Ecclesiastes 3:18–22 God Is Testing Them

The account of King Solomon, in his study and survey of life under the sun near the completion of his toil, is one of inconvenient truth. While the rawness of his declarations may be too potent a flavor for our mouths and ears to enjoy, they are sobering medicine that helps restore our sight and gives hope to our toil in a life that, absent such hope, is vain and fleeting.

Whereas death is absolute, final, and no respecter of persons when considered from what humanity can observe under the sun, every potential method of establishing a real hope that reaches beyond the grave has been tried and has failed. We can give lip service and offer false accounts, but death has been the undefeated coach of Father Time. Neither has ever come close to losing any game in which they have played, except one, when they encountered the Christ.

Ecclesiastes 3:18–22 brings King Solomon to one of the more humbling conclusions in his survey. God is testing humanity so that we might see something about ourselves that we would rather not acknowledge. When death is brought into the comparison, all of the things we use to establish our significance begin to lose their power. Solomon compares the children of man to the beasts of the field, not because there is no distinction between them, but because the grave reveals something that human achievement cannot overcome.

Times and Seasons as the Test of God

Solomon writes, “I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts” (Ecclesiastes 3:18).

This is an unpopular opinion and an unfortunate declaration for the human ear to hear. The establishment of times and seasons, the work, labor, and toil it takes to succeed, and the care, sacrifice, and emotional investment made during those times are eventually separated from us by death. Death is the end to which humanity has been relegated because of sin and our separation from our Creator.

When we speak of God opposing the works of humanity, this does not mean that God is hostile toward human work itself. Solomon has already taught that work, food, enjoyment, and even the ability to enjoy what God has provided can be gifts from him. The opposition is found in the inability of our work to become what we repeatedly try to make it. God has not allowed our toil to become our salvation. We can work until the end of our lives, but no amount of work can provide the complete wholeness, permanence, and purpose for which humanity searches.

The repetitive nature of the times and seasons becomes part of the testing of God. One generation works, builds, gathers, sacrifices, and invests itself into the world. That generation eventually dies, and another generation inherits what remains and begins filling the bucket again. Testing reveals the true worth of something, and the times and seasons continually test the things in which humanity invests its hope. Wealth, pleasure, knowledge, accomplishment, influence, and the works of our hands all have value within their proper place, but none of them can save us from the grave.

The testing therefore has a purpose. The inability of life under the sun to provide what humanity ultimately seeks should cause us to look beyond life under the sun. The disappointment is not merely an act of cruelty that leaves humanity without hope. If we allow the testing to perform its proper work, it exposes the inadequacy of creation to satisfy what can only be satisfied through communion with the Creator.

What King Solomon observed in this contentious relationship between humanity and the limitations placed upon us becomes a teaching moment if we are willing to listen. God is humbling humanity so that we might understand our proper position. Although we have autonomy, we are not autonomous. Although we have dominion, we are not sovereign.

This brings to bear an important question. What makes humanity so special? What are the distinguishing characteristics and qualities that set man apart from the animals that also inhabit the world? Communication alone cannot be the distinction because beasts communicate. Building cannot be the distinction because beasts build. Planning, collecting, saving, collective effort, passion, pleasure, sacrifice, competition, and even forms of conquest can all be observed somewhere within what we call the animal kingdom.

There is nevertheless an enormous distinction between humanity and the beasts of the field. Humanity bears the image of God. Before humanity had built anything, discovered anything, organized anything, or accomplished anything, God declared, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26–27). Our distinction did not originate with us. It was given to us by our Creator.

The human mind operates at a higher level than simple creaturely instinct, not because humanity independently made itself better than the beasts, but because we have been gifted with the image of our Creator. Humanity considers matters such as good and evil, righteousness and wickedness, justice and injustice. We build with complex intention. We reason about what we have done, what we should do, and whether what we desire is right. These capacities belong to humanity because of the image we have been given to bear.

This is why the psalmist can look into the heavens and ask, “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:3–4). Psalm 144 asks the same question and describes man as being like a breath whose days are like a passing shadow (Psalm 144:3–4). When we compare ourselves to the wonder of the earth we inhabit and the universe in which we find ourselves, what is actually dependent upon any one of us for its continuation tomorrow?

