Ecclesiastes 3:14-22 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Ecclesiastes 3:14-22. In case you’re wondering, since I believe that Qohelet, known as the “Teacher” and the main speaker in Ecclesiastes, is best identified as Solomon, I will refer to him interchangeably as Qohelet or Solomon.
Ecclesiastes 3:14-15 (NIV)
14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.
15 Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account.
On verses 14-15: These two verses carry with them the same kind of peace, profundity and depth that verses 1 to 13 carry. In particular verse 14 speaks of the sovereignty of God, how whatever God does endures and you can’t change it. Verse 15 speaks of how from God’s perspective, since God stands outside of time and space, to God everything is already done.
The last part of verse 15 – “God will call the past to account” – is the toughest to understand. Does it mean, as some scholars suggest, that God tends to repeat the past, or that God looks to make right what has happened is in the past, or something else? It’s not entirely clear, though right now I tend to favour the second option.
Ecclesiastes 3:16-22 (NIV)
16 And I saw something else under the sun: In the place of judgment–wickedness was there, in the place of justice–wickedness was there.
17 I thought in my heart, “God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed.”
18 I also thought, “As for men, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals.
19 Man’s fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless.
20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.
21 Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”
22 So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?
On verses 16-22: In verses 16-22 Solomon seems to shift back to his doubting, disillusioned tone from chapters 1-2. The shift happens at the very moment Solomon starts focusing again on what he has seen, observed and thought. Based on his own observations and thoughts, he questions whether the spirit of humans goes to heaven while the spirit of animals does not. Perhaps the lesson for us here is that when we rely only on our own observations without any of God’s revelation, the result is despair, hopelessness and more questions than answers. God made us not to rely on our powers of observation alone, but even more on the power of God’s revelation in our lives. May you use your powers of observation and God’s power of revelation to help you see the world as God would have you see it.
Father, thank You both for the power of observation and the power of revelation. I pray that I would use my abilities to observe together with Your ability to reveal so that in Your Word and in Your world, I would see as You want me to see. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
Copyright © 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.
