May 10 Daily Devotional

Scripture for Day 10—Ecclesiastes 3:9–15

⁹What gain has the worker from his toil? ¹⁰I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. ¹¹He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. ¹²I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; ¹³also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man.

¹⁴I 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. ¹⁵That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.

Devotional:

The poem of 3:1-8 leaves us exposed to the happenstances of life. Qoheleth continues to investigate the nature of God's purpose and work in the world. One of the most puzzling remarks of the book occurs at 3:11: "God has put eternity into their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end." What does "eternity" mean in this context? Eternity is a divine attribute, in other words, God has put something that makes us like God into our hearts. The second half of 3:11 may deliver a clue allowing us to be more specific in understanding the language. Seeing the work that God does from beginning to end would require a "God-eye" view of the world, one by which we grasp the notion that the bewildering maze of time and events does somehow form a coherent whole with a definite plan. "Eternity" implies a transcendent vantage point and refers to the "big picture," whereas the earlier poem (3:1-8) described the individual pieces of the puzzle. So 3:11 affirms that the human heart intuitively understands that there is purpose in all that happens, but we fall short of finding out the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end. We know the pieces of the puzzle (3:1-8) somehow fit together, and yet, we cannot produce the total picture.

3:11a goes even further by saying that God has made everything "beautiful" in its time. Each event and each season relates to the whole of history. There is purpose, and there is design in the way each event contributes to the big picture. That's the beauty of it all! This is more than just a job well done, God's plan for this world and everyone of us is beautiful. There is beauty, because although things seem so messy and confusing, they all work together in a mysterious way that only God can orchestrate to bring God's people to the bliss of the world to come. Every moment, every day, every week, and every year is a piece in the puzzle, but rest assured, God's plan is perfect and will become clear when we see him face to face.

Futility is the first act in the drama of redemption. It will be succeeded by the glory that cannot be fathomed as yet. But as light cancels out darkness, you won't even remember anymore what you have seen in this life.

Meanwhile, the text commends the enjoyment of the simple things in life (3:12). That we are to enjoy these gifts is not a cynical remark: There is the implication that, after all, God has a gracious disposition towards us in providing good things. God is not like a man who has a cage full of beasts and occasionally throws a piece of meat in there, saying, "Oh, now look at those guys going at it!" God is a cheerful giver, and we may gratefully enjoy his gifts in life as a token of even far better things to come.

This hope of better things to come precludes the possibility of disappointment, because it is grounded in Christ's death and resurrection. He has borne the curse of futility: He lived a perfect life, and yet died the death of a criminal. Most importantly, he has borne the curse of sin for us, and he has conquered death and hell. Henceforth, we eagerly wait for his return, when hope will become sight and reality. Today "our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is nearly over, the day is at hand" (Rom 13:11).

The author of these devotionals, the Rev. Martin Emmrich, is an ordained OPC minister (Westminster OPC, Corvallis, Oregon) as well as the author of Pneumatological Concepts in the Epistle to the Hebrews, a book on the teaching of Hebrews on the Holy Spirit. We are happy to make these devotionals on Ecclesiastes and other passages of Scripture available to you.