传道书

Meditative Reflection
Nothing New Under the Sun

“All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” (Eccl. 1:8-9)

I found it rather puzzling at first when I read that the perpetually repeated cycles of the sun rising, the wind-blowing and the river-flowing caused Solomon to find them wearisome, to the point that he would use these natural phenomena to justify his claim that life is meaningless. You and I, on the other hand would likely be captivated by every sunrise and are thankful that the cycle is repeated every day without fail. The same with the blowing of the wind which follows a rather seasonal pattern, and the never-depleting ocean on which our lives depend.

However, to Solomon, it appears that he bemoaned the perpetuity of these natural phenomena for two reasons:

- It serves to remind him of his very temporal existence, and

- He fails to make sense of such repetitions.

I believe both reasons had to do with his great wisdom.

We know that many ancient kings, because of their established power and wealth, desired longevity. In addition to these, Solomon had great wisdom, far greater than anyone on earth (1 Ki. 4:29ff). Knowing that sooner or later he would die just like anyone else, he bemoaned this very fact of life which he could do nothing to change; so he said, “What is crooked cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted” (1:15). As a result, he felt that life was meaningless, a chasing after the wind, because, “Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.” (1:4)

Furthermore, as he sought to understand nature and its working, he detected “the ceaseless activity of the natural world (1:4-7), a constant movement that has no discernible purpose or result” (Crenshaw, 62), and he was frustrated. As wise as he was, and he was able to discern why the wind circulates “round and round” (1:6), his wisdom still had its limitation. He also knew that even if he could discover its purpose and result, “it was here already, long ago; it was here before our time” (1:10). He was only discovering what was there from the beginning. In other words, his great wisdom had led him to come to understand that he was, after all, only a creature with a temporal existence, and could never be the “Eternal Creator”.

The rest of the book represents his life-long struggle with these two realities, until he finally accepts his “creatureliness” and submits to “Who God is” and “What he is not”.

Meditative Reflection
Fooled by Wisdom

“I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.” (Eccl. 2:3)

We know that even the Bible acknowledges that “Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the men of the East, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt.…” (1 Ki. 4:30). Certainly his wisdom was God-given (1 Ki. 4:29), but he did not just sit on his God-given wisdom. He used it to rightly judge his people (1 Ki. 3:16ff), he continued to study and to explore (Eccl. 1:13), and he used it to pursue knowledge of all kinds, including botany and other scientific disciplines (1 Ki. 4:32ff).

Unfortunately, he used it also as an end in itself, as he admits, seeking to derive meaning of life from wisdom itself; but he soon found out that it was madness and folly and it “too, is a chasing after the wind” (Eccl. 1:17). However, he thought with his great wisdom, he would definitely find other means to find meaning in life, and with his resources and power, he was able to embark on a series of attempts that were not open to the average man. These included seeking pleasure (2:1). While we have no idea what kinds of pleasure he was referring to, he admits that he denied himself nothing his eyes desired nor refused his heart any pleasure (2:10). Indeed, he ended up having 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Ki. 11:3). And, he did not stop there, he pursued wine and embraced “folly” (2:3), yet he maintained that “my mind still guiding me with wisdom” (2:3). And, he also proceeded to build great buildings, accumulate great wealth and enjoy great music, yet he still claims that “In all this my wisdom stayed with me” (2:9).

Did Solomon’s wisdom still stay with him in “all this” self-centered pursuits? Could he still be guided by wisdom as he indulged in unrestrained pleasures and wine drinking? Hosea has this to say in this respect, “prostitution, old wine and new wine take away their understanding” (Hos. 4:11), not to mention the fact that God gives and He can take it away (Job 1:21). Just as Samson, who indulged in sensual pleasures and did not know that his great strength had departed from him (Jdg. 16:20), Solomon was also fooled by his great wisdom.

Meditative Reflection
The Concept of Work without Love

“And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.” (Eccl. 2:19)

As I said in the introduction to our study guide, we need to take the message of the book of Ecclesiastes as a whole and not on a piece-meal basis because Solomon seeks to be very honest in his struggle over the meaning of life, and he only comes to a godly conclusion at the end (at chapter 12). Chapter two reveals his despair and frustration over the meaning of work, and this is only natural because he is looking only from the angles of “toilsome labor” (v. 20), of “having to leave everything to another who has not toiled for it” (v. 21) and of the mere satisfaction of “eating and drinking” as God’s reward.

