Scripture: Ecclesiastes 2:24-26
Date: June 1, 2014
Speaker: Sean Higgins
The wisest man who ever lived once said, “Life is hard, and then you die.” Well, he didn’t say that word for word, but his life motto in Ecclesiastes 1:2 is close enough:
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. (Ecclesiastes 1:2, ESV)
From the opening chapter of Ecclesiastes, Solomon the preacher laments the emptiness and difficulties of life under the sun. He writes in his introductory poem that nothing has meaning, nothing is ever finished, nothing is under our control, nobody cares, nothing ever satisfies, nothing is original, no one will remember us, and then we die.
In 1:12 he began his search for life under the sun. He started by looking for meaning and satisfaction behind the door of wisdom in 1:12-18. When he opened that door, though, he found that with more wisdom comes more pain and sorrow. Wisdom and education are not the keys to a meaningful life.
As he continued his pursuit of life under the sun in chapter two he turned from getting wisdom to getting pleasure, and spared no expense to do so.
I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” (Ecclesiastes 2:1, ESV)
He tested the buzz of alcohol under this umbrella of pleasure-pursuing (verse 3). Then he looked for meaning in accomplishments and great projects (verses 4-6). Then he searched for satisfaction in stuff (verses 7-8a). Then he explored the pleasures of entertainment and diversions (verse 8b). Finally, he pursued the pleasures of women and sex (verse 8c).
He surpassed everyone before him in Jerusalem in each of these pursuits. Whatever he wanted, he got. He devoted his life to finding the right toy or the finest possessions, all while his wisdom remained with him. Perhaps no other individual in history was arrayed in such glory (hence, Jesus uses Solomon as an example of luxury in Matthew 6:29). After all of that, Solomon’s conclusion is:
Then 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. (Ecclesiastes 2:11)
As if it couldn’t get worse, then he realized not only that his pursuits were empty, but also that he wasn’t going to take any of it with him when he died (2:12-17). He complained:
So I hated life, for the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me; because everything is futility and striving after wind. (Ecclesiastes 2:17, ESV)
He also added to this cheery thought that once he was gone, there was no guarantee that his successor would deserve all the cool stuff he collected (2:18-23). So again he said:
For what does a man get in all his labor and in his striving with which he labors under the sun? Because all his days his task is painful and grievous; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is vanity. (Ecclesiastes 2:22-23, ESV)
What a sad message. Life is a miserable, meaningless monotony. All of life is an unhappy business (1:13). Life is hard, and then we die. This is horrifically depressing.
But there is something different about this paragraph (2:24-26). In fact, there is a word used in this paragraph that has not been used yet in the book of Ecclesiastes. It is one little word that buoys us back to the surface, gets our head out of the waves at least for a moment, and allows us to catch a breath and fill our lungs with air.
It is the word joy! Verse 26 states, “To the one who pleases Him, God has given…joy.” For the first time we see the possibility of real enjoyment in verses 24 and 25.
It is no coincidence that another major difference exists between this paragraph and the preceding study in Ecclesiastes, namely, the inclusion of God. The only allusion to God so far was in 1:13, not as the answer to mankind’s problems, but as the Organizer of them. Everything else has been dominated by qualifying phrases like “under the sun.” In this paragraph, however, the sovereign, joy-giving God fills the landscape.
This is one of the few explicit positive notes in the book. It is one of the things I am trying to learn and apply. I probably have the “dismality” part down. I know full well how to see life as hard and inconvenient. We all need to learn the not-so-secret to life, enjoying the process as a gift of God.
A comparative is between something that is good and something that is better. But a superlative is of the highest quality or degree; there isn’t anything “bester,” nothing can be found in a higher position.
There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. (Ecclesiastes 2:24a, ESV)
This is not an unqualified statement, as if being with God in heaven isn’t better. Instead, it is a summary on life under the sun and the best this life offers here and now. And again, this is a superlative prospect; there is nothing better.
So this is it! Right here is life! Here is how to have meaning in life, or at least where meaning in life comes from. Here is the source of satisfaction. Here is the place to find joy. The wisest man ever drew a map for us. There is nothing better under the sun than what Solomon is about ready to describe.
And who is this map for? There is nothing better for a person. This is a general statement, universally applicable. This is not just for the king or for nobles. The prospect of joy is not limited by personality type or to a particular class of society. The possibility of joy is not regulated by one’s job or joblessness. The principle isn’t applicable only for wealthy landowners, nor is it directed only at the poor. It isn’t for those of a certain age. It is simply for a person. It is cross-gender, cross-nationality, and cross-generational. That means it applies to us, to all of us.
