"The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings are like firmly embedded nails - given by one Shepherd." Ecclesiastes 12:11

After taking a hard look at human enterprise, Solomon concludes that despite all efforts, nothing of lasting significance can be achieved in a life lived under the sun. In Chapter 3, verses1-8, he lists 14 sets of contrasting statements: ‘a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace’.

Solomon looked at this dilemma cynically, but he could look at it constructively. Joy and pain share a role in human life. Solomon is writing this section of Ecclesiastes from a godless, humanistic perspective, and so continues to bemoan the meaningless of it all, concluding that the fate of a man is no better than that of an animal, because ultimately we all die the same death.

But turn on to Isaiah, and God says to him, “I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things” (Isaiah 45.7). Darkness and disaster can also contribute to growth and character. God’s business is not only found in goodness and light, but he does some of his best work in the dark too. In Isaiah 45:3, God says to Cyrus, “I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name”. There are treasures hidden in the darkness! It is true we are often architects of our own disasters for our freedom to love involves a freedom to hate, a freedom to be wise gives us a freedom to be fools, but at the same time, darkness and disaster may have a divine role to play. There are questions about suffering for which I suspect there are no answers. But it is what we do in our troubles that we can address. Solomon wearily ploughs his way through more confusion and emptiness in Ecclesiastes, until he finally at the end of his book finds the thing he has been looking for. ‘Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man’ (Ecclesiastes 12.13).