Solomon, had he lived today, might’ve been a YouTube “influencer.” Since I don’t have tv of any kind and almost never go to a movie, my main form of screen-entertainment is YouTube. (I’m currently on a kick of watching people turn vans into campers.)
🌳🌳……🚐….🌳
Some channels seem to specialize in “what’s wrong” in politics, in the news media, movies, beauty culture, health & wellness, and more. What’s-wrong-in-Christian-teaching is also its own YouTube sub-genre, sometimes called “heresy hunters.”
In these chapters of Ecclesiastes, Solomon is pointing out a bunch of things wrong in human existence. Thankfully, he also offers a few suggestions on how to improve one’s experience.
Chapter 4
Q: What’s Wrong With The World?
A: Oppression
Not much has changed in 3 millennia. Oppression is still a problem. But… All the idealists out there need to come to terms with the fact that oppression is not going away until Jesus Christ returns and reigns over the earth.
The only way you can get rid of oppression is to have a supremely powerful person to keep the powerful oppressors in check. The only problem is, the supremely powerful person also has to be morally perfect in order to keep from being corrupted by power. So that eliminates all of sinful humanity from being the solution.
Should we endeavor to ease the lot of the truly oppressed? Of course. But the term “oppression” has been thrown around so much lately that just about anyone can claim it. This is a huge topic that could quickly derail this blog so we will move on.
The only solution Solomon seems to offer to this oppression is death. 💀
😒 Wow. We are off to a cheerful start.
I know. I’m sorry.
😒 What’s the point of all this doom and gloom anyway?
I think I’ll let Bob Ross answer that.
(Mentally insert soft brush-tapping sounds.)
“Absolutely have to have dark in order to have light. Gotta have dark. Gotta have opposites- dark and light, light and dark continually in painting. You have light on light—you have nothing. If you have dark on dark—you basically have nothing. It’s like in life. Gotta have a little sadness once in a while so you know when the good times come.” – Bob Ross
Q: What’s Wrong With The World?
A: Messed Up Motives
“Then I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind.”
Ecclesiastes 4:4 NLT
Dave Ramsey put it this way:
“Most people spend money they don’t have to buy things they can’t afford to impress people they don’t even like.”
Solomon is not only critical of those who work overtime for success. In verse 5 he critiques the idle foolish. Between these two extremes, Solomon suggests we find balance.
“Better to have one handful with quietness than two handfuls with hard work and chasing the wind.”
Ecclesiastes 4:6 NLT
This is basically the philosophy of minimalism (as far as I can tell – I’m not an expert on minimalism.) There seems to be a tipping point at which the amount of conveniences and stuff outweighs its own merit. If you have 6 extra minutes, here’s a video of an MIT graduate who spent more than a year living with an ultra-low-tech Mennonite community to try to find out where that line is between one handful with quietness and two handfuls with hard work. His book, Better Off, is a fantastic read.
Q: What’s Wrong With The World?
A: Isolation
Why would a single person work long hours and save up wealth? Solomon puts the hypothetical question as: “Why am I giving up so much pleasure now?” The answer today is: Retirement and old age. It’s expensive to get old.
I’ve heard from elderly folk that it might be better to have your adventures and travels while you’re still young enough to get out and go. Pretty good advice.
But retirement is not the point of this question. It’s isolation. Loneliness.
I suspect that this is a MUCH bigger problem than many people realize. In the US, nearly half (46%) of the adult population is single (never married, divorced, widowed). As a card-carrying member of that demographic, I can attest that being alone has challenges that don’t seem to occur to those with another individual under the roof. I’ve had a couple of scares getting choked or nearly passing out – with no one to help. And it’s not like I can call 911 and explain my situation to the dispatcher if I cannot get air or I’m not conscious.
While moms of small children will beg to differ (and I don’t blame them), you can get very weary of being alone. It’s not all bubble baths and cozy reading any more than marriage is all romantic moonlit walks and making out by the fire…
🎤🤨 Tap tap tap… Is this thing on?
