Time and Chance
Again, I observed this on the earth: the race is not always won by the swiftest, the battle is not always won by the strongest; prosperity does not always belong to those who are the wisest, wealth does not always belong to those who are the most discerning, nor does success always come to those with the most knowledge – for time and chance may overcome them all.
Surely, no one knows his appointed time! Like fish that are caught in a deadly net, and like birds that are caught in a snare – just like them, all people are ensnared at an unfortunate time that falls upon them suddenly (Ecclesiastes 9:11-12).
Why do things take place as they do? Are they all actively determined by God? How much is due to simple happenstance, and what does that say about God in our lives?
Throughout Ecclesiastes 1:1-9:10 the Preacher meditated upon the hevel of life under the sun: all is vain, futile – truly absurd. He compares most human endeavors toward meaning as “chasing after wind”: people pursue pleasure, wealth, wisdom, or other things looking for ultimate purpose and satisfaction and will be disappointed and frustrated by all of them. To rage against such truths is itself futile and striving after wind. God understands better than we do. In Ecclesiastes 8:17-9:10 he has been meditating on the finite nature of humans and the universality of death. He thus commended enjoying relationships, food, and work, to not take them for granted, and to resist seeking to find immortality in any aspect of life “under the sun.”
The Preacher continued with more relevant observations. The person with the best skill may not always win the race; battles are not always won by the side with material and numerical advantages. The wisest and most discerning may not be the most prosperous and wealthy. Knowledge is no guarantee of success. Despite all the best training and preparation, one may still prove unsuccessful in their endeavors. In short, life does not come with guarantees; time and chance happen to everyone (Ecclesiastes 9:11).
Time and chance do not only feature in terms of human exploits; they also affect our very existence. We do not know the appointed time of great misfortune and/or our death; just like the fish or bird were going about their lives until they got caught in the net or snare, so are we when misfortune and/or death comes (Ecclesiastes 9:12).
The Preacher has thus exposed two of the most pernicious lies we tell ourselves: “it might happen there, but it will never happen here,” and, “it may happen to them, but it will not happen to me.” We certainly understand why we might want to believe these lies; we all want to avoid and escape disaster, misfortune, and death. If we can create some kind of distance between ourselves and unfortunate events and circumstances, we can assure ourselves we are fine and well.
Yet time and chance can overcome any of us. We can treat our body well and do those things which should support health; we might get sick or suffer a heart attack and die anyway. We can invest much in education but still not succeed in our endeavors. All kinds of athletes prepare and train well, perhaps becoming acknowledged as the greatest, or one of the greatest, athletes of their discipline; and yet they might still lose their competitions. Military history is filled with the stories of large armies brought low and defeated by far smaller groups; likewise, the news often features stories of people going about their lives, perhaps even enjoying a moment of great success, only to then suffer some grievous loss or death.
Furthermore, much of our judgmentalism and resistance to mercy toward others stems from our anxieties and fears about disaster, misfortune, and death. When we are informed about the miseries or misfortunes of others, we often look for reasons to justify or rationalize why it is happening to them in such a way as to create that distance between them and us. People are in poverty? It must be their fault: they must have made bad decisions. People are sick? It must be their fault: they must have not maintained the right diet, or did not appropriate use the correct essential oil or medicine. What is left unsaid, but absolutely implied, in all such statements is, “and so it won’t happen to me.” Such thoughts and feelings rooted in anxieties and fears leads to behaviors rooted in anxieties and fears: it is easy to want to avoid helping the poor and blaming the poor for their poverty, or to avoid the ill, if one is imagining one might suffer something similar by being in proximity to such people.
Now there were some present on that occasion who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.
He answered them, “Do you think these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered these things? No, I tell you! But unless you repent, you will all perish as well! Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower in Siloam fell on them, do you think they were worse offenders than all the others who live in Jerusalem? No, I tell you! But unless you repent you will all perish as well!” (Luke 13:1-5)
In the ancient world it was assumed people suffered because they had sinned: after all, if God blesses the righteous and curses the wicked, and someone suffered some great malady or misfortune, therefore, they must have been wicked and deserved it. The Preacher questioned that logic: everyone has sinned, and there are times when the righteous suffer evil and the wicked prosper (cf. Ecclesiastes 7:15, 20, 8:14). In Luke 13:1-5 Jesus would entirely overthrow such logic: while sometimes people will reap misfortune because they sowed iniquity, the suffering of misfortune does not automatically mean such a person is a worse sinner than anyone else. Jesus instead warned how, without repentance, everyone would perish.
Such is the ultimate lesson also of the Preacher’s words, perhaps expressed best in the adage “but by the grace of God there go I.” We cannot blame others for their misfortune in order to prove why we will not suffer the same. We might not suffer the same right now, but we might suffer it in the future. Furthermore, if we had found ourselves in the same circumstances as the person we are blaming, we would most likely end up making the same or similar decisions. Misfortune and suffering should never become excuses to become alienated from others; instead, such are invitations to show compassion and mercy toward others just like we would hope others would show compassion and mercy to us in similar circumstances (cf. Matthew 7:12). Ultimately, it can happen here. It can happen to us.
But what does this say about God and His sovereignty? Many have taken great theological comfort in a particularly exacting view of God’s sovereignty, imagining God actively decrees everything which happens down to the smallest movements of the universe, and thus anything we suffer is God’s direct, explicit, specific will for us. Such “comfort” is very much like the “comfort” conspiracy theorists take in their conspiracies: no matter how awful, terrible, or ugly things get, they are still yet being actively controlled and managed, be it by God or by the secret cabal behind the scenes. What would be the terrifying prospect which would cause distress to people who take comfort in such theology or in conspiracy theories? The prospect of time and chance happening to us all. That current circumstances are as they are because of the bumbling and often incompetent behaviors of people in elevated stations does not engender confidence about the future. The idea wealth tends to flow to those who already have it and our prospects are already mostly defined by the circumstances of our birth does not seem fair or just to most people. That any of us, despite our best efforts, might come down with some terrible illness at any time, and there is not much we can do about it, causes a lot of anxiety. And is not the point of believing in God to maintain confidence in a higher power who can provide blessings and keep us from misfortune anyway? If time and chance happen to all of us, why bother?
The Creator God who manifested Himself in Jesus is sovereign; but He also is love, and thus does not seek His own, and does not coerce or compel. Under the sun we will all suffer from the vicissitudes of time and chance; how and why we suffer in particular ways in this life, or, for that matter, how we might escape certain forms of suffering in this life are mysteries which God perceives but remains beyond our understanding. But in Christ we have the hope of incorruptibility and immortality in the resurrection, and will no longer be caught in the snares of the Evil One and the powers and principalities. Let us therefore maintain our confidence in God in Christ through the Spirit and obtain that resurrection!
Ethan R. Longhenry
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