SERIES: “BE SATISFIED”
“GOD’S PURPOSE AND PLAN”
ECCLESIASTES 3:1-22
It’s good to be back with you this morning. I hope you enjoyed your guest speakers this past week as much as I enjoyed having a vacation. Several weeks back, we started a series through the book of Ecclesiastes called “Be Satisfied.” Solomon is at the end of his life reflecting back on his life. When he looked at his wisdom, his works, and his wealth – everything that he had – he found it to be worthless, empty, and unsatisfactory. Eccl. 1:1-3 – The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?
In 1925, a man named Floyd Collins was exploring near Mammoth Cave in Kentucky and got stuck. He was 55 feet from the surface, and he got stuck. Icy water was dripping in his face. The rescuers came in and diverted the water, and they talked with him, they calmed him down, but they couldn’t get him out. He began to come unglued there, stuck in that cave. He was able to see the light, able to see where he wanted to be, hearing voices, getting food, but he was stuck and he couldn’t get out. So he slowly began to have raving lunacies about everything from chicken sandwiches to angels in white chariots. The newspapers got in on it, and ten thousand people came to see him. They sold hot dogs and sandwiches. It was a sideshow. Seventeen days later Floyd Collins died in that hole, able to see where he wanted to be and not able to get there.
I am amazed at the variety of things that offered to us every day to help us find the secret of living a enjoyable life. There are magazine articles by the hundreds that tell us how to cope with various problems. Bookstores are filled with all kinds of “self-help” volumes. Television commercials – dozens for every program it seems – bombard us, telling us how to live a successful life; or at least how to look successful even if we’re really not.
Busyness has become the by-word of successful living. We have tried to cram as much of life as we can into as little a space of time as we can. Someone commented on this phenomenon with the following statement: This is the age of the half-read page and the quick hash and the mad dash; the bright night with the nerves tight; the plane hop and the brief stop; the lamp tan in a short span; the big shot in a soft spot; and the brain strain and the heart pain; and the catnaps ‘til the spring snaps; and the fun is done.
There is a universal search it seems, for the secret of enjoying life. Billions of dollars are spent every day in this very quest. And this very quest is the one that Solomon talks about in Ecclesiastes. The greatest experiment ever performed in the history of mankind to test the various approaches to success, enjoyment, and contentment in life recorded in this 3,000-year-old book.
At the beginning of this book, Solomon seems very negative. He says that there is nothing that means anything; nothing that is worth anything. What you have left after you accumulate all you can and do all you can is what is left after a soap bubble bursts.
But then Solomon changes directions. At the end of the last chapter, Solomon says this in Eccl. 2:24-26 – A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
Solomon’s viewpoint and life begin to change around when he allowed God back into the picture. When Solomon allowed God to be the focal point of his life, everything became fulfilling. Solomon is saying in these last three verses of Chapt. 2: “Yes, life under the sun is meaningless. If you leave God out of the picture, life is just a bubble that will surely pop. But when God is at the focal point of your life, you remember that your food and drink and work is really a gift from God and then it becomes something to be enjoyed.”
Eccl. 3:1-22 – There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. What does the worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him. Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account. And I saw something else under the sun: In the place of judgment—wickedness was there, in the place of justice—wickedness was there. 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.” I also thought, “As for men, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. Man’s fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?
As we looked at the first two chapters of Ecclesiastes, Solomon saw a dull monotony and despairing meaninglessness in life. But like any true wise man, he did not let his own arguments go unchallenged. He re-examined his original conclusions and gave his reconsidered insights here in Chapt. 3. Let’s look together at these factors and see how they help us in our personal view of life.
Factor #1
SOMETHING ABOVE MAN: A GOD WHO CONTROLS TIME
Do you feel defeated in the seasons of life? Are you just trapped in time and looking for a way to transcend time? I loved a story that I read this week. It’s a true story and happened a few years back. It was about a man named Porris Wittel, a dock worker in Gillingham, England. Maybe you’ve had this same feeling, I know I have. For 47 years he hated his alarm clock. For 47 years, early, in the dark, every morning that thing jangled him awake. For 47 years he longed to ignore it, to shut it off. And for 47 years he submitted to the pressure of that time, that clock. But on the day of his retirement, he got his revenge. He took his alarm clock to work and flattened it in an 80-ton hydraulic press. He said, “It was a lovely feeling.”
