The Sovereignty of God – Ecclesiastes 6

© June 14th, 2020 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: Ecclesiastes

Our community has had its fair share of heartache. We have seen tragic deaths, children who died, adults who died and left behind young families, and older people who died before they really got to enjoy their retirement years. There are lots of things in life that seem senseless to us—lots of things that seem so random and evil. If we look at life from merely a human perspective, these things cause us to despair. Many people conclude that life is completely meaningless, and the seemingly random tragedies that are a part of life are utterly pointless.

That’s essentially the same perspective Solomon takes in our passage this morning. The first half of this passage is focused on the tragedies of life. Solomon recounts some of the things that, in his view, make life meaningless. In the concluding verses of chapter 6, however, we gain some insights that help us see the bigger picture, and to trust that even when things seem pointless to us, they are not.

Tragedy 1: Not Enjoying Your Wealth

Solomon begins by telling us the first tragedy of life he sees—namely not being able to enjoy the wealth God has given you.

There is another serious tragedy I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily on humanity. 2 God gives some people great wealth and honor and everything they could ever want, but then he doesn’t give them the chance to enjoy these things. They die, and someone else, even a stranger, ends up enjoying their wealth! This is meaningless—a sickening tragedy. (Ecclesiastes 6:1-2, NLT)

Solomon sees a great tragedy in the fact that some people are given great wealth and honor, and the ability to indulge their every desire, but then they don’t get the chance to enjoy these things. Why might someone not be able to enjoy the blessings of wealth and honor? The most obvious reason would be because they die. You can picture this. Someone works hard for many years to provide for their family and to amass wealth for themselves. They forgo many of the simple pleasures of life in order to build greater wealth for themselves. They reason it will be worth it, because one day they can retire, sell their business, or something along those lines, and then they will be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor. But before they get to that point, they die. And they miss out on the one thing they were living their lives to get. For the person living their life under the sun (looking only at this life), that really is a great tragedy.

But there are other reasons this could happen. An illness, a downturn in the market, a natural disaster, family issues, or any number of other things. Sometimes people miss out on the chance to enjoy the blessings God has given them because they’re too busy working to get the next thing! There are lots of reasons a person could miss out on enjoying those blessings. But does it really rise to the level of “a sickening tragedy?”

That is a question of perspective. From Solomon’s perspective (which is the worldly one), it certainly is. Because if the meaning of life is to enjoy it, to have fun, and to have your best life now, then when that doesn’t happen it is an utter tragedy. So much so that it makes a person with that perspective sick.

This reality makes me sick for a completely different reason: these people have completely the wrong view of life! The goal of life is not to accumulate the most toys, or to spend every dime you ever make. Allowing someone else to spend your hard-earned wealth is not nearly the tragedy Solomon makes it out to be. The tragedy is that people miss out on the far greater blessing of God himself. They are like the child who opens a gift, plays with the wrapping paper, and ignores the treasure inside completely. To a child with such an incorrect perspective, the greatest tragedy is when their parent takes away the wrapping paper and throws it away! The parent has thrown away the thing the child viewed as their greatest treasure!

Let me ask you, who is really the fool, the parent or the child? The child is the fool! The parent sees that the child is enamored with trash, when they could have something so much better. This is the greater tragedy and yet it is one we see played out over and over all around us. We must learn to value the things God does—because that is what ultimately satisfies, and that is what will actually last.

Tragedy 2: Discontent

The second tragedy Solomon describes is the same one he talked about last week (and several times through Ecclesiastes). It is the tragedy of discontent.

3 A man might have a hundred children and live to be very old. But if he finds no satisfaction in life and doesn’t even get a decent burial, it would have been better for him to be born dead. 4 His birth would have been meaningless, and he would have ended in darkness. He wouldn’t even have had a name, 5 and he would never have seen the sun or known of its existence. Yet he would have had more peace than in growing up to be an unhappy man. 6 He might live a thousand years twice over but still not find contentment. And since he must die like everyone else—well, what’s the use?

7 All people spend their lives scratching for food, but they never seem to have enough. 8 So are wise people really better off than fools? Do poor people gain anything by being wise and knowing how to act in front of others? 9 Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don’t have. Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless—like chasing the wind. (Ecclesiastes 6:3-9, NLT)

Solomon says many people spend their lives searching for something that will satisfy, but never find the satisfaction they desperately long for. He says a person can have a long life and many children (which would be some of the greatest blessings a person could have in ancient Hebrew culture), and still find himself dissatisfied with his life.

What is Solomon’s conclusion? For such a person, it would have been better off for them to be stillborn, because at least then they would have been spared many of the hardships of this life.

