LIFE WITH GOD

If I had written the Book of Ecclesiastes, I would have stopped at the end of chapter 2. It would have been a very, very short book. It would have been like 2 John, Jude, or Philemon.

Solomon has written a wonderful conclusion—for any person to find ultimate meaning in life, he has to go outside of himself to God. Sounds like a great way to end a book to me. Let's close with a rousing hymn and go home.

But there are another ten chapters to the Book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon kept writing because he knew we would have a problem with God. In some ways, we'll have as much of a problem with God as we had without Him. That's something I love about the Book of Ecclesiastes: Solomon is brutally honest.

If we want to deal with the world as it really is, we are going to have problems with God. When bad things occur, what are your solutions? Do accidents really happen to people? Is Satan the cause of every bad thing in the world? How would you answer these questions?

Solomon shows that no matter how you slice it, the sovereignty of God lies behind everything that happens. The existence of evil is one of the great philosophical problems of all time: How did evil come into existence from an all-holy God?

In many ways Satan is sometimes easier to understand than God. Satan in a sense is very simplistic. He is a being of pure evil. That means his reasons for doing everything he does are easily understood.

God, however, is a problem. It's often difficult to interpret His actions in the short-term. If He's good and all-powerful, why is there so much suffering in the world?

It's this problem with God that Solomon tackles in Ecclesiastes 3.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 ESV

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

Solomon says that however we try to resolve the fact that evil exists and God is good, we can't do it by saying that God is not in control. In this section Solomon clearly states that God has a plan and does not waver from it. He is the one who has made the appointed time for everything.

God is sovereign over everything. He is not always pleased, but He is never perplexed. No evil action skirts His plan. No piece of the puzzle is left over at the end. Either God is sovereign or He is not. Solomon goes on to reiterate and explain his point.

EVERY EVENT IS PART OF GOD’S PLAN

Ecclesiastes 3:2–8 ESV

a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

Solomon says it doesn't matter if you're a man or a dandelion, there is a purpose for your birth, your death, and everything in between. God has appointed a time for everything that happens.

A day will come in God's sovereign plan when you will receive a phone call telling you that your parents are dead. Your time will be to weep. But it won't last forever because there will be a time when you will get a big promotion or finally move into your dream home, and then you will laugh.

Solomon says life is going to be like this and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. You'll have children and you will laugh. Then one day you'll cry because of those children. That's the way it is. There are times of happiness and times of pain. If you don't die from something unexpected, there will be a day when you will weep over some diagnosis. All of these things are ordained. We cannot know what life will bring.

There is a time that you destroy something by throwing stones, but there's also a time that you gather stones to build something. There will be a time for you to embrace, but there will also be times when you don't want anyone around.

There will come a time that you will be full of hope and will want to search. There will also be a time when you will be hopeless and want to give up. The things you own will be useful for a while, and you will want to keep them. But one day you will take your stuff to Goodwill; it's time to throw it away.

There will be a time for agony. You will hurt so bad, you will want to tear your clothes. And then there will be a time to sew up the tears because the pain is gone. There will be times when you will want to keep your mouth shut and times when you just have to tell somebody something.

There'll be a time for love. There will also be a time of rejection. That's a fact. All of these things are appointed.

Solomon says that God is not your genie. God does not cooperate with us the way we think He should. He doesn't behave. As was said of Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia, “He is not a tame lion.” And when we realize this, it leads us to a very human response.

Ecclesiastes 3:9 ESV

What gain has the worker from his toil?

We say to ourselves, “Why should I work so hard when it's all going to be destroyed? Why get married when you just end up fighting and hurting one another? Why have a child and deal with the stress and disappointment? Why should I go on living when I know at some point I'm going to get the twenty-four-hour stomach flu?”

Don't you just love waking up disoriented at 3 A.M. and being sick for about forty-five minutes straight? Guess what? Your lucky bout with it is coming! Solomon is playing the devil's advocate here. He is saying what all of us think and sometimes wish we could say. What profit is there? Everything gets undone and it's all been ordained anyway. It is easy to get cynical.

Do you ever feel like that? What's the use? Why not punt? Solomon put this into perspective.

Ecclesiastes 3:10–11 ESV

I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 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.

In the first two chapters of Ecclesiastes, Solomon tells us that there is no hope unless we turn to God. Now we have a bigger problem because we have turned to God. We find out that He has given us this life of vanity and toil. He has appointed everything that happens in our lives.

How do you live in a world that is out of your control? How do you live with a God who doesn't always make sense? Again, the Hebrew translation of “sons of men” in verse 10 reminds us of the fallen state of man. It's just hard to be a fallen man in a fallen world.

