Ecclesiastes 3:10

I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. I HAVE SEEN THE TRAVAIL ... GIVEN TO THE SONS OF MEN. Needless anxieties and toils, which men might avoid, if they would but trust in God, and leave the disposal of events and the time in His hands, waiting on Him in patience, and with believing prayer....

1-10 To expect unchanging happiness in a changing world, must end in disappointment. To bring ourselves to our state in life, is our duty and wisdom in this world. God's whole plan for the government of the world will be found altogether wise, just, and good. Then let us seize the favourable opportunity for every good purpose and work. The time to die is fast approaching. Thus labour and sorrow fill the world. This is given us, that we may always have something to do; none were sent into the world to be idle....

Verse Ecclesiastes 3:10. _I HAVE SEEN THE TRAVAIL_] Man is a sinner; and, because he is such, he suffers....

EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 3:1 Section 4. In confirmation of the truth that man's happiness depends upon the will of God, Koheleth proceeds to show how _Providence arranges even the minutest concerns; that man can alter nothing, must make the best of things as they are, bear with anomalies, bounding his desires by this present life._ ECCLESIASTES 3:1 The providence of God disposes and arranges every detail of man's life. This proposition is stated first generally, and then worked out in particular by means of antithetical sentences. In Hebrew manuscripts and most printed texts Ecclesiastes 3:2 are arranged in two parallel col

I HAVE SEEN THE TRAVAIL WHICH GOD HATH GIVEN TO THE SONS OF MEN,.... The pains and trouble they are at to get a little wisdom and knowledge, Ecclesiastes 1:13; and so to obtain riches and honour, peace and plenty, which sometimes they do obtain, and sometimes not; and when they do, do not keep them long, for there is a time for everything. This the wise man had observed, in a variety of instances; and he considered the end of God in it, which was for men TO BE EXERCISED IN IT, or "by it"; or "to afflict" or "humble [them] by it" l; to let them see that all their toil and labour signified little; all depended on a divine blessing, and no happiness was to be had in the creatures; all was vanity and vexation of spirit; Ecclesiastes 1:13. l לענות ב

2. FURTHER RESULTS OF THE SEARCH CHAPTER 3 _ 1. The times of man under the sun (Ecclesiastes 3:1)_ 2. When then is the good? (Ecclesiastes 3:12) 3. Concerning judgment and the future (Ecclesiastes 3:16) Ecclesiastes 3:1. There is a time for everything. Twenty-eight “times” are mentioned, beginning with the time of birth and ending with the time for peace. Everything has a fixed time: Life-death; seeding-harvesting; killing-healing; breaking-down building-up; weeping-laughing; mourning-dancing, etc. These are the times of the entire race; that is what human life

From one point of view this section may be entitled _In Praise of Opportunism,_ from another _Human Helplessness._ Every action in which man can engage has its allotted season, but who can be sure that he has found this season? God's plan can be known only in part, hence man's efforts to succeed are always liable to fail; nothing remains but to enjoy the present. ECCLESIASTES 3:1. PURPOSE: read business or affair. In the Heb. the antitheses that follow are in parallel columns like a Greek _sustoichia_ or Table of Contrasts. Ecclesiastes 3:2. Untimely birth and untimely death are both abhorrent; human entrances and exits have their parallel in the agricultural operations of sowing and reaping. There is no need to compare...

SEEN THE TRAVAIL. considered the business. TRAVAIL. See note on Ecclesiastes 2:23....

_I have seen the travail, which God hath given_ Better perhaps, I HAVE SEEN THE LABOUR, or THE BUSINESS. As before, in the preceding verse, the thinker, once back in the old groove of thought, repeats himself, and we have the very words of ch. Ecclesiastes 1:13, but, as before, here also developed by a wider experience. In this feeling after the right "season" for each act, this craving for a harmony between man's will and the divine order, he recognises a divinely implanted instinct which yet finds no full satisfaction....

2. Working outside the framework of God's providence results in frustration and defeat. Ecclesiastes 3:9-22 TEXT 3:9-22 9 What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils? 10 I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. 11 He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one's lifetime, 13 moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his laborit is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will remain forever, there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take away from it, for God has so worked tha