Ecclesiastes Chapter Three, Permanence

Ecclesiastes 3:14 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.

The preacher frames his understanding of God in extremely laudatory tones. God is all powerful, or omnipotent. Whatever Elohim chooses to do, no one can withstand it, and nothing can be added to it; neither can anyone take away from it. Among the things God has done is this: “Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures,” James 1:18.

Ecclesiastes Chapter Three, Reality Verses Perception

Ecclesiastes 3:12 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.

Remember that throughout this letter the preacher does not refer to God as Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel, but rather as Elohim, the Creator God established in the opening chapter of Genesis. God is revealed to all men of every society throughout history through human conscience and the natural order, Psalm 19:1-4, Romans 1:20, etc.

Ecclesiastes Chapter Three, Craving Eternity

So work is a means God chose to sustain our mortal bodies while on earth. But we become occupied with it, becoming workaholics or shunning work altogether and seeking a means to avoid honest gain. Yet the only thing that we are supposed to become this occupied with is God’s presence and kingdom, and how to advance His gospel. We’ve taken a vehicle to provide for the needs of the body and made it into something it was not meant to be, and therein lies the source of human vexation with work. Hollowing it out and shedding its original intention, work becomes either an opportunity for autonomy when we strike it rich, or crushing drudgery when we are trapped in a “dead end job.”

Ecclesiastes Chapter Three, God Makes Life Beautiful

Ecclesiastes 3:9 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.

Ecclesiastes Chapter Three, Many Seasons

 Ecclesiastes 3:5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing; [6] A time to gain, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; [7] A time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; [8] A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war and a time of peace.

The preacher continues his list of building verses tearing down. Of note there is the time to embrace, or refrain from it. The idea of embracing here does not suggest a lover’s embrace specifically, but the notion of accepting the camaraderie or affection of another. It even seems to intimate the idea of clasping hands, as in the unspoken token of agreement between parties.