Our God-Given Task

Ecclesiastes 3:9-15

9 What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? 10 I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.

12 I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, 13 and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.

14 I know that whatever God does,
It shall be forever.
Nothing can be added to it,
And nothing taken from it.
God does it, that men should fear before Him.

15 That which is has already been,
And what is to be has already been;
And God requires an account of what is past.

Our God-Given task is our hard work which we are given to do, as Adam was given the charge to multiply and fill the earth with offspring (Genesis 1:28) and working the ground to bring forth food to live on as a consequence of the disobedience and rebellion of sin (Genesis 3:17, 19), and also like Cain who was tasked with harder work after the fall of mankind (Genesis 4:12) through Eve and Adam.  What is the profit of our labors?  Fortunately the line of Cain ended at the flood, but we still have the original curse of consequences through Adam to labor for a living.  On the brighter side, the redeemed in Christ are given good tasks of lasting eternal value as Ephesians 2:10 reminds us.   There are both good and bad profits therefore.  These are all given to occupy us throughout our lives.  Yes, the preacher here rightly wrote that God has made everything beautiful in its time, just as He has a time and place for all things as in the previous verses (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).  Moreover, God has put a sense of the eternal in our hearts, the vastness of His existence and the span of the universe itself which we cannot begin to fully grasp.  This is why we find God’s work so incomprehensible from before the original creation to recreation in the consummation to come.  The sheer eternity of His work puts awe and wonder in our hearts along with what the scriptures call the fear of God.  We see how infinite is His existence in omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence.  Yes, we are in awe of these things and His works too wonderful for our understanding (Psalm 40:5, 139:1-3, 6) because He is and was and ever will be.  The sense of these unbounded dimensions of God’s works fills our hearts with awe and wonder!  The preacher goes on to remind himself and is to enjoy what God gives us to do in the life we are graced with, for our labors are His gift to us to work for our good and His glory in the redemption of grace.  Whatever the Lord does, it lasts forever.  This predetermined plan cannot be changed by us; we can neither add to it or take away the outcome by changing His work; our works simply align with His in doing good or evil because of our fallen nature which is either redeemed in mercy or left in a reprobate state.  These things should make us all fear before Him who has the power over life and death and eternal judgment or pardon (Matthew 10:28, Luke 12:5).  God does require an account of us all according to His predetermined plan and our actions within that which is set before us.  In Christ alone is there hope for any of us to escape our fair judgment due to each of us, and our works follow us (Revelation 14:13), but the accountability does not mean loss of eternity with God for those found in the righteousness of Christ (1 Corinthians 3:11, 14-15).  He requires an account, but if it is paid in full by the Lord, our fear is in our accountability for continuing in sin (1 Peter 4:6, Romans 8:12-13), and no longer of eternal punishment for it (1 John 4:18).  Our God-given task then is to believe in Christ and follow Him by faith as well-pleasing living sacrifices.