ECCLESIASTES 3.9-15

9 What profit has the worker from that in which he labors?

10 I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied [humbled, disciplined].

11 He has made everything beautiful [appropriate] in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, yet no one can find out [fathom] the work that God does from beginning to end.

12 I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives,

13 And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor--it is the gift of God.

14 I know that whatever God does, It shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, And nothing taken from it. God does it that men should fear before Him.

15 That which is has already been, And what is to be has already been; And God will call back what is past.

Stressing again that nothing we can achieve or possess in this life can bring any ultimate profit, Solomon returns, in a creatively converse insight, to the key fact that despite the seeming futility of our own efforts, God is actually working out a great purpose in us – the work that God does.

That work, says Solomon, involves occupying men with God-given tasks, experiential learning activities designed to instill discipline and develop humility. Here, then, is the “hidden curriculum” of God, the fundamental educational concepts implicit in every human activity and occupation.

Possibly also referring to that work, Paul reassures Christians, Quote: “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).

As he set out on his quest in Part 2, Solomon said, Quote: “I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven; this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised [humbled, disciplined]”(2:13) – words virtually identical to those repeated here, except that now the tense changes and he now says: “I have seen!”.

The best thing a man can do, Solomon seems to be saying, is to cooperate with the work God does – by doing good and also eating and drinking and enjoying the amazing gifts he has given to us in the form of the basic pleasures of life, but also by being receptive to the lessons the world, our audio-visual environment, has been designed to teach us, to grow more knowledgeable and strong spiritually, just as a child grows up physically.

Pleasures are the gift of God, and Paul seems to be citing much of this section when he tells Timothy, Quote: “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to dogood, to be rich in good deeds” (1 Timothy 6:17-18).

God has created everything to be beautiful , says Solomon -- or appropriate, which implies being ideally suited to its purpose. Even microbes and poisonous and grotesque creatures are appropriate to their intended purpose -- and although we may not see beauty in them, their complexity is awesome, to the extent that even ardent evolutionists are forced to wonder at their design and to increasingly admit that Darwin’s infantile ideas simply cannot possibly account for their existence.

It is interesting that the late Edward Matchett, leading creative consultant and student of genius, stressed the need for Appropriate Design – which did not mean bigger, stronger, faster, or impressively complex, but ideal for its intended purpose and fully satisfying the specific needs of the situation and the user.

God has created all things, says Solomon, every amazing animal, plant and physical thing so that men should fear before him – and Paul expresses the same sentiment when he says of atheistic mankind, Quote: “What can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse” (Romans 1:19-20).

Solomon then says that God has put eternity in men’s hearts (verse 11) – probably signifying the intellectual ability to grasp the concept of time, to be able to analyze what has already happened, to understand how cause leads on to effect, and so imagine and predict future outcomes of present actions, thereby imparting the ability to plan our lives and shape our environment.

Even so, says Solomon, despite this massive intellectual power, “no one can find out [fathom ] the work that God does from beginning to end”. In other words, God’s purpose for man was a mystery, denied even to Solomon, the wisest person who ever lived.

However, the apostle Paul tells us in his letter to the Christian Church at Ephesus that details of that unfathomable mystery have now been revealed, saying, Quote: “By revelation there was made known to me the mystery, even as I wrote above in brief . . . the mystery of Christ which was not made know to men in other generations as now it has been revealed to His holy apostles” ( Ephesians 3:3-5).

Paul also refers to that mystery earlier in the same letter, when he says: “Having made known to us His hidden purpose . . . when the times will have reached their fulfillment, to bring back again to their original state all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on earth, in Him, in who also we were made an inheritance” (Ephesians 1:9-10).

God, it appears, is carrying out some kind of plan of restoration, to bring back creation to its original state -- and we can have a part, an inheritance, in that it glorious future.

Might it be that God revealed this mystery to Paul through his reading of this very section of Ecclesiastes – in particular the verse where Solomon says, Quote: “That which is has already been, And what is to be has already been; And God will call back what is past”(verse 15)?

Although Solomon was not allowed to fully fathom the mystery of God’s purpose, it was made clear to him as a result of his personal experiences that men should not spend their lives toiling, striving and competing for personal gain but in rejoicing and doing good (verse 12) – living in a harmonious and helpful way one with another, and making sure that every man enjoys a fair share of the wealth created from the natural resources of the Earth.

Again, perhaps it is no accident that Paul, having discussed the mystery of God’s purpose for man, then urges Christians to live lives worthy of their fabulous calling, saying, Quote: “We are His handiwork, created in Christ Jesus with a view to good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

Perhaps Paul also echoes the words of Solomon from this same verse when he urges Christians in another place, Quote: “Rejoice in the Lord always, and I will say it again – Rejoice!” (Phillipians 4:4).