Dr. Jim Packer was one of the most famous and influential
evangelicals of our time. He died last Friday, July 17,2020 at the age
of 93.
For Jim Packer, Ecclesiastes was
the book that cured him of youthful cynicism. The book, he said, “has taught me that it is folly to suppose
that you can plan life and master it, and you will get hurt if you try. You
must acknowledge the sovereignty of God and leave the wisdom to him. It tells
me now what it told me 40 years ago, namely, that we wear out, physically we
come apart. You get old, and getting old means the loss of faculties and powers
you had when you were younger. And that is the way God prepares us to leave
this world for a better world to which he’s taking us. The message of
Ecclesiastes 12 is, “Get right with God as early in life as you can; ‘remember
the Creator in your days of youth’ [v. 1]. Don’t leave it until sometime in the
future when you’re not likely to be able to handle it well at all.” [1]
When asked what his final
message to the world would be, he
said, “Glorify Christ every way”.
We now come to the 4th Chapter of this remarkable,
unique and sobering book of the Bible. The commentator Michael Eaton observes
that “between 4:1 and 10:20,
Ecclesiastes resembles the book of
Proverbs, with short epigrams dealing
with various aspects of life.”[2] So, what we see here is a host of different topics
pertaining to life under the sun as it is
observed by Solomon.
In this chapter,
Solomon considers four vanities under the sun. Each of them needs to
be redeemed by the Lord Jesus.
Each one is relevant to our times.
1. 4: 1-3: People oppressed
with no one to comfort them
2. 4: 4 -6: People working to keep up with their neighbours, but they are unhappy.
3. 4:7-12: People who are incredibly lonely.
4. 4:13-16: People who rise from poverty to political power,
forgetting where they have come from,
and worse still, who no longer know how to take advice, and who leave their
high offices with no appreciation from those they ruled.
1. PEOPLE OPPRESSED WITH NO ONE TO COMFORT
THEM (4:1-3)
Look at the text again. The word ‘oppress’ occurs three times. Then look at words such as ‘tears’ and ‘no comfort’. Solomon describes the hopeless condition of the
oppressed. Although Solomon does not seem to have suffered from oppression
himself, he would have seen it when he looked around in his pursuit to discover
what life has to offer.
He would have known of the oppressions that David, his
father had experienced under king Saul (1 Samuel 18ff), and also later under his brother, Absalom who tried to take the
throne from his father David (2 Samuel 15).
Sadly, it seems as if
Solomon himself became an oppressor of his people later in his life (1 Ki. 12:4), when his many foreign
wives led him astray. His son, Rehoboam
increased the oppression of his own people of Israel (1 Ki.
12:11). This led to Israel becoming a divided kingdom during the reign of
Rehoboam (1 Kings 12:16ff).
All this has a very modern tone to it. Think about all the current oppressions of
people under the sun. There is virtually no nation where people groups are not
oppressed.
We think of the history of our own nation. Apartheid oppressed black
people.
We think of the language of the minority Kurdish people (18%) which is not
recognized in Turkey.
In Syria, the Alawites, a religious Muslim minority group (18 %) was
historically oppressed by other Muslims, but now under the leadership of Bashar al Assad this
minority group is in turn
oppressing other faith groups.
Elsewhere in Africa we have heard
of the Tutsi minorities of Rwanda & Burundi who oppressed
the Hutu majority, and this is still at
the heart of much unhappiness in that region. Tribalism still oppresses many
people in Africa. In the 19th Century many tribes in Africa sold each other, out
of envy, into slavery.
Germans oppressed and killed many Jewish Germans in the
20th Century.
China and North
Korea have some of the worst human rights records in the modern world.
Christians are oppressed in all Muslim
countries.
Many children on our
continent are pressed into being child soldiers.
Young girls in countless civil
wars are oppressed by sexual abuse.
This is what happens daily under our sun.
This is the world we live in.
This was Solomon’s world.
From this oppressive vantage point Solomon can come
to only one conclusion: It is better
not to be born! Have you ever had
the thought, “I wished I had not been
born?”
Job and Jeremiah had wished
this at one time (Job 3:1ff; Jer.20:14-18).
This is what happens when the world we live in, is momentarily handed over to the
madness of Satan, and his evil demon possessed people
who for a time are not restrained
by God from doing their evil. When evil reigns freely it indeed appears
better not to live at all.[3]
Such life appears to be meaningless- vanity under the sun.
Right
now, this is a world that desperately needs to be redeemed.
Thank God that it will
be finally redeemed when Christ comes again.
In the meantime thank God then for
every society where law and order, freedom and peace, righteousness and
justice, liberty of conscience and freedom of worship do exist! And pray to God, when it doesn’t exist.
2.PEOPLE TRYING TO KEEP UP WITH THEIR NEIGHBOURS, BUT STILL
UNHAPPY (4:4 -6)
Here Solomon makes three observations:
a. “I saw that all toil
and all skill in work come from a man's envy of his neighbour “(4:4).
Here is a man who works for long hours, just to get money in order to
keep up with his neighbours. Solomon clearly sees the motive behind it. It is
envy and jealousy and covetousness that drive so much of what we do under the
sun. This too is a common habit in our own day.
