Category: Devotional Grist

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.

Ecclesiastes 4:4 – 12

Recap

Last week we emphasized that Teacher in 4:1-3 reveals in the voice of the covenant breaker

I.) The Inevitable End Of All Social Order Arrangements Apart From God — Oppressor & Oppressed (4:1)

We spent some time explaining how it is that when men build social orders apart from God, conclusions can be easily arrived at that find men affirming that the dead have it better then the living. (2-3)

We chronicled such social order oppression we have in our world today that could easily confirm the despair articulated by the Teacher.

We emphasized then that the only reality that can cure the dilemma of Oppressor and Oppressed is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Only men who have peace with God can create social orders that reflect that peace with God thus yielding peace among men. Only as men redeemed by Jesus Christ can they walk in terms of God’s standard and so find a harmony of interest that as a byproduct yields social order tranquility. Only as men bow to the Lordship of Jesus Christ can God’s justice be implemented among men.

A failure to trust Christ alone not only bring personal individual alienation but it also creates social order alienation.

This week we continue on picking up where we left off in vs. 3.

II.) Social Order Problems As It Pertains To Work In Communities Built Apart From God (4:4-12)

Apart from God there is no “good life” to be found in the social order man builds. Looking for “justice” in such a godless social order causes one to see only Oppressors and Oppressed. And looking for the “good life” in one’s work in such a godless social order doesn’t bring any relief because of the problem of Envy.

This attempt to build community then is thwarted at every turn as man seeks to build community apart from God.

Here the Godless social order / community that is built generates envy against those who do work or laziness and discontentment among others.

A.) Envy

The following is distilled from,

Helmut Schoeck’s “Envy: A Theory of Social Behaviour”
Gonzalo Fernandez de la Mora’s “Egalitarian Envy: The Political Foundations of Social Justice”,

Definition of Envy — Envy is the sin of jealousy over the blessings, prosperity, character, and achievements of others, but more than jealousy it is the positive anguish over the good of others and joy at the anguish and misery of others even if that anguish and misery does the envious no discernible positive good. While being indignant might find its roots in the injustice of the well being of evil persons, envy finds its roots in the happiness of good people. In brief envy is pain at the good in others, and it is most commonly found in those whom wish to lower others, even if that lowering of others does not mean that they will rise.

Well we can understand why God says in Proverbs that it is a rottenness to the bones.

Envy is wounded by our neighbors prosperity. Envy finds pleasure in the ruin or harm of those of whom we are envious. Envy is sickened at hearing praises of those of whom are envied and recoils at the virtues of those upon whom our envy is pointed. Envy only grows more intense the more it is assuaged by those who are being envied. That is to say, that should the envied seek to practice charity towards the envious, with thoughts of reducing their reasons to be envious, the envious envy them all the more because of the their own sense that as being inferiors they had to be assisted by those they believe to be their superiors. The envious hate those who help them because it confirms, in their minds, their lower position. If the envious receive favor from the fortunate the envious suffers even more and the envy grows because the one in the favored position has the power to dispense favor while the envied does not. Envy is not concerned so much with reaching the happiness of others as it is in making everyone as miserable as the envious. Envy is complicated by the fact that it is slow to be self-diagnosed or confessed because of the shame involved in this vice.

Envy is a malevolent feeling towards a person, people group, society, or culture perceived to be superior in one or more ways. Envy is vindictive, inwardly tormenting, displeasure. It arises from a feeling of impotence and inferiority. Envy is anguish from the real or perceived prosperity or advantages of others.

Schoek informs us of the universal nature of envy,

“Not all cultures possess such concepts as hope, love, justice and progress, but virtually all people, including the most primitive, have found it necessary to define the state of mind of a person who cannot bear someone else’s being something, having a skill, possessing something or enjoying a reputation which he himself lacks, and who will therefore rejoice should the other lose his asset, although that loss will not mean his own gain.” (page 12)

We must understand that Godless social orders / communities have such a problem with envy because envy is not the desire to have what the other person has but to be what the envied person is as that is coupled with the knowledge that, that cannot be. Therefore every effort on the part of the superior to eliminate the feelings of inferiority in the one who is envying is seen as condescension, and such condescension on the part of the person envied only works within the one who is envying a magnification of the very thing their work of envy was seeking to remove, and that is the real inferiority of the envious. Because of this the only way that the envious can find satisfaction is by destroying those upon whom their envy is aimed. The possessing of the goods of the envious will not satisfy because the envious still knows that a dispossessed superior remains superior.

The only cure for envy [apart from Christ] is the destruction of the superior.

This envy then may well explain the genocide of the White Boers in S. Africa. They have already been greatly dispossessed by the ANC Marxists but that seems to be not enough. They must be genocided.

