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12So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. 13Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. 14 The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. 15Then I said in my heart, "What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?" And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. 16For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! 17So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.
18I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, 19and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. 20So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, 21because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. 22What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? 23For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.
24There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
Qoheleth pushes on in his quest for meaning in life. At this point, he turns our attention to wisdom and folly. Wisdom is far better than folly, he says. It is better to be knowledgeable. "The wise man has eyes in his head, while the fool walks in darkness" (2:14). But here too the bottom line is sobering. Providence is not kind to some and hard on others; it is hard on everyone! The wise man and the fool end up in the same place, pushing daisies. And as far as what we leave behind, Qoheleth is absolutely correct. All of us have to say, "I must leave it to those who will come after me—and who knows whether they will be wise or foolish?"
This is a bitter pill to swallow, and Qoheleth knows how to express his disappointment. "Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping after wind" (2:17). The cry is perhaps the most extreme in the entire book. At this juncture, the Teacher bends over and looks at the abyss—but then he pulls back. His conclusion does not lead to despair.
One of the principal themes of Ecclesiastes is the commendation to enjoy the simple pleasures in life under the sun, and 2:24 states the case categorically. There is only one disclaimer. God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy to whom he wills. In other words, whether one can or cannot enjoy certain gifts depends on God giving the ability to enjoy them.
Take a look around! How often do we see people who by common standards have more than they could wish for, and yet are miserable and unhappy like Dickens' Ebenezer Scrooge? They cannot enjoy the good things their life offers, because God has seen fit to withhold this joy, which is so simple, and yet so elusive. God gives and withholds the goods of life for his own purpose. The same is true for the ability to enjoy what we have, whether it is much or whether it is little.
For this reason, Qoheleth's advice in 2:24 cannot merely be subsumed under the Epicurean chant, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we shall die." Enjoyment is not something that we make or create, it is not something that we command. It is a divine gift, and only if it is received and experienced as such, can we speak of real joy. Joy over good gifts received, yet not centered in the ultimate source, the Father of lights (James 1:17), remains a cheap counterfeit.
About two decades ago, the media introduced the fantastic story of Adragon deMello. Gifted with an IQ of 400 (IQ 100 is considered average), he played chess at the age of two and finished his High School diploma at three. He graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in computational mathematics when he was only eleven. His father hailed the wonder child as the new Einstein and predicted that his prodigy would win the Nobel Prize before he would turn sixteen. Since then, Adragon has vanished out of sight, but his story raises the question whether even the most fantastic gift on earth will guarantee a happy and fulfilled life apart from Jesus Christ. The answer is, of course, "No, never!" The best gift of all is God's Son, and, "Whoever has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life" (1 John 5:12).
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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