Apart from his total negligence of the value of work from God’s perspective (which I hope to address later in our study of this book), it is obvious that Solomon considers work totally void of his relationship with his loved ones. Allow me to share with you Stephen Arterburn’s insight in this respect:

“The past decades have brought to public attention numerous lives of those who looked as if they had it all until their losses became a matter of public scorn or pity. Whether it was O. J. Simpson, Woody Allen, Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken, Jimmy Swaggart, Leona Helmsley, or Gary Hart, no one wounds the wounded like the wounded themselves. I began writing this piece on Wednesday, April 27, 1994. That day our government shut down, observing a day of mourning for former President Richard Nixon, who died the previous week. What an example of perseverance and come-back ability! And what an example of the wounded wounding himself! There is no better example of a man who had it all—power, prestige, position, popularity—but threw it all away. At the height of his career, he wounded himself like no one else could have. I wonder what were the wounds of Richard Nixon?

"…All the well-known individuals we’ve watched crash and burn lost something important along the way to winning: They lost their love for other people. Some of them thought nothing of taking a hard-earned buck from someone else as long as it turned up in their own pockets. Others were more concerned with their own lusts and passions than with the people who had put their trust in them and stuck by them—even after the truth of their dark sides was revealed.

"Those who fall from the top seem to love their successes more than they love other people, and eventually, they lose their balance and fall into a heap of embarrassment and humiliation for themselves, their families, and their friends. These men and women (and there are tens of thousands of them in our society) become obsessed with their success, but they still see themselves as victims. In their self-pity, they fail to see the pain they will someday inflict on others.

"When well-known people fall victim to their own ambition, once the truth about them is known, their affluence can never pay enough to have their positions fully reinstalled in the hearts of those they hurt. They may have won once, but they’ve lost forever. Their tragic lives are a gift to all of us who want something better. They should inspire us to accomplish more than helping others by becoming a bad example not to follow.” (Winning at Work, pp. 5-6)

Meditative Reflection
Yearning for Eternity

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (Eccl. 3:11)

In his marvelous poetic rendering of God’s sovereign control over human activities and history, Solomon assures us that God does have purpose in everything He does and that is “He has made everything beautiful in its time” (3:11). However, he points out that such purposes may not be comprehended in the here and now, but in eternity. I find Delitzsch’s comment in this respect deep but insightful:

“This saying regarding the desiderium aeternitatis (yearning for eternity) being planted in the heart of man, is one of the profoundest utterances of Koheleth (the teacher). In fact, the impulse of man shows that his innermost wants cannot be satisfied by that which is temporal. He is a being limited by time, but as to his innermost nature he is related to eternity. That which is transient yields him no support; it carries him on like a rushing stream, and constrains him to save himself by laying hold on eternity. But it is not so much the practical as the intellectual side of this endowment and this peculiar dignity of human nature which Koheleth brings her to view.

"It is not enough for man to know that everything that happens has its divinely-ordained time. There is an instinct peculiar to his nature impelling him to pass beyond this fragmentary knowledge and to comprehend eternity; but his effort is in vain, for…'man is unable to reach unto the work which God accomplisheth from the beginning to the end'. The work of God is that which is completing itself in the history of the world, of which the life of individual men is a fragment. Of this work he says, that God has wrought it…because, before it is wrought out in its separate 'time', it is already completed in God’s plan. Eternity and this work are related to each other as the accomplished and the being accomplished, they are interchangeably the (completeness) to each other. (To fathom) is potential, and the same in conception as at 8:17, Job 11:7; 37:23; a knowledge is meant which reaches to the object, and lays hold of it. A laying hold of this work is an impossibility, because eternity, as its name 'olam' denotes, is the concealed, i.e., is both forwards and backwards immeasurable. The desiderium aeternitatis (yearning for eternity) inherent in man thus remains under the sun unappeased. He would raise himself above the limits within which he is confined, and instead of being under the necessity of limiting his attention to isolated matters, gain a view of the whole of God’s work which becomes manifest in time; but this all-embracing view is for him unattainable.

"If Koheleth had known of a future life — which proves that as no instinct in the natural world is an illusion, so also the impulse toward the eternal, which is natural to man, is no illusion — he would have reached a better ultimatum than the following [i.e. the gift of God in this life referred to in vv. 12-13]."
(K&D, 688)

Meditative Reflection
The Judgment of God

“All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” (Eccl. 3:20-21)

Solomon already mentioned not only God’s providence over human activities earlier in the chapter, but he now also expresses his belief in God’s judgement, likely referring to a time after this life (v. 17 and v. 11). Therefore, he concludes that the fact that both human beings and animals “come from dust and to dust all return” (v. 20) is a test by God (3:18).

Indeed we see that it is a popular notion in many cultures and even religions that human beings and animals are alike and there is no life after death. If we disagree with them, they would likely ask the question that Solomon raises on their behalf, “Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” (3:21).