Well, then can we understand why the Teacher laments the presence of envy.

Christianity embraces and teaches the truth that men are different with different skills and abilities. As such Christianity alone can build a social order / community where people with differing skills and abilities, gifts and talents, and varying degrees of superiority and inferiority in a multitude of areas can compliment one another thus creating a harmony of interests instead of the destructiveness found in envy.

Only the Gospel can liberate the envier from his ultimately self-destructive envy, and to alleviate the envied of his self imposed false guilt.

B.) Laziness

We looked at this briefly last week but just a few more words here.

As God’s people we were created for work. It is an interesting tidbit to understand that the Hebrew word from which we get the idea of Worship is also where we derive the idea of work. The Hebrew root word means to work or to serve. The cluster of words derived from the root give us insight into the nature of both worship and work.

Both work and worship is about service and serving. In worship we are serving God in Christ with our heart felt praise and adoration. In work we are serving God by taking godly dominion over whatever he has called us to. Laziness then is a affront to God because it is a unwillingness to take up our responsibilities as God’s creatures.

A favor from the Protestant Reformation was the restoration of the importance of work (vocation). All that man was called to could be done to the glory of God.

Luther could write,

“The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays — not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors. The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.”

Work is not something that resulted from the Fall of man into sin so that if our first parents had not sinned we would not have had to work. Adam was called to work in the Garden, to serve and protect it (Gen. 2:15). Adam was to do the work of taking dominion. So, work is an part of what it means to be human and to embrace the folding of one’s hands as the fool does is to deny our creatureliness.

Labor thus is not merely something we must do but something we get to do as those who labor under Sovereign God to extend His Kingdom. Man is called to be a King under the Sovereign Christ to take dominion for God’s glory through his appointed calling and work.

Work thus is not primarily about bringing home a paycheck, though that certainly is one important aspect of work. Work is about glorifying God and laziness thus is an attempt to steal God’s glory.

Of course in ungodly social orders laziness is characteristic because man is seeking not to glorify God in all he does but to glorify himself and one way that man seeks to glorify himself is by escape from work.

c.) Discontentment

In verse 6 the Teacher makes a observation in his covenant keeping voice.

Better a handful with quietness then both hands full together with toil and grasping for the wind

This sentiment is echoed in the Proverbs

16 Better a little with the fear of the Lord
than great wealth with turmoil.

17 Better a small serving of vegetables with love
than a fattened calf with hatred.

8 Better a little with righteousness
than much gain with injustice.

The wisdom here is not only to be content but also there is a warning against unwise ambition.

In ungodly social orders you not only have the problem of laziness but you also have the problem of those who never have enough and so there is this constant drive for more with the result that they have no rest (quietness).

They are the discontent and those who never will be content. They have acquired but they can never enjoy what they have acquired for they are always toiling for more.

Here the Teacher reminds us of the importance of godliness with contentment.

d.) Avarice (4:7)

In vs. 7. the Teacher speaks again with his covenant breaking voice and I believe he is still examining the faults of a godless community life in the context of labor. This time he speaks of the consequence of a single-minded devotion to fulfill an all consuming lust for wealth (avarice). He is describing for us someone whose unwise ambition has brought him to the point where he has no family or community life in order to share his life with. His single minded covetousness for wealth has deprived him of companionship. Like some kind of ancient Ebenezer Scrooge the one described here is content with the companionship of wealth.

The Teacher mocks such a person by noting that they never pause long enough to ask the larger questions of life. Here I am gaining all this wealth and I have no one to share it with. Note the “good” that the teacher speaks of in vs. 8 is the good of companionship, friendship and family. The acquiring of wealth at the cost of genuine community is vanity and a grave misfortune.

Here we see what ungodly social order does. Whether it is in envy, laziness, discontentment, or avarice, ungodly social order either destroys community life or it produces the community life of the war of all against all.

III.) The Contrast To Isolationist Social Orders

The Teacher speaking in his covenant keeping voice speaks of the importance of companionship – true friendship.

We must say at the outset here that this kind of genuine friendship can only be found among Christians. Men who are not right with God can have no hope in being right with one another. Men who are seeking to be their own gods can only go so far in being companions. It is true, those outside of Christ can, relatively speaking, be a friend, but we must understand that those outside Christ have themselves for their own gods and as such their friendship will only go so far.

“Me against my brother; me and my brother against our father;
my family against my cousins and the clan;
the clan against the tribe; the tribe against the world
and all of us against the infidel”

The Teacher speaks with the voice of the Covenant keeper on the importance of godly social order. It is hell to have a social order where it is the oppression that comes with,

Or where it is the one of the isolated individual who is himself against the world.

