- But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. -
Hey, congrats everyone! We are officially two thirds through the whole book! That is right, we only have four more chapters.
I know, like you I am worried about what we will do next, but seeing as I should be able to stretch these final four out for another year, I’m not that worried about it.
I promise that’s a joke.
But enough about that, we came here to learn more about Ecclesiastes.
Let’s dive in.
Remember how last week we talked about how we cannot know the ways of God? That no matter how much we search, even if we are Solomon, a portion of His will always remain unexplained?
To put it mildly, that idea opens up a can filled with theological worms (wyrms?). Of course, Solomon doesn’t keep us waiting.
Have you ever had something good happen in your life and made a statement like, “God sure does love me!”
Or perhaps a friend gets a promotion or gets their child into an exclusive school or is sharing photographs from a beautiful vacation.
You may think in that moment to be encouraging yet still religious and say something like, “Wow, that is great news! God must surely love you!”
Is that the right thing to say? Sometimes, we can say obvious Christian truths because we wish to appear pious rather than wanting to encourage.
To do so, is to speak and act like the Pharisees, to be more concerned with the appearance of righteousness rather living an obedient life from our hearts.
So yes, it can be the right thing to say, if our hearts are doing it for God and not for ourselves.
That isn’t what Solomon is warning us about. He asks us a much harder question. How can we know what is happening is because God approves of our actions?
Think about it. If good things happen to the wicked and misfortune falls upon the righteous, then how can we take any earthly event and determine the mind of God from it?
Probably the classic example of this is Job and his friends. They see all the misfortune that has fallen on their friend, and what do they assume?
That Job has sinned. That every calamity he is experiencing, including the death of his family, is a righteous punishment from God.
The story makes it clear that this is not the case. Job is being tested by Satan, a test which God allows.
In some strange sense, his punishment is a reward for his years of excellent service. Kind of reminds me of another part of the Bible, somewhere in the New Testament.
Jesus said it. That if they hated Him, how much more would they hate us? That we should expect trouble in this life.
In a sense, suffering in this world is an indication we are truly living the Christian life and our walk through those trials is a testament to the change He has made in our lives.
So how can we know if the events in our life indicate God’s favor? First and foremost, we can walk with God and everyday make that our goal and aim.
Secondly, we can count it all joy.
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