What do people really get for all their hard work? I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. Yet 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. So, I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God. And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God’s purpose is that people should fear him.
Ecclesiastes 3:9-14 (NLT)
The first part of this chapter is all about time—a time for this, that and the other. Take the time to read it you might like it or you might not—whatever. Solomon sometimes asks questions but gives no definitive answers; perhaps he, the wisest man who ever lived (so called) doesn’t have all the answers so he just gives us question and his opinions. Again, whatever?
He asked the question, “What do people really get from all their hard work?” Then he goes on to another point about the burden that God has placed on us but he doesn’t tell us why. It is left up to us to discover why we have to work hard. In Genesis 3:17-19, God tells us why. “Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” It’s Adam’s fault!
Solomon continued and said something profound; he said that God has planted eternity in the heart of man. Could it be that even though he had become very cynical, he still knew that God’s plan was to love and fellowship with man and for man to love and reverence Him and be with Him forever? Could it be that God has placed a yearning in our hearts that cannot be satisfied with anyone other than God? Think on it and decide. The rest of the verses above speak for themselves. God does it and it is done. God says it and it is said. God’s plan has been made from eternity past to eternity future. It is like history spoken in advance. It is happening as He said it would be, so, keep your trust in God and God alone and to God be all the glory. Amen, Amen and Amen!
