Ecclesiastes 9: 1 But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. ² It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil^, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. 

Now, we must remember that the “preacher” is speaking to us about life without eternity in mind. Life is just what it is and in the end no matter who we are or what we are we all end up in the same place, dead! All of the beauty of the world and the glory of creation, even if it speaks loudly that God is real, doesn’t express the abundance of His love for us. Without Christ, we don’t understand the greatness of His love.

The “preacher” points out it ends all the same for all of us in death.

Ecclesiastes 9:7 Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.⁸ Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head.⁹ Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. ¹⁰ Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

In this under the sun thinking the best we have is bread with joy and drink with a merry heart. If this is all there is, then, well, there is nothing you can do about it. This has an it is what it is feel. Here we also find YOLO ( you only live once) thinking again. If there is no point and everyone ends up in the same place no matter what they do then we might as well enjoy what we can while we are here. Making the best of it, is all we’ve got, when we don’t have Jesus who makes us blessed in it.

Our work, he encourages to do the work with all your might. We were not made to be sedentary.

Ecclesiastes 9: ¹¹ Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. ¹² For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.

Sometimes life just doesn’t make sense and the “what the heck just happened” moments, happens upon us all. Without Christ and the knowledge of His great love for us, life can feel like one big smash against time and chance. There is no “making sense” without the One who makes all things good to those who love Him.

Ecclesiastes 9: ¹⁷ The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools. ¹⁸ Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.

Wisdom is often not heard or appreciated in an under the sun life. Living life according to the rule that “you only live once” rather than you live unto Someone, leaves us grasping for scraps of goodness and often missing the mark. What seems good for today may not be good for tomorrow. In our foolishness we forget to think ahead when we live without eternity in mind.

One can gain much by wisdom and when he dies and passes his wealth on to the next generation. They by folly could lose it all. It makes no sense under the sun sometimes.

Starla