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Junction 2
THE
PREACHER’S PRACTICAL PERSPECTIVE
A
mini-commentary by Dick de Jong
on the Bible
book ECCLESIASTES, or THE PREACHER.
First
published in Dutch as a series of six sermons,
now in a
different form in English
*
The set-up of this booklet is such that it can be used
as a mini-commentary on Ecclesiastes. It is the intention of the author to show
that the book Ecclesiastes as a collection of wise sayings nevertheless offers
a coherent discourse in which the connections can certainly be recognized. When
the titles which are given to the six chapters are read together as one
sentence they show a short summary of the book as follows:
Enjoy life and be happy,
but fear God;
then there is hope for the future,
for wisdom offers joy and peace,
a living dog is better than a dead lion,
and life has meaning after all.
It is also the author’s conviction that the person who
in this book appears as ‘the Preacher’ and is presented as the writer is King
Solomon. Of this conviction he gives account in chapter 2 and the notes added
to this chapter.
The author of the present booklet is minister-emeritus
of the Ebenezer Canadian Reformed Church at Burlington,
This booklet has first been published in the Dutch
language with the title Praktisch
Perspectief. Bible verses have been quoted from the Revised Standard
Version except where it is mentioned differently.
*
1.
Ecclesiastes 1-3:13 Enjoy life and be happy
1.1 The Preacher’s theme and his
seven refrains
1.2 Our burden and our joy come
from God’s providence
1.3 Our burden and our joy are to
be experienced in a responsible way
1.4 We may work and be happy in
spite of our limited possibilities
2. Ecclesiastes 3:14-5:7 But fear GOD
2.1 Two times the warning: fear God
2.2 Who the Preacher is
2.3 What the situation is
2.4 Why the warning of the Preacher
is so serious
3. Ecclesiastes 5:8-7:14 Then
there is hope for the future
3.1 Consider Him who can make straight what has become
crooked
3.2 God gives us room for enjoyment
of life
3.3 Lack of enjoyment does not give
us the right to blame God for it
3.4 The certainty that God is
righteous gives hope for the future
4. Ecclesiastes 7:15-8:1 For
wisdom offers joy and peace
4.1 Wisdom reckons with the reality
of sin
4.2 Wisdom recognizes the madness
of temptations
4.3 Wisdom does not blame God but
man's hypocrisy
5. Ecclesiastes 8:2-9:10 A living dog is better than a
dead lion
5.1 The Bible about lions and dogs
5.2 As long as there is life there
is hope
5.3 Fear God and honour the government
5.4 Not a long lasting life is
good, but a good life lasts long
6. Ecclesiastes 9:11-12:14 And life has meaning after all
6.1 What is man, and what is the
meaning of his life?
6.2 Life has meaning because man is
not subject to chance
6.3 Life has meaning because man is
dependent on God
6.4 Life has meaning because man is
accountable for his actions
1. ENJOY
LIFE AND BE HAPPY!
Ecclesiastes
1:1–3:13
1.1 The theme and the
seven refrains
Whoever sets out to find the
message of Ecclesiastes or, as it also can be rendered, the Preacher, must be
struck by the fact that seven times there is a refrain in this book, which
encourages us to be happy and to enjoy ourselves.
This seems to be strange in a book
wherein time and again the theme ‘vanity of vanities’, ‘everything is
meaningless’ is repeated. This theme is not only mentioned at the beginning of
the book, but still at the end as well.
Does this perhaps mean that this is
a book which contradicts itself, a book in which two contrasting messages have
been mixed together? Indeed, quite a few interpreters of this book have
concluded that this is so.
The Preacher is pessimistic, they
say, but now he himself or someone else, for example an editor of the book, has
tried to counter this pessimism by adding these seven refrains; but still the
result is quite poor, because he keeps seeking this joy and happiness in this
meaningless world. This is caused by the fact, thus they continue, that the
Preacher could not yet look beyond the horizon of the Old Testament; he did not
yet know about heaven, where our soul will go when we die, and where only then
we are set free from the utter vanity of this world.
So this is why the Preacher’s
sevenfold refrain that we may enjoy life as a gift of God and thus can be
happy, clashes with his theme that everything here on this earth is fruitless
and vain.
But is this really so? Can this be
the case in a book in which God Himself speaks to us? Of course not. This
cannot be true. There is no contradiction between the Preacher’s theme that
‘all is vanity’, ‘everything is meaningless’, and his sevenfold refrain that we
can and may enjoy life and be happy, even when time and again we meet and
experience that everything appears to be meaningless in this life.
In the verses 10-13 of chapter 3
the Preacher has made it quite clear that it is a gift of God whenever we can
and may enjoy life in spite of the burden which God has also laid on our
shoulders.
But of course the questions arise
why this is so, and how this can be. It is these questions, which are dealt
with and answered in this chapter.
1.2 Our burden and our
joy come from God's providence
We can and we may be happy thanks
to God’s providence in which everything is well‑arranged by God. This appears
from 3:11a where it says that God has made everything beautiful in its time.
However, in verse 10 the Preacher says that he has seen the burden God has laid
on men.
And earlier already, in
He also told us there why this is
so.
The Preacher has started an
investigation of the wisdom of all that is done under heaven, what is the sense
of all that happens and is done here on earth, what is the point of it.
First he looked at the course of
things in nature, in chapter 1, and all that he saw was an endless repetition
without any change. And thus he concluded: vanity, it is all meaningless, there
is no progress and no result here on earth.
But although we could call him a
philosopher, he did not stay in his study between his books, but he went out
into the world. And thus we read in chapter 2 that now he sets out to test by
experience the pleasures of cultural life. He laughed and he had fun and drank
a good glass of wine; he built bungalows and vineyards, gardens and parks, he
became rich and he used his wealth by surrounding himself with good music, lots
of servants and pleasant company.
But again, the conclusion which he
had to draw was that it is all vanity, meaningless. It does not offer any
result which lasts here on earth.
Then, in the third place (in
2:12ff), he began a completely different experiment. He went to compare the
life of a fool and that of a wise man; but although he preferred the wise over
the fool, yet the result was the same. It is nothing, because both die and will
be forgotten. There is nothing which lasts here on earth.
But now it would be understandable
if some people would become impatient, especially some of the younger
generation, and would be inclined to say: but is that Preacher not himself a
fool; he just talks like people of the world are used to talk. Of course all of
life here on earth is pointless if you look at it that way; that’s why so many
people say, let’s have fun, for some day we die anyway. Let us get high on
drugs and booze in order that we may escape this senseless life. That is also,
why quite a few people (many young people among them) in their despair even
consider committing suicide, because life does not make sense to them anymore.
But should not therefore a
preacher, and certainly this Preacher, know that you cannot look for lasting
results here on this earth, because that what gives meaning to life only comes
hereafter, when we go to heaven?
Yes, what to say about this?
The answer is that also the
Preacher knew very well that our life here on earth is not everything, and that
therefore it is not finished when we die. And yet, just because he is a
preacher, yes THE Preacher, the son of David, king Solomon, who in his work may
prepare the work of our highest Preacher and Teacher Jesus Christ; because of
this he refuses to take the easy way‑out which, alas, is preached by so many
preachers and churches and Christians. They say for example: oh yes, life is
hard, life is cruel, life is pointless, but we have one consolation for you: if
only you let Jesus come into your heart, then you will go to heaven when you
die, and everything will be all right; that is the only thing which really
counts!
However, no, this Preacher does not
recommend this to us, but he says to us what we read in his first refrain, at
the end of chapter 2, verses 24 and 25, “There is nothing better for a man than
that he should eat and drink, and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw,
is from the hand of God; for apart from Him who can eat or who can have
enjoyment?”
He repeats this in his second
refrain, in chapter 3:12,13, “I know that there is nothing better for them than
to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; also that is God’s gift
to man that every one should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil.”
What? But how can the Preacher say
this, while at the same time he maintains his theme, his conclusion that all of
life and all our work here on earth is vanity, meaningless, and without
concrete and lasting results?
The answer to this objection is
what we read in verse 11a, “He (God) has made everything beautiful in its
time”, in other words, everything has in its time been well‑arranged by God.
It should be noted that the
Preacher does not say that God has everything made or well‑arranged for after
this time, for after this life, in heaven. Of course not, for that is not the
point! The Preacher does not seek for what is the meaning of life after we die,
but before we die, while we are living and working under the sun. He is
searching for what really counts in this pointless life, where everything seems
to be without meaning.
It is for that reason that in the
futility of our daily life he points to what God has done and still is doing in
this world. Whatever good and pleasant there is in this vain world, it is there
because God gives it to men. Therefore, whoever you are, when you receive these
things, food, drink, and pleasure in your work: be happy with it, and rejoice.
But how about it if you lack these
good gifts, if instead you experience sorrow, hardship, poverty, war? Even
these things do not happen to us by a blind fate or chance; these too come from
the hand of God, because everything, also what appears to be bad, is well‑arranged
by Him.
But how can this be? This is so in
the first place because God has created everything good and beautiful. And
although, because of sin, much has changed, the fact that God still maintains
and governs this world and all events in this world has not changed.
This is what the Preacher confesses
in chapter 3:1ff, “For everything there is a season and a time for every matter
under heaven”, and then follows a summing up of all kinds of events which are
pointless as far as we are concerned. Take for example verse 8b where it says,
there is “a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for
peace” (we might in this respect think of the lunacy of civil wars, and we
might think of the up till now still futile peace-negotiations between Israël
and the Palestines, and of so many catastrophes which happen all over the
world) - ; and well may we ask with verse 9, “what gain has the worker (for
example the secretary-general of the United Nations, and the President of the
United States, but also every worker in the Kingdom of God), what gain has the
worker from his toil?” What is the advantage of it? And yet, when it really
comes down to it, our comfort is that also these events are not up to chance,
but in the hand of God; well‑arranged with a view to bringing God’s creation‑works,
also this earth, to the goal for which He has created it.
And thus will God also bring about
a turn in the events whenever He deems it the time for that. This He has done
for example at the end of the year 1989 when, what nobody had foreseen, the
Berlin Wall came tumbling down, followed by the breakdown of the Soviet Union.
