“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.”
(Ecclesiastes 3:14 ESV)
All
things have their season (3:1-8); appointed by God, made "beautiful" and
appropriate (3:11). A person seeks to
know God’s ways, what has been and what lies beyond, yet they cannot (3:11). The author knows that God's purposes are
settled from ages past to ages future; they are set and fixed, and no person
can alter these purposes even in the minutest way. God will ensure that His decrees and
principles come to pass; as they have in the past so they will in days to come. God
has done this as a means by which humans will be driven to a sense of ‘fear’—reverence
respect and awe. Rather than life being
an endless and vain repetition, the natural cycle testifies to the God of order
Who purposed all things. People should
desire to seek Him and give Him honor and reverence.
The
author’s insight ‘beyond the sun’ continues.
He sees the fixed and set purposes of God standing as beacons of hope
rather than despair. These should cause
one not to resent God, but to revere Him.
We must seek for God in the everyday, not just in the ‘big moments’. In the passing of each day, the circling of
the years, opportunity is present to find and honor God; to ‘fear’ Him. In this way we may find meaning as creatures
of God’s fixed purposes—not accidents or products of random change.
