Get ready to start a journey…a journey through the pages of the Bible and the pages of your life.
Solomon counted his hours, measured the family sacrifices, thought of all the sleepless nights worrying about an upcoming deadline, and concluded that it was all useless. There “was nothing to be gained under the sun.” Looking through humanistic eyes, he found that there was nothing to show at the end of the day for the physical and emotional toll caused by work.
What does a man gain by engaging in work? What benefits come from marketing, sales, owning a business, designing processes, and making products? Not much! That’s Solomon’s “under-the-sun” perspective. A generation works until they die, followed by the next generation that does the same thing.
Solomon experienced the energy and vigor of youth and wanted others to do the same. His counsel for young men was to enjoy life and pursue dreams and desires. But Solomon warns that enjoying life is not without boundaries and accountability. Everything a person does will one day be evaluated by the Judge (see also Eccl. 12:14).
While we live and work in time, God works outside of it. He is the eternal God who does all things perfectly. Nothing can be added or taken away to make what he has done better. Everything he does lasts forever. God’s construction cannot be destroyed.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
We often think of our lives in periods of time. There were elementary, middle school, and high school years. We think of our college years and when we first started our careers. We think of life in terms of places we have lived, before and after marriage, before and after kids. There are high times—the birth of children and grandchildren.