Here Solomon declares that God's decrees are immutable
Here Solomon declares that God's decrees are immutable
Here Solomon declares that God's decrees are immutable (CP Nu 23:19). God works everything perfectly after the counsel of His own will (CP Eph 1:11).
Man cannot add to or take away from the order of God's creation and must hold Him in reverential awe, and submit to His authority.
The wickedness and injustice in the world that mars God's creation will in due course be requited when God will judge both the righteous and the wicked (CP Ecc 11:9; 12:14 with Ro 2:5-11).
Solomon goes on to say in Ecc 3 that men are like beasts; that they have no preeminence over animals in-so-far as they both die and return to dust (CP 3:18-21).
Some in the professing church use this passage of scripture to teach the doctrine of soul sleep and the complete annihilation of the wicked dead. Yet there is no mandate whatever for this teaching in anything Solomon says here.
In fact in both Ch 3 and Ch 12 Solomon teaches how God has put eternity in men's hearts, and warns of His judgement of both the righteous and the wicked (CP Ecc 3:11, 17; 12:7, 14 (for a more detailed study on the foregoing doctrines refer to this author's study on Hell in Advanced Studies in the Christian Faith).
Solomon's statement in Ecc 3:21 that the spirit of the beast goes downward into the earth is the sum of what the Bible has to say concerning the destiny of animals.
His observation that the spirit of man goes upward is qualified in 12:7, where he states that the spirit shall return unto God who gave it (CP Psa 16:9-11; 49:15; 73:23-26; Isa 26:19; Dan 12:2-3).