CRITICAL NOTES.—
Ecclesiastes 9:12. Knoweth not his time.] He knows not the hour of his destruction, when he shall be suddenly snared and taken by death. This solemn crisis in man’s destiny is called in Scripture the “day” (Job 18:20), the “hour” (Mark 14:41). As the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare. The net, trap, and snare are symbols of those divine judgments which suddenly overtake men (Ezekiel 12:13; Ezekiel 32:3; Proverbs 7:23; Luke 21:35).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Ecclesiastes 9:11-12
THE HIGHER WILL IN HUMAN THINGS
I. That Will is Supreme over Human Actions. (Ecclesiastes 9:11.) The will of man is the force that apparently directs and controls his earthly history. It seems to make him an independent being. He boasts of his freedom, exerts himself to satisfy his ambition, or to minister to his pleasures. Yet man is impotent. There is a Higher Will which through all the changes of human history is being accomplished.
1. There is a Divine disposition of human things altogether beyond our control. “Time and chance happeneth to them all.” There are times and seasons in our lives. We have no power to control their order or duration. Each man too has his “chance” which “happeneth” to him. Chance is not used here as opposed to Providence, as if man were the sport of some uncertain and irresponsible dominion, but it is opposed to human effort, whose results are shaped by a Higher Power than the will and energy of man. We spend our little strength and faculty in devising for ourselves; but the ultimate result of our actions, their permanent shape, is devised and finished by the Divine power. Thus God is over all, even in regard to the production and result of those actions in which we consider ourselves most free.
2. Human efforts often fail though ever so fittingly contrived. (Ecclesiastes 9:11.) “I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, &c.” Fortune sometimes gives denial to our expectation founded upon the likelihood or natural tendency of things. It must be admitted that superior powers of running are of prime importance to a racer, and tend to ensure his success; that numbers and strength give a superior advantage in battle; that the gifts of wisdom, understanding, and skill, raise a man to superior eminence, enlarge his authority and influence, and furnish him with the means of securing distinction and competence. But these several gifts and faculties are so complicated with disturbing elements, over which men have no control, that they often fail of success. The most agile racer, and surest of the victor’s crown, may stumble, or be seized by bodily faintness, and thus fail of his prize. An army superior in discipline and numbers may be defeated. Some difficulty of climate or of position, or the caprices of some strange accidents, may turn the fortunes of war. How often it has happened that disease has proved more destructive than the sword, and that victories which national vanity has ascribed to courage and skill, were chiefly owing to the accidental advantage of health. The wise man ought to attain to that distinction to which his talents entitle him, but that many such have altogether failed, the sad examples of history show. The wise man may have some unfortunate disposition of mind or of temper that may ruin his prospect of success. Great skill and understanding may be so combined with follies and absurdities that their possessor may fail to secure the proper rewards of them. Adverse circumstances may hinder him from taking his true place, or enjoying his proper reward. He may be hindered from rising by social surroundings, and thus consigned to neglect. Thus events do not always happen according to the natural tendencies of human effort and skill. Let a man have ever so great advantage, yet as to the future he is literally sure of nothing. There are qualities likely to secure success, but whether they will do so in any given case, we cannot know. The issues of all human thoughts and labours are with God, who accomplishes His will, not only in the obedient and fluent elements of the physical universe, but also in the troubled and refractory elements of the moral world.
II. That Will is Supreme over Human Life. We have seen that the dominion of God is supreme over all that life contains. The same also is true of the bounds of life itself.
1. The time of each man’s death is hidden from him. (Ecclesiastes 9:12.) No man knows at what time death will overtake him. The probability that out of a given number of men, now alive, a certain number will die within a fixed period of years, may be calculated. But no refinement of analysis can show whether any given individual will be dead at a stated time. Men may have some vague and melancholy fancy that they will die at a certain time of life, but the fact very rarely justifies the presentiment. The mariner can calculate his distance from the desired haven, as he nears it from day to day, but no man can compute his distance from the shores of eternity. As ignorant as the fishes are of the net, or as the birds are of the snare, so are men of the time of their capture and destruction by the great enemy.