Also these events were well-arranged by God with a view to His plan with this
world, His plan of redemption in spite of the meaningless chaos which we people
have made of it and still make of it in now this country and then another
country or region of this earth.
For we know that God so loves this
created world, that He gave us His only Son (John
He is the Good Shepherd, Christ,
the Son of God.
It is for this reason that the
Preacher can say: rejoice and be happy, here and now already, during and in
spite of your toil under the sun!
1.3 Our burden and our
joy are to be experienced in a responsible way
We read in verse 11b, “also He has
put eternity into man’s mind”. What does this mean? In short it comes down to
this that God has created man with a sense of history. If and when we see and
experience all these seemingly independent and separate events as mentioned in
the chapters 1-3, things which do not appear to have any meaningful connection,
then we still have the desire, the ability and the responsibility to search for
the connections, for the thread which ties them all together, the Hand of the
eternal God who governs them and keeps them together.
Indeed, for all these events do not
just happen to us like for example they happen to plants or animals; no, man
must play his own role in them and accept his own responsible position. This is
so, because he has been created after God’s image, as God’s representative on
earth. Thus he may and can and even must recognize the well‑arranging hand of
God in the events which take place, however confusing they may appear to him.
Yes, he must himself bring these events about and play his own role in them.
In
Since then everything is subject to
vanity. Yet, God has put eternity into man’s mind, a sense of history, which is
based on the beginning of history, God’s work of creation. But this also means
that God has maintained his mandate to man that he should work with this sense
of history in also making history himself, by developing this by God created
world.
Now if you look at the chaos in
which this world finds itself, but forget what is the cause of all those
miserable events which time and again are taking place; if you only see
disconnected events and isolated happenings; indeed, how could you be happy
when terrorists let car bombs explode, nations commit genocide, an earthquake
kills thousands of people and millions are starving; or when sorrows neither
pass your own house by, with illnesses, or when a beloved one is suddenly taken
away from the midst of his work and family, and you are visited by mourning and
loneliness?
But if you know the hand of God
which connects all the events which take place, even if you yourself cannot
find out what God has done and what is God’s intention with it, and what is the
sense of it, then you may and can nevertheless be happy also with every good
thing which you receive as well.
The Preacher says, “also has God
put eternity into man’s mind” (or heart as the Hebrew has it), a sense of
history! A sense of history? But which history would this be? It is the history
which derives its meaning from the promised Redeemer of this world and its
history, Jesus Christ.
And thus may we today as
new-testamentical church read it this way ‑ because the one Shepherd Jesus
Christ has written these words ‑ : ‘God has put Jesus into our heart’. Of course
not Jesus as a mystical religious feeling, as it is often meant when people say
that you must let Jesus come into your heart; no, but Jesus as the Redeemer of
the world, of the creation which God loves so much.
1.4 We may work and be
happy in spite of our limited possibilities
In chapter 3:11c the Preacher says
that man may work and be happy, “yet so that he cannot find out what God has
done from the beginning to the end”.
Our sense of history and the
possibilities of our historical research are limited. In the first place they
are limited because we are but creatures. In the second place they are also
limited because of sin. The apostle Paul puts it this way in Romans 8:20: “for
the creation was subjected to futility”, that is vanity, because of our having
become slaves of sin.
Now the most serious sin to be
mentioned in this respect is the sin of forgetfulness. Forgetfulness? Yes, but
not in the sense that some people just cannot remember things too well. No, the
forgetfulness which is meant here is when people do not pay attention to and
thus forget about the works of God, when they forget about the hand of God in
their lives and in the history of the world.
So was Israël forgetful, although
it never forgot the historical fact of its departure from
But
It is for this reason that de
Preacher concludes at the end of this book with these words in chapter
12:13,14: “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his
commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed
into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil”.
For those who forget this, not only
this life will be meaningless, but also their life hereafter will be utter
vanity. But for those who do not forget but remember this there is hope, a hope
based on the wisdom which they have learned from the Good Shepherd himself.
2. SOLOMON’S
WARNING TO FEAR GOD
Ecclesiastes
3:14-5:7
2.1 Two times the
warning: fear God
Time and again we read in this book
of the Preacher that in spite of the many troubles we meet here on earth we yet
may be happy and enjoy the life which God has given us. The reason for this is,
according to what we have read in chapter
Yet it is not always easy to be
happy, when everywhere around us we are confronted with how meaningless life
here on earth is. And this is in particular not easy when even in the church
you are confronted with it. Certainly in that case it is not for nothing that
the Preacher’s encouragement to be happy is even repeated in a sevenfold
refrain.
In chapter 5:1-7 we read a serious
warning which is caused by the situation in which the Preacher found the church
in his days. Already in chapter
Just because of the seriousness of
this warning it is good that, before we look at the situation of the church in
those days and the Preacher’s warning because of it, we first ask ourselves who
the man is who uttered that warning.
2.2 Who the Preacher is
If anyone knew what he was talking
about, and had the right to give not only the general warning in 3:14 that men
should fear before God, but especially the serious warning to church‑members in
5:1, “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God”, then it was the
Preacher. For in chapter 1:1 he introduced himself as “the son of David, king
in Jerusalem”. So he must be the wise king Solomon.
However, quite a few people deny
that this son of David can be identified with King Solomon.1) For
this they refer to chapter 1:12, which reads: “I the Preacher have been king
over
But is that really so? When Solomon
had been king for a number of years he could very well say that up till that
time he had been king over Israël! Yes, it is said, but one should also look at
Again it must be said that this is
not true. The same way of speaking can be found in 1 Chronicles 29:25. There we
read, and again it is about king Solomon himself, that “the LORD gave Solomon
great repute in the sight of all Israël, and bestowed upon him such royal
majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israël”.
Still others say, - for it seems
that some just do not want Solomon to be the author of this book - : the
language which is used in this book is of a much later time. But again, this is
not conclusive either.
From the concluding words in
chapter 12 it appears that later this book has been edited by someone else.
Perhaps it was King Hezekiah who did this, for from Proverbs 25:1 we know that
he has done this with many of Solomon’s proverbs: “These also are proverbs of
Solomon which the men of Hezekiah king of
But again there are some who argue,
yes, but this book contains several sayings and ideas which you can also find
in the later writings of Greek and other foreign philosophers.5) Now
this is indeed correct, for the Bible itself tells us that the heathen wisdom
in other countries was influenced by Israël, and especially by king Solomon
himself. Just look up 1 Kings 4:34, where we read: “And men came from all
peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who
had heard of his wisdom”.
Thus6) it is King
Solomon who introduces himself to us as the Preacher, or the Ecclesiastes
(Hebr.”Qohelet”). This means that he called the congregation (the “qahal” or
ecclesia) together to teach them wisdom, and especially that he did this in the
temple, like later on also the Lord Jesus did so, and Peter who according to
Acts 3:11 even taught “in the portico called Solomon’s”. It was also King
Solomon who built the temple and dedicated it, and after having done so
according to 1 Kings 8 taught the assembled congregation the meaning of it! The
Preacher is the man who taught the people the wisdom of God in which He created
the world and governs it, the wisdom in which He also loved this beautifully
created world, the entire cosmos, so much that He would give His only Son for
it.
The Preacher is the man who teaches
the people that the meaning of the temple is that it points forward to Christ,
and that also the sacrifices and the prayers, as well as the vows which the
people make in the temple derive their meaning from the promised Messiah. The
Preacher, like any preacher is called to do, proclaims the saving Kingship of
Christ over all of life, in all times, and in every situation. He proclaims the
wisdom of God in the redemption of this vain, and due to our fall into sin
meaningless world, and how we should live, and what is our calling in this
world, here under the sun.
We find the final conclusion, which
the Preacher has reached after his investigation of all that is meaningless
here on earth, in chapter 12:13, the words: “Fear God, and keep his
commandments”. But initially he has already reached this conclusion in
2.3 What the situation is
After we have seen who the Preacher
is we return to his continuing investigation of all that happens under the sun.
Now of which people may we expect that anyway they have learned to fear God,
that is to love Him, to listen to his instruction, and to live as his children
before Him, and with one another as brothers and sisters? The answer must be:
the people of the church, of course!
Then let us now see what at this
point is the result of the Preacher’s investigations about the situation among
the people in general, and especially as far as the situation in the church is
concerned. We will begin with chapter 3:16. There we read: “Moreover I saw
under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness”.
Since in those days there was no
separation of church and state, the courts of the land were in Israël at the
same time the assemblies of the church. Today we would, as far as the church is
concerned, speak of consistories or sessions, classes or presbyteries, and
synods or general assemblies.
But isn’t that something to get
discouraged? Indeed it is! However, thus considers the Preacher in verse 17,
“God will judge the righteous and the wicked” at the time which He has
appointed for that. How good that we may believe this, for as far as the people
are concerned, he continues in 3:18-21, they are like animals, like beasts, so
much so that one would almost not believe anymore that the ultimate destination
of people is different from that of the animals. For let us face it, you can
appeal against unjust actions or decisions, but you just knock at closed doors.
Nothing changes, and at last you die, just like the animals.
It is for this reason that the
Preacher says in verse 22, in the third refrain, that the best thing to do is
“that a man should enjoy his work”, “for who can bring him to see what will be
after him?” It is pointless to expect any better result in time to come.
Yet the worst is not that no
justice is done but, as he says in 4:1, the oppressions which follow are of
such a nature that even in your daily work you can not find comfort anymore.
There is no‑one to comfort the oppressed; they are up against a power against
which there is no help. Now imagine that even in the church we would meet such
a situation, would not it indeed be better to be dead, as the Preacher suggests
in 4:2, or not to be born at all (verse 3), rather than having to experience
all the evil which happens under the sun?
Probably one would ask how it is
possible that such things happen in a country, yes even in the church, among
the people of God. The answer is given by the Preacher in verse 4. This is
caused by envy, jealousy. Envy of his neighbour teaches a person all the tricks
he needs to commit these injustices and oppressions. Well, if you are up
against the envy of your neighbours, or even of your own brothers and sisters,
let it be true as the Preacher puts it in verse 5 that folding your hands and
doing nothing does not help either, because that way you destroy yourself by as
it were eating your own flesh like a lazy fool is used to do; yet, he goes on
in verse 6, it is better in such a situation to keep quiet than with all your might,
with both your fists as it were, to keep fighting against the injustice; for
also that is senseless, a striving after wind.
