Coverage: Ecclesiastes 4-6
Readings: Ecclesiastes 5:8-20; 1 Timothy 6:6-19
After a bushfire or flood, when the danger has passed, people return to what was once their home. They scramble around searching for anything they can salvage. They sift through ashes or water-logged remains, hoping to find something that survived, a teaspoon, or a coin.
That is what Solomon is doing in Ecclesiastes. Every attempt to find lasting meaning “under the sun” has collapsed. So he sifts through the wreckage of his own toil and experience to see if anything worthwhile can be rescued.
Just as a doctor must diagnose the full extent of a sickness before healing it, Solomon’s analysis of life’s futility seems to make things worse before they get better. Yet only through honest diagnosis can true healing begin.
Solomon built buildings and gardens, was a zoologist, botanist, and experimented with wine, women, and song. But he found that every human pursuit ends in death, and this means that it is vapour. Human work under the sun is necessary and painful, and death renders its fruits elusive vapour.
As he observes again in 5:15: “Everyone comes naked from their mother’s womb, and as everyone comes, so they depart. They take nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands. Again 5:17, All their days they eat in darkness, with great frustration, affliction and anger.
You can’t take it with you, and it hurts to acquire it.
Solomon has already testified that “I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me” (2:17). He is angry, vexed, and frustrated at the impermanence of all his labour. Solomon seeks to mitigate his despair by finding something good to hang on to. He cannot get his life back, and the time he wasted pursuing things that don’t last.
But what he hasn’t done is thought adequately about the eternity that God has placed in our hearts (3:11). Solomon is longing for more than what “under the sun” can provide, even with all his resources. As C.S. Lewis said: “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” (Mere Christianity, Reprint New York: HarperColins, 2001, 136-7). We have a God shaped hole, that only God can fulfil.
Yet Solomon clings to an under the sun ‘mitigation’. The mitigation and provisional solution Solomon comes to is this: A man might enjoy his toil and its fruits in the present. Chapter 3 verses 12-13:
12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.
This is repeated in essence though with slight modification in 3:22, 5:18-22; 8:15; 9:7-10; 11:9-10. Since we can’t keep what we build, the best we can do is enjoy the process. “Be present, be in the moment, be mindful” as we might say today — take satisfaction in the process even if you can’t keep the end result.
When we get to the New Testament, Paul criticises this very approach. The live in the moment approach has an element of truth found in thankful contentment, but it cannot survive suffering.
Here is the element of truth Solomon has grasped: everything God created, such as food and marriage, is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving (1 Timothy 4:3-4). God is kind and provides rains and crops and fills us with plenty of food and fills our hearts with joy (Acts 14:17). God richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment (1 Timothy 6:17). If we have food and clothing, Godliness is to be content with that. (1 Timothy 6:8)
But there is another side we must consider.
In 1 Corinthians 15:32-33, Paul speaks of his own experience: 32 If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” That is a quote from Isaiah 22. God’s disobedient people take that attitude (v 13): instead of repenting of sin in sackcloth and ashes, they decide to eat, drink, be merry, and die. It is disobedient and faithless, not realising that there is judgment and eternity to follow. Paul fought wild beasts and suffered because he had met the risen Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus and the promise of future life means that there is something more and better than eating and drinking and finding satisfaction in the present. Tomorrow we die, maybe, but then, resurrection. Moreover, then you meet God, because death is not the end. So then, pain and death are just vapour—they pass away like everything else. Torture and death is the worst that can happen: then to be with Christ, which is better by far, and resurrection to eternity.
Unsurprisingly, Solomon’s hedonistic solution, maximise pleasure and minimise pain in the present, cannot last long without attracting qualification and critique from Solomon himself. Like a good research student, Solomon interrogates his thesis with evidence to the contrary, and from chapters 4 to 6, the evidence he raises pokes holes in his thesis. The fact is that most people most of the time don’t have the luxury of enjoy the moment. Solomon over the next three chapters is playing wack-a-mole: he bashes down one mol—a hole in his thesis—but then another problem with his solution sticks ups its head.
Solomon turns and sees oppression. And the tears of the oppressed hardy allow them to enjoy the process of toil.
Chapter 4 verse 1: “I saw the tears of the oppressed—and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors.”
Solomon faces the ugly reality that his own grand achievements were built by enslaving others. Solomon made forced labourers of his fellow Israelites and slaves of other nations (1 Kings 5:13-18). This reality destroys his fragile hope that the vast majority of people might live in the moment and get joy from their work. The oppressed cannot rejoice in toil when they have no freedom and no comfort. There is no one to help—no fair-work commission, no union rep, no award conditions. The king himself is the oppressor-in-chief. Solomon admits this in Ecclesiastes 5:8-9: “One official is watched by a higher one … the king himself profits from the fields” (5:8-9).
There is the king, Solomon, sitting on top of the pile, living off the fat of his kingdom, chowing down on the endowment of the see, being carried by his people, like Yertle the Turtle being lifted up on the backs of all the turtles beneath him, amazed at how far he can see.
Far from salvaging his project, Solomon despairs, in chapter 4 verse 2 “I declared that the dead are happier than the living … verse 3, but better than both is the one who has never been born.”
