Message Text: God's Sovereignty in Ecclesiastes
We usually work through these Bible book passages verse-by-verse. But I want us to pick up on this theme of God’s sovereignty which is first raised here in Ecclesiastes 1:13, but it keeps popping up throughout the rest of the book. Whenever Solomon mentions God’s sovereignty, he always talks about enjoying life and vice versa. "God is in control, so enjoy your life" seems to be the message.
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Quotation
1:13 I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind!
2:24 A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God,
3:10-11 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.
5:18 This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot.
6:1-2 1 I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on mankind: 2God gives some people wealth, possessions and honor, so that they lack nothing their hearts desire, but God does not grant them the ability to enjoy them, and strangers enjoy them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil.
7:14 When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other…
8:15 So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.
9:7 Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do.
