Eccl 3:9-11
9 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
In this passage, contained within the rather sobering and depressing early chapters of Ecclesiastes, we see the writer (who may or may not have been King Solomon) wonder about all the worldly “toil” we humans do. It all feels meaningless–a word repeated throughout the early chapters. What good is our work and its products when we won’t get to enjoy them forever?
The “burden” God has laid on the human race is simply mortality itself–we were made for eternity, as v. 11 states, but we only live a short time. We don’t get to enjoy the “beautiful” things, either of the natural world or of man’s world, for very long. And we don’t live long enough to “fathom what God has done from beginning to end,” either.
So what’s it all for? Where’s the meaning? Why are we even living? This cry for meaning is not only found in the Book of Ecclesiastes, but throughout the world; we all want to know what life is about. Thousands of books, dramas, poetry, art objects, and songs have been created about the meaning of life, especially looking for meaning through worldly things.
But, as the writer of Ecclesiastes has found out over time, trying to find life’s meaning through the quest for power, the pursuit of pleasure, the accumulation of money or friends, etc., is in itself meaningless and does not give any lasting joy. These are all worldly things, just as ephemeral as we are. But there is an eternal One who can bring meaning to our lives–God. Living for His glory, bringing comfort and strength to others in His name, and seeking to lead a moral and just life, brings a more global and eternal understanding of humanity. Being Christian, knowing we are saved by faith, knowing how short a time we have, makes us want to use that short time to share our blessings with others.