Eld Ko Swee Chay

God made Everything Beautiful in His Time (Ecclesiastes 3:9-15)

Introduction

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 shows us God’s timing and sovereignty in all things. There is an appointed season for everything, and a scheduled time and predetermined purpose for every event under the heaven. God is in control of every life event, from the mother’s womb to birth and to death.

Ecclesiastes 3:9-15 shows us God is powerful and immutable. He made everything beautiful in His time and set the “world” in man’s heart. His works are perfect, complete, and secure. Man cannot frustrate the sovereign will of God and change His plan. The response God wants from us is to fear Him and humbly submit to His sovereign will and plan. God knows best and wants us to always trust Him in all things. May we all pay attention to the spiritual lessons God wants us to learn.

God has given man the labour (Eccl 3:9-10)

⁹ What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth? ¹⁰ I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.

The word “travail” means: “employment” or “business.” The same Hebrew word appears in Ecclesiastes 1:13, 2:23 & 26, 3:10, 4:8, 5:14 as “travail”, and in Ecclesiastes 5:3 and 8:16 as “business”.  The word “exercised” means: “abase, to be busy with, to be afflicted with.”

Ecclesiastes 3:9 (c.f. 1:3) is a rhetorical question saying that there is no profit at all in labour. When life is lived not for the Lord but laboured for self-gain it will all perish. It is a travail, i.e. laborious business, to provide for family. We work from dawn to dusk labouring and providing until we die. It is a meaningless endeavour. The profit gained by such labour that wastes our life away is all temporal. Solomon’s palace would be taken by others. His earthly wisdom would die with him. Solomon had seen or experienced the toiling and hardships in his own life and others. All were busily caught up in it unto death.

God made everything beautiful (Eccl. 3:11)

¹¹ He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

The word “beautiful” is repeated in Ecclesiastes 5:18 and translated as “fitting.” God has made everything beautiful in His time (cf. Gen 1:31). Our experience on earth verifies that. It is described for us in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. Life is a life of contrasts. It is because of love that we know what hate is; we break down to build up; mourn to dance; get to lose; keep to cast away; war to peace; rend to sew; silence to speak. These are all ordered by God for man to live with all these beautiful experiences to enrich his life. Man is not an unfeeling robot.

Not only that, but God has given to man a sense of eternity in his heart. The word “world” means: “time out of mind, eternity.”  In other verses in the Bible, it is translated as “ever” and “everlasting.” This phrase “he hath set the world in their heart” teaches us that God has placed eternity in the hearts of man. This means that man has an awareness of eternity. He believes that this world will go on and on. Is this not the main reason man is saving this earth? Man may die but this world goes on forever for our children and their children. This concept of eternity originates from God.

Though man lives with the idea of eternity within him he cannot know the beginning and its end. The second half of this verse makes clear that “no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end”- we do not understand exactly why God does what He does and when He does it. Man cannot fathom his laborious life even though he tries. This is seen in his theory of evolution on how he thinks the world began, the false religions throughout the ages, where will man go after death, is there life after death, etc. These are some of the evidence of man’s attempts to find out the meaning of life and his existence.

Without God revealing His truth to man, he will always be in darkness. 

God’s gift for man to enjoy (Eccl. 3:12-13)

¹² I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life. ¹³ And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.

Solomon realised that there is “no good” - no certain, lasting value, in all his labour. This is viewed in the context of his pursuit of carnal desires, material possessions, worldly wisdom, madness and folly, and desire to retain possessions. “No good” because he must leave behind his splendid golden palace and everything to someone else who has not worked for it. He will end up in death and be soon forgotten completely just as the fool and all his great wisdom and vast knowledge will perish with him. However, based upon the common grace of God bestowed upon man, he ought to rejoice. He should be happy and do good in terms of caring and providing for his family and being kind to his neighbours. This is not the goodness in terms of salvation but the goodness that allows society to exist and live in relative peace. He ought to work hard and enjoy the labour of his hands, even though it is temporary. If he does not even do this, he will do evil. There is enough of the image of God in fallen man for him to be kind and considerate toward his fellow man as we see in societies throughout the ages.

God’s plan is perfect, complete, and secure (Eccl 3:14-15)

¹⁴ I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him. ¹⁵ That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.

However, whatever God does endure forever: they are complete, perfect, and secure – “nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it”! This is in contrast to man’s ways which are transient and always imperfect. Knowing this truth, man should fear before Him. This is not the kind of fear that comes from facing the monstrous or the unknown, but the fear that he is a sinner and God is holy. He will be judged by God for living in His world and ruining it by his unceasing sin.

Ecclesiastes 3:15 tells us that sinful man lives in a vicious cycle. “That which hath been is now” means that what is past is now in the present. “That which is to be hath already been” means that what is future has already happened before in the past. For example, man laughs today, he will cry tomorrow. If he cries today, he will laugh tomorrow. All the emotions and experiences in life described in Ecclesiastic 3:2-8 describe a hopeless cycle of life. What concerns God the most is man’s past. He holds man accountable for his past. His past is what he has done in life!

Application

God is sovereign and He is the planner and controller of all things visible and invisible, from the beginning to the end. God in His infinite wisdom has made everything beautiful in His time and set eternity in man’s heart such that man knows there is eternity. God’s works are perfect, complete, and secure, for nothing can be added to or taken away from all that God does.

Man’s cycle of life does not change. He lives and exists in a vicious cycle of contrasting emotions. God is the opposite. God is sovereign and eternal and knows the beginning from the end and the end from the beginning. This repetitive contrasting emotional roller coaster demonstrates to sinful man his need to fear and trust God. This cycle can only be changed by Jesus Christ.

Has your life been changed by Christ or are you still caught in this cycle of life? AMEN.