Instrument-4-Christ

Without the explanation offered in the first verse of Ecclesiastes 9, the following verses would have an entirely different, hopeless meaning from what they actually do.

Ecclesiastes 9:1 ends by saying, “People know neither love nor hatred by anything they see before them.”

Verse 2 says, “All things come alike to all: one event happens to the righteous and the wicked…As is the good, so is the sinner.”

Verse 3 says, “This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: that one thing happens to all.”

Why is it that everyone in the world seems to receive the same things from God? Or, as was previously discussed in Ecclesiastes, why do the evil often seem to have a better plot in life? Why does God show common grace to both the evil and the good as Matthew 5:45 says?

Solomon explained that it didn’t seem fair, but he prefaces his discussion by saying in verse 1 of this passage, “For I considered all this in my heart, so that i could declare it all: that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God.”

What makes the difference in an “equally unfair” life? “The righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God.”

God knows who are His, and He sees what they do. We must live life from God’s perspective.

Though the world is full of both fools and the wise,
The same results seem to come upon all.
But remember that all is seen in

Hmmm…hard to find much encouragement for life in this passage: “There is a vanity which occurs on earth…I commended enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry…a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun…though a wise man attempts to know it, he will not be able to find it.”

But there is hope in verses 15 and 17 when Solomon says, “All the days of his life which God gives him,” and, “Then I saw all the work of God.”

It’s all about God! So many things in life are vanity, but when we remember that God gives us each of our days of life, we are reminded that life indeed has purpose!

When we see the works of God but fail to understand them all, we are reminded that God is in control and His design for life is so much higher than ours.

Instead of looking at life from ground level, take a flight to the sky by looking into God’s Word and revel in God’s plan for us. No, we still can’t fully understand it, but we don’t need to. We simply need to trust God and keep Him at the center of everything we do, and life will have all the meaning we seek to find.

Life is not all vanity,
Though oft that’s all I see.
God gives me life from day to day,
To work and serve and play.

I cannot fully know His mind,
But trust what He’s designed.
For God is God and over all,
And my knowledge is small.