There is this passage of the scriptures that I have tried to understand for a while now which I have not been able to really grasp. So I thought I should throw it open and seek the wisdom of the elders.

[color=#990000]Ecclesiastes 9:10-12

I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; [b]but time and chance happen to them all. [/color] [/b]

Emphasis on , Time and chance happens to them all.

What does that really mean?

The race is not given to the swift; nor the battle to the strong, but to the one who endureth

Is one of the few bible quotes I relate to life.

To me; it's means Life is not a sprint it's a marathon. Through being consistently diligent you will succeed and gain the most.

The time and chance thing is about destiny. What is menat to be will be and all that.

Peace and prosperity

There's a way to read that verse that makes it seem as though life is a dice experiment. But it wasn't meant to be so. Actually, the book of Ecclesiastes looks at issues of life first from a human point of view, before drawing a coherrent inference that leads to the 'conclusion of the matter' at the end of the book (chap. 12:13-14).

In a nutshell, there are all kinds of experiences common among people of every clime. From a human point of reference, these experiences are 'vanities' - because they seemingly bewilder the mind and have no standardised application. If all we strive for is constrained by mere human goals in view, then life would have seemingly no meaning (thus the often repeated 'vanity of vanities'). The quote again (Eccl. 9:11-12) -

¹¹Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. ¹²For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.

"For man does not know his time" - that's why I supposed the human perspective is highlighted first, before the conclusion at the end. Compare that clause with James 4:15 - "For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that" - and that's the safest place to be, because a person who is walking in God's will does not experience life as a matter of "time and chance". As the Psalmist said in Psa. 31:15 - " My times are in thy hand," and those who go through life with that in view experience a very different outlook in life - one that is sure and not left to chance.

That's my own understanding of the topic.

the NLT bible writes ''time and chance happens ro them all'' as
''being in d right place at the right time''
so i think that this is all about being ready to take opportunities whe they arrive
The average xtian is very dull in mind and waiting on the will of God which we have so wongly interpreted as mental laziness
Xtians no longer think while the unbelievers are busy developing themselves and positioning themselves to take opportunities and they are taking life with all they have.
This is why the children of this world are wiser than the children of light.

TIME
Every1 rich and poor, tall and short, black and white have the same time each day 24 hours
evry one has been given opportunities --chance
When u maximize the time that you have and the opportunities that you are given
u make the most of Life.

Read up Bishop Abioyes's book on "Making the Most of Opportunities"

It will help u a lot.

time and chance the gambling mans mantra.

There has been a monument shift in Man's understanding of Time over the centuries and the millenia. What is referred to as Time in Ecclesiastes has very important differences from what we understand as time today. The essential difference lies in whether or not we accept Time as an Agent in the events that occur or whether we consider Time to be completely inert or even non existent.

Let me try to explain better. For ancient people a period of Time has intrinsic to it certain qualities that another period of time will not have. As a result certain events that take place in a certain way can only take place like that during that era. The Time has it's effect on the events that happen during it. They becomes Signs of the Time.

On the other hand, the modern view is one of an inert time that doesn't have an effect on the events that occur in it. In this case Time can be marked arbitrarily. It doesn't matter if it is one o'clock or 3 o'clock, or whether it is Monday or Sunday, or if it is the age of Gold or the Age of silver. For example if you lose you money you will cry. You will cry whether it is 2009 or 2005. The time has not bearing on it, it is the fact of losing your money that makes you cry.

So on the one hand there is the idea that there is a Time to Laugh and a Time to Cry whereby if you are crying it is because it is a time for tears and Bad things happen due to the Time. And on the other hand the Time has nothing whatsoever to do with whether what happens is good or bad.

Ecclesiastes belongs to that ancient view of Time. It is saying that the day that it has been apportioned for you to lose the Battle you will lose the battle due to the Time whether or not you are the strongest on the field or you have superior numbers or you have superior military technology. The Time that it is apportioned for you to Cry you will cry no matter how carefully you take care of your matters. Some way or another something will come along and make you cry.
The Tears are really due to the Time and in fact the ostensible cause of your tears, whether losing your job or divorcing your wife, are just coincidental and not really the cause at all.

lunafish:

The race is not given to the swift; nor the battle to the strong, but to the one who endureth

Is one of the few bible quotes I relate to life.

That is not fully a bible quote but actually a song that takes from the bible quote.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080227141731AAviORs

. . . But to the one who endureth was added on to a part of the bible quote.