Ecclesiastes 3:9 What profit has he who works in that in which he labors? 10 I have seen the burden which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their hearts, yet so that man can’t find out the work that God has done from the beginning even to the end.
God set eternity in [our] hearts. Our Creator made us to be immortal, eternal creatures. Our Creator wove together our DNA, the vast library of life contained in each of the cells of our bodies, and gave us a non-material spirit, reflecting his image. Genesis 1:27 But as we learned in Genesis 3, because of our rebellion against the Creator, we could no longer enter into his presence. We could no longer be the people he made us to be. But though we were alienated from God and though we will all face death, this longing for eternity was still hard-wired in our hearts.
We yearn for eternity. The teaching that we are the end product of millions of years of blind evolution has been unable to erase the image of God from our hearts.
Commenting on He has also set eternity in their hearts, C.S.Lewis wrote:
If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. Mere Christianity, HarperOne
And with the insight that God set eternity in our hearts, Solomon came to understand that even though life is short, like a vapor, life does not have to be meaningless.
Now that we are experiencing life as mortal creatures we cannot know the beginning from the end. But because God, existing outside of time, does know the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. [And declares], ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please, Isaiah 46:10, we can rest in the fact that God has made everything beautiful in its time.
Ecclesiastes 3:12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice, and to do good as long as they live. 13 Also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy good in all his labor, is the gift of God. 14 I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; and God has done it, that men should fear before him. 15 That which is has been long ago, and that which is to be has been long ago. God seeks again that which is passed away.
Eternity is in our hearts. Though our lives are now short, we have been made to be in relationship with our Creator. Those who deny their Creator who engineered them, those who orient their lives around themselves and their desires, living under the sun, as if there were no God, or living as if God were out of the picture, are on the path to despair. As Czeslaw Milosz observed:
Man must realize that he is an emanation of nothingness and nothingness will devour his clever constructs.
But the reality is, we are not an emanation of nothingness. Becausewe are image bearers we have dignity and value. Those who look beyond this present temporal world, and with the eyes of faith, understanding that God has made everything beautiful in its time, are enabled to live lives of joy despite the circumstances. With eyes wide open we can stop making excuses for our rebellious behavior and acknowledge that, yes, our sin is real. Death is a terrible curse, but because death is not the end, we are to eat and drink and enjoy the good in [our] labor; it is a gift of God. Those who are able to look beyond this fallen world and place their trust in God are able to eat and drink and enjoy the good in their labor. Why? Because it is a gift of God. Further, because we are God’s creation we will live forever. Whatever God does, it shall be forever.
Having established the differences between those who live under the sun in despair and those who live under heaven rejoicing in God’s gift, Solomon begins to point out for his son the outcome of life for those who refuse to follow the ways of God.
Solomon’s first example takes us right back to our beginning in the Garden of Eden.
Ecclesiastes 3:16 Moreover I saw under the sun, in the place of justice, that wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, that wickedness was there. 17 I said in my heart, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked; for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.”
As Joni Mitchell wrote/sang above: We are “caught in the devil’s bargain.” Lucifer, a created being who had tried to stage a coup against the Creator, Isaiah 14:13, came to earth to recruit mankind to join his rebellion by using a clever lie; There are no moral absolutes. His lie was that once you realize that you can do anything you want, your eyes will be opened and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil. Genesis 3:5 That is the crux of the matter behind hevel.
From the ancient, everyone did that which is right in his own eyes, Judges 21:25, to Solomon turning away from the Lord, 1 Kings 11:6, from latter day disciples of Satan, Karl Marx: “Heaven I’ve forfeited, I know full well. My soul once true to God is chosen for hell”. Paul Kengor, The Devil and Karl Marx, to present day World Economic Forum leaders, Klaus Schwab and Yuval Harari destroying Western Civilization with the teaching that, “God is dead” and “Jesus is the original fake news”, weforum.org, we are taught to live as if there are no moral absolutes. We may do as we please. When God is rejected, man elevates himself to take God’s place.
Out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history – money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery – the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy. C.S.Lewis, Mere Christianity. MacMillan Publishing
Immediately after following Lucifer’s advice, Adam and Eve realized that their sin was a cosmic mistake. Lucifer’s promise of life and advanced knowledge turned out to be a lie. As we saw, instead of life they were rewarded with alienation and death. Seeing what had happened, God visited Adam and Eve, and, rather than disowning them, God did something remarkable. He countered Lucifer’s false promise to Adam and Eve.
