Ecclesiastes 3
In this chapter, and in confirmation of the truth that
man’s happiness
depends upon the will of God, Koheleth
proceeds to show how
arranges even
the minutest concerns; that man can alter nothing, must
make the best
of things as they are, bear with
anomalies, bounding his
desires by
this present life.
The providence of God disposes and arranges every detail of
man’s life. This proposition is stated first generally, and
then worked out in
particular by means of antithetical sentences. In Hebrew
manuscripts and
most printed texts vs. 2-8 are arranged in two parallel
columns, so that
one “time” always stands under another. A similar
arrangement is found in
Joshua 12:9, etc., containing the catalogue of the
conquered Canaanite
kings; and in Esther 9:7, etc., giving the names of Haman’s ten sons. In
the present passage we have fourteen pairs of contrasts,
ranging from
external circumstances to the inner affections of man’s
being.
1 “To
every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under
the heaven:” “Season” and “time”
are rendered by the
Septuagint καιρός – kairos – season - and χρόνος – chronos –
time. The word
for “season” (zeman), denotes a fixed,
definite portion of time;
while eth, “time,” signifies rather the
beginning of a period, or is used as a
general appellation. The two ideas are sometimes concurrent
in the New Testament;
e.g. Acts 1:7;
I Thessalonians 5:1 (compare also Daniel 2:21, where the Septuagint
has καιροὺς καὶ
χρόνοις – kairous kai chronois
- ; and Daniel 7:12, where we
find the singular kairou~
kai <kairou~ – kairou kai kairou
– a season and a
time in Theodotion, and καιροῦ καὶ καιροῦ – chronou kai kairou
– a
season and a time in the Septuagint). So in Wisdom of Solomon 8:8,
“wisdom to foreseeth signs and wonders, and the events of seasons
and times (ἐκβάσεις καιρῶν καὶ χρόνων – ekbaseis kairon kai chonon).
Every thing refers especially to men’s
movements and actions, and to what
concerns them. Purpose; chephets, originally meaning
“delight,” “pleasure,” in
the later Hebrew came to
signify “business,” “thing,” “matter.” The proposition is
— In human affairs
happen, the duration of its operation, and the time
appropriate thereto. The
view of the writer takes in the
whole circumstances of men’s life from its
commencement to its close. Kobeleth
is confirming his assertion, made in the
last chapter, that wisdom, wealth, success, happiness,
etc., are not in man’s hands,
that his own efforts can secure none of them — they are distributed at the will
of God. He
establishes this dictum by entering into details, and showing the
ordering of
the most trivial as well as the most important. The Vulgate gives a
paraphrase, and not a very exact one, Omnia
tempus habeat, et suis
spatiis
transenat universa sub caelo. Koheleth intimates, without
attempting to
reconcile, the great crux of man’s free-will and
God’s decree.
2 “A time to
be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to
pluck up that which is planted;” A time to be born, and a time to
die.
Throughout the
succeeding catalogue marked contrasts are
exhibited in pairs,
beginning with the entrance and close of life, the rest of the list
being occupied
with events and circumstances which intervene between those two
extremities.
The words rendered, “a
time to be born,” might more naturally mean “a
time to bear;” καιρὸς τοῦ τεκεῖν - kairos tou tekein - Septuagint; as
the verb
is in the infinitive active, which, in this particular
verb, is not elsewhere found
used in the passive sense, though other verbs are so used
sometimes, as in
Jeremiah 25:34. In the first case the catalogue commences
with the
beginning of life; in the second, with the season of full
maturity: I would
like to recommend a contemplative viewing of Thomas Cole’s
paintings
called The Voyage of
Life and can be found on your web browser.
Those
who at one time give life to others, at another have
themselves to yield to
the law of death. The contrast points to the passive
rendering.
There is no question of untimely birth or suicide; in the
common order of
events birth and death have each their appointed season,
which comes to
pass without man’s interference, being directed by a higher law. “It is
appointed unto men
once to die, but after this THE JUDGMENT”
(Hebrews 9:27). Koheleth’s
teaching was perverted by sensualists, as we
read in Wisdom of Solomon 2:2-3,
5. A time to plant. After speaking of
human life it is natural to turn
to vegetable life, which runs in
parallel lines
with man’s existence. Thus Job,
having intimated the shortness of
life and
the certainty of death, proceeds
to speak of the tree, contrasting its revivifying
powers with the hopelessness
of man’s decay (Job 14:5,
etc.). And to pluck
up that which is
planted. This last operation may refer to the transplanting
of trees and shrubs, or to the gathering of the fruits of the
earth in order to
make room for new agricultural works. But having regard
to the opposition
in all the members of the series, we should rather
consider the “plucking up”
as equivalent to destroying, if we plant trees, a time
comes when we cut them
down, and this is
their final cause.
3 “A time
to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time
to build up;” A time to kill, and a time to
heal. The time to kill
might refer
to war, only that occurs in v. 8. Some endeavor to limit
the notion to
severe surgical operations performed with a view of saving
life; but the
verb harag does not
admit of the meaning “rewound” or” cut.” It most
probably refers to the execution of
criminals, or to the defense of the
oppressed; such emergencies and necessities occur
providentially without
man’s prescience. So sickness
is a visitation beyond man’s
control, while it
calls into exercise the art of healing,
which is a GIFT OF GOD! A time
to break down, and
a time to build up. Theremoval of decaying or
unsuitable
buildings is meant, and the substitution of new and
improved structures.
A recollection of Solomon’s own extensive architectural
works is here
introduced.
4 “A time
to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to
dance;”
The funeral and the wedding, the hired
mourners and the guests at
the marriage-feast, are set against one another. The
first clause intimates the
spontaneous manifestation of the feelings of the heart; the second, their
formal expression in the performances at funerals and weddings
and on
other solemn occasions. The contrast is found in the Lord’s allusion
to the
sulky children in the marketplace, who would
not join their companions’
play: “We have piped
unto you,
and ye have not danced; we have mourned
unto you, and ye
have not lamented” (Matthew
11:17). Dancing sometimes
accompanied religious ceremonies,
as when David brought up the ark
(II Samuel 6:14, 16).
5 “A time
to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a
time to embrace, and a time to refrain from
embracing;” A time to cast
away stones, and a
time to gather stones together. There
is no question
about building or demolishing houses, as that has been already mentioned in
v. 3. Most commentators see an allusion to the practice of marring an enemy’s
fields by casting stones upon them, as the Israelites did when they invaded
and could scarcely be
cited as a usual occurrence. Nor is the notion more happy
that there is an allusion
to the custom of flinging stones or earth into the grave
at a burial —
a Christian, but not an ancient Jewish practice; this, too, leaves the
contrasted “gathering” unexplained. Equally inappropriate
is the opinion
that the punishment of stoning is meant, or some game
played with
pebbles. It seems most simple to see herein intimated the
operation of
clearing a vineyard of stones, as mentioned in Isaiah 5:2;
and of
collecting materials for making fences, wine-press, tower,
etc., and
repairing roads. A
time to embrace. Those who explain the preceding
clause of the marring and clearing of fields connect the
following one with
the other by conceiving that “the loving action of embracing
stands beside
the hostile, purposely injurious, throwing of stones into a
field. It is plain that
there are times when one may give himself up to the
delights of love and
friendship, and times when such distractions would be
incongruous and
unseasonable, as on solemn, penitential occasions (Joel
2:16; Exodus 19:15;
I Corinthians 7:5); but the congruity of the two clauses of
the couplet is not
obvious, unless the objectionable position of stones and
their advantageous
employment are compared with the character of illicit
(Proverbs 5:20) and
legitimate love.
6 “A time
to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast
away;” A time to get (seek), and a time
to lose. The verb abad, in
piel, is used in the sense of “to destroy” (ch. 7:7), and it is
only in late Hebrew that it signifies, as here, “to lose.” The reference is
doubtless to property, and has no connection with the last
clause of the
preceding verse. There is a proper and lawful pursuit of
wealth, and there is
a wise and prudent submission to its inevitable loss. The
loss here is
occasioned by events over which the owner has no control,
differing from
that in the next clause, which is voluntary. The wise man knows when to
exert his energy in improving his fortune, and when to hold
his hand and take
failure without useless struggle. Loss, too, is sometimes
gain, as when Christ’s
departure in the flesh was the prelude and the occasion of
the sending of the
Comforter (John 16:7); and there are many things of which
we know not the
real value till they are beyond our grasp. A time to keep, and a time to cast away.
Prudence will make fast what it has won, and will endeavor
to preserve it
unimpaired. But there are occasions when it is wiser to
deprive one’s self
of some things in order to secure more important ends, as
when sailors
throw a cargo, etc., overboard in order to save their ship
(compare Jonah
1:5; Acts 27:18-19, 38). And in higher matters, such as
almsgiving,
this maxim holds good: “There
is that scattereth, and yet increaseth....
The
liberal soul shall
be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered
also
himself” (Proverbs 11:24-25). Plumptre
refers to Christ’s so-called
paradox,” Whosoever
would (ὃς ὰν θέλῃ - hos an thelae – whosoever
will) save his life shall lose it, and whosoever
shall lose his life for my sake
shall find it” (Matthew 16:25).
7 “A time
to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a
time to speak;” A time to rend, and a time to sew
(καιρὸς τοῦ
ῤῆξαι καὶ
καιρὸς τοῦ
ῤάψαι – kairos tou rhaexai kai kairos tou rhapsai). This is usually
understood of the rending of garments in token of grief
(Genesis 37:29, 34),
and the repairing of the rent then made when the season of
mourning was ended.
There are times when it is natural to tear clothes to
pieces, whether from grief, or
anger, or any other cause, e.g. as being
old and worthless, or infected; and there
are times when it is equally natural to mend them, and to
make them serviceable
by timely repairs. Connected with the notion of mourning
contributed by this
clause, though by no means confined to that notion, it is
added, A time to
keep silence, and
a time to speak. The silence of deep
sorrow may be
intimated, as when Job’s friends sat by him in sympathizing
silence (Job
2:13), and the psalmist cried, “I was dumb with silence, I held my peace,
even from good;
and my sorrow was stirred” (Psalm 39:2);
and Elisha
could not bear to hear his master’s departure mentioned (II
Kings 2:3, 5).
There are also occasions when the sorrow of the heart
should find
utterance, as in David’s lament over Saul and Jonathan (II
Samuel 1:17) and
over Abner (Ibid. ch. 3:33, etc.). But the gnome is of more
general application. The young should hold their peace in
the presence of
their elders (Job 32:4, etc.); silence is often golden: “Even a fool, when
he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: when he shutteth his lips, he is
esteemed as
prudent” (Proverbs 17:28). On the other
hand, wise
counsel is of infinite value, and must not be withheld at
the right moment,
and “a word in due
season, how good is it!” (Proverbs 15:23; 25:11).
8 “A time
to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of
peace.”
A time to love, and a time to hate. This reminds one of the
gloss to which our Lord refers (Matthew 5:43), “Ye have heard that it
hath been said,
Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy,” the
first member being found in the old Law (Leviticus 19:18),
the second
being a misconception of the spirit which made Israel God’s
executioner
upon the condemned nations. It was the maxim of Bias,
quoted by
Aristotle, ‘Rhet.,’ 2:13, that we
should love as if about some day to hate,
and hate as if about to love. And Philo imparts a still
more selfish tone to
the gnome, when he pronounces (‘De Carit.,’
21, p. 401, Mang.), “It was
well said by them of old, that we ought to deal out
friendship without
absolutely renouncing enmity, and practice enmity as
possibly to turn to
friendship. A time
of war, and a time of peace. In the previous couplets
the infinitive mood of the verb has been used; in this last
hemistich
substantives are introduced, as being more concise and
better fitted to
emphasize the close of the catalogue. The first clause
referred specially to
the private feelings which one is constrained to entertain
towards
individuals. The second clause has to do with national
concerns, and
touches on the statesmanship which discovers the necessity
or the
opportuneness of war and peace, and acts accordingly. In this and in all
the
other examples adduced, the lesson intended is this — that man is not
independent; that under
all circumstances and relations he is in the hand of
a power mightier than himself, which frames time and
seasons according to
its own good pleasure. God holds the threads of human life; in some
mysterious way directs and controls events; success and
failure are
dependent upon His will. There are certain laws which,
regulate the issues
of actions and events, and man cannot alter these; his
free-will can put
them in motion, but they become irresistible when in
operation. This is not
fatalism; it is the mere statement of a fact in experience.
Koheleth never
denies man’s liberty, though he is very earnest in
asserting God’s
sovereignty. The reconciliation of the two is a problem
unsolved by him.
The Manifold Interests and Occupations of
Life (vs. 1-8)
There is nothing so interesting to man as human life. The
material creation
engages the attention and absorbs the inquiring activities
of the student of
physical science; but
unless it is regarded as the expression of the Divine
ideas, the vehicle of thought and purpose, its
interest is limited and cold.
But what men are and think and do is a matter of concern to
every
observant and reflecting mind. The ordinary observer
contemplates human
life with curiosity; the politician, with interested
motives; the historian,
hoping to find the key to the actions of nations and kings
and statesmen;
the poet, with the aim of finding material and inspiration
for his verse; and
the religious thinker, that
he may trace the operation of God’s providence,
of Divine wisdom and love. He who looks below the surface will not fail to
find, in the events and incidents of human existence, the
tokens of the
appointments and dispositions of an ALL-WISE RULER of
the world. The
manifold interests of our life are not regulated by chance;
for “to
everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose
under the
heaven.”
APPOINTED BY GOD. The
SACREDNESS OF BIRTH and
DEATH are brought before us, as we are assured that “there is a time
to be born, and a time to die.” (Not only is it a great sin to cause the
death of a human being on purpose, it is A
GREAT SIN, on purpose,
TO PREVENT HIS
BIRTH – CY – 2013). The
believer in God
cannot doubt that the DIVINE OMNISCIENCE
observes, as the
DIVINE
OMNIPOTENCE virtually effects, the
introduction into
this world, and
the removal from it, of EVERY HUMAN BEING!
Men are born, to show that God will use His
own instruments for carrying
on the manifold work of the
world; they die, to show that He is limited by
no human agencies. They are born
just when they are wanted, and they die
just when it is well that their
places should be taken by their successors.
“Man is immortal till his work is done.” (James Williams)
this passage is forcibly
reminded of the substantial identity of man’s life in
the different ages of the world.
Thousands of years have passed since these
words were penned, yet to how
large an extent does this description apply
to human existence in our own
day! Organic activities, industrial
avocations, social services, are
common to every age of man’s history. If
men withdraw themselves from
practical work, and from the duties of the
family and the state, without
sufficient justification, they are violating the
ordinances of the Creator
(Genesis 3:19). He has given to every
man a
place to fill, a work to do, a
service of helpfulness to render to his fellow-
creatures.
APPOINTMENT. These
are natural to man. The mere feelings of pleasure
and pain, the mere impulses of
desire and aversion, man shares with brutes.