Here the Teacher sings of the virtues of the Covenant community. Cooperation and reciprocal interdependence can produce success and harmony and yield a sense of satisfaction.

This should be descriptive of the community of the Redeemed.

Three fold cord — Fasces

Conclusion

Social Orders not founded on Christ can at best give us temporary alliances constructed in order to take down someone else.

Long after the writing of Ecclesiastes we have returned to the conclusions that the Teacher in Ecclesiastes could articulate as he speaks with the voice of the covenant breaker. Remember, in the voice of the covenant breaker the conclusion is “meaninglessness of meaninglessness, a mere chasing of the wind.”

Already, as he has spoken with the voice of the covenant breaker, we have seen him come to that conclusion of meaninglessness as he has examined several areas of life where he sought to find meaning independent of God.

But as man refuses to bow to God, man returns to the Teacher’s search and so we have found that to be the case in the 20th century and today. In the 20th century a Philosophy arose which organized the Teacher’s covenant breaking voice of despair into a school of thought called “existentialism.”

The heart of existentialism is that existence precedes essence, which is to say these philosopher’s taught that man has no inherent nature or meaning in and of himself and consequently man was responsible himself to create his own nature and his own meaning.

Now we can’t go into great detail here explaining 20th century existentialism but I did want to use the introduction to expose you to this idea since it is still with us today in many respects and since existentialism tracks so well with the Teacher’s work in Ecclesiastes.

Jean Paul Sartre, one of the chief existentialists of the 20th century did us the favor of explaining the motto of the existentialists, “existence precedes essence” by writing,

“What is meant here by saying the existence precedes essence? It means that, first of all, man exists, turns up, appears on the scene, and, only afterwards, defines himself. If man, as the existentialist conceives him, is indefinable, he himself, will have made what he will be. Thus, there is no human nature, since there is no God to conceive it. Not only is man what he conceives himself to be, but he is also only what he wills himself to be after this thrust towards existence.” Sartre

You see … man has not inherent meaning because there is no God. As such man must make up his own meaning in life but as the Teacher in Ecclesiastes told us thousands of years ago that apart from God all is meaningless, a mere chasing of the wind.

Elsewhere Jean Paul Sartre could write on this score,

“Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself. Such is the first principle of existentialism.” Jean Paul Sartre

If man has no inherent nature, then man has no inherent meaning until he first gives himself that meaning. (And, naturally if man is giving himself meaning then the meaning is not inherent.) And of course that meaning is entirely subjective since there is no personal objective Transcendent point of reference in order to be informed or guided by.

Please understand how relevant all this is for today. All this explains where we are at. If man has no inherent nature and so no inherent meaning, then man is himself what is called a “social construct.” If there is no personal objective Transcendent point of reference then man can say things like …“sexuality is a social construct. Male and Female are artificially contrived categories that can be blended or added to. Objectively speaking, there is no such thing as Male or Female. They can be what we want them and make them to be.” Or, similarly, “Family is what we make it to be. Family can be defined anyway we want it to be,” and so we come up with all kinds of non Biblical families of two Mommies or two Daddies and who knows what else.

And so man, apart from and in denial of God, seeks to be God by giving himself and everything around him meaning. But as we learn in Ecclesiastes there is never any satisfaction. Again, and again we learn that all this attempt to make and find meaning is a chasing of the wind.

Albert Camus, another Existentialist philosopher and popularizer, said something very similar to the task of finding meaning apart from and in denial of God,

“At the point where it is no longer possible to say what is black and what is white, the light is extinguished and freedom becomes a voluntary prison.” Albert Camus

The point of union then between Ecclesiastes, as the Teacher speaks in the Covenant Breaker voice, and Existentialism is, in the words of Sartre,

“Existentialism is nothing else than an attempt to draw all the consequences of a coherent atheistic position.” Sartre

And this is what the Teacher has been doing in Ecclesiastes. When he speaks in his covenant breaking voice, He has been drawing all the consequences of a coherent atheistic position, and finding that coherent atheistic position to be meaninglessness. The only coherence one can find in life apart from and in denial of God is incoherence.

The existentialists admitted that they were looking for meaning. Another of their tribe, Albert Camus could say,

“The world itself, whose single meaning I do not understand, is but a vast irrational. If one could only say just once; ‘this is clear,’ all would be saved.” Albert Camus

But for the modern existentialist nobody could stride forth to say, “this is clear,” and so for the modern existentialist like the Teacher in Ecclesiastes nothing is clear because all is meaningless.

Well, we can understand why Sartre could say, perhaps in frustration,

“Man is a useless passion.” Sartre

For without God, man is indeed a useless passion.

