Man Cannot Know God's Ways

Ecclesiastes 8

¹⁴ There is a vanity which occurs on earth, that there are just men to whom it _n happens according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the _o righteous. I said that this also is vanity. ¹⁵ _p So I commended enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry; for this will remain with him in his labor all the days of his life which God gives him under the sun.

¹⁶ When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, even though one sees no sleep day or night, ¹⁷ then I saw all the work of God, that _q a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. For though a man labors to discover it, yet he will not find it; moreover, though a wise man attempts to know it, he will not be able to find it.

1. Cross References
   Psalms 73:14
   For all day long I have been plagued, And chastened every morning.
   
2. Cross References
   Ecclesiastes 2:14
   The wise man's eyes are in his head, But the fool walks in darkness. Yet I myself perceived That the same event happens to them all.
   Ecclesiastes 7:15
   I have seen everything in my days of vanity: There is a just man who perishes in his righteousness, And there is a wicked man who prolongs life in his wickedness.
   Ecclesiastes 9:1 - 3
   For I considered all this in my heart, so that I could declare it all: that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God. People know neither love nor hatred by anything they see before them.
   
3. Cross References
   Ecclesiastes 2:24
   Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God.
   
4. Cross References
   Job 5:9
   Who does great things, and unsearchable, Marvelous things without number.
   Psalms 73:16
   When I thought how to understand this, It was too painful for me -
   Ecclesiastes 3:11
   He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
   Romans 11:33
   Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
   

New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.