Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2462
“For who knows what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he passes like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will happen after him under the sun?” Ecclesiastes 6:12.
MAN at his very best is only a man and well might David ask, “What is man?” In part, he is but red earth, as Adam was when he came fresh from his Maker’s hands. Solomon tells us, in the 10th verse of this chapter, “That which has been is named already, and it is known that it is man.” Whoever has lived and however wise and good and great he may have been, he has only been a man. Sum him up, add all together—the beauties of his body, the skill of his mind, even the virtues of his spirit—and what is he, even then, but a man? And man is but vapor which appears for a little while and then vanishes away! He is as thin and airy and unsubstantial as his own breath! He comes and he goes—he is here such a little while that he can scarcely be said to be, for he does but begin to be before he closes his being so far as this world is concerned.
As man is as light as vanity, itself, Solomon urges that it is idle and vain for him to attempt to contend with God. He puts it thus in the 10th verse, “Neither may he contend with Him who is mightier than he.” It is always unwise to contend with one who is mightier than yourself, but when the disparity is so great as between man and God—the creature of an hour and the self-existent Creator, the poor feeble worm called man and the almighty invincible God—you see at once what folly it is, even, to think of battling with Him. He is, indeed, foolish who would contend with his Maker! Shall the potsherd strive to break the rod of iron? Or shall the wax war against the fire? There is no hope for us in such contention, yet how frequently do we—even we who are His children—begin to contend with our God! If He chastens us, if He takes away our comforts, if He permits us to be disappointed in our aspirations, straightway we begin to enquire, “Why is this?” And I have known times when that question has been carried very, very far—when some whom we have esteemed have seemed to pick a quarrel with God and they would not forgive Him. Their dear one was taken away and they called God cruel. If they did not say as much, they thought it. And they have kept the anniversary of that bereavement, year after year, still unforgiving towards their God. That kind of rebellious spirit creates 10 times more pain than the affliction, itself, did! Then the rod falls more heavily than it otherwise would have done and the soul, dashing itself against the pricks, wounds itself against the goad far more than it was originally intended to be wounded!
No, Beloved, we cannot contend with our Maker. Are we wiser than He? Do we understand Providence better than He does? Can we sit in judgment upon Him? Do we dare to think of arraigning the great Judge of All at our bar? Let us only think of Him aright and we shall say, “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because You did it.” And, by the Grace of God, we shall get even further than that and be able to say with the Patriarch Job, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord…Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” What we often lack is the spirit of complete submission. If our childhood—I mean the childhood that comes of our regeneration and adoption into God’s family—if that childhood does not teach us this submission, our commonsense ought to teach us. We ought to feel how absurd it is that we, who are but as a fly, should fight with the flame, for we can but burn ourselves by such folly! We cannot possibly carry on successful contention against One so great, so good, so wise as the infinitely glorious God!
I am going to speak to any who are in that contending state of mind and also to others who, perhaps, may get into such a state unless they are warned of the danger to which they may be exposed. The ship that is on the stocks and that has never been out to sea is astonished when it is told that such-and-such a vessel leaks in the day of storm! But when that ship is, itself, launched and gets out in the rough waters, it may come to wonder how the timbers resist the billows and how it is that anything keeps afloat at all. You who are young and inexperienced in the Christian life, and have never done business on great waters, may think yourselves competent to judge and to condemn the older ones for all their deficiencies and failures, but, perhaps, when you get into the same seas, yourselves, you may behave no better than they have done. Therefore, take warning beforehand and learn from Solomon’s words a lesson concerning yourselves, that you may never set yourselves in opposition to the Lord God, or compare yourselves with Him.
I. The first subject of consideration in our text is OUR LIFE WHICH WE KNOW—“Who knows what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he passes like a shadow?”