So what is this superlative prospect? The NASB translates verse 24, “there is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good.” But that gives the wrong impression. The main verb is simply the command “see.” So the ESV translates it find. In other words, we are to “see the good in our work.”
Nothing is better than finding contentment and joy where we’re at now. Nothing is better than enjoying the simple things, like eating and drinking. Eating and drinking are the most mundane things we do. There is nothing better than to find enjoyment in the things we do everyday: eating, drinking, and working.
As I was marinating on this passage, there are a number of things that stood out to me about this statement, probably most of all, what Solomon doesn’t say as much as what he does say. It strikes me that as he’s talking about enjoyment and joy as a gift of God; there are a number of things he doesn’t include as answers for how to have that joy.
First, the joy comes in toil. There is nothing special about the food, the drink, or the work. It isn’t the food; it’s the process. It isn’t what we’re eating and drinking; it is simply that we are. And then there is toil. It is a constant cycle. We work to have enough money to buy food so that we can eat the food so that we can have enough strength to work so that we can make enough money to buy more food.
In other words, the joy comes in the processes of life, not in stepping out of the normal processes of life. The lesson is: enjoy the process. Joy comes in the normal, day to day rhythms and responsibilities of life.
It is interesting that in the remainder of the book, Solomon connects joy and toil, not joy and vacation. Joy comes in toil, not in getting out of toil. Joy comes in work, not the weekend.
Out of all the people who had access to a workforce of slaves, it was Solomon. He didn’t have to do anything for himself. He had no limits on his luxuries or pleasure. Yet he never explicitly says that having pleasurable things or entertainment brought him joy. Work is good and good to enjoy, but the luxuries themselves are never commended.
It isn’t in summer break that we have joy. It isn’t on vacation that we have joy. It isn’t in retirement that we have joy. Enjoyment comes in toil, smack in the middle of work.
Second, joy doesn’t seem to depend on what kind of toil we do. There are no qualifications on the type of work in which joy can be found. He doesn’t restrict the prospect of joy to certain occupations. He simply says that there is nothing better than to find enjoyment in what we do. A person is to see the good and find enjoyment in his toil with the implication that whatever the toil may be, there is the prospect of joy.
That truth amazes (and convicts) me, because I’ve had some jobs that I didn’t enjoy. In fact, I’ve hated, despised, disdained, held contempt for multiple jobs. Yet Solomon says there is nothing better than finding enjoyment in whatever we do. In other words, the job wasn’t actually my problem. I was the problem!
I drafted a list of the different kinds of jobs that people might have had in Solomon’s time, some of the typical things people living in Israel might have done for work. I wanted to consider the people who read or heard this teaching first. So as we travel back some 3,000 years to around 931 BC, what kind of people did Solomon expect to apply this truth?
Shepherds. These guys were always with stinky animals, often away from home for months, away from warmth and home-cooked meals, fighting predators. We act put out when we have to take work home with us.
Farmers/Vineyard workers. Consider the lack of conveniences for farmers in Solomon’s day: no cool farm tractors, no gas-powered engines. To plow a field, they would strap a sheet of metal on an ox and hold on. They had no control over the weather; frost or a hailstorm or draught could come anytime and destroy the crop.
Construction workers. I imagine that Solomon was an exacting boss with high expectations. It took 13 years to build one of his houses, and not because Solomon worked on it like a weekend warrior or in his spare time. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people were working on his projects.
Palace servants. It required hundreds of people to cook for the king and clean the palace. The daily food preparation was work enough for over a thousand people. It could get annoying to do the same thing over and over again, no matter how much variety was in the meal plan.
Soldiers. Not only was a soldier in life-threatening danger every day, but also the Israeli army probably spent months, if not years, away from home at a time. That is the case even today for many in the military. And think about their lack of communication: no cell phones or email or postal service. How did they have joy going for so long without seeing their wives or kids?
Housewives. They would place a bucket on their head, walk to the well, and carry water back every time they needed some. We turn on a faucet and have the choice whether we want it to be hot or cold. They would prepare every meal from scratch; there were no drive-throughs to pick up dinner, no stores to buy a meal-in-a-box. They cleaned without Swiffers. They did all their laundry by hand. They had no access to antibiotics or painkillers. A wife would have little to no communication from her husbands, not just when he got home, but all the time he wasn’t at home. Was it possible for a wife to have joy in her toil?