Now of course the question needs to
be answered: but where does that mutual envy come from, especially when you
meet it in the church? The Preacher gives the answer in the verses 7‑12. It is,
to say it in one word, ‘individualism’, the disease of our days as well, which
causes it: everyone for himself. For example, like, according to the verses 7
and 8, someone without a companion or partner all by himself and only for
himself tries to become rich. It is exactly the opposite of the communion of
the saints in the church as described by the Preacher in the verses 9‑12, where
the one helps the other and they together will be able to withstand the attacks
of the Evil One.
Sometimes people think that the
solution is to be found in a change of leadership, or a better organisation,
new legislation, or, in the church, a revised church‑order. But this will not
bring about a solution with a lasting result either. For also the poor but wise
young man about whom the Preacher speaks in the verses 13‑16, that young man
who takes over from the old and foolish king: the people will become
disappointed in him as well. Hurrah, he will do things better than the old one,
they shouted; but also this appeared to be a striving after wind.
2.4 Why the warning of the Preacher
is so serious
Now it is in that situation among
the people of the church, the people of God (!), that the Preacher sees the
necessity to interrupt his investigations and to come with a very serious
warning.
In Israël, the temple in
The danger was not imaginary that
people would reason in this way: apparently God has nothing to do with all
those human things like courts and judicial dealings, and how we live together
and also organise ourselves in the society, and with political life and social
injustices. No, Gods hand is not connected with all that. God is in the temple!
Let us therefore bring there our sacrifices to Him, and so buy from Him some
comfort in the hardships of our daily life. Let us use the temple as a means of
escape from all those miseries and troubles.
Everything is for the temple or, as
people would say it today, let us do everything for the church and in the
church; let us just forget about the rest of life, because that has nothing to
do with the service of God, but is neutral and therefore vanity anyway.
You never know: if we only bring
our sacrifices and worship God there where indeed He dwells with us, in the
temple, in the official worship‑services, then God might bless us for that also
in our personal endeavours by giving us success in our business, and by
rewarding us in our family‑life.
Whether those people belong to the
oppressed or to the oppressors, what happens is this. Both use God and the
church that way for their own business, for their own success. But when the
Preacher sees this he cannot go on by stating this as just another fact which
he has seen under the sun, as he did before when he said, I saw this and I
observed that, and look, it is all meaningless; but well, what can you do about
it, that’s the way it is when people do not see the Hand of God at work in all
that happens under the sun. Oh no, but now the Preacher sees himself compelled
to give a very serious warning.
For indeed, this is the worst
vanity which is possible: church members who isolate themselves from life under
the sun, who consider life outside the church, in the society and national
life, as neutral; and who by the same token abuse the church as only a haven to
escape, as an excuse to evade their calling as image‑bearers of God in the
midst of this world of God; and that while at the same time God and religion
are used for their own ideas and petty ideals and success.
It is a very serious warning indeed
which we read in ch.5:1: “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God”;
for it is a condemnable and dangerous vanity to use God and his church for your
own ideas and your own business and success! The sacrifices and the worship‑services
of such church‑members are the sacrifices of fools, says the Preacher, and
fools are people who are so stupid and so wicked that they even do not know
that they are doing evil. The church is everything to them when you hear them
talk, it is the only thing that counts for them so it seems; and doesn’t it
sound pious when people talk that way?
No, says the Preacher in this same
verse 17, no: “to draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifices of
fools”.
And why is it that way? Because the
temple is not there in the first place for bringing sacrifices, but for the
teaching of wisdom, for the message of God’s Word about all that happens in the
church as well as all that happens in all of life, also about politics and
science, social injustice and economy, prices and wages and unemployment, about
the dangers of the technological information‑explosion and about war and peace
and nuclear armament and dis‑armament.
Without this preaching those
sacrifices have no meaning at all; for they point ahead to Jesus Christ as the
Redeemer of all of life, who would give his life as a sacrifice because God so
much loves this world which He has created.
This is why the temple and the
worship‑services may not be separated from everyday‑life; on the contrary, also
the temple at that time and the church today exist in order that people from
all over the world may come there, and listen and become wise, wise also with a
view to what is going on in this life under the sun. We may for example think of
those who came from faraway countries to listen to King Solomon’s wise
instruction.
But alas, the trouble is that often
the people in the temple at that time and in the church today cannot listen
because they themselves talk so much. They know it all already, for is this not
their own temple, or their own church, where of course God is with them,
enclosed by the walls which they have built?
However, says the Preacher in verse
2: “Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word
before God, for God is in heaven, and you upon earth; therefore let your words
be few”.
“God is in heaven, and you upon
earth”, these are the same words, which King Solomon had spoken earlier
already, after he had built the temple. They can be read in his prayer in 1
Kings 8:27: “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the
highest heaven cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have
built!” Therefore one cannot use God for one’s own business; it would be
foolishness.
Neither should a person think that
he will escape Gods anger, when he promises God that he will do this and do
that for the church and for the LORD, while it is just empty talk without
concrete results, without making it true. For no, it says in verse 4: “When you
pay a vow to God, do not delay paying it; for He has no pleasure in fools. Pay
what you vow”.
One should therefore not hide
behind pious pretexts and excuses when the minister or the elders remind you of
your promises (for example promises made at making public profession of your
faith, or when you set your voluntary church-contributions). One had better
heed what the Preacher says in verse 6: “Let not your mouth lead you into sin,
and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake; why should God be
angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?” For if you would try
to use God and his church for getting results for yourself, this would be even
worse. Then God would become so angry, even at only hearing your pious talk and
empty prayers, which are like empty dreams, that He himself will destroy the
works of your hands.
Thus there is only one way to be
delivered from this condemnation by the anger of God, namely what we read in
verse 7: “but do you fear God”.
“The fear of God is the beginning
or the principle of wisdom”, says Solomon in the Book of Proverbs. It is the
beginning of that wisdom, by which we again are able to see the Hand of God at
work in all things that happen under the sun, and to be glad and happy because
of that. The fear of God, loving reverence before the LORD, does not show
itself in pious talk and empty dreams and big promises. It is the motivating
strength by which we live as God’s people on earth, and by which we again fulfill
our calling and task for which the sacrifice of Jesus Christ has redeemed us.
1) “Hugo
Grotius (1644) was the first interpreter who definitely advocated the idea that
the book is not to be ascribed to Solomon”, H.C. Leupold, Exposition of
Ecclesiastes, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 6th printing, 1976,
page 16
2) The
Dutch theologian Dr.G.Ch. Aalders (in: Commentaar op het Oude Testament, G.Ch.
Aalders, Het Boek De Prediker, J.H.
Kok, Kampen, 1948, page 39) writes: “The perfectum can in this connection, in
agreement with the use of the Hebrew language, only mean what as far as time is
concerned lies in the past”. A little bit further: “The translation ‘I have
been’ is to be preferred, because the perfecta which are used in the following
verses .... all refer to actions which already found their conclusion in the
past” (my translation from the Dutch, DdJ).
However,
E.W. Hengstenberg, although also he is of the opinion that Solomon himself is
not the author, nevertheless writes (in: The
Limitations of Man’s Wisdom, Commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes, 1977
reprint by James and Klock Christian Publishing Co., Minneapolis, Minnesota,
pages 60/61): “In point of fact, however, the use of the preterite is no
argument against Solomon’s being the author of the book. ... The preterite is
very frequently employed in descriptions of a past which stretches forward into
the present, and therefore is it remarked, with perfect justice, in the Berleburger Bible - ‘I the preacher have
been king thus far, and am one still’”.
3) “The
Talmud has the notice that
Ecclesiastes is one of the four books that come to us from Hezekiah and his
college of scribes”, o.c. page 14
4) “The
Aramaisms of Ecclesiastes are not necessarily proof of a late date”. “They may
be expected in biblical Hebrew from the 10th century B.C., increasing as the
centuries go by ...” As to the use of probably two Persian loanwords, pardes
and pitgam: “There is evidence that ancient documents could be lightly
updated with old-fashioned words replaced”, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries,
Michael A. Eaton, Ecclesiastes,
Inter-Varsity Press, Leicester, England, 1983, pages 18 and 19.
5) “There
is no need to postulate that the Preacher drew upon Greek literature”, o.c.
page 21
6) There
are still more arguments adduced for “the hypothesis (and it can be no more
than that) ... that an editor is presenting in his own words and style the teaching of a revered wise man”.
“He is an admirer of Solomon ..., yet ... the writer avoids using Solomon’s
name. Instead he portrays his material as coming from ‘Mr Preacher’, who has
all the characteristics of Solomon except his name”. Thus Michael A. Eaton,
o.c., pages 22 and 23. According to him this hypothesis is necessitated by the
way in chapter 7:27 besides the ‘I’ speaking there in the first person someone
else speaks about ‘the Preacher’ in the third person. Although this indeed is
remarkable it is too weak a ground for building such a hypothesis on it. It is
very well possible that he who later edited this book of King Solomon (the
editor who wrote chapter 12:9-14) inserted not only in chapter 1:2 and 12:8 but
also in chapter 7:27 the words “says the Preacher”.
My
objection against the hypothesis that someone else centuries after Solomon’s
time has written the book as if he were king Solomon but hiding behind the
title ‘the Preacher’ is strengthened because of the use made of such hypotheses
by modern Bible-criticism, for example with respect to Daniel’s prophecies and
Paul’s Pastoral Letters.
It
is true that also the conservative Dutch theologian Dr. G.Ch. Aalders accepts
and defends this hypothesis (o.c. pages 7-10). But this same theologian rejects
a similar hypothesis in his Korte Verklaring der Heilige Schrift, Het Boek Daniël, Tweede Druk, J.H. Kok,
Kampen, 1951, page 20, where he writes: one points out “that neither the author
would have meant to give his prophecies as real statements of Daniël, nor the
readers for one moment would have thought to consider them as such; and that
making use of the name of Daniël in this case would mean no more than when an
author in our days would dedicate a writing of himself to a well-known person
of several centuries ago; but this does not hold water. For one can allege that
in the past people did have such intentions and ideas, but this does not mean
that it is also proven to have been that way” (my translation from the Dutch,
DdJ).
