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Ecclesiastes 3:9-11
Excerpted from: The Fear of GodAgain, how can we learn to fear God? In the book of Ecclesiastes we read about how there are specific times for this and that - a time to be born, a time to die; a time to kill, a time to heal; and so forth.
Men search for these things and are aware that there is a God who is Creator, as Romans 1 so clearly shows. And we know from our own experiences that there are multitudes out there in the public who believe that God exists. But how many of those know the purpose that God is working out? The closest they have been able to come is that they believe people are going to go off to heaven when they die. That is not the purpose God is working out. It is so much more majestic and so much grander and more glorious than that. There is no comparison between the truth and that which man has concocted! People do not seem to understand the connection between God's purpose and what our lives are right now, either.
What are we supposed to do with what we understand? They do not understand that God is on a character-building campaign (if I can put it that way). And that character-building campaign requires our cooperation with Him. That is what Solomon and God suggest here, that no one can find out the work that God does from the beginning. Do you know why? It is because they do not fear Him! The fear of God is something that must be given; it is something that must be instilled within a person - and it must be instilled by God.
This is why we should be able to fear; this is where it all begins for you and me. The fear is caused to be in us by virtue of the fact that God has given us the ability to recognize His power (which none can resist), His holiness and justice (which no one can satisfy), and His wisdom (which none can attain to). This is something that we have been given.
It is not in the world! If it was in the world, they would know it, too. But the evidence remains that they do not know what it is that God is working out. We see that men have a form of godliness, but deny the power. God is not really a part of their lives even though they recognize that there is a Creator. They do not understand His wisdom and they do not understand His justice. All of these are evidenced in the doctrines of the churches out there.
We have what we have; and what we have is a fear that has been instilled within us as a result of the calling of God. This may come about as a result of the observation of God's creation. It may come about because of deducing that there is a purpose that is being worked out. But however it comes, there is a fear in the form of awareness, recognition, or apprehension which compels acceptance and submission. But we must choose.
Ecclesiastes 3:9-11
Excerpted from: Ecclesiastes and the Feast of Tabernacles (Part 2)The positive aspect of it is because it is attached to what preceded it—chapter 2, verse 24: "I saw this was from the hand of God." And verse 26: "For God gives wisdom." These occurrences, Solomon is saying in Ecclesiastes 3, that God is involved in them! He is saying that there is a measure of providential control in the cycle of these occurrences. They are not haphazardly occurring. God is involved.
So he says that even though things are beautiful—and in an overall sense he means life is beautiful—it is perplexing because we cannot figure out what God is doing. We have a deep desire to understand the beginning from the end. Do you not like to know how things are going to end? Everybody wants that. Everybody would like to know a little bit about what lies ahead in the future for them. But we cannot know, so life has its perplexing aspect to it.
Maybe what we want is to have insight into a sense of something that transcends our immediate situation. But we are left without really knowing all we want to know about the future as it relates to right now and what we are going through.
Ecclesiastes 3:9-11
Excerpted from: Our Awesome Destiny (1993)Everybody wants to know, if there is a God, what is He doing? I do not care if you are Mongolian, or a Tibetan, or Sri Lankan, or whatever you happen to be, there is within people a desire for eternity. People want to live forever, and they want to know the direction that life is headed. So, God has put eternity in their hearts,
So, what mankind sees and Solomon records at the beginning of this chapter is an endless and repetitious cycle of events occurring throughout history: there is a time for this; a time for that; a time for that thing over there; this is going to happen to that person; and a few year later that same thing is going to happen to the person that the other thing happened to before. The same things basically happen to all men, though they happen at different times.
Life has a frustrating repetition to it, and it never seems to end in the right way. And so there is this mostly unfulfilled yearning to know how events and their lives are going to work, and where life itself is headed. But, the answers are not given to you.
Ecclesiastes 3:9-13
Excerpted from: God's Promise of RestAnd so we can start to see here the curse of that burdensome work and toil is, in the end, a gift and a blessing from God, but to find true satisfaction and fulfillment, we must look above the sun to the Almighty Creator God, who knows the beginning and the end, and who is working from the beginning to the end to create us in His image. We must live daily by faith, spending our time each day with Him, building that relationship with Him so that we could come to know Him and His way of life. We must trust Him through the many struggles and difficulties in this life. We will find no rest under the sun, but there is a promise of rest, here and now into the future.
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Rejoice in What We Are
Ecclesiastes Resumed (Part Twenty-One)
Spiritual Fine Tuning
Ecclesiastes Resumed (Part Eight): Time
Ecclesiastes (Part Five)
Ecclesiastes (Part Five)
Ecclesiastes (Part Four; B)
Ecclesiastes (Part Four; A)
Ecclesiastes (Part Four; A)
Rejoice in What We Are
Jesus and the Feast (Part One): Alignment With God
Faith and the Christian Fight (Part Nine)
He Who Overcomes
Our Awesome Destiny (2000)
Maintaining Good Health (Part 4)
The Resurrection From the Dead
Unleavened Bread and the Holy Spirit (Part Two)
Pilgrim's Progress
Choices and a Man After God's Own Heart: Turn, Turn, Turn
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