“I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted. I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.”
Ecclesiastes 1:12-18 ESV
The word of the Lord is full of bomb statements that too often fly right past us, buzzing and echoing in our ears like dull hums, incomprehensible because of our spiritual deafness. And, just to be clear, because the reality of sin makes it so that we most desperately need to be reminded of the basics, our deafness is self-imposed. The problem of the flesh that plagues even the church is the misunderstanding of true righteousness and sin. It’s simply beyond the capacity of our sin-damaged faculty of reason to think rightly about those extraordinary subjects. If it were, why would Jesus promise to send the Holy Spirit to teach us exactly this?
“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”
John 16:7-11 ESV
In Romans 1 Paul, inspired by the Spirit lays out a withering critique upon the Gentiles. In chapter 2 he turns to the Jews who are agreeing with him, nodding their heads as those hot words rain down upon the pagans, and he says, in effect, “do you think that agreeing with me means that you’re righteous?”
You see what’s happening here? The truths expressed in Ecclesiastes are unpopular, and are uncomfortable to read precisely because we don’t think they should apply to us. The sad fact is that we’re all way too comfortable listening to judgments upon the sins of others and we act like Jonah sitting outside Nineveh, sipping tea in the shade, and gleefully awaiting all those catastrophes God promises upon “those people.” Who are those nasty people residing inside the walls of our modern Nineveh? Well, you know who they are! They’re all those folks we judge for not being Christians just as we are. They’re in the wrong church, or they sing the wrong hymns, or their pastor is on a big screen or something like that. Or, gasp, they’re those awful leftists, or those rapacious Gordon Gekkos who have so much a nicer house.
The problem of Ecclesiastes is very often the problem of self-righteousness, which is to say the farcical pride we take in the assumption that we don’t have as much to be forgiven for as the dude or dude-ette in the next pew. Just as the problem of sin is universal, proven by the fact that all men die, so the fever of self-righteousness is the result of sin’s infection. Granted, some of our fevers are higher and some lower. But we all must come to the gospel and take our daily dose of aspirin. It is by the very grace of God alone that we’re not all burning hot, too feverish to function and leave the house for the day.
Another consequence of pride is that, even when we serve the law of God with our minds (Romans 7:25), we often fail to understand the reality of sin’s curse in this fallen world. Even at our best we can accept the concept of salvation by faith alone, but bristle under the reality that our sin is very much real and that this is a world cursed by God because of sin. The reality that the goodness in the world is all grace, not our due, is a slippery truth in our hands. It’s one that we’re prone to drop because thankfulness isn’t our natural state, but a fruit of the Spirit. We’re prone to take better care of our iPhones than our gratitude even though the latter is far more banged up from all those times it tumbles from our grasp.
The context in which we must learn to live this side of the cross is that of sanctification. We must guard against that notion, shared by so many, especially Israel as they grumbled in the wilderness, that the deliverance from the slavery of sin is the end of the matter. Justification is the act that sets in motion and makes possible the discipleship of sanctification that follows. A careless Christianity is the product of a heart that isn’t broken by its sin and still believes, somewhere down deep, that the real problem is out there. Legalism and antinomianism are both direct consequences, depending upon whether we’re a Tigger or a Pooh, of the crazed belief that salvation is cheap.
On the contrary, sin is so ghastly and God is so righteous that salvation cost the life of the sinless Son of God. And the logic of the faith is that repentance of sin is, in a way of saying it, agreeing with God at last. Mortification of sin is, therefore, the path of discipleship and a disciple is nothing but a disciplined learner who sees the world as his/her Father’s and every detail/circumstance as His divine order.
As Daniel had Miyagi teach him the ways of karate-do, so the justified Christian submits to the disciple of the Lord in humble gratitude. To that end, the disciple reckons with the sufferings of this present time, the trials, tragedies, and frustrations, as divinely ordained training. Thus, if Ecclesiastes is so rough to read it’s because in our pride or laziness, we want glory without the cross. And we don’t take seriously the implications of sin and God’s curse against it. How then can we see clearly the glories of grace?
The bomb that’s dropped when the Preacher says, in effect, that God has dealt a tragic existence to us, isn’t a new thing. We just aren’t listening, or we’re slow to connect the dots. And we naturally don’t want to struggle. That’s obvious. We aren’t talking about self-flagellation, but the realities of living in a fallen world.
“Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,” Hebrews 5:8-9 ESV
“And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:5-11 ESV
Thus, far from showing that the world doesn’t, in fact, make sense, Ecclesiastes explains the realities of living “under the sun” and takes seriously the whole of the Biblical narrative. This is the logic behind why we rejoice in our sufferings.
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” James 1:2-3 ESV
The goal of our lives is faithfulness, pure and simple. To that end we evaluate and interpret every single detail. To do otherwise is to throw our lives away both here and in the age to come. Again, the key to understanding Ecclesiastes and applying its deep wisdom to our lives, is to first know and then live in the truth of the entirety of Scripture…all of it. Ecclesiastes is a total riddle for us if we disregard the realities of the Fall and the curse.
“And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”” Genesis 3:17-19 ESV
The tragedy of living in a sin-sick world is the fact of death, frustration, and labor. These are corrected in Christ alone, not man’s crazed schemes to “make straight” what God has, in His divine wisdom, made crooked in the curse (Ecclesiastes 1:15). Eve experienced pain in childbirth (Genesis 3:16). Cain realized his inability to have his own way over God’s world (Genesis 4:5-7). He was livid about it and took that anger out on his brother (verse 8).
