Today in God’s Word

Today in God's Word—July 2023

East Tallassee Church of Christ

July 21, Ecclesiastes 9

Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going. - Ecclesiastes 9:9-10

Have you ever been irrational? Perhaps you’ve had to deal with a family member or friend, who under the influence of fear or some medication, thought, said and did things that were not logical or reasonable. An irrational person will contradict known facts without realizing the contradiction.

Chapter 9 is the last part of what we might call Solomon’s confession in the book of Ecclesiastes. Throughout these chapters, Solomon repeated the “all is vanity” conclusion he reached many times. The confession is both frightening and encouraging. It’s frightening because it makes us wonder how someone so loved and blessed by God as Solomon could possibly stray so far from God. How could a person so blessed with God-given wisdom become irrational, doing and saying things that contradicted what he knew to be true?

Was Solomon confessing what he had thought and said? Or were his words here intended only to illustrate the folly of trying to live a meaningful life apart from God?

Solomon knew that the righteous and the wicked would be judged by God, and that death was not the end of the story for either the righteous or the wicked. But in Chapter 9 he said that the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, the good and the evil. He was referring to the fact that everyone dies. But he already knew that death was not the end, that we all have an appointment with judgment after we keep our appointment with death. Solomon’s own words prove that he knew better. Back in Chapter 3, he said God put

eternity in our hearts. At the end of the book, he wrote that God would bring every deed and every secret thing into judgment, whether it was good or evil.

Solomon said that the dead know nothing. He may not have known any better, but we do. We have the benefit of New Testament teaching to show us more. Jesus said the rich man in the Luke 16 story was in a place of conscious torment. He saw and spoke. In Revelation 6, the souls of faithful martyrs under the altar cried out to God, “How long until our blood is avenged?”

Solomon’s advice to eat, drink and be merry seems reasonable if this life is all there is. But we should remember that this opinion is coming from a man who admitted he had followed this indulgent course to excess, only to find it vain and empty.

Solomon was frustrated by the apparent randomness of life, how the races and battles of life do not always turn out as we would expect. If we trust that all things really are in God’s hand, that he uses everything to accomplish his purpose, we do not have to fret about the apparently random and unexplainable events that are part of life in a fallen world.

Solomon recognized the fact that we celebrate and memorialize war heroes more than wise people who quietly work for peace and prosperity. He recognized the power of wisdom, and also knew (perhaps autobiographically) that one sinner destroys much good.

A lot of preachers have used Solomon’s words about doing whatever your hand finds to do with your might. They find good advice in the words to encourage Christians to serve God with promptness, diligence and intentionality. But in its textual context, the words seem to be sarcastic, almost mocking the idea of finding fulfillment by working hard. Solomon had been there and done that, and knew it was futile.

Yes, Solomon’s words are tragic. But we can find encouragement in them, too. Solomon’s words remind us that an idolater who sinned

with reckless abandon could come to his senses and return to God. Solomon’s fruitless pursuit of pleasure and a meaningful life apart from God did not end in bitter and pessimistic unbelief. Instead he characterized a human’s whole duty as “Fear God and keep his commandments.” We know the gospel. We know Jesus came and died to forgive our sins and give us eternal life. When we know and believe the gospel, it is the height of irrationality to persist in selfish sin and refuse to come to the Lord. The truly wise will come, trust and obey the Lord.

Copyright © 2023 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.