Category: <span>Ecclesiastes</span>

The book of Ecclesiastes is a particular and focused argument. The teacher was rich in good will, desiring his audience to enjoy life to the full. How can one have such an experience? The teacher proposed that, in light of the cursed situation of life “under the sun,” only by fearing God could one find satisfaction in human existence. “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth” (Eccl 12:1), he said. In Ecclesiastes 12, the teacher concluded his lesson by providing both emotional and logical appeals to his proposition. In light of the sadness of failing health that will come upon everyone (Eccl 12:1-8)—and that in the end “everything is futility” (Eccl 12:8)—the teacher exhorted his audience to fear God and keep His commands. “For God will bring every act to judgment,” he said, “including every hidden thing, whether good or evil” (Eccl 12:13-14).

As the storyline of Scripture develops, it becomes clear that final judgement rests upon the merits of Jesus Christ. The teacher’s framework of the relationship between eternal judgement and present lifestyle are cast in reference to Jesus. The Gospel of John and the Epistle of 1 John note:

(1) Jesus has a dual nature of deity and humanity. John began his Gospel by describing Jesus’ divine nature and role in creation (John 1:1-4). And, in time, the Word took up flesh, John said, and dwelt among humanity to reveal God’s glory on earth (John 1:14-18). Jesus’ messages and miracles in the Gospel of John demonstrated His deity. He had come from God and was returning to God. After Jesus’ resurrection, He told Mary that He was ascending to His Father (John 20:17). John said that anyone who denied that Jesus is the Messiah is a liar (1 John 2:22) affected by the spirit of the antichrist (1 John 4:2-3).

(2) As the God-man, Jesus bore the sin of humanity. When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to him, he proclaimed, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). In 1 John 2:1, John wrote, “My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous One. He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.” Jesus’ propitiatory sacrifice demonstrated God’s love (1 John 4:10).

(3) God has given all judgement to the Son and confirms the Son’s judgement. As the God-man who died to atone for the sins of humanity, Jesus is able to judge humankind in perfect righteousness. Jesus said that He did nothing on His own but acted only in full accord with the Father, with the result that the Father could entrust all judgement to the Son (John 5:22, 27-30). Jesus’ judicial activity differed from the Jewish leadership that condemned Him because they operated by human standards whereas His verdicts revealed God (John 8:16, 25-26). When the Pharisees condemned Jesus for His Sabbath-day healing the man born blind, Jesus retorted, “I came into this world for judgment, in order that those who do not see will see and those who do see will become blind” (John 9:39). After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, a voice from heaven confirmed that God was glorified in Jesus, and Jesus followed up by saying, “Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out” (John 12:31). Jesus said that He did not come to condemn the world in judgement but to save the world (John 12:47). Jesus’ verbal testimony in the Gospel of John would condemn all who do not believe in Him (John 12:48-50).

(4) Those confident of forgiveness in Jesus must love God and God’s people. In Ecclesiastes, the teacher urged his audience to live now in such a way that they would not be condemned at the judgement. Jesus and John note the connection between eternal judgement and present lifestyle, but reverse the motivational force. In the Gospel of John and 1 John, one’s lifestyle reflects assurance in their relationship with God, confidence of what will take place at the final judgement. John introduced Jesus as the light of humanity shining in the darkness (John 1:4-5) and employed the light/darkness antithesis as a metaphor for behavior. Unsure of Jesus’ nature, Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, while it was dark (John 3:2). In John 9 when Jesus’ disciples asked Him if the blind man’s condition was the result of personal sin or that of the blind man’s parents, Jesus replied that it was so that He could demonstrate God’s works. Jesus said, “We must do the works of Him who sent Me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:4-5). John noted that when Judas betrayed Jesus, it was night (John 13:30). John wrote that since God is light (1 John 1:5), those who walk in the light have fellowship with one another (1 John 1:7). Those proclaiming that they are in the light but go on hating their brothers are in darkness (1 John 2:9-10).

In Ecclesiastes, the teacher argued that because sin had so devastated life “under the sun,” or “under heaven,” satisfaction in the daily grind is reserved for those who fear God. The teacher saw all the acts of oppression being done “under the sun” (Eccl 4:1), and concluded that sin had so spoiled any hope of satisfaction apart from God that if one did not fear God, it would be better if they had never been born (Eccl 4:2-3).

The teacher recognized that those who do not fear God will not be satisfied by wealth (Eccl 4:4-16). Conversely, he wrote, “It is appropriate to eat, drink, and experience good in all the labor one does under the sun during the few days of his life God has given him, because that is his reward” (Eccl 5:18). Only those who fear God can interpret the extremes of life and enjoy a sense of balance in it (Eccl 7:15-22), he argued. The teacher proposed that fearing God served to protect one from the excesses that entrap those who live in a sinful world. The teacher concluded that in light of the immanence of death, one should fear God and enjoy life (Eccl 9:1-18).

