Context No. 3747 of 4322 · Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 9:7-12: in context

7Go your way—eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works. 8Let your garments be always white, and don’t let your head lack oil. 9Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your life of vanity, which he has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity, for that is your portion in life, and in your labor in which you labor under the sun. 10Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor plan, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where you are going. 11I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all. 12For man also doesn’t know his time. As the fish that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them.

After so much reflection on the vanity of life, Qoheleth turns to counsel that is warm and grounded: eat your bread with joy, drink with a glad heart, enjoy life with the one you love, and whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your strength. Life under the sun is uncertain and brief, so receive its good gifts as God's gifts and pour yourself wholeheartedly into your work.

And he adds a humbling observation: the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise; time and chance happen to them all. We do not control the outcomes; the swift do not always win the race, and the able do not always prosper. Two lessons meet here. Receive the ordinary joys of life, food, drink, love, work, as gifts from God's hand, with gratitude. And hold the results humbly, knowing that outcomes are not finally in our hands but in God's. We give ourselves fully to our work, and we leave the outcome to him.

Do I receive the ordinary joys of food, love, and work as gifts from God's hand, giving myself fully to what I do while humbly leaving the outcomes to him?

Sources

Ecclesiastes 9:7: "Go your way, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works."
Ecclesiastes 9:10: "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work... in Sheol, where you are going."
Ecclesiastes 9:11: "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong... but time and chance happen to them all."