Yes! That’s because it doesn’t matter what kind of job we have or what kind of toil we do. Solomon mentions no such restrictions. Whether we are the boss or the worker-bee, there is nothing better than to find enjoyment wherever we are and whatever we are doing.
For the sake of full disclosure, let me add that probably most of these families would have lived in a one-room house (if not a tent for years of Israel’s wandering). My review of that would be “No escape.” Parents and siblings were always on-call. There were no La-Z-Boys for dad, no quiet place for mom. Everybody’s snoring, everyone’s sleep-talking, everyone’s rustling was audible to everyone.
They also had worship obligations. There’s no doubt about the required sacrifices (literally), or the required conferences that the men of Israel were expected to attend three times a year in Jerusalem for certain feasts. There is no way it was convenient for the mom to get her kids clean and off to the temple to offer sacrifices for the latest uncleanness. None of these are five-day-a-week, eight-hour-a-day jobs. Besides, from the beginning, God established a six-day workweek. They didn’t get two days for the weekend. And what were they required to do on their day off? Were they able to sleep in? It was a day set aside to worship the Lord.
These people knew about the daily grind. While we may suppose that they had a few advantages due to their simpler life, I suspect they would consider us to be those with the advantages. They knew what it was like to have responsibilities and disappointments and struggles.
But enjoyment in toil is not from having things exactly as we wish they could be; it is finding enjoyment in whatever we’re doing when we’re doing it.
Third, joy doesn’t seem to depend on whether our work is successful or whether we finish it. Solomon says nothing about finding enjoyment when the project is completed or the joys that come from success. It isn’t about the grade, the promotion, or the new client. Solomon finished multiple major projects, projects that took years to complete in some cases; yet he concluded that it was vanity. My job as a pastor isn’t finished until I die, until Christ comes back, or until every one of my sheep is complete in Christ. If I wait until my job is done to have joy, I should give up now. Work is never-ending. God made it that way, but He also gives the gift of joy in it.
Fourth, joy doesn’t seem to depend on the paycheck for our work. None of us will have greater income than Solomon. He had more money than he could possibly have used. Yet the money in and of itself was vanity; it was empty. If the one with the most money didn’t get joy from his money, why do we expect to get joy in the next raise? “If I could just have a job that paid me x then I’d be happy?”
Fifth, joy doesn’t seem to depend on recognition for our work. Work is not about self-esteem. Satisfaction doesn’t come from a pat on the back. Who would have had greater recognition than Solomon for all that he produced? Who could have received greater honor than he? He had enough money that he could have paid professional back-patters if necessary. But the joy in this passage doesn’t depend on recognition for what we’ve done. Whether someone values our contribution or not doesn’t matter if the joy is God-given.
If Solomon’s readers could enjoy their toil, so can we. We do an awful lot of complaining, and we rationalize our lack of joy because we’re busy or because we don’t like what we’re doing. We do not have a harder life than they did.
It is almost as if we think toil shouldn’t be toil. We believe we could really enjoy our toil if it just weren’t as much work. But there’s a reason it’s called “work” and not playtime or recess. Work is hard. That is why we call it work!
While there is nothing better than joy in our work, that joy is only a prospect, a possibility, not a guarantee. Joy is not guaranteed in our toil, but the rest of verse 24 through verse 26 tell us Who joy comes from.
Joy is no guarantee. It is a gift, and God is the Giver. The Preacher explains that enjoyment of one’s work (enjoying the process) is from the hand of God. When I say, “I had my hand in that,” I’m saying that I was a part of something. When we put our hands into something, we mean we were personally involved. So joy in the process is from the “hand of God,” from His direct, personal involvement in human affairs. In the case of joy in toil, God’s hand is the only hand that matters.
This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? (Ecclesiastes 2:24b-25, ESV)
He is in control of who gets joy. He gives to one and withholds from another. Just because I work or work hard doesn’t mean anything. The fruit of my labor is not always enjoyment. Doug Wilson described it this way:
God is the One who gives things, and God is the one who gives the power to enjoy things. These are distinct gifts…just as a can of peaches and a can-opener are distinct gifts. Only the first is given to the unbeliever. The believer is given both, which is simply another way of saying that He has given us the capacity for enjoyment. (Wilson, Joy at the End of the Tether, 17.)
Verse 25 makes it clear: for apart from Him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” This rhetorical question reminds us of what we instinctively know: God is in control, and therefore, joy depends on Him.