Our significance does not come from creation needing us in order to continue. It comes from the One who made us and declared what we are. We are more than merely the bodies we inhabit because humanity bears the image of God. Yet the times and seasons force us to reckon with the fact that this distinction does not make us sovereign over death.

This is why the testing is so significant. Humanity continues to work, build, plan, and pursue satisfaction, but the recurring pattern of life exposes that nothing under the sun can provide the answer we seek. Hopefully, for the sake of salvation, that testing causes us to turn from created things toward our Creator.

Hope's Final Challenge

King Solomon then gives the reasoning behind his declaration. “For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return” (Ecclesiastes 3:19–20).

Solomon is not teaching that humanity and beasts are equal in intelligence, complexity, moral responsibility, creativity, or purpose. His comparison is much more specific and much more devastating. Despite our achievements, we meet the same bodily result. We breathe the same air. Our works have no saving power, no matter how magnificent they may become. The beast dies and returns to the ground. Man dies and returns to the ground.

Psalm 39 asks the LORD to make us know our end and understand how fleeting we are. The psalmist observes that man goes about like a shadow, heaps up wealth, and does not know who will eventually gather what he has accumulated (Psalm 39:4–6). This is the same pressure Solomon is applying. Human work can be useful, beautiful, complex, and worthy of admiration while still being powerless to save the person who accomplished it.

Consider the Taj Mahal and a beaver's dam. There is an obvious distinction in complexity, beauty, planning, intention, and human creativity. The same is true when comparing the Egyptian pyramids to an underground colony built by ants, or a castle on a hill to a bird's nest in the top of a tree. Solomon's argument does not require us to pretend these works are equal. The distinction simply provides no advantage when they are placed beside the grave.

The Taj Mahal cannot save the people responsible for its construction. The pyramids could not prevent the deaths of those who designed and built them. A castle cannot keep its builder alive forever. Human creativity may produce works that remain for generations, but the work can remain while the worker disappears.

We can see this in some of the most basic accomplishments upon which civilization depends. Who first constructed the wheel? Who first learned how to reliably generate and control fire? Their discoveries continue to shape the lives of generation after generation, yet the individuals themselves have been lost to history. The works remain useful while the worker has long since returned to the dust.

This is the devastating hip check Solomon brings against human pride. Our accomplishments may be far greater than the instinctive work of a beast, but none of those accomplishments give us saving power. They do not stave off death. They do not guarantee that the memory of the person will remain. They cannot satisfy the eternity God has placed within the human heart.

Genesis tells us that the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living creature (Genesis 2:7). Later, Scripture repeatedly describes death through the loss of that breath. Abraham breathed his last and died (Genesis 25:8). Isaac breathed his last and died (Genesis 35:29). Jacob breathed his last and was gathered to his people (Genesis 49:33).

Eventually, Jesus Christ entered that same human condition. Mark records that Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last (Mark 15:33–37). The One through whom creation came entered into the death experienced by his creatures. The body we inhabit is not the entirety of who we are, but when the breath God has given no longer fills our lungs, the body returns to the dirt from which it came.

Solomon then asks the question that observation under the sun cannot answer: “Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?” (Ecclesiastes 3:21).

Solomon can observe that man dies. He can observe that the beast dies. He can observe both bodies returning to the earth. What he cannot discover through observation alone is what happens beyond that point. The question reaches beyond what the eyes can see, and therefore the answer requires revelation from the God who sees beyond the grave.

Luke records something significant when describing the death of Jesus. Christ cried out, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” Then he breathed his last (Luke 23:44–46). The death and resurrection of Christ provide an answer to the uncertainty Solomon places before us. The human spirit is not extinguished simply because the body dies, and bodily death itself is not humanity's permanent condition.

The resurrection of Christ gives us more than the vague comfort that something continues after death. It gives certainty that death does not possess the final word over humanity. Christ entered the grave bodily and came out of the grave bodily. The answer to Solomon's question is ultimately found in the One who passed through death and emerged victorious from it.

The End of Hope Under the Sun

Solomon concludes, “So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?” (Ecclesiastes 3:22).

The recurring statement Solomon has given throughout Ecclesiastes now makes more sense. We should enjoy the time we have under the sun because, when we return to the dust, the opportunities we had to participate in the work of this life come to an end. This does not mean that Solomon gives permission for humanity to live however we please. He has already stated that God will judge the righteous and the wicked because there is a time for every matter and every work.

