Forty-two Saturdays into
our study of Ecclesiastes, we come at last to the phrase which we have taken as
our theme: “Time and chance happen to them all.”
Why do things happen to us the way they do? Ancient mythology makes reference to three goddesses who were thought to assign individual destinies to
mortals at birth. The Greeks called them the Fates. The unsaved talk about “Lady Luck”, usually on their way to the casino, personifying an imagined force to which
nobody can really appeal, but which every gambler hopes to have on their side. Even
atheists find themselves inexplicably using the phrase “It was meant to be”, as
if a random roll of the dice could actually signify intelligent purpose.
But in a world without revelation and with no sure way to know if there is a God or how he operates,
we can only blame time and chance for the good and bad things that come
our way.