2. The manner of each man’s death is hidden from him. There are many ways to death, but each man is ignorant by which of these he shall go down to the silent house of darkness. It may be suddenly, by some unforeseen accident, or delayed through the slow and painful stages of a wasting sickness. He may die at home, or among strangers in a strange land. He may die upon the great highway of the waters, and sink into the vast sepulchre of the sea. The proverb says, “Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird” (Proverbs 1:17). The bird is ignorant of the design of such a contrivance; so man, though he may see the snares of death preparing, knows not that they are laid with fatal intent for him. Thus, while there is room left for our actions and our skill to work out their issues, our sovereignty over them is limited. They take themselves at length out of our dominion, and become fashioned to the dictates of a higher will.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Ecclesiastes 9:11. The best and most skilfully directed efforts may fail to secure the result aimed at, because they may come into collision with events quite beyond our control.
The fortune of war may be determined by a slight circumstance, altogether unknown and unsuspected, and so the stream of events for a nation may suddenly take a new course. Human history is but a resultant of many forces, of which the power and skill of man is but a part. Hence through the complex system of human life, Providence works out those designs which are above and beyond man.
“Time and chance” are necessary in order to ensure success, even for the most skilful and wise. There must be a suitable season, and a favourable concurrence of circumstances, or else the time will be out of joint and nothing will work.
Superior skill and understanding are naturally fitted to secure the best results of success and prosperity. But who can ensure his health, and yet how much depends upon this?
Chance is a term denoting ignorance, not on God’s part, but on ours. It has been happily defined, although by a poet, yet without a poet’s fiction,—“direction which we cannot see.” The blind Goddess of Fortune is but the creation of a foolish and ungodly fancy. Without our Heavenly Father, “a sparrow falleth not to the ground” [Wardlaw].
The wise man by some unfortunate combination of circumstances may be reduced to want. The man of understanding—the man, for example, most conversant with both the materials and the principles of commerce—may never come to wealth. Unforeseen events may derange his plans, and disappoint his calculations. Unpropitious seasons may blight the produce of his fields. Storms may sink his ships in the deep. His confidence may be betrayed and his property wasted by those in whose hands he has placed it. And while this man of large and cultured intellect may come to old age in comparative poverty, some ignorant and illiterate bore, who started in life alongside of him, may have swelled into a millionaire [Buchanan].
The world worships success, which is, after all, an insufficient and uncertain measure of real worth. Wisdom, and things that accompany it are still an invaluable possession, though they seem to fail.
That there is some kind of Power which baffles the most aptly contrived designs of man must be admitted. It may be regarded as blind and unintelligent, as arbitrary Will, or as Infinite Wisdom working towards righteous ends, though in strange and mysterious ways; each of which views may commend itself according to our religious insight. To the Christian, the highest Power in human affairs is the Divine Mercy (Romans 9:16).
Ecclesiastes 9:12. We know not the time of those disasters which overturn our schemes and disappoint our hopes; nor do we know the time of that great disaster which shall deprive us of all!
How vain the boast of wealth, or pomp of power—of all that lies outside of us—seeing they are held on the uncertain tenure of life!
The preparations for accomplishing his capture and destruction lie before a man, and he knows it not. Our ignorance of the caprices of disaster and doom bring us into companionship with the lowliest forms of life.
Man’s ignorance of the time of his death serves,
1. To place him helplessly in the hands of Providence. Rebellion is vain, and nothing remains for him but loving submission or desperate resignation.
2. To promote the good of society. The knowledge of the hour when life’s day closes would paralyse effort.
3. To strengthen the motives for godliness. The time is uncertain, and therefore instant provision should be made for the soul. More exalted and enduring things should engage our affections.
He that by a constant holiness secures the present, and makes it useful to his noblest purposes, turns his condition into his best advantage by making his unavoidable fate become his necessary religion [Jeremy Taylor].