We have seen that the Teacher in Ecclesiastes is dealing with man’s attempt to find meaning or to create meaning apart from God. He does so by the usage of two voices in the book. The preponderance of time he speaks from the view of the covenant breaker and when he does so he repeatedly concludes that all is meaningless of meaningless … a chasing of the wind. Also, though we see from time to time he reverts to the voice of one who is the child of the covenant to point to the fact that only meaning can be found in the context of covenant community.
In the last few weeks we have been looking at how this search for meaning has civilizational impact. The Teacher considers not only finding meaning on an individual level, but he also seeks to look for meaning in the context of whole social orders built apart from God.
In the last few weeks we have seen that the Teacher finds that in community life apart from God when one seeks to find justice all one finds instead is oppression. We sought to emphasize how important this observation is because if a social order can not provide justice for a people group then that social order will not last long because one of the very purposes of a social order is to provide justice. We saw that the Teacher so lamented this lack of justice that he concluded, in his covenant breaking voice that it would have been better to have never existed then to live in a social order that only knows oppressors and oppressed.
We then, with the Teacher, considered the social order of men in terms of looking to one’s work as an escape from the meaninglessness that social orders apart from God yield. And there we saw, with the Teacher, in his voice of covenant breaker that no meaning can be found in terms of labor because labor, in a social order bereft of God yields the destructive power of envy against those who do skillful work. We took some time considering the destructive power of envy and how envy is inescapable in social orders that are built apart from God. But it is not only envy that destroys social orders built apart from God but it is also laziness and discontentment the preacher mentions. And of course envy, laziness, and discontentment go together like Larry, Moe, and Curly.
Then we considered, with the Preacher those who operate in social orders apart from God with the purpose of only greedy gain as their god and we saw the loneliness and futility that they are faced with. We mentioned that wealth is not the problem, but rather wealth pursued as an end in itself. Wealth creation is a good gift of God but like any other good gift when it is isolated from the giver it only ends in bitterness and isolation.
Last week we considered the importance of covenant companionship. Here the Teacher speaks in the voice of the Covenant Herald. He contrasts the loneliness of the covetous man without God who is as alone without friends as Ebeneezer Scrooge on Christmas Eve with the person who has companionship. We tried to emphasize that true friendship can only be found in the covenant because only in the covenant do you have people who are not each trying to be God. As men together submit themselves to God they can discover true friendship and the harmony of interests. Apart from the God of the covenant it is the war of all against all and friendships are more temporary alliances, cast aside at the first opportunity for personal gain and advancement, then they are true friendships which look not only to our own interests but also to the interests of others.
Illustration — Advice given to Robertson McQuilken regarding his wife.
In our few minutes this week we continue to look at this matter of how men attempt to use social orders to insulate themselves from God and to find meaning and how they fail in such.
In 4:13-16 the emphasis is on discontented people who do not appreciate good leadership. These verses do not provide advice so much as they reflect their mercurial and capricious nature. What the Teacher is noting here is how in godless social orders men will turn to new leadership in the mistaken belief that different leaders will provide them with the stability and order that only God can provide.
Well did Shakespeare write, “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,” meaning a person with great responsibilities, such as a king, is constantly worried, and more so in a godless social order then any other because people’s perceptions change so quickly has to what ruler might provide for them all the bounty and meaning they are looking to extract from the social order context of their lives.
Michael Kelly in his commentary on Ecclesiastes offers here 4:13-16
“Is the Preachers way of saying that political power necessarily turns to be an unstable good when the people’s Utopian demand requires more than it could possibly deliver. Each generation longs for a political messiah to usher in paradise, History is not short on demagogues who have repeatedly arisen w/ attractive new proposals w/ which to replace the status quo that has come to be perceived as regressive and unresponsive. The masses will support revolution because they can not believe the fault lies with them.”
This is why the Teacher can sarcastically write in Ch. 4 vs. 16.
One political Messiah arises and the people are with him but another generation comes along and despite the fact that this game of False Messiahs and disappointed expectations has been play for generations, still they will insist that they are wiser then all that came before and this time, this revolution, supporting this Political Messiah will the the one that ushers is the New World Order Utopia that has been expected since the tower of Babel.
In our own time.
“… I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that … this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal;”
“To answer these attacks and rid the world of evil,”
Earlier in this Century …. “A war to end all wars.”
Social Order that will not bow to the one and only Messiah will create their own Messiahs and will become the slaves of that Messiah. If men will build social Orders apart from God, then they will look for Salvation in and from those social orders.
Consider even a political social order as Atheistic as Marxism will even take on this kind of Redemptive salvation cast for man.
Bertrand Russell has not exaggerated in summing up the present significance of Marxism somewhat as follows: dialectical materialism is God; Marx the Messiah; Lenin and Stalin the apostles; the proletariat the elect; the Communist party the Church; Moscow the seat of Church; the Revolution the second coming; the punishment of capitalism hell; Trotsky the devil; and the communist commonwealth kingdom come.”
― Robert A. Nisbet
The Quest For Community: A Study In The Ethics Of Order And Freedom
Men without God will always be dissatisfied and out of that dissatisfaction they will look to revolution in their political / social order to find the the satisfaction that only God can give. Yet those who come after the latest super hero political Messiah will not rejoice in him and will start the process anew.
In 5:1-7 the Covenant teacher gives the answer in the voice of the Covenant Son.
