Ecclesiastes 3

What can we know from the human level? In Hebrew, context is everything. Thus, it is common sense to folks in Solomon’s time, but was included by God’s design. No one should strive to be the same in call contexts, as if he could think of only one thing to do. That would be stupid, obviously morally wrong. The Hebrew culture viewed time in terms of ripeness, and the idea of measuring and metering time with schedules was almost alien. Yes, we know God will bring the seasons around in their course so long as the earth stands, but He retains the prerogative of mixing things up. Thus, we should always wait to see what God brings to us.
Depending on the context, the same person could righteously gestate and give birth or allow things to die. By parallelism, it could be a time to sow or plow things up, to wound or cure, to destroy or build. We all experience moments when it’s appropriate to weep or celebrate, to break down the walls or to build up the barriers for protection, or a time to build community and a time to isolate. There moments in our lives when ambition serves a purpose and when it’s pointless. There’s a time to rip your garments in the sorrow of great loss and a time to repair when grief is spent. It would seem there are many more times for keeping your peace than there are times to speak out, as there would be circumstances favoring friendship and love, as well as times for distrust and even forceful correction. So much we should be able to understand, because no single thread of conduct fits all occasions.
The same train of thought continues. What’s the point of fighting and struggling against things? When could you be sure from your human level that it’s appropriate to challenge the apparent fate of the day? How can you tell when God will give you success and when He will crush your dreams? And when should you continue in spite of the results? We are assured He has a beautiful plan, but you can’t discern it from your human wisdom alone. God will not be confined to such reasoning.
If all you can do is focus on the end product, you’ll never understand anything. There is a way of joy, and it’s not wrapped up in the stuff we can understand. It’s the joy of communion with God, in the give and take of His mercy and revealed truth. Work without His guidance is always pointless, even if you get all the things your human soul desires. God alone gives joy. Once you understand His revelation, it all makes sense. God’s creation remains fully in His hands, and He controls the results of human activity to suit Him. He’s the only One who really understands what He has done. You cannot change any of it.
To Solomon, it was painfully obvious that God was the final judge of what men did on the earth, but that people were naturally inclined to get things backward. There is a place in God’s plans for everything men could do, but people need to see that without God’s guidance, they are just smart animals. From the earthly standpoint, there was no particular advantage because all life ends on this plane. Every living thing returns to dust. Man cannot reason his way to recognizing what comes after this life. You cannot prove on the human level that people go to face God and animals fade into oblivion. About the only hope such a man has is to enjoy his life and work, because that’s the whole story of what he is if we have only what men can understand from their human abilities.