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Exchanged Glory IV: A Time for Every Purpose
<page 142>He doesn’t intend to change the basic nature of the world at this time (He won’t remove the curse), but He is doing an eternal work while it rages all around us. Our hope of significance is to join with Him in that.
There was no profit under the sun.
You can’t take it with you, and what you leave behind will most likely get trashed or misused by someone after you. That’s why Solomon concluded that there was no profit under the sun. “No matter what you do, sin and death will mess it up in some way!”
Nothing on this planet can truly be controlled by us. This is especially true of our past. We didn’t pick our families, our towns, our countries, or even whether we would be born on this planet. We have been affected in ways that are humanly impossible to reverse, and we have little choice but to make our way through the resulting burdens or blessings. If we run from them, we cannot escape.
In the present, we can only influence; we can never truly control. This is true not only of whatever material gain may come our way, but also any earthly profit we might hope to grasp from seemingly more noble gifts like spirituality, wisdom, success, and righteousness. As soon as we try to control them, they end up controlling us. Spirituality devolves into human religion, wisdom into manipulation, success into misguided ambition, and righteousness into self-striving. The hebel of life rises within us and destroys any gain we try to make our own.
God’s gifts are not intended to be controlled by us; they are meant to be received in a moment by moment relationship with Him in which He enables us to enjoy them.
A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?
(Ecclesiastes 2:24-25, NIV)
When we try to make God’s gifts something that we can dispense for our purposes, they change within our fingers. We become crusaders or crashers, grasping for satisfaction, but it disappears from our clenched fists.
Does this mean we should not plan and work hard for the future? Solomon makes it clear we should:
In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not withhold your hand; for you do not know which will prosper, either this or that, or whether both alike will be good.
<page 143> We sow and apply our hand, but we must remember that God decides what will prosper and what will not. Our preparation for the future is wise, but it will not allow us to control life. It must be combined with the wisdom that strips us of our pride and leaves us dependant on the One who controls all things:
And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, "Today — at the latest, tomorrow — we're off to such and such a city for the year. We're going to start a business and make a lot of money." You don't know the first thing about tomorrow. You're nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing. Instead, make it a habit to say, "If the Master wills it and we're still alive, we'll do this or that."
As soon as we turn from faith in God’s daily grace and try to become masters of our own fate, we become workers trying to earn a profit under the sun rather than children receiving gifts. We place ourselves back under the hold of the curse of sin and death.
Grace can’t be put under our control, forced from God, or twisted into a form other than the one in which He chooses to give it. It can only be received. There is a time and a way for every purpose under heaven. Our job is to humbly embrace what God is giving each day, and the end result of that will be satisfaction and enjoyment.
In the past three chapters, we have looked at three reasons why Solomon fell into despair as he learned this lesson. The first was that he disobeyed God, the second was that he neglected what he knew about rewards after death, and the third was that he didn’t walk in God’s appointments.
If Solomon stumbled so badly, what hope do we have? The answer is simple: Jesus is our hope. He has given us a New Covenant with greater grace for all three of Solomon’s problems:
With disobedience, we have been buried with Christ and raised to a new life in which we are free from sin’s power (Romans 6). By comparison, Solomon lived in a spiritual weakness.
With rewards after death, life and immortality have been brought to light by Jesus (2 Timothy 1:10). We don’t have to wonder what Sheol is like or whether there will be anything useful for us to do after we die. We know that those who overcome will rule with Him (Revelation 2:26-27). We have been promised eternal riches that make Solomon’s great wealth look like poverty.
When it comes to finding God’s appointments, what could be better than being filled with the Spirit of prophecy?
And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.
We are able to see what our Father is doing and to participate with Him in the same way that Jesus did.
<page 144>… Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.
… he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also …
Compared to what we have today, Solomon was only guessing. The New Covenant we have in Christ gives us a reality that dwarfs his great wisdom and influence. Our Comforter, Guide, and Teacher – the Holy Spirit, God Himself – lives in us!
