20Apr
On 3-18-20, I opined that “there is no secret path to universal peace.” By that, I was suggesting that no formula, recipe, or incantation will guarantee constant enjoyment. However, there are patterns of chosen attitude, behavior, and actions that will stack the deck in support of our happiness. Solomon goes to great effort throughout Ecclesiastes to make sure we understand that life “under the sun” will not always be pleasant, but can still be enjoyed.
Let’s think about Solomon’s analogies at this point. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “He [God] has made everything beautiful “in its time.” Thinking through his examples, half of them are beautiful: birth, harvest, healing, building, laughing, dancing, gathering, embracing, searching, keeping, mending, speaking (communication), loving, and peace. Here we have fourteen “times” when things are beautiful. That is easy to see.
On the other side of the coin, being beautiful in its “time” is not clear: death, planting (no assurance of harvest), killing, tearing down, weeping, mourning, scattering, refraining from embracing, giving up, throwing away, tearing, silence, hate, and war. How are these things “beautiful in their time?” What is beautiful about death, mourning, giving up, hatred, and war?
Solomon lived in “an ivory tower,” in a manner of speaking. But, he was not oblivious to the burden and discouragement of one-half of the “times” he described as being beautiful. Acknowledging that fact, he quips, “no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (3:11 NIV) Immediately after his list of “times,” he asks the question, “What do workers gain from their toil?” He then implies a negative answer with, “I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race.” (3:9-10 NIV)
With his real-life assessment of burdens, with his acknowledgment of our lack of knowledge, “no one can fathom,” he still asserts, “That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil – this is the gift of God.” (3:13 NIV) How do we reconcile the good “times” with the bad? We discover the answer as we sharpen (hone) our discernment. God willing, more tomorrow.
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