The Lord labors in the lives of men, but they don’t realize it. The Teacher applied his heart to know and understand the work the Lord performs in the land of the living, but he found out there simply wasn’t enough time in the day or in his whole life, for that matter, to take it all in and fully know the work of God. In other words, he came to realize that, even if he didn’t sleep and applied the whole of his life to learn what the Lord did, it couldn’t be done. Indeed, even if some, who seem to have wisdom, declare they think they know the work the Lord performs, they are wrong (Ecclesiastes 8:16-17). No one knows, nor is anyone truly able to comprehend God’s labor, which he keeps to himself (Ecclesiastes 3:10-11; cp. Deuteronomy 29:29; Acts 1:7). Neither are these things given to man to understand, after he has been given the Holy Spirit, for as Paul declares: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! (Romans 11:33).
With the above in mind the Teacher went on to say that he considered in his heart all the labors of mankind, in an effort to make sense of it all, and he finally concluded that the labors of the just and the wise are in the hands or under the power of the Lord. Moreover, one cannot tell, if one meets with prosperity or adversity, that such things prove God’s favor or disfavor. Life happens! Yet, despite all of its uncertainty, in terms of wealth or hardship, the Lord holds the lives of the just and the righteous in his hands (Ecclesiastes 9:1).
One might say there are higher laws that govern the destiny of mankind, laws, concerning which, man is unaware. Just as working under the law of aerodynamics, one is able to overcome the law of gravity, so some higher law or laws govern the destiny of mankind, and these laws are not subject to the logical conclusions we may have about why God treats us as he does. While it is one thing to labor under the reasonableness of logic in our world (2 + 2 = 4; etc.), it is quite another to seek to force-fit God into the box-like limitations of our logic. The Lord is simply not subject to or limited by our laws and logical judgments or conclusions. I don’t mean to imply God is illogical or acts chaotically, but I do believe he operates on a higher level than man, and there are laws pertaining to life, of which man is completely unaware. The Lord is quite above the world of men, and we are simply unable to know everything that lies behind what our Creator does (Romans 11:33).
Next, the Teacher presents us with five pairs of folks (Ecclesiastes 9:2), and he claims all are treated in the same way, like a storm or an earthquake favors no one, so the seasons of life (cp. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8) come to all men indiscriminately.
Vanity or folly appears in every walk of life. It makes no difference who one is or who he may pretend to be, nothing is profitable, in that nothing lasts. No one, whether he is powerful or wise, just or unjust, whether he builds or destroys, is religious or irreligious—no matter how one might classify himself in his society, no one is able to cause his labor to last. It is all unprofitable, both one’s labor and the one who labors have an end. All die!
Life seems so unfair. Why should the wise man die as the fool (Ecclesiastes 2:14-16) or the gentle die as the brute (Ecclesiastes 3:19)? It all strains one’s sense of fair play. Yet, we get no apology from the Lord. Life continues, and with it come the challenges of the day. We labor to build; we labor to destroy; we behave wisely or as the fool, but in the end we all die, and death, itself, doesn’t honor anyone above his neighbor. It merely consumes everyone and everything, and all are is eventually forgotten—the good and the evil, the great and the small, the strong and the weak—all go to the grave, and who and for how long will anyone remember who we were or how we lived (Ecclesiastes 9:3, 5).
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