Ecclesiastes 3:9-15 What gain has the worker from his toil? 10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.
14 I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. 15 That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.
INTRODUCTION
Try to think of a time where someone presented something to you in such a way that you didn’t have an opportunity to immediately interact—with agreement, disagreement, questions, or other feedback. That shouldn’t be too difficult since it’s happening right now. Sermons are by nature one-way streets. They are meant to be expositions of God’s Word for God’s people, not a discussion time. Lectures are like that as well. Concerts, conferences, and training are often one-way in that way too. Sometimes, it’s best to simply take things in.
At the same time, thoughtful people often long for the opportunity to engage whatever they receive at some point. That’s a big part of why we have DGs and why DGs often focus on the sermon. Likewise, one of my favorite parts of grad school was the opportunity we had to sit down with the prof. in a roundtable discussion after the lecture.
In some ways, that’s what we have in our passage. It’s a kind of Q&A with the Preacher regarding his assertion that God is sovereign over every time and season of our lives and his poem commemorating that.
If you were here for last week’s sermon, you heard me say that the Preacher’s poem (3:2-8) is an expansion on his declaration of God’s sovereignty over our every moment and experience (3:1). Last week you also heard me say that he withholds any explanation of that until the next section (which is our passage for this morning).
In other words, in 3:1-8 we find the assertion that, at the hand of God, there is a season for everything we encounter and in 3:9-15 we find an explanation for that. It’s as if the Preacher imagined a batch of questions that were likely to flow out of his assertions and so he answered them right after making them. A lecture followed by an imaginary Q&A.
Within the “Q&A” we’ll see that the Preacher’s big idea is that wrapped in mystery is the fact that God has made everything beautiful in its time. Because of the beauty, we can trust God and find joy. Because of the mystery, our joy is limited under the sun. The main takeaways are to enjoy that which God has given us and look to God’s Word to know more fully what God has given and how to enjoy it.
Grace, this is a helpful passage and I hope a helpful sermon for everyone. At the same time, I’m particularly hopeful that there are some thoughtful skeptics here today. Anyone who has been frustrated with life will find some measure of relief here. Anyone who is honest enough to acknowledge that they experience inner turmoil will find relief here. Anyone who knows that there is a God, but has struggled to know what to do about that will find relief here. Anyone whose conscience has caused them times of restlessness will find relief here. And anyone who has struggled to understand the goodness of some of God’s sovereign works will find relief here.
A Q&A WITH THE PREACHER REGARDING GOD’S SOVEREIGN HAND ON OUR LIVES
Over the years that I’ve been a pastor at Grace Church, the doctrine of the sovereignty of God has been one of the more controversial. Not a lot, but some have even left because we believe and teach (the joyful, hopeful, glorious, inescapable reality) that God’s Word reveals, beginning to end, that God is in control of every aspect of His creation.
In the OT, some of which the Preacher would have had access to, and some of which he might have even written (Proverbs), of God’s sovereignty we read…
Isaiah 45:7 I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things.
Proverbs 16:33 The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.
Job 42:2 I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
Lamentations 3:37–38 Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?
The NT is just as, and in some cases, even more explicit concerning the fact that God works all things according to the counsel of His will.
Acts 4:27–28 For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Ephesians 1:11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will . . .
Colossians 1:16–17 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
In my experience, the main issue is not whether the Bible teaches the sovereignty of God (because it so clearly does), it’s that people struggle to appreciate the goodness and make sense of the philosophical implications of the Bible’s teaching on it. They don’t understand how they can make real choices if God is sovereign. And they definitely don’t understand how they could have experienced all the hardship and suffering they have under the sovereign reign of a good God.
Those are very reasonable questions. It is good to ask them and it is worth the time it takes to understand what the Bible says (and does not say) about them.
I bring all of this up because it is clear throughout Ecclesiastes that the Preacher struggled with those same things and wrestled with those same questions. He knew that God is sovereign, but he had a really hard time making sense of life under the sun in light of it. In many ways, he seems to have given up trying to understand it and just resigned himself to the fact of God’s sovereignty, the mystery that surrounds it, and the need to just make the best of things in light of both.
Again, having asserted God’s sovereignty and poetically described its scope, the Preacher anticipated a number of questions that many had in his day and still have today.
Given the fact that God has made a time for everything, what gain has the worker from his toil (9-10)?
