Messages
from the Bible
A Sermon by Dr. Neil Chadwick
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end." (Ecclesiastes 3:11 - NIV)
It has been said that the three books of the Bible attributed to King Solomon represent the three major periods of his life.
In his most productive middle years he put together the book of wisdom sayings we know as "Proverbs"; and,
Near the end of his life, overcome by cynicism and pessimism, he penned "Ecclesiastes." (What is alarming about our own age is that there seems to be a large number of young people who sound more like the pessimistic old man of "Ecclesiastes" than the optimistic, romantic youngster of the "Song of Solomon." It wasn't more than two weeks ago that we heard about the attempted suicide of two vibrant, active teenagers from our High Point school.)
The sun rises and sets and rushes to rise again; (1:5);
Rivers flow into the oceans only to return to the streams without ever filling the seas (1:7).
Then comes the oft heard saying, "There's nothing new under the sun." (1:9) Not only that, there will be no memory when it's gone. (1:11)
The Teacher despises pleasure, saying laughter is foolish (2:2); great construction projects (2:4) and the acquisition of wealth have no value (2:7-11).
The Teacher despairs over the reality that he has worked all his life only to leave the results of his labor to another who may turn out to be a fool. (2:18,19)
Are these words to be accepted as truth?
Is it really true there's nothing new? (1:9) What about "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away behold all things are become new." (II Corinthians 5:17 )
Is it really true that there will be no memory of those who have gone before us? (1:11) Well, actually we do remember - we even remember the old man who said we won't remember the men of old!
Is it really true that the twisted can't be straightened? (1:15) Then what of Isaiah's claim that "the crooked shall be made straight"? (Isa 40:4)
Now let's go to our chosen verse (3:11) and look at it in its three parts, the first two about God, and the third about man:
2. God has set eternity in the hearts of men.
3. Man cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
I. God has made everything beautiful in His time.
In the beginning, when God created the world and everything in it, over and over it was assessed as being "good". Or to say it the way Corrie Ten Boom expressed it, "God don't make no junk."
However, we will be quick to point out that the "beauty" spoken of in our text is not merely about creation, but must be related with verse 10 - "I have seen the burden God has laid on men." God creates beauty out of the burdens, even out of what man does! No matter what terrible things have happened, even at the hands of other people, God "makes everything beautiful."
A number of years ago I hosted a local Television program we called "Something Beautiful." The lyrics to the theme song (written by Gloria Gaither) went like this:
Let's take a moment to rehearse the 14 contrasting statements, some of which are lumped together in couplets.
A time to kill and heal, referring on the one hand to the execution of the criminal, and on the other, the healing of an untimely sickness. Again these "times" are out of our control. Building and tearing down are similar although in reversed order.
Weeping and laughing, as with mourning and dancing is what goes on at funerals and weddings, respectively.
The next pair of pairs are again reversed, scattering and gathering (as in clearing land, and making stone fences), is a picture of human relationships as in embracing or separating.
There's a time to acquire and let go, again equaled to keeping and discarding.
If to tear and mend (as in what you do with garments) is in a chaistic relationship with the next duo, then to be quiet is to mend, as talking is to rend - perhaps this is a repetition of the sorrow motif.
The last set - love and hate, war and peace - also go together. It may be difficult for us to admit that there is ever a time when hate (or war for that matter) would be acceptable. But "love/hate" actually means "friend/enemy", and it's OK to name the enemy as long as we are willing to do what Jesus said - love your enemies and pray for them. (It was a delight to hear our President say this week that we will overwhelm our enemy with goodness.)
II. God has set eternity in the hearts of men.
In the older version (KJV) the word "world" is found, a word which undergoes a change of meaning as it comes through the Septuagint and Latin Vulgate translations.
By far, the newer (NIV) translation, "eternity", is more accurate. Originally the Hebrew word meant "hidden", usually referring to both the remote past and interminable future - it is the "unknown duration" whether one is looking backward or forward. Earlier (1:4) when Solomon said "the earth remains forever", he used the same Hebrew word.
Besides, why would God put the world in men's hearts and then turn around and say, "Love not the world"? No, God hasn't put the world in our hearts, He has put "forever" in our hearts! To say it another way, God has placed in our hearts the awareness of an indefinite past and unending future.
There seems to be a constant quest to learn about our origins - we are desperate to know how it all began. In addition to our insatiable curiosity, discovering our beginnings has motivated our billion dollar probes into space.
While most creationists postulate a "young earth", I for one do not see that as inconsistent with the projections of scientists who claim the earth is "millions" of years old, and the universe as "billions." Yes, Genesis 1:1 clearly states, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." But, right after that, Moses wrote, "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep." Our question is, "How likely would it be for God to be the Creator of chaos, emptiness, and darkness? Not according to what Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:11 - "He made everything beautiful."
