Ecclesiastes part 6

All you have is the moment – Live it well!

     Kohelet repeatedly reminds his listeners that “no one can fully know or understand God’s plans.”[1]  So instead of filling our lives with anxiety and vain striving in an effort to control what is out of our hands, we ought to accept each moment as a gift from God and act on what he has revealed to us. Each moment of our life under the sun holds a unique and fleeting opportunity to enjoy God’s gifts. DelHousaye and Brewer use the following illustration to convey the gist of Kohelet’s wisdom.

     Picture “a conveyor belt with one apple passing by every twenty-four hours. Either we let it pass because we think there may be a better one coming, or we let it pass because we are distracted by previous ones we’ve enjoyed. Meanwhile, the one apple right in front of you passes untouched and “unenjoyed.” People are usually divided into three categories: Those who only know how to enjoy the past; those who only know how to anticipate the future; and those who have learned the wisdom of enjoying it all by living in the moment! The point is, life is enjoyed in the moment. The wisest thing you can do is to take the biggest bite of every apple that comes your way.[2]

          Kohelet’s message is not communicating a fatalistic or epicurean sentiment, but rather sharing a realistic outlook based on humankind’s mortality. If time under the sun is limited, do not waste it “striving after wind” (4:6). “Remember your Creator – remember that God has given you his gifts for your pleasure. Make the most of them while you have the energy and the vitality.”[3] Act now (“do not be idle”, 11:6), to squeeze the juice out of every moment of life, but do so with the knowledge that God will bring all of one’s actions into judgment (11:9). Finally, Kohelet concludes, “fear God and keep his commandments, because this applies to every person” (12:13). A healthy reverence for God will keep us grateful and content with his good gifts, free us up to enjoy life to its fullest capacity while we still have breath in our bodies, and remind us to live with good sense because we are accountable to God alone in the end.

            The words of another wise man, Walter C. Kaiser, appropriately sum up the core of Kohelet’s message and its ongoing impact today:

[K]oheleth urges acceptance of the grace and joy of life, not pessimism, nihilism, and blind determinism . . . Out of a distorted view of worldliness, wherein every pleasure ordained by God for man’s enjoyment is either denied or begrudgingly used, many have developed a superpious, unhappy, and even miserable existence. This text proclaims liberation to them. Brother and sister: rejoice in God’s good gifts, and ask for his ability to rightfully use them.[4]

“Remember your Creator” and make the most of the hevel that he has provided for you to enjoy.

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                [1] DelHousaye and Brewer, The Personal Journal of Solomon, 197.

                [2] Ibid, 116.

                [3] Hubbard, Beyond Futility, 119.

                [4] Walter C. Kaiser, Ecclesiastes: Total Life (Chicago: Moody Press, 1979), 101.

Ecclesiastes part 5

Live with wisdom and practice the art of good sense. 

In the closing chapters of Ecclesiastes, Kohelet directs us to “steady ourselves with reminders to be sensible (chapter 10), so that we may launch out more surely upon the call to be bold (11:1-6), joyful (11:7-11) and godly (chapter 12).”[1] Whereas Kohelet earlier presented a strong case against wisdom as the solution to life’s difficulties, he now advocates using one’s head to avoid unnecessary pitfalls. David Allan Hubbard explains Kohelet’s reasoning:

He warned us not to bank on wisdom as life’s highest good . . . He was speaking to extremists, to those who touted wisdom as the key to life’s problems, as the pearl of great price for which everything else must be sold. He warned those who praised wisdom to the heavens that it would produce at least as much pain as blessing. He made his misgivings clear about those who overvalue wisdom. Yet nowhere did he celebrate folly. With all its problems, wisdom was to be heartily preferred to folly. Do not let wisdom be your god, but let it be your guide, was his advice.[2]

One of the major domains in which Kohelet recommends letting wisdom be a guide is the use of our mouths. Kohelet warns against speaking ill of those in authority, because words have a way of travelling farther than we intend: “In your bedchamber do not curse a king, and in your sleeping rooms do not curse a rich man, for a bird of the heavens will carry the sound and the winged creature will make the matter known” (10:20). Having the good sense to speak less may preserve one’s reputation and protect us from untold harm. Furthermore, “words from the mouth of a wise man are gracious, while the lips of a fool consume him” (10:12). In this verse Kohelet “says the words of a wise man are literally ‘grace.’”[3] Part of using our mouths wisely means that by our speech “we are either giving grace to others or receiving it.”[4] Once a word is spoken it cannot be reclaimed, so think before letting careless words fly; let the words of your mouth extend grace to others. This is not only a blessing to the listener but good common sense for the speaker.

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                [1] Kinder, The Message of Ecclesiastes, 87.

                [2] Hubbard, Beyond Futility, 102.

                [3] DelHousaye and Brewer, The Personal Journal of Solomon, 188.

                [4] Ibid, 189. The apostle Paul reaffirms this concept in Colossians 4:6.