Given the fact that God is ultimately in charge of everything, what difference (gain) does our work make under the sun? (Remember, an important idea for the author of Ecclesiastes, the Preacher, is “under the sun.” For him it means life on earth, under the curse. It has a strong sense of life interpreted according to earthly wisdom.)
Again, what difference does our work make under the sun in light of God’s sovereignty? If God is in control of everything, including me, my work, and its outcome, does it really matter what we do?
These are questions many of us have felt and asked as well. Does what I’m doing really make any difference? Is there any actual gain in my work?
The Preacher has already addressed the issue of work in some detail. In 1:3, he asked almost the exact same question. His answer there was that man’s work is like running on a treadmill, always moving, never getting anywhere. We just keep working ourselves in circles. It’s all “full of weariness, a man cannot utter it” (1:8). Everything we work for will be soon forgotten.
In the second chapter of Ecclesiastes, the Preacher returned again to this question, this time describing the remarkable works he accomplished. It brought a small amount of joy, but in the end it still seemed like he was chasing wind, such that “there was nothing to be gained.” He even concluded that he hated all his toil (2:18), that it led to despair (2:20), that it “is vanity and a great evil” (2:21), and that it was full of sorrow, vexation, and restlessness (2:23).
In our passage the Preacher added, “10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.” His point is that through all his work and all his observations, he’s seen the inescapable truth that business is frustrating whenever we try to make sense of or find meaning in it, try to hold onto it, or expect to be satisfied by it. He concluded from his innumerable hours of work, that it was almost all mystery and frustration. And that from our toil we gain some, but it’s almost always overwhelmed by what it costs.
Again, have you ever felt like this? What’s more, and more importantly, have you ever felt the amplified frustration that comes from knowing that God is sovereign over all of it; that not only could He make it different, but that it’s this way by His hand? It’s one thing to experience the frustration of the inefficiency and insignificance of our work, day after day after day. It’s something else still to know that it is in some way part of the Lord’s design. That’s the heart of the Preacher’s perspective in this Q&A.
What are we to make of God’s sovereignty over our work and the frustration that often accompanies it (11)?
God is sovereign over our work. Our work is often frustrating. So, what are we to make of this? How are we to assess it? The Preacher’s (somewhat) surprising answer to the second question is that we ought to see it as beauty wrapped in mystery.
We’ll come back to the mystery several times in this passage, but first the Preacher straightforwardly asserts the beauty of it all. Look at v.11, “He [God] has made everything beautiful in its time.”
The consistent sense we get from the Preacher is that he believes things he has a hard time experiencing. He knows that God is sovereign and has a good and beautiful purpose in all He sovereignly does, but the mystery surrounding it all is too thick to see through most of the time.
This too is something we all feel constantly. How often, Grace Church, have you fought to feel something you believe? It’s really challenging to know that something is true, but not feel it in your soul.
God is good even in my suffering. I know that, but it’s still really hard to suffer.
God has a good purpose even in the death of my loved one. I know that, but it’s really devastating to experience it.
God is working even in my struggling relationship. I know that, but oh how it can hurt.
God’s glory is in the inefficiency and futility of my work, but it’s really hard to go in some days.
Or, to bring it back to the Preacher’s poem, there is beauty in both ends of the fourteen pairs. God works beauty not just in times of birth, planting, healing, building, laughing, dancing, gathering, embracing, seeking, keeping, sewing, speaking, loving, and peace, but also in times of death, killing, breaking down, weeping, mourning, casting away, letting go, losing, tearing, hating, and warring. God is working beauty in everything we experience, including our every toil.
The Preacher knew all of this, but man was it hard to feel at times. Man, was it frustrating. Man, was the beauty hidden by dark clouds of mystery most of the time.
Again, who among us hasn’t felt this many times? Living in light of what God has said rather than how we feel is the essence of a life of faith. The Preacher seemed to be doing his best to live in light of the sovereign beauty he knew was there, even though it was wrapped in mystery in such a way that he usually couldn’t see it. And so should we.
Why is all of this so frustrating (11)?
The next Q&A are among the most important in the whole Bible. The question is: Why is all of this so frustrating? Grace, have you spent much time thinking about that? Why do we respond the way we do to our work and God’s rule over our lives? Why do we feel such tension between our experiences in life, the sovereignty of God, and the claim that there is beauty in (and around, and under, and behind) the way the world is? Why do we even care about any of it?