But those emotions which are
man’s glory and man’s shame are both
special to him, and have a great
share in giving character to his moral life.
Some, like envy, are altogether
bad; some, like hatred, are bad. or good
according as they are directed;
some, like love, are always good. The
Preacher of
to laugh, and a time to weep;” to love and hate, for both of which he
declares there is occasion in
our human existence. There has been no
change in these human
experiences with the lapse of time; they are
permanent factors in our life. Used aright, they become means of moral
development, and aid in
forming a noble and pious character.
THE VARIED FORTUNES OF HUMANITY. This passage tells of
accumulation and consequent
prosperity, of loss and consequent adversity.
The mutability of human affairs,
the disparities of the human lot, were as
remarkable and as perplexing in
the days of the Hebrew sage as in our
own. And they were regarded by
him, as by rational and religious observers
in our own time, as instances of
the working of physical and social laws
imposed by the AUTHOR OF NATURE HIMSELF! In the exercise of
divinely entrusted powers, men
gather together possessions and disperse them
abroad. The rich and the poor
exist side by side; and the wealthy are every
day impoverished, whilst the
indigent are raised to opulence. These are the
lights and shades upon the
landscape of life, the shifting scenes in life’s
unfolding drama. Variety and change are
evidently parts of the Divine
intention, and are never absent from the world of our humanity.
MARKS OF DIVINE WISDOM AND ORDER. It cannot be the case that
all the phases and processes of
our human existence are to be apprehended
simply in themselves, as if they
contained their own meaning, and had no
ulterior significance. Life is
not a kaleidoscope, but a picture; not the
promiscuous sounds heard when
the instrumentalists are “tuning up,” but
an oratorio; not a chronicle,
but a history. There is a unity
and an aim in
life; but this
is not merely artistic, IT IS MORAL! We do not work and
rest, enjoy and suffer, hope and
fear, with no purpose to be achieved by the
experiences through which we
pass. GOD, who has appointed “a season, and
a time for every purpose under the heaven,” designs that we should,
by toil
and endurance, by fellowship and
solitude, by gain and loss, make progress
in the course of moral and
spiritual discipline, SHOULD GROW IN
THE
FAVOR AND
LIKENESS OF GOD HIMSELF!
Opportuneness (vs. 1-8)
Our author makes a fresh start. He drops the
autobiographical style of the
first two chapters, and casts his thoughts into the form of
aphorisms, based
not merely upon the reminiscences of his own life, but upon
the experience
of all men. He gives a long list of the events, actions, emotions, and
feelings which
go to make up human life, and asserts of
them that they are
governed by fixed
laws above our knowledge, out of our control. The time
of our entrance
into the world, the condition of life in which we are placed,
are determined
for us by a higher will than our own, and the same
sovereign power
fixes the moment of our departure from life; and in like
manner all that
is done, enjoyed, and suffered between birth and death is
governed by
forces which we cannot bend or mold, or even fully
understand. That there is a fixed order in the events of life is, to
a certain
extent, an instinctive belief which we all hold. The
thought of an untimely
birth or of an untimely death shocks us as something
contrary to our sense
of that which is fit and becoming, and those crimes by
which either is
caused are generally regarded as specially repulsive. Yet
there is an
appointed season for the other incidents of life, though
less clearly manifest
to us. Our wisdom lies, not in mere acquiescence in the
events of life, but
in KNOWING OUR DUTY FOR THE TIME. (Like David who served his
generation
well. CY - Acts 13:36) The circumstances
in which we are
placed are so fluctuating, and the conditions in the midst
of which we find
ourselves are so varying, that a large space is left for us
to exercise our
discretion, to discern that which is opportune, and to do the right
thing at
the right time.
The first class of events alluded to, the
time of birth and the
time of death, is that of those which are involuntary; they
are events with
which there can be no interference without the guilt of gross and
exceptional
wickedness. The actions and emotions that
follow are
voluntary, they are within our power, though the
circumstances that call
them forth at a precise time are not. The relations of life
which are
determined for us by a higher power give us the opportunity
for playing
our part, and we
either succeed or fail according as we take advantage of
the time or
neglect it. The catalogue given of the
events, actions, and
emotions which make up life seems to be drawn up without
any logical
order; the various items are apparently taken capriciously
as examples of
those things
that occupy men’s time and thoughts, and
at first sight the
teaching of our author does not seem to be of a
distinctively spiritual
character. To a superficial reader it might appear as if we
had not in it
much more than the commonplace prudence to be found in the
maxims and
proverbs current in every country:
Ø
“Take time by the
forelock;”
Ø
“He that will not when
he may, when he would he shall have nay;”
Ø
“Time and tide wait
for no man,” etc.
But we are taught by Christ Himself that knowing how to act
opportunely is a
large part of that wisdom which is needed for our
salvation. He himself came
to earth in the “fullness of time” (Galatians 4:4),
when the Jewish people and
the nations of the world were prepared by Divine discipline
for His teaching and
work (Acts 17:30, 31; Luke 2:30-31). The purpose of the
mission of John the
Baptist, calculated as it was to lead men to godly sorrow
for sin, was in
harmony with the austerity of his life and the sternness of
his exhortations.
It was a time to mourn (Matthew 11:18). The purpose of
Christ’s own
mission was to
reconcile the world to God and to manifest the Father to
men, so that joy was
becoming in His disciples (Mark 2:18-20). He
taught that there was a time to lose, when all possessions
that would
alienate the heart from Him should be parted with (ibid. ch.
10:21, 23);
and that there would be a time of gain, when in heaven the
accumulated
treasures would become an abiding possession (Matthew
6:19-20).
“That which the Preacher insists on is the thought that the
circumstances
and events of life form part of a Divine order, are not
things that come at
random, and that wisdom, and therefore such a measure
of happiness as is
attainable,
lies in adapting ourselves to the order, and accepting the
guidance of
events in great things and small. while shame and
confusion
come from resisting it.” But such teaching is applicable, as we have seen,
to the conduct of our spiritual as well as of our secular
concerns. The fact
that there are
great changes through which we must pass in order to be
duly prepared
for the heavenly state, that we may have to forfeit the
temporal to secure
the eternal, that the new life has new duties for the
discernment and
fulfillment of which all our powers and faculties need to
be called into
full exercise — should make us earnestly desire to be filled
with this wisdom
that prompts to opportune action. “If
any of you lack
wisdom,” says
James, “let him ask of God, that giveth to all men
liberally, and upbraideth not;
and it shall be given him” (James
1:5).
9 “What
profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth?”
If thus man, in all his actions and under all
circumstances, depends upon time
and seasons which are beyond his control, we return to the
same desponding
question already asked in ch.1:3. What profit hath he that worketh
in that
wherein he laboreth? The preceding enumeration leads up to this
question,
to which the answer is
“None.” Since time and tide wait for no man, since
man cannot know for certain
his opportunity, he cannot reckon on reaping
any advantage from his
labor.
Times
and Seasons
or
Heaven’s
Order in Man’s Affairs
(vs. 1-9)
·
THE EVENTS AND PURPOSES OF LIFE.
Ø
Great in their number. The “times and
seasons” are great in
number of the
occupations and interests, the occurrences and
experiences, that constitute the warp and woof of
mortal
existence. Between the
cradle and the grave, instances
present
themselves in which more
things happen than are here
recorded,
and more designs are
attempted and fulfilled than are here
contemplated. There are
also cases in which the sum total
of experience is included in the two entries, “born,” “died;”
but the generality of mortals live long enough to
suffer and to do
many more things beneath the sun.
Ø
Manifold in their
variety. They are manifold in their
variety. In one
sense
and at one time it may seem as if there were “no new thing
under
the sun” (ch. 1:9), either in the history of the race or in the
experience
of the individual; but at
another time and in another sense
an
almost infinite variety appears in both. The monotony of life,
of
which complaint is often heard (Ibid. v.10), exists rather in the
mind or heart of the complainant
than in the texture of life itself.
What more diversified than the
events and purposes the
Preacher has catalogued?
Entering through the gateway of birth
upon the mysterious arena of
existence, the human being passes
through a succession of constantly shifting experiences, till he
makes his exit from the scene
through the portals of the grave,
planting and plucking up, etc.
“All the
world’s a stage,
And
all the men and women merely players;
They
have their exits and their entrances;
And
one man in his time plays many parts,
His
acts being seven ages.”
( Shakespeare: ‘As You Like
It,’ act it. sc. 7.)
Ø
Antithetic in their relations. Human life, like man
himself, may
almost
be characterized as a mass of contradictions. The incidents and
interests, purposes and plans,
events and enterprises, that compose it,
are not only manifold and
various, but also, it would seem, diametric
in their opposition. Being born
is in due course succeeded by dying;
planting by plucking up; and
killing — it may be in war, or by
administration of justice, or
through some perfectly defensible cause —
if not by actual raising from
death, which lies confessedly beyond
the power of man (1 Samuel 2:6;
II Kings 5:7), at least by healing
every malady short of death.
Breaking down, whether of material
structures (II Chronicles 23:17)
or of intellectual systems, whether
of national (Jeremiah 1:10) or
religious (Galatians 2:18) institutions,
is after an interval followed by
the building up of those very things
which were destroyed. Weeping endureth only for a night, while joy
cometh in the morning (Psalm
30:5). Dancing, on the other hand,
gives place to mourning. In
short, whatever experience man at any
time has, before he terminates
his pilgrimage he may
almost confidently count on
having the opposite; and whatever action he
may at any season perform,
another season will almost certainly arrive
when he will do the reverse. Of
every one of the contradictions cited by
the Preacher, man’s experience
on the earth furnishes examples.
Ø
Fixed in their times. Though appearing to come about without any order
or arrangement, the events and
‘purposes of mundane existence are by no
means left to the guidance, or
rather no-guidance, of chance; but rather
have their places in the vast
world-plan determined, and the times of their
appearing fixed. As the hour of
each man’s entrance into life is decreed;
so is that of, his departure
from the same (Hebrews 9:27; II Timothy 4:6).
The date at which he shall step
forth upon the active business of life,
represented in the Preacher’s
catalogue by “planting and plucking up,”
“breaking down and
building up,” “casting away stones and gathering
stones together,”
“getting and losing;” the period at
which he shall marry
(v. 4), with the times at which
weddings and funerals (v. 4) shall occur
in his family circle; the moment
when he shall be called upon to stand up
valiantly for truth and right
amongst his contemporaries (Proverbs
15:23), or to preserve a
discreet and prudent silence when talk would be
folly (Proverbs 10:8), or even
hurtful to the cause he serves; the times
when he shall either suffer his
affections to flow forth in an uninterrupted
stream towards the good, or
withhold them from unworthy objects; or, if
be a statesman, the occasions
what, he shall go to war and return from it,
are all predetermined by infinite
wisdom.
Ø
Determined in their durations. How long each
individual life shall
continue (Psalm 31:15; Acts
17:26), how long each experience shall
last, and how long each action
shall take to perform, is equally a fixed
and ascertained quantity, if not
to man’s knowledge, certainly to that of
the supreme Disposer of events.
·
THE TIMES AND SEASONS OF LIFE.
Ø
Appointed by and known only to God. As in the material
and natural
world the Creator hath appointed
times and seasons, as, e.g.,
o
to the. heavenly bodies for their rising and setting (Psalm
104:19),
o
to plants for their
growing and decaying (Genesis 8:22; Numbers
13:20; Judges 15:1; Jeremiah
50:16; Mark 11:13), and
o
to animals for their
instinctive actions (Job 39:1-2; Jeremiah 8:7),
so in the human and spiritual
world has He ordained the same (Acts 17:26;
Ephesians 1:10; Titus 1:3); and
these times and seasons, both in the
natural and in the spiritual
world, hath God reserved to Himself (Acts
1:7).
Ø
Unavoidable and unalterable by man. As no man can
predict the day of
his death (Genesis 27:2; Matthew
25:13), any more than know
beforehand that of his birth, so
neither can he fathom beforehand the
incidents that shall happen, or
the times when they shall fall out during
the course of his
life (Proverbs 27:1). Nor by any precontriving can he
change by so much as a hair’s
breadth the place into which each incident
is fitted, or the moment when it
shall happen.
·
LEARN:
1. The changefulness of human life, and the duty of preparing
wisely to
meet it.
2. The Divine order that pervades human life, and the
propriety of
accepting it with meekness.
3. The difficulty (from a human point of view) of living well,
since no man
can be quite certain that for anything he
does he has found the right season.
4. The wisdom of seeking for one’s self the guidance of Him in
whose
hands are times and seasons (Acts 1:7).
In vs. 10-15, the writer relates that there is a plan and
system in all the
circumstances of man’s life; he feels this instinctively,
but he cannot
comprehend it. His duty is to make the best of the present,
and to recognize
the immutability of the law that governs all things.
10 “I have seen the
travail which God hath given to the sons of
men to be exercised in it.” i.e. to busy themselves therewith
(ch.1:13). This travail, exercise, or business is the work
that
has to be done under the conditions prescribed of time and
season in face
of the difficulty of man’s free action and God’s ordering.
We take infinite
pains, we entertain ample desires, and strive restlessly to
carry them out,
but our efforts are controlled by a higher law, and results
occur in the way
and at the time arranged by
appointed by God and is part of man’s heritage imposed upon
him by the
Fall Genesis 3:17), cannot bring contentment or satisfy the
spirit’s cravings.
This view of life embraces:
·
comes in its turn; if we weep
today, we shall laugh tomorrow; if we have
to be silent for the present, we
shall have the opportunity of speech further
on; if we must strive now, the
time of peace will return. Human life is
neither unshadowed
brightness nor unbroken gloom. “Shadow and shine is
life… flower and thorn.” Let no
man be seriously discouraged, much less
hopelessly disheartened: what he
is now suffering from will not always
remain; it will pass and give
place to that which is better. Let us only
patiently wait our time, and our
turn will come. “Weeping may endure for a
night, but joy
cometh in the morning” (Psalm 30:5) at
any rate, and at the
furthest, in the morning of
eternity. Only let us wait in patience and in prayerful
hope, doing all that we can do
in the paths of duty and of service, and the hour
of opportunity will arrive...
with succeeding turns God tempers all, That man
may hope to rise, yet fear to
fall.”
·
OPPORTUNENESS. The
words of the text may suggest to us, though
the thought may not have been in
the writer’s mind, that some things are
good or otherwise according to
their timeliness. There is a time to speak in
the way of rebuking, or of
jesting, or of contending, and, when well-timed,
such words may be right and wise
in a very high degree; but, if ill-timed,
they would be wrong and foolish,
and much to be condemned. The same
thought is applicable;
Ø
to the demonstration
of friendliness, or of any strong emotion (vs. 5, 7);
Ø
to the exercise of
severity or of leniency (v. 3);
Ø
to the manifestation
of sorrow or of joy (v. 4);
Ø
to the action of
economy or of generosity (v. 6).
