In chapters 1 and 2, the skeptical and pessimistic Solomon presents four arguments that seem to prove how life is not worth living. Those four arguments are the monotony of life (which we talked about some last week), the vanity of wisdom (1:12-18, 2:12-17), the futility of wealth (2:1-11), and the certainty of death (2:12-23).
As we've learned, many of Solomon's perspectives in this book are from a hopelessness posture and lack an eternal lens. In chapter 2, Solomon "tests life" by chasing after everyday life experiences, particularly in enjoyment and employment.
The Vanity of Self-Indulgence
1 I said in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself." But behold, this also was vanity. 2 I said of laughter, "It is mad," and of pleasure, "What use is it?" 3 I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. 4 I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5 I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. 7 I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. 8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man.
9 So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. 11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
I thought about Jeremiah 17:9 (KJV) immediately when I read verse 1 in this chapter: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" While God created our hearts to experience emotion, those emotions do not have intellect. I like to say it like this: your feelings may be real, but they aren't always true. Like everyone else, I have days when I'm grumpy and need a nap (which my eldest son reminds me of occasionally). Do I feel grumpy? Yes, sometimes. Does that mean I am meant to live a grumpy life? Nope. Why is that? Because God's Word teaches us that we are to live by His Spirit (Galatians 5) and have an attitude of Christ (Matthew 5). We must align our thoughts and feelings to the Word of God, friends. When we fail to do that, we live a life of relativity instead a life of absolute Truth.
"We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete." 2 Corinthians 10:5-6
In this section, Solomon tested life by doing whatever his heart desired. Rightly so, the Hebrew people believed God made man so he could enjoy the blessings of His creation. Therefore, Solomon went on an "enjoyment" binge. Specifically, he references wine and laughter. [This isn't a study about whether it's okay to drink alcohol or enjoy entertainment. If you want guidance around that, I will encourage you to read 1 Corinthians chapter 10, and specifically verse 23: "I have the right to do anything--but not everything is constructive."]
You don't need me to tell you how pleasure-ridden this world is. We are bucket-list people. There's nothing wrong with having a bucket list or buying experiences. In fact, with balance, certain experiences are wise to enjoy, so you don't fall prey to being myopic and self-centered in understanding the world. However, we must realize that pleasure-seeking usually becomes a selfish endeavor, and selfishness ruins real joy (Wiersbe).
Like we learned in chapter 1, the "vanity" word in Hebrew is hebel. Hebel means emptiness, vanity, or something unsatisfactory. And, Solomon found that enjoyment was hebel. For example, the more that people drink, the less fun they get out of it. The power of the pleasure must increase for the result to increase. Yet, the sad consequence is desire without satisfaction.
As Warren Wiersbe puts it, "Pleasure alone can never bring satisfaction: it appeals to only part of the person and ignores the total being."
I have to be super cautious of what I watch on Netflix, read in a magazine or book, or follow on social media. A friend shared with me Saturday night at dinner something she learned at a recent (virtual) women's conference. It was from Genesis 3 and how Satan offered Eve a different identity in the Garden of Eden. She had the perfect home, the perfect husband, and the perfect garden. Yet, Satan offered Eve an alternative identity in Genesis 3:5. He cunningly said, "For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Satan wants to offer you any identity but Christ's, beloved.
Many pleasures of this world help us temporarily escape life. I'm still learning how to avoid escapism, primarily when I lay my head down at night after fighting battles in this broken world. I often want to let my tired mind wander into other realities and ruminate on a "perfect" life to help medicate the harshness and imperfections I feel from this life.
That being said, I'm learning to cry out to God and run to my Refuge (Psalm 46) instead of escaping to my makeshift realities. Today is my calling. It is harmful to compare my circumstances to another or pretend them in my mind to be otherwise.
TIME AND REFLECTION
In the first part of verse 10, it reads, "And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them." What are a few things that you aren't keeping (guarding) your eyes and heart from that you should? I openly shared an example above of what lurks in my darkened soul. How can you live in the Light more this week by confessing those sins and seeking reconciliation and wholeness?
The Vanity of Living Wisely
12 So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. 13 Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in Light than in darkness. 14 The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. 15 Then I said in my heart, "What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?" And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. 16 For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! 17 So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.
After his wrestling match with self-indulgence, Solomon moves on to investigate living wisely. Ironically, Solomon asked for wisdom and an understanding mind to govern God's people (1 Kings 3:1-15). Of course, this was young Solomon in 1 Kings, and now we hear from the older Solomon. Maybe Solomon's best ask of God shouldn't have been for wisdom, and instead, to ask for a heart like God's. For when we seek first His Kingdom, everything else falls into place.
Even though Solomon knows wisdom is better than folly, he still finds it hebel. Wisdom is a mixed blessing. While we may know and understand more, it becomes more complex and even more complicated to fix. For example, there is a great deal of social unrest around ethnic equality and equity. The more I grow in Godly empathy, compassion, and understanding around the current situations (and, not via the usual media channels), the more complex the worldly solutions becomes. Jesus, only Jesus is the answer. Change starts in the heart, in the home, and in the church.
TIME AND REFLECTION
Solomon says in verse 17 that he "hated life." This was not Solomon contemplating suicide. However, life seemed irrational and futile. The healthy Christian believer should read and live out 1 Peter 3:10, which says, "Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit." We may not enjoy everything in life, but what are some attitudes in your heart that need to be redeemed by God? How can you take that first step of allowing God to plow and work your heart's soil?
The Vanity of Toil
18 I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, 19 and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. 20 So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, 21 because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. 22 What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? 23 For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.
24 There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26 For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
Activity alone does not bring lasting pleasure. In verse 4-6, Solomon talks explicitly about his work and his toil as an architect, a botanist, a builder—in search for hope and meaning. While there can be joy in doing great things and delights in the work, the aftermath can leave one feeling empty inside. Work is a blessing, and God was clear on that in Genesis 2. However, work alone cannot satisfy us.
"The overachiever is often a person who is trying to escape himself or herself by becoming a workaholic, and this only results in disappointment." Warren Wiersbe
Notice verses 24-26 again: Solomon was no atheist. Skeptical? You bet. Pessimistic? For sure. However, Solomon's conclusion is that enjoyment is to be viewed as a gift from God's hand, granted to the one who pleases Him.
I'm reminded of Ephesians 5:16 (KJV) that says, "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." Solomon saw the world as meaningless, evil, hurtful, frustrating, disappointing, and increasing in sorrow. All those things are real. We live in a broken, sinful world. Yet, we are given a powerful gift of redemption through Christ Jesus. And, just like God commanded Adam and Eve (pre-fall), we are to view work as a blessing. The time you spend here as a believer is meant to be a redemptive work. Redeem your time. Redeem your chores. Redeem your life. Not because you are personally able, but because Christ lives within you (Romans 8), and you have God's enabling power of redemption indwelling you. Let that be the truth that you speak to your deceitfully wicked heart.
TIME AND REFLECTION
In The Works of August Toplady, Volume 4, he writes:
"In a long sunshine of outward prosperity, the dust of our inward corruptions is apt to fly about and lift itself up. Sanctified affliction, like seasonable rain, lays the dust, and softens the soul, and keeps us from carrying our heads too high."
What are some ways in which the Lord has allowed affliction to come into your life? How might you be able to take an eternal perspective of this and see God's hand of work, despite the pain?