Better personal time management does not guarantee gladness. Working harder doesn’t automatically make us happier. Working smarter is not the promised source of joy. God is.
I get joy out of something that most people don’t: my treadmill. My wife bought a treadmill for me a ten years ago and I use it all the time. I would rather run on my treadmill than outside on the most gorgeous Pacific Northwest day imaginable (which for me would be a cloudy, windy, rainy day anyway). That enjoyment is a gift of God. Many people don’t like running to begin with, and most who do still detest treadmill running. Treadmills are typically used as an illustration of meaningless monotony (if not hell on earth), strenuously laboring and yet getting nowhere. Some weeks I’m on the treadmill for five to seven hours. I like it because God lets me like it.
Even if I died tomorrow, I would still have enjoyed my time on the treadmill. It isn’t about making sure that I live really long. I can’t guarantee my health. The point is either we enjoy the process, or we’re striving after wind.
It is possible to experience joy in the most simple, basic, exhausting, wearisome work that we do, if God gives it. Only Christians (and God-fearers in Solomon’s day) are enabled to see this gift and enjoy it.
God isn’t promising that widget-making will be easier or more prosperous, but He may give enjoyment in it. The gift of God does not eliminate the chaos and the packed calendar, it doesn’t wipe out late nights and early mornings, it doesn’t remove exhaustion and treadmill running; but God’s gift is to enjoy the vanity.
Joy is not given to everyone. There are two types of people, those who obtain joy and those who don’t. Verse 26 explains God’s system.
For to the one who pleases Him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, (Ecclesiastes 2:26a, ESV)
Here is joy. God-given wisdom and knowledge are good, but wisdom and knowledge have not gotten Solomon’s head out of the water in Ecclesiastes so far. Joy is the difference maker. Joy is gladness and festivity of heart. Joy comes at the end of the list of wisdom and knowledge and joy because it is the turning point.
A critical question to ask here is, Who are the ones pleasing God? How does someone please God? How do we get into this category of joy-receivers? It is thrilling to know that joy in toil is the superlative prospect, and it is even better to know that God is the sovereign source of it; but is there anyway to get in position to receive it?
Even though the Preacher did not provide many clues, he knew that his readers could recognize the God-pleasing, joy-receivers from this paragraph.
Joy-receivers are those with a certain life outlook. Those who please God are those who submit their lives to God and do their work for God. In Solomon’s mind, those who please God are those who live in a relationship of dependence on God. All of their calendar appointments, all the tasks on their to-do list, all of their responsibilities and roles, and all of their goals are under God. Everything in life is managed under Him and through Him and for Him. It is those who submit to His sovereignty rather than try to be sovereign themselves who please Him. “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13, ESV)
The biggest reason most of us don’t have joy (and why Solomon didn’t find joy until 2:24-26) is that we’re doing something futile. What is that? We’re trying to make much of ourselves. It is no wonder that we don’t have joy in our toil; we figure that at the end we will be glorified. We behave like our bank account and our houses and our trophies will show how much we’re worth. But those are futile endeavors. No wonder we are frustrated if our goal is to make much of ourselves.
On the other hand, no matter what we do, or how many hours we spend shoveling gravel from one pile to another, or how many miles we run on the treadmill, if our goal is to make much of Him, we can always be successful. We can make much of Him in any task we do; and in making much of Him there is great joy. Those who please God are the ones who have God at the center of their lives. True success and joyfulness is making much of Him.
[B]ut 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. (Ecclesiastes 2:26b, ESV)
Giving up what’s been gathered is a miserable business. To the sinner, to the one who does not have God at the center of life, who isn’t living for God, who isn’t concerned with God, to that person God has given something too. God is still the sovereign source. It’s not that He’s given joy to one and He just leaves the rest alone. It is that God gives joy to some and gives others something worse. This is a judgment. This is complete vanity and frustration for someone who is not pleasing God.
“But, that’s not fair!” That is the precise feeling of one who doesn’t see God as sovereign but who would rather be sovereign himself. This also is vanity and a striving after wind from the sinner’s perspective. This is not a summary on the whole paragraph but rather on the last part of verse 26. The life of accumulation and acquisition is painfully empty for the sinner. God doing what He pleases is the worst news to the sinner.
Lack of joy is not a vocational problem; it’s a theological one. Lack of joy is not an issue of paycheck but of perspective. Joy doesn’t depend on us; it comes when we depend on the hand of God.
So what are we looking for or trusting in to bring us joy? What is keeping us from enjoying the process?