The beginning of the answer is found in the second half of v.11. It is so frustrating because…
11 …[God] has put eternity into man’s heart
Why would that be frustrating? Again, this is an absolutely critical question for us to answer.
God is eternal. He has no beginning and no end. He has never not existed. What’s more, all that exists has always been and always will be tied to the nature of God.
Why is murder wrong? Because God is justice and life.
Why is lying wrong? Because God is truth.
Why is caring for orphans and widows right? Because God is Father to the fatherless and protector of the weak.
What is goodness and beauty? That which corresponds to God’s nature.
Why is the chief end of man to glorify God and enjoy Him forever? Because God has declared it to be so.
What is reality? All that exists in the mind of God, as it exists in the mind of God.
What does all of this have to do with us and the frustration we can feel in this world? Again, the beginning of the answer is that God has put a piece of all of that in each of us. That is a significant part of what it means to be made in the image of God, and all of us are made in the image of God.
God has put some of His eternity in all of us such that we know (everyone knows, even if they think, pretend, or act otherwise) that there is eternity. Because of the eternity God has put in us, we know there is objective goodness and beauty, that murder, lying, and exploiting the vulnerable are bad, that we do have real purpose in life, and that there is a supremely privileged frame of reference (God).
And because of all of those things, we, by our very God-given nature (as eternal, image bearers) are necessarily and continually searching for meaning and significance in life (in general) and in the specific things we experience. Most of what we’ve read in Ecclesiastes to this point is the Preacher doing just that.
To be human is to seek meaning and purpose. That’s what it means that God has put eternity into man’s heart.
The frustration comes from the fact that although we have this God-given, inescapable longing in us, under-the sun wisdom is not enough to help us find what we are seeking. That’s the essence of the rest of v.11, “God has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”
We have an itch that we are powerless to scratch. We have a longing that cannot be fulfilled on our own. We have desires that cannot be satisfied by anything we find on earth. We have questions that do not have earthly answers.
Some of you are here right now, at Grace Church, not because you are trusting in Jesus with all your heart such that you are compelled by joy in God’s design and God’s command to gather with the saints. Instead, you are here solely because you have eternity in your heart. You just know you should be here. You’re not entirely sure why, but you feel bad if you’re not. You feel a longing and you are hoping to find answers here.
The Preacher knew that God had put eternity in his heart. The eternity drove him to great lengths to seek that which is common to all men. What’s more, God had also given him every earthly resource for and human advantage in his search. And yet he still came up empty time after time; just like so many of us who attempt the same thing in the same ways.
Why, then, is man unable to find out what God has done from the beginning to the end? Because we need something not found under the sun to do so. That’s the mystery. God’s sovereignty over all things is beauty wrapped in mystery for everyone under the sun.
What is the best that life under the sun offers (12-13)?
Given all of that, we still have to live and make the best of it. So where does that leave us? What is the best that life under the sun offers? The Preacher’s answer is yet another carpe diem claim (his second of three).
Look at v.12, “I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.”
He said almost the same thing in 2:24, “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God.”
And he’ll say almost the same thing again in 8:15, “And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.”
The key phrase in each is, “There is nothing better.” But the key question is: Why is there nothing better than for mankind to be joyful, do good, eat and drink, and take pleasure in toil?
It’s because under-the-sun that really is all there is. We know there’s more to life than what we can grasp and we know there’s more beauty than we can see, but we can’t grasp or see it, for it’s all wrapped so tightly in mystery. Therefore, the best we can do is enjoy whatever God gives us as best as we can while we have it.
All of us have been here at some point and many are here right now. I’ll come back to this at the end, but for now we need to settle on something the Preacher settled on: All by ourselves, we are powerless to see true beauty or find real meaning or experience anything more than the temporary pleasures of whatever (first) gifts God is pleased to provide according to His common, sovereign grace.
In other words, as harsh as it sounds, we all need to settle on the fact that because of our sin, anything other than misery on earth or in hell is a gift from God. The common grace version of that gift is why there is any joy in life for any who are not hoping in Jesus.
All of us would do well, then, to find whatever righteous joy we can. Do the fullest good in whatever opportunities come before us. Eat and drink good foods and beverages with friends. Try to enjoy work as much as you can, while doing the most excellent work you can. By itself, none of this will ever truly satisfy, but there really is nothing better under the sun.