The result of such a notion is naturally one of existentialism—a life that is purely focused on this life, the present. Even Solomon appears to have difficulties in convincing these existentialists, because he asks, “For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?” (3:22).

This problem is further exasperated by his observation that the oppressed could only shed tears, with no comforter, no helper in this life (4:1) and thus, the dead are happier than the living and those who had never been born are even better (4:2-3), so it seems.

However, it is exactly the fact that because the unjust and the oppressors often go unpunished in this life, that demands there be life after death and divine judgment by the Creator God. This is not only a central message throughout the Bible, the OT often refers to God as the Judge of all mankind, especially in the Psalms (Ps. 7:11; 58:11; 75:7; 76:9; 82:8).

In the NT, both Romans 14:10 and 2 Corinthians 5:10 speak of the “judgment seat” of Christ, with Revelation giving us the clearest picture of God’s judgment upon the second coming of Christ:

“Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it…And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books…Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:11-15).

Meditative Reflection
Why Didn’t He ask?

“ 'For whom am I toiling', he asked, 'and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?' ” (Eccl. 4:8)

Too many people, even within the church, are caught up in the rat race of the world, making their work and their career, their number one priority; in so doing, they often sacrifice their intimacy with the Lord, their family life and yes, their church life as well. In reminding us that relationship is the most precious gift from God, Solomon uses the example of a loner to warn us against making our pursuit of wealth and career our identity.

I have no idea if the man Solomon spoke of became a loner by choice, because it could well be that he really had no brothers, and for whatever reasons, he did not have any children either. However, it was obvious that working and making money was his life as Solomon comments, “There was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth” (4:8). Solomon does not stop there, he asks on behalf of the man (the original Hebrew does not have the words, “he asked”), and Crenshaw opines that the man “never asked” this question:

“For whom am I toiling…and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?”

One wonders why this man never asked such a question. Well, the answer could well be: (1) He had made himself so busy that he never stopped to soul-search and ask himself why or (2) He knew the answer all along and he did not want to face it! I believe for most “workaholics”, both answers are true.

Allow me to share with you a story told by Stephen Arterburn:

“The night I had the great honor of winning the Entrepreneur of the Year Award, also called the Socially Responsible Entrepreneur Award, presented by Inc. Magazine, Merrill Lynch, and Ernst and Young, was one I will never forget. It was a thrill to accept it while my wife and my wonderful team cheered me on. They were the ones who had made it possible for me to win, and although their names didn’t make it onto the award, I knew the truth, and so did they! I was the first to receive an award, so after the applause and adrenaline faded, I settled back to listen to the other recipients’ acceptance speeches.

"One of the men had been accompanied to the awards event by his family. When the presenter announced his name, there was a ripple of polite applause, and that’s all. No one cheered. No one jumped up and hugged him. There was no question that he, and he alone, had won the award. His speech was not an acceptance speech but a public apology to his wife and kids. He confessed that he had worked all his life to achieve, and now he regretted the dinners he’d missed and the championship games his sons had attended without him. He looked at the award and said, 'But now it has all come down to this'. His words sounded as empty as he looked. He put all his effort in one direction-succeeding-and in the end, satisfaction was nowhere to be found.”
(Winning at Work, 12)

Meditative Reflection
Be Reverent in Our Worship

“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.” (Eccl. 5:1)

I remember when I was a teenager I was visiting one of my good friends at another church on a weekday. He belonged to a High Anglican church. Because it was a weekday, we were chatting in the sanctuary. While chatting, I was walking around the church and observing its interior design out of curiosity; but unknown to me, I wandered into the pulpit/altar area, and a deaconess yelled at me and ordered me to come down from it. At the time, I thought she was being legalistic.

Over the years I still believe that true worship is a matter of the heart, and as Jesus points out to the Samaritan woman, the kind of worshippers the Father seeks are those who worship Him in spirit and in truth (Jn. 4:23). However, it does not mean that we can approach our worship casually and take the house of worship lightly. God remains the Holy God and the place where we meet Him corporately is still the house of God. Therefore the warning given by Solomon concerning our attitude in approaching God in His house is still important today, perhaps even more important.

Oftentimes, we go to Sunday Worship with the mentality of attending a social function as we get to have fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. As good as it is, it is not the main reason why we go to church on Sunday. We go to worship and adore our Holy God in whose presence we need to guard our steps, and seek to listen rather than to speak (5:1). And, when we speak, which is in the form of prayers, hymn singing and Scripture reading, we need to do so not in haste but with meaning.

All this takes a quiet and prepared heart. Chatting with one another before service does not help; being busy right before the service is bad; but being late to worship is even worse!