“I’ve seen a certain tragedy occur beneath the sun; affecting many peoples’ lives, and weighing thereupon.  God gives some people wealth and goods, but not for their delight; for strangers reap the benefit – a grave and wrongful plight.”  (Ecclesiastes 6:1-2)

This is the sixth post on Ecclesiastes, which I am translating into common meter.  The following contains my rendering of Ecclesiastes 6, preceded by a brief reflection.

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Ecclesiastes is notoriously difficult to understand.  That there is no scholarly consensus on the meaning of the book pretty much says it all.  Ecclesiastes also has an embedded logical fallacy, which is the Teacher’s own words found at the beginning and end of the book, “‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher.  ‘Utterly meaningless!  Everything is meaningless.’” (Ecclesiastes 1:2; 12:8).  At various places in the book he specifically names wealth, career, status, pleasure, and even wisdom as meaningless.  If this is so, then what are we to make of the Teacher’s own words?  If everything is meaningless, is what he says not meaningless as well?

Some commentators have tried to explain this by saying that the Teacher is describing the meaninglessness of life without God.  This may be so, but it creates further problems of interpretation because, as I pointed out in my last post on Ecclesiastes 5, the Teacher makes numerous statements that presuppose a life with God.  For example, “I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.”  (Ecclesiastes 3:14)

That being said, it is not for us Christians to throw up our hands and ignore Ecclesiastes, because as the Apostle Paul wrote, “All scripture is God breathed, and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16) Moreover, there are many profound and cherished verses and sections in Ecclesiastes.  For example, “There is a time and place for everything …”  (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8); “A cord of three strands is not easily broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12); and, “God has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has also set eternity in the human heart.”  (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Still, there is much in Ecclesiastes that is hard to square with the typical moral imperatives found elsewhere in Scripture.  For example, in Ecclesiastes 6:1-6, the Teacher insists that failing to squeeze all the enjoyment we can out of life is terrible.   In the first two verses he says, “I’ve seen a certain tragedy occur beneath the sun; affecting many peoples’ lives, and weighing thereupon.  God gives some people wealth and goods, but not for their delight; for strangers reap the benefit – a grave and wrongful plight.”  (Ecclesiastes 6:1-2)  In his view, if we don’t enjoy our wealth and goods, but others do instead, it is a ‘tragedy,’ and ‘a grave and wrongful plight.’  Many other translations are even more emphatic, referring to is as a ‘grievous evil.’  (NIV)  Wow!

Compare the Teacher’s words to those of Paul, “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.  Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.” (1 Timothy 6:17-18)  I’m pretty sure Paul wouldn’t find the pursuit of enjoyment a moral imperative.  Just the opposite.  In fact he wrote, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”   (Philippians 4:12-13)

The Teacher however does not equivocate.  Instead, he doubles down by essentially making the pursuit of enjoyment an existential matter by saying that if we don’t get enjoyment out of our life, we are no better off than had we never been born.  “A long-lived man may sire scores, but if he finds no joy; his wealth won’t make him better than a stillborn girl or boy. … A man who lives two thousand years, but finds no joy in it; Is like a stillborn child in that they both end in a pit.”  (Ecclesiastes 6:3, 6)

In Ecclesiastes 5, the Teacher insists that we enjoy what we have – that we “eat, drink, and be merry.”  The redeeming point being the Teacher’s emphasis that all we have is a gift from God.  Those who receive it as such are filled with gratitude and led to greater giving to others.  But there is no such subtlety in Ecclesiastes 6 with the uncompromising assertion that enjoyment is the sine qua nom of life itself.  If we don’t find joy, according to the Teacher, we are no better off than a stillborn child.  It is tempting to analyze the Teacher as someone depressed and feeling hopeless, and perhaps even a bit manic.  Still, I am hesitant to commit the genetic fallacy and discount the Teacher’s words on the chance he is suffering from some underlying pathology.  For if God can put his words in Balaam’s donkey, he can put them in the Teacher’s mouth regardless of his mental state.