Enjoyment therefore exists beneath the authority of God. Solomon is not telling us that life is short, so we should satisfy every fleshly desire before we die. He is telling us to receive the portion God has given us without demanding that our work accomplish something it was never capable of accomplishing. Work can be enjoyed as a gift from God without being worshiped as the source of our identity or salvation.

King Solomon believes there is a God. He has been introduced to the character of God through the Law of Moses, has demonstrated expressions of faith, and has seen a vision of the LORD. His survey is not describing a world in which God has been absent or inactive. God is present throughout Ecclesiastes. He appoints times, gives life, gives work, provides enjoyment, tests humanity, and promises judgment.

What humanity lacks under the sun is the ability to solve its own condition. We cannot reason our way out of death. We cannot work our way out of it. We cannot build our way over it. We need a redemptive intervention from God.

Job described this problem with striking imagery. There is hope for a tree because even after it has been cut down, its roots may remain and its shoots can appear again. Yet Job asks what happens when man dies and is laid low. Man breathes his last, and where is he? (Job 14:7–12). A tree appears to possess a renewal that man cannot produce for himself.

If there is no intervention from outside humanity, death remains final and absolute. What product of man's knowledge under the sun can refute the evidence every generation has failed to climb over? The same fate that consumes the beasts of the field covers humanity like a blanket. Everything we have tried to overcome death has failed.

Hope Beyond the Grave

If we honestly survey the field in light of what King Solomon has recorded concerning the plight we face in death, where are believers supposed to find hope? If the image of God gives humanity a distinction from the beasts but does not prevent our bodies from returning to dust, and if nothing produced under the sun can rescue us from that condition, then the answer must come from somewhere beyond the system Solomon has surveyed.

This is where the gospel of Christ speaks directly to the problems Solomon highlights. God has always been working toward the redemptive recovery of humanity. The times and seasons expose where we invest ourselves and what we trust. Generation after generation has supplied the same evidence that nothing under the sun can save us from death. We may disregard that evidence and continue investing ourselves in what cannot save, or we can look to the One who was sent from heaven to address the problem of death and restore humanity to communion with God.

The image of God was not erased from humanity by sin. Believers and unbelievers alike remain image-bearers. Humanity still thinks, plans, builds, reasons, creates, and exercises dominion because of the dignity God gave us at creation. What sin has broken is our communion with the God whose image we bear and the proper orientation of the gifts he has given us.

When those gifts are exercised apart from communion with God, humanity continually turns them inward. We pursue pleasure, achievement, possession, recognition, and created things as though they could provide the satisfaction for which we were made. We take what was intended to be received as a gift and bow down to it as though the gift were God.

Redemption restores peace and communion with our Creator. Through Christ, humanity is brought back into a relationship in which creation can be received and enjoyed as a gift rather than worshiped as the source of ultimate satisfaction. The goal is not merely to escape the physical world but to be restored to what humanity was intended to be, living in righteousness and communion with God.

Acts 17 gathers many of these truths together. Paul declares that the God who made the world and everything in it is Lord of heaven and earth. He is not served by human hands as though he needed anything because he himself gives mankind life, breath, and everything else. God determined the allotted periods and boundaries in which humanity would live so that people should seek him (Acts 17:24–27).

The times and seasons therefore are not evidence that God has abandoned humanity. They exist within his sovereign work and should cause us to seek him. Paul then moves from creation and the appointed times directly toward repentance and judgment. God commands people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man he appointed. The assurance of that coming judgment has been given by raising Christ from the dead (Acts 17:30–31).

The resurrection is God's declaration that death does not have the final word. What humanity could not produce through its own hands, God accomplished through Christ.

Hebrews explains how deeply Christ entered the human condition. Since humanity shares in flesh and blood, Christ likewise partook of the same things so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death and deliver those who, through fear of death, were subject to lifelong slavery (Hebrews 2:10–17).

This is the answer human toil could never produce. Humanity has created wonders with the hand and mind God gave us, but none of those wonders could purchase salvation. We could not earn reconciliation by building something magnificent enough, learning enough, collecting enough, or accomplishing enough. Salvation is the work of God offered as a gift to those who believe.

