June 6 Daily Devotional

Scripture for Day 37—Ecclesiastes 11:7–10

⁷Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.

¹⁰Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

Devotional:

This passage exhibits what we have observed upon so many occasions in Ecclesiastes. The author performs a remarkable balancing act like a circus gymnast on a high wire. He radically demands enjoyment of life, only to modify the imperative in such stark terms as to almost overturn it. The concept of enjoyment of life is part and parcel of the author's ideology, and the theme is being recycled throughout the book. At no point, however, has he been so blunt in selling it to us. In fact, read in isolation, 11:9 could well be taken as a sarcastic remark that one makes when one has already given up on the listener. But 11:10 shows that it is not sarcasm that drives the writer. It is realism.

Still, the motto, "Rejoice, and do it while you can!", can easily become the doctrine of devils. And our text guards the path to enjoyment to avoid excess that leads to destruction. Qoheleth affords two reminders that put the call to enjoy life while you can into perspective. 11:10 says, "youth and the dawn of life are vanity." This requires some clarification. Qoheleth's warning is not suggesting that there is something bad or morally objectionable in youth. In this context, the Hebrew word hebel ("vanity"), so characteristic of the book, has the connotation of "transient." It is the fleeting nature of youth and all the blessings that come with it that is in view.

Look around in God's creation! All young creatures—from puppies to sheep to children—are playful. All young things are joyful, and God has made them so. Therefore, you are meant to take advantage of this phase in life that has beauty and special blessing. But keep in mind that it won't go on forever. It is transient. Before long, signs of aging set in, at first almost undetectable, but they will keep your attention for the rest of your life until they cannot be ignored anymore. The first bottle of Metamucil will make it official: You are no longer a spring chicken.

So the author's advice to enjoy the time of youth in full view of its limits serves to inform and purify this joy before it morphs into something that we will regret later on. Some people never want to grow up, some do not know how to moderate their cravings for fun and games, and such will make the experience that in the end more is not better.

Qoheleth's second warning is found in 11:9: "God will bring you into judgment." The concept of judgment connects with the principle, "Whatever one sows, that will he also reap" (Gal. 6:7). Each moment, each act, each word produces consequences in life. If my pursuit of pleasure is sinful, my character will be affected by my choices. If my desires are evil, and I do not listen to rebuke, they will drag me down. In this sense, we reap what we sow. If we sow to sin, our heart will be corrupted by it.

Then, of course, there is the final judgment, and it is inevitable. "God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil" (12:14). This language leaves no room for anything being forgotten. What I do will go on record. This should curb our sinful desires and instead make us strive to resist them. Sometimes God uses the fear of judgment to turn us from destructive ways, even though by itself this fear does not describe a healthy relationship with God the Father.

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.