There is some merit to this logic. As sad and tragic as a stillborn or miscarried child is, there is still a reality that this child was spared many of the painful experiences of this life. They never had to deal with getting sick, they were never ridiculed by their friends, they never had to feel the sting of rejection, and many other things. Their lives, though short, were not meaningless. But they were free of the pain endemic to much of the human experience. For many who have experienced this kind of loss, this truth offers some comfort in the midst of their pain.

With that said, Solomon’s statement is extreme. While we are comforted in knowing that children who die before birth are spared much of the pain of this life, our preference is still for them to live and experience all of this life, both good and bad. So why does Solomon claim it would be better to not be born than to live a life of discontent?

The answer, I believe is that once again Solomon is looking at this question from the perspective of being “under the sun”. In his view, if you can’t enjoy life, then what’s the point? But that assumes the primary purpose of life is to enjoy yourself. And that isn’t accurate. The struggles we face are not pointless (as we’ll discover in the next section), but rather are accomplishing God’s good purposes.

Solomon’s statement reminds me of the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life. Throughout his life, the main character, George Bailey experiences hard time after hard time. He experiences so many hard times that he concludes it would have been better if he had never been born. When an angel gives him a glimpse of what the world would be like if he had never been born, he sees how wrong he was. George Bailey ends up returning home with great joy. His problems hadn’t changed, but his perspective had. Instead of focusing on what he didn’t have, and on the hardships of life, he instead chose to focus on the blessings he had instead.

I believe this is Solomon’s point. The second great tragedy of life is not that God doesn’t give us enough to enjoy. It is not that we face hardship. The tragedy is that we choose to focus on what we don’t have, rather than on the blessings God has given to each of us. We are constantly looking for something better, we are comparing ourselves to other people and envying what they have (while ignoring the struggles they face), and constantly churning rather than choosing to be content in what God has given to us.

Solomon offers a simple (but not easy) solution: Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don’t have. He points out that death comes to every person. It is the great equalizer. The cynical way is to look at that and say that life’s hard and then you die, so what’s the point? The biblical way is to recognize that even in the midst of hard times, we can still see God’s hand and God’s blessings in our life. And that’s where we should place our focus.

God’s Sovereignty

The concluding verses of chapter 6 are incredibly deep and rich. They hurt our minds a bit, but if we can begin to understand these truths, they are transformative to our lives.

10 Everything has already been decided. It was known long ago what each person would be. So there’s no use arguing with God about your destiny. 11 The more words you speak, the less they mean. So what good are they? 12 In the few days of our meaningless lives, who knows how our days can best be spent? Our lives are like a shadow. Who can tell what will happen on this earth after we are gone? (Ecclesiastes 6:10-12, NLT)

In these closing verses Solomon touches on a concept known as the sovereignty of God. The basic idea is this: nothing that happens is outside God’s control. Everything that happens in this life is being superintended by God to accomplish His good purposes. On the surface, this seems like a simple concept, until we start looking at the difficulties of life.

When we do that, we start asking hard questions, like why would God allow children to die? Why would God allow war? Why would God allow any number of terrible injustices in our world? These are questions I cannot give answers to. But just because I cannot give an answer to them does not mean that an answer does not exist. Just because I don’t know why God chooses to allow certain injustices to happen and how He could possibly use those things for good doesn’t mean He’s not using them for good. I may not know the reasons, but that is simply due to my ignorance. But my lack of understanding doesn’t cause a crisis for me because I believe God is smarter than me, and He has a plan, even when I don’t understand it. I can rest in the face of hardships because I can trust in Him.

Many people have chosen to turn their backs on God because they blame Him for all the bad things that happen in their lives (while simultaneously not giving Him credit for the good things.) They say if this is what the God of the Bible is all about, then I want nothing to do with Him. There are two problems with this statement. The first is that choosing to disbelieve in God does not mean God does not exist. It’s like the small child who sees something that scares them, so they respond by closing their eyes. That scary thing hasn’t gone away, they just choose not to see it anymore. If that scary thing is something dangerous (like a car speeding toward you), closing your eyes simply puts you in more danger. It doesn’t help the situation. So, to disbelieve in God because you don’t like how He acts is foolish. It is choosing to close your eyes so you can pretend that what you don’t like and don’t understand is no longer there. But one day you will discover how foolish this is.

The second problem with turning our backs on God because of the hardships of life is that it shows and incredible arrogance on our part. It relies on a very simple assumption: we know better than God does. When difficult times come, when there are seeming injustices in our lives, when things happen that we don’t understand, we are faced with a choice—do we trust God or do we trust our own thoughts and understanding? Do we, like Solomon, conclude that these things are senseless and pointless, or do we believe that God is doing something we just don’t understand? How we answer this question has a profound effect on the way we live our lives.

