Ecclesiastes 3:9-15

Man is Ignorant of God’s Timing

3:9 What benefit can a worker gain from his toil?

3:10 I have observed the burden

that God has given to people to keep them occupied.

3:11 God has made everything fit beautifully in its appropriate time,

but he has also placed ignorance in the human heart

so that people cannot discover what God has ordained,

from the beginning to the end of their lives.

Enjoy Life in the Present

3:12 I have concluded that there is nothing better for people

than to be happy and to enjoy

themselves as long as they live,

3:13 and also that everyone should eat and drink, and find enjoyment in all his toil,

for these things are a gift from God.

God’s Sovereignty

3:14 I also know that whatever God does will endure forever;

nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken away from it.

God has made it this way, so that men will fear him.

3:15 Whatever exists now has already been, and whatever will be has already been;

for God will seek to do again what has occurred in the past.