“Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun. Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind. Again, I saw vanity under the sun: one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, “For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?” This also is vanity and an unhappy business. Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice. For he went from prison to the throne, though in his own kingdom he had been born poor. I saw all the living who move about under the sun, along with that youth who was to stand in the king’s place. There was no end of all the people, all of whom he led. Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a striving after wind.”
Ecclesiastes 4:1-16 ESV
A world of greed.
A world of manipulation and oppression.
This isn’t an expression of cynicism but, rather, as Leupold says, an honest expression of sober truth.
David Gibson says, “At work, at home, in relationships with others, we are always processing the world through our own eyes, responding to what our circumstances are doing to us and how they make us feel. Sometimes in the midst of all this day-to-day existing, we are taken up with bigger issues: Why am I working so hard-is it worth it? What am I living for? What am I achieving, or falling to achieve? But my point is simply this: whether in trivial or important ways, the done person I am always acutely aware of is me.”
Well, to this Koheleth wants us to train ourselves to think of life in a new way. Under the sun, being conformed to this world, we see ourselves as the final standard of appeal and our own happiness as the highest good. Solomon would have us think in terms of we, not me.
Gibson again:
“If you can live in this world in such a way that the person or people beside you – your friend, your spouse, your children, your brother, your sister, the people God has put in your path – are your waking concern and your dominant focus, then you will find happiness.”
A surprising truth about Ecclesiastes 4 (and Scripture is always surprising us) is that it shines the light upon what we’d rather not face. In the first three chapters we learn that our race to get ahead of creation, of living in the world as if it’s ours rather than God’s – and a cursed world at that – is a vain and futile thing. Now we learn the humbling truth that racing to get ahead of our neighbor is equally as vain. This is a hard thing to learn. It’s a crushing truth to ears that don’t want to hear! God’s call is for us to see our lives as a harmony of interests, not a clash. Quietness and peace come to the one who has his/her mind set on the Spirit, not the fleshly world of material pursuit and all the rivalry that comes with it.
Quietness of spirit is for those who chew on the great theological facts of God’s absolute sovereignty and His unending love for those in Christ. This is the path to true contentment, not fevered and manic labor, or evasion of work, nor a thousand distractions.
Another way to see it is like this: life is a gift from God and cannot be mastered by human effort. Bad theology causes us to see work improperly. The two paths of misery and vanity in Ecclesiastes 4 are to work your fingers to the bone, trying to beat life, trying to control it – or to swing the other way and opt out and be lazy. Self focus causes us the twin errors of manic busyness or selfish laziness. Neither approach is Godly.
Self focus destroys us because the true path to joy is earnestly desiring God’s will, not our own.
Strife and oppression come from focusing on worldly control due to our lack of faith. This results in a million oppressions, great and small…from the office manager, the bossy parent, all the way to the corrupt CEO or the political tyrant. Oppression has this common theme: seeing our neighbor as a means to our end rather than loving them in the Lord. Oppression always starts with envy and envy comes from a faithless heart.
Many political movements start because people are trying to stamp out the consequences of sin without getting at the root of it. There is no perfect union or political philosophy outside of Christ or else God’s word isn’t true. Sinners can’t exist peacefully and equitably with each other for the simple reason that sin causes personal misery and interpersonal conflict. This is why the gospel must be preached. Man can’t be regulated into loving his neighbor. That can only happen through the transformation of sinful hearts.
A spiritual check-up: do we honestly rejoice when our neighbor is successful or does it cause us jealousy? Honestly.
So much disquiet, conflict, and even oppression comes from so small a sinful seed as envy. Envy is a great weed growing in the soil of not trusting in God’s provision. Envy talks about what others have and what they’re doing with it. It produces conversations that focus on the motive of others, which, uncharitably, assign sin to them when, in fact, we have no idea. Let’s be clear: it’s a violation of the commandment (and it is a commandment, after all, not a divine suggestion) to love our neighbor as ourselves when we judge the unknown motives of others. We always give ourselves the benefit of the doubt, so that’s the standard we must give to others if we’re to be in the spirit of the second royal commandment.
Okay…so, back to the working issue.
Oppression is that seed of not trusting God grown into a monstrous tree that blots out the sun. On lesser levels it’s the manic workaholic. Or it’s the decrepit and ugly branch of laziness. All of them are unloving to neighbor; a man who doesn’t trust God can never love his neighbor. A man who rejects the covenant of grace in Christ will not serve his neighbor – he’ll oppress him, abuse him, manipulate him, slander and gossip about him, do nothing for him, see him as a means to an end, or just plain ignore him.
The reality check of work is the test through which we see if we truly trust God and love our neighbor. What do we work for, God’s glory or our own? To build up our neighbor through fair trade in a win-win agreement by use of our God-given talents, or to use him (as customers, clients, laborers, bosses…or whatever capacity) as a means to an end? Do we seek our own legacy or the Lord’s? If we don’t live a life of increasing faith, overflowing with gratitude to God for His blessings, we’ll seek security from earthly things. That’s the way it goes. We’ll abuse whatever power we have because there’s a perverse security in doing so. Or we’ll be lazy and unproductive…wiling away hours in distractions so that we never think, never face the reality of our inner life.
In the end, we will all face God and give an account (Hebrews 9:27; Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). Remember:
“So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.”
Romans 14:12 ESV
This is the grandest and surest fact of all. It keeps us both humbled (lest we be self-righteous) and joyful (because we know that no evil will escape His notice). The path to end all oppressions is to know Jesus Christ. The avenue that brings us to meaning in our work, joy in our every day, and quiet in our hearts, and peace with others, runs to and from Calvary. Let us all go there daily and be humbled before Him so that we may rest in Him and ultimately, be exalted too.
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