If life is painful, then under the sun, non-existence seems preferable. That is why we put down dogs or horses. That’s why people with only an “under the sun” perspective demand euthanasia and abortion: they think that death is better than pain. Even better than death, is non-existence, never having seen pain.
That right there is the teenager not wanting to do the dishes: "Come and do the dishes." "No." "Well you’re part of this family, aren’t you?” "Well, I didn’t ask to be born, did I?” as they return to their computer game.
In this thinking, life is only about pain and pleasure. Because there is pain, or the possibility of pain, I will protest against God and wish I’d never been born. If I were God I would have done it differently.
But no one can choose non-existence: we are creatures, not creators. We did not choose to be, and we cannot choose to not be. You and I weren’t very successful in choosing not to be born, were we? Here we all are! What makes us think we can choose not to exist? Suicide does not bring about non-existence — it only brings you into judgment before God with another sin, self-murder, on your conscience.
Solomon notices another problem with toil, another mole to be wacked down, in chapter 4 verse 4: “All toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another.”
Search your feelings, you know this to be true. Competition drives human effort, from the playground to politics and business. That’s why we have the competition commission. Nations, neighbours, and siblings all put up with toil because they envy others.
Yet it’s absurd. It’s illogical. The rich envy the poor’s rest, and the poor envy the rich man’s wealth. Solomon says in chapter 5 verse 12, “The sleep of a labourer is sweet … but the abundance of the rich permits them no sleep”.
Poor little rich king! Solomon is jealous of all his forced labourers who are tired out at night and drift off into the oblivion of sleep.
No matter how much money he has, it is never enough (5:10). The human appetite unchecked is never satisfied (6:7). I can’t get no satisfaction. Solomon has his sleepless nights thinking about all his stuff, looking after it, worrying about it, wanting more of it.
Solomon then observes a dead-end. If envy drives toil, perhaps we should stop striving altogether? Some do, verse 5: “Fools fold their hands and ruin themselves.” This is the sluggard. But here is the problem with this: you can’t opt out of work, just like you can’t opt out of life. You can’t opt out of the pain of work even if you are wealthy: Solomon himself is proof of that. That is the way to ruin. God has bound humanity to work God’s world: “He who will not work, neither shall he eat.” Whether rich or poor, we cannot escape the necessity of toil.
So Solomon suggests a middle way—a way not open to him, a rich man, who is bound to his riches. Chapter 4 verse 6: “Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.” Given that you can’t keep it, and it hurts to get it, maybe just get what you need, and that will be enough. Proverbs 30 echoes this wisdom: “Give me neither poverty nor riches, but only my daily bread.” Jesus teaches us this in the Lord’s Prayer — “Give us today our daily bread”, not too much nor too little. Another translation of the Lord’s prayer is, “Give us tomorrow’s bread”, so I don’t have to worry about tomorrow. But certainly what you shouldn’t seek is bigger barns.
Jesus, of course, sharpens this insight: “Seek first the kingdom of God … and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matt 6:33). Paul agreed: If we have food and clothing, we will be content with that” (1 Tim 6:8).
Then Solomon the motor mechanic, sees another mole pop up needing to be wacked. That is: “It’s hard to be a solo man, you have to take the lead and let the other’s follow”. He turns to see the futility of not having fellowship in one’s labour.
The problem: no fellowship (4:7-8)
Verse 8: “There was a man all alone; he had neither son nor brother. There was no end to his toil … yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.”
Notice that the labourer has neither son nor brother: that is, he doesn’t have a partner in the work he is doing. Solomon is not talking about marriage. I have preached on this passage at many weddings, but marriage is only a secondary application for this passage. Solomon here is talking about business partnerships. In Solomon’s thinking, a wife is necessary if one wants to have a son who can help in the work. But a brother will do. Not a very romantic passage, is it? But with a thousand wives, Solomon was no romantic.
The provisional solution: prudent partnership (4:9-12; cf. Gen 2:18)
Verse 9: “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labour.”
Get a business partner. Don’t go out in the fields alone. Don’t cut wood, haul stone, and labour alone. Don’t cry alone. Misery loves company: cry with a mate. Work in pairs. Have a buddy, a sidekick. Then you’ve got someone to do first aid for you when you fall into the pit you dug, or when you are bitten by a snake in the forest into which you've been sent, or you are injured by the stones you have to quarry or the logs you must split (10:8-9). When you are out at night in the middle of winter pursuing another of the king's fancies and whims, then you can huddle together to keep warm. Or when robbers or wild animals come at you, you can stand back-to-back to defend yourself.
Are you feeling the job satisfaction yet? At one level, this advice is just Solomon preserving his labour force as he drives them on to get for him ever more esoteric, luxurious, and exotic pleasures that he vainly hopes will satisfy him, but haven’t done so in the past.
A problem with the provisional solution: the forgotten second (4:14-16)
Solomon sees another problem with this mitigation: yet another leak spouting from his motor, another mole to be wacked
Solomon tells of a poor but wise youth who rises to prominence under an old foolish king. At first the people rejoice in the youth, but soon they forget him.
