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1I said in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself." But behold, this also was vanity. 2I said of laughter, "It is mad," and of pleasure, "What use is it?" 3I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. 4I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. 6I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. 7I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. 8I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the children of man.
9So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. 11Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
Solomon pushes on in his investigation "concerning all that is done under heaven" (1:12). In the opening verses of ch.2 he is taking measure of a life of indulgence and productivity, in other words, pleasure and work. He is walking the precipitous grade between refusing to deprive himself of any pleasure (2:10) and not selling out to indulgence; he merely tests it. (Don’t try this at home…). Once again, the conclusion is stated up front: Pleasure and mirth are a mere vapor and madness, because they fail to accomplish anything of lasting value (2:1-2). In a similar way, Herman Melville's character Ishmael (Moby Dick), while spending a night at the helm, reflects upon superficiality in the most cynical terms: "…He who dodges hospitals and jails, and walks fast crossing graveyards, and would rather talk of operas than hell…that man is not fitted to sit down on tombstones, and break the green damp mould with unfathomably wondrous Solomon" (ch.96). No wonder that he hails Ecclesiastes as the "truest of all books"!
Work is also under consideration in 2:1-11. Qoheleth refuses to turn into a workaholic, but he probes the nature of human work, while he retains wisdom as his guide and interpreter (2:9). What did he see, and what was his reward? Joy in the thing itself, says v.10.
There is a certain payoff in pleasure and work under the sun, but because joy in them is rather short-lived, the bottom line still shows there is no ultimate gain to be had in either of them. "Indeed all is vanity and grasping for the wind. There is no profit under the sun" (2:11). To be sure, God wants us to enjoy the good things life offers and take delight in our work, yet both will fall short of an absolute goal for human existence.
John 6 records how Jesus Christ turned five loaves of bread and a couple of fishes into a feast for five thousand hungry peasants. Many of those who had tasted of the meal wanted to make him king. His administration promised to afford a capable grocery delivery system. But he redirected their attention: "Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal on him" (John 6:27). Whatever we labor for, whatever we pursue, nothing will last forever. What a pity, when people do not want to know about Jesus, because he does not fit into their plans! Yet, he offers us his "daily bread," which is life through forgiveness of sin, freedom from compulsive behavior by the surpassing power of God. Today, does Jesus fit into your plans?
If we make a god of our belly (or any other concept of pleasure/blessing, as in alcohol, sex, family, entertainment, etc.), we learn the hard way that more turns out to be less and finally nothing. By the same token, work can too easily morph into a form of enslavement and drudgery that claims our souls. In either case, the danger is real, and the dividing line thin. Just as it was with Jesus' contemporaries, we must have our attention constantly redirected to him, so as not to get lost in the hustle and bustle of life. This may sound rather simple, and so it is, but the task of "remaining in Jesus" (cf. John 15:4) requires more than even our best efforts at religion. We need his strength and wisdom, for without him we will only succeed in going off the deep end (cf. John 15:5).
The author of these devotionals, the Rev. Martin Emmrich, is an ordained OPC minister (Westminster OPC, Corvallis, Oregon) as well as the author of Pneumatological Concepts in the Epistle to the Hebrews, a book on the teaching of Hebrews on the Holy Spirit. We are happy to make these devotionals on Ecclesiastes and other passages of Scripture available to you.
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