A six-week study of the Hebrew wisdom book of Qohelet, which we Christians usually call Ecclesiastes. Once again it’ll be at 9
We’re at chapter 6 of Ecclesiastes, in which Qohelet talks about people who are rich but not happy. He’s been rich himself, so he knows a lot about that, and no doubt he’s known rich people just like this.
1 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy upon humankind: 2 those to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that they lack nothing of all that they desire, yet God does not enable them to enjoy these things, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous ill.
This isn’t necessarily because they die and the stranger inherits them, as we’ll see in the rest of this passage. It’s because the stranger enjoys them regardless of not owning them.
Certain verses in the scriptures, Ecclesiastes included, get interpreted as if they support determinism, the popular belief that our actions and decisions aren’t actually made by us ourselves, but come as the inevitable result of a long chain of events, set into motion long, long ago by a first cause. Christian determinists (and Jewish determinists, and Muslim determinists) figure the first cause was God; Hindus figure it was the universe; atheists figure it was the Big Bang; take your pick of your favorite Unmoved Mover.
The reason people see determinism in the scriptures is because we wanna. Determinism is a popular idea. People take a lot of comfort in the idea everything has a cause; everything happens for a reason; everything’s part of God’s plan; there are no accidents; there are no coincidences. Everything, they figure, now has meaning. We just don’t know the meaning. (Yet.)
But determinism is not a God-idea. Nor a Hebrew idea, Jewish idea, nor Christian idea. Not Catholic, not Protestant, not Evangelical, not Pentecostal. Determinism is a human idea. It predates Christianity. Daoism and karma are based on it. Greek philosophers like Heraclitus, Leucippus, Aristotle, and the Stoics taught it. Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius was a big fan.
Determinism predates Christianity, but got added to Christianity, and I give a lot of credit to John Calvin for that.
Skipping the introduction, let’s dive into where Qohelet looks for the meaning of life.
12 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 I applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to humans to be busy with. 14 I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun, and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.
15 What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted. 16 I said to myself, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my mind has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” 17 And I applied my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a chasing after wind.
18 For in much wisdom is much vexation, and those who increase knowledge increase sorrow.
If you know the Byrds song, you don’t need me to quote the first part of Ecclesiastes 3. If you don’t, here it is!
1 For everything [turn turn turn] there is a season, [turn turn turn] and a time for every matter under heaven…
It’s basically “There’s a time for one thing, and a time for its comparable thing.” Birth and death, planting and plucking, killing and curing, breaking and mending, weeping and laughing, bla bla bla. There’s a time for everything.
Skipping ahead a bit to 4.7:
7 Again, I saw vanity under the sun: 8 the case of solitary individuals, without sons or brothers; yet there is no end to all their toil, and their eyes are never satisfied with riches. “For whom am I toiling,” they ask, “and depriving myself of pleasure?” This also is vanity and an unhappy business.
9 Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up the other, but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help. 11 Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? 12 And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Funny thing is, you remember back in 2.18-19, when Qohelet was pointing out he was gonna leave all his hard work to his successor, and his successor might be a moron, and that’s vanity? And here he’s talking about people who don’t have a successor, and who are they working for?—and that’s vanity. There’s vanity if you have family, and vanity if you don’t. You can’t win!
All the Old Testament books which we call “poetry books”—Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon, or Canticles) are actually wisdom books. Because they’re meant to teach wisdom. Yes, even Psalms. Wanna know what God is like, and how he typically blesses his followers and deals with his rebels? The psalmists will tell you what they’ve seen God do; what they know him to be like.
Obviously Ecclesiastes is part of the bible’s wisdom genre, so I gotta talk a bit about what that genre consists of, because an awful lot of Christians misinterpret it. Myself included, for the longest time.