Six ways to encounter God here
A passage is not only to be understood; it is to be lived with. Choose how you want to meet God in Ecclesiastes 3:4, and Living Bread opens it right there.
Read itSit with the words themselves in The Word.Study itContext, cross-references, and questions in Bible Study.Be still in itLet it quiet you in the Sanctuary.Pray itTurn it into a prayer of your own.Hide it in your heartMemorize it, word by word.Encounter it togetherGather a few people to walk through it.
The web of Scripture around it
Where this passage echoes across the Bible, from the cross-reference graph, 12 connected Scriptures. Each one is a door to meet God there too.
- Romans 12:15
Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
- Psalms 30:5
For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
- James 4:9
Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
- Psalms 126:1
When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
- John 16:20
Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned…
- Psalms 126:5
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
- Luke 1:58
And her neighbours and her cousins heard how the Lord had shewed great mercy upon her; and they rejoiced with her.
- Luke 6:21
Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.
- 2 Corinthians 7:10
For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
- Exodus 15:20
And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.
- 2 Samuel 6:16
And as the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal Saul’s daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before …
- Matthew 11:17
And saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.
More to meet God in Ecclesiastes
How it points to Christ
Every Scripture ultimately leads to Jesus. See how the whole Bible points to Him in Christ in all Scripture, then meet Him for yourself.