And
from Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, Donald Guthrie, The Pastoral Epistles, Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids,
Michigan, 6th printing, 1974, page 52, I quote: “...it cannot be denied that an
hypothesis which requires the postulation of a pseudonymous authorship is at a
greater discount than a theory which can explain all the facts, including
claims to authorship, without resort to pseudonymity.”
3. THERE
IS HOPE FOR THE FUTURE
Ecclesiastes
5:8 – 7:14
3.1 Consider Him who can make
straight what has become crooked
People like to know what is the
sense of things on this earth. Why are things the way they are, why do we do
things the way we are used to, and what is behind all that happens in our lives
and in the world around us? Especially young people ask questions like: who am
I, and what are we here for anyway? They want a clear answer, and do not take
vague and evasive explanations for an answer. Certainly from their parents, and
from the church, the elders, and the preacher they expect clear and unambiguous
answers to their questions.
This is nothing new of course. It
has always been that way, and there is nothing wrong with it. Only by asking
questions you can get answers, and if you are not allowed to ask critical
questions, one of two things happens. Either the young people become rebellious
and seek their own answers and do their own thing. Or they become uncritical
and dull, and just do what always has been done even if it does not make any
sense at all.
But the Preacher, who as a teacher
of wisdom dealt with the young people of the church, took them seriously and
really went into the question what is the meaning and sense of the things which
we experience here on earth. And thus he set out to search for the wisdom in
all that is done under heaven (chapter
The difficulty, however, is that
the harsh facts of life seem to make such an enjoyment of life impossible, not
only in the world (about this the Preacher spoke in the chapters 1-4), but even
in the church. Even there you can meet so much empty talk and hypocrisy
(chapter 5:1-7). Yet he also noticed that there are two things in the church
which are not meaningless. On the one hand there is the fact that God indeed
shows his anger about all empty talk and hypocrisy, especially in the church;
and secondly, it is there that we may draw near to listen to God’s Word. And
the conclusion, which he was allowed to draw from this in chapter 5:7, is, that
this is the message of the church, that in this vain life here on earth we must
fear God.
There is good reason for this, for
in the temple we hear that God is our Creator and Redeemer. The temple points
ahead to Jesus Christ! If therefore we fear God, aware of his anger against our
sins, then we will also listen to the message of God’s grace.
Then we also learn to look
differently at the meaninglessness of all that happens here on earth under the
sun. For then we will be enabled by God’s Holy Spirit to find the correct
interpretation of the meaning of these events, even if we cannot explain
everything completely. Anyway we will then be able to do what the Preacher in
chapter
3.2 God gives us room for enjoyment
of life
The Preacher gave in chapter 5:7
the serious warning to the people of the church that they must fear God instead
of abusing the church and religion for their own business. Having done so, he
continues his investigation of all the senseless things that happen around us.
Thus we read in chapter 5:8: “If you see in a province the poor oppressed and
justice and right violently taken away, do not be amazed at the matter; for the
high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them”.
In other words, there is an explanation for all that injustice, namely:
bureaucracy.
However, this explanation could
make us to seek the solution in doing away with all government; also in our
days it is sometimes propagated as the highest political wisdom that the least
government is the best government. As if that would help to improve things! But
no, the Preacher does not make that mistake. On the contrary, in verse 9 he
says: “but in all, a king is an advantage to a land with cultivated fields”.
By saying this he means that it is
good when there is a government, but of course it should be a government which
cares for the economy. In a country which depends on what grows on the fields
he must especially give attention to farming. Without such a government you
would pretty soon have chaos, and the fields would be left to waste.
Care for the economy is very
important; we notice this also today in both the internal and the foreign
policies of many countries. But this is also a reason for the Preacher to point
out, in verse 10, the dangers and therefore also the emptiness of a society
where everything must serve the economy, to promote economic growth, where
everything turns around making money. “He who loves money will not be satisfied
with money”; it is never enough.
In the verses 11 and 12 he shows the danger of
continually pushing for economic growth. After all, “when goods increase, they
increase who eat them”; also the consumption increases, but those who are rich
do not only eat too much, they are also going to suffer the managers-illness of
stress. And the consequence will be that not they themselves, but that others
will profit of it. Then, and I will now summarize the verses 13‑17, he tells
what happens when an overheated economy collapses and is followed by a
recession or even a depression. Bankruptcies occur of people who did not even
enjoy their money when they still could have done this, and now, all of a
sudden, everything is lost. No inheritance is left for their children, all
their work has been done for nothing, and they die in poverty.
No wonder that at this point, in
the verses 18‑20, the Preacher repeats his refrain, for the fourth of the seven
times, and about halfway in his book: you had better enjoy all the good things
which God gives you during the few days of your life. If God has given someone
the opportunity for that, even by giving him wealth and possessions, then he or
she does not always have to think about how meaningless life is, because it is
God himself “who keeps him occupied with joy in his heart”, who makes him to
enjoy himself with whatever is his desire.
In short the Preacher means to say
this: you must realize that much injustice is caused by the wrong way in which
people use the opportunities and means which God has given them, namely with
bureaucracy and greed and bad economic policies. Understanding this will help
you to realize that all by yourself you cannot change all those wrongs; but
this does not mean that you may not make use of what in these circumstances is
still given you by God for your own enjoyment. You do not have to reject it
because of the bureaucracy involved in it, or because you have the chance to
enjoy life in a capitalist society. You even do not have to deny it yourself
because others suffer unemployment in a time of recession or depression, or if
somewhere else millions of people die from hunger.
No, you do not have to abstain from
enjoying life, on one condition! The condition is that you consider the work of
God, that also in all this his Hand is at work. He preserves your life, and not
you, nor the state, nor the economic system. You may find enjoyment in your daily
work and the results of it; there is nothing wrong with eating and drinking and
having some entertainment.
3.3 Lack of enjoyment does not give
us the right to blame God for it
Perhaps someone would be inclined
to say: let it be true that there is still some joy left for those who work
hard in that capitalist society as it has been pictured in chapter 5. But still
this does not answer the question how this does apply to those people who do
not even get the opportunity for enjoying some of the good things which are
left. Think of the chronically ill for example, or of those who for years are
unemployed, or those who during their whole life have lived in a war‑torn
country. How about those who since their birth have lived under the oppression
of communism in
In the chapters 6 and 7 the
Preacher deals with that problem too; he does not evade it. We read in the
verses 1 and 2 of chapter 6: “There is an evil which I have seen under the sun,
and it lies heavy upon men: a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and
honour, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give
him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them; this is vanity; it is a
sore affliction”.
In the following verses, 3‑6, a
similar example is given, of a man who lives very long and gets many children,
but his life and his death are in poverty, without a decent burial even.
Now the Preacher himself asks the
question, in the verses 7‑9: is there indeed nothing left for such people
except only toil and trouble and unfulfilled desires? Should not anyway there
be some advantage for the wise man over the fool, and for the poor man who anyway
knew how to conduct himself among the living? Must we really acquiesce in the
state of affairs as it is before our eyes instead of longing for a better day?
Is it then nothing but vanity here, and nothing more? Then life would indeed be
meaningless, and nothing more. But no, there must be some justice, somewhere,
at some time!
The Preacher has indeed expected
questions like these, and he does deal with them. But he deals with them in the
wisdom which he has received from the Word of God that is proclaimed in the
temple. The first part of his answer we find in chapter 6:10‑12. He starts out
in verse 10 with the warning to be careful when asking such questions!
You demand justice, if not in this
life, then anyway hereafter? Before anything else, we should keep in mind that
we are only creatures, made by God’s own hand! That is what the Preacher points
out in verse 10: “Whatever (man) has come to be (he) has already be named
(Adam, that is ‘dust of the earth’), and it is known what man is (a mere
creature), and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he (namely
God)”.
Therefore we had better not say too
much, verse 11, for “the more words, the more vanity, and what is man the
better?”, in other words, what will it profit him? We had better not try to
tell God what in our opinion justice is, for He is our Creator; we did not
create Him! “For who knows”, he goes on in verse 12, “what is good for man”? Do
we, who live the few days of our vain life like a passing shadow? No, only God
“can tell man what will be after him under the sun”.
This has been the first part of the
Preacher’s answer to questions which tend to blame God for the fact that
injustice seems never to be punished and corrected here on earth. But the
Preacher does not leave it at that. For still the problem has not been solved,
and a further explanation must still be forthcoming, concerning those who have
nothing to enjoy here on earth.
It is in the next chapter, chapter
7, that the Preacher will say more about that burning question: what then is
the comfort which is left for those who here on earth must lack all enjoyment
of good things, yes, where bad things also happen to children of God?
3.4 The certainty that God is
righteous gives hope for the future
What kind of comfort is left for
those who do not receive the opportunity to enjoy life here on earth?
The Preacher starts out in chapter
7:1 by pointing to the remaining value of a good name, which makes someone’s
day of death of greater value than his day of birth. Let it be so that when you
die, you leave a good name behind; for if your name is in good odour, better
than precious ointment which evaporates anyway, that is important, because that
is of remaining value, and therefore not meaningless.
In that case one will even experience,
he says in verse 2, that “it is better to go to the house of mourning than to
go to the house of feasting”. The death of a person has meaning because it
passes a message on to the living. It produces wisdom, the opposite of what
most parties have to offer, for that is, he continues in verse 4, where the
heart of fools is. They live for going to parties only, where they according to
verse 5 listen to the music and the songs of fools whose laughter, says verse
6, is “as the crackling of thorns under a pot”. Perhaps one might think of
certain forms of house-music (although as with every music-style there can and
should be distinguished between good and bad).