Darwinism teaches us that we are simply the results of time and blind fate. Blind fate is a terrible consolation. What is comforting to know is that the events of the universe are ordered by a compassionate, gracious, long-suffering, and faithful God who is not under the control of a clock. Peter warns us in 2 Pet. 3:8 –
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. God created time when He created the universe. He operates outside of time and is Lord over the times and seasons.
Everything is ordered by God without any dependence on man’s approval. Everything happens at a divinely appointed time, according to God’s plan and providence. As Joseph reminds us, even when people make plans to harm us, God can use their evil plans for good.
Since man cannot know what God intends to do, he consequently cannot order his own doings and goings but must wait upon the Lord. Vs. 11 reminds us that all of these events come from God and that “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” The inference here is plain: If we trust God’s timing, life will not be meaningless.
So, what is the purpose of life contained in time? When life gets down to the essentials, what is the profit? What do we gain?
Solomon gives fourteen sets of opposites in verses 2-8 – a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
They all seem to cancel each other out: one seems to be positive and the other seems to be negative. What is Solomon trying to tell us? When God gets left out of the picture, if there is only “life under the sun”, the horizontal trip from birth to death with only events in between is seemingly without profit or gain.
That’s why the prevailing view of this life says: “Get all you can. Experience everything you can. Have as much fun as you can.” But Solomon is saying “Life on earth without God is the pits!”
Understand that God has planned the seasons of life. They are here for our benefit and enjoyment. God has made everything beautiful in its time and in His time.
Imagine that you are someone who does not believe in God. Imagine that you are facing a tragedy in life – perhaps a dying loved one or maybe a seemingly hopeless set of circumstances. There you sit – helpless to do anything. You have no God to talk to. You have no one to put an arm around you and tell you that there is eternal purpose in it all. Life becomes a profitless, purposeless, boring and empty existence.
But when you trust God in the seasons of life, to know that He is the God over time, you can rest in His words from Rom. 8:28 – And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Factor #2
SOMETHING WITHIN MAN: ETERNITY WITHIN HIS HEART
Solomon reminds us that there is something more than time: eternity. This life is not all there is. This life is simply a rehearsal for eternity. And Solomon notes that God has placed eternity in the heart of man. God created us in His image and the breath of life that breathes through every human comes from the breath of life that was breathed into first human being by God Himself.
Sin has marred the image of God in mankind and many humans have forgotten where they came from. But there is still a longing for something more. We instinctively know that this life cannot fulfill our deepest desires yet we continue to seek to fill that empty space in our lives with things that do not satisfy.
God has designed us with one foot in time and the other in eternity. He did that for a reason: it causes us to need Him. Without Him, we are lost, confused, and prone to corruption. That’s part of what it means to be created in the image of God.
Augustine put it this way: “You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they learn to rest in You.” Solomon says that life lived “under the sun” is monotonous and meaningless but that life lived with a perspective “under heaven” is meaningful and exciting.
C.S. Lewis said, “Our Heavenly Father has provided many delightful inns for us along our journey, but he takes great care to see that we do not mistake any of them for home.” When we trust God through the seasons of life and trust His Son as our Salvation, we have a wonderful home. Phil 3:20 – ..our citizenship is in heaven.” Peter calls us “aliens and strangers in the world” in 1 Pet. 2:11. Remember the words of the old gospel song: “This world is not my home, I’m just a passin’ through…”
And even though eternity is set in our hearts, Solomon reminds us that we still cannot see or fathom what God has done from beginning to end. We see the trees. God sees the forest. We see the caterpillar. God sees the butterfly. We see today. God sees forever.
Ray Stedman told about a plaque on his bedroom wall:
No thought is worth thinking
That is not the thought of God.
No sight is worth seeing
Unless it is seen through His eyes.
No breath is worth breathing
Without thanks to the One
Whose very breath it is.
Factor #3
SOMETHING AHEAD OF MAN: DEATH AND JUDGMENT AWAITS US ALL
Heb. 9:27 tells us that we are “destined to die once, and after that to face judgment…” As Solomon looked at judgment and justice here on earth, he saw political and judicial corruption and oppression. The very purpose of government – the curbing of wrongdoing and the protection of the weak – had been corrupted. Instead of working for good, it had acted in behalf of evil. Solomon realized that those who were supposed to protect justice have sometimes dishonored justice.
