Ecclesiastes 3:12-22 – a verse by verse devotional commentary

Main Reading: Ecclesiastes 3:12-22

Discussion Question: Share a time when you experienced something that was unfair.

Last time, we looked at one of the most memorable sections of Ecclesiastes. Chapter 3 is the section people on the street have probably heard before. I did some research and found that it was actually referenced in the ’80s movie, Footloose. It’s a story about a really strict town where there’s a law preventing people from dancing. Watch these two of clips, one from the beginning of the movie and one from the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20jbY6awlTw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMjMNv_yIMc

The first preacher is about the saddest representation of Christianity in a movie that I’ve ever seen. The second one is technically an example of taking verses out of context…but whatever. But they did get something right. There is a time to dance. And God is testing us. Let’s talk about it.

v. 12-13 — “I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man.”

Since the cosmic calendar has scheduled seasons for everything under the Sun, and since none of us can do anything to stop them or start a new one, all we can do is to submit to God, make use of the gifts He’s given to us [food & drink], and try our best to do good to others around us.

Now, while this is true, we also can’t deny that—from an earthly perspective…none of these things will last. Our neighbors need us to do good and be good for them. But any positive impact we make will only seem to last but so long…As far as we can tell, the things we do will fade away. But that is not so with God…

v. 14 — “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.”

Even though Solomon was frustrated with life on earth, he could still stop, look around, & see the hand of God. And, in fact, God designed His Creation so that we could observe the order and beauty of things and understand that He exists. "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork" (Psalm 19:1). "For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse" (Romans 1:20).

It’s like when you’re driving at night and you see headlights driving toward you in the opposite lane. You can’t see the driver in the dark, but when you see a car coming down the road, you can know there is a driver. But God didn’t leave it at that…not only has He revealed Himself in the Heavens & the Earth…God has also spoken to us in Scripture, which can not be added to or taken from. "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book" (Revelation 22:18-19).

v. 15 — “That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.”

Here, we have more of that language about cycles. There’s nothing new under the Sun. The past has already happened. And what’s going to happen in the future will take place—and whatever happens then will probably look like something that has already happened before.

And then, Solomon says, “God seeks what has been driven away.” You can hear this as God reaches back in time to pull things out of the past and put them back in the cycle of future events [a literal translation of the Hebrew suggests that]. Or you could hear this as, in the midst of all the seasons, God looks after those who experience the worst of it.

v. 16-17 — “Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work.”

The patterns of this planet keep unfolding…and arguably the most frustrating pattern in life is this: Evil exists in places it shouldn’t—and it feels like justice is rarely served. Jeremiah says: “The wicked prosper and the treacherous thrive” (Jeremiah 12:1).

But it gets worse than that…because the very places that are supposed to be good—supposed to be righteous—have become evil too! “Justice has been perverted” (Habakkuk 1:4). You can relate to this, can’t you? I mean how many stories of people being wrongfully arrested, convicted, or imprisoned could we find if we did a quick Google search?

And just consider this for a moment…when Solomon wants to show us that this world is evil, Where does he take us? He doesn’t show us around a bad neighborhood…he doesn’t take us to the prisons and say: “look at all the sin and evil!”—he doesn’t go to any of the places we often associate with crime, sin, or injustice…He takes us to court! The place where justice is supposed to prevail is where Solomon proves to us that the world is filled with evil!

That being said, Solomon comforts himself by saying that God, in due time, will judge the wicked.

v. 18-19 — “I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?”

Along the way, Solomon discovered that life is a test. Solomon had put pleasure to the test (2:1), and God has put humanity to the test. But the purpose of this test is not so you can get a good score and make yourself or God happy…The purpose of this test—like any good test—is for you to learn something. So, God has given you a test to take and here’s what it teaches you: you are בְּהֵמָה bhemah, a dumb cow.

In many ways, you might as well be an animal. First things first, you’re a created being. You did not always exist. You did not bring yourself to life. Human beings, like all the animals, were created by God. In fact, the first people were created on the same day as the land animals. "And God said, 'Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.' And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth'" (Genesis 1:24-26).

Now, obviously, there are differences…but there are also similarities. Animals are born and animals die, and the same thing happens to us. And, of course, death is caused by something that wasn’t in the picture during the Creation event—sin. Sin has caused both us and the animals to die. And it has also caused us to become more like the animals!