Hard-and-fast rules will not
cover the infinite particulars of human life.
Whether we shall act or be
passive, whether we shall speak or be silent,
what shall be our demeanor and
what the tone we shall take, — this must
depend upon particular
circumstances and a number of new combinations;
and every man must judge for
himself, and must remember that there
is great virtue in opportuneness.
·
ORDINATION. There is a
season, an “appointed time for every
undertaking” (Cox). “What
profit hath he that worketh,” when all this
“travail” with which “the sons of men” are exercised
results in such fixed
and inevitable changes? That is
the spirit of the moralist here. We reply:
Ø
That it is indeed true
that much is already appointed for us. We have no
power, or but little, over the
seasons and the elements of nature, and not
very much (individually) over
the institutions and customs of the land in
which we live; we are compelled
to conform our behavior to forces
which are superior to our own.
Ø
But there is a very
large remainder of freedom. Within the lines that are
laid down by the ordination of
Heaven or the “powers that be” on the
earth, there is ample scope for free, wise, life-giving choice
of action.
We are free to choose our own
conduct, to form our own character, to
determine the complexion and
aspect of our life in the sight of God, to
decide upon our destiny.
11 “He
hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also He hath set the
world in their heart, so that no man can
find out the work that God
maketh from the beginning to the end.” He hath made every thing
beautiful in his (its) time. “Everything:” (eth hacol) does not
refer so
much to the original creation which
God made very good (Genesis 1:31), as
to the travail and business
mentioned in v. 10. All parts of this have, in God’s
design, a beauty
and a harmony, their own season for appearance and
development, their
work to do in carrying on the majestic march
of
Also He hath set the world in their
heart. “The world;” eth-haolam, placed
(as haeol above) before the verb, with eth, to emphasize the
relation. There is
some uncertainty in the translation of this word. The
Septuagint has
Σύμ τὰ παντα
τὸν αἰῶνα – Sun ta panta ton aiona – Vulgate, Mundum
tradidit disputationi eorum. The original meaning is “the hidden,” and it is
used generally in the Old Testament of the remote past, and
sometimes of the
future, so that the idea conveyed is of unknown duration,
whether the glance
looks backward or forward, which is equivalent to our word “eternity.” It
is only in later Hebrew that the word obtained the
signification of “age”
(αἰών – aion - age), or
“world” in its relation to time. Commentators who have
adopted the latter sense here explain the expression as if
it meant that man
in himself is a microcosm, a little world, or that the love
of the world, the
love of life, is naturally implanted in him. But taking the
term in the
signification found throughout the Bible, we are justified
in translating it
“eternity.” The
pronoun in “their heart” refers to “the sons of men” in the
previous verse. God has put into
men’s minds a notion of infinity
INFINITY OF DURATION, the beginning and
the end of things are
alike beyond
his grasp; the time to be born and the
time to die are equally
unknown and uncontrollable. Koheleth
is not thinking of that hope of immortality
which his words unfold to us with our better knowledge; he is
speculating on the
innate faculty
of looking backward and forward which man possesses, but
which is insufficient to solve the problems which
present themselves every
day. This
conception of eternity may be the foundation of great hopes and
expectations, but as an explanation of the ways of
that no man can
find out the work that God maketh from the
beginning to the
end; or, without man being able to
penetrate; yet so that
he cannot, etc. Man
sees only minute parts of the great whole; he cannot
comprehend all at one view, cannot understand the law that
regulates the
time and season of every circumstance in the history of man
and the world.
He feels that, as
there has been an infinite past, there will be an infinite
future, which may solve anomalies and demonstrate the harmonious
unity
of God’s design, and he must
be content to wait and hope.
Comparison of
the past with the present may help to adumbrate the future,
but is
inadequate to unravel the complicated thread of the world’s
history (compare
ch.
8:16-17, and 9:1, where a similar thought is expressed).
Desiderium Aeternitatis (vs.
9-11)
The thought of there being a fixed order in the events of
life, of laws
governing the world which man cannot fully understand or
control, brings
with it no comfort to the mind of this Jewish philosopher.
It rather, in his
view, increases the difficulty of playing one’s part
successfully. Who can be
sure that he has hit upon the right course to follow, the
opportune time at
which to act? Do not “the fixed phenomena” and “iron laws
of life” render
human effort fruitless and disappointing? Another
conclusion is drawn
from the same facts by a higher Teacher. We cannot by
taking thought alter
the conditions of our lives, and should, therefore, Christ
has taught us,
place our trust in our heavenly Father, who governs all
things, and whose
love for the creatures He has made is seen in His feeding
the birds and
clothing with beauty the flowers of the field (Matthew
6:25-34). The
anxiety which the thought of human weakness in the presence
of the
immutable laws of nature excites is charmed away by the
consolatory
teaching of Jesus. But no solution is given of the
difficulties that
occasioned it. These will always exist as they spring from
the limitations of
our nature. We are finite
creatures, and GOD IS
INFINITE! We endure but for
a few years; HE IS FROM
EVERLASTING TO EVERLASTING! Our
apprehension of these facts, of infinitude and eternity, prevents our
being
satisfied with that which is finite and temporal. “God has set eternity” (see
Revised Version margin) “in our hearts.” Though we are
limited by time, we
are related to eternity. “That which is transient yields us no support; it carries
us on like a rushing stream, and constrains us to save
ourselves by laying hold on
eternity” (Delitzsch). We cannot
rest satisfied with fragmentary
knowledge, but strive to pass
on from it to the great worlds of truth yet
undiscovered and unknown; we would see the whole of God’s work from
beginning to end (v. 1), and find ourselves precluded from
accomplishing
our desire. From Solomon’s point of view, in which the
possibility or
certainty of a future life is not taken into account, this desiderium
aeternitatis is only another of
the illusions by which the soul of man is
vexed. But we should contradict our better knowledge, and
ungratefully
neglect the Divine aids to faith which have been given us
in the fuller
revelation of the New Testament, if we were to cherish the
same opinion.
Dissatisfaction with the finite and the temporal is not a
morbid feeling in
those who believe that they have an immortal nature, and
that they are yet
to come into “an inheritance incorruptible, and
undefiled, and that fadeth
not away” (1 Peter
1:4).
This
Unintelligible world (v. 11)
How shall we solve all those great problems which
continually confront us,
which baffle and bewilder us, which sometimes drive us to
the very verge
of distraction or even of unbelief? The solution is partly
found in:
·
A WIDE VIEW OF THE WORTH OF PRESENT THINGS. If we look
long and far, we shall see that,
though many things have an ugly aspect at
first sight, God “has
made everything beautiful in its time.” The light and
warmth of summer are good to see
and feel; but is not the cold of winter
invigorating? and what is more
beautiful to the sight than the untrodden
snow? The returning life of
spring is welcome to all hearts; but are not the
brilliant hues of autumn
fascinating to every eye? Youth is full of ardor,
and manhood of strength; but
declining years possess much richness of
gathered wisdom, and there is a
dignity, a calm, a reverence, m age which
is all its own. There
is a joy in battle as well as a pleasantness in peace.
Wealth has its treasures; but
poverty has little to lose, and therefore little
cause for anxiety and trouble.
Luxury brings many comforts, but hardness
gives health and strength. Each
climate upon the earth, every condition in
life, the various dispositions
and temperaments of the human soul, — these
have their own particular
advantage and compensation. Look on the other
side, and you will see something that will please, if it
does not satisfy.
·
THE HELP WE GAIN FROM THE
GREAT ELEMENT OF
FUTURITY. “Also
he hath set eternity” (marginal reading, Revised
Version) “in their heart.” We are made to look far beyond the boundary of
the visible and the present. The
idea of “the eternal” may help us in two
ways.
Ø
That we are created for
the unseen and the eternal accounts for the fact
that nothing
which is earthly and sensible will satisfy our souls. Nothing
of that order ought to do
so; and it would put the seal upon our
degradation if it did so.
Our unsatisfiable
spirit is the signature of our
manhood and the prophecy of our immortality.
Ø
The inclusion of the
future in our reasoning makes all the difference to
our thought. Admit only the
passing time, this brief and uncertain life,
and much that happens is inexplicable
and distressing indeed; but
include the future, add “eternity “to the
account, and the “crooked
is made straight,”
the perplexity is gone. But, even with
this aid,
there is;
·
THE MYSTERY WHICH REMAINS, AND WILL REMAIN. “No
man can find out,” etc. We do well to remember that what we see is only a
very small part indeed of the
whole — only a page of the great volume,
only a scene in the great drama,
only a field of the large landscape — and
we may well be silenced, if not
convinced. But even that does not cover
everything. We need to remember
that we are human, and not Divine; that
we, who are God’s very little
children, cannot hope to understand all that is
in the mind of our heavenly
Father — cannot expect to fathom His holy
purpose, to read His
unfathomable thoughts. We see enough of Divine
wisdom, holiness, and love to
believe that, when our understanding is
enlarged and our vision cleared,
we shall find that “all the paths
of the Lord
were mercy and
truth” — even those which most
troubled and bewildered
us when we dwelt upon the earth.
12 “I know
that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and
to do good in his life.” I know that there is no good in them, but for a man
to rejoice; rather,
I knew, perceived, that there was no good for them; i.e.
for
men. From the facts adduced, Koheleth
learned this practical result — that
man had nothing in his own power (see on ch.2:24) which
would conduce to his
happiness, but to make the best of life such as he finds
it. Vulgate, Cognovi
quod non esset melius
nisi laetari. To do good in his life; Τοῦ ποιεῖν
ἀγαθόν -
tou poiein agathon – to do
good; (Septuagint); Facere
bene (Vulgate).
This has been taken by many in the sense of “doing one’s
self good,
prospering, enjoying one’s self.” like the Greek εϋ πράττειν – eu prattein and
therefore nearly equivalent to “rejoice” in the former part
of the verse. But
the expression is best taken here, as when it occurs
elsewhere (e.g. 7:20), in a
moral sense, and it thus teaches
the great truth that VIRTUE IS
ESSENTIAL TO HAPPINESS, that to “trust in the Lord… to depart
from evil, and to do good” (Psalm 37:3, 27), will bring peace and
content (see in the epilogue, ch.12:13-14). There is no
Epicureanism in this
verse; the enjoyment spoken of is not licentiousness, but a happy appreciation
of the innocent pleasures which THE LOVE OF GOD OFFERS
to those
who live in accordance with the laws of their higher
nature.
13 “And also
that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good
of all his labor, it is the gift of
God.” This
enforces and intensifies the statement
in the preceding
verse; not
only the power to “do good,” but even
to enjoy what
comes in his way
(see on 2:24), man must
receive FROM
GOD! When
we pray for our daily bread, we also ask for ability to take,
assimilate, and
profit by the supports and comforts afforded to us. “It” is better
omitted,
as “is the gift of
God” forms the predicate of the
sentence.
The Mystery and the Meaning of Life (vs.
9-13)
The author of Ecclesiastes was too wise to take what we
call a one-sided
view of human life. No doubt there are times and moods in
which this
human existence seems to us to be all made up of either
toil or endurance,
delight or disappointment. But in the hour of sober
reflection we are
constrained to admit that the
pattern of the web of life is composed of
many and diverse colors. Our faculties and capacities are many, our
experiences are varied, for the appeals made to us by our
environment
change from day to day, from hour to hour. “One man in his
time plays
many parts.”
of God are too great for our
feeble, finite nature to comprehend. We may
learn much, and yet may leave
much unlearned and probably unlearnable, at
all events in the conditions of
this present state of being.
Ø
There are speculative
difficulties regarding the order and constitution
of things, which the thoughtful
man cannot avoid inquiring into, which
yet often baffle and
sometimes distress him. “Man cannot find out
the work that God
hath done from the beginning even to the end.”
Ø
There are practical
difficulties which every man has to encounter in the
conduct of life, fraught as
it is with disappointment and sorrow. “What
profit hath he that worketh in
that wherein he laboreth?”
absorbed in providing for material
wants can scarcely fail to be open to the
adaptations and the manifold
charms of nature. The language of creation is
as harmonious music,
which is soothing or inspiring to the ear of the soul.
What a revelation is here of the
very nature and benevolent purposes of the
Almighty Maker! “He hath made
everything beautiful in its time.” And
beauty needs the aesthetic
faculty in order to its appreciation and
enjoyment. The development of
this faculty in advanced states of
civilization is familiar to every
student of human nature. Standards of
beauty vary; but the true
standard is that which is offered by the works of
God, who “hath made everything beautiful in its time.” There is a beauty
special to every season of the year,
to every hour of the day, to every state
of the atmosphere; there is a
beauty in every several kind of landscape, a
beauty of the sea, a beauty of
the heavens; there is a beauty of childhood,
another beauty of youth, of
healthful manhood and radiant womanhood,
and even a certain beauty
peculiar to age. (I still recommend a viewing of
Thomas Cole’s paintings on The Voyage of Life which can be found by
browsing the internet – CY –
2013) The pious observer of the works
of God, who rids himself of
conventional and traditional prejudices, will
not fail to recognize the
justice of this remarkable assertion of the Hebrew
sage.
frequently mentioned in this
book, whose author was evidently deeply
impressed by the corresponding
facts — first, that God is the Almighty
Worker in the universe; and,
secondly, that man is made by the Creator like
unto Himself, in that he is
called upon by his nature and his circumstances
to effort and to toil. Forms of
labor vary, and the progress of applied
science in our own time seems to
relieve the toiler of some of the severer,
more exhausting kinds of bodily
effort. But
it must ever remain true that
the human frame was
not intended for indolence; that work
is a condition
of welfare, a means of moral
discipline and development. It is a factor that
cannot be left out of human life; the Christian
is bound, LIKE HIS
MASTER, to finish the work which the Father has given
him to do.
(John 4:34; 5:36)
asceticism in the teaching of
this Book of Ecclesiastes. The writer was one
who had no doubt that man was constituted to enjoy. He speaks of eating
and drinking as not merely
necessary in order to maintain life, but as
affording gratification. He
dwells appreciatingly upon the happiness of
married life. He even commends mirth
and festivity. In all these he shows
himself superior to the
pettiness which carps at the pleasures connected
with this earthly existence, and
which tries to pass for sanctity. Of course,
there are lawful and unlawful
gratifications; there is a measure of
indulgence which ought not to be
exceeded. But if Divine intention is
traceable in the constitution
and condition of man, he was made to
partake
WITH GRATITUDE of THE BOUNTIES OF GOD’S
TO HUMAN LIFE ARE TO BE ACCEPTED WITH GRATITUDE AND
USED WITH FAITHFULNESS, AND WITH A CONSTANT SENSE OF
RESPONSIBILITY. (“Every good and every perfect gift is from above
and cometh down from the Father of lights,
with whom there is no
variableness, neither shadow of
turning” - James 1:17). In receiving
and
enjoying every gift, the devout
mind will exclaim, “It is
the gift of God.” In
taking advantage of every
opportunity, the Christian will bear in mind that
wisdom and goodness arrange human life so that it shall afford repeated
occasion
for fidelity and diligence. In his daily work he will make it his aim to “serve
THE LORD CHRIST” that as Christians we
may adorn the doctrine of
God our Savior.
