After a generally pessimistic reflection on human life "under the sun", especially without God, the Teacher poetically describes the passing of time. This section may be the most quoted part of Ecclesiastes. It should not be understood as a meditation on the randomness of life. Rather, it is an encouragement for us to have a proper view of God's sovereignty over all things. God has sovereignly ordered a time for everything. Birth and death, planting and uprooting, weeping and laughing - each activity has its time in our lives as set by God. We toil and groan under the burden God has laid on us (Ro 8:22) but God has also allowed us to experience beauty (11a). We often avoid pain and struggle and seek ease and comfort. But God, in his wisdom and grace, allows us to have a full range of human experience so that we may always seek him and know him better.

Though we live out our earthly lives in finite time and space, God has also set eternity in our hearts. We long for eternity even though we cannot really understand what our eternal God has done. God alone gives us satisfaction in our work. His will endures forever. God will judge how we live (15). May we have a healthy fear of our sovereign God.


Application: Father, thank you for being eternal and sovereign over everything that happens. Please grow our faith in every season of life and to live with an eternal perspective.
One Word: God is sovereign in every season