Time and Chance

Hopewell Church of Christ

July 23, 2000 Mural Worthey

Introduction

Last Sunday night, we considered Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. Since we have just completed that study, with the overall message of this book in mind, I want tonight to look at Ecclesiastes 9:11. Here is the verse (the last phrase) in a couple of versions.

"I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill, but time and chance happeneth to them all. For man also knoweth not his time; as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them." (Eccl. 9:11-12, KJV.)

". . . but time and chance happen to them all." (NIV and RV.)

The issue raised. There are two conflicting views that arise from this passage. Does Solomon mean that some things happen in life to us that are accidental, incidental, by chance (as we use the term)? Or, does it mean that the strongest do not always win in battle because the Lord decides who wins? The Lord determines who becomes rich, who wins the race and who loses?

"And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hands." (These were David’s words to the Philistine giant, Goliath; 1 Sam. 17:47.)

"Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God." (Psalm 20:7.)

Solomon implies that God is behind the events of our lives. For example: After listing the seven pairs of events that are appointed a time and season, he says, "He hath made everything beautiful in his time; also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end." (Eccl. 3:11.) "Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight which he hath made crooked?" (7:13.)

However, in Eccl. 9:11, Solomon did not attribute these events of life to God, but to time and chance. What did he mean?

Focusing the question. The question is not whether God acts in our world. He does. It is not whether there are laws of nature that cause many of the uncertainties for our lives. There are. The question is not whether man himself is the cause of many of the things that befall him. Man is. The question is not whether Satan is another factor to consider. He is.

The two questions are these: Does God control directly all the factors and that, in the end, all things happen according to the will of God? Is there, biblically, a category for time and chance within the work of God?

Why can we not depend upon the fastest winning the race? The strong winning the battle? The wise becoming rich and having plenty? Those with gifts being favored?

Some examples

Recently, the church building in Amory, MS, suffered some damage to the roof due to a hail storm. When the contractors were trying to repair the roof, during the night another storm came and torn off their plastic covering to protect it and drenched the auditorium damaging the carpet, pews and sheet rock overhead. Someone commented upon hearing this story, Why would God destroy his own place of worship? That question is based upon the belief that everything happens according to the will of God. There is no category for time and chance.

A preacher and his family tried to raise the necessary funds to go overseas to do mission work. When their efforts failed, the comment was made that their going was not according to the will of God. Is it not possible that Satan was resisting their efforts to do God’s will? Were not elders involved in that decision whether to support them or not? Maybe, the missionaries were not careful in laying out their proposal to convince the mission committees of the need. Were there not many factors involved??

The tower of Siloam fell in Jerusalem and killed eighteen people. Why did the tower fall? (Luke 13:1-5.) Did it fall because there 18 were terrible sinners above all the rest in Jerusalem? Jesus said, No. Did it fall because God planned the death of those 18 people at one time? Did it fall because the building was old and the wind blew hard against it? Maybe the builders made some mistakes in its construction and design. Were they killed accidentally? Is there such a thing as an accident?

What about the death of Jesus for the sins of the world? Was it planned of God and did it happen according to his will? Yes, the Bible answers that clearly. Should the tower of Siloam falling on 18 people be considered as the work of God in the same way as the death of Jesus? I do not think so. Are car accidents today the same as the death of Jesus as far as his involvement? Of course not. Did God cause the church building in Mississippi to be damaged? No.

All these are complex questions. We all are affected by the answers that we give to these questions. I think that it matters what we believe about these issues. It will affect our view of God and our response to God when difficult things happen to us in life.

The difference between then and now

Does it matter when Solomon made that statement? Is there a difference between the Garden and today, between Solomon’s day and ours?

After the creation, the Bible says that God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good. (Genesis 1:31.) Obviously, Solomon’s laments in Ecclesiastes show that many things have changed since the Garden. The world is filled with both good and evil. We have many things to befall us that Adam and Eve did not prior to their disobedience. "Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions." (Eccl. 7:29.)

We can safely say that our world is not the same world that existed for Adam and Eve in the garden paradise. But does that mean that God has changed in his sovereignty and activity? Does man exercise a free-will in his activities? I believe that the Bible indicates that many such things have changed since the innocent days of Adam and Eve.

The questions that Solomon raised are valid questions for any thinking person today. I do not believe that we should blame Solomon with lacking faith in God for raising his laments about this world. He mentions God 37 times in this book. He was an Old Testament preacher with a desire to preach good words to his audience. He was a exceptionally wise Old Testament preacher. God gave him that wisdom. He wrote that he was using that wisdom to try to determine what good things a man should be done in his life. Solomon did not have all the information that we have about the resurrection of the dead and eternity. But his major questions still apply.