·
APPLICATION.
1. There is much in the provisions and conditions of our
earthly life which
baffles our endeavors to understand it; and
when perplexed by mystery,
we-are summoned to submit with all humility
and patience to the
limitations of our intellect, and to rest
assured that God’s wisdom will, in
the end, be made apparent to all.
2. There is a practical life to be lived, even when
speculative difficulties are
insurmountable; and it is in the
conscientious fulfillment of daily duty, and
the moderate use of ordinary enjoyments,
that as Christians we may adorn
the doctrine of God our Savior.
Another
Condition of Pure Happiness (vs. 12-13)
In vs. 12-13, we
have a repetition of the conclusion already announced in ch.2:24
as to the method by which some measure of happiness can be
secured by man,
but there is a very important addition made to the former
declaration. Our author is
referring to temporal things, and tells the secret by which
the happiness they may
procure for us is to be won. It consists of two
particulars:
This latter is the addition to which I have referred. It is
a distinct advance
upon the previous utterance, as it introduces the idea of an unselfish use of
the gifts which God has bestowed upon us — an employment
of them for
the benefit of others less fortunately circumstanced than
ourselves. Over
and above the life of honest labor and simple joys which
had been
recognized as good before, the seeker has learnt that
‘doing good’ is in
some sense the best way of getting good. It may be that
beneficence is only
a part of what is meant by “doing good,” but in the connection in which the
phrase is here employed it must be a large part, because it
evidently suggests
something more as desirable than a selfish enjoyment of the good things
of life. This
twofold duty of accepting with gratitude the gifts of God and of
applying them to good uses was prescribed by the Law of Moses (Deuteronomy
26:1-14); and, to a truly pious mind, the one part of the duty will suggest the
other.
The thought that God in His bounty has enriched us, who are unworthy of the
least of all His
mercies, will
lead us to be compassionate to those who are in
want, and we shall find in relieving their necessities
the purest and most
exquisite of all joys. We shall in this way discover for ourselves the truth of
that saying of our Lord’s, “It
is mere blessed to give than to receive”
(Acts 20:35). While those who selfishly keep all they have
for themselves find
that, however their goods increase, their satisfaction
in them cannot be increased —
nay, rather that it rapidly diminishes. Hence it is that the apostle
counsels the
rich “to do good, to be rich in good works, to be ready to
distribute,
willing to
communicate “ (I Timothy 6:17-19). The general
teaching of the
Scriptures, therefore, is in harmony with the results of our own
experience, and
leads to the same conclusion, that “doing good” is a condition of PURE
HAPPINESS!.
14 “I know
that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing
can be put to it, nor any thing taken from
it: and God doeth it, that
men should fear before Him.” I know that, whatsoever God
doeth,
it shall be
forever. A second thing (see v. 12) that Koheleth
knew, learned
from the truths
adduced in vs. 1-9, is that behind man’s free
action and volition
stands the will of God, which orders events with a view to
eternity, and that man
can alter nothing of this providential arrangement (compare
Isaiah 46:10;
Psalm 33:11). Nothing
can be put to it, nor anything taken from it.
We cannot hasten or retard God’s designs; we cannot add to
or curtail His
plans. Septuagint, “It is impossible to add (οὐκ ἔστι
προσθεῖναι - ouk esti
prostheinai – nothing
can be added) to it, and it is impossible to take
away
from it.” Thus Ecclesiasticus.
18:6, “As for the wondrous works of the Lord,
it is impossible to lessen or to add to them (οὐκ ἔστιν
ἐλαττῶσαι
οὐδὲ προσθεῖναι –
ouk estin elattosai oude prostheinai), neither can the ground of
them be found out.” (Compare “O the depth of the riches both
of the
wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable
are His judgments,
and His ways past finding out!” -
Romans 11:33). God doeth it, that
men should fear
before Him. There is a moral purpose in this disposal of events.
Men feel this UNIFORMITY and
UNCHANGABLENESS in the working
of
government of which they are the subjects. It was this feeling which led ancient
etymologists to derive Θεός – Theos – God - and Deus from δέος,– deos
“fear” (compare Revelation
15:3-4). This is also a ground of hope and confidence.
Amid the jarring and fluctuating circumstances
of men God holds the threads, and
alters not His purpose. “I the
Lord change not; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob,
are not consumed” (Malachi
3:6).
All
Things Beautiful
or
God, Man, and the World
(vs. 11-14)
·
THE BEAUTIFUL RELATION OF THE WORLD TO GOD.
Expressed
by four words.
Ø
Dependence: no such thing as
independence, self-subsistence, self-
origination, self-regulation, in mundane affairs. The universe, out to its
circumference and in to its center, from its mightiest
structure down
to its smallest detail, is the handiwork of God. Whatever philosophers
may say or think upon the subject, it is simple absurdity to teach
that the
universe made itself, or that the incidents composing the sum of
human
life and experience have come to pass of themselves. It will be time
enough to believe things are their own makers when effects can
be discovered that have no causes. Persons of advanced (?)
intelligence
and culture may regard the Scriptures as behind the
age in respect of
philosophic insight and scientific attainment; it is to their credit that
their writers never talk such unphilosophic and unscientific nonsense
as that mundane things are their own creators. Their common sense —
if not permissible to say their inspiration — appears to have been strong
and clear enough to save them from being befooled by such vagaries as
have led astray many modem savants, and to have taught them that the
First Cause of all things is God (Genesis 1:1; Exodus 20:11; Nehemiah
9:6; Job 38:4; Psalm 19:1;
Isaiah 40:28; Acts 14:15; 17:24; Romans
11:36; Ephesians 3:9; Hebrews
3:4; Revelation
4:11).
Ø
Variety no monotony in mundane affairs. Obvious as regards
both the
universe as a whole and its
individual parts. The supreme Artificer of the
former had no idea of fashioning
all things after one model, however
excellent, but sought to
introduce variety into the works of His hands;
and just this is the principle
upon which He has proceeded in arranging
the program of man’s experiences
upon the earth. To this diversity in
man’s experience the
twenty-eight instances of events and purposes
given by the Preacher (vs. 2-8)
allude; and this same diversity is a mark
at once of wisdom
and of kindness on the part of the Supreme. As the
material globe would be
monotonous were it all mountain and no valley,
so would human life be
uninteresting were it an unchanging round of the
same few incidents. But it is
not. If
there are funerals and deaths, there
are as well marriages and births; if nights of weeping,
days of
laughing; if times of war, periods of peace.
Ø
Order: no chance or accident in mundane affairs. To short-sighted
and
feeble man, human life is full
of accidents or chances; but not so when
viewed from the standpoint of
God, Not only does no event happen
without His permission (Matthew
10:29; Luke 12:6), but each event
occurs at the
time and falls into the place appointed for it by infinite
wisdom. Nor is this true merely of such events as are wholly and
exclusively in His power, like
births and deaths (v. 2), but of such
also as to some extent at least
are within man’s control, as e.g.:
o
planting of a field
and the plucking up of that which is planted (v. 2),
o
killing and healing,
breaking down and building up (v. 3),
o
weeping and laughing
(v. 4), etc.
Men may flatter themselves that
of these latter actions they
are the sole originators, have
both the choosing of their times and the
fixing of their forms; but
according to the Preacher, God’s supremacy
is as little to be disputed in
them as in the matter of man’s coming into
or going out from the world. We
express this thought by citing the
well-known proverb, “Man
proposes, but God disposes,” or the
familiar words of Shakespeare —
“There’s a
divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew
them how we will.”
(‘Hamlet,’ act 5. so.
2.)
Ø
Beauty: no defect or deformity in mundane affairs. This cannot
signify
that in such events and actions
as “killing,”
“hating,” “warring,” there is
never anything wrong; that God
regards them only as good in the making,
and generally that sin is a
necessary stage in the development of human
nature. The Preacher is not
pronouncing judgment upon the moral
qualities of the actions he
enumerates, but merely calling attention to
their fitness for the times and
seasons to which they have been assigned
by God. Going back in thought to
the “Very
good!” of the Creator when
He rested from His labors at the
close of the sixth day (Genesis 1:31),
the Preacher cannot think of
saying less of the work God is still carrying
on in evolving the plan and
program of His purpose. “God hath made
everything
beautiful in its time” (compare v.
11): beautiful in itself,
so far as it is a work of His;
but beautiful not less in its time, even when
the work, as not being entirely His,
is not beautiful in itself, or in its
inward essence. Cf.
Shakespeare’s:
“How many
things by season seasoned are
To their
right praise and true perfection!”
(‘Merchant of
Beautiful in themselves and their
times are the seasons of the year, the
ages of man, and the changing
experiences through which he passes;
beautiful, at least in their
times, are numerous human actions which
God cannot be regarded as
approving, but which nevertheless He
permits to occur because He sees
the hour has struck for their
occurring. As it were, the glowing wheels of Divine providence
never fail to keep time with the great clock of eternity.
·
THE BEAUTIFUL RELATION OF MAN TO THE WORLD. Also
expressed in four words.
Ø
Weariness: no
perfect rest in the midst of mundane affairs. Not only is
man tossed about continually by
the multitudinous vicissitudes of which
he is the subject, but he
derives almost no satisfaction from the thought
that in all these changes there
is a beautiful because divinely appointed
harmony, and a beneficent
because Heaven-ordained purpose. The order
pervading the universe is
something outside of and beyond him.
The
fixing of the right times is a
work in which he cannot, even in a small
degree, cooperate. As a wise
man, he may wish to have every action in
which he bears a part performed
at the set time marked out for it on the
clock of eternity; but the very
attempt to find out for each action the
right time only aggravates the
fatigue of his labor, and increases the
sense of weariness under which
he groans. “What profit hath he that
worketh in that wherein he laboreth?” Not, certainly, “no profit,”
but not enough to give him rest
or
even free him from weariness. And
this, when viewed from a moral
and
religious standpoint, is beautiful
inasmuch as it prevents (or
ought to prevent) man from seeking
happiness in mundane affairs.
Ø
Ignorance: no perfect knowledge of mundane affairs. “No man can
find out the work
that God maketh from the beginning to the end.”
One more proof of the vanity of
human life — that no man, however
wise and farseeing, patient
and laborious, can discover the plan of God
either in the universe
as a whole or in his own life; and what renders
this a special sorrow
is the fact that God hath set “the world [or.,’
eternity’] in his heart.” If the “world” be
accepted as the true rendering
(Jerome, Luther, Ewald), then probably the meaning is that, though each
individual carries about
within his bosom in his own personality an
image of the world — is, in
fact, a microcosmus in which the
macrocosmus or great world is mirrored — nevertheless the problem
of the universe eludes his
grasp. If, however, the translation “eternity”
be adopted (Delitzsch,
Wright, Plumptre), then the import of the
clause
will be that God hath
planted in the heart of man “a longing after
immortality,” given him an idea of the
infinite and eternal which lies
beyond the veil of outward things, and inspired him with a desire to
know that which is above and
beyond him, yet he cannot find out the
secret of the universe in the
sense of discovering its plan. With an
infinite behind and
before him, he can grasp neither the beginning
of the work of God in its purpose or plan, nor the end of it
in its
issues and results, whether to the individual or to the
whole. What
his eye looks upon is the middle
portion passing before him here and
now — in comparison with the
whole but an infinitesimal speck —
and so he remains with reference
to the whole like a person walking
in the dark.
Ø
Submission: no
ground for complaining as to mundane affairs. Rather
in the view presented is much to
comfort man had the ordering of the
universe, or even of his own
lot, been left to man, man himself would
have been the first
to regret it. As
that, if only the Almighty had
called him into counsel at the making
of the universe, he could have
given the Almighty some valuable hints,
so are there equally foolish
persons who believe they could have drafted
for themselves a better life-program than has been done
for them by the
supreme Disposer of events. A wise man,
however, will always feel
grateful that the Almighty has retained the ordering of
events in
His own hand, and will meekly submit to the same,
believing that
GOD’S TIMES ARE
THE BEST TIMES, AND THAT HIS WAYS
ARE EVER “mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant and
His testimonies” (Psalm 25:10).
Ø
Fear: no justification for impiety or irreverence in mundane
affairs.
A proper study of the
constitution and course of nature, a due recognition
of the order pervading all its
parts, with a just consideration both of the
perfection and permanence (v.
14) of the Divine working, ought to
inspire men with “fear
“ — of such sort as both to repress within
them
irreligion
and impiety, and to excite within them humility and awe.
The Purposes
of
Different minds, observing and considering the same facts,
are often very
differently affected by them. The measure of previous
experience and
culture, the natural disposition, the tone and temper with
which men
address themselves to what is before them, — all affect the
conclusion at
which they arrive. The conviction produced in the mind of
the Preacher of
nature and in
life, where some see only chance or fate. To see God’s
hand,
to admire His
wisdom, to appreciate His love, in our human life, — this is
an evidence of sincere and intelligent piety.
·
GOD’S WORK IS PERFECT AND UNALTERABLE. “Nothing can be
put to it, nor
anything taken from it.” This cannot
be said to be the general
conviction; on the contrary, men
are always finding fault with the
constitution of things. If they
had been consulted in the creation of the
universe, and in the management
of human affairs, all would have been far
better than it is! Now, all
depends upon the end in view. The scientific man
would make an optical instrument
which should serve as both microscope
and telescope — a far more
marvelous construction than the eye. The
pleasure-seeker would eliminate
pain and sorrow from human life, and
would make it one prolonged
rapture of enjoyment. But the Creator had no
intention of making an
instrument which should supersede human
inventions; his aim was the
production of a working, everyday, useful
organ of vision. The Lord of all
never aimed at making life one long series
of
gratification; He designed life to be
a moral discipline, in which suffering,
weakness, and distress fulfill
their own service of ministering to MAN’S
HIGHEST WELFARE! For the purposes intended, God’s work needs no
apology and
admits of no improvement.
·
GOD’S WORK IS ETERNAL.
All men’s works are both unstable and
transitory. Fresh ends are ever
being approved and sought by fresh means.
The laws of nature know no change; the principles
of moral government
are the same
from age to age. When we learn to
distrust our own
fickleness, and to weary of
human uncertainty and mutability, then we fall
back upon the unchanging counsels of HIM WHO IS from EVERLASTING
TO EVERLASTING!
·
GOD’S WORK HAS A PURPOSE WITH REFERENCE TO MAN.
What God has done in this world
He has done for the benefit of His spiritual
family. Everything that is may be regarded as the vehicle of
communication
between the creating and the
created mind. The intention of God is “that
men should fear
before Him,”‘ i.e.
venerate and glorify him. Our human
probation and education as moral
and accountable beings is his aim. Hence
the obligation on our part to
observe, inquire, and consider, to reverence,
serve, and obey, and thus
consciously and voluntarily secure the ends for
which the Creator designed and
fashioned us.