Now sometimes also wise people,
those who know better, turn to parties and booze because of the oppression they
have to suffer, or they let themselves be tricked into doing wrong, for example
by paying bribes in order to protect themselves. This is what the Preacher says
in verse 7; yet, in verse 8 he warns them not to become so foolish, but to be
patient, and to keep the end of all things in mind. After all, for those who
are patient the end will be better than the beginning. Also in verse 9 he warns
them not to be quick to anger and thus to act like fools.
Neither should one ask, says verse
10: “Why were the former days better than these?” He who is wise knows that it
is just the other way around, that the better days, or rather THE BETTER DAY
will come later, in the life to come. It is that wisdom, the Preacher concludes
in verse 11, which is “an advantage to those who see the sun”. This wisdom
comforts us here and now already, because this wisdom is like an inheritance.
Yes, according to verse 12 wisdom
is to a certain extent like an inheritance of money; for even after you die
your money can still do some good for the protection of those to whom you have
left it, or be set aside as a gift for some good purpose. But there is also a
big difference. The advantage of wisdom also far surpasses that of an
inheritance of money. The advantage of wisdom is that you know: there is more
to life than the protection which money gives; for “wisdom preserves the life
of him who has it.”
You know how? This we read in verse
13. When you are wise, you will observe that the hand of God is also in all
that is crooked here on earth, and that for that reason He also is the only one
who again can make straight what has become crooked, the only one who can
redress injustice. Consider the work of God, for only then you will know that
yet once justice will be done.
Yes, once justice will be done, in
spite of the fact that, as it says in the second part of verse 14, “man may not
find out anything that will be after him”. If therefore here on earth and in
our time no justice is done and injustice is not redressed, then we may yet
trust that God himself will restore justice. Yes, justice will be done by God;
if not here and now, then anyway later, on the coming day of judgment. And why
is this so? This is so, because God himself has made all the days of our life,
both the days of prosperity in which we can rejoice and be happy, and also the
days of adversity. Therefore we may especially in days of adversity yet trust
that God is just.
From this it is clear that also the
Preacher knows of the ‘hereafter’. He knows of the ‘hereafter’ because he knows
that God is a God of justice. Thus, he also knows that there must be and
therefore will be a Day of judgment. For the Preacher knows that all that
happens in the temple, ‑ the bloody sacrifices, which are symbols of the coming
sacrifice of Christ for our sins, and also the teaching of the law in the
temple ‑ speaks of God’s judgment over sin. This is why he knows for sure that
God’s judgment will come; if not yet now, then certainly later.
Yes, it will come, both for the
fools who do not believe in the message of the temple and do not look forward
to the coming of Christ, and also for those who are wise. The judgment over the
sins of those who are wise, wise by faith, will be carried by the promised
Messiah Jesus Christ, just because God is a God of justice. Also their sins
must be punished, albeit not to them, but to the Son of God (cf. Heidelberg
Catechism Lord’s Day 6).
Yes, God will do justice; He will
do justice by preserving the lives of those who, when they are oppressed here
on earth, seek their refuge in Him; and by condemning their oppressors. For God
so loved this world, that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him
will not perish, but inherit everlasting life.
4. WISDOM
OFFERS JOY AND PEACE
Ecclesiastes
4.1 Wisdom reckons with the reality
of sin
In the previous chapters the
Preacher has shown that God himself has his hand in everything which takes
place here on earth, even in all that has become crooked because of sin. He is
therefore also the only one who can and who will do justice on earth, if it is
not in this life then anyway in life to come. It is only this wisdom of faith
in God’s providence and righteousness which, as we have read in chapter
According to chapter 8:1, the
concluding verse of the portion of Scripture to which we are now turning our
attention, it is this interpretation of things, this wisdom, which shows us the
way to happiness and peace.
It does this in the first place,
the Preacher shows us in chapter 7:15-22, because this wisdom, this
interpretation of things here on earth, reckons with the reality of sin.
When we are confronted with all the
crookedness and injustice in this world which is going unpunished, we are
inclined to say: but somewhere and some day justice must be done! We become
impatient when we see how much injustice is done in this world, so much wickedness.
However, our sense of justice is especially put to the test when not only in
the world around us, but also in the church, among the people of God, we keep
meeting all kinds of wrongdoing. Our sense of righteousness rebels against all
that crookedness around us and among us.
Oh yes, says the Preacher in
chapter 7:15, I know: “In my vain life I have seen everything; there is a
righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who
prolongs his life in his evil‑doing”.
Now of course we want that
something is going to be done about this. We want that justice will be done, so
what are we going to do? Are we, as the Preacher puts it in chapter 8:1, going
to ‘make our countenance hard’ against all those who do wrong? You know, that
is indeed what we are inclined to do. Justice must be done, here and now; it
may not be delayed, for delayed justice is injustice. It is for this reason
that those who are righteous ought to be rewarded for their righteousness here
and now already, and the wicked immediately must be exposed and punished. That
is wisdom, and then you see right away result.
It is this urgency in getting
justice done and wrongs redressed which appeals to many people, to many
Christians as well. It is this urgency in seeking justice here on earth, which
also motivates the modern (although for the greater part it has become a passed
station already) theology of liberation or revolution. It is on this horizontal
level of human life that at any cost justice must be done to the oppressed and
the poor. We cannot wait for a judgment hereafter; if even there will be such
an event.
Do we not sometimes meet the same
attitude in the church, when we do not want to acquiesce if injustice is done
to us, but at all costs have to go all the way from consistory or session to
classis or presbytery and even to Regional Synod and General Synod or Assembly,
just because, well, justice has to be done?
But NO, says the Preacher in
chapter 8:1b: No! “A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his
countenance is changed”.
And why does the Preacher say this?
We find the reasons for this in the second part of the previous chapter, to
begin with
Our exaggerated sense of justice,
our zealous striving after justice and purity or, in one word, our
perfectionism will only lead us to bewilderment and self‑destruction. Oh yes,
it makes us to look strong, as strong as for example the ten rulers over one
city which are mentioned in verse 19.
However, the reality is different.
True wisdom is much stronger than perfectionism, the Preacher says in the same
verse 19: “Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers that are
in a city”.
For why is perfectionism not wise?
It is not wise, because it does not reckon with the reality of sin. Moreover,
not only the reality of sin among the wicked is meant, but especially the
reality of sin with the righteous themselves, among true believers in the LORD.
For, says the Preacher in verse 20: “Surely there is not a righteous man on
earth who does good and never sins”.
Now perhaps someone is inclined to
say: but if this is the case, if we have to accept the reality of sin in this
world, and the fact that we are all sinners anyway, then you can just go ahead
with doing all kinds of evil and injustice, and condone it when others commit
such wickedness. Then you do not need the police anymore, no government, no
rules to be kept, and no church-discipline. Right? But NO, says the Preacher in
verse 17: NO! “Be not wicked overmuch, neither be a fool; why should you die
before your time?” In other words, do you really think that God would go for
that? On the contrary, you would risk your life with such an attitude.
Then the Preacher draws this
conclusion in verse 18: “It is good that you should take hold of this, and from
that withhold not your hand”, in other words that you avoid both extremes
instead of going from one extreme to another. A perfectionism or purism, which
without mercy wants to establish a pure church or an ideal society is futile.
The same applies to the opposite attitude of ‘we can just go on with committing
injustice’, for nothing will be done about it anyway. Both ways of acting lead
to destruction. Only “he who fears God” shall avoid both extremes and escape
both pitfalls.
However, who is he who fears God?
It is he, the Preacher says in the verses 20 and 21, who knows what a bad
sinner he is himself. He does not give heed to all the bad things which people
say and do, because he knows what lives in his own heart: how often he himself
thinks the same things, and perhaps even has said or done the same. Now such a
man, the man who fears God because he knows what a sinner he is himself, he can
be merciful, and kind and patient. Or, as it is summed up in the concluding verse
chapter 8:1: this “man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his
countenance is changed”. He himself can be happy and kind, and he also spreads
happiness and peace, because he is wise. For he considers the work of God, who
not only can make straight what is crooked, but who also has done so in
revealing his justice in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.
4.2 Wisdom recognizes the madness
of temptations
Now this wisdom, this
interpretation of things also shows us the way to happiness and peace, because
it recognizes and abhors the wicked madness of temptations.
In the verses 23-25 the Preacher
tells us by saying, “all this I have tested by wisdom”, how he has tried to
find out what is the sense of life, what the wisdom in it is, and which results
it brings forth.
He has indeed made some progress,
and thus he attempts at this point to draw a conclusion or, as he calls it in
verse 25, “the sum of things”. Yet he has to admit in the verses 23 and 24 that
he is still far from it, and that he still has not found a solution for the
futility of life under the sun. The same is repeated in the verses 27 and 28
where his investigations are characterized as follows: “Behold, this is what I
found, says the Preacher, adding one thing to another to find the sum, which my
mind has sought repeatedly, but I have not found”.
Something however he has found,
albeit not yet the solution of the problem what might be the sense of life
under the sun. What he has found he tells us in verse 26 and the end of verse
28: “And I found more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and
nets, and whose hands are fetters; he who pleases God escapes her, but the
sinner is taken by her. Behold, this is what I found ..., one man among a
thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found”.
But what do we hear now? Is the
Preacher against women, is he a male chauvinist, so that a Women’s Liberation
Movement indeed would have reason to demand that this book be removed from the
list of Canonical Bible books in order to free the Bible from sexism?
Oh no! Not at all! However, what
then does he mean? It is this. The Preacher, King Solomon, has found out that
life is meaningless because of sin. There is not even one righteous man on
earth who never sins, he said in chapter
If however it is also true that
here on earth the number of wicked deeds which are committed greatly exceeds
that of righteous acts, it follows that also in that respect the influence of
women must be acknowledged. Well, as far as that goes, king Solomon knows what
he is talking about. Did not his 1,000 wives make even him to sin by
introducing their gods into his land and palace? And has he not seen, as he
himself tells us in Proverbs chapter 5, how on the streets of Jerusalem, which
was the capital-city of the people of God, simple youths as well as older men
without sense, are tempted to sin and are led to destruction by girls and women
who even made their profession of this? It is even called the oldest profession
of the world! History shows that, besides righteous women who meant much for
the nation and for the church, there also have been women who tempted their
husbands and other men to evil. Was not Eve the first one of them?