We all like a story with a happy ending – where the people in the white hats win over the people in the black hats and the people in the black hats wind up in jail. We can even handle a story with a sad ending as long as there is justice in the end.
I’m big into justice. When someone cuts me off in traffic, I get angry. When I see a situation where someone takes advantage of someone else, I really get angry. If I think someone is taking advantage of my family, I want to punch them out! We think that if life can’t be easy, at least it can be fair! But that’s not the way it is here on earth, is it?
Like Solomon, we see injustice and wickedness everywhere. What do we do about it? We can fight against injustice and that is honorable. But Solomon concludes that in reality, only God can set everything right. Rom. 12:19 – Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.
Solomon says that we need to understand that there is coming a day of judgment when God will set straight the wrongs that have been done on this earth. In Acts 17:31, Paul tells the Athenians, “For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed.” The big question is: Are you ready to meet the Judge over all things? Is your timepiece set on God’s time? Are you in step with Him?
After discussing the difference between faulty human judgment and God’s perfect divine judgment, Solomon again deals with the issue of death. Remember, Solomon is at the end of his life and death has been an issue that he has struggled with in his assessment of things.
For Christian readers, I think this is the most disturbing section of Ecclesiastes. It seems that Solomon is questioning the whole idea of an afterlife. He says that like the animals, all humans face the same fate; that in this respect, we have no advantage over the animals.
But remember that in Ecclesiastes Solomon is comparing the view of life lived “under the sun” with the view of life lived “under heaven.” Solomon is pointing out that when life is lived just “under the sun” there is no hope. And if there is no hope, then we are no better than the animals. Therefore, how we live and how we die, does not matter.
Then there is life lived “under heaven” – life lived in respect to God’s plan and purpose. Remember, that even in the Old Testament, life lived “under heaven” was lived with a view to hope in the resurrection. Job 19:26 – “And after my skin is destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.” In Ezek, 37:1-14, we see the description of the Valley of Dry Bones. In this vision given to Ezekiel, the people of God are restored not by coming back as spirits but instead by resurrection from the grave. Dry bones come together, flesh comes upon them, and the Spirit of God makes them alive again. The apostle Paul points out our hopelessness if there is no resurrection in 1 Cor. 15:13-14 – If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
The Bible is very clear: Either the world’s thought system is correct or God’s system as explained in the Bible is correct. It’s one or the other. If the world’s system is correct, there is no hope or profit to gain from anything. If God’s system is correct, there is hope in any other system. Prov. 14:12 – There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
Solomon calls us to face the harsh reality of our mortality in these verses. It’s the very thing people want to avoid. It’s also the reason that people hold onto all kinds of strange ideas about the afterlife or reincarnation. If we look reality in the face, we can live the way we should. We’ll recognize the fleeting nature of this world. We’ll work to enjoy life based on enjoying with a view “under heaven.” We’ll consider all things based on a fear, awe, and reverence of God. We’ll look to God and to the resurrection for salvation from the grip of death.
CONCLUSION
Shakespeare wrote: “There comes a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life, Is bound in shallows and miseries.” The world is under an illusion. People of the world believe that life is whatever they make out of it themselves. Solomon points out the folly of thinking “self” is all there is.
Solomon says that after having studied life and everything in it, he has discovered that God has a plan and a purpose for everything that happens. Life lived “under the sun” – accomplished by one’s own power – is utterly meaningless. Life lived “under heaven” – accomplished under God’s timing, plan and purpose – has meaning and hope.
He points out that God has a balance to his plan: birth-death; sorrow-joy; meeting-parting, etc. Solomon says that God does that for at least two reasons: so that we will not think that we can easily explain God’s work and so that we will learn to accept and enjoy what we have. Prov. 16:3-4 – Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. The LORD works out everything for his own ends— even the wicked for a day of disaster.
The secret is to celebrate God’s perfect timing. Gal. 4:4 (NLT) – But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so
that he could adopt us as his very own children. Rom. 5:6 – You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
If your trust in God has been faltering or you’ve never sought His plan and purpose for your life, please hear the words of Hos. 10:12 – Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.