Solomon says that since the events of life are already determined by God, there’s no use arguing with Him about our destiny. We must be careful as we read these words that we don’t drift into a philosophical belief called fatalism. Fatalism says that everything is basically running according to a program, and we do not really have the ability to make any choices. Everything is pre-determined, it does not matter what we do or not, because nothing we do can change anything. I don’t believe that is a biblical way to view this concept. God’s sovereignty is not the same thing as fatalism.

God tells us throughout scripture that our choices do matter. He tells us that what we do has a profound impact on the outcomes of things. But He also promises that He is superintending everything in the process to ensure His purposes are accomplished. God gives us some freedom to make real choices, but He is ultimately leading us to where He intends us to go. If we understand this, then it should enable us to face anything in life with joy, because we don’t have to worry anymore. Why? Because of the promise the Apostle Paul gives us in Romans 8:28,

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. (NLT)

This tells us that the believer in Christ can have confidence that no matter what we are facing in this life, God is ultimately using it to accomplish His good purposes. That is not a promise that everything will be easy. It is not even a promise that everything will be good. Rather, it is a promise that everything we face in this life has a point and a purpose. Our life is not meaningless. God is weaving all the blessings and trials together to ultimately accomplish something good and wonderful.

Does this mean we shouldn’t be sad about injustice or hardships? Not at all. That’s not how things are supposed to be. Because of sin, the world is full of pain and injustice. But the story is not over yet. God is working to reverse the curse of sin, both in our lives and in our world. The greatest injustice ever carried out was for Jesus Christ to be crucified, even though he had done nothing wrong. Jesus was punished even though He didn’t deserve it. But that greatest injustice was used by God to also accomplish the greatest good history has ever seen. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, God made it possible for everyone who trusts in Jesus to be set free from the curse of sin, and to have a restored relationship with Him. Jesus’ disciples learned about God’s sovereignty up close and personal. The day of Jesus’ crucifixion, the day of the greatest tragedy ever, is the day we now call Good Friday! Jesus’ disciples could not possibly see how any good could ever come from the death of Jesus. But just a few days later, they began to understand. And as time went on, they saw how God was using something that was very bad to accomplish something so good they could never have imagined it.

This is the point of Solomon’s statement. We shouldn’t argue with God because we don’t have the knowledge He does. We don’t know what will happen next. We don’t know how God will use the things we experience to accomplish good. But we do know that He has promised that He is ultimately working all things for good.

If we get this, if we believe this, it changes how we view everything we experience in life. Instead of looking at the hard times and worrying about it, instead of arguing with God about whether He knows what He’s doing, we can rest confidently in the fact that even the painful things of this life are ultimately being used to accomplish His good purposes.

When I hurt my thumb a couple weeks ago, I went to the emergency room and they inflicted a fair amount of pain. I had to have a tetanus shot, and they stuck needles deep into my wound. It was not pleasant. But I was ok with it, because I knew it was necessary to help me heal properly. I trusted the doctor, so I was willing to endure a painful time. If we trust God as much as we trust our doctors, we will be able to face anything in life with confidence, because we know it’s ultimately for good.

Conclusion

Much of the book of Ecclesiastes seems depressing. That is because Solomon looks at things from the perspective of life under the sun. He was only looking at what he could understand. The unfortunate truth is that our understanding is far more limited than we’d like to imagine. In our minds we are smart people, and we know the best way to live our lives. We think we know what is good, we know how the story should go, and we know how we would do things if we were God. So when things don’t go according to the script we have in our minds, we conclude God must not be on the throne, or he must not be real, because if he was, he would behave exactly like we would! I hope you see the arrogance and foolishness of this statement. And I hope you see how living life this way leads to the depressing conclusion that life is meaningless.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. If we will humble ourselves before God and admit that we don’t see the whole picture, that we don’t understand all that God is doing, and then from that place of humility choose to trust Him, then everything changes. We see that the hardships of life aren’t meaningless, they are just things we don’t understand. We do not conclude that there is no hope—we have confidence there is. We do not conclude that it would be better if we were never born, we can instead trust that God has placed us here for a perfect reason in accordance with His perfect plan.

This year has been one of all sorts of unanticipated challenges. There have been all sorts of tragedies, and many people are filled with angst, because it seems like the world is falling apart. But if you rest in the sovereignty of God, your perspective changes. You trust, rest, and walk in peace, knowing no matter where things turn, God will use it for His good purposes.

© June 14th, 2020 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: Ecclesiastes