The Law of Diminishing Returns

Is there ever enough?

Let’s look at Ecclesiastes 5:10-12.

10 He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. 11 When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? 12 Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.

The things we want in life are usually good things. There is nothing evil about money, food, sex, wine, pleasure, etc. God made these things good for us to enjoy. The Teacher has written thousands of years ago a lesson that we need to learn more right now and we tend to think of it as the law of diminishing returns.

Basically, it’s like saying we’re looking for the next hit. We’re looking for something that will satisfy us because we do not so much want the thing itself, but we want the feeling or satisfaction that the thing gives us. The thing is often a means to an end.

In our culture of loose sexuality for instance, men especially jump around from girl to girl, not because they care about the girls they are with, but they hope that with a new lover, that they will get that high again that they desire. When the high starts to fade, the relationship fades. This can also happen in our relationships with the idea of “falling in love” where we think once the emotion fades away from the relationship, the relationship has died.

In the case of money, it’s the saying that has been attributed to Rockefeller when asked how much money was enough and was told just a little bit more. Again, the sin is not the money itself. A person can have a lot of money and not be in sin. It is when a lot of money has a person that the person is then in sin.

The Teacher instead praises the man who we look down on as not having anything. The man who simply does his job and rests has a sweet sleep. He has done his job. The man with the most goods can be concerned in insecurity. Does he have enough? What if someone takes what he has?

I think it was Chesterton who said that while there are many things to enjoy in this life, only two things can provide us with unending joy. Those are a person and a story. (Hence, my studies into video games and stories.) In an ideal marriage, it is eternally diving into the ocean of one person instead of the shallow pools of many waters that is meant to bring us constant joy.

That is also a pointer to the triune God that we are meant to eternally dive into one day. That is a being who there is no limit to what He can do to satisfy us and we will always be caught up in His story. Other things are good and we should enjoy them, but enjoy them as pointers to God.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Growing the Harvest

Can you find justice? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

In Ecclesiastes 5:8-9 we read:

8 If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them. 9 But this is gain for a land in every way: a king committed to cultivated fields.

It could strike us as interesting that the Teacher does not say to do anything about the matter. He says pretty much, “That’s life.” People in power have people in power over them and those have people in power over them. If this is Solomon saying this, is this also to some level a self-indictment? Did he realize his own failure to provide for his people at times? After all, the text tells us that silver was so common in Israel that it was considered worthless, but also that Solomon was a harsh ruler in having so many building projects that they wanted his successor to go easier on them.

This does not mean that we should not strive to do something seeing as we live in a different governmental system, but one point the Teacher does want to point out is that it is always a blessing when fields are cultivated. What this means is that as long as the average person can go out and still work the fields and provide for himself, it is still a blessing. That is the basics that are provided.

Note that it does not say that the government should cultivate the fields, but that he should insure that it gets done. Who does that? The king certainly does not go out there himself and work by the sweat of his brow in order to make sure there is food for the harvest. That is for the common people, the ones who the Teacher has just described as oppressed.

In our day and age, it is easy for many people to think that the government owes them XYZ. Instead, the Teacher here just points to the ability of the king to make sure that he is committed to seeing that there is sufficient food. The people are still the ones producing the food, but the king should not be their opponent in this but their ally. The more he can make it easier for the people and put less of a burden on them, the better that he is doing at his job. The people may not always be able to find justice, but hopefully, they can always find a meal.

For us today, we need to ask what is best for the people to provide for themselves. The danger we have is to ask “What is the most compassionate?” instead of asking “What is the most effective?” There are plenty of economic policies that sound kind to the poor, but in the long-term, do not help them. Before you go to the voting booth, make sure that you know what will really help instead of just what has good intentions.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

The Teacher on Vows

Do we keep promises today? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Today, we’re looking at Ecclesiastes 5:4-7.

4 When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. 5 It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. 6 Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? 7 For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.

We have already spoken on dreams, but what about vows? In the past, people could say that their word was their bond. We make jokes about politicians making promises when they’re campaigning and breaking them when they get into office or not following through. If anyone thinks this is just one party, you’re not paying attention. Both of them do it.

The reason we have to write up contracts and work through third parties with them is because people are no longer trustworthy with their word. Once someone breaks their word, there can be cause to question them on everything else. Of course, there can be justifiable grounds at times, but usually, this is not the case.

Marriage is a big example in our society. While it is true that Christians seriously committed to Christianity and being regular church attendees can greatly reduce divorce, divorce is all too common still. I speak as one who has gone through it. I can understand a girl being concerned about dating me if she finds out I’m divorced. “What were the circumstances? What kind of man is he?” Fortunately, I have enough character witnesses as well that can attest to my being the innocent party in the divorce.

Still, this is a problem that we have. Marriage was meant to be a lifelong institution and changing the nature of marriage changed everything. The redefinition of marriage being supposedly between two people of the same sex was not the first major change. No-fault divorce was the first major change. Divorce should not be easy. Keep in mind I am not saying that divorce is never allowable, but I am saying even when it is allowable, it should not be something that can be done casually.

