Category: Ecclesiastes

Depending on your age, you may experience some flashbacks reading Ecclesiastes 3 as the voice of Kevin Bacon may echo from the movie Footloose, the movie poster of A Time to Kill may flash in our heads, or “Turn! Turn! Turn!,” sung by The Byrds, may begin playing in the background of our minds. The first eight verses of Ecclesiastes 3 are very well-known. The last several verses of the chapter are not as popular, depicting a grim view of humanity ending in death. Tucked away, hidden between these two sections, are words of comfort and perspective in which we can take joy and find hope: “God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” (v. 11)

First, let’s ask the question, “Does God really make everything beautiful for its own time?” The Hebrew word translated as “everything” is kol. This is the same word used in Genesis 1-3 when God created every tree, every bird, every animal,every thing, and declared it all good. So, yes, God really made everything beautiful for its own time.

Our struggle is that we often interpret this to be in our own time. We see all the pain, injustice, and ugliness in our world and scream, “How is everything beautiful?!” It’s not; God has made everything beautiful for its own time, not ours. We must shake off the temporal confines of our current circumstances and set our minds on God’s grander scheme, which He planted in our hearts. 

God created humans to live forever with Him, so we are designed to have an eternal perspective. Genesis 2 describes how God planted the Tree of Life, which allowed those who ate from it to live forever, in the Garden of Eden and placed the man and woman there. Once they chose sin, humans were removed from the garden and access to the Tree of Life was barred. Why was God so concerned about humans having an eternal perspective once they knew good and evil? God wanted to protect us. When sin entered our hearts, we no longer focused on God’s good but believed the lie that the things around us (like a yummy-looking fruit tree) are what matter most. We still believe this lie today. 

But Jesus came as our path back to the Tree of Life. Jesus stands in the gap between the activities of our time–the laughing, the grief, the death, the births–and the pain and injustices of our time. This is where God intentionally positions His hope: Jesus. In the middle of the activities and injustice, God wants us to experience the joy and comfort of resting in His plan for our good and His glory through Jesus. 

Solomon isn’t looking to pull any punches. Throughout the first section of this chapter, Solomon is presenting us with his résumé. He gives us a run down of who he is, what he has built, and what all he has accomplished during his time on earth.  Despite his many efforts, he comes up unsatisfied. 

We often think or pray to God for that one more thing to be satisfied. We think, “God if only you gave me _______, I would be happy” or,“God please let _________happen and then everything would be okay.” Solomon got every wish he could possibly imagine and ended up emptier than ever before. In verse 10 he goes so far as to say he denied himself nothing his eyes desired and refused his heart no pleasure. Imagine all the desires you have over the course of a day being fulfilled. Every want. Every dream. Nothing is out of your reach. This is Solomon’s life every day! Yet he finds that this didn’t actually solve anything. It just left him feeling more empty than before. You can really feel Solomon’s despair  when he considers that no matter how you live your life, all will die and be forgotten.

It is no wonder then that Solomon hated his life and everything he worked for. Work provided him no hope either. All it brought him was stress and no actual rest or quality of life. Even what he did accomplish while working he must give to those who follow him (who will eventually ruin it). But in verse 24 we see a brief glimpse of hope from the hand of God. Solomon encourages his readers to enjoy what God provides in our lives, enjoy the work laid out for us, and to please God.

Good news! This chapter does a great job of tearing up false hopes and idols we have in our lives, but we know the answer that Solomon lacks. We know that because Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins, we are right before God, therefore we can spend eternity in heaven with Him. Our lives on earth have eternal ramifications for ourselves and others. We shouldn’t live our lives as if nothing matters but instead attempt to glorify God in everything we do (1 Cor. 10:31). 

The book of Ecclesiastes begins with an introduction to “the Teacher” (also known as “the Preacher”), King Solomon. Solomon, the son of King David, was both the wisest and wealthiest man to ever live. A lot of us would take that trade, no questions asked, wouldn’t we? But we see in the first few verses that all of the money and all of the wisdom in the world isn’t enough to satisfy Solomon. He finds himself coming up empty in this life, dissatisfied because everything around him lacks meaning. How’s that for inspirational?

Early on, we’re introduced to the phrase “under the sun,” which is used 28 different times throughout this book. Every time we see that phrase, Solomon is referencing the world—the here and now. In this first chapter, Solomon gives us a high level overview of how the rest of the book will unfold. Everything we see under the sun? It’s all temporal. The daily grind that you find yourself in? Everybody feels that way. And that name you’re trying to build for yourself? It will be forgotten. 

When you read these words on the page, it all sounds sort of hopeless. But the crazy thing is this: Solomon was right. He had been there, done that, and still found himself wandering through life feeling discontented emptiness. However, we have the ability to view this through a different lens. When Solomon writes these words, all he can think about is his present life. His eyes aren’t set on eternity. Little did Solomon know, over 900 years later, out of the same family lineage that he himself came from, Jesus Christ would come to make the hope of eternal life a reality. 

When we read this chapter (and the rest of this book) through the lens of eternity, everything looks differently. If what we see under the sun today is all there is, then of course we’ll feel hopeless and like life is meaningless. But if Solomon is misguided and there’s reason for hope, then everything does matter because how we live on earth carries over into eternity. All of a sudden, that daily grind presents us with opportunities to share Jesus with our co-workers or classmates. Worries about making our names memorable fade because we’re focused on making Jesus’ name memorable instead. Life lived through the lens of eternity, focused on glorifying God and showing others who he is, is meaningful. Our entire perspective shifts when we view life through the right lens.