Bible readers whose systematic
theology requires them to downplay or overlook the distinctions scripture makes
between the Old and New Covenants are faced with more than the occasional
conundrum in interpreting Ecclesiastes. And yet any number of older
commentators read and exposit the book as if its primary value is as
directly-applicable advice to modern Christians.
It most surely is not.
Ecclesiastes 9:7-8 — Eating and Drinking with Joy
“Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head.”
After the better part of
two chapters on the subject of death, its unfairness and its finality, the
Preacher sums up his theme with some advice: enjoy life.
As pointed out in the last couple of posts, there are times when the writer of Ecclesiastes counsels
the precise opposite of what a Christian ought to do. This is because he is not writing to Christians. Rather, he is reckoning
“under the sun”, in the absence of divine revelation, using his senses to make
his decisions for him. He does not even make use of the revelation to which he
did have access in his day, including the Law of Moses. We do not hold this
deficiency against the Preacher; we recognize he lacked all kinds of
information which we have been freely given since. But we must acknowledge that
he is hobbled and hampered in a way we are not. A Christian characteristically
lives by faith in God’s fully-revealed word, walking by the indwelling Spirit
of God.
You can’t beat that.
Explaining Ecclesiastes on “Gospel Principles”
But whenever commentators fail to make allowance for the writer’s adopted perspective, they seem to end
up folding, spindling and mutilating the Preacher’s words to fit them into a
life-program for which they were never designed. Thus, Robert Hawker says concerning verse 7:
“There is a great beauty in this verse; if explained upon gospel principles. If a soul be accepted in Jesus, he may well eat the bread both of body and soul, with a cheerful heart. In Jesus, everything is blessed: and Jesus blesses everything.”
But this is precisely my point: verse 7 cannot be “explained
upon gospel principles” any more than any other verse in Ecclesiastes. Its
writer explicitly excludes virtually the entire spiritual world from consideration;
how much more the glories of the gospel! Thus the bread, wine, oil and white garments
may make for a nice analogy or (somewhat forced) illustration of a New Testament
principle, but these are not the verse’s meaning.
Solomon is speaking quite literally of earthly food, the fruit of the vine and
the olive tree, and of dressing up for dinner. While there is no doubt that “In
Jesus, everything is blessed: and Jesus blesses everything,” the Preacher’s
original readers could not possibly have considered such an explanation of his words.
What then is he saying? Simply that in view of the brevity of life, it is appropriate to live it to the
fullest; to go about both work and pleasure unstintingly. This is God’s design.
Solomon is not counseling either gluttony or drunkenness, but rather a
celebratory spirit and an appreciation of the good things in life when they
come to us in the appropriate context.
Eat, Drink and Be Merry
James Coffman’s commentary responds to the passage like so:
“This, of course, is Epicureanism. ‘Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.’ ”
But I do not believe this
is the case. The Preacher’s rationale for enjoying life is not Epicurean. It is
quite God-conscious. Eating and drinking with a celebratory spirit is not
something to be engaged in because “tomorrow we die”, though that may be the
case, but rather because “God has already approved what you do”. He does not
mean to say that God auto-approves everything we do in life, of course, but rather
that God “richly provides us with everything to enjoy”,
as Paul told Timothy. That statement holds true in any dispensation.
The hedonist lives for pleasure. That is not the Bible’s approach under any covenant. Even under the
Old Covenant, pleasure is seen as an occasional and joyous consequence of hard
work, rather than as an end in itself. Life is not always pleasurable, but if
God has given us pleasure, it is incumbent on us to receive it gratefully
rather than rejecting it as intrinsically frivolous or inappropriate.
Ecclesiastes 9:9-10 — Meeting Life Head-On
“Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.”
Verse 9 restates this
principle. The words “because that is your portion in life” are another way of
saying “God has already approved”. Full enjoyment of God’s blessings is
appropriate. Self-indulgence and excess are not. We should not confuse the
two things.
The Preacher’s reference to “the wife whom you love” obviously does not exclude women or single men from
the responsibility to live fully and appreciatively in every moment we have
been given by God. Like Samuel, some of the Lord’s prophets married and had
children. We do not get any hint that either Elijah or Elisha did. If they were
indeed single men, their lives were marked by a level of devoted service to God
that has its own rewards. We must remind ourselves that the Preacher is not
addressing every possible exceptional situation which may occur, but speaking
more generally to the human condition. We should take from his advice whatever
we may in our own circumstances.
The Preacher finishes with encouraging his readers to approach every aspect of life head-on: “do it
with your might”, not tentatively or half-heartedly. Do not be a spectator; jump
in at the deep end. Work hard, love deeply, enjoy fully. His reasoning is that
the earthly blessings we have been given are only ours for a limited time. They
have their place, and then they are gone, and the grave swallows up all
opportunity for either labor or celebration, “for there is no work or thought
or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol”.
Again, this is not a veiled reference to annihilationism, nor should we imagine on the basis of this
statement that the dead are not conscious. Luke 16 plainly says that is
not the case. What the Preacher is saying here is that our earthly lives are where
we store up knowledge and wisdom, where we labor, reflect and learn. There are
no farms, construction sites, libraries or universities in the grave. Men do
not enter into new relationships or build empires there.
For that matter, it is unclear whether in Hades there is even the awareness of the presence of others
who are in the same state. The repository of the wicked dead may turn out to be
a very lonely place.
Finally, here it is. After you have read it and understand it, why don't you let us know how the proof of God's existence works.
ReplyDeletehttps://mailchi.mp/crisismagazine/catholic-scientist?e=0c506bdc11
I must admit to mild curiosity. Science cannot disprove God's existence, but I'm not sure science can formally prove such a thing either. It can offer strong evidence which points that way, but "proof" is a very subjective thing. What constitutes proof to me may not constitute proof to you, as anyone who has ever sat on a jury and debated the issues with other people who all received the same evidence will tell you.
DeleteActually there are pretty solid proofs for God's existence 5 of which by Aquinas. Dawkins who tried to debunk them was going up against a philosopher as a biologist and was found sorely lacking trying to work outside his disciplines. He failed by rigorous philosophical standards. See here:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/dawkins-vs-aquinas-fail