Nonetheless, in places Ecclesiastes is inscrutable, seemingly running crosswise to the grain of Scripture and not yielding easily to simple explanations and answers.  It harbors more than a bit of mystery and ambiguity.  Perhaps this is why we don’t hear too many sermon series on Ecclesiastes.  In any event, it needs to be approached with more caution than certitude.  And it is in this spirit that I offer two thoughts.

First, Ecclesiastes is a reminder against expecting individual verses to carry the entire counsel of Biblical wisdom on any one matter (a point also made in my last post).  When the Teacher in Ecclesiastes 6:1-6 says that having no joy in life is a “tragedy,” we remember as well the counsel of Paul to, “Consider it pure joy … whenever you face trials of many kinds.” (James 1:2)  The center of the Christian message is forever that of the cross and self-sacrifice.  Yes!  But that doesn’t mean that the Christian life is to be a sullen slog either.  Even Jesus enjoyed eating and drinking with those around him.  Consequently, we can agree with the Teacher that there is something fundamentally wrong with a joyless life, while at the same recognizing that there can be joy that transcends pleasures so we can, “rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance.”  (Romans 5:3)

Second, Ecclesiastes makes ample use of hyperbole.  Obviously, not all language in the Bible is to be taken literally and that overstatement is often used to make a point.  When the Teacher says that it is a “grievous evil” for others to reap the benefit from our wealth and goods, we do not need to take this literally any more so than we take it literally when Jesus says, “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away.”  (Matthew 5:29)  Sin does not originate in the eye, it comes from our heart.  The point Jesus is making is that we need to be aggressive in rooting out sin in our lives.  Similarly, I think it is reasonable to assume that the Teacher’s point is simply that there something profoundly sad about going through life without ever enjoying our blessings.  Not that we live for pleasure.  No!  But still, it is lamentable to live in Narnia if it is always winter but never Christmas.

Ecclesiastes surprises me by challenging the easy complacency of my preconceived ideas of a godly life.  The Teacher catches me off-guard with his lament for those who don’t enjoy their prosperity or get their share of happiness in life.  I am conditioned from elsewhere in Scripture to expect him to speak of transcending the need for earthly wealth and goods.  Instead, he tells us that enjoyment is precisely found in them.  It is comforting to hear that bodily, physical pleasures, and not merely spiritual ones, are an integral part of life with God.  Enjoyment of flesh and blood pleasures are as much a part of the Christian life as ascetical practices.  This is a reminder I need from time to time.

S

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1 I’ve seen a certain tragedy,
occur beneath the sun;
Affecting many peoples’ lives,
and weighing thereupon.

2 God gives some people wealth and goods,
but not for their delight;
For strangers reap the benefit –
a grave and wrongful plight.

3 A long-lived man may sire scores,
but if he finds no joy;
His wealth won’t make him better than,
a stillborn girl or boy.

4 A stillborn’s birth is meaningless –
its coming is in vain;
In darkness too it goes away,
and no one knows its name.

5 Although it had no consciousness,
and never saw the sun;
Yet still it found itself more rest,
and peace than anyone.

6 A man who lives two thousand years,
but finds no joy in it;
Is like a stillborn child in that,
they both end in a pit.

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7 All laboring is for the mouth,
and for it to provide;
But nonetheless an appetite,
is never satisfied.

8 Although they know much more than fools,
what do the wise attain?
And though he knows the way to act,
what does a poor man gain?

9 It’s better liking what is seen,
than always wanting more;
For unchecked longing is no use –
a vain and pointless chore.

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10 Whatever is, was foreordained,
and chosen long ago;
It’s useless arguing with God,
to change things here below.

11 The more one argues with their words,
the less that they get done.
So how does this do any good,
or profit anyone?

12 Who knows what’s good in this short life,
that passes like a breath?
Who knows what things will happen here,
that follow someone’s death?