Personally also, this is one reason that I hesitate to make promises on anything. If someone asks me if I promise, I just tell them I will do my best. Anything can happen and I don’t want to have broken my word to someone. If I say I promise something, it is extremely serious at that point.

Also, it’s worth pointing out that while I think the Teacher gives a reductio ad absurdum in a sense in the book, he is not an atheist. He is still within the Israelite tradition as he indicates here. He is certainly right that it is better to make no vow than to make a vow and break it. Jesus said similar in the Sermon on the Mount. Be hesitant with your words before God. If you make a promise, He will hold you to account.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

 

Be Silent

Why are we silent? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Many of you know that one of my main problems with Christianity today is people have the idea that God regularly speaks to them and they need to listen for his voice. Sadly, some people think that’s what’s going on at the start of Ecclesiastes 5. Let’s look at the first three verses:

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. 2  Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. 3 For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words.

The idea is that you go to the house of God, church for us today, and you be silent. Why? Because God is going to speak to you and you are to draw near to listen.

This idea comes with a lot of assumptions.

For one thing, I take it as a very individualistic form of worship, practically the idea of going to church alone. No. When the ancients went to worship, they went with the community and they would hear the priest (Preacher for many of us) speak. The sacrifice of fools would likely then be speaking things out of ignorance.

Watch what you say before God. When we pray in our churches, I often wish we would watch what we say better. Consider someone who starts off a prayer praying and saying “Thank you for sending your Son for us.” Okay. That’s fine. Then just a few moments later they say, “Thank you for dying on the cross.”

If you were addressing Jesus, yes, but you just said “Thank you for sending your Son,” which means the Father. Then you said “Thank you for dying on the cross.” The Father did not die. The Son did. Some might consider this a minor quibble on my part, but we have churches full of people who have a poor idea of the doctrine of the Trinity and this does not help the problem.

Finally, the Teacher talks about dreams. Unfortunately, so do too many other Christians. Many of us can dream the strangest things. I wake up somedays remembers bits of a dream I had and wondering “What on Earth was going on in my head last night?’

Unfortunately, too many Christians seem to think that most every dream is somehow a message from God and they need to find out what that message is. While God could speak in a dream, there will be a context so that someone would know it was from Him. My ex-wife spent so much time trying to figure out what a dream went and I always told her, “If only you spent as much time trying to understand Scripture which you know comes from God as you do these dreams which could come for any other number of reasons.”

The basic lesson is really to come to the house of God in awe. Remember who He is. Remember who you are in comparison. Do not try to act rashly and impress him with a great vow. The more you speak, the more prone you are to say something foolish. Pastors also remember this for your sermons. Make sure you especially do not say foolish words as your congregation could take the statements that are foolish as if they were gospel.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

 

A Foolish King

What do you do about a foolish ruler? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

In Ecclesiastes 4:13-16, we read about a wise boy who goes from poverty to wealth and a foolish king who doesn’t take advice. As I wrote about this:

Verses 4:13-16 describes a boy who gets a following when a king refuses a warning, a possible hint at what happened in Solomon’s life if he thinks about how he refused to repent after his failure of having multiple wives and concubines. Goldingay thinks this is a parable, but it could have some historical referent.[1] The story also contains similarities to the story of Joseph in the sense of a young boy who gains the power of the throne. Either way, the Teacher says that all those born under the sun followed the king’s successor. Those who came after found no pleasure in the successor, which he describes also as meaningless and chasing after the wind.

[1] Goldingay, 252.

There are two figures that could fit. One could be Joseph who though he was wealthy with his father, when he got sold into slavery in Egypt, he was poor and wound up in prison. It was through his wisdom and his faithfulness to YHWH that he came to be second in command to Pharaoh, definitely a position of wealth and honor.

By contrast, we can look at bonehead Rehoboam, as I prefer to call him. Some could think that this writing could indicate a later writer than Solomon who has witnessed Rehoboam. I’m still inclined to think Solomon wrote this and it was just a tragedy that it happened in the life of his own son.

By contrast, Joseph was a constantly godly figure who suffered though largely innocent. ( I say largely because flaunting the position he had with his Dad and talking about his dreams with his brothers was probably not the wisest move on his part.) He was sold into slavery and from there, he went into prison. While one would think he would meet his end there, unbelievably, his next stop was being put second in command to Pharaoh.

Such a figure should be remembered forever in the land of Egypt!

Alas, Exodus tells us what happened. Eventually, a Pharaoh came around and the legacy of Joseph was not remembered by the Egyptians. While the Israelites were still present on the sands of Egypt, the sands of history had lost record of the great leader. Of course, God brought His people out of Egypt, but the point is Solomon knew that in the land that God had done so much for previously through Joseph, he was a forgotten figure.

In the end, the sad reality is that Rehoboam and Joseph are both known to students of Scripture for different things, but while one had an effect for good and the other had an effect for evil, both of them by the mainstream culture are largