These three scriptures together point to the reality of the world we live in. Part of that reality is self-evident. The ups and downs of ordinary life are not always to be seen as rewards or punishments, but as simply the sort of thing we’re all heir to. Too often we want to interpret natural disasters, accidents, and the ordinary course of life or death as God’s response to good or bad behavior. The Teacher who wrote Ecclesiastes has seen it all, and he knows that bad things happen to good people, and, yes, sometimes good things happen to bad people.
