Page 124 - The Poetic Books - Student Text

At the root of the frustrations in life is getting things right. The
simplest decision can go wrong. “There is a time for everything
(3:1).” We have all laughed or cried at the wrong time (3:4). We
have watched a work project progress with stones moved before
that part of the project is needed only to have to be redone (3:5).
Some hugs are inappropriate (3:5). Some words are inappropriate
just because spoken at the wrong time (3:7). Our work is so easily
ruined by simple mistiming. This is a great burden.

Looking at life in this manner, the Teacher comes to a conclusion.
God intends us to be frustrated. God has designed us with
“eternity in the human heart” without giving us the ability to
figure out the right time of anything (3:11). Unless he tells us
more, our only option is to eat and drink and find satisfaction in all
our work. What he does is eternal. We can add nothing to it. His
Figure 60: What time is it?
desire is for us to fear him.

The Teacher comes to this conclusion while realizing the existence of good and evil, the righteous and
the wicked. He does not make any reference to God’s law, so this is all still without any sense of special
revelation. Humans, after all, have an innate sense of justice (Rom. 2:14). Some things ought to be.
Some things ought not to be. He assumes God’s judgment in his “time for everything” (3:17). In the
scheme of things, God is doing nothing more than testing humans. He wants them to come to the
conclusion that they exist on earth just the way animals exist. As far as anyone knows, death comes to all
alike. “All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return (3:20).” In light of uncertainty
about any possible next life, we might as well enjoy life as much as possible (3:22).

Experts debate this grim conclusion. The excellent commentator, H. C. Leupold, for example, suggests
that 3:21 should not be read with a question mark. The verse is not a continuation of the previous verse.
It is a parenthesis in his argument. He would paraphrase the verse to read, “There are not many who
take to heart as they ought to the fact that the spirit of man goeth upward, and that the spirit of the
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beast goeth downward to the earth.” Another fine OT expert, Walter Kaiser, links the argument with
other verses on judgment.
“Had not Solomon already argued that unjust judges will face the living God in the last
judgment (3:17)? And will he not with consistency press the same facts into service in
12:7: ‘The dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it?’
What would be the point of concluding his book with the ominous warning that ‘God
will bring every deed into judgment’ (12:14) if men are dead and gone?”
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The problem with this line of thinking comes with the phrase “under the sun.” Used so often in
Ecclesiastes, it seems to limit the information under consideration. While we might long for life after
death, we do not know that such life exists apart from God’s special revelation. Indeed, God has placed a
longing in our hearts for eternity (3:11). As far as we can tell, any judgment coming from him comes in

204 H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Ecclesiastes (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1981), 100.
205 Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., Ecclesiastes: Total Life (Chicago: Moody Press, 1981), 70.
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