15 “That
which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already
been; and God requireth
that which is past.” That which hath been is now;
so Septuagint; “That which hath been made, the same remaineth” (Vulgate); better,
that which hath been, long ago it is; i.e. was in
existence long before. The thought
is much the same as in ch.1:9, only here it is adduced not to prove
the vanity
and
endless sameness of circumstances, but the orderly and appointed succession of
events under the controlling providence of God. That which is to be hath
already been. The future will be a reproduction of the past.
The laws which
regulate things change not; the moral government
is exercised by HIM WHO
“ISM AND WAS, AND IS TO COME” (Revelation 1:8), and therefore in
effect history repeats itself; the same causes
produce the same phenomena.
God requireth that which is past; literally,
God seeketh after that which
hath been chased away;
Septuagint, “God will seek him who is pursued
(τὸν διωκόμενον - ton diokomenon – who is pursued);” Vulgate, “God
reneweth that which is passed (instaurat
quod abiit).” The
meaning is —
God brings back to view, recalls again into being, that
which was past and
had vanished out of sight and mind. The sentence is an
explanation of the
preceding clauses, and has nothing to do with the
inquisition at the day of
judgment. (I would
like to recommend a piece by Paul Harvey that
appeared in our local newspaper The Kentucky New Era.
I looked it up on the internet as Heaven’s
the site came up as below.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=266&dat=19931101&id=AtorAAAAIBAJ&sjid=
W2QFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2832,131692
I remembered enough of it that I think it an interesting sidelight to
this passage - CY – 2013)
Divine Constancy and Human Piety (vs. 14-15)
With the outer world of nature and with our human nature
and character before us,
these words may somewhat surprise us; it is necessary to
take a preliminary view of:
Ø
There is a sense in
which man has modified the Divine action according
to the Divine purpose. God
has given us the material, and He says to us,
“Work with it and upon it;
mold, fashion, transform, develop it as you
will; make all possible use of it for bodily comfort, for
mental enlarge-
ment, for
social enjoyment, for spiritual growth.” (This is what is meant
by“subdue it” in Genesis
1:28 – CY – 2013) Man has made large use
of
this his opportunity, and,
with the advance of knowledge and of science,
he will make much more in
time to come. He cannot indeed “put to”
or
“take from” the
substance with which God supplies him, but he can do
much to change its form and
to determine the service it shall render.
Ø
There is a sense in
which man has temporarily thwarted the Divine idea.
For is not ALL
SIN and are not all
the dire consequences of sin, a
sad and serious departure
from the purpose of the Holy One? Surely
infidelity, blasphemy,
vice, cruelty, crime; surely poverty, misery,
starvation, death; all this
is not what the heavenly Father meant for His
human children when He breathed into man’s nostrils the breath
of life (Genesis
2:7). But
the leading idea of the text is:
includes:
Ø
The fixedness of the Divine purpose. “The counsel of the
Lord
standeth for ever, the
thoughts of His heart to all generations”
(Psalm 33:11). We believe that from the beginning God intended to
work out the righteousness and the blessedness of the human race;
and whatever has come between Him and the realization of His
gracious end will be
cleared
away. Redeemed
man will one
day
be all that the
Eternal One designed that he should become.
Ø
The constancy of the Divine Law. The same great moral laws,
and the same physical laws
also, which governed the action and the
destiny of men in primeval
times still prevail, and will always abide.
Sin has meant
suffering and sorrow, righteousness has worked
out well-being
and joy; diligence has been followed
by fruitfulness,
and idleness by
destitution; generosity
has been recompensed with love,
and selfishness with leanness of soul, etc. As it was at the beginning,
so will it be with the
action of all Divine
laws, even to the end.
Ø
The permanency of the Divine attitude.
o
What God always felt
toward sin he feels today; it is the thing
which He hates. In Jesus
Christ, as fully and as emphatically as
in the Law,:
§
His holy intolerance
of sin is revealed, and
§
His Divine
determination to conquer and to destroy it.
o
What God always felt
toward the sinner he feels today:
§
a Divine grief and
§
an infinite
compassion; and
§
a readiness to
forgive and to restore the penitent.
·
THE DIVINE DESIGN. “God doeth it, that men should fear before
him.” God’s one unchanging desire is that His children should live a
reverential,
Holy life before him. All the
manifestations of His character
that He gives us are intended to
lead up to and issue in this. And surely the
Divine constancy is calculated
to promote this as nothing else would. It is
God’s desire and
His design concerning us, because He knows:
Ø
that it is the only right relationship for us to sustain; and
Ø
that it is the one condition of peace, purity, blessedness and
LIFE!
Requiring
That Which is Past (v. 15)
·
IN THE REALM OF NATURE. God
seeks after that which is past or
has been driven away, in the
sense that He recalls or brings again
phenomena that have vanished; as
e.g. the reappearance of the sun with its
light and heat, the various
seasons of the year with their respective
characteristics, the circling of
the winds with other meteorological aspects
of the firmament. The thought
here is the uniformity of sequence in the
physical world (ch. 1:4-7).
·
IN THE SPHERE OF INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCE. God seeks after
that which has been driven away
in the sense that He reproduces in the life
of one individual experiences
that have existed in another, or in himself at a
former point in his career. The
thought is, that by Heaven’s decree a large
amount of sameness exists in the
phases of thought and feeling through
which different individuals
pass, or the same individuals at successive
stages of their development.
·
IN THE DOMAIN OF HISTORY. God seeks after that which has
been driven away, in the sense
that, on the broad theatre of action which
men name “time,” or “the
world,” He frequently, in the evolutions of His
providence; seems to recall the
past by reproducing “situations”
“incidents,” “events,”
“experiences,” similar to, if not identical with, those
which occurred before. The thought is
that history frequently repeats itself.
·
IN THE PROGRAM OF THE UNIVERSE. God will eventually seek
after that which has been driven
away, by calling up again out of the past
for judgment every
individual that has lived upon the globe, with every
word that has been
spoken and every act that has been done, with every
secret thought and
imagination, whether it has been good or whether it has
been bad. The thought is that the distant past and the distant future
will one
day meet. The place will be before THE GREAT WHITE
THRONE, the time
will be THE LAST
DAY!
In vs. 16-22, the writer acknowledging the providential
government of God,
which controls events and places man’s happiness out of his
own power,
one is confronted also by the fact that there is much
wickedness, much
injustice, in the world, which oppose all plans for
peaceful enjoyment.
Doubtless THERE SHALL BE A DAY OF RETRIBUTION FOR
SUCH INIQUITIES;
and God allows them now in order to try men and
to teach them humility. Meantime man’s duty and happiness
consist, as
before said, in making the best use of the present and
improving the
opportunities which God gives him.
16 “And
moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that
wickedness was there; and the place of
righteousness, that iniquity
was there.” And moreover I saw
under the sun the place of judgment.
Koheleth records his experience of the prevalence of iniquity in high places.
The place of judgment (mishat); where justice is administered. The
accentuation allows (compare Genesis 1:1) this to be regarded
as the object
of the verb. The Revised Version takes מְקום
as an adverbial expression
equivalent to “in the place.” The former is the simpler
construction. “And moreover,”
at the commencement of the verse, looks back to v. 10, “I have
seen the travail,”
etc. That wickedness (resha) was there. On the judicial seat
iniquity sat instead of
justice. The place
of righteousness (tsedek). “Righteousness” is the
peculiar characteristic of the judge Himself, as “justice” is of his decisions.
That iniquity (resha)
was there. The word ought to be translated
“wickedness” or “iniquity” in both clauses. The Septuagint
takes the
abstract for the concrete, and at the end has apparently
introduced a
clerical error, which has been perpetuated in the Arabic
and elsewhere,
“And moreover I saw
under the sun the place of judgment, there was the
ungodly (ἀσεβής - asebaes); and the
place of the righteous, there was the godly
(εὐσεβής – eusebaes).” The Complutensian Polyglot reads ἀσεβὴς in both
places. It is
impossible to harmonize these statements of oppression and injustice
here and elsewhere (e.g. ch.4:1; 5:8; 8:9-10)
with Solomon’s authorship of the
book. It is contrary to fact that such a corrupt state of
things existed in his time,
and in writing thus he would be uttering a libel against
himself. If he was cognizant
of such evils in his kingdom, he had nothing to do but to
put them down with a
high hand. There is nothing to lead to the belief that he
is speaking of other
countries and other times; he is stating his own personal
experience of what
goes on around him. It is true that in Solomon’s latter
days disaffection secretly
prevailed, and the people felt his yoke grievous (I Kings
12:4); but there is no
evidence of the existence of corruption in judicial courts,
or of the social and
political evils of which he speaks in this book. That he
had a prophetical foresight
of the disasters that would accompany the reign of his
successor, and
endeavors herein to provide consolation for the future sufferers,
is a pious
opinion without historical basis, and cannot be justly used
to support the
genuineness of the work.
17 “I said
in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked:
for there is a time there for every purpose
and for every work.”
I said in mine
heart, God shall judge the righteous and the
wicked. In view of the injustice that prevails in earthly
tribunals, Koheleth
takes comfort in the thought that there is RETRIBUTION FOR EVERY
MAN when God shall award sentence according to deserts. God is a
Righteous Judge strong and patient, and His decisions are infallible.
Future judgment
is here plainly stated, as it is at the final conclusion (ch. 12:14). They who refuse to
credit the writer with belief in this great doctrine resort
to the theory of interpolation
and alteration in order to account for the language in this
and analogous passages.
There can be no doubt that the present text has hitherto
always been regarded as
genuine, and that IT DOES
CLEARLY ASSERT FUTURE RETRIBUTION
though not so much as a conclusion firmly established, but
rather as a belief which
may explain anomalies and afford comfort under trying circumstances.
For there
is a time there for every purpose and for every
work. The adverb rendered
“there” (שָׁם, sham) is placed emphatically, at the end of the sentence.
Thus
the Septuagint, “There is a reason for every action, and
for every work there (ἐκεῖ -
ekei).” But it is unexampled to find the elliptical
“there,” when no place has been
mentioned in the context, and when we are precluded from
interpreting the
dark word by a significant gesture, as Medea
may have pointed downwards
in her histrionic despair. Where the words, “that day,” are used in the New
Testament (e.g. Luke 10:12; II Timothy 1:18, etc.), the
context
shows plainly to what they refer. Some take the adverb here
in the sense of
“then.” Thus the Vulgate, Justum
et impium iudicabit Deus,
et tempus
omnis rei tunc
erit.” But really
no time has been mentioned, unless we
conceive the writer to have been guilty of a clumsy
tautology, expressing
by “then” the same idea as “a time for every purpose,” It is best, with many
modern commentators, to refer the adverb to God, who has just
been spoken
of in the preceding clause. A similar use is found in
Genesis 49:24. With
God, spud Deum, in
His counsels, there is a time or judgment and
retribution for every act of man, when anomalies which
have obtained on
earth shall be rectified, injustice shall be punished, virtue
rewarded.
A Present Use and Enjoyment of the
Gifts of God
(vs. 14-17)
This, an argument in support of the statement that is found
in the fact of the
unchangeable character of the Divine purposes and government. He who
has given
may
take away, and none can stay His hand. While, therefore, we are in possession
of
benefits He has bestowed on us, we should get the good of them, seeing that we
know not how long we shall have them. Exception has been taken to this
teaching.
“The lesson to cheerfulness under such bidding seems a hard
one. Men have recited
it
over the wine-cup in old times and new, in East and West. But the human heart,
with such shadows gathering in the background, has recognized its
hollowness, and again and again has put back the anodyne from its
lips”
(Bradley). But though the thought of the Divine
unchangeableness may be
regarded by some as a stimulus to a reckless enjoyment of the
present, it is
calculated to have a wholesome influence upon our views of life, and
upon
our
conduct. Acquiescence in one’s lot, and
reverential fear of God,
leading to an avoidance
of sin, are naturally suggested by it. The
conviction
that the will of God is righteous will prevent acquiescence in it becoming
that apathetic resignation which characterizes the spirit of those who
believe that over all the events of life an iron destiny rules,
against which
men
strive in vain.
·
THE CHARACTER OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. (v. 14.) It
is eternal and. unalterable. In the phenomena of the natural
world, we see it
manifested in laws which man cannot control or change; in the
providential
government of human affairs, the same rule of a higher
Power over all the
events of life is discernible; and in the
revelations of the Divine will,
recorded in the Scriptures, we see steady progress
to an end foreseen and
foretold from the beginning. What God does stands fast; no
created power
can nullify or change it (Psalm 33:11; Isaiah 46:9-10; Daniel 4:35).
·
THE EFFECT WHICH THIS UNCHANGEABLENESS SHOULD
PRODUCE. (v. 14b.) “That men should
fear before Him.” It should fill
our heart with reverence. This is, indeed, the purpose for
which God has
given this revelation of himself, and no other view of the
Divine character
is calculated to produce the same effect. The thought of God’s infinite
power would not impress us
in like manner if at the same time we believed
that his will was variable, that it could be propitiated and
changed. But the
conviction that His will is righteous and immutable should lead us to
“sanctify Him in our hearts, and make Him our Fear and our
Dread”
(Isaiah 8:13), and give us hope
and confidence in the midst of the
vicissitudes of life (Malachi 3:6). In the earlier part of his work
(ch. 1:9-10) the Preacher had dwelt upon the
uniformity of
sequence in nature, as if he were impressed with a sense of
monotony, as
he watched the course of events happening and recurring in
the same
order. And now, as he looks upon human history, he sees the same
regularity in the order of things. “That which hath been is now, and
that
which is to be hath already been.” But the former feeling of weariness and
oppression is modified by the thought of
God’s perfection, and by the
“fear” which it
excites. He recognizes the fact of a personal will governing
the events of history. It is no mechanical process of
revolution that causes
the repetition time after time of similar events, the same
causes producing
the same effects; no wheel of destiny alternately raising and
depressing the
fortunes of men. It is God who recalls, “who seeks again that which is
passed away” (v. 15b).
“The past is thought of as vanishing, put to flight,
receding into the dim distance. It might seem to be passing into
the abyss
of oblivion; but God recalls it, brings back the same order,
or an analogous
order of events, and so history repeats itself” (Plumptre). And out of this
belief in God’s wise providence a healthy spirit should gather strength
to
bear patiently and cheerfully the difficulties and trials of
life. The belief that
our life is governed by an unalterable law is calculated, as I
have said, to
lead to a listless, hopeless state of mind, in which one ceases
to strive
against the inevitable. But that state of mind is very different
from the
resignation of those who believe that the government of the world is
regular and unchangeable, because unerring wisdom guides Him who is the
Creator and Preserver of all things. Their faith can sustain them in the
greatest trials, when God’s ways seem most inscrutable; they can
hope
against hope, and, in spite of all apparent contradictions,
believe that “all
things work together for good to them that love God.” (Romans
8:28)
Man’s
Unrighteousness Contrasted with God’s Righteousness (vs. 16-17)
Every observant, judicial, and sensitive mind shares this
experience. Human
society, civil relations, cannot be contemplated without
much of disapproval,
disappointment, and distress. And who, when so affected by
the spectacle which
this world presents, can do other than raise his thoughts
to that Being, to those
relationships that are characterized by a moral excellence
which corresponds to
our highest ideal, our purest aspirations?
