Ecclesiastes 3:12

Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary - Ecclesiastes 3:12-15

CRITICAL NOTES.—Ecclesiastes 3:12. For who knoweth the Spirit of man that goeth upward.] Man has no distinct and certain knowledge of his own future destiny, or of that of other forms of life. The subject is altogether beyond the range of human experience. Like God Himself, the future state is unseen and unknown by us. We can indeed apprehend both these truths by faith; yet, from the mere human standpoint, we may reason with equal plausibility, so far as outward appearances are concerned, for... read more

William Nicoll

Sermon Bible Commentary - Ecclesiastes 3:1-15

Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 I. Not only has God made everything, but there is a beauty in this arrangement where all is fortuitous to us, but all is fixed by Him. "He hath made everything beautiful in its time," and that season must be beautiful which to infinite love and wisdom seems the best. "Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the creation;" and, so to speak, each day that dawns, though its dawning include an earthquake, a battle, or a deluge each day that dawns, however many it... read more

William Nicoll

Sermon Bible Commentary - Ecclesiastes 3:1-22

Ecclesiastes 3:1-5:20 A profound gloom rests on the second act or section of this drama. It teaches us that we are helpless in the iron grip of laws which we had no voice in making; that we often lie at the mercy of men whose mercy is but a caprice; that in our origin and end, in body and spirit, in faculty and prospect, in our lives and pleasures, we are no better than the beasts that perish; that the avocations into which we plunge, amid which we seek to forget our sad estate, spring from our... read more

William Nicoll

Sermon Bible Commentary - Ecclesiastes 3:12-13

Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 Even in the days of his vanity, Solomon saw that there would be more happiness if there were less hankering. Are the cases not numberless where, for all purposes of enjoyment, labour is lost because coupled with the constant lust of farther acquirement, or because of a strange oblivion of his own felicity on the part of the favoured possessor? I. One great source of our prevailing joylessness is our inadvertency. We need to meditate on our human happiness. There is for our... read more

Chuck Smith

Chuck Smith Bible Commentary - Ecclesiastes 3:1-22

Chapter 3Now we get into the weary, monotony of life. This has been used poetically as something that is very beautiful. "A time to love," and it's been made very beautiful, but in the Hebrew idea, it was monotony. Life is just monotonous.There is a time and a season, a time and a purpose under heaven to everything: there is a time to be born, a time to die; a time to plant, a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, a time to heal; a time to break down, a time to build up; a... read more

Joseph Sutcliffe

Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments - Ecclesiastes 3:1-22

Ecclesiastes 3:1 . To every thing there is a season. The seasons of the year are four. But the Zodiac, Job 9:0., divides the times into twelve signs. In a similar manner are the labours of the husbandmen, the shepherds, and the gardeners divided: the text refers to the actions of men. Ecclesiastes 3:11 . He hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh. “Que l’ homme puisse comprendre l’ œuvre que Dieu a faite,” that man may comprehend the work... read more

Joseph Exell

The Biblical Illustrator - Ecclesiastes 3:12

Ecclesiastes 3:12I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.Doing good and rejoicingSolomon proposes two things to our practice, if we intend to live happily and comfortably in this world. First, that we do good; and, secondly, that we rejoice. I must invert the order in which the words stand in the text, because doing good is the reason why we rejoice; and to be sure there can be no true joy or comfort in possessing or using any worldly... read more

John Trapp

John Trapp Complete Commentary - Ecclesiastes 3:12

Ecc 3:12 I know that [there is] no good in them, but for [a man] to rejoice, and to do good in his life. Ver. 12. I know that there is no good in them, ] i.e., No other good, but for a man to rejoice and do good in his life - i.e., Frui praesentibus et facere quod infuturo prosit, a to enjoy things present, and to do that which may do him good a thousand years hence; to expend what he hath upon himself, and to extend it unto others that are in necessity, this is to "lay up in store for... read more

Samuel Bagster

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge - Ecclesiastes 3:12

but: Ecclesiastes 3:22, Ecclesiastes 9:7-1 Samuel :, Deuteronomy 28:63, Psalms 37:3, Isaiah 64:5, Luke 11:41, Acts 20:35, Philippians 4:4-1 Samuel :, 1 Thessalonians 5:15, 1 Thessalonians 5:16, 1 Timothy 6:18 Reciprocal: Ruth 3:7 - his heart 1 Chronicles 29:22 - eat and drink Proverbs 21:15 - joy Ecclesiastes 2:24 - nothing Ecclesiastes 5:18 - it is good and comely Ecclesiastes 6:9 - Better Ecclesiastes 8:15 - Then I Ecclesiastes 11:8 - rejoice 1 Corinthians 7:31 - use Galatians 6:10 - do... read more

John Wesley

Wesley's Explanatory Notes - Ecclesiastes 3:12

I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.Them — In creatures or worldly enjoyments.To do good — To employ them in acts of charity and liberality. read more

Group of Brands