The youth is the king’s second: that is a more literal translation of the word the NIV translates as ‘successor’ in 4:15. Perhaps as Joseph was to Pharaoh, so here is an example of two working together. The partnership looked promising, but the second ultimately was rejected after the old king died. So what looked good as a mitigation came to nothing. Partnership, having a second, ultimately does not redeem the toil.
But not only does death mean one cannot enjoy worldly wealth. The wealth of this world itself is hebel: it is mist, vapour. You don’t last, and your wealth doesn’t last. Worldly wealth has many ways to disappear.
So in 5:11, “As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owners except to feast their eyes on them?”
All the leaches and hangers-on are drawn to wealth—governments, superannuation funds, public servants, managers, middle-men—and it means that not the owner, but others, actually enjoy the wealth. God may give you the goods, you may have legal title, but not the opportunity to enjoy them (6:1-2). That is, you might be like the man Jesus speaks about who builds bigger barns (Luke 12:16-21). God will give those things to someone else anyway.
How many houses can you live in? How many cars can you drive? How much food and drink do you need?
Or in 5:14, wealth [might be] lost through some misfortune” (5:14). It is uncertain. That’s why you have insurance: fire, flood, storm, or war might destroy the work of your hands. Moth and rust corrupt and thieves break in and steal. Ships and their cargo sink. Planes crash. Stock markets correct it out of existence. Bubbles burst. It is sub-primed away.
Even worse, wealth can destroy its owner: “wealth may be hoarded to the harm of its owner” (5:13). You see this in shows about hoarders, like space invaders. Wealth requires careful management lest entropy render it rubbish and a dangerous health and safety risk. Moreover, wealth can attract violent attackers. The ransom of a man’s life is his wealth, but a poor man hears no threat (Proverbs 13:8).
So Solomon must modify his thesis in mitigation. The mitigation of the tragedy is that someone might possibly enjoy wealth and possessions in the moment: but this is only when God allows it. It doesn’t happen automatically, and in every case. You are better off just having what you need anyway.
Chapter 5 verses 19-20: when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God. 20 They seldom reflect on the days of their life, because God keeps them occupied with gladness of heart.
It doesn’t happen for the oppressed. It doesn’t happen for those who have too little. It doesn’t happen for those who have their wealth and then don’t enjoy it. It doesn’t happen for those who have too much that causes them worry. But that is his ideal.
We might interrogate Solomon about this: How has that gone for you, Solomon? Have you enjoyed your wealth and are you happy in your lot? The answer is ‘no’. He is resentful and vexed about his vaporous waste of time that his sinful experimenting caused. He can’t sleep at night for worry about it. He envies the slaves that he oppresses to gain his wealth.
And what if God doesn’t give the ability for someone to enjoy their wealth? That makes the situation worse. It is putting a lovely dinner in front of a starving man but not letting him eat it, chapter 6 verse 3: “if [a man] cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not receive proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.”
Such a person only endures the pain of gathering wealth, but no enjoyment of it. So Solomon this it would be better if he had never been born. This is under the sun thinking. For as we’ve seen, we cannot un-exist. But it also fails to reckon with the paradox of hedonism: that it is more blessed to give than receive.
So Solomon concludes chapter 6 with an observation about his and our limited knowledge. Wisdom under the sun is limited, verse 12:
For who knows what is good for a person in life, during the few and meaningless days they pass through like a shadow? Who can tell them what will happen under the sun after they are gone? (NIV)
The problem is that no matter how wise a person is, they are never wise enough. We cannot know what God has planned for us, whether peace or difficulty awaits. And so in our next section we will look at Solomon’s approach to wisdom. Pursuing wisdom under the sun is necessary, just as toil is necessary, but true wisdom is beyond us.
Solomon does not want to walk away from his life’s work. He is heroically trying to salvage meaning for his toil under the sun. But under the sun, toil cannot be salvaged. It is the vapour that he has already said it is.
Think of our toil in the world like Elwood Blue’s Dodge motor car. In the Blue's Brothers, Elwood buys a beaten up ex-police car, in the movie, “The Blues Brothers”. Jake and Elwood are on a mission from God, saving their orphanage by paying the taxes the nun can’t afford. And their old bomb of a dodge outruns score of police cars in one of the greatest car chases in Hollywood history, the tactical response group, the US army, helicopters, Sherman tanks, the good ol’ boys, Princess Leia, John Candy, all because they’re on a mission from God. And when the car gets them to their destination, the tax office, it falls apart. It was only good for the mission God had given them. So it is with our toil and its fruit. It is good for our mission now, as God holds it and us together. Then it becomes scrap. Because God has an inheritance for us that can never perish, spoil, or pass away.
For there is not just ‘under the sun’ existence. There is beyond the sun, heavenly reality. And we have access to that in Christ. In Jesus, the heavenly world has broken into the present. The resurrection life has come into the present on the first Easter Day. We have been raised with Christ and seated with him in the heavenly realms. The eternity that God placed in our hearts will be satisfied. God will bring us into judgment. This salvages everything we do, think, or say under the sun. Everything we do has eternal significance.
Let’s pray.