NOTES for Ecc 3:1-11

To be honest, at first glance the picture painted by Ecclesiastes seems rather bleak. Birth and death, building and destruction follow one another in an endless cycle... And the dominant feeling this creates is unease and anxiety: nothing dear to us lasts forever... Yet after all this, Ecclesiastes suddenly speaks of peace. What is this peace that the Lord has placed in the human heart from the beginning? Apparently, it is not simply the absence of anxiety. His peace is more complex than the human idea of peace. His peace is something bound up with His Person. What He has placed within us is, first and foremost, a longing for Him. Through this longing, we can assess our situation from the perspective of eternity. And from this perspective we see that everything passes and everything changes... but He abides forever. He abides with us, for He is faithful. And this peace in the heart cannot be destroyed.