From verse 11 to the end of chapter 3, Solomon give us a solid place to stand when life begins to shake. It ballast for our ship of faith so that we won’t sink when the hurricane’s of life strike.

God's plan is wise.

God is wise, and even bad things have a purpose. He makes everything appropriate or beautiful in its time.

When an appointed thing occurs, it may not seem that it has any purpose whatsoever, but God sees it from a totally different perspective.

Piano’s have black and white keys. They are meant to be played together because neither sound as good alone as they do together. Life is just like a song played on the piano. It is a caricature without the black keys. It's not heroic without sin, evil, and pain. You don't know or appreciate the heroism, love, and patience of God until evil enters the world.

In The Truman Show with Jim Carey, Ed Harris's character has contrived this world for Truman where there is no evil and nothing bad can happen to him. There is also no heroism, no real friendship, no real love, no virtue, and certainly nothing worth living for. Ultimately, Truman refuses to live in this “perfect” world any longer. That's what life would be like if you didn't have black keys.

The parts of our lives that don't feel right at the time are woven together by God to form a beautiful tapestry. God's plan is wise—it's just that He doesn't ask you and me for our opinions. There is no suggestion box in the tabernacle. We have to trust Him.

Solomon shows us that not only is God's plan wise, but it is also mysterious.

God is mysterious.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV

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.

Solomon says in verse 11 that God has one plan from beginning to the end. He doesn't react to the devil's activities as though a cosmic tennis match is being played.

It's not as though God created man, then Satan tempted him. Then God decided to kick man out of the garden. So Satan caused Him to corrupt civilization. Then God countered with a flood … and so on.

No, God has a plan like a Beethoven sonata, beautifully intermingling white keys and black keys. The white keys by themselves are boring. The black keys by themselves are troublesome. When you put them together, they're lovely.

Still, there is mystery. God put eternity in the heart of every person, and in every person is the question why. All through the Bible we see men of God ask why bad things are happening.

Habakkuk says,

Habakkuk 1:14 ESV

You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler.

Why hast Thou made men like the fish of the sea, Like creeping things without a ruler over them? (1:14)

He is asking God, “Where are You?”

Jeremiah says to God,

Jeremiah 15:18 ESV

Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail?

Jeremiah is saying to God, “You promised, and it sure seems like You are not there.”

Have you ever wondered where God was or whether He cared? Why do we ask those questions? Because He has set eternity in our hearts. We intrinsically know that there has to be some order and purpose to life.

So even though we can recognize God's work or purpose in some things, we squint our eyes and try to figure out all the things we can't see. We ask questions like, “Why was I born this way? Why did my father treat me that way? Why did You take my friend? Why am I missing out on this blessing?” We squint but we can't see. He's put eternity in our hearts but won't give us all the answers.

It's troublesome. We want to see the future outcome of problems and say, “So that's why You let this happen to me.” But God says, “I'm sorry, I'm not going to show you.” He does things in our lives that are not pleasing or pleasurable, but they are wise. Solomon says we have to trust Him.

God is wise but He is also mysterious. In verse 12

Ecclesiastes 3:12 ESV

I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live;

Do not let what you cannot know destroy what we can enjoy.

Solomon wants to tell us that even when we don't understand everything God is doing, we cannot let what we cannot know destroy what we can enjoy. You can't be God and control circumstances. There's nothing you can do about that. So don't let it negate your present enjoyment of life.

Every week I counsel Christians who are upset because they are not God. I see the torment they experience because they can't deal with their helplessness and confusion. But the truth is that they've never been able to understand everything that was occurring, good or bad. So what should we do?

Solomon tells us not to get cynical and unhappy; instead,we should do good in our lifetime. In this short life you have to trust God and do good. And in verse 13, Solomon says life does not have to be meaningless.

Ecclesiastes 3:13 ESV

also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.

Everyone is going to die. As you read this book, the clock is ticking. The twenty-four-hour virus is waiting on you. There are germs on your teeth that will cause cavities. One day you'll have to have a root canal. All of those things are bad and they are coming.

So today, while everything's OK, go get a double dip of Rocky Road ice cream (or whatever flavor you favor) in a waffle cone. Take some friends with you, lick your ice cream slowly, and just enjoy being together. Call an old friend you haven't spoken to in six months and get caught up. Rent a movie you've wanted to see and curl up on the sofa with some hot popcorn.

Jesus put it like this: “Do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself” (Matt. 6:34). Enjoy today—trust God and have fun. We all know that you'll eventually have that virus, and that root canal is so certain that it may as well already be scheduled, and one night you'll receive a phone call telling you your father has passed on. So today you need to go get your two dips of Rocky Road.

