⁹ What do workers gain from their toil? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. ¹² I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. ¹³ That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil — this is the gift of God.

Ecclesiastes 3:9-13 (TNIV)

King Solomon, the writer of Ecclesiastes, had a unique perspective on the world. He was surrounded by the reality of a fallen and vulnerable world, and was not perfect himself. But he did have a special gift from God – wisdom, the ability to see the world from God’s point of view, with God’s values. As a result he could judge right from wrong, and see where God was working. This produced tremendous stress for him, as he realised his own failings as well as how much injustice there was in his time. However, it also gave him hope, insight, honesty and a clarity of expression as he described what he saw in a world not unlike the one we know. This makes Ecclesiastes one of the hardest but most rewarding books to read in the Bible.

Notice how Solomon saw what we read about in Genesis – work, toil, and a “burden God has laid on men.” He saw that every activity had a season, or an appointed time – not just agricultural activity, but also our different moods, weeping and laughing, searching and giving up, silence and speech, even war and peace. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 is a much quoted poem today, covering experiences we recognise. We are bound by seasons, what we need to do changes with time – our work is probably like this too.

Yet despite our changing and the temporary, seasonal nature of what we do, God has given us

• Eternity in our hearts – a knowledge that there is more than we have right now
• Eternity as a mystery – we know that we’re different from God and can’t get our heads around the scope of his work

There are also things which Solomon notes that not everybody has, but are desirable gifts from God:

• The gift of being able to eat and drink – the ability to live with our needs met
• The gift of satisfaction in all our toil – the ability to find our originally designed satisfaction in work, even though the toil may be hard

This, Solomon sees, as the ultimate blessing – “there is nothing better” than

• “to be happy” – enjoying life
• “and do good” – working for a good purpose.

This combination of a good work-life balance is often sought today, but Solomon recognises that work and pleasure are meaningless in themselves – satisfaction only comes as a gift from God.
 
To consider and pray throughout today

• What do I find enjoyable about my work, and the times when I’m not working?
• How do I notice my sense of eternity – do I know what I’m lacking in satisfaction?
• Where am I looking for satisfaction? Where am I looking for this apart from God?
• What does God want me to focus on as my goals today?
• How could I start to find God’s purpose for me for the future?