JAN 26

Ecclesiastes 3:12-15
Memorise Ecclesiastes 3:14
"rejoice, and to do good in his life…"

DO YOU EVER DARE TO QUESTION GOD?

In light of God’s perfect sovereign wisdom, Solomon tells us that man’s role is really not to question, to claim perfect knowledge of all these things. We can but simply accept His will and rejoice in the Lord, and endeavour to do good within the limits of what God has chosen to reveal to him. Man should also be content with whatever lot that God has chosen for him in life, and rejoice in whatever blessings God has given to him, and thus enjoy the fruits of his labour, since they are the gift of God. It is the same principle that he had repeated in the previous chapter, but in this context it is in light of the fact that we can never fully comprehend God’s sovereignty, and therefore we should simply be content to rejoice in Him and to obey His law.

He states again in no uncertain terms that God is sovereign, and that man can do nothing at all to change the will and purposes of God. Whatever he does is fixed, and man cannot add nor take away from the works of God, for it is eternal, unchangeable, and immutable. All that man can, and must do, is to fear God with a reverential awe, and desire to do good before Him.

We cannot change the past, neither can we know anything about the future. But in both God is constantly and consistently in control, such that the past is no different from the now, and the future things already has been. God’s sense of time is different from ours, and is not caught up in the worries of man over the changing courses of time. He is always in control, and always in the know. But yet what will be reckoned of man, is that concerning what he has done in the past. The world will continue in its relentless course, for time waits for no man. Yet at the same time God is interested in each and every individual. God sees and knows how all of us have lived in this present life, and God will ‘require’ (seek to find out. Ref. Ecclesiastes 3:18, 2 Samuel 4:11) your past, and you will be judged for it.

Thus knowing all this, we should never be led to question God or to blame Him for the way our life has turned out. Instead, we just focus on the life that we have to live, and do all in our power to rejoice and do good!

Thought: To question God, we have to be either very foolish, or very brave (or foolhardy).
Prayer: Lord, grant me the wisdom to change things that I can in my life, and a submissive spirit to accept the things that I cannot change.