APR 26

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

In light of God’s perfect, sovereign wisdom, Solomon tells us that man’s role is really not to question God, 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 us. 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. He should 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, there is a slight difference - We know that we can never fully comprehend God’s sovereignty, therefore we respond by being 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. The works of God are eternal, unchangeable and immutable. Man cannot add or take anything away from them. 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 future things already have 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 God will require us to account for what we have 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) our past, and we 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 should 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.