Podcast 94 Ecclesiastes, “Pt 9, Ch 9”

To King Solomon the world is a precarious place. The world is not fair. The world is not equitable. The world does not discriminate. That theme appears to dominate Chapter 9. Perhaps Solomon’s most often quoted words, found in Ecclesiastes 9, are “Time and chance happeneth to them all.” It is proverbial. It is provocative. It is true to life. We live in a world governed by time and chance. We must come to terms with coincidence. Coincidence is one of the greatest stumbling blocks to Christianity for the simple reason that every miracle can be attributed to chance. It is an argument that is irrefutable. All miracles begin with faith. All miracles are only recognized through faith. Faith precedes the miracle. Faith in Christ brings about the miracle. And faith in Christ sustains our belief that a miracle occurred.

There is a logical fallacy logicians call ‘post hoc ergo propter hoc’ which means ‘after the fact therefore because of the fact. The argument is that just because an event precedes the effect, the event did not cause the effect. It is a necessary precaution because it prevents us from ‘jumping to conclusions.’ On the other hand, it is a double edged sword. Skepticism may cause us to deny the miracle. For example, the skeptic would say, just because you prayed doesn’t mean that God brought about a miracle. They may argue that prayer and the miracle were merely coincidental.

Atheists insist that creation is accidental, that all things, even the creation of man, came about through coincidence, accident. The philosopher Bertrand Russell said, “Man is nothing but an accidental collocation of atoms.”

Christians cannot prove that God created the world. It is an act of faith.

Another reality is that wicked people prosper in a wicked world. If one equates success by the accumulation of wealth, then the wicked are probably more likely to be considered some of the most successful. Still Solomon declares that the righteous are in the hands of God.

Ecclesiastes 9:1

For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.

Notice how deceitful the eyes can be, “No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.” To see the hand of God, one must use a different standard of judgment. One must have faith. We live in a complicated world which prompted the following very discouraging observation.

Ecclesiastes 9:2

All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

That is why faith is required to see the hand of God. Faith is required to even see the hand of the devil for if the devil is not real then neither is God. Malachi understood that. He understood that logic has its limitations in discerning divine truth.

Malachi 3:13-18

Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.