Why can all of this seem not only frustrating, but also futile (14-15)?
One more Q&A. Why can all of this seem not only frustrating, but also futile? We find the Preacher’s answer in the last two verses of our passage.
14 I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. 15 That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.
Those two verses are largely a recap of what we saw back in 1:2-11. The gist of both is that God is who God has always been and always will be. Therefore, God works like God has always worked and always will work. Therefore, things are as they have always been and always will be. None of this is going to change and there’s nothing we can do about it. At God’s hand, what has gone around, will come back around again; over and over and over. And it’s a fearful thing to recognize the absolute power of God that enables this.
Under the sun, recognizing these things often causes a great sense of futility. We can feel this in the Preacher’s words.
Of all of this, in my sermon from 1:2-11 I wrote, “It’s hard to explain how exhausting it can be to stay on this cycle for long. You get up, you work hard at things that vary in levels of inefficiency, you try to produce and maintain a good attitude and healthy relationships, you battle sin and discouragement, you say the same thing to your kids for the 1000th time or wish you could say the same thing to your kids for the 1001st time now that they’re all gone, you make meals and do laundry, you make a mess and clean up, you get dirty and take a shower, you try to find some rest through some form of entertainment and go to bed, only to wake up and do it all again the next day.”
That’s what it’s been like since mankind first set up east of Eden and it’s what it will be like until the end of time. And that is the long and short of the Preacher’s message in Ecclesiastes 3:9-15.
SEIZE THE DAY ABOVE THE SUN
I said at the beginning of all of this that this is a passage and a sermon of hope, especially for thoughtful skeptics. But if you were listening carefully, it might not have sounded very hopeful. It, like much of the rest of Ecclesiastes, probably sounded a bit fatalistic and hollow.
To find the hope that is in it, we need to settle on something first. Everything the Preacher wrote in this passage is true. Under the sun, work is hard; work is inefficient; it’s clear there’s design and beauty in the world, but it’s frustratingly hard to see and unclear what we are to do about it; it’s clear that there is more to this world than what we can see, but precisely what that means is illusive; there are things to be enjoyed in this world, but we all always long for more; it’s plain that God is guiding things, but that just makes my actions seem largely irrelevant; and under the sun, everything just seems to go around and around and around.
Again, the Preacher is right in observing all of these things. At the same time, it’s clear that he lacked the key to unlock them all.
Has anyone explained this reality better than C.S. Lewis (in Mere Christianity)?
“Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise… If I find in myself a desire [therefore,] which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
“…Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.”
All of this means that the hope of this passage is found in the fact that it helps us to see that the things we are looking for just aren’t found in the places we’re looking. The hope we get comes from the knowledge that we need to look elsewhere. The hope comes from the realization that we need help to find hope.
Grace, there is something better still. That which is truly best for mankind is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. But we need an above-the-sun perspective (the Word of God, illuminated by the Spirit of God) to know, understand, and apply this. We need the Son of God to forgive us of failing to do so. And we need the Spirit of God to convict us of our sin, grant us repentance, to cause us to love it, and to empower us to live it out.
Colossians 2 says, that is only in Jesus that we are able to grasp “all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery…”. And that is it is in Christ alone that “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge…”.
Turn to Jesus in faith and then, with an above the sun, Spirit-illuminated, Word-infused, gospel-driven perspective.
And because there is gain in toil for all of God’s people, find one specific way this week to work more excellently, as unto the Lord, at work, home, and church in light of God’s sovereignty over it.
Because God has made it such that everything is beautiful in its time, artistically express the beauty of some aspect of your week in light of God’s sovereignty over it.
Because God has put eternity into the hearts of all mankind, tell one person (who doesn’t already know) (1) That they have eternity in their heart and (2) What difference that makes.
Because it is good to eat, drink, and be merry, host a meal with better-than-usual food and drink. Work hard to make it joyful. And root it all for everyone in God’s sovereign grace.
Because that which is, already has been and that which is to be, already has been, start a new rhythm in your life or more fully embrace an old one for the sake of growing in your faith.
The Preacher was right, more than anyone before or since, about the nature of life under the sun. But Jesus is the key that unlocks life above the sun. Look to Him and find an end to the futility, mystery, vanity, and futility of life. Find instead, the forgiveness, freedom, meaning, purpose, significance, and satisfaction God offers by His sovereign grace in Jesus.