Actually, the beginning of the creation of the world as we know it began with verse 3 of Genesis 1, "And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light" which was followed by the statement, "God saw that the light was good." Besides, if part of God's identity is that He is Creator, and if His creation is only 10,000 years old, what was this Creator God doing for the eternity past?
III. Man cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Man can't get it, can't understand what God is doing. We do have the innate ability to evaluate by looking backward, understanding that "they who forget history are doomed to repeat it." We also can look forward: we relate present activity to goals we've set for the future, and we learn that certain actions bring about corresponding consequences. However, we can't possibly know enough of either past or future. Only God knows the whole, we only know minute parts of the whole.
That's what Paul says in I Corinthians 2:9, "But as it is written Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." As you know, Paul was quoting from the Old Testament, "For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear neither hath the eye seen O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him." (Isaiah 64:4)
If we think that we're the master of our own destiny, the captain of our own fate, we are wrong - God is in charge of everything , for He sees and knows it all. In a way, we are much like the group of blind men who tried to describe an elephant. John Godfrey Saxe put it in a poem, "The Blind Men of Indostan."
The first approached the elephant, and happening to fall
The second feeling of the tusk, cried: "Ho, what have we here?
The third approached the animal and happening to take
The fourth reached out his cagey hand and felt about the knee,
The fifth who chanced to touch the ear, said, "Even the blindest man
The sixth no sooner had begun about the beast to grope,
And so these men of Indostan disputed loud and long;
Later in the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon returns to this same theme:
"When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe man's labor on earth--his eyes not seeing sleep day or night-- then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all his efforts to search it out, man cannot discover its meaning. Even if a wise man claims he knows, he cannot really comprehend it. So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God's hands, but no man knows whether love or hate awaits him." (Ecclesiastes 8:16,17; 9:1)
Conclusion:
So then, if we believe that God "makes everything beautiful in His time," and that while we have an awareness and yearning for "eternity in our hearts," we don't have the capacity to see the whole picture, what are we to do?
The Teacher had this follow-up:
"I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil - this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him." (verses 12-14)
Simply put, "do good" and accept God's gifts. This is something Solomon learned from his father,
"Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Turn from evil and do good; then you will dwell in the land forever." (Psalm 37:3,4,27)
The last word in the book repeats this:
"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." (12:13 - KJV)
Great Chapters of the Bible
Ecclesiastes 3
Beauty and Time
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As a young man, full of romanticism, he wrote "Song of Solomon";
The implication right from the beginning of "Ecclesiastes" is that life is meaningless, purposeless - "vanity, vanity, all is vanity." Listen to this reasoning:
Generations come and go, whereas the earth seems eternal (1:4);
The Teacher deplores wisdom - greater wisdom and knowledge only bring more sorrow (1:18), and in the end, the wise man is no better than the fool because both will end up in the grave and be forgotten (2:14-16). This seems to correspond with the contemporary saying, "Ignorance is bliss."
Is it really true that the earth is eternal? (1:4) Jesus said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away." (Matthew 24:35)
But, you say, "Of course this must be all true, after all, isn't this inspired Scripture?" Yes, these are inspired insights concerning the state of man apart from God!
1. God has made everything beautiful in His time.
All my confusion He understood;
All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife;
But He made something beautiful of my life."
A time to be born and die, plant and uproot - these times are in God's hands. This is obviously true of the born/die set. However, farmers may think they're deciding what is the best time for sowing and harvesting, but all they're doing is lining up with the times God has already established.
When we put this all together with verse 11, the overriding message is simply this - all of it is in God's time.
There are some Christian believers who have trouble with the interpretation which these space explorations bring back. They tell us that the Universe is expanding, and by measuring the distance between us and distant stars we can come up with a reasonable guess as to how long ago their light began traveling in our direction.
Not only does the eternity in our hearts drive the quest for an understanding of our past, but it also conditions us to believe in our own immortality. That, in part, explains why so many people succumb to self destructive behaviors and life patterns. For some, it's through foolish risk taking, and for others it's slow suicide using nicotine, alcohol or drugs. Perhaps it's because we do believe we are immortal - even when we witness other people's deaths, we don't believe it will come to us.
Who went to see an elephant tho' all of them were blind,
That each by observation might satisfy his mind!
Against his broad and sturdy side, at once began to bawl,
"God bless me! But the elephant is nothing but a wall."
So very round and smooth and sharp, to me it's mighty clear
This wonder of an elephant is very like a spear!"
The squirming trunk within his hands, thus boldly up and spake,
"I see," quoth he, "The elephant is very like a snake."
"What must this wondrous beast be like, is mighty plain", said he,
"Tis clear enough the elephant, is very like a tree."
Can tell what this resembles most, deny the fact-who can?
This marvel of an elephant is very like a fan!"
When seizing on the swinging tail, that fell within his scope.
"To me," quoth he, "the elephant is very like a rope."
Each in his own opinion exceeding stiff and strong.
Though each was partly in the right, and all were in the wrong.
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