III. The Repetitions and Injustices of Life (Ecclesiastes 3:1-22)
Share
III. The Repetitions and Injustices of Life (3:1-22)
3:1 Life can become miserably predictable. The same old you, wearing the same old clothes, driving the same old car, working the same old job, eating the same old food, returning to the same old house, sitting in the same old chair, watching the same old shows, and climbing into the same old bed—day-in and day-out. That frustration with routine reflects Solomon’s mood here through verse 8. He’s not merely saying there’s a time for everything. He’s saying, “We’re trapped.”
3:2-9 Solomon describes the repetitive nature of life in all its contrasts. There’s a time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot; a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build; a time to weep and a time to laugh (3:2-4). In other words, we’re trapped between competing realities. A person can experience the extremes of life—the highest joy and the deepest sorrow—in the same week, even in the same day.
What does the worker gain from his struggles? (3:9). Solomon highlights the reality that we are like hamsters running on a wheel. Their little legs do a lot of running, but they finish right where they started. So things often seem for us.
3:10-11 Here Solomon says something curious: I have seen the task that God has given the children of Adam to keep them occupied. He has made everything appropriate in its time (3:10-11). As we realize that God did this routine and repetition thing that we exist in on purpose, it can make us wonder why God has locked us in this cage called life between the ups and downs, between the good days and bad.
But perhaps life’s rhythms are designed to point us to another reality. Indeed, God has put eternity in their hearts (3:11). We long for more. Solomon is saying, then, that God has created time in such a way that it cannot bring fulfillment. Rather, it reveals a vacuum in the human heart that can only be filled by the transcendent—by him. Humanity is in tension: we live in the routine of time, but our hearts are designed to long for something eternal.
3:12-13 Although we cannot find ultimate meaning in our time-bound lives, we can experience legitimate enjoyment (3:12). In fact, it is the gift of God whenever anyone eats, drinks, and enjoys all his efforts (3:13). So don’t merely work for money; do something you like. Appropriate pleasures are a gift of God; enjoy them. But don’t expect to discover ultimate meaning in these things. God has intentionally created dissatisfaction in life to drive us to him.
3:14-15 Everything God does will last forever; there is no adding to it or taking from it. God works so that people will be in awe of him. You can’t change what God has made, so stop fighting the routine, the repetition, and the extremes of life. He’s made both life and you this way so you’ll seek him.
3:16-20 Here Solomon considers injustice and death under the sun. Miscarriages of justice are frequent in the world (3:16). The wicked prosper; the righteous suffer. As a result, life seems unfair. Moreover, the fate of the children of Adam and the fate of animals is the same: both die and their bodies return to dust (3:19-20). People unjustly treat each other like beasts, and then they join beasts in the grave.
3:22 Before he returns to his discussion of the futility of the world, Solomon encourages the responsible enjoyment of the life God has granted. Thus, he says, there is nothing better than for a person to enjoy his activities because that is his reward.