The teacher’s statement that one should exercise self-control when approaching God’s throne, because “God is in heaven and you are on earth” (Eccl 5:2), gets to the heart of his argument. He understood that life “under the sun” is lived in a dominion of futility and spiritual imperfection. The argument of Ecclesiastes is a product of its age—the long period of preparation for the days of the Messiah, fulfillment, spiritual perfection. The thrust of the storyline of Scripture is that something new has arrived in Jesus, a new situation, the formation of a new people with new resources and new access to God. Jesus’ death and resurrection marked a fundamental turning in salvation history, when the effects of the fall of Adam and Eve would no longer dominate life “under the sun” for all who believe in Him. The author of Hebrews sought to fortify his audience as they endured the opposition of those whose hearts were set fully on life “under the sun,” those who did not fear God. The audience of Hebrews endured persecution that included everything from confiscation of property to imprisonment (Heb 10:32-34; 12:1-2; 13:3). Life “under the sun” was difficult for them not just because of the on-going effects of sin in the natural world but also more acutely because of their profession of Christ. But the audience of Hebrews had resources for endurance and satisfaction that the teacher in Ecclesiastes knew nothing of. The author of Hebrews reminded his audience of their:

(1) Access to God through Christ. In Hebrews, Jesus is presented as the great high priest who has fully identified with humanity in His suffering and death and has subsequently passed through the heavens into God’s presence as a sympathetic mediator. “Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness,” the author exhorted his readers, “so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time” (Heb 4:16). Jesus, the author wrote, has passed through the heavens to be exalted as the Son perfected forever (Heb 7:26-28). Jesus’ self-offering has opened the way for all who believe in Him to come boldly to God. “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,” the author wrote, “our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb 10:22).

(2) Fellowship with one another in Christ. The author of Hebrews described Christian fellowship as a potent force for Christian endurance “under the sun.” The author encouraged the congregation to encourage each other daily so that none would fall prey to discouragement and hardness of heart (Heb 3:12-13; 12:14-17). “Let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, not staying away from our meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Heb 10:24-25), he said.

On first glance, the author of Ecclesiastes appears to be a frustrated soul, but the book of Ecclesiastes presents theology in the context of a sin-cursed world. Life is futile, the teacher argued, apart from fearing God—the God of all human experience. Because life is lived, “under the sun,” (a phrase which occurs twenty-nine times in Ecclesiastes), in an age when the effects of sin are seen in both animate and inanimate spheres of creation, those that attempt to gratify themselves apart from God will be frustrated. In the worldview of the author of Ecclesiastes, humanity functions from desire—and even when fulfilled, humanity’s highest desires only leave them empty if they do not fear God. Thus, the teacher of Ecclesiastes said, “When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is: fear God and keep His commands, because this is for all humanity. For God will bring every act to judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil” (Eccl 12:13-14).

The teacher began by reflecting on the repetitive cycle of life, concluding that since there is no permanence in humanity or nature, everything is vain (Eccl 1:1-11). In Eccl 1:12-2:26, the teacher proceeded to analyze the specific avenues of life one may follow in order to find fulfillment. But wisdom (Eccl 1:12-18; 2:12-17), pleasure (Eccl 2:1-3), possessions (Eccl 2:4-11), and skillful labor (Eccl 2:18-26) he found meaningless apart from God. In Ecclesiastes 3, the teacher proposed that since God is sovereign over the limitations of life “under heaven” (Eccl 3:1), only by fearing God can one find fulfillment in the routine experiences of food, drink, and work (Eccl 3:9-15).

The teacher of Ecclesiastes had a singular argument: satisfaction in a sin-cursed world is reserved for those who fear God. In the argument of the storyline of Scripture, “fearing God” involves trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ—living under His Lordship—by the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul expressed the logic of Ecclesiastes when he exhorted the Corinthians to stop seeking worldly satisfaction and embrace God’s wisdom in Christ and the Spirit. Paul wrote:

(1) God displayed His wisdom in Christ’s crucifixion, contra worldly concepts of wisdom (1 Cor 1:18-25). In Paul’s day, criminals and runaway slaves were crucified. The watching world labeled Jesus’ death on the cross as foolishness; for no reason would a divine being allow Himself to suffer crucifixion. For Paul, Christ’s cross was the centerpiece of Christianity, reminding all who would follow Christ that worldly categories of thought would have to be set aside in order to walk in step with God’s wisdom.

(2) God freely gives His wisdom by the Spirit (1 Cor 2:6-16). In order to censure the divisive spirit that had arisen in the Corinthian church, Paul described God’s generous provision of His Spirit and wisdom. The Corinthians were aligning themselves behind various leaders in the church, thinking that certain leaders could give more spiritual insight than others (1 Cor 1:10-13; 4:6-13). Paul would have none of it. The apostle wrote that God’s Spirit supplies wisdom and God has given His Spirit to all believers. Paul said that as an apostle, he spoke only what was of the Spirit (1 Cor 2:13) and that only those of the Spirit could understand his message of Christ crucified (1 Cor 2:1-5, 14-15). “We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, in order to know what has been freely given to us by God,” Paul wrote (1 Cor 2:12). The Corinthians thus had no need for super-spiritual teachers to guide them in God’s ways. In fact, Paul urged the congregation to reject such a view of leadership (1 Cor 3:5-4:5).