God made a true Promise. God Promised that one day a Son born to woman would reverse the damage that Adam and Eve had brought on the world by their sin and rebellion. God said that this future Son and Lucifer would enter into mortal combat. Lucifer would fatally strike the Son, however, the Son would end Lucifer’s power over mankind by defeating death once and for all time. Genesis 3:15
To perpetually remind mankind of the Promise to Adam and Eve, to remind them of the coming of a Son who would defeat death and end our alienation, the futility of hevel, God instituted a sacrificial system. Throughout history, prior to the coming of the Promised Son, men were to sacrifice an unblemished lamb. This taught men two things.
First, it taught them that their actions always carried with them inescapable consequences. Their sins and rebellious treason against God deserved death.
Second, it reminded them of the Promise that one day, God would send a Son to defeat death by dying in mankind’s place.
Just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, and death spread to all mankind because all have sinned…so also through the obedience of [Christ] many will be made righteous. Romans 5:12,19
Death came through one man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15:21-22
Solomon notes that under the sun wickedness has replaced justice. But Solomon does not leave us under the sun. Instead he explains that under heaven, God will judge the righteous and the wicked.
The wicked are those who do whatever they please, living as if the Creator has not given them a conscience with moral absolutes to follow. One day they will stand before God and be judged according to their thoughts and actions.
In Solomon’s day the righteous were those who admitted to and confessed their sins, and offered the unblemished lamb as a sacrifice in their place. Of course their actions looked forward to the ultimate sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb of God, John 1:29, who bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds we have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24 Through Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf, justice is served and our guilt is pardoned.
Solomon is reminding his son that, no matter how things look here on earth, one day there will be an accounting where everyone will be judged according to their thoughts and actions. At that time justice will be meted out in either one of two ways. Either you will stand before God and answer for all of your life’s thoughts and actions, at which time your hidden sins will be exposed and you will be condemned. Or you will stand before God, not on your own merits but rather through the obedience of Christ. Romans 5:19 In which case you will be acquitted, forgiven, and declared righteous. Either way, justice will be served.
The Bible explains it like this: The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life. Romans 6:23 At the final judgment you will either pay the wage that you have earned after a lifetime of sin: eternal death. Or, if, in this life, you have accepted the gift that God has offered you, the sacrifice of Christ on your behalf, you will receive eternal life. Either way, justice will be served.
Christ, by His obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are thus justified, and did make a proper, real, and full satisfaction of His Father’s justice in their behalf. Yet inasmuch as He was given by the Father for them, and His obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead, and both freely, not for any thing in them, their justification is only of free grace, that both the exact justice and rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners. Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 9, Of Justification
Solomon continues by pointing out the contrasts between living life under the sun and under heaven.
Ecclesiastes 3:18 I said in my heart, “As for the sons of men, God tests them, so that they may see that they themselves are like animals. 19 For that which happens to the sons of men happens to animals. Even one thing happens to them. As the one dies, so the other dies. Yes, they have all one breath; and man has no advantage over the animals; for all is vanity. 20 All go to one place. All are from the dust, and all turn to dust again. 21 Who knows the spirit of man, whether it goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, whether it goes downward to the earth?”
Solomon knew that wisdom was better than folly, but as we saw above, he was unable to prove it from a purely secular perspective – under the sun. Because, in the end, both the wise and the foolish die, where was the advantage? Similarly, Solomon points out another conundrum that troubles those who deny God. According to the modern theory of evolution there is nothing special about man. Men are just animals that have evolved from the dust and, like the animals, will return to the dust. There is no afterlife. But because eternity is in our hearts, we chafe against this depressing prospect.
But for the man who believes in God, the conclusion is different.
Ecclesiastes 3:22 Therefore I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his works; for that is his portion: for who can bring him to see what will be after him?
We may not know the end from the beginning, we do not know the direction or the twists and turns that our lives will take, but, if we have accepted the sacrifice of the Lamb on our behalf we know that there is a God who oversees the days of our lives. We can rejoice in the works that God has laid before us.