Cain’s punishment was to live life as a vagabond. This was divine punishment and God provided a mark (unexplained to us) sufficient for Cain’s safety so that he wouldn’t be murdered by others. Nevertheless, Cain’s rebellion continued. Life was hard. Cain, not learning to discipline himself in the Lord, wouldn’t trust God nor obey Him. He built a city rather than wander, as commanded. He sought safety therein.
From there, Cain’s offspring only got worse. A few short generations later we see that Lamech had perverted the institution of marriage and taken two wives. Also, tellingly, he perverted justice by killing someone when he didn’t need to. Sin began to intensify because the descendants of Cain refused to trust God and obey Him. Rather than live by faith as they encountered the frustrations and limits of a fallen world, they built their cities, their crafts, and sciences, to protect themselves from the consequences of sin rather than repent. The rapid intensification of violence and oppression until the time of Noah is what man will always do without grace. He will devour himself because he refuses to live by faith.
After the Flood, men again refused to live by faith.
“And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…
And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”” Genesis 9:1, 7 ESV
Instead of obedience, men tried again to build a city of man, for man – against God. They didn’t call it that, though. Sinners are black belts in the arts of being clever.
“Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”” Genesis 11:4 ESV
God told them to “go” but going meant risk. If man is to “be like God” in his delusion, that must mean the elimination of risk, frustration and failure. So sinful man insists on guarantees in life rather than the word of the Most-High God. He builds his cities and arts to both protect and glorify himself. The Tower of Babel and Babylon the Great are man’s politics of self-repair and self-defense over against the ravages of sin and their judgments. Rather than the cross, man wants his glorious cities. Man the sinner wants life on his terms rather than God’s.
Then, miraculously, Abram is called. He’s told incredible things.
“Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” Genesis 12:1-2 ESV
We see God’s incredible grace in this. Many of us would have said, “I’ve told you knuckleheads time and again that to live in my world you must live by faith, but you’ve ignored Me.” But He does no such thing. Instead, His plan of redemption continues.
“So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.” Genesis 12:4-9 ESV
We notice that Abram obeys. And when he gets to Canaan and hears the promise of the land to offspring he doesn’t even have yet, he doesn’t try and build a city. He builds an altar.
This is all the difference in the world. Abram had to be wondering how such fantastic promises could ever come true but he trusted God and saw his goal in life, not as living by his own standards, but by living according to the those of God’s!
He built an altar!
Interestingly and tellingly, Abram isn’t obsessed with getting his own way. His primary goal in life, evident by his deeds, which were powered by his trust in God, is the glory of God.
And then:
“Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.” Genesis 12:10 ESV
Are you kidding me? A severe famine? How does that factor into the promises of offspring inheriting the land? Well, Abram doesn’t know and apparently neither does he worry about micro-managing God’s will. We should strive to be like Abram. Moreover, can you imagine what Lot and the others must have been thinking? “We left all we had and our security to follow this childless dude who’s supposed to have offspring that fills the land and now we’re gonna perish out here in a famine.”
And so they fled to Egypt and had a dust-up with Pharaoh, who like his ancestor, Lamech, likes to have multiple women. Yet Abram emerges from that danger in a pretty good way.
“So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb. Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord. And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together; for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together, and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land. Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.” And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other. Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.” Genesis 13:1-13 ESV
In this we notice a few critical lessons.
Abram follows the Lord in faith and leaves Egypt enriched but, as Solomon will point out many times in Ecclesiastes, wealth is no protection from life’s challenges. Lot’s men and Abram’s men are bickering. Factions and loyalties formed as is the fashion of men and women who don’t trust totally in God (1 Corinthians 1:11-13). To this, Abram counsels with Lot and instead of walking by sight, he reacts in faith. How does he accomplish this? Because he was so awesome in and of himself? No. The first thing he did was call upon the name of the Lord (v. 4) and then he addressed the burgeoning problem.
What happened next is a key truth of Scripture.
Abram owed nothing; in the worldly way of seeing it, Lot owed Abram. And yet, because Abram walked by faith, he humbly gave Lot first choice of the land and Lot chose according to the eyes. Abram was okay with this because, again, he saw his life’s goal as faithfulness first and foremost. The key is always that we must keep the end in mind when considering the particulars.
So, what happens next?
“The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.” Genesis 13:14-18 ESV
Because of Abram’s continual faithfulness under pressure, the Lord speaks with him again. This alone is the greatest of blessings and privileges! And beyond that, Abram goes again. He obeys. And, as always, his first act is to worship! To the rest of the world it looks like Lot got the better deal. But from the chapters that follow, Lot fails to see the danger of living in wealth amidst men of great sin. In short order, Abram must rescue Lot.
Is this not a record of how all this unhappy business in life can play out? It’s not as though the Lord has left us without a record.
Far from telling us that all this “vanity” is the end of the matter, Solomon is telling us that all the things in this world will pass away but the Lord and His word will not. This is why we aren’t to be “conformed” to this world but to delight ourselves in the Lord so as to be given the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4). To chase meaning, success and happiness in this world “under the sun” is to literally chase the sunset, and to grasp a shadow. The secret of life is adoring worship of the living God who saves us, is saving us, and will ultimately save us. The secret of life is faith in Jesus Christ, which leads to justification and then increasingly holy living (sanctification) through faith and for faith.
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