As we continue with Ecclesiastes this morning we see the Teacher turning to observe life apart from God.

The Teacher, viewing social order issues through the lens of the covenant breaker, makes some observations regarding oppression.

I.) The End Of All Social Order Arrangements Apart From God — Oppressor & Oppressed

4 Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. 2 And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. 3 But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.

Now of course, if man is left to making his own meaning then in affairs having to do with civilization inevitably what one will get is oppressors and the oppressed. If man is left to create his own meaning in terms of justice then all social orders will ultimately reduce down to these two categories of oppressed and oppressor. And, I would say that it is likewise inevitable that, just as in much of existentialism philosophy you hear a note of despair in the voice of the Teacher, again speaking as in the voice of the covenant breaker.

Better to be dead or never born then to live as the oppressed or the oppressors in a meaningless social order. If all there was, was life as oppressed or oppressor it would be better to have never existed then to have lived and looked to closely at the Holdomar in the Ukraine, or the Killing Fields in Camboida, or the Gulags built by the Soviets, or the abortuary’s in America. If there were no God, it indeed would be better to have never existed.

Understand though that in a social order where man makes the meaning then there is no standard by which oppression or oppressed can be adjudicated. What this clues us in upon is that even when the Teacher speaks in terms of the covenant breaking voice, he must presuppose God in order to lament the damage that life apart from God brings. In other words if the Teacher was being consistent in speaking in his covenant breaking voice he could not complain about oppressor and oppressed because for the covenant breaker … for the existentialist …. for the post-modern … there are no stable categories of oppressor and oppressed, because there is no stable meaning for anything. The covenant breaker, the existentialist, the post-modern, even though they may complain, has no absolute standard upon which to base their complaint.

This reminds us that the way that social orders are organized, or the way that we do politics or economics can not bring us satisfaction if we are operating as covenant breakers. Men who will not submit to God in Christ may build all kinds of different social orders (Democratic, Republican, Monarchy, Socialist, Communist, Anarchist, etc.) but all any of them will bring eventually will be the oppressed and the oppressors. This is true of our social order today here in this nation. Over 50 million unborn children cry out as the oppressed and we the oppressors can find no comfort. Social Orders in and of themselves and by themselves can not bring salvation. They are inert arrangements. Only God in Christ can save men who then will incarnate that renewal into their social orders.

No, the solution to man’s covenant breaking problem can not be found finally in building Utopias. Indeed, man’s very problem is the attempt to build social order Utopias … Utopias that only lead to Dystopias. Man’s problem is that he is dead in his sin and has needs to turn to the Lord Christ who alone has provided a salvation upon which redeemed men can build social orders which reflect justice, do mercy and reinforce in a people to walk humbly with their God. Only in Christ Jesus can meaningful meaning be restored as men bow to the one who is God’s Meaning (the Word) and legislates by His transcendent objective Word.

In vs. 4-6 the Teacher is still exploring the matter of where the good life might be found. Clearly, it is not found in social orders apart from God because they only yield oppressors and the oppressed. And so he probes the issue of work once again.

II.) The End of all Labor Apart From God

The Teacher seems to divide the idea of the worker into three categories

First he speaks of those who diligently labor (vs. 4) and then he speaks of the one who doesn’t diligently labor (vs. 5) and so he seems to be pointing us to the idea that one is damned if he does work because of envy and one is damned if he doesn’t work because of Laziness. In vs. 6, the theme of work is continued as the Preacher deals with the person who works but can never find contentment. So, in 4-6 he deals with the issue of labor, but it could be that he is looking at labor in the context of social order still.

Michael Kelley offers here,

“All of these qualities (envy, laziness, discontentment) are meant to stress that man’s goal of community (what we are calling “social order,”) without God is bound to fall apart, for nothing can eradicate the crookedness in the nature of man himself.”

You have these categories of oppressed and oppressor that he has brought up and then he turns to the issue of envy as it relates to labor. Well, obviously, envy is one means by which oppression is achieved and by which people are oppressed in crooked social orders.

Hence, here you have this social order of oppressed and oppressor where there is the oppression of envy against the one who works.

Well, the alternative to work is not working but that is the laziness of the fool. And then the Teacher deals with the issue of discontentment.

I’m going to take up the issue of Laziness first because I want to give the issue of envy more time next week, since envy is presently such a great destroyer of men.

This problem of Laziness is a theme that is taken up throughout the Scripture,

Proverbs 6:10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
11 and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man.

Proverbs 24:33 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
34 and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man.

II Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.

I Timothy 5:8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

Clearly the expectation in Scripture for the covenant keeper is to work.