Some think that resolving this matter in favor of the sovereignty of God settles all the questions. But it does not. If we decide that all the events of the world are done according to the will of God, then we will still ask the "why questions." I find it more difficult to think that God causes and accomplishes all the events of our lives, than to believe that "time and chance happen to all."

The meaning of time and chance

We have already looked at the meaning of "time" as Solomon repeatedly stated in chapter 3. It means an appointed time and season. We gave Nehemiah 2:5-6 and Esther 9:27. Nehemiah set a time for the king when he would be leaving and when he would return. In Esther, the Jews celebrated their deliverance two days every year in the way prescribed and at the appointed time. We concluded that the words do not mean that God has appointed an exact time for our births and deaths. Rather, there are common events to all our lives over which we have little control. These occurrences are already in place in our world before our births. Solomon does not voice a moral judgment about war, hate and death. He simply says that they exist. This is one of his arguments for the vanity of life. There is nothing new under the sun.

What does "chance" mean? Unlike "time," this word is not commonly used in the Bible and it does not convey the same meaning as our word in the English. It is found only here and in 1 Kings 5:4. Solomon said concerning his building the temple, "But now the Lord my God hath given me rest on every side, so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurent." What is meant is "incident" such as calamity, disappointment, unforeseen occurrence. All human purposes are liable to be changed or controlled by circumstances beyond man’s power and incapable of explanation.

Solomon indicates that wars and adversaries kept David from building the temple for God. But now the Lord had given Solomon rest from those activities so that he could accomplish the task. In this case, God was certainly involved, but so also were the enemies of David. They kept David busy fighting and hindered the building of God’s temple.

Therefore, "time and chance" means appointed times and various occurrences in life. These happen to every man. There are many different factors which affect whether one wins a race or not, whether one becomes rich or remains poor, whether one wins a battle or loses it. These have not changed from Solomon’s day to ours.

God Takes The Rap

by Guy N. Woods

A brokenhearted man, his body torn with uncontrollable grief, weeps before the bier of his beloved wife. Well-meaning, but pitifully misguided friends gather about him, and in an effort to soften the blow which has brought the world crashing down upon his shoulders inform him that his immeasurable loss is to be ascribed to the will of God.

A mother grieves beside the pale and lifeless body of her only child, and the preacher seeks to comfort her with the assurance that her child’s death was the result of the will of God to which will she must now resign herself! Disaster strikes with the suddenness of the lightning’s flash, fortunes are swept away as with a flood, poverty stalks menacingly among innocent and helpless children, and the whole is attributed to the providence of God.

How Satan must grin with sardonic glee at such accusations leveled against the Judge of all the earth! How he must rejoice to hear the character of the great Jehovah slandered, his motives impeached, and his will thus prostituted by those who affect to be his friends! With what satisfaction must he contemplate the ever-increasing multitudes of infidels to which such reasoning inevitably leads! And how comfortable it is for the casual observer in such instances to blame God for what he cannot or will not explain in any other way.

This disposition to let God bear the blame is a common one to humanity; and it finds expression in many ways. Wars, famine, pestilence and death are regularly laid at his feet. When the heavens withhold the rain and the earth becomes dust; when crops fail and cattle die, men read in the disaster traces of the will of God. The law of the land solemnly takes cognizance of the fact that some matters are to be attributed to "an act of God." Among the contingencies thus classified would be tornadoes, storms at sea, earthquakes, and the like. Many contracts provide that in the event of an "act of God" the contract becomes unenforceable.

A recent instance of this disposition characteristic of man to let God take the blame in any matter wherein he either will not or cannot trace out the causes is to be seen in the West Frankfort mine disaster, in which one hundred nineteen miners perished, and for which God has now been officially blamed! In an editorial which appeared earlier this year in an Eastern newspaper these words appeared.

"Once again God must take the rap. In the aftermath of the West Frankfort mine disaster a jury has solemnly assembled, meditated, contemplated, and brought in its unanimous verdict. God has been convicted. According to the jury the murder of one hundred nineteen coal miners must go down in the history books as "act of God." As Murray Kempton reported in this newspaper the other day, no one---government, coal operators, mine workers, or union officials---seemed prepared to look for any other culprit. It was so easy to blame God. After all, he couldn’t talk back. More reverent men might have hesitated to reach this verdict. They might have considered the guilt of congressmen who have stubbornly refused to pass a mine safety law. They might have weighted the responsibility of the coal operators who have tenaciously resisted mine safety legislation. They might even have studied the role of UMW officials who have always seemed more concerned with union politics than with human safety. But all that would have involved many complicated problems. It was so much easier to blame God."

So much easier to blame God! May we ponder these words most seriously when next we are disposed to excuse our own neglect, and ignore immediate causes, by blandly assigning the responsibility for all such matters to the remote cause, God.

Conclusion

If everything happens according to the will of God, then he is to blamed for all such disasters. I do not believe that such a doctrine should be embraced. I believe that "time and chance" happen to all.