FINDING FUN UNDER THE SUN IN THE PARADOXES OF LIFE

Furthermore, I have seen under the sun that in the place of justice there is wickedness; and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness. Ecclesiastes 3:16

Life can seem like a puzzle at times. A boy at school had to write a paper for English class. He decided to write about childbirth. So, he went home and asked his mother, “How was I born?” After raising her eyebrows and staring at him for a while, she said, “The stork brought you.” He got the same answer concerning his birth from his grandmother. So, he began his school paper like this: “There hasn’t been a natural childbirth in our family for generations.”

King Solomon frankly acknowledges the paradoxes of life in verse 16 of Ecclesiastes 3. He comes to the conclusion that time is not the focus of happiness, but the focus of God’s plan even if I can’t understand all of it. He concludes that it is better to walk with God in the dark than to walk alone in the light. In other words, it is better to light a candle in the dark than to curse the darkness. He sees that God doesn’t judge all evil immediately. That’s really our problem, isn’t it? We want justice, and we want it right now. Solomon will come back to this in chapter 8 and verse 11. In that context, he says that government is good, but slow government is bad because it doesn’t execute judgment quickly. We can identify with that, amen?

Solomon continues this theme in chapter 4 of Ecclesiastes. Notice verse 1. If you’re looking for happiness in this world, you won’t find it. You might think that verses 2-3 are strange, but think about Judas. Jesus said of Judas, “…it would have been good for that man if he had not been born” (Matthew 26:24). All of this emphasizes the great grace of God in saving us and caring for us all the days of our lives.

Ike Graham