Although the Preacher still did not
find a sufficient answer to the question, what sense there is in our life here
on earth, he found anyway something. He discovered that the vanity of life is
caused by the foolishness of temptations to sin, for example by what he in the
verses 25 and 26 calls the wicked and at the same time mad temptations which he
before his eyes saw demonstrated in the behaviour of seductive women.
Therefore, he made this a symbol of all temptations to sin here under the sun.
Also in our days this is done in novels and movies about ‘La femme fatale!’
These kind of temptations promise happiness and peace to those who are after it
- although they prefer to call it fun and instant satisfaction - ; but they
bring exactly the opposite and are therefore more bitter than death.
What a warning to men and women, to
boys and girls, also in the church. Are they such temptations to each other,
and do they let themselves be lured away by these temptations? Believers should
not think that they are free from it and immune to it. If the Preacher, who
investigated so much and who went around with so many people of all circles and
backgrounds, yet among thousand people can find only one wise man and no wise
woman, then we should not think that none of us would ever try to ensnare other
people, or be ensnared by someone else.
This is to say, unless we realize
ourselves how foolish these wicked temptations are, which promise all kinds of
pleasure, as for example by instant sexual gratification, or by lotteries, by
abuse of drugs and alcohol and the kick you get out of speeding; or in general
by the secular lifestyle of the society in which we live. Yet we do not have to
be such temptations to others, neither do we have to fall for such temptations,
provided that we seek our happiness and peace in the only man to whom the
Preacher (perhaps even unknowingly) refers, the only man whom he discovered
among a thousand, yes the only one among billions of people: the Man Jesus
Christ!
He gives us happiness and peace,
for He has withstood the temptations in our place. As the second Adam he has
not only withstood Satan’s temptations in the desert, but even those which came
to Him from the side of his own mother, Mary. And this happened not only at
home, in
4.3 Wisdom does not blame God but
man's hypocrisy
In verse 29 of chapter 7 we read
this confession of the Preacher: "Behold, this alone I found, that God
made man upright, but they have sought out many devices”.
Indeed, true wisdom does not blame
God for the futility of life, but it blames the hypocrisy of man. We should
recognize ourselves as who we are, and how we are.
Although the Preacher did not yet
find the definite and complete answer to the question what is the sense of
life, yet he has come so far that he acknowledges that any answer which tends
to blame God is pure hypocrisy. For what he means by saying: “they have sought
out many devices” is that they hide themselves behind all kinds of excuses or
pretexts.
This started already in
There is reason for much prayer
that, through the grace of God, it may become more and more noticeable that we
do not accuse God or others, with sometimes even hard and hypocritical faces.
May the wisdom of our highest Preacher and Teacher Jesus Christ make our faces
to shine with happiness, and the hardness of our countenance be changed by His
peace.
5. A
LIVING DOG IS BETTER THAN A DEAD LION
Ecclesiastes
8:2 – 9:10
5.1 The Bible about lions and dogs
By saying in chapter 9:4 “a living
dog is better than a dead lion”, Solomon has given a summary in figurative
language of what he wants to teach us in Ecclesiastes 8:2 -
In 1 Samuel 24:14 David says to
King Saul: “After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog!” David said this after
he withstood the temptation to kill the king. Instead of doing this, he left
the judgment over himself and over King Saul up to the LORD as the judge. This
means that David calls himself a dog as a metaphor of his fidelity towards the
king and of his honouring the king’s authority. Yet he calls himself a dead dog
because that is what the king intended him to become; he wanted to kill David.
In 2 Samuel 9:8 it is Mephibosheth,
the grandson of Saul, who says to King David, after he did obeisance and thus
honoured the king: “What is your servant, that you should look upon a dead dog
such as I?” Here it is Mephibosheth who calls himself a dog because he wants to
honour the king and show him fidelity; but he too calls himself a dead dog
because he assumed that he, being a grandson of Saul, would be put to death.
From these examples it is clear
that in the Bible by the figure “a living dog” is meant an obedient and
faithful subject of the king (just as faithful as a dog is towards his master),
who therefore may stay alive thanks to his faithful obedience.
The lion is in the Bible a symbol
of strength and violence; the lion is known because of his aggressiveness, and
his teeth are often compared with swords. Now we can understand why it is said:
“for a living dog is better than a dead lion”. It means that a faithful and
obedient citizen who thanks to this stays alive is better than a rebellious
revolutionary, a violent terrorist who because of this gets killed.
A faithful and obedient citizen can
be called ‘a living dog’, because he does what the apostle Peter writes in 1
Peter 2:17: “Fear God. Honour the emperor” (or the king, or the government).
With respect to such a citizen, the promise of the fifth commandment will be
fulfilled, that those who honour them who are placed in authority over us may
live long on earth.
And what is a rebel who due to his
being a rebel is killed? He is like ‘a dead lion’. He is so proud and
overrighteous that in his perfectionism he rebels against the authorities
because they do not do their duty as he thinks that they should; and because of
his rebellion he loses his life. Or, another possibility, someone is so
overwicked that he does not recognize any authority, and thus he becomes a
rebel against what he calls the establishment. Again the result is that due to
his violent disobedience he is killed.
5.2 As long as there is life there
is hope
The Preacher spoke already earlier
about such people in chapter 7, the verses 16 and 17: "Be not righteous
overmuch, and do not make yourself overwise; why should you destroy yourself?”
In addition: “Be not wicked overmuch, neither be a fool; why should you die before
your time?” But now, in the chapters 8 and 9, he continues on that theme. Why
is it this way, that an obedient citizen (and in Israël he is a good church‑member
as well) is better than a dead revolutionary (which in Israël at the same time
means a schismatic, a person who causes factions in the church)?
Yes, why is this so? We find the
answer to this question in chapter 9 verses 4 and 5. It is so in the first
place, because he who is still alive has hope: hope of reward. Moreover, in the
second place this is so, because the dead cannot expect a reward anymore. It is
for these reasons that it is better to be alive than to be dead.
Yet there is something strange in
this answer. For in the previous chapters the Preacher was so impressed by the
futility of life, by the fact that there is no lasting result and no reward,
that several times he said: it is even better to be dead, or not to be born at
all. Just like for example Job even cursed the day that he was born (see Job
3:1).
This is indeed true. However, we
should not forget that when the Preacher said this he looked at life under the
sun as it is before our eyes, that is, apart from the work of God! Once our
eyes have been opened so that we recognize the hand of God in the course of
history as well as in what happens in our daily life, then we know, even though
we cannot fathom it completely: as long as we live there is still hope; hope of
being delivered by God from the futility of life; hope thanks to the fact that
God’s work in this world is still going on. For this means that also the
preaching still can go on, the preaching of the temple in the time of the
Preacher and the message of the church today, the proclamation of the
deliverance of life by Jesus Christ.
Now it is in connection with this
that the Preacher wants to speak about one of God’s works in particular, by
means of which He keeps this in itself meaningless world going: the king, the
human institutions of authority to which the fifth commandment refers us! For
these authorities are instruments of God to curb much of what is meaningless
and futile on earth, by maintaining justice. Moreover, in Israël the king was
also a symbol of the future Messiah-King who would come to conquer all futility
of life by bringing about justice and removing the curse of sin.
5.3 Fear God and honour the
government
The factual situation as yet is
that life on earth is still subjected to futility (cf. Romans
In chapter 8 the Preacher is still
dealing with the old problem as stated in
And there is a second and related
problem, mentioned in chapter 9:2,3, that “one fate comes to all, to the
righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the
unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice (we would say, to
Christians and to unbelievers). As is the good man, so is the sinner; and he
who swears is as he who shuns an oath. This is an evil in all that is done under
the sun, that one fate comes to all”.
But now, just because of this
reality, in the first place the problem of chapter 8 that often the wicked live
long and the righteous have a short life, the Preacher says that a living dog
is better than a dead lion, by which figure he means that it will be well with
those who fear God and honour the king.
We find the Preacher’s explanation
of this in chapter 8:2‑15. The verses 2‑5a read, in a different translation:
“Keep the king’s command, I say, because of your oath to God. Do not be in a
hurry to leave his presence. Do not stand up for a bad cause, for he does
whatever he pleases. For the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to
him, ‘What are you doing?’ He who obeys a command will meet no harm”.
Here we are warned that we should
not in the way of revolution try to fight all the injustices which we see
taking place. We should not let ourselves be tempted to rebellion by being
overrighteous, like for example in the time of the great Reformation the
Anabaptists did. Because of the wrongs done by many governments in their days
they acted as if any worldly authority had to be in conflict with the Bible.
This was also the reason why they refused to swear an oath of allegiance to the
government.
It is an attitude, which not that
long ago has been shown, by theologians and church‑organizations when they
supported rebels because of their theology of liberation and revolution. No,
the Preacher says here, do not run away from the king, but remember your “oath
to God” in which you have submitted yourself to his authority as a God‑given
authority.
Neither should one resort to
revolution by being overwicked, for example by accepting and acting out the
wicked theories and practices of Nazism and Communism, by committing terrorism
or trying to violently overthrow governments. And why is such rebellion wrong?
It is wrong, the Preacher says in verse 4, because “the word of the king is
supreme”; or as God later on had it written down by the apostle Paul in Romans
13: because “the government does not bear the sword in vain”. In other words,
such violent ‘lions’ will be killed, while so-called ‘dead dogs’ will stay
alive.
But how about it if even the
government itself commits injustice instead of preventing and punishing it? It
is with a view to this that the Preacher says in chapter 8:5,6: “The mind of a
wise man will know the time and way”, namely the time and way of judgment. “For
every matter has its time and way” of judgment, because (not ‘although’ as the
Revised Standard Version has it) “because man’s trouble lies heavy upon him”.
In other words, just because the evil, the trouble for man has become worse
when even the government does not do justice, or even itself is guilty,
therefore the judgment has to come from God himself. The evil just asks for it.
It is true that the Preacher adds
in verse 7 that no one can figure out when and how this judgment will come. Yet
it will come! Nobody can prevent it from coming, just like “no man”, he says in
verse 8, “has power to retain the wind (instead of ‘spirit’ in the Revised
Standard Version), or has authority over the day of death”. In addition, just
as sure for a soldier “there is no discharge from war”, so it is certain that
the wicked will not find a way of escaping God’s judgment.