😯 What are you doing?
🤨 Rescuing you. You’ve been blogging for HOURS and you’re not even through one chapter yet. You have wandered into… Lord-only-knows-what. Focus! What is Solomon’s solution for isolation?
😐 Companionship.
🤨 Right. See? That was easy. Now move on.
😑 Ok.
Chapter 5
The trio, Phillips, Craig & Dean recorded a song based on 5:1. This section on being careful what you say to God might’ve been on Jesus’ mind when He said,
“You have also heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not break your vows; you must carry out the vows you make to the Lord.’ But I say, do not make any vows! Do not say, ‘By heaven!’ because heaven is God’s throne. And do not say, ‘By the earth!’ because the earth is his footstool. And do not say, ‘By Jerusalem!’ for Jerusalem is the city of the great King. Do not even say, ‘By my head!’ for you can’t turn one hair white or black. Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one.”
Matthew 5:33-37 NLT
The remainder of chapter 5 seems to summarize the previous ideas concerning wealth and poverty and oppression and the need for family and community. And at the end, the solution that the world’s wisest man lands on is this:
“Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat, drink, and enjoy their work under the sun during the short life God has given them, and to accept their lot in life. And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life—this is indeed a gift from God.”
Ecclesiastes 5:18-19 NLT
This is achievable for most of us.
Chapter 6
But Solomon, ever the fault-finder, picks out a problem with even this. He basically asks, “What if you can’t enjoy it?”
His solution kind of circles back to where we started in chapter 4 – it would be better to have died before birth. With this sad answer, Solomon sounds a lot like Job:
“Had I died at birth, I would now be at peace. I would be asleep and at rest.
Why wasn’t I buried like a stillborn child, like a baby who never lives to see the light? For in death the wicked cause no trouble, and the weary are at rest.”
Job 3:13, 16-17 NLT
Most of Job 3 is like this. Job wishes he had never been born. And, I suppose, for someone living prior to the Gospel and the wonderful hope it gives, dying as an innocent child would be preferable to a life of misery in a wretched world.
But the Gospel has come. And there is hope.
Depending on which translation you read, (and if you embrace deterministic Calvinism or not), Ecclesiastes 6:10 might sound like it’s saying that everything in your life is predetermined and it’s no use arguing with God about what He has determined. But here’s this verse in the Septuagint:
“If anything has come to be, its name has already been used; and it is known what man is – that he is unable to dispute with him who is stronger than he.” Ecc. 6:10 LXX
I think this is simply another way of saying, “there is nothing new under the sun.” To put it in my own paraphrase:
“So what else is new? Man can’t take on God and win.” Ecc. 6:10 Lacy Version
This is very Job-ish. Job wanted to see God in court and argue his case- that he deserved to know WHY all of the tragedy had befallen him. But Job also realized that this was unlikely to happen.
“If someone wanted to take God to court, would it be possible to answer him even once in a thousand times? For God is so wise and so mighty. Who has ever challenged him successfully?”
Job 9:3-4 NLT
After all of the argumentation with the friends and the LORD’s challenges from the whirlwind…
“Then the Lord said to Job, “Do you still want to argue with the Almighty? You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?” Then Job replied to the Lord, “I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers? I will cover my mouth with my hand. I have said too much already. I have nothing more to say.”
Job 40:1-5 NLT
Job and Solomon both arrived at the same foundational truth. Humans can’t win an argument with God. We can’t even really understand the world as we are living in it, let alone all of the history before or after us.
I think Ecclesiastes is meant to remind us how powerless we really are- that riches and success are a temporary illusion in the grand scheme of eternity. And this bleak and dark reality is what makes the light of God’s love stand out.
“Gotta have dark. Gotta have opposites- dark and light, light and dark…” Bob Ross knew.
To The Reader 