The cross does not reveal that humanity somehow accumulated enough worth to deserve rescue. Our dignity was already established when God made us in his image. Humanity then took that dignity and repeatedly turned away from the One whose image we bear. We pursued idolatry in its many forms and exchanged communion with God for satisfaction in created things.

Yet God did not abandon rebellious image-bearers to the condition we could not escape. Christ shed his blood to secure salvation for those who believe. The wonder is not that humanity earned such a sacrifice but that God freely provided what humanity could never obtain by its own work.

Jesus makes the final promise explicit. He declares that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him has eternal life, and he repeatedly states, “I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:35–40).

This is where the problem raised by Solomon finally finds its fullest answer. Humanity does not merely hope that the spirit somehow survives the death of the body. Those who are in Christ have the promise of bodily resurrection. What death separates will not remain separated forever. On the final day, the people of God will be restored to the wholeness for which humanity was created, free from sin and in perfect communion with our Creator.

The eternity God placed within humanity explains part of the restlessness we experience while searching through creation for something that will finally satisfy us. The times and seasons test that search. Death exposes the failure of everything under the sun to complete it. The gospel reveals that the answer was never going to be found in something humanity could build with our hands or discover with our minds. The answer is found in restored communion with the eternal God through Christ.

Conclusion

The times and seasons under the sun are a test. They expose what we believe is valuable and where we invest our hope. Generation after generation works within those times, and generation after generation eventually encounters the same grave. The question is not whether our toil can accomplish real and useful things. It can. The question is by what standard that toil becomes ultimately significant.

If our work is expected to give us permanence, overcome death, satisfy eternity, or replace communion with God, then the times and seasons will eventually expose its inability to carry that weight. The work may remain while we disappear. The monument may stand while the builder is forgotten. Nothing under the sun can provide what humanity ultimately needs.

King Solomon's testing brings us low enough to see our proper place. We bear the image of God, but we are not sovereign. We exercise dominion, but we cannot command the grave. We possess extraordinary capacities of mind and hand, but none of them can save us. The testing should therefore turn our eyes beyond what has been created toward the Creator who gave us life and breath in the first place.

The gospel reveals that God has done what humanity could never accomplish. Christ entered death and rose from the grave. The human spirit is not extinguished with the death of the body, and bodily death is not the permanent future of those who belong to Christ. Resurrection from death is the promise of God to those who are in him.

Death and Father Time have consumed every generation we have ever known. Humanity has never built anything strong enough, discovered anything powerful enough, or accumulated anything valuable enough to defeat them. But death encountered the Christ, and for the first time the grave did not keep the one it received. In his resurrection is the hope that Solomon could not discover by surveying life under the sun, and in his promise is the answer for everyone who believes.

Scripture References

Genesis 1:26–27 — Humanity is uniquely created in the image of God and given dominion over the rest of creation.

Psalm 8:3–4 — The vastness of creation causes the psalmist to marvel that God is mindful of humanity and cares for us.

Psalm 144:3–4 — Humanity is compared to a breath and a passing shadow, emphasizing the shortness of life.

Psalm 39:4–6 — Human life is fleeting, and even accumulated wealth eventually passes into the hands of another.

Genesis 2:7 — God forms man from the dust of the ground and gives him life by breathing into him.

Genesis 25:8 — Abraham reaches the end of his life, breathes his last, and is gathered to his people.

Genesis 35:29 — Isaac breathes his last and dies after a long life.

Genesis 49:33 — Jacob breathes his last and is gathered to his people after speaking with his sons.

Mark 15:33–37 — Jesus enters fully into human death, crying out from the cross before breathing his last.

Luke 23:44–46 — At his death, Jesus commits his spirit into the hands of the Father before breathing his last.

Job 14:7–12 — Job contrasts the apparent renewal of a cut tree with humanity's inability to raise itself after death.

Acts 17:24–31 — God gives humanity life and breath, appoints our times, calls all people to repentance, and gives assurance of coming judgment through the resurrection of Christ.

Hebrews 2:10–17 — Christ shares in human flesh and blood and enters death in order to deliver those enslaved by the fear of death.

John 6:35–40 — Jesus promises eternal life to those who believe in him and declares that he will raise them up on the last day.