“All this I observed ... under the
sun”, the Preacher says in verse 9, how “man lords it over man to his hurt”. It
even happens in
But in this same verse 12 the
Preacher comes with the ‘yet’ or the ‘nevertheless’ of faith: “Yet I know that
it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him”. And
verse 13: “But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his
days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God”. Thus, it remains true
what God has promised in the fifth commandment of his law, that it will go well
with those who fear God and honour the authorities which have been placed over
them, and that they will live long in the land, which God gives them.
Yes, here we meet the
‘nevertheless’ of faith in the God who does justice, as He has first shown this
in the temple, and later on in his Son Jesus Christ.
This ‘nevertheless’ of faith does
not just like that cause the futility of life on earth to disappear. For after
this ‘nevertheless’ of faith in the verses 12 and 13 the Preacher continues in
verse 14 saying: “There is a vanity which takes place on earth, that there are
righteous men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked (we might
think here of Job for example), and there are wicked men to whom it happens
according to the deeds of the righteous”. But immediately after this, in verse
15, the Preacher encourages us that we should not let this take away our
enjoyment of what is still good in life. We must rather keep in mind that ‘a
dead lion’ does not have the opportunity to enjoy the good things in life
anymore, for he is dead. Also for that reason, a living dog is better than a
dead lion.
Actually, to whom does that figure
of ‘a dead lion’ apply? It is Satan, says the apostle Peter in 1 Peter 5:8, it
is Satan who goes around like a devouring lion; but his end is everlasting
death. He even tried to devour our Lord Jesus Christ, as if he would be no more
than a dog; and indeed, if anyone has experienced the bitter reality and vanity
which is described in verse 14, then it was He, THE Righteous One, but to whom
it happened according to the deeds of the wicked.
However, just as David kept
honouring the king, king Saul, so Jesus Christ kept honouring the authority of
the Sanhedrin and of Pontius Pilate as given to them by God. Thus He remained
obedient to God until the very end. Then He was killed, ‘a dead dog’, but He is
raised again! He who was killed like a dog now lives forever and ever,
everlastingly. Now He will kill that proud ‘lion’, that rebel from the
beginning, in order that all those who for Christ’s sake fear God and honour
the authorities may live forever in the land which the LORD our God has
promised them: the new heaven and the new earth.
5.4 Not a long lasting life is
good, but a good life lasts long
A living dog is better than a dead
lion, because there is hope for those who fear God and honour the authorities.
Yes, for them there is indeed hope, in spite of the problem that life appears
to be so meaningless because here on this earth both the wicked and the
righteous must die.
In chapter
The Preacher believes that this is
so, in spite of the fact that we here under the sun cannot see it, because God
has revealed this from above, in his Word. It is based on this knowledge of
faith that the Preacher concluded in chapter 9:1: “For (not ‘but’) all this I
laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds
are in the hand of God”.
Therefore, there is a difference,
even though we do not always see it here on earth. That we do not see it is
caused by the fact, he continues, that “whether it is love or hate, man does
not know anything of what is before him. All things come alike to all, one fate
comes to the righteous and to the wicked” (corrected translation). However,
because the unbelievers do not know the difference which is there but which
they cannot see, therefore, verse 3b, “are the hearts of men full of evil, and
madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the
dead”.
They go to the dead; and then? Then
it is too late, for those who were overrighteous, and for those who were
overwicked. Because of their rebellion they die before their time, this means,
before they in the today of grace have learned to see the work of God and to entrust
themselves into God’s hand. Everything they were after in their revolution for
a better life and a new society here on earth they have lost; it has become a
big failure, with no reward, no result whatsoever. It is indeed as the saying
goes: “The Revolution devours her own children”. We have been allowed to see
some of this in what formerly was called the Soviet-Union.
But how does it go with those who
put their trust in God, who feared Him, and who therefore honoured the
authorities, also the bad ones? We should again look at David, the Preacher’s
father. He knew! He has experienced it himself! After he very humbly called
himself “a dead dog” follows in the next chapter, 1 Samuel 25, the story of his
marriage with Abigaïl. First she has given him rich presents, then she becomes
his wife, and David gets all the possessions of her previous husband, that fool
Nabal (and the name Nabal means literally ‘vanity’, ‘futility’). Soon after
this, David even received the entire kingdom, which had belonged to King Saul.
What happened with David, after he
humbly referred to himself as ‘a dead dog’ and thus was allowed to be ‘a living
dog’, is the same as what we read in 9:7‑10. Here we find the sixth time that
the Preacher inserts his refrain ‑ and it is quite detailed now ‑ : “Go, eat
your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has
already approved what you do. Let your garments be always white; let not oil be
lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of
your vain life which he has given you under the sun, because that is your
portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your
hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or thought or
knowledge of wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going”.
Thus is this the conclusion, that
not a long life is good, but a good life is long. What counts is that you are
happy when God gives you things to enjoy, while at the same time you realise
that life is subject to futility because of sin. Therefore this also belongs to
a good life, that you listen to God’s good fifth commandment. For this is the
only way in which you learn to understand that, even though a wicked person may
live long on earth, yet it is a life without reward or lasting result, and thus
an empty or dead life.
On the other hand, the perhaps
short life of a righteous person here under the sun is nevertheless a long
life, because it is a fulfilling life, filled each day with what comes to him
from the hand of God.
Solomon has seen this in the life
of his father David, although it was far from perfect yet.
But how about us? To us it has been
given that we may see it in the life, death, and resurrection of David’s great
Son, Jesus Christ. His life on earth has been very short, 33 years only, and he
was treated as if he were ‘a dead dog’. But He ate, drank, and was at parties
with sinners and tax‑collectors, yes He even began his ministry on earth at a
wedding‑feast, and the Pharisees condemned and rejected Him for all this. Was
life not much too serious for living like that, for enjoying life in such a
glad and happy way?
This has been the reason that “they
made his grave with the wicked”, says Isaiah in advance in Isaiah 53, “although
he had done no violence”. But Isaiah continues by saying: “When he makes
himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his
days”. A long life indeed! For the 5th commandment was fulfilled by Him, when
He placed himself before the judgment-seat of God, in order that we by faith in
Him may live long on earth and in heaven. For through Him and in fellowship
with Him we may live a life on this earth which makes sense again, in spite of
the senselessness of sin; yes, we may live a life which never ends on the new
earth, when the devouring lion which is Satan is thrown into everlasting death,
and peace and righteousness are restored.
6. AND
LIFE HAS MEANING AFTER ALL
Ecclesiastes
9:11 – 12:14
6.1 What is man, and what is the
meaning of his life?
In this chapter we come at the end
of the Preacher’s report on his search for the meaning of life here on earth
under the sun. He knew from the start that it is our calling to seek for the
meaning of life and of all things which happen on earth (
However, the Preacher has also
emphasized from the start that our seeking for meaning and lasting results must
be done “by wisdom” (
If man would see himself only as
part of a universe, which is subject to futility without lasting results, then
the conclusion of this book would have to be like the beginning, “Vanity of
vanities, says the Preacher, all is vanity”.
However, the publisher of this book, who wrote
the summary which we find in chapter 12:8‑14, has rightly understood that the
Preacher did not see man as a prisoner in a closed universe, but that he gave a
totally different answer to that basic question, ‘what is man?’, and ‘what is
the meaning of man’s life in this universe, here on earth under the sun?’
In the previous chapters the
Preacher has shown that man is not the product (or the victim) of a recycling‑process
in the course of unchanging times, but that man as created by God received a
position of responsibility in a history which is arranged and willed by God
(3:10‑14). This history makes sense and has a purpose, a goal, because of Him
who has come into our time in order to bring about the fullness of time and her
perfection: Jesus Christ. Already in the time of the Old Testament was He the
meaning of all that was done in the temple in Jerusalem (5:1‑7).
6.2 Life has meaning because man is
not subject to chance
The question could still be asked:
if man is not simply the product or victim of repetitious and endless periods
of times of evolution, is he then perhaps the product or even the victim of
something else, namely of fate, of suddenly happening chance?
The Preacher’s answer to the
question, ‘What is man?’ is that man is not determined by and subject to
chance. For this reason we should not leave things up to chance, although life
indeed seems to be subject to it.
In chapter 9:4 the Preacher has
taught us that a living dog is better than a dead lion, because he who is
joined with the living has hope, hope for better times, and hope for
opportunities to enjoy life.
Quite a few people will agree with
this, and they do not even have to be Christians for that. Many people live in
the hope (and it is that hope which keeps them going!), that one day they will
strike it rich. As long as you are alive there is hope, for there is always the
chance that you are lucky. That is why so many people play in the lotteries.
There is always the chance that the lucky number is yours, and that you get
your dream‑house or dream‑boat or that fantastic car, or a hundred‑thousand
dollars, or a million, or perhaps even the fourteen‑million dollars!
Yes, but if you look at life that
way, chances are even more that you get an unlucky number! There are more
unlucky than lucky numbers; and for that reason already it is a matter of
wisdom not to take part in lotteries.
Ah, come on, someone may be
inclined to say, but do you really think that wisdom has a better chance? Does
the Preacher himself not admit that all of life is a matter of chance? Mind
what he says in chapter 9:11: “Again 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 favour to the man of skill; but time and chance happen
to them all”.
Yes indeed, this is what he says!
But we should go on reading a little bit further, for the Preacher is
sufficiently realistic to know that for those who want to let chance determine
everything there are many more chances of getting unlucky instead of lucky.
Just listen to what he says in verse 12, where he compares man with fish or
birds: “Like fish which are taken in an evil net, and like birds which are
caught in a snare, so the sons of men are snared at an evil time, when it
suddenly falls upon them”.
All right, one might say, the
Preacher rightly warns us that there are more bad than good chances, but does
this mean that wisdom would have a better chance?
