It does not take more than a cursory
glance at world today to see that mankind is restless. In the quest for
satisfaction and meaning we study for years in universities, chase after
wealth, jump from one relationship to the next, build monuments of power and
prestige, indulge in (or deprive ourselves of) food and drink, and employ a
wide array of other strategies for personal success. Kohelet puts mankind’s
classic strategies for fulfillment to the test. He mines human wisdom, earthly
pleasures, and the accumulation of wealth and success for all they have to give
and concludes that they all come up empty; they are “vanity and a striving after
wind” (1:14; 2:11, 17, 26; 4:4, 16; 6:9). After having conducted grand
experiments in each realm of pursuit, Kohelet reveals why each of them fails to
deliver the fulfillment it seems to offer.
The first to be leveled is wisdom. This
may come as a surprise since elsewhere in Scripture Solomon repeatedly upholds
the virtues of wisdom. For instance, in Proverbs 4:7-8 he recalls the
admonition of his father to “Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.
Prize her highly, and she will exalt you.” Even within Ecclesiastes itself he
declares that there is more gain in
wisdom than in folly” (2:11) and that wisdom is “an advantage to those who see
the sun” (7:11). Passages such as these begin to make it clear that the
issue is not that wisdom has no benefits whatsoever, but rather that its
benefits have limits. In spite of all its advantages, “wisdom cannot change
reality.”[1]
Wisdom can discern and warn against error, but in and of itself wisdom cannot
fix the problems of this world. Possessing wisdom in the present cannot change
ongoing consequences resulting from past choices. Moreover, in order to effect
change in the present one must not only have wisdom of what needs to be changed
but also possess the power or influence to bring about the desired change. As
if these limitations of wisdom were not enough, Kohelet goes on to say: “in
much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow”
(1:18). Having great wisdom is no guarantee that others will listen to one’s
wisdom and take it to heart. Instead of bringing ultimate fulfillment and
peace, wisdom on its own simply compounds frustration and sorrow as the wise
person watches and grieves over the preventable mistakes of others.
Once wisdom has been eliminated from
contention as a source of lasting satisfaction, Kohelet turns his gaze to
examine the merits of pleasure, prestige, and success in one’s toil/career.
Quickly the vaporous nature of self-indulgent pleasure becomes apparent; it
lasts only as long as the wine is on the tongue, the perfume fills the
nostrils, or the dancer twirls before the eyes. As soon as the sensory stimulus
fades, so does the pleasure, and one is left to seek out more sources of
momentary satisfaction. In light of this, Kohelet summarizes his findings on
pleasure:
I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” . . . I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. (2:2, 10-11).
I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” . . . I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. (2:2, 10-11).
Pleasure
may yield no lasting profit (Heb. yitron),
but the bad news does not end there. Kohelet continues to dash hopes in rapid
succession by stating that one’s pursuit of fulfillment through the prestige or
legacy of a successful career is also futile. We never know when an unexpected
tragedy might strike or if the person charged to carry on our legacy will prove
to be wise or foolish, and why should another person get to enjoy the fruit of our
hard labor anyway?[2] We
cannot bank on circumstances, prestige, or hard-earned success for fulfillment
because they are prone to change. Kohelet observes: “I saw that under the sun
the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the
wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but
time and chance happen to them all” (9:11).
The last pursuit to be examined is
that of wealth and possessions. From the outside looking in, wealth has a lot
of advantages; wealthy people seem to have more friends, they can often buy
their way out of trouble, not to mention the fact that they enjoy ‘the finer
things in life’ that most of us only dream about. Yet things are not always what
they appear to be, and material wealth is no exception. The more a person has
the more that others expect or demand from them, so while wealth may attract
other people it “doesn’t add friends, it only adds consumers, those with
expectations and claims upon what you have”[3]
(cf. 5:11). Furthermore, instead of engendering contentment, “wealth drives us
to acquire more wealth.” [4] Kohelet
reminds us of the dangers inherent in the drive to acquire more by coupling his
observations on wealth with a story depicting the danger of loss (5:14-17). Hubbard
writes: “We are pushed to make more, he has told us, yet that very push puts us
in jeopardy of losing everything and leaving our family as paupers.”[5]
Sadly, even when riches are successfully gained they can be “kept by their
owner to his hurt” (5:13); anxiety and lack of sleep abound as he strives to
maintain what he has gathered (5:12; cf. 2:22-23). The vexation of gaining wealth
and the anxiety of holding on to it only serve to deepen the disappointment of
the one who possesses it when he or she finds it does not deliver the satisfaction
it promised . . . “If anything is worse
than the addiction that money brings, it is the emptiness it leaves. Man, with
eternity in his heart, needs better nourishment than this.”[6]
Looking back over the each of the possible sources of fulfillment that Kohelet
has examined, it is worth noting that wisdom, pleasure, success, and wealth are
all admirable things; the only catch is our perspective or expectation of
them.“For in themselves, and rightly used, the basic things of life are sweet
and good [. . .] What spoils them is our hunger to get out of them more than
what they can give.”[7]
Each has been designed by God with a specific purpose, and God does indeed want
us to enjoy his gifts, but fulfillment comes not from the gifts alone (they
were never designed to give it). To fully enjoy a gift from God we must first acknowledge
that it is indeed a gift[8],
but a perspective which only takes into account human effort and life “under
the sun” precludes this acknowledgement [9].
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