Jesus forbids such anxiety and teaches us to be content with what we
have. (Matthew 6:25-34). Paul
teaches contentment in Philippians 4:2-20.
b. From there we move on to the opposite way of thinking: “The fool folds his hands and eats his own
flesh” (4:5). Here is the man who does nothing. “He eats his own flesh“, probably refers
to the fact that he is rotting away in his person. His hands are folded. He is
idle. For folding of hands – see Proverbs 6:10; 24:33 – this depicts a lazy
man. The Bible teaches us to keep away from any brother who is walking
in idleness.. if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat (2 Thess.3:6-12)
c. “Better is a handful
of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind” (4:6).
Here is a man who has both hands full, but what does he ultimately
have? He has only two full hands,
and the real things in life – his joy in the Lord, and his joy in the
relationships that God has given him under the sun- these are missing!
They have escaped him.
His wife has left him.
His children hardly
know him.
What has happened?
He is
climbing the corporate ladder so that he can feel good about himself. So, his
ambition becomes a necessity, and necessity becomes a god. This god drains him,
until he falls exhausted at his feet. Then he may perhaps ask himself, “What was this all about?
So, “better is a handful of quietness than two
hands full of toil and a striving after wind.” One could write a book about the people who have pierced themselves
with grief on account of their
relentless pursuit of material gain, moved by subtle (and not so subtle) envy
and jealousy. Listen to Solomon!
The ‘two hands full mentality’, is a striving after the wind. This thought will
be repeated again in 5:10,
“He who loves money will not be satisfied
with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income…”.
Paul says that “godliness with contentment is great gain”
(1Tim 6:6).
Jesus says, “A
man’s life doesn’t exist in the abundance of his possessions” (Lk.
12:15).
Don’t try to keep up with everybody else. It is useless. It is a
striving after the wind.
3. PEOPLE WITH POWER
AND INFLUENCE, BUT WHO ARE VERY LONELY (4:7-12)
You can have all the wealth of the world and yet have no true
friend. Look at 4:7,8 – another picture of vanity under the sun.
Here is a man who is so busy working that he
doesn’t have time to have friends. He is so busy that he never asks, “for whom am I actually doing this?”
The world has many such lonely people.
I read the story of John Paul Getty, one of
the 20th century’s first billionaires,
who during the most active years in his
business life, lived alone in a 72-room
mansion outside London.
Over a 25-year
period, he had married and divorced five women.
“I hate to be a failure,” he
said.
“I would gladly give all my millions for just one, lasting marital
success.”
He admitted to being a
lonely man. He said that people liked
him primarily for his money. According
to one of his wives, he spent so much time building a business, that he had no time to build a relationship
with his family. He had everything, and yet he had nothing. He had two hands
full of possessions, and no handful of
quietness. He was married to money. [4]
Solomon says that a man without a friend is lonely. Therefore “two are better than one”, but “three are even better than two” (4:12)
- “a threefold cord is not quickly broken”.
Solomon
isn’t talking here about the
benefits of marriage, although the marriage partnership is
given by God to be a real source of strength and completion. The logic
here is that two (and better
three) keep each other encouraged when
they are weak, and when they are
vulnerable and when they are attacked. So, don’t allow yourself to be robbed of
the strength and privilege of real friendships for the sake of chasing the
material wind.
Thank God especially for your
best friends, and your marriage partner, and never cease to thank God
for the church, where more than two or three are gathered together.
Learn to
draw upon the rich relationships in the church!
There is incredible strength in unity! There is very little strength in
in money and possessions. Jesus
encourages us to build our wealth not by trusting in money but by laying up treasures in heaven (Matt. 6:19-24).
May I remind you that
money does not go to heaven.
People do.
Invest in people.
4. PEOPLE RISING ‘FROM RAGS TO RICHES’, FROM
‘POVERTY TO POLITICAL POWER’, AND FORGETTING
WHERE THEY HAVE COME FROM, AND WORSE STILL, WHO NO LONGER KNOW HOW TO TAKE ADVICE, AND WHO LEAVE
THEIR HIGH OFFICES WITH NO APPRECIATION FROM THOSE THEY HAVE RULED
(4:13-16).
This last thought is complex in its composition.
Solomon tells the short story of a poor young
man, who though he was once in prison, eventually became king, by replacing an
old king who no longer knew how to take advice. Many years later he encounters
that same problem when those that enthroned him (in favour of that old foolish
king) now would be glad to get rid of him.
Political leadership is a lonely
place. When there are many voices shouting, the real temptation is to withdraw
and not to listen to anyone at all, and that can be equally damaging.
Proverbs
teaches us about the importance of having advisers - godly advisers! The simple moral of the story – no president
or king should do more than two terms in office! How relevant to our own age.
When will political rulers ever learn that
the longer they rule a
nation, the more they are tempted to become a
liability and not a blessing to
the nation, and that people do get tired of them?
When will we learn the wisdom of Scripture
that teaches us that human nature is fallen, and therefore unable to set up
a righteous kingdom? This too must wait for the return of Christ.
Conclusion
We have had enough application in the course of this
exposition. The great lesson before us
is that the things in life that we so
often cherish and pursue are,in the end, a chasing after the wind. Once
again Solomon’s sermon provides us with ”reality therapy“ – a true
insight into our world, and this drives us back
to listening carefully once more to the wisdom of the law, the prophets, the apostles – all
who find their fulfilment in Jesus.
Of Him, God the Father has said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased: listen to Him!” (Matthew
17:5)
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