What Do We Do With Ecclesiastes?
Not only was the Teacher wise, but he also taught knowledge to the people; he carefully evaluated and arranged many proverbs. The Teacher sought to find delightful words, and to write accurately truthful sayings.
The words of the sages are like prods, and the collected sayings are like firmly fixed nails; they are given by one shepherd. Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them.
There is no end to the making of many books, and much study is exhausting to the body.
Having heard everything, I have reached this conclusion: Fear God and keep his commandments, because this is the whole duty of man. For God will evaluate every deed, including every secret thing, whether good or evil (Ecclesiastes 12:9-14).
Have you ever been expected to provide a satisfying word after an awkward, challenging, or difficult message was given by another? If so, you understand the predicament of the editor of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes.
By common confession, the words of the Preacher himself ended at Ecclesiastes 12:7, ending as he began in Ecclesiastes 1:2: life under the sun is hevel: all is vain, futile – truly absurd. He had compared most human endeavors toward meaning as “chasing after wind”: people pursue pleasure, wealth, wisdom, or other things looking for ultimate purpose and satisfaction and will be disappointed and frustrated by all of them. To rage against such truths is itself futile and striving after wind. God understands better than we do, and His work and ways are inscrutable to us. We all have strength for a moment; time and chance happen to us all, and no matter what, we all die.
We should not find it bothersome how Ecclesiastes has an editor. Almost all of the “wisdom literature” texts present themselves as having some kind of later compiler and/or editor: Job 1:1-3:1, 42:7-17 come from a compiler or editor who framed the discussions of Job and his friends; there is a Psalter who organized the psalms and maintained its superscriptions; Proverbs 1:1, 25:1, 30:1, and 31:1 all indicate editorial activity. The only way we might imagine Ecclesiastes would be composed without an editor would be if the author spoke as if Solomon, wrote out the discourse in his name, and then provided his own thoughts at the end in a more disinterested voice and with a big wink at the reader. But if we want to affirm Solomon as the Preacher, then we must become much more comfortable with a later, inspired compiler or editor working with material from Solomon and framing this presentation.
Yet this compiler or editor was confronted with the same material as we have considered in Ecclesiastes 1:2-12:8, and therefore also the question of what to do with what the Preacher has spoken.
The compiler/editor began his concluding remarks by commending the Preacher, identified in Ecclesiastes 1:1 as the “son of David, king over Jerusalem,” or Solomon: he was not only wise himself but also taught knowledge to the people and arranged many proverbs, seeking delightful words and truthful sayings (Ecclesiastes 12:9-10). The Kings author also testified how Solomon was reckoned as the wisest man on earth, wrote thousands of proverbs and songs, and composed treatises on plants and animals (1 Kings 4:30-34). Thus the compiler/editor attests to the authority, skill, and wisdom of Solomon, and wanted the reader to consider the Preacher’s exhortation as within the realm of Solomon’s skill and wisdom.
The compiler/editor was quite aware of the challenges and difficulties which attend to hearing and accepting what the Preacher has to say: he reminded the reader how the words of the wise are as prods and nails, and are all given by one shepherd, ostensibly God (Ecclesiastes 12:11). Prods and nails poke and can hurt; they certainly were designed to provoke and stimulate thought and changed behavior. Since the Preacher would have people radically reorient their thinking regarding what life is all about and how one can live a good life, his words certainly would prove as prods and nails for many people. The compiler/editor likewise associated the Preacher’s message as coming from God, the one shepherd of His people. Even though the message of the Preacher seemed at variance with other aspects of the wisdom tradition, its compiler/editor made his appeal for us to understand Ecclesiastes as within that wisdom tradition. We do well to look at the wisdom tradition in more dynamic than static ways: there can be arguments and disputations within the wisdom tradition, with different wise men focusing on the ideal rather than the real, or others on the real and the difficulties with making too much of the ideal, and so on. We must be careful lest we flatten out and over-dogmatize an active, living conversation and engagement in what makes wise.
The compiler/editor likewise warned “his son” about anything in addition to the wisdom tradition, and warned him regarding the never-ending making of books and the weariness of study to the body (Ecclesiastes 12:12). Ancient Near Eastern wisdom literature was all framed and presented as the instruction of a father to his son, and we should thus understand Proverbs and the compiler/editor in Ecclesiastes 12:12. The compiler/editor was rightly concerned about sources of wisdom; James the Lord’s brother would later compare and contrast worldly, demonic wisdom with heavenly, godly wisdom in James 3:13-18. No doubt the compiler/editor picked up on the Preacher’s theme of increasing knowledge as weariness in Ecclesiastes 1:18; it made significant enough impression to highlight this concern at the end. And if the compiler/editor felt the making of books had no end around 2500-3000 years ago, for how much more reason would he have to feel this way in the Internet age? Indeed, most of us would confess how there is no end to the information being shared and how we all endure information fatigue. How many of us experience many physical challenges because of how much time we spend sitting around and looking at screens? The compiler/editor’s exhortation in Ecclesiastes 12:12 proves real and enduring in our world.
The compiler/editor concluded by offering his own final observation: the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep His commandments, for God will judge every work, however exposed or hidden, as good or evil (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).
