[3:1-4:9] Solomon took a fatalistic approach to life. He looked at life and thought there was a time for everything under the sun. He says in verse 9, “What do people really get for all their hard work?” He thought there was nothing better than to be happy and enjoy himself as long as he could. He said in verse 13, “People should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, that these are gifts from God.” Again, Solomon is approaching this passage from a humanistic standpoint. He doesn’t understand that not everything in this life is a gift from God. God gives mankind a free will to choose. Not everything is beneficial for mankind to partake in.
Solomon doesn’t understand the grace and mercy of God. He says in Ecclesiastes 3:14, “…whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it…” Solomon, in his fatalistic approach to life, leaves no room for the mercy and grace of God. He leaves no room for God to work through the praying believer’s life.
The viewpoint of mankind is that mankind and beast are no different. Humanism puts no value on human life. Solomon thought this to be true and that mankind and beast go to the same place. This is a selfish viewpoint of life; Afterall, if mankind is like an animal they can live like animals. Solomon questions in verse 21, “For who can prove that the human spirit goes up and the spirit of animals goes down into the earth?” Solomon believed that there is nothing after life on earth. He believed that the dead are better off than the living.
Solomon is pessimistic in his approach to life. He condemns the oppressor and the man that is trying to do good. There is no “right way” in this approach to life; it is all so meaningless and depressing.
