to them, don’t read their material, and don’t allow them to come into
the sanctity of your home (2 Jn.1:10).
It is true of the natural eye under the sun that the death of an animal seems to be exactly as
the death of a human being. However, the viewpoint of the human eye deceives us
in many ways. To give one simple example: We see the sun arise in the east in
the morning, but we know that it is not the movement of the sun that we are
observing, but the movement of the earth. So it appears that a man is as mortal
as an animal; he ceases to breath, he dies and is buried and under the sun, there seems to be no
difference (v.19). All go to the earth; dust returns to dust (v.20). How can
the eye, the natural mind, or any science on earth, tell us what happens to his
life. Does that life go down with the body of the beast and cease to exist?
Does the spirit of a man depart from the body and go upward consciously? There
is no answer under the sun (v.21).
The Scripture gives us spiritual light that we cannot find
elsewhere: “If Christ has not been
raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also
who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in
this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied… If the dead are not
raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (1 Co.15:17-19,32). If
only in this life we have hope, we are a miserable people, and then Solomon’s
message to those under the sun is true. “Vanity
of vanities, all is vanity!” If it is not better to depart from the body
and to be with Christ, then there is nothing better for mankind, than to eat
and drink, and rejoice in his work. That is the philosophy of the atheist… 70,
80, perhaps 90 years upon this earth… we might as well live it to the full.
Drain every drop of enjoyment from it, because he cannot see what will be
beyond the grave (v.22).
What we have just studied is not Solomon’s creed. It is the vain
existence of the person, who is ignorant of spiritual life. It is the opinion
of the one, who has never gone to the only source, by which he can learn of life
beyond the sun. God has given us His word and the hope that comes through the
death and resurrection of His son. Albert Barnes concludes: “It is evident from marginal references that
Solomon did not doubt the future existence and destination of the soul.”
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