Allow me to take you through these passages.
Ecclesiastes 2:24-26: There
is nothing better for a person 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? For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy…
Ecclesiastes 3:12-13:I
perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to
do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and
take pleasure in all his toil—this
is God's gift to man.
Ecclesiastes 7:14 : In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity
consider: God has made the one as
well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after
him.
Ecclesiastes 8:15: And I commend joy, for man
has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for
this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 9:7-10: Go, eat
your bread with joy, 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 that 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, …
Ecclesiastes 11:8:
So if a person
lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that
the days of darkness will be many….
Ecclesiastes 11:9: Rejoice,
O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of
your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know
that for all these things God will bring
you into judgment.
The repeated word is “joy” !
Here is a surprising, if not refreshing insight and counsel for living life in a fallen world. In the midst of this
meaninglessness and vanity,
learn to enjoy what you have from God; learn to seize God given blessings and provisions and rejoice in them. Enjoy the good food that God gives you. When
you prosper under God’s good hand, enjoy that! Enjoy
life your wife whom you love, while you have her. Enjoy your work; enjoy the
years that God gives you under the sun.
Young people - enjoy your
youth while you have it, before
arthritis, gout and an aching body discourage you. Seize the
good times; enjoy and don’t feel
guilty for enjoying these things,
provided that you keep in mind
that lack of God centeredness in
these matters makes you think that you are entitled to all
these privileges, when the truth is that you are enjoying the good gifts that God has
given you under the sun.
Please note that the other key word
found in this text is “God” (4x). The enjoyment of life
needs to be understood in
relation to the God who gives you this joy. So then, with a God centered heart, enjoy what good
you receive from the hand of God – without feeling guilty. Isn’t
that lovely? Solomon’s sermon
is not simply an avalanche
of despair and pessimism! Not at
all! What he describes here is a
realistic view of life, and what he says in essence is this: “There is so much vanity and
meaninglessness and striving after the
wind in this life, but be careful that you don’t slip into cynicism and depression on account of that. Keep in mind that God is still in charge of this fallen
world, and that He is your Provider!”
There are thus these two recurring thoughts in Solomon’s
sermon that keep us from coming to a depressing
and cynical conclusion concerning this life under the sun:
(i) The constant thought of God ( cf 5:1-7; also
2:24-26; 3:9 -18; 7:13,14,18,29; 8 8:2,12; 9:1,7; 11:5,9; 12
:1,7, 13-14 )
(ii)
The constant
encouragement to enjoy whatever we have been given from God at any given moment or stage of life.
This strikes me as very sound, very helpful and very balanced teaching
- a real survival guide
for living in a confusing,
paradoxical world filled with so many vanities.
Exposition
5: 18a: “Behold,
what I have seen…”: This is a matter that he can vouch for. This is what he has concluded. This is what he has
learned. This is how Solomon has resolved to live in the midst
of so much vanity and empty pursuits. This is the counsel that he gives here in
the context of Chapter 5. This is what
he has seen:
(i) Live your life with a high view of
God ; live from the center – from a Christian
view, live from a Christ centered
perspective.(5:1-7)
(ii) In the midst of
oppression and unfairness (5: 8,9), do not be surprised that
these things happen, and do not allow
these things to rob you of your
joy.
(iii) Remember too
the uncertainty of riches (5:
8-17). Don’t let them blind you to the greater realities. Remember above all that a hearse
pulls no trailer. You don’t
take anything with you when you die:
naked as you came, so shall you go! (5:15,16). So enjoy what you have, when
you have it, keeping the fear of the Lord in mind.
5:18:b : …to be good
and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with
which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot.
In
the midst of a life of toil (implying
difficulty – for that is the result of the fall – cf. Gen 3:17-19),
Solomon counsels you to stop and to ‘smell the roses’; learn to enjoy the simple pleasures of life; appreciate the little
foretastes of heaven. Once again note how
the words “joy” and “God” are found in close proximity to one another. And again we must say that there is
no true enjoyment of life without
God. In fact, the pleasures of life can never be properly
appreciated apart from God. He
heightens the 5 senses and He
heightens our enjoyment of taste, touch, hearing, smelling and seeing because He connects them to Himself. God makes the sky really blue. He gives colour to what you see. He really makes you appreciate good food and
drink, when you are able to eat and drink with thanksgiving. In this
context the morsel of bread for a Christian prisoner can be as delicious as the choicest
foods at a banquet.