AMONG MEN. The
observation of the wise man was naturally directed to
the state of
society in his own times and in his
own and of the neighboring
countries. Local and temporal
peculiarities do not, however, destroy the
applicability of the principle
to human life generally. Wickedness was and is
discernible
wherever man is found. Unconscious
nature obeys physical
laws, brute nature obeys
automatic and instinctive impulse. But man is a
member of a rational and
spiritual system, whose principles he often
violates in the pursuit of lower
ends. In the earliest ages “the wickedness of
man was great in the
earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart was only
evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).
A remedial system
has checked and to some extent
counteracted these evil tendencies; yet to
how large an extent is the same
reflection just!
WHERE JUSTICE SHOULD BE IMPARTIALLY ADMINISTERED.
It is well known that in every
age complaints have been made of the venality
of Eastern magistrates. In the
Old Testament references are frequent to the
“gifts,” the bribes, by which
suitors sought to obtain decisions in their
favor. Corruption here is worse
than elsewhere, for it is
discouraging to
uprightness, and
lowers the tone of public morals. We
would be grateful
that, in our own land and in our
own day, if such such corruption was unknown!
atheist has no refuge from such
observations and reflections as those
recorded in v. 16. But the godly
man turns from earth to heaven, and
rests in the conviction that there is A DIVINE AND RIGHTEOUS
JUDGE to whose tribunal ALL MEN MUST COME, and by whose
just decisions every destiny must be decided.
Ø
All characters, the
righteous and the wicked alike, will be judged
by the Lord of all. Has the
unjust escaped the penalty due from a
human tribunal? He shall not escape THE
RIGHTEOUS
JUDGMENT OF
GOD! Has the innocent, been unjustly
sentenced by an earthly and
perhaps corrupt judge? There is for
him a court of appeal, and
his righteousness shall shine as the
noonday.
Ø
All kinds of works
shall meet with retribution; not only the acts of
private life, but also acts
of a judicial and governmental kind. The
unjust judge shall
meet with his recompense, and the wronged
and persecuted shall not be unavenged.
18 “I said
in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that
God might manifest them, and that they
might see that they themselves
are beasts.” The
comfort derived from the thought of the future judgment
is clouded by the reflection that man is as powerless as
the beast to control
his destiny. Concerning
the estate of the sons of men;
rather, it happens
on account of the sons of men. God allows events to take place, disorders
to continue, etc., for the ultimate profit of men, though
the idea that
follows is humiliating and dispiriting. The Septuagint. has
περὶ λαλιᾶς –
- peri lalias - concerning the
speech of the sons of men. So the Syriac.
The word dibrah may
indeed bear that meaning, as it is also used for “word” or
“matter;” but we cannot conceive that the clause
refers solely to words,
and the expression in the text signifies merely “for the
sake, on account
of,” as in ch.8:2. That
God might manifest them;
rather, that God
might test them; Ut probaret eos Dens (Vulgate).
God allows
these things, endures them patiently, and does not at once
redress them, for
two reasons. The
first of these is that they may serve for the probation of
men, giving them opportunity of making good or bad use of
them. We see
the effect of this forbearance on the wicked in ch.8:11; it hardens them in
impenitence; while it
nourishes the faith of the righteous, and
helps
them to persevere (see Daniel 11:35 and Revelation 22:11). And that they
might see that
they themselves are beasts. The pronoun is
repeated
emphatically, “that
they themselves are [like] beasts, they in themselves.”
This is the second reason. Thus they
learn their own powerlessness,
if they regard merely their own animal life; apart from
their relation
to God
and hope of the future, they are no better than the lower creatures (see
II Peter 2:12). Septuagint. “And to show (τοῦ δεῖξαι – tou deixai) that
they are beasts.” So the Vulgate and Syriac.
Wickedness
in the Place of Judgment
or
The Mystery of
(vs. 16-18)
·
THE PROFOUND PROBLEM.
The moral disorder of the universe. “I
saw under the sun
in the place of judgment that wickedness was there, and
in the place of
righteousness that wickedness was there”
(v. 16).
Ø
The strange spectacle. What fascinated the Preacher’s gaze and
perplexed the Preacher’s heart
was not so much the existence as the
triumph of sin — the fact that
sin existed where and as it did. Had he
always beheld sin in its naked
deformity, essential loathsomeness, and
abject baseness, receiving the
due reward of its misdeeds, trembling as a
culprit before the bar of
providential judgment, and suffering the
punishment its criminality merited, the mystery and perplexity would
most likely have been reduced by
half. What, however, he did witness
was iniquity, not trembling but
triumphing, not sorrowing but singing, not
suffering the due recompense of
her own evil deeds but snatching off the
rewards and prizes that belonged
to virtue. In short, what he perceived
was the complete moral disorder
of the world — as it were society turned
topsy-turvy; the wicked up and
the righteous down; bad men exalted and
good men despised; vice arrayed
in silks and bedizened with jewels, and
virtue only half covered with
tattered rags.
Ø
Two particular sights.
o
Iniquity usurping the place of judgment; thrusting itself into the very
council-chambers
where right and justice should prevail; now as a judge
who
deliberately holds the scales uneven because the one litigant is rich
and the other
poor, anon as an advocate who employs all his ingenuity
to defend a
prisoner whom he knows to be guilty, and again as a witness
who has
accepted a bribe and calmly swears to a lie.
o
Iniquity preoccupying the place of
righteousness; i.e.
the tribunal,
whether secular
or ecclesiastical, whose efforts should be all directed to
finding out and
maintaining the cause of righteousness.
·
THE PERPLEXING MYSTERY.
“I
said in mine heart” (v. 17). The
Preacher was troubled about it,
as:
o
David (Psalm 37:1, 7),
o
Job (Job 21:7),
o
Asaph (Psalm 73:3), and
o
Jeremiah (Jeremiah
12:1) had been.
To him, as to them, it was an
enigma. But why should it have been?
Ø
On one hypothesis it is no enigma. On the supposition
that God, duty,
and immortality are
non-existent, it is not a mystery at all that vice
should prevail and virtue have a
poor time of it so long as it remains
above ground, for (on the
hypothesis) fleeing to a better country
beyond the skies is out of the
question. The mystery would be that
it were otherwise.
Ø
On another hypothesis it is an enigma. What creates the
mystery is that
these things occur while God is,
duty presses, and immortality awaits.
Since God is, why does He suffer
these things to happen? Why does He
not interpose to put matters
right? If right and wrong are not empty
phrases, how comes it that moral
distinctions are so constantly
submerged? With “eternity
in their hearts,” how is it to be explained
that men are so regardless of
the future?
·
THE PROPOSED SOLUTION.
This lay in three things.
Ø
The certainty of a future judgment. “I said in mine
heart, God shall
judge the
righteous and the wicked; for there is a time for every purpose
and for every
work” (v. 17). Convinced that God,
duty, and immortality
were no fictions but solemn
realities, the Preacher saw that these implied
the certainty of a judgment in the
future world when all the entangle-
ments of this world would be sorted out, its inequalities evened, and
its wrongs righted; and seeing this, he
discerned in it a sufficient reason
why God should not be in a hurry to
cast down vice from its undeserved
eminence and exalt
virtue to its rightful renown.
Ø
The discrimination of human character. The Preacher saw that God
allowed wickedness to triumph
and righteousness to suffer, in order
that He might thereby “prove
them,” i.e. sift and distinguish them
from one another by the free
development of their characters. Were
God by external restraints to
place a check on the ungodly or by
outward helps to recompense the
pious, it might come to be doubtful
who were the sinful and who the
virtuous; but granting free scope to
both, each manifests its hidden
character by its actions, according to
the principle, “Every
tree is known by its fruits” (Matthew 7:16-20).
Ø
The revelation of human depravity. Because a future judgment awaits, it
is necessary that the wickedness
of the wicked should be revealed. Hence
God abstains from interfering
prematurely with the world’s disorder that
men may see to what thorough inherent depravity they have
really
come; that, oppressing and destroying one another, they are
little better
than brute beasts who, without consideration or remorse, prey on each
other.
·
LESSONS.
1. Patience.
2. Confidence.
3. Hopefulness.
Vs. 19-21 are best regarded as a parenthesis explanatory of
vs. 16-18,
elucidating man’s impotence in the presence of the
anomalies of life. The
conclusion in v. 22 is connected with vs. 16-18. We must acknowledge
that there are disorders in the world which we cannot
remedy, and
which
God allows in order to
demonstrate our powerlessness; therefore
the
wisest course is to make the best of present circumstances.
19 “For
that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one
thing befalleth
them: as the one dieth, so dieth
the other; yea, they
have all one breath; so that a man hath no
preeminence above a
beast: for all is vanity.” For that which befalleth the sons of men
befalleth beasts; literally, chance
are the sons of men, and chance are
beasts (see on ch. 2:14); Septuagint, “Yea, and to them cometh the event
(συνάντηημα - sunantaema – that which befalls, happens) of the sons
of men, and the
event of the beast.” Koheleth explains in what
respect
man is on a level with the brute creation. Neither are able
to rise superior to the
law that controls their natural life. So Solon says to
Croesus (Herod., 1:32),
Pa Πᾶν
ἐστι ἄνθρωπος
συμφορή – Pan esti anthropos sumphorae -> Man is
naught but chance;
and Artabanns
reminds Xerxes that chances rule men,
not men chances (ibid., 7:49). Even one thing befalleth them. A third
time is the ominous word repeated, “One chance is to both
of them.”
Freethinkers perverted this dictum into the materialistic
language quoted in the
Book of Wisdom (2. 2): “We
are born at haphazard, by chance
(αὐτοσχεδιως´ - autoschedios); etc.
But Koheleth’s contention is, not
that there is no law or
order in what happens to man, but that neither man nor
beast can dispose events at
their own will and pleasure; they are
conditioned
by a force superior to them, which dominates their
actions, sufferings, and
circumstances of life. As the one dieth, so dieth the other. In the matter
of succumbing to the law of death man has no superiority
over other
creatures. This is an inference drawn from common
observation of exterior
facts, and touches not any higher question (compare
ch.2:14-15; 9:2-3).
Something similar is found in Psalm 49:20, “Man that is in honor, and
understandeth not, is like the
beasts that perish.” Yea, they
have all one
breath (ruach).
This is the word used for the vital
principle, “the breath of
life,” as it is called in Genesis
6:17, where the
same word is found. In the earlier record (Ibid. 2:7) the term
is nishma.
Life in all animals is regarded as THE GIFT OF GOD. Says the
psalmist, “Thou sendest forth
thy spirit (ruach),
they
are created”
(Psalm 104:30). This lower principle presents the same
phenomena in men and
In brutes. Man hath
no preeminence above a beast;
i.e. in regard to
suffering and death. This is not bare materialism, or a
gloomy deduction
from Greek teaching, but must be explained from the
writer’s standpoint,
which is to emphasize THE
IMPOTENCE OF MAN to effect his own
happiness. Taking
only a limited and phenomenal view of man’s circumstances
and destiny, he speaks a general truth which all must
acknowledge. Septuagint,
“And what hath
the man more than the beast? Nothing.” For all is vanity.
The distinction between man and beast is annulled by death;
the former’s
boasted superiority, his power of conceiving and planning,
his greatness,
skill, strength. cunning, all come under the category of
vanity, as they
cannot ward off the inevitable blow.
20 “All go
unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.”
All go unto one place.
All, men and brutes, are buried in the earth (ch.12:7).
The author is not thinking of Sheol,
the abode of departed spirits, but merely
regarding earth as the UNIVERSAL
TOMB of ALL CREATURES.
All are of the
dust (Genesis
3:19; Psalm 104:29; 146:4). So Ecclesiasticus
41:10, “All things that are of earth shall turn to
earth again.” This
is true of the material part of men and brutes alike; the
question of the
destiny of the immaterial part is touched in the next
verse.
21 “Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth
upward, and
the spirit of the beast that goeth
downward to the earth?” The
statement is here too categorically rendered, though, for dogmatical
purposes, the Masorites seem to
have punctuated the text with a view to
such interpretation. But the analogy of two other passages
(ch.2:19 and 6:12),
where “who knoweth” occurs, intimates that the phrases which
follow are
interrogative. So
the translation should be, “Who knoweth as regards the spirit
(ruach) of the sons of men whether it goeth upward, and as regards the spirit
(ruach) of the beast whether it goeth
downward under the earth?” Vulgate,
Quis novit si
spiritus, etc.?
Septuagint, Τίς εῖδε πνεῦμα υἱῶν
τοῦ ἀνθρώπου εἰ
ἀναβαίνει αὐτὸ
ἄνω - Tis eide pneuma huion
tou anthropou
ei anabainei auto ano - “Who ever saw the
spirit of the sons
of man, whether
it goeth upward?” The Authorized Version, which gives
the Masoretic reading,
is supposed to harmonize better with the assertion at the end of the book (ch.12:7),
that the spirit returns to the God
who gave it. But there is no formal denial of the
immortality of the soul in the present passage as we render
it. The
question, indeed, is not touched. The author is confirming
his previous
assertion that, in one point of view, man is not superior
to brute. Now he
says, looking at the matter merely externally, and taking
not into
consideration any higher notion, no one knows the destiny of
the living
powers, whether God deals differently with the spirit of
man and of beast.
Phenomenally, the principle of life in both is identical,
and its cessation is
identical; and what becomes of the spirit in either case
neither eye nor mind
can discover. The distinction which reason or religion
assumes, viz. that
man’s spirit goes upward and the brute’s downward, is
incapable of proof,
is quite beyond experience. What is meant by “upward” and “downward”
may be seen by reference to the gnome in Proverbs 15:24, “To the wise
the way of life goeth upward, that he may depart from Sheol
beneath.”
The contrast shows that Sheol is
regarded as a place of punishment or
annihilation; this is further confirmed by Psalm 49:14-15,
“They are
appointed as a flock for Sheol:
death shall be their shepherd… their beauty
shall be for Sheol to consume But God will redeem my soul from the
power of Sheol; for he shall
receive me.” Koheleth
neither denies nor
affirms in this passage the immortality of the soul; that he
believed in it we
learn from other expressions; but he is not concerned with
parading it here.
But Koheleth’s inquiry suggests
the possibility of a different destiny for the
spirits of man and brute, though he does not at this moment
make any
definite assertion on the subject. Later on he explains the
view taken by the
believer in Divine revelation (ch.12:7).
Before and After Christ (vs. 18-21)
These words have a strange sound in our ears; they
evidently do not belong
to New Testament times. They bring before us:
evidently possible that, under
certain conditions, men may judge
themselves to be of no nobler
nature than that of “the beasts that
perish.”
