Ecclesiastes
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Introduction[i]
The
Book of Ecclesiastes is, up to a certain point, the converse of the Book of
Proverbs. (see not to Proverbs (below)) It is the experience of a man
who-retaining wisdom, that he may judge of all-makes trial of everything under
the sun that could be supposed capable of rendering men happy, through the
enjoyment of everything that human capacity can entertain as a means of joy.
The effect of this trial was the discovery that all is vanity and vexation of
spirit; that every effort to be happy in possessing the earth, in whatever way
it may be, ends in nothing. There is a cankerworm at the root. The greater the
capacity of enjoyment, the deeper and wider is the experience of disappointment
and vexation of spirit. Pleasure does not satisfy, and even the idea of
securing happiness in this world by an unusual degree of righteousness, cannot
be realised. Evil is there, and the government of God in such a world as this,
is not in exercise to secure happiness to man here below-a happiness drawn from
the things below and resting on their stability; though as a general rule it
protects those who walk with God: "Who is he that shall harm you, if ye be
followers of that which is good?" [See Note #1] There is no allusion to the truth that we
are dead in sins and offences. It is the result in the mind of the writer of
the experience which he has gone through, and which he sets before us. As to
the things around us, there is nothing better than to enjoy the things which
God has given us; and finally, the fear of Jehovah is the whole of man, as the
rule of his walk on earth. His own capacities do not make him happy nor the
gratifying of his own will, even when he has everything at command. "For
what can the man do that cometh after the king?" Man fails to secure joy;
and permanent joy is not to be found for man. Consequently, if there be any
joy, it is with the sense that it cannot be retained.
The
moral of this book goes even farther than that of the Proverbs-on one side at
least; for we must remember that it is this world that is in question (under
the sun). Wisdom avails no more than folly. The difference between them is as
great as that between light and darkness. But one event happens to all men, and
much reflection only makes us hate life. The heart becomes weary of research,
and after all one dies like another. The world is ruined as a system, and death
cuts the thread of thoughts and projects, and annihilates all connection between
the most skilful workman and the fruit of his labours. What profit has been to
him? There is a time for all things, and man must do each in its season, and
enjoy that which God gives on his way. But God is the same in all His works,
that men should fear before Him. He knows that God will judge the righteous and
the wicked; but, as far as man's knowledge extends, he dies as the beast dies,
and who can tell what becomes of him afterwards? There is no question here of
the revelation of the world to come, but only of the conclusions drawn from
experience of what takes place in this world. The knowledge of God teaches that
there is a judgment; to man all is darkness beyond the present life.
Chapter
4 expresses the deep sorrow caused by the crying injustice of a sinful world,
the unredressed wrongs which compose the history of our race, and which, in
fact, make the history of man insupportable to one who has a sense of natural
justice, and creates the desire to put an end to it. Labour and sloth alike
bring their quota of distress. Nevertheless, in the midst of this quicksand in
which there is no standing, we see the thought of God arise, giving a firm
foundation to heart and mind.
This
is in the beginning of chapter 5. He demands respect from man. The folly of the
heart is indeed folly in His presence. From thence onward we find that that
which takes away the vain hope of earthly happiness gives a more true joy to
the heart that becomes wise, and therefore joyful, in separating itself from
the world. There is therefore the grace also of patience. The self-sufficient
effort to be righteous only ends in shame; to be active in evil ends in death.
Finally, to strive after wisdom by the knowledge of things below is labour in
vain. He has found two things: first, with respect to woman, judged by the
experience of the world, he has found none good; amongst men, one in a
thousand; and, in a word, that God made man upright, but he has sought out many
inventions apart from God.
God
must be honoured, and the king also, to whom God has given authority. We see
too in chapters 9 and 10, how little everything here meets the apparent
capacity of man; and, even when this capacity is real, how little it is
esteemed. Nevertheless the wisdom of the upright, and the folly of the fool, have
each its own consequences, and, after all, God judges. To sum up the whole, God
must be remembered, and that before weakness and old age overtake us. For the
manifest conclusion of all that has been said is "Fear God and keep his
commandments, for this is the whole of man."
The
chief subject, then, of this Book is the folly of all man's efforts in seeking
happiness here below, and that the wisdom which judges all this only renders
man still more unhappy. And then all this experience, on the part of one who
possessed the highest capacity, is put in contrast with the simple principle of
all true wisdom-submission and obedience to God, who knows all things, and who
governs all things, because "God shall bring every work into
judgment."
If
we remember that this Book gives us the experience of man, and the reasonings
of man, on all that happens under the sun, there is no difficulty in those
passages that have the semblance of infidelity. The experience of man is
necessarily infidel. He confesses his ignorance; for beyond that which is seen,
experience can know nothing. But the solution of all moral problems is above
and beyond that which is seen. The Book of Ecclesiastes makes this manifest.
The only rule of life then is to fear the God who disposes of our life, who
judges every action all the days of the life of our vanity. There is no
question, in this book, of grace or of redemption, but only of the experience
of this present life, and of that which God has said with respect to it-namely,
His law, His commandments, and the consequent judgment-that which is decreed to
man.
A
Jew under the law might say these things, after having had the experience of
all that God could give man to favour him in this position, and in view of the
judgment of God that is connected with it.
In
Proverbs we have practical moral guidance through the world; in Ecclesiastes
the result of all efforts of man's will to find happiness, with all means at
his disposal. But in the whole inquiry in Ecclesiastes there is no covenant
relationship, no revelation. It is man with his natural faculties, and such as
he is, conscious indeed he has to say to God, but seeking by his own thoughts
where happiness is to be found. Only that conscience has its part in the
matter, and the fear of God is owned at the end. It is God owned indeed, but
man in the world with full experience of all in it.
I
have left "Lord" here as an expression of general application, but
Jehovah is always His name in Israel, and that of government, save in a few cases
where Adonai (Lord, in the proper appellative use of it) is employed. But it is
to be noted that Jehovah is used in Proverbs, because it is authoritatively
instructive in known relationship; never in Ecclesiastes, where it is God in
contrast with man, having his own experience as such on earth. "God"
abstractedly is only once used in Proverbs (Pro_25
2). We have "her God" in Pro_2:17.
Note #1:
Peter's
epistles, after laying the foundation of redemption and being born again, are
occupied with the degree in which what was immediate (in promise) among the
Jews is applicable now. The first epistle, its application to saints; the
second, to the world and the wicked here below: hence he goes on to the new
heavens and the new earth.