Saturday, June 24
Enigma
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 7-8, Psalm 74, 1 Timothy 4
Observation
Ecclesiastes is wisdom literature that contains reflections on life. Here are a few key ideas.
Ecclesiastes 8:7 Surely no one knows the future, and no one can tell another person what will happen.
There are limits to human knowledge and wisdom. We can’t predict the future. How many times have you said, “I didn’t see that coming!”? We make our plans and do our best, but we can’t predict, let alone control, the future.
Ecclesiastes 8:14 Here is another enigma that occurs on earth: Sometimes there are righteous people who get what the wicked deserve, and sometimes there are wicked people who get what the righteous deserve. I said, “This also is an enigma.” (The word “enigma” here in the NET is often translated “vanity” in other versions. It is used of something that is difficult to understand.)
Life is not fair. You’ve heard the saying, “No good deed goes unpunished.” Sometimes good is punished and evil rewarded. Life isn’t fair. It’s an enigma—hard to understand.
Ecclesiastes 8:16–17 When I tried to gain wisdom and to observe the activity on earth—even though it prevents anyone from sleeping day or night— 17 then I discerned all that God has done: No one really comprehends what happens on earth. Despite all human efforts to discover it, no one can ever grasp it. Even if a wise person claimed that he understood, he would not really comprehend it.
Life is a mystery. This is one of the recurring themes in Ecclesiastes. Vanity, enigma, mystery. There is so much we don’t understand.
Application
These ideas can easily degrade into cynicism, and I don’t want to be cynical. I believe in God and His goodness. Even though there is much I don’t understand—the future, life’s unfairness, mystery—I continue to hang on to God and His goodness. For me, the opposites of faith are not just unbelief, but hopelessness, despair and cynicism, and I never want to go there.
So I continue to trust God even when I don’t understand, when life is unfair and mysterious.
Prayer: Lord, I love You. The author of Ecclesiastes verbalizes what many of us often feel about life. I feel it. But I never want to grow cynical. Keep me close, trusting You even when life makes no sense.