It may be:
Ø
bodily suffering or
weakness; or
Ø
untoward and
disappointing circumstances; or
Ø
bewilderment
of mind after vain endeavors to solve great
spiritual problems; or
Ø
the distracted and
unnatural state of the society in which we
are placed
but, owing to some one of many possible causes, men may be
driven to take
the lowest view of human nature; so much so that they may
lose all respect for
themselves — may shut the future life entirely out of view,
and live in the narrow
circle of the present; may confine their ambition and aspiration to bodily
enjoyment
and the excitements of present occupation; may practically
own themselves to
be defeated, and go blindly on, ‘hoping nothing, believing
nothing, and fearing nothing.”
Such a melancholy conclusion:
Ø
does us sad dishonor;
Ø
has a demoralizing influence on character and life;
Ø
yields a
wretched harvest of despair and self-destruction. In
most happy contrast with
this is:
He asks us to think how “much a man is
better than a sheep,” (Matthew
12:12) and reminds us that we
are “of
more value than many sparrows”
(Luke 12:7). He bids us realize that one human soul
is worth more than
“the whole world” (Mark 8:36), and that there is nothing so costly that it
will represent its value. He
reveals to us the supreme and most blessed fact
that each human spirit is the
object of Divine solicitude, and may find a home
in the Father’s heart of love at
once, and in His nearer presence soon. He
\assures us that there is a
glorious future before every man that becomes the
subject of His kingdom, and
serves faithfully to the end. Under His teaching,
instead of seeing that “they themselves are beasts,” His disciples find themselves
“children of
their Father
who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:45), “kings and
priests unto God” (Revelation 1:6), and “heirs of eternal life” (Titus 3:7).
Coming after Christ, and
learning of Him, we see that we are
capable of a noble
heritage now, and move toward a still nobler estate a little further on.
(I Corinthians 2:9).
The Common
Destiny of Death (vs. 18-21)
The double nature of man has been recognized by every
student of human
nature. The sensationalist and materialist lays stress upon
the physical side
of our humanity, and endeavors to show that the intellect
and the moral
sentiments are the outgrowth of the bodily life, the
nervous structure and
its susceptibilities and its powers of movement. But such
efforts fail to
convince alike the unsophisticated and the philosophic. It
is generally
admitted that it would be more reasonable to resolve the
physical into the
psychical than the psychical into the physical. The author
of Ecclesiastes
was alive to the animal side of man’s nature; and if some
only of his
expressions were considered, he might be claimed as a
supporter of the
baser philosophy. But he himself supplies the
counteractive. The attentive
reader of the book is convinced that the author traced the human
spirit to
its Divine
original, and looked forward to its IMMORTALITY.
·
THE COMMUNITY OF MEN WITH BEASTS IN THE ANIMAL
NATURE AND LIFE. If we
look upon one side of our humanity, it
appears that we are to be
reckoned among the brutes that perish. The
similarity is obvious in:
Ø
The corporeal, fleshly
constitution with which man and brute are alike
endowed.
Ø
The brevity of the
earthly life appointed for both without distinction.
Ø
The resolution of the
body into dust.
·
THE SUPERIORITY OF MEN OVER BEASTS IN THE
POSSESSION OF A SPIRITUAL AND IMPERISHABLE NATURE
AND LIFE. It is
difficult for us to treat this subject without; bringing to
bear upon it the knowledge which
we have derived from the fuller and
more glorious revelation of the new covenant. “Christ has abolished death,
and has brought
life and immortality to light by the gospel.” (II Timothy
1:10) We cannot possibly think of such themes
without taking to their
consideration the convictions
and the hopes which we have derived from the
incarnate Son of God. Nor can we
forget the sublime speculations of
philosophers of both ancient and
modern times.
Ø
In his spiritual
nature man is akin to God. Physical life
the Creator
imparted to the animal organisms
with which the world was peopled. But
a life of quite another order
was conferred upon man, who participates
in THE
DIVINE REASON who is able to think the
thoughts of God
Himself, and who has intuitions
of moral goodness of which the brute
creation is for ever incapable.
Instead of man’s mind being a function
of organized matter, as a base
sensationalism and empiricism is wont
to affirm, the truth is that it
is only as an expression and vehicle of
thought, of reason, that matter
has a dependent existence.
Ø
In his consequent immortality
man is distinguished from the inferior
animals. The life
possessed by these latter is a life of sensation and of
movement; the organism is
resolved into its constituents, and there is no
reason to believe that the
sensation and movement are perpetuated. But
“the spirit of man
goeth upward;” it has used its instrument, the body,
and the time comes — appointed
by God’s inscrutable providence —
when the connection, local and
temporary, which the spirit has
maintained with earth, is
sundered. In what other scenes and pursuits
the conscious being is
continued, we cannot tell. But there is not the
slightest reason for conceiving the spiritual life to be
dependent
upon the organism which it uses as its instrument. The spiritual
life is the life of God; and the
life of God is imperishable.
“The sun is but a spark of
fire,
A transient meteor in the
sky;
The soul, immortal as its
Sire,
Can
never die.
22 “Wherefore
I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man
should rejoice in his own works; for that is
his portion: for who shall bring him
to see what shall be after him?” After all, the writer arrives at the conclusion
intimated in v.12; only here the result is gathered from the acknowledgment of man’s
impotence (vs.
16-18), as there from the experience of life. Wherefore I
perceive that
there is nothing better, etc.; rather, so,
or wherefore I saw
that there was nothing,
etc. As man is not master of his own lot,
cannot
order events as he would like, is powerless to control
the forces of nature
and the providential arrangements of the world, his duty and his
happiness
consist in enjoying the present, in making the best of
life, and availing
himself of the bounties which THE MERCY OF GOD PLACES
BEFORE HIM! Thus he will free himself from anxieties and cares, perform
present labors, attend to present duties, content himself
with the daily round,
and not vex his heart with SOLICITUDE FOR THE FUTURE! There
is no Epicureanism here, no recommendation of sensual
enjoyment; the author
simply advises men to
make a thankful use of the blessings which
GOD PROVIDES FOR THEM!
For who shall bring him to see
what shall be
after him? The Revised Version,
by inserting “back” —
Who shall bring him back to see? — affixes a
meaning to the clause which
it need not and does not bear. It is, indeed, commonly interpreted to signify that
man knows and can know
nothing that happens to him after death — whether
he will exist or not,
whether he will have cognizance of what passes on earth,
or be insensible to
all that befalls here. But Koheleth has completed
that thought
already; his
argument now turns to the future in this life. Use the present, for you
cannot be sure of the future; — this is his exhortation. So
he says
(ch. 6:12), “Who can tell a
man what shall be after him under
the sun?” where the expression, “under
the sun,” shows that earthly life is
meant, not existence after death. Ignorance of the future
is a very common
topic throughout the book, but it is the terrestrial
prospect that is in view.
There would be little force in urging the impotence of
men’s efforts
towards their own happiness by the consideration of their
ignorance of
what may happen when they are no more; but one may reasonably exhort
men to cease to torment themselves with hopes and fears, with
labors that
may be useless and preparations that may never be needed, by
the
reflection that they cannot foresee the future, and that, for
all they know,
the pains which they take may be utterly wasted (Jesus said, “Take no thought
for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the
things of itself.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” - Matthew 6:34 – “Be careful
[anxious;
worrying] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving let your requests be made know unto God.” – Philippians
4:6 - compare ch.7:14; 9:3). Thus in this section there is
neither skepticism nor
Epicureanism. In brief, the sentiment is this — There are injustices and anomalies in
the life of men and in the course of this world’s events
which man cannot control
or alter; these may be
righted and compensated hereafter. Meantime, man’s
happiness is to make the best of the present, and cheerfully to enjoy WHAT
FUTURE!
The
Conclusion of Folly or the Faith of the Wise? (vs. 12-13, 22)
In what catalogue shall we place these words of the text?
On whose lips
are they to be found? Are they:
·
THE REFUGE OF THE SKEPTIC? They may be such. The epicure
who has lost his faith in God
says, “Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we
die.” There is no sacredness in the present, and no solid hope
for the
future. What is the use of aiming at a high ideal? Why waste
breath and
strength on duty, on aspiration,
on piety? Why attempt to rise to the
pursuit of the eternal and the
Divine? Better
lose ourselves in that which is
at hand, in that which we can grasp as a present
certainty. The best thing,
the only certain good, is to eat and drink and to labor;
is to minister to our
senses, and to work upon the material which is visible to
our eye and
responsive to our touch. So speaks the skeptic;
this is his miserable
conclusion; thus he owns
himself defeated and (we may say) dishonored.
For what is human
life worth when the element of sacredness is expunged,
when piety and hope are left out
of it? It is no wonder that the ages of
unbelief have been the times
when men have had no regard for other
people’s dues, and very little
for their own. Or shall we rather find here:
·
AN ARTICLE, OF A WISE MAN’S FAITH? It is not certain what
was the mood in which the
Preacher wrote; but let us prefer to think that
behind his words, actuating and
inspiring him, was a true spirit of faith in
God and in Divine providence;
let us take him to mean — what we know
to be true — that, in spite of
all evidence to the contrary, a wise and loyal-
hearted man will hold that there
is much that is worth pursuing and
possessing in the simple
pleasures, in the daily duties, and in the ordinary
services which are open to us
all.
Ø
Daily God invites us
to eat and drink, to partake of the bounties of His
hand; let us appreciate His
benefits with moderation and gratitude.
Ø
Daily He bids us go
forth to “our work and to our labor until the
evening;” let us enter upon it and carry it out in the spirit of
conscientiousness and fidelity
toward both God and man (Colossians
3:23).
Ø
Daily God gives us the means of getting good to ourselves
and
doing
good to others; let us eagerly embrace our opportunity, let us gladly
avail
ourselves of our privilege; so
doing we shall make our life peaceful,
happy, worthy.
Ø
In the light that
shines into our hearts from the truth of Christ we judge:
o
That these lesser
things — pleasure, activity, acquisition — are well in
their way and in their measure.
“Bodily
exercise profiteth a little, but
godliness is
profitable unto all things having promise of the life that
now is and of that
is to come..” (I Timothy 4:8) But:
o
That human life has
possibilities and obligations which immeasurably
transcend these things; such, that to put these into the front rank and
to fill our life
with them is a fatal error. Made subordinate to that
which is higher, they take their
place and they render their service —
a place and a service not to be
despised; but made primary and
supreme, they are
usurpers that do untold injury, and
that must
be relentlessly dethroned
The Darkness of the
Grave (vs. 18-22)
In these words our author reaches the very lowest depth of
misery and
despair. His observation of the facts of human life leads him to
the
humiliating conclusion that it is almost hopeless to assign to man a
higher
nature and a more noble destiny than those which belong to the
beasts that
perish. The moral inequalities of the world, the injustice that
goes
unpunished, the hopes by which men are deluded, the uncertainty of
life,
the
doubtfulness of immortality, seem to justify the assertion “that a man
hath no pre-eminence over a beast.” The special point of comparison on
which he dwells is the common mortality of both. Man and beast
are
possessed of bodies composed of the same elements, nourished by the
same food, liable to the same accidents, and destined to return to the
kindred dust from which they sprang. Both are ignorant of the period of
life
assigned to them; a moment before the stroke of death falls on them
they
may be unconscious that evil is at hand, and when they realize the fact
they
are equally powerless to avert it. What there
is in common between
them is manifest to all, while the evidence to be . adduced
in favor of the
superiority of man is, from its very nature, less convincing. The
spiritually
minded will attach
great weight to arguments against which the natural
reason may draw up plausible objections. Let us, then, see the case stated
at
its very worst, and consider if there are any redeeming circumstances
which are calculated to relieve the gloom which a cursory
reading of the
words calls up.
·
The first statement is that MEN, LIKE BEASTS,
ARE CREATURES
OF ACCIDENT. (v. 19a.) Not that they are both the results of blind
chance; but that, “being conditioned by circumstances over which
there can
be no control, they are subject, in respect to their whole
being, actions, and
sufferings, as far as mere human observation can extend, to the law
of
chance, and are alike destined to undergo the same fate, i.e.
death”
(Wright). A parallel to the thought of this verse is to be found in
the very
striking words of Solon to Croesus
(Herodotus, 1:32), “Man is altogether
a chance;” and in Psalm 49:14, 20, “Like sheep they are laid in the
grave...... Man that is in honor, and understandeth
not, is like the beasts that
perish.”
·
The second statement is that As IS THE DEATH OF THE
ONE, SO
IS THE DEATH OF THE OTHER (v. 19b), for in both is the breath of
life, and this departs from them in like manner. So that any
superiority on
the part of man over the beast is incredible in the face of
this fact, that
death annuls distinctions between them. One resting-place
receives them all
at last — the earth from which they sprang (v. 20). A belief in the
immortality of the soul of man would at once have relieved the
gloom, and
convinced the Preacher that the humiliating comparison he institutes
only
reaches to a certain point, and is based upon the external
accidents of
human life, and that the true dignity
and value of human nature remain
unaffected by the mortality of the corporeal part of our being. “Put aside
the belief in the prolongation of existence after death, that
what has been
begun here may be completed, and what has gone wrong here may be
set
right, and man is but a more highly organized animal, the ‘cunningest of
nature’s clocks,’ and the high words which men speak as to his
greatness
are found hollow. They too are ‘vanity.’ He differs from
the brutes around
him only, or chiefly, in having, what they have not, the
burden of
unsatisfied desires, the longing after an eternity which after all is
denied
him” (Plumptre).
·
The third statement is the saddest of all — that of
THE
UNCERTAINTY OF KNOWLEDGE AS TO WHETHER, AFTER ALL,
THERE IS THIS HIGHER ELEMENT IN HUMAN NATURE — “a
spirit that at death goeth upward” — or whether the living principles of
both man and beast perish when their bodies are laid in the
dust (. 21).
It is quite fruitless to deny
that it is a skeptical question that is asked — If
the spirit of the beast goeth
downward to the earth, who knows that that of
man goeth upward? Attempts have been
made to obliterate the skepticism
of the passage, as may be seen in the Massoretic
punctuation followed in
the Authorized Version of our English Bible, but departed from
in the
Revised Version, “Who knoweth the spirit of mall that. goeth upward,”
etc.? as though an ascent of the spirit
to a higher life were affirmed. The
rendering of the four principal versions, and of all the best
critics,
convinces us that it is indeed a skeptical question as to the
immortality of
the soul that is here asked. A very similar passage is found
in the great
poem of Lucretius (1. 113-116) —
“We know
not what the nature of the soul,
Or born or
entering into men at birth,
Or whether
with our frame it perisheth,
Or treads the gloom and regions vast of death.”
It is to be noted, however, about
both the question of the Preacher and the
words of the heathen poet, that they do not contain a denial of
immortality,
but a longing after more knowledge resting on sufficient
grounds. Sad and
depressing as uncertainty on such a point is to a sensitive mind, a
denial of
immortality would be infinitely worse; it would mean the death of all hope.
