Ecclesiastes 3:1-22 Is God Careless, Toothless or Neither?
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In the first half of this chapter, Solomon has presented God’s sovereignty (his control of everything that happens and exists) as the antidote to the apparent vanity of life under the sun. A world in which events occur with apparently no rhyme or reason is suddenly possessed with great meaning once God is shown to be running things – and running them for permanence (Ecclesiastes 3:14-15).
But if we are to accept the idea that God runs things, there are some objections to be faced. Perhaps the most obvious: how can God be in control of a world like ours? Injustice is so rife – even in the places which are supposed to deal in law and order and government (Ecclesiastes 3:16). The system that is supposed to check evil and corruption is itself riddled with the same things.
The God of the Bible is presented as loving and all powerful. But given the unfairness of the world, some may suggest he is perhaps one or the other but cannot possibly be both…
So is he a) Loving and useless, or b) In control and evil…?
For a start, Solomon will never allow us to go for option a) (Ecclesiastes 3:15) though we are often tempted by it. We can handle the idea that God is in control of pleasing and happy things. But when evil happens we like to remove him by as many steps as possible. The devil did that… it had nothing to do with God… he was unable to intervene… Some will even read their Bibles with their eyes closed and decide that God doesn’t actually know the future…
In the end this is false comfort – and very hollow. We try to cover God’s reputation but end up with a pathetic God.
This Bible portrays a God who unquestionably controls all things – the light and the dark, the good and the evil, the pleasing and the terrible (Ecclesiastes 7:13-14; Isaiah 45:7; Lamentations 3:37-38; Amos 3:6). This may shock us – but if we reject it, let us not pretend we are worshipping the God of the Bible.
At the same time the Bible never implicates God in the guilt of evil deeds and decisions. God may allow, use and direct the course of evil – but he never does evil. (Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 5:4; 1 John 1:5) This is complex and beyond the scope of this blog, but the key point is that God is not toothless – he is Sovereign…
So is he careless then? Maybe he is in control – and perhaps he’s even moral in some self-righteous way, but if so he clearly cares little about the injustice and evil in the world. He could step in whenever he wants – and he does nothing.
To judge from under the sun we have to admit the picture is bleak. Perhaps there is some day of reckoning in the next life when the dead are rightly judged – but, from this angle, who is to say (Ecclesiastes 3:21)?
The fact is that God cares – he cares far more than we do. A lot of the time we care about injustice because it affects us personally. We say to God – why don’t you step in and punish the evil? But we conveniently forget our part in the evil. We want him to punish the wickedness that’s ‘out there’ in some abstract place, but if we truly wanted absolute justice we would be pleading for our own destruction. Why should God come and deal with all the sin in the world but let you off the hook? The fact is he is delaying out of sheer mercy – giving us time to come right back to him. And we should be very, very grateful. His kindness is intended to lead us not to pointing a finger, but to repentance (Romans 2:3-4).
Perhaps there is a hint about this in Ecclesiastes 3:18-21. The injustice and mess rife in the human race ought to point us to our serious condition. We die like the animals and don’t seem to behave a lot better. Shouldn’t this provoke us one day to see our horrible condition and seek the God we have ignored?
Is God careless? Is he toothless? He is neither. He is working all things according to his unassailable plan (Ecclesiastes 3:1 and Ecclesiastes 3:11), a plan which involves a time of absolute justice – meted out perfectly by God the judge (Ecclesiastes 3:17). This present time of relative peace from the hand of God will give way to war (Ecclesiastes 3:8). He will right every wrong and bring destruction to a wayward world. There is little comfort here for the man or woman whose sins are not forgiven.
Is there comfort for anyone? Perhaps we deserve judgement, but does he only have threats for us? No. His plan is wider than justice – there’s also mercy. And his intention is to work all things together for good to those who love him – making everything beautiful in its time (Ecclesiastes 3:11; Romans 8:28). Exactly how (and why) he will use the evil of the world to bring about his beautiful purpose is unclear right now. That is where faith comes in.
The ultimate ‘proof’ that God cares – in spite of all the evidence to the contrary – is in the cross of Jesus Christ. God became a ‘victim’ of the very injustice which makes life so miserable under the sun. He, therefore, cannot be capricious and detached. He is the God of extraordinary compassion – as well as wisdom and sovereignty. By dying for us he also ensured the future redemption and resurrection of his people.
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