BLOG

Ecclesiastes, part 10, Toil Has Limited Profit

Ecclesiastes 3:9, 10 says,

⁹ What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils? ¹⁰ I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.

These verses are Koheleth’s reflection on the Time Poem in verses 1–8. The word translated “profit” is יִתְרוֹן (yitrôn), a key term in Ecclesiastes. It means surplus, advantage, remainder. It asks whether anything lasts beyond the moment. It is not asking if work has value, but if it has enduring gain. After listing every conceivable season of life, Koheleth asks: When all is said and done, what remains? The core question is NOT: Is life pleasant? But What is left over?

God is recognized as the Giver of the burden (toil, labor). This points back to Genesis 3:17-19,

¹⁷ … Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. ¹⁸ Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you will eat the plants of the field; ¹⁹ by the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

The original sin was tragic, not only because it brought mortality to Adam but because it also took the enduring profit out of man’s labor. The ground itself worked against them, producing “thorns and thistles,” that brought resistance and greater overhead costs to man’s toil. This creates tension. God orders times wisely (that is, justice according to His wisdom), yet humans experience that wisdom as burdensome.

In effect, this was God’s sentence upon Adam for the original sin. That sentence was a form of slavery to the ground. The ground had been cursed on account of Adam’s sin. How? Adam incurred a debt that he could not pay.

The Ground Assumes the Debt Note

In the law of God, most sins are payable, either through existing assets or through labor when the sinner is “sold” (as a slave) to pay the debt (Exodus 22:3). But in cases where the debt is impossible to pay—such as premeditative murder, rape of a married woman, etc.—the sentence is sent to the divine court where the Judge is capable of providing actual justice. Earthly courts are incapable of restoring the lawful order, because they cannot raise the dead nor can they un-rape a woman. Hence, the death penalty postpones the sinner’s trial to the end of the age.

Meanwhile, God sold mankind to the ground (earth), according to the law in Exodus 22:3. The ground then became man’s redeemer. A redeemer assumes the responsibility of the debt of the sinner, and in exchange, the sinner must work for his redeemer until the year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:53, 54). Hence, when the ground received the curse on account of Adam’s sin, the ground was called to be Adam’s redeemer.

But the ground did not love Adam; the ground made life difficult for Adam. Therefore, Jesus Christ came as the ultimate Redeemer, buying Adam’s debt note and assuming the responsibility to pay the unpayable debt by His own blood.

This was done according to the law of redemption in Leviticus 25:25, “his nearest kinsman is to come and buy back what his relative has sold.” A near kinsman had the right of redemption, and the previous slave owner did not have the right to refuse such a sale. For this reason, Jesus came in flesh and blood in order to identify with us as His “brethren” (Hebrews 2:11-14). This gave Him redemption rights that others (even friends) did not have.

Slavery Within Time is Temporary

The laws of redemption limit slavery to a maximum of 49 years (Leviticus 25:8-10). When that time is complete, the law of Jubilee cancels all debt by grace alone, even if the debt was not fully paid. The Jubilee is the law of restoration and has no time limitation. We could even add another verse to Koheleth’s time poem: “a time of slavery and a time of Jubilee.”

The time poem asserts that mortal life in slavery to the earth is ordered by God’s verdict. Humans labor within that structure of slavery, yet they do not gain control or surplus. This is not atheism or despair—it is a recognition of God’s purpose for time. Despair comes upon men only when they fail to recognize God’s sovereignty, His judgments, and the time limitations that He has placed upon all judgment (on account of His love nature).

While men have never truly implemented the law of Jubilee on its lowest application (49 years), Christ did His Jubilee work on the cross after 490 years (Daniel’s 70 weeks). In the final and highest application, He will implement the Creation Jubilee, I believe, after 49,000 years of Adamic history. In my view, this will be the final act of Jubilee—the restoration of all things.

Those who understand the mind of God by studying His laws will always have hope and can no longer despair, because they have understood that slavery to the earth was a righteous judgment but also temporary. In the end, all things will be ruled by King Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:27, 28).

Eternity in the Heart

Koheleth tells us in Ecclesiastes 3:11,

¹¹ He has made everything appropriate (yāpeh, “beautiful, fitting, suitable, in harmony”) in its time. He has also set eternity (hāʿōlām) in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

This does not say we enjoy every season—only that none of the seasons are random. All are ordered by the God who has limited each season by His control of Time.

The idea is not that humans possess eternity, nor do they have any control over it, but that they possess awareness of the beyond. In other words, they know there must be something beyond the present moment and beyond time itself. There must be a purpose for creation which the Creator has in mind and which He will bring about in its appropriate time.

The Hebrew word olam, translated “eternity,” is from the root word alam, “to hide, conceal, obscure, be secret.”

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h5956/nasb95/wlc/0-1/

Alam is the verb; olam is the noun derived from that verb. So Koheleth was referring to man’s desire to know the unknown. This is the call of the heart from the martyrs, who ask God, “Lord, how long?” (Revelation 6:10). There is no clear answer. There is only a white robe given to them with the word “that they should rest for a little while longer” (Revelation 6:11). God is very reluctant to reveal timing. He expects us to trust Him and learn patience, “so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.”

We read in Acts 1:6-8,

⁶ So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷ He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; ⁸ but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses…”

The disciples were given the revelation of the Holy Spirit; the martyrs were given white robes. Neither received the secrets of time that they sought. I believe that such secrets are reserved for those sons of God who are raised to immortality or transfigured before they die, when the Autumn feast days are fulfilled. Only when they have transcended time will they have the capacity to understand it fully.

Meanwhile, we have an awareness of things that are beyond time without having access to the full plan. We long for meaning in suffering but cannot master it while we remain “under the sun.” We are built for timelessness, but trapped in time. Humans live inside time but crave an outside view—and are denied it. This is not cruelty; it is creaturehood.

The paradox is seen in the fact that God has placed the desire within the heart of man to know the things that God has reserved for Himself. This is a deliberate human limitation. It is distressful for mortal men, but it also is God’s tool to teach us trust and patience.

Later Scripture will say that eternity is revealed in Christ, mysteries are partially unveiled, and that full understanding awaits resurrection or transfiguration through the feast of Tabernacles. But Koheleth speaks of the pre-resolution time of partial knowledge. It reveals the ache before the answer.