The very suggestion of a higher
life for man, after “this mortal coil has
been shuffled off,” than for the beast implies that, far from
denying the
immortality of the soul, the writer seeks fur adequate ground on which
to
hold it. Arguments in favor of the doctrine of immortality were
not wanting
to the Preacher. He has just spoken of the desiderium aeternitatis
implanted in the heart of man (v. 11), which, like the instincts of
the
lower creation, is given by the Creator for our guidance, and
not to
tantalize and deceive us. The inequalities and evils of the present
life render
a final judgment in a world beyond the grave a moral
necessity
(ch.
12:14). But still these are, after all, but indirect arguments, which have
not the weight of positive demonstration. It is only faith
that can return any
certain reply to his doubting question; its weight, thrown into
the balance,
inclines it to the hopeful side. And this happy conclusion he
reached at last,
as he distinctly affirms in ibid. v.7, “Then shall the dust return to the earth
as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God. who gave it.” That
the Preacher
should ever have doubted this great truth, and
spoken as though no certainty
concerning it were within the reach of man, need
not surprise us. In the
revelation given to the Jewish people, the doctrine
of rewards and punishments
in a future state was not set forth. The
rewards and punishments for obedience to
the Law, and for
transgressions against it, were all temporal. Almost nothing
was communicated touching the existence of the soul after
death. In the
passage quoted by Christ in the Gospels, for the confutation of
the
Sadducees, who denied the
resurrection, the doctrine of immortality is
implied rather than stated (Matthew 22:23-32). And in a matter so
far
beyond the power of the human intellect to search out, the
absence of a
word of revelation rendered the darkness doubly obscure. It is,
however,
utterly monstrous for any of us now who believe in Christ to ask
the
question, “Who knoweth the
spirit of man, whether it goeth upward?” The
revelation given us by Him is full of light on this point. “He hath brought
life and immortality to light through the gospel” (II Timothy 1:10). His
own resurrection from the dead, and ascension to heaven is the
proof of a
life beyond the grave, and a pledge to all who believe in Him of
a future and
an everlasting life. It
was not wonderful that the Preacher, in the then stage
of religious knowledge, should have spoken as he does here;
but nothing
could justify us, to whom so much fresh light has been given, in
using his
words, as though we were in the same condition with him.
·
The fourth and concluding statement is, strangely
enough, that since
we know not what will come after death, A CHEERFUL ENJOYMENT
OF THE PRESENT is the best course one can take. This
is the third time
he has given this counsel (ch.
2:24; 3:12-13). A calm and
happy life, healthy labor, and tranquil enjoyment, are to be
valued and
token advantage of to the full. It is an Epicureanism of a spiritual cast that
he commends, and not the coarse and degraded animalism of
those who
say, “Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we
die.” He recognizes the good
gifts of the present as a “portion” given by God, and says — Rejoice in
them, though the future be all unknown. The very gloom out of which his
words spring give a dignity to them. “We feel that we are in the
presence
of one who has the germ given him of some courage,
equanimity, and
calmness, which may grow into other and better things. His spirit
is torn
by, suffers with, all the pangs that beset the inquiring
human heart. He feels
for all the woes of humanity; cannot put them by, and
fly to the wine-cup
and crown himself with garlands.
He has hated life, yet he will not lose his
courage. ‘Be of good cheer,’ he says, even in his dark hour; ‘work
on, and
enjoy the fruits of work; it is thy portion. Do not curse God
and die’”
(Bradley). His words are not, as
they might seem. at first, frivolous and
heartless. It is a calm and peaceful happiness, a life of honest
endeavor and
of single-hearted enjoyment of innocent pleasures, that he
commends; and,
after all, it is only by genuine faith in God that such a life is
possible — a
faith that enables one to rise above all that is dark and
mysterious and
perplexing in the world about us.
Are Men No
Better than Beasts? (vs. 19-22)
·
BOTH ALIKE EMANATE FROM THE SOIL. “All are of the dust”
(v. 20). This the first argument
in support of the monstrous proposition
that man hath no pre-eminence
above a beast.
Ø
The measure of truth it contains. In so far as it
asserts that man,
considered as to his material
part, possesses a common origin with the
beasts that perish, that both
were at first formed from the ground, and are
so allied to the soil that,
besides emerging from it, they are every day
supported by it and will eventually
return to it, being both resolved into
indistinguishable dust, it
accords exactly with the teaching of Scripture
(Genesis 1:24; 2:7), science,
and experience. Compare the language of
Arnobius, “Wherein do we differ from them? Our bones are of the
same
materials; our origin is not
more noble than theirs” (‘Ad Genies,’ 2:16).
Ø
The amount of error it conceals. It overlooks the
facts that, again
according to Scripture (Genesis
1:27; 2:7; 9:6), man was created in the
Divine image, which is never
said of the lower creatures; was endowed
with intelligence far surpassing
that of the creatures (Job 32:8); and so
far from being placed on a level
with the lower animals, was expressly
constituted their lord (Genesis
1:28). Read in this connection
Shakespeare’s “What a piece of
work is man!” etc. (‘Hamlet,’ act 2. sc. 2).
Moreover, it ignores what is
patent on every page of Scripture as well as
testified by every chapter in
human experience, viz. that God deals with
man as He does not deal with the
beasts, subjecting him as not them to
moral discipline, and accepting
of him what is never asked of them, the
tribute of freely rendered
service, inviting him as they are never invited to
enter into conscious fellowship
with Himself, punishing him as never
them for disobedience, and making of him an object of love and grace
to the extent of
devising and completing on his behalf a scheme of
salvation, as is never done or proposed to be done for them. Unless,
therefore, Scripture be set
aside as worthless, it will be impossible
to hold that in respect of
origin and nature man hath no pre-eminence
over the beasts.
·
BOTH ALIKE ARE THE SPORT OF CHANCE. “That which
befalleth the sons of men befalleth
beasts; even one thing befalleth them;”
or, “Chance are the sons of
men, chance is the beast, and one chance is to
them both” (v. 19).
Ø
The assertion under limitations may be admitted as correct. Certainly
no ground exists for the
allegation that the course of providence, whether
as it relates to man or as it
bears upon the lower animals, is a chance, a
peradventure, a haphazard. Yet
events, which in the program of the
Supreme have their fixed places
and appointed times, may seem to man to
be fortuitous, as lying
altogether beyond his calculation and not within his
expectation; and what the
present argument amounts to is that man is as
helpless before these events as
the unthinking creatures of the field are —
that they deal with him
precisely as with the boasts, sweeping down upon
him with resistless force,
falling upon him at unexpected moments, and
tossing him about with as much
indifference as they do them.
Ø
The assertion, however,
must be qualified. It follows not
from the above
concessions that man is as
helpless before unforeseen occurrences as the
beasts are. Not only can he to
some extent by foresight anticipate their
coming, which the lower
creatures cannot do, but, unlike them also, he
can protect himself against them
when they have come. To man belongs a
power not (consciously at least)
possessed by the animals, of not merely
accommodating himself to
circumstances — a capability they to some
extent share with him — but of
rising above circumstances and
compelling them to bend to him.
If to this be added that if time and
chance happen to man as to the beasts
he knows it, which they do not,
and can extract good from it,
which they cannot, it will once more
appear that ground exists for
disputing the degrading proposition
that man hath no pre-eminence
over the beasts.
·
BOTH ALIKE ARE THE PREY OF DEATH. “As the one dieth,
so
dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath” (v. 19).
Ø
Seeming correspondences between the two in the matter of
dying.
o
In both death means
the extinction of physical life and the
dissolution of the material
frame.
o
In both the mode of
dying is frequently the same,
o
The same grave
receives both when the vital spark has departed.
o
The only difference
between the two is that man commonly gets
a coffin and a funeral, a
mausoleum and a monument, whereas
the beast gets none of these luxuries.
Ø
Obvious discrepancies between the two in respect of dying.
o
Man living knows that
he must die (ch. 9:5), which the
beast does not.
o
Man has the choice and
power, if he accepts the provisions of
grace, of meeting death without a fear.
o
Even if he does not,
there is something nobler in the spectacle of
a man going forth with eyes open
to the dread conflict with the
king of terrors, than in that of
a brute expiring in unconscious
stupidity.
o
If one thinks of him
dying, as he often does die, like a Christian,
it will be seen more absurd than
ever to assert that a man hath no
pre-eminence over a beast.
·
BOTH, DYING, PASS BEYOND THE SPHERE OF HUMAN
KNOWLEDGE, “Who knoweth the spirit of man, whether it goeth
upward? and the
spirit of the beast, whether it goeth downward to the
earth?” (v. 21).
Ø
Admitted so far as scientific knowledge is concerned. The agnostics of
the Preacher’s day, like those
of modern times, could not say what
became of a man’s spirit, if he
had one (of which they were not sure),
after it had escaped from his
body, any more than they could tell where
a beast’s — and the beast was as
likely to have a spirit as the man — went
to after its carcass sank into
the soil. Whether it was the man’s that went
upward and the beast’s downward,
or vice versa, lay outside their ken.
Their scientific apparatus did
not enable them to report, as the scientific
apparatus of the twenty-first
century does not enable it to report, upon
the post-mundane career of
either beast or man; and so they assumed
the position from which the
agnostics of today have not departed, that
it is all one with the man and
the beast when the grave hides them,
and that a man hath no
preeminence over a beast.
Ø
Denied so far as religious knowledge is concerned. Refusing to hold
that the anatomist’s scalpel, or
chemist’s retort, or astronomer’s telescope,
or analyst’s microscope are the
ultimate tests of truth, and that nothing is
to be credited which cannot be
detected by one or other of these
instruments (thus the
foolishness of man in trusting to instruments and
his ill-use of intelligence in
his ungodly rationale - CY - 2021), we are
not so hopelessly in the dark
about man’s spirit when it leaves its
earthly tabernacle as are
agnostics whether ancient or modern.
On the high testimony of this
Preacher (ch. 12:7), on the
higher witness of Paul (II
Corinthians 5:1; Philippians 1:23), and on
the highest evidence attainable on the subject (II Timothy 1:10), we
know that when the spirit of a
child of God forsakes the body it does not
disperse into thin air, but
passes up into the Father’s hand (Luke 23:46),
and that when a good man disappears from earth he forthwith
appears in heaven (ibid. v.43;
Philippians 1:23), amid the spirits of the
just made
perfect (Hebrews 12:23); so that another time we decline to
endorse the sentiment that man
hath no pre-eminence over a beast.
·
BOTH ALIKE, PASSING FROM THE EARTH, NEVER MORE
RETURN. “Who
shall bring him back to see
that which shall be after him?”
(v. 29). Accepting this as the
correct rendering of the words (for other
interpretations consult the
Exposition):
Ø
It may be granted that no human power can recall man from the grave
any more than it can reanimate
the beast; that the realm beyond the
tomb, so far as the senses are
concerned, is “an undiscovered country, from
whose boundary no traveler
returns.”
Ø
It is contended that nevertheless there is a power which can and
ultimately will despoil the
grave of its human victims, and that man will
eventually come back to dwell,
if not upon the old soil and beneath the
old sky, at least beneath a new heavens and
upon a new earth,
WHEREIN DWELLETH RIGHTEOUSNESS. (II Peter 3:13)
·
LESSONS.
1. The dignity of
man.
2. The solemnity of
life.
3. The certainty of
death.
The Earthly
Portion (v. 22)
When a man is, perhaps suddenly, awakened to a sense of the
transitoriness
of life and the vanity of human pursuits, what more natural
than that, under
the influence of novel conceptions and convictions, he should
rush from a
career of self-indulgence into the opposite extreme? Life
is brief: why
concern one’s self with its affairs? Sense-experiences are
changeable and
perishable: why not neglect and despise them? Earth will soon
vanish: why
endeavor to
accommodate ourselves to its conditions? But
subsequent
reflection convinces us that such practical inferences are
unjust. Because
this earth and this life are not everything, it does not
follow that they are
nothing. Because they cannot satisfy us, it does not follow
that we should
not use them.
·
IT IS POSSIBLE TO LIMIT OUR VIEW OF THIS EARTHLY LIFE
UNTIL IT LOSES ITS INTEREST FOR US.
Ø
Man’s works, to the
observant and reflecting mind, are perishable and
poor.
Ø
Man’s joys are often
both superficial and transitory.
Ø
The future of human
existence and progress upon earth is utterly
uncertain, and, if it could be
foreseen, would probably occasion bitter
disappointment.
·
IT IS UNWISE AND UNSATISFACTORY SO TO LIMIT OUR
VIEW OF LIFE. There is
true wisdom in the wise man’s declaration,
“There is nothing
better than that a man should rejoice in his works; for
that is his
portion.” The epicurean is wrong who
makes pleasure his one
aim. The cynic is wrong who
despises pleasure as something beneath the
dignity of his nature. Neither
work nor enjoyment is the whole of life; for
life is not to be understood save in relation to spiritual
and disciplinary
purposes. Man has for
a season a bodily nature; let him use that nature
with discretion, and it may prove
organic to his moral welfare. Man is for a
season stationed upon earth; let
him fulfill earth’s duties, and taste earth’s
delights. Earthly experience may
be a stage towards heavenly service and
bliss.
“Also He hath set eternity” (marginal reading, Revised Version) “in their heart.”
We are made to look far beyond the boundary of the visible and the present. The
idea of “the eternal” may help us in two ways.
o That we are created for the unseen and the eternal accounts for the fact
that nothing
which is earthly and sensible WILL SATISFY
OUR
SOULS! Nothing of that order ought to do so; and it would put the seal
upon our degradation if it did so. Our unsatisfiable spirit is the signature
of our manhood and the prophecy of our immortality.
o The inclusion of the future in our reasoning makes all the difference to
our thought. Admit only the passing time, this brief and uncertain life,
and much that happens is
inexplicable and distressing indeed (“If in this
life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”
I Corinthians 15:19); but include the future, add “eternity” to the
account, and the “crooked is made straight,” THE
PERPLEXITY
IS GONE!
What about the skeptic? The epicure who has lost his faith in God says,
“Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die.” There is no sacredness in the
present, and no solid hope for the future. What is the use of aiming at a high ideal?
Why waste breath and strength on duty, on aspiration, on piety? Why attempt to
rise to the pursuit of the eternal and the Divine? Better
lose ourselves in that which is
at hand, in that which we can grasp as a present certainty. The best thing,
the only certain good, is to eat and drink and to labor; is to minister to our
senses, and to work upon the material which is visible to our eye and
responsive to our touch. So speaks the skeptic; this is his miserable
conclusion; thus he owns himself defeated and (we may say) dishonored.
For what is human life worth when the element of sacredness is expunged,
when piety and hope are left out of it? It is no wonder that the ages of
unbelief have been the times when men have had no regard for other
people’s dues, and very little for their own.
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