I don't know what my life holds. Some day, a doctor may look up from his chart and tell me he found something that shouldn't be in me. I'll get cut, burned, and poisoned with a cancer treatment and I'll be pretty miserable. But today I'm doing OK.

I know the day is coming when they'll find something in me, or some car will cross the yellow line and hit me head-on, or this body will just wear out. But I refuse to let what I can't control destroy what I can enjoy.

Solomon’s final ballast for our boat is

Rest in the sovereignty of God

Ecclesiastes 3:14 ESV

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.

God's sovereignty is not meant to trouble us; it is meant to comfort us. Whenever anything horrible happens, there is only one thing I have to know: God is in control. His plan is unchangeably perfect.

I don’t need to know why God allowed it to happen I just need to know it did not happen without Him knowing. I have to know He is in charge because I know His plan is good.

I have no problem with God allowing things that do not fit in my framework because I know I am a fool. But I will not live in a universe that is run by evil. If God is that weak, then I will crawl into bed and pull the covers up and never come out.

Solomon tells us in verse 14 that everything God does will remain forever. He is not shortsighted and wondering how it will all work out.

He also says there is nothing to take away from what God has done. There is no red ink on God's decree. You don't add to it and you don't take away from it: it's perfect. And the goal is that men would fear Him. God is not trying to produce cynicism, but reverent fear. He wants to create trust in us. Mystery shouldn't repel us; it should make us bow.

Ecclesiastes 3:15 ESV

That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.

Everything that is happening now has been decreed in the past. Everything in the future will happen according to plan. And God seeks or fulfills what is lost from a human point of view. In other words, in God's wise arrangement of events, He can call back (seek) the past and connect it with the future.

It's like when you work on a jigsaw puzzle and have one piece that just stumps you. So you set it aside and work on the rest of the puzzle. At some point you find a perfect place for your piece and you seek what has passed by.

God is perfect. Even though there are events in your life that don't make sense right now, when it's all said and done, God will seek what has passed by. He will insert that piece of the puzzle that finishes the whole picture. Painful and bad things happened in my life, but later on, God sought what passed by. Then I said, “Aha!”

In The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom gives a wonderful example of this truth. She and her sister Betsy were being held in a concentration camp. Betsy said that they still had to trust God and thank Him for everything.

We're talking hard-core Christianity. Everything about the camp was awful—being in the middle of a war, being separated from family, and watching other prisoners die. But day in and day out, the things that Corrie hated above everything else were the lice that bit her in bed. It was miserable. She couldn't get away from them. It was impossible to get a good night's sleep.

One time when Corrie and Betsy were thanking God for everything, Betsy interrupted Corrie at the end of her prayer and said, “And the bedbugs, Corrie—thank God for those lice.” Corrie thought her sister was crazy, but she thanked God for bedbugs by faith.

After they had been at the camp a few days, they started a Bible study in their barracks—an unauthorized activity that would've provoked the guards. But the guards never came into their barracks to break up the study or order them to quit. They always wondered why.

Later Corrie learned it was because the guards were afraid of catching the lice. It turned out that the shield of God around Corrie and Betsy Ten Boom was a bedbug. Do you see how God seeks what passes by? Only God could use a bedbug!

How can you have a solid faith in a shaky world? How can you keep your ship of faith from sinking in life’s storms? Remember, God is wise; God is mysterious; don’t let what you cannot know destroy what you can enjoy; and rest in the sovereignty of God.

Another thought also helps me deal with the evil I can't explain. The greatest act of “injustice” that has ever happened took place about two thousand years ago. The only perfect person who ever lived, the divine man, was rejected, betrayed, denied, tortured, put on a cross, and killed. He, of all people, didn't deserve any of it.

Jesus was the one person who did everything God required of Him. He did not fail or err in a single point. And what did He get for all His obedience and righteousness? He got tortured and nailed to a cross to suffocate to death. What good could possibly come out of an evil like that?

Yet God turned the most evil thing that has ever happened into the best thing that has ever happened. Today we can celebrate Jesus's suffering and death because He triumphed over sin and rose from the grave. For three days, it didn't make sense. On the third day, everything became clear. Jesus had been

Acts 2:23 ESV

this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

No matter what you are going through right now, you have not faced anything like Calvary. The purpose of that evil experience was so you and I could be secure in heaven. Now if God can do that, can't He take your situations and use them for His good? Will He explain it all to you? He will not.

God doesn't promise that there will be a “third day” when we will understand all the bad things that have happened in our lives. But He does give us the promises we need to place all our trust in Him.

He requires one thing of you in the face of this uncertainty: Don't let what you can't control destroy what you can enjoy.