June 15, 2025 - Ecclesiastes 7:14 - "Dealing with Tragedy"

Ecclesiastes 7:14

 "In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him."

By definition, a tragedy is a drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow. For some, it is the upheaval of an entire nation, whether due to political, economic, or pandemic-related problems. Towns and communities suffer tragedy when, suddenly, the “normal” day-to-day life of that community is disrupted for one reason or another. Like ants scattered by someone stepping on their world, they scramble to regroup. Some suffer tragedy individually, as one acquaintance recently shared—being in a waiting room full of people when a surgeon came out and told them that their loved one had terminal cancer. They felt alone, isolated, and devastated.

How are we, as the LORD’s own, to deal with these unexpected upheavals? Are they random events that befall us?

1. These are times to bow to the LORD and consider. The word in Scripture means to ponder, weigh, or discern. Where does one look in such times? We are to see God’s hand even in the worst of situations, knowing that He ordains all things for our good and His glory. The truth is that God has set adversity over against prosperity for His purposes.

2. These are times to thank the LORD.  We recognize His many blessings day by day, in which He mercifully gives us peace, health, and well-being—all undeserved. Yet how often we take those days for granted, until or unless He takes them away. When He does, we are reminded that our health, wealth, or state of being is truly only loaned to us for a time, and He, the Creator and Judge, has the right to reclaim them according to His good pleasure. As Job declared in His time of suffering: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21).

3. These are times to remember that all that befalls us is ordained of HIM.  It is the mercy of the LORD when He causes us to look outside ourselves and cry unto Him in our need, our greatest need being our sinful self, and the blood and righteousness of the LORD Jesus alone. Our nature is such that it takes tragedy, sent from God, to bring us low at Christ’s feet and cause us to look to Him for mercy, grace, and strength. And yet, if Christ has paid the sinner’s debt, there is not an ounce of wrath in what the LORD ordains for His own, but rather a merciful drawing of our hearts to Him. As declared by the prophet Jeremiah in Lamentations 3:32, 33 “But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.” God’s afflictions are not out of wrath for His people, but tempered with mercy and purposed for their good, to draw them to Himself.

Here we are reminded that both joy and sorrow, prosperity and adversity, are appointed by the sovereign hand of God. The believer rests not in changing circumstances, but in Christ, who is the unchanging Rock. In prosperity, we rejoice in Christ our portion; in adversity, we are taught to consider Him who governs all things for our good and His glory. Thus, the Lord strips us from resting in the creature, that we may find all in Christ alone—our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. As the prophet Habakkuk declared in his day: “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines… Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:17, 18). Even in adversity, the believer finds joy, not in circumstances, but in the LORD Himself.