In
this context also, I remind you that it is difficult for us to maintain an appreciation of the gifts of God, particularly
when our focus is too much on this world.
When our focus is on the
routines in life (1:3-11)
or on the pursuit of wisdom / philosophy for its own sake (1:16-18 ; 2:12-17) or upon self -indulgence (2:1-11)
or work (2:18-26) - all for their
own sake, then enjoyment goes out of the window, because God is not
in it. The colours, tastes, sounds, etc. fade very quickly, and we those who chase after the wind.But
if you do keep God at the center in
this life , then Solomon can offer you no better counsel than: “ Enjoy!” I know that thoughtful Christians are often suspicious of ‘enjoyment’ , and therefore they are easily tempted
to live by ‘don’ts ‘ rather
than ‘do’s’. In practice
they become ascetics, and their religion is defined
by outward acts: “I
don’t smoke, drink, dance, chew gum, and I don’t go to the theatre or
movies…”. This is of course the
mentality of the Pharisees, and you
need to watch that tendency with an eagle eye!
Charles
Bridges (1794 – 1869) in his commentary on Ecclesiastes has another
angle on this when he
says: “There is a school among us who are fond of describing religion by
its sorrows, and who forget, or seem to forget, their overbalancing
joys….but Solomon shows us the reality
of happiness even in a world of sin and sorrow. " All things are
ours—things present, as well as " things
to come." (1 Cor 3: 22).
Solomon …insists that the true servant of God is really the happiest of
men—that " God giveth him richly all things to
enjoy" (1 Tim. vi. 17).
But allow me to issue you also with a solemn warning: There is a risk associated with loving the pleasures of life too much and for their own sakes. In this regard we
need to hear the warning that the apostle John
gives us in 1
Jn 2: 15-17. When Christians
pursue the desires of the flesh,
and the desires of the eyes and the
pride in possessions, then they do this to
their own peril , because they
have substituted these idols of
their hearts for the living God, whom they ought to love and fear above all else! Be also very careful to
use the name of God to
justify your indulgences.
The
balance is to be found by keeping God clearly in view at all times! In this regard
there is nothing better than a constant
intake of the Scriptures, through personal reading and prayerful
meditation and by regularly hearing the
Word of God preached expositorially and
systematically. Let the Word of God
dwell in you richly (Col 3:16), and so
you will learn to develop a
balance in your thinking and living. And so you cannot read the Bible for any length of time ,
without concluding that God is really in
charge of this vain world. You learn that He is the provider of your
food , drink and clothes (cf. Matt
6:25-34) and you need not be anxious
about these things, because your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Therefore
joy must break through! And joy is greater than sorrow, just as
light is greater than darkness. So God is greater
than all our negative circumstances.
To allow doom and gloom to rule our
spiritual lives is to give Satan the glory – for truly, greater is He that is in you, than he that
is in the world (1 Jn 4:4).
5:19,20 : And now a final word on
wealth , possessions and power and joy: Everyone
also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them,
and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God.(v.19)
Please
note: Wealth, possessions and power
are seen here as God’s gifts. They are given to be enjoyed.
And therefore these things in themselves are not essentially
evil. The evil is in their abuse (cf 1 Tim 6:10) and not in their
possession. Wealth, possession and power can be great blessings to those who use it under the direction of God.
What
is the proper way for a believer to live
with wealth?
(i) Live in the fear of the Lord (v.7) Remember that your greatest possession is Jesus.
(ii) Recognize
that prosperity is a very
real trial to your faith . It
is easier in this sense to be poor than
to have much. Thomas Carlyle (1798
-1881), a Scottish philosopher said, “For a hundred that can bear adversity, there
is hardly a one that can bear prosperity.” William Wilberforce, who did so much for social causes in
Britain in the 19th Century said,
“Prosperity and luxury gradually
extinguish sympathy and harden and debase the soul.”
(iii) Do
not be owned by things; things must
be owned by you. “Possessions weigh me down in life; I never
feel quite free. I often wonder whether
I own my things , or if my things own me.” That means that we use what we have been given by God to glorify God, and to meet
the legitimate needs of our families and ourselves, and to
do good to Christians, to promote the gospel, and to be generous in
our community.
(iv) The
result is joy, and it is
possible because God is at the center. God frees us from the tyranny of
possessions, and this produces joy.
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