The Old Testament shows us that we become like what we worship. If you bow down to a stiff-necked, stubborn, & dumb cow, you yourself will take on those characteristics. Originally, we were supposed to rule over the animals (Gen. 1:26). But, humanity, in many ways, have become worse than animals. In Isaiah 1:3, God accuses Israel by saying "donkeys and oxen know their masters, but you don’t know me.” Maybe you’ve had to stop your dog from eating their own bodily excretions. Well, 2 Peter 2:22 wrote that some people—like dogs—eat their own vomit or—like pigs—jump right back into the mud after a bath.

And Jude, another letter in the Bible, compares false teachers to “unreasoning animals” (v. 10).

Have you ever been watching a nature documentary and you see a predator go after its prey? I don’t know about you, but I start to root for the weaker, more friendly animal hoping they can make an escape. I always hope that the predator will trip, miss their attack, or that a bigger animal will come to the rescue. Well, this verse wants you to know that we—us, humans—are the bad guys in that scenario…

If you honestly take a look at things, you’ll see that the gap between people and

animals is way smaller than the gap between God and man…And Solomon gives us one of the evidences: we breathe the same air as the animals. We’re over here living and breathing by oxygen, and dying when we can’t get enough of it. And when we exhale, nothing really special happens…but God is totally different in that way. When He breathes, here are some of the things that happen:

❶ Genesis 2:7 — Adam, the first man, became alive.

❷ 2 Timothy 3:16-17 — The Bible was written and carries God’s power.

❸ John 20:21-22 — Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to His Apostles.

Now, not only are we created beings, but you and I are made from the dust! [Have you ever seen people with a cross of ashes on their forehead a month before Easter?] And because of sin’s presence in the world and our participation in it, our bodies will become dust once again. Life is a circle; you start out teethless, hairless, and in diapers and end up the same way. So, that’s the bad news of life under the Sun…

But I want you to know that God is doing things way better than what we can perceive. Yes, it’s true that God will judge the wicked. And, here, Solomon says, He’ll judge the righteous too. But Solomon also says that that time of judgment is restricted to a season of time.

And, on one hand, that may frustrate you. You want justice now! You want your enemies to be punished now. But we should actually be thanking God that judgment is reserved for a specific time…If it weren’t for that, none of us would have the opportunity to repent and experience God’s grace!

Nevertheless, Solomon says, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked.” And he’s right.

There is a time appointed for judgment. God is not indifferent to injustice or blind to evil. There will be a judgment day. And yet, at the same time, God does not delight in destroying anything He has made. His works were created to endure. He made everything with eternity in view. He is not eager to condemn—He’s patient. He reserves judgment for a season.

In fact, God restricts His judgment so much that Isaiah calls it his alien or “strange work” (Is. 28:21)! God delays His wrath. He rarely if ever judges the wicked immediately— instead of ending the moment sin appears—God appointed a different season.

There was a time marked on His calendar—a time when judgment would fall. And that season took place at the cross…Ironically, God judged the wickedness of the world by using a corrupt justice system. Remember that courtroom Solomon described—the one where evil was in the place of righteousness? Well, that found its ultimate fulfillment in the trial of Jesus. High-ranking officials lied about Jesus (Mk 14:55-56). The public put pressure on their governor, Pilate, and he knew better but he caved in and had Jesus put to death. And the guilty verdict fell—not on the wicked people, but on the Righteous One.

The Bible itself puts this into much greater words than I can.

In Romans 8:3, Paul says God “condemned sin in the flesh” & listen to what he says in 2 Corinthians 5:14-21: "For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

And Jesus Himself, in the Gospel of John, described what was going on here. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God" (John 3:16-18).

So, maybe you need to expand your interpretation of Solomon’s statement that

God will judge the righteous and the wicked…If you think that God will call you into His office, see how good you are, and give you raise…Or if you think that all the “bad” people will be punished and everyone will get what they deserve, no offense but you’ve failed to understand or appreciate what Jesus did on Calvary. He judged the sin of the world. Not by ignoring it or sweeping it under a rug, but by putting it on His back.

So, this is why we’re now in a season of grace. God is purposefully delaying judgment, being patient, and passing out the gospel so more and more people will trust in Him.