I have seen the travail that God hath given to the sons of man to be humbled by it.
(Ecclesiastes 3:10, Young’s Literal Translation)
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
The above two verses are a bit disturbing, because they could be interpreted to say that God has humbled us by putting a desire in our hearts to understand His eternal plan, and yet He has not given us the ability to satisfy that desire (no one can find out the work God does from beginning to end). Though this interpretation contains a grain of truth, it is unnecessarily pessimistic. It fails to take into account what the Scriptures teach about our ability to participate in God’s plan.
The New Testament teaches us to know and use our gifts (Romans 12:8), which implies that we are able to understand that we have a place in God’s plan and specific tasks to do in order to fill that place. Along with this, it is only if we have some sense of our eternal purpose that we can join the apostle Paul in saying at the end of our lives:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Clearly, Ecclesiastes 3:10-11 cannot mean that we are stuck being clueless about God’s eternal plan and what we should do to be a part of it. What then do these verses tell us? They tell us that we can only know our little piece of His plan, and even in that we are limited. We can see enough to know how we should live, but this is only a tiny sliver of the grand scheme of what He does from beginning to end.
Why is this humbling? Our flesh wants to know enough to be in control of our own destiny. We want to “know” that today we will not die, be forced to battle a horrible disease, or find ourselves in some other undesirable circumstance. We want to choose the path that we believe will make us fruitful and fulfilled.
<page 145> The truth is that the hebel of life is far too strong for that. The curse humbles us by confounding our best laid plans and exposing our insecurities. It sometimes leaves us feeling as if our only choices are denial or depression.
God, however, has a reality greater than the curse. By walking with Him and seeing the world from His perspective, we can find true joy. We perceive everything as beautiful in its time. We join Him in His struggle against sin and death, and that makes the effort worthwhile – even if we, for a time, seem to be confounded and beaten back. He brings us past vexation and grasping for the wind as He works all things for good.
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
God causes us to stand out in contrast to the earthly “profitlessness” around us. We join in His grand plan in which we are conformed to the image of His Son rather than sin’s design. We bring His grace and power into the earth! What could be more beautiful than that? We are able to reveal a small part of the incomprehensible goodness He predestined from the beginning of time.
Our drive for lasting significance finds its place in the moment by moment experience of God’s beauty. That is what inserts victory into the vanity. Life isn’t about satisfying our desire to acquire, even our good desire to acquire. It is about walking in the times and seasons that make up His plan for each of us, no matter how mundane, unimportant, painful, frustrating, depressing, or embarrassing they may seem to our flesh. In the process we will acquire what He gives us and truly satisfy the desire for eternity in our hearts.
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.
This verse reveals the only hope for truly overcoming any part of the curse of sin and death on this planet. God must do it. By ourselves, we can’t bring any sort of permanent blessing, but whatever He does lasts forever.
He doesn’t intend to change the basic nature of the world at this time (He won’t remove the curse), but He is doing an eternal work while it rages all around us. Our hope of significance is to join with Him in that. We can’t add anything to it or take anything away from it, but we can fear before Him, find our part in His plan, and cooperate with Him.
Solomon is a prime example of God doing something eternal. In spite of the fact that he crashed under the hebel of life, he found enough of God’s appointments to be inspired to write life changing insights that have remained: the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. He has affected the world forever! God did something through him that continues to bless us today!
If that is true of a man who turned away from God during the later part of his life, how much more can it be true of us! Our works won’t be as obviously lasting as writing books of the Bible, <page 146>but if they are done by His grace, they will last. Lives will be changed, affecting other lives for generations to come, and those who enjoy the benefits will rejoice with us in heaven without end. Nothing is more permanent than that! Though it is true that there is “no profit under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2:11), there is still profit. It is just that it is safely stored in heaven where the curse can’t touch it!
In summary, sin and death are a problem, but God has answers. He has appointments to overcome the curse – a time and way for every purpose under heaven.
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