Today we will read Ecclesiastes 8: 10-17:

10 Then I saw the wicked approaching to sacrifice; they go in and out of the holy place, and they boast in the city that they have done such things. This also is vanity. 11 Because sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the human heart is fully set to do evil. 12 Though sinners do evil a hundred times and prolong their lives, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they stand in fear before him, 13 but it will not be well with the wicked, neither will they prolong their days like a shadow, because they do not stand in fear before God.

14 There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people who are treated according to the conduct of the wicked and wicked people who are treated according to the conduct of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. 15 So I commend enjoyment, for there is nothing better for people under the sun than to eat and drink and enjoy themselves, for this will go with them in their toil through the days of life that God gives them under the sun.

16 When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, how one’s eyes see sleep neither day nor night, 17 then I saw all the work of God, that no one can find out what is happening under the sun. However much they may toil in seeking, they will not find it out; even though those who are wise claim to know, they cannot find it out.

As the Teacher writes and ponders so much, so much of what he seems to deal with and think through is bound up in this – mystery.  We see that laid out quite well in verse 17 – no one can find out what is happening under the sun.  Even those who claim to know do not know. Only God knows. The righteous are often dealt with like the wicked and the wicked are often dealt with like the righteous. 

There is suffering that does not make sense, there is blessing that does not make sense.  So little of what we see and what we experience makes sense sometimes. God often doesn’t make sense. 

There is a mystery to God. There is a mystery to God’s plan. There is a mystery to God’s will. We don’t always (or often) understand it. We want to. This frustrates us.  We want to know. We want to understand. We don’t like mystery.  

But without the mystery, where would faith be? If we understood it all, or it all made sense or we could figure it all out, where would faith be? And we know when we read the bible that it is faith that pleases God. It is faith that makes God happen.  And it is faith through which we are saved. 

So, we need the mystery.  As hard as it is or may be, we need the mystery, because, without the mystery, we would not have the faith.  Trust in God, even when He doesn’t make sense or when you don’t understand Him. Trust. Trust in the mystery of God.  It’s that faith, in the midst of mystery, that pleases God.  Trust in Him.  Even in the mystery. 

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