If there’s anything in life that men might point to that, according to their argument, proves God doesn’t exist, it is the apparent randomness of life that seems so obvious to some. Life doesn’t seem to have a purpose, because what does occur seems to deny the Lord’s promise to reward good and punish evil (Proverbs 24:12; Ecclesiastes 3:17; Jeremiah 17:10). Why do good things happen to bad people, but, even more importantly, why do bad things happen to good people? This is not the way things are supposed to work, according God’s word. Nevertheless, to be honest about the whole, neither is this incongruity the manner in which life comes to all. Nevertheless, it happens often enough that many question how the word of God could be true. Things do sometimes occur in reverse order, but the Teacher refers to this anomaly as meaningless (Ecclesiastes 8:14).
Surprisingly, this is all he says about the matter. It is meaningless, and then goes on. Is that it? No, not really! I believe the Teacher expects his reader to judge from what he has already revealed about life, and he trusts that any fair-minded person would recognize that, what seems to be totally random in naturel, actually points to a resurrection. If the promises of God are absent here, and, if there is a powerful God who exists, then he will yet keep his promises, and death, though it proves stronger than any man, is unable to keep the Lord from doing his work. The righteous will be rewarded and the wicked will be punished and death cannot keep that reality from occurring.
Of course, one may believe only what he is able to see. If the Lord is “unable” to perform his works in the land of the living, then man has just cause to say God doesn’t exist, or that he isn’t all powerful, and if he isn’t all powerful, why call him God or Lord? On its face, this seems like a powerful argument, but it lacks depth. In fact, it is this type of argument that the Pharisees hounded Jesus with during the days of his flesh (John 1:14). They wanted a sign from him that proved his claim to be the Messiah was true. Now, Jesus performed many miracles, so, if all the Pharisees sought was **a** sign, pick any one of them and that should have been enough. However, they weren’t looking for just any sign. They wanted to call the shots and tell him exactly what to do: make this stone bread (Matthew 4:3) or leap this tall building in a single bound but don’t get hurt in the process (Matthew 4:5-6), and then we’ll believe you.
If God did exactly what man told him to do, whenever man said to do it, how could the Lord be God? So, to demand of the Lord to prove he exists, by making good on his promises here and now, amounts to man telling God what to do and when he should do it. God will do what he does, whenever it pleases him; he doesn’t ask man’s permission or seek his approval (Job 9:12; Ecclesiastes 8:4; Daniel 4:35). We tend to forget that the Lord sentenced man to be occupied in the times and seasons he created for them (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, 10; cp Ecclesiastes 1:2, 13; Genesis 3:14-19). Life isn’t fair. It’s not intended to be. Nevertheless, God is fair, and he will judge righteously in the end, and the end of the matter may come after death. That’s God’s prerogative. Therefore, the Teacher recommends that men enjoy life when we can, and each day make good use of the gifts that come with one’s labor (Ecclesiastes 8:15; cp. 2:24-26; 3:12-13; 5:18-20; 8:15).
A good worldview is pleasing for the soul, and the Teacher concludes this part of his thesis with the following. Wisdom, to really understand life, how and why things happen as they do, is often a grievous task (Ecclesiastes 1:18). One simply doesn’t investigate life in a prison (Ecclesiastes 1:13; cp. Genesis 3:14-19; Ecclesiastes 3:1-8) and expect to come away inspired and content with what one has seen. Moreover, this isn’t the half of it. Although if one could study life 24/7 without a break or even sleep (Ecclesiastes 8:16), he still wouldn’t be able to answer all the questions he may have about what he sees and experiences. It’s simply impossible for man, any man (no matter how wise), to investigate and find out the whole work of God (Ecclesiastes 8:17). To put it simply: life is too complex for any man to fully grasp everything the Lord does, and this should be so, if God is who he claims to be: the Creator of all that is. If no man could ever take in the whole universe in a moment of time and understand it, how could he possibly take in the labor of its Creator and fully understand all he does in the land of the living. Life is good, but it isn’t always fair, and we cannot always understand why. It is, therefore, best to let God be God and place our lives in his hands. He is both merciful and just, and to place ourselves in his hands is much better than to place ourselves in the hands of men (Ecclesiastes 2:24; 2Samuel 24:14).
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