Yes, what to say about that! It
seems to be that the Preacher will have to say ‘no’ to this question: no, even
if you act by wisdom your chances will not be better. The Preacher himself
gives an example of this, in the verses 13-15, a “great”, that is a frightening
example; and he is deeply impressed by it. “There was a little city with few
men in it; and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great
siege works against it. But there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by
his wisdom could have delivered the city (corrected translation). Yet no one
remembered that poor man”.
Therefore, it seems to be clear
from this example that wisdom does not have a better chance. And yet, says the
Preacher in the verses 16-18, “I say that wisdom is better than might, though
the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heeded. The words of
the wise heard in quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools.
Wisdom is better than weapons of war”.
By this the Preacher means, that if
it would be true indeed that all of life, wisdom included, is determined by
chance: yes, in that case wisdom would not have much chance either. However,
although it seems to be that way, the point is not that even wisdom is subject
to chance, but that wisdom is so vulnerable. Moreover, the fact that wisdom is
so vulnerable is not because of chance, but because of sin. Wisdom is so
vulnerable, the Preacher says in verse 18, because “one sinner destroys much
good”!
Even the wisdom of God as revealed
in the sacrifices in the temple, which pointed forward to the atoning suffering
and death of the promised Messiah, was despised by church people with their
foolish and empty and sinful talk. The Preacher has shown this in chapter 5.
And we know, when God’s own Son came on earth, becoming poor for our sake in
order to deliver us from Satan’s power: “who has believed His message from on
high?” “He was despised and rejected by men”.
Even one sinner, or a little bit of
foolishness, destroys much good (and then to reckon that the world is full of
sin and foolishness!). This is how it goes, and wisdom acknowledges the fact
that not chance but sin spoils what God created good.
There are many examples from
everyday‑life, which can show this fact to us. The Preacher refers in 10:1‑3 to
the fact that one dead fly spoils all the ointment; also, that a fool always
goes the wrong direction, while he declares all others to be fools. It indeed
seems to be that wisdom has no chance, but the real cause is that “a little
folly outweighs wisdom”, due to sin.
The same also appears to be true in
political life, the Preacher says in 10:4‑7. You can of course say that it is
bad luck if you lose your high position, or when even the whole system of
government is turned upside down. Sure, but if it is due to the fact that you
did not heed the warning in verse 4, namely “if the anger of the ruler rises
against you, do not leave your place (in other words: know your place!), for
deference (showing respect) will make amends for great offences”; then it is
not really caused by bad luck or because you did not get any chance; no, but
then it is caused by your offensive behaviour, by your own folly, by sin.
The same applies to what we call
‘accidents’ which happen on the job. The Preacher gives some examples of this
in 10:8‑11. Accidents do happen, but they are not a matter of bad luck or of
chance, if you have failed to sharpen the iron of your axe, or have neglected
to take safety precautions, did not have your car served in time, or did not
care about the traffic-rules. Such human failures are caused by sin, or they
are consequences of sin.
And thus the conclusion of the
Preacher in 10:12‑15 is, that foolishness, which is sin, makes you unable to
find the way to the city (cf. verse 15), and thus leads to nowhere; and sin is
the cause of it when our life shows no lasting results. Not chance or bad luck
is to be blamed, but your own sin, and the sins which you meet everywhere.
Now it is all this, which brings
the Preacher to the exhortation in 10:16‑20, always to act responsibly, and not
to leave things up to chance. He applies his warning to the same three aspects
of life from which he has first taken his examples.
He begins with political life in
the verses 16 and 17: government must be in the hands of responsible people!
In the second place, he refers to
the field of labour in verse 18. It is irresponsible to leave the state your
house is in up to chance; that is laziness instead of acting responsibly!
Then, in the third place, he
applies his warning in the verses 19 and 20 to some matters of everyday‑life.
There is nothing wrong in enjoying a good meal, he says in verse 19; but it
would be irresponsible to go beyond your means, so that your money cannot
answer for it, because there is not enough of it in your wallet, or your cheque
bounces because of NSF, No Sufficient Funds! Even your thoughts, and what you
say in the privacy of your bedroom, must be responsible; don’t leave it up to
chance what may come from it.
The thought could arise: but if it
is really true that you may never leave things up to chance, and that in
everything you must act responsibly: well, then you had better do nothing! For
did the Preacher himself not admit, in 9:12a, that “man does not know his
time”, in other words, that we never can know in advance what will be the
result of our actions, yes, whether there ever will be any result? Therefore, would
the best course of action not be to do nothing, not to take any chances at all?
6.3 Life has meaning because man is
dependent on God
This leads us to the second part of
the Preacher's answer to the question, 'What is man?' Man is dependent on God, and
therefore, do take chances in life, because God leads things by His providence.
Thus, the Preacher denies that man
and his life would be determined by chance. That is the reason that you may not
leave it up to chance. However, this does not mean that you should not take any
chances and therefore do nothing, as if that would be the only way to be
responsible. No, the Preacher says in 11:1, "Cast your bread upon the
waters, for you will find it after many days". This means, do something
with your livelihood, your daily bread, and even if it seems to be that your
doing good things with what you possess will have no visible effect, like
casting bread upon the waters; - for it will get soaked and sink and only serve
as fish fodder - ; yet, take chances, take risks, for there is a close
connection between doing good things to people who need it, and meeting good
things from people.
Therefore, 11:2: "Give a
portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what evil may happen on
earth". Just because you do not know the result, you should have the
courage to help seven that is a fullness of people and you should be courageous
enough to continue even with number eight. We should for example not say too
soon that we cannot admit any more immigrants who are poor and without higher
education. You should indeed take chances in investing your capital in
business. Only, don't speculate, but act responsibly! Do not give all your help
to one person, so that if he later appears to have been a deceiver you have
lost everything to him; nor invest all your money in one risky undertaking so
that if it falls flat all is lost. Do take chances, but keep acting
responsibly.
And then, whatever may be the
result, accept the consequences of your actions. When for example it says in 11:3,
"the clouds are full of rain", accept the fact that "they empty
themselves on the earth", that it will come down; and if a tree falls in a
certain direction, that there it will lie.
Again, these are not reasons for
doing nothing, for just letting God's water run over God's fields instead of
sowing or reaping because, verse 4, you do not know what the wind will do. No,
there is a connection between what you do, and the result that follows. It is
not up to chance, but there is a connection between your actions and the
consequences thereof, because in everything the hand of God is at work.
It is true that we not always see
and experience this, says the Preacher in verse 5: just "as you do not
know how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so
you do not know the work of God who makes everything"; yet all things,
also the results of your actions, are dependent on God; He leads everything
with His hand, by His providence.
Therefore, again: do take chances,
verse 6: "In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your
hand; for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both
alike will be good".
Now, if we, believing God's
providence, pray and do our work and live our lives, then we do not have to
worry! Then we may experience as a hearing of our prayer what we read in verse
7, that "light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to behold the
sun". Then this is so, because our heavenly Father makes His face to shine
over us and smiles on us, for the sake of Him who has come to take away the
sins of the world. For they are the cause of all that is futile on earth:
death, and the curse of sin and death.
But by Christ they have been
overcome.
Yes, says the Preacher in 11:8-10,
whenever we are able to enjoy life, it is good to remember this when we are
growing old, but especially it is good to remember this when you are still
young. Young people in the church, do enjoy life, just because it is so short,
and just because it is still a reality of life under the sun that death is the
end of it. Enjoy it, because all things in life, also the good things which
life offers you, come to you from God's hand, by His providence.
6.4 Life has meaning because man is
accountable for his actions
We are still searching for the
answer to the question, 'What is man?' Because in doing so we must always
remember that man is accountable for his actions, we must keep holding on to
what is absolutely sure, namely that God is the Judge of man, who holds us
responsible for whatever we do.
This is a conclusion to which the
Preacher came earlier already, but it has specifically been worked out in the
last part of his book. And the editor has summarized all of it in his epilogue
in 12:8‑14.
The Preacher did not just seek for
the meaning of life as a personal hobby, because after all he happened to be
such a wise man, a philosopher. Oh no, for as we can read in 12:9, "the
Preacher also taught the people knowledge". He knows that God for all
things which we do brings us into judgment ‑ for what we have done and still do
when we grow old and are troubled by all kinds of infirmities (look at the
examples of this in the verses 2-7), but also for what we do when we are still
young and have lots of fun. However, just because he knows this he sees it as his responsibility also to teach us to be responsible.
And why is this so? It is because
once all of us must give account of all that we have done, of our hidden
actions as well, of the good and the bad.
The best thing to do therefore is
that we, both young and old, heed his teaching and let ourselves be guided by
it. Why? Just because the Preacher says it? Or because the church has collected
his wise sayings, and those of other wise men like Moses, the prophets, and the
apostles? No, we do not believe the Bible because a preacher says it, neither
because the church says it. It is different. We believe because, as it says in
verse 11, "the sayings of the wise are like goads", that is, like
prickles to steer the sheep into the right direction, or "like firmly
fixed nails" or hooks in the wall, on which you can hang your stuff
without being afraid that they will not hold. The Bible is reliable because the
books that are collected in it "are given by one Shepherd"! The LORD
is our Shepherd; therefore, we shall not lack anything.
People can write many books, it
says in verse 12, there is no end to it. However, all the books that
philosophers have written and still are writing on the question, 'What is
man?', and 'What is the meaning of man's life here on earth?', they are
unreliable, untrustworthy, and therefore weariness of the flesh, tiring for the
body and boring for the soul. This is so, except when they pass on the wisdom
which is given by the one Shepherd.
Hold on to this, and to nothing
beyond it!
Keep remembering that our Good
Shepherd is the Judge.
His judgment is not something to be
frightened of, provided that we indeed know Him as the Good Shepherd, Jesus
Christ, who has given His life for the sheep.
He has taken the accountability for
our deeds upon Himself, and thus delivered us from the worst vanity of all, sin
and eternal death, so that we may be accounted righteous before God. Those who
believe in Him may enjoy life, they may rejoice, here and now under the sun on
this earth, and later on the new earth. There we do not need the light of the
sun anymore, because the Good Shepherd will be our light, and the Lamb our
lamp.
We can and we may sing joyfully,
and we can do our work with pleasure; for if the LORD is our Shepherd, we shall
not lack anything.