We first do well to sort out what the compiler/editor might mean by “the end of the matter, everything having been heard” in Ecclesiastes 12:13: what, precisely, is the compiler/editor imagining he is concluding?
We might naturally assume the compiler/editor was providing his conclusion to the Preacher’s message in Ecclesiastes 1:2-12:8. The Preacher affirmed the importance of honoring and revering God in Ecclesiastes 5:1-7, 7:13-14, 18, 8:12-13, and expected a day of judgment for people’s deeds in Ecclesiastes 3:17, 11:9; therefore, it is possible for the compiler/editor to pull these out and maximize them as representing what Ecclesiastes was about.
On the other hand, Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 sounds a lot like Proverbs 2:5, 9:10, and an appropriate distillation of the wisdom tradition in general. Since the compiler/editor has introduced us to Solomon’s proverbs and sayings, and commended the words of the sages and wise in general, we would not be inappropriate or wrong to conclude “everything” involves the wisdom tradition as a whole, exemplified in the Hebrew Bible in Job, (some) Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. Thus we can understand the compiler/editor as speaking not just for Ecclesiastes but for the books which have come before it: the ultimate conclusion in wisdom is to fear God and keep His commandments so it will go well with you on the day of judgment. This will remain an important theme in the new covenant between God and all mankind in Christ as well (cf. Romans 2:5-11, 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9, etc.).
But all of this still leaves us with the question: what do we do with Ecclesiastes?
As Christians we are always tempted toward the harmonizing and pious option, to consider the compiler/editor’s ultimate conclusion about the wisdom tradition as also or specifically summarizing what Ecclesiastes is about, and thus try to blunt the force of the Preacher’s substantive message by focusing on some of his finer points in discourse. Such a conclusion is canonically satisfying and comfortable because the Preacher is brought into full alignment with the core of the wisdom tradition, and we can add his voice to the testimony of the importance of giving God appropriate honor and veneration and to do His will.
The Preacher, of course, has no difficulty with the message of fearing God and the importance of doing God’s will; but that was not his main message. We often want to escape his main message because it stands so sharply in contrast with much of the rest of the witness of Scripture, and, quite frankly, how we would rather look at our lives and the world. Where we would want to invest meaning, the Preacher only saw futility. Where we exalt wisdom, the Preacher has reached its limitations and proved frustrated by them. Where we desperately want who we are and what we do to have some lasting value, the Preacher only forecast death and oblivion.
Much of what the Preacher observed will, by necessity, stand in some tension with what God has revealed in Christ through the Spirit. All is futility and absurdity to the Preacher because everyone and everything dies; in Christ we see God fully revealed as the God of the living, not the dead, and thus death is not really the end (cf. Matthew 22:31-32). Our work has everlasting meaning and importance when done in the Lord Jesus Christ who overcame the futility of the world in its subjection to sin and death (cf. Matthew 6:19-21, 1 Corinthians 15:51-58). “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die” becomes the mantra of the epicurean, one whose “hope” is only in this life in this world (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:32). Yet in Christ we can have hope of the resurrection and the day of judgment to which it attests (Acts 17:30-31, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).
At the same time, the creation remains subject to corruption and futility today just as it did in the days of the Preacher (cf. Romans 8:18-23). “Under the sun” everyone and everything still corrupts, decays, and dies. The Preacher’s themes maintain validity in light of human experience in this life. We still remain tempted to invest meaning and ultimate significance in things which are as vapor and will fade away, and we experience a lot of pain and suffering on account of high expectations about life regarding which we have no business or right maintaining. There is no magic formula whereby you believe and/or do the right things and are guaranteed the happy, pleasant result, no matter how much we want it, hope for it, or try to baptize it. We will suffer indignities and trials; others who might live less righteously might yet prosper; we think we know what is going on, but in truth God is the only one who has a handle on how all this is going, and what He knows and understands is well beyond anything we can even imagine. In the end we take for granted what God has given us to enjoy: the health and prosperity we currently have; the relationships we have cultivated; the ability to work and to enjoy it.
The compiler/editor was no fool; he was quite aware of how the exhortation of the Preacher did not entirely mesh well with the existing wisdom traditions. And yet the Preacher lived, spoke, and exhorted from within that wisdom tradition, and his message has proven all the more important and valuable because of its uniqueness and unflinching look at the realities of life in a corrupted creation. Yes, in the end, our duty is to fear God and keep His commandments, for we will all stand before the judgment seat of God in Christ. But the Preacher will always be there to remind us how life in the creation is cyclical; everything we might want to trust in this world cannot bear the weight of confidence we would place upon it; even wisdom has its limitations; everyone and everything in the creation will decay and die; we do well to enjoy God’s blessings, particularly the “little things” we constantly overlook, and not take them for granted. We can become more effective servants of the Lord Jesus Christ when we heed the Preacher’s exhortation and cease looking to invest ourselves so deeply in the things which are passing away, and instead cultivate our relationship with God in Christ through the Spirit and with His people which will endure for eternity. May we share in what is truly life in God in Christ through the Spirit!
Ethan R. Longhenry
The post What Do We Do With Ecclesiastes? appeared first on de Verbo vitae.
