one thing I’m learning about the way Solomon thinks and presents his outlook on life, is that he leans more pessimistic (or possibly realist). This has been a challenge for me, because I am an optimist by nature. When I make an argument, I find it more natural to outline all of the positive points first, and then speak to the critical objections. Solomon does the opposite, and I’m finding it very effective. What Solomon does, is he’ll lay out a thesis statement, and then state all the problems with it first, but by the end, he’ll convince you that what he originally said is the only viable way forward, through all the trouble that may be. This isn’t a bad way to think. If you’re an optimist, and you think life is going to be all rosy, when you slam into the reality of life, you may be likely to give up. But if you’re a pessimist, or at least a realist, and you’ve gone into an endeavour with a realistic understand of all that can go wrong, then when you hit a wall, you’d more likely perhaps to be more like, “yep, I knew I’d hit you sometime.”
So let’s make a ledger this morning, a pros and cons list, and debate Solomon’s proposal: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might” - Now you might paraphrase this to suit your own needs: “Why should I work hard?”, “Why get myself out of bed this morning?”
How do you respond to the difficult perplexities of life? What do I mean by the difficult perplexities of life? Well, Ecclesiastes has been full of them: In the previous chapters Solomon has taken us on a tour of our dissatisfaction with our possessions and our inability to derive lasting happiness from the things that we own, the seemingly absurd proposition that days of adversity and death are as much from God’s hands as days of merriment, the reality of our human condition so that none of us are absolutely righteous or wise, and the frustration of having to submit to authorities over us with whom we disagree. However, Perhaps the most bewildering and discouraging reality we face in life is addressed in 8:14:
Eccl. 8:14 There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.
How do you respond when you are faced with injustice or adversity or silence from God? or any of the other miriad of ways that God’s ways confuse us, disappoint us, perplex us?
In chapter 8:15-9:10, Solomon gives his answer. This is the heart of the positive instruction in the book. This is the absolute climax of Solomon’s argument, his thesis of how we are to respond to the hebel of life. He’s alluded to this answer a number of times already in the book, but here he unpacks it for us. And you might be surprised by his answer. His answer is not to give up, or to walk out, or to suffer anxiety, or to try to change the difficult perplexities of life. No. Here is his answer:
15 And I [therefore] commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.
I commend joy. Three words. I commend joy. How are we to respond to the difficult perplexities of life? Solomon carefully weighs all the options and comes out with this: I commend joy.
The section we are looking at today, is by far what Ecclesiastes is best known for - the preacher’s personal search for meaning and value in this world. It is such a pivotal and provocative section that some interpreters of Ecclesiastes never get beyond it and interpret the entire book through the themes of this chapter. I don’t go that far, but I will say personally, that the argument and the experience set forth in this chapter are convincing to me, so convincing to me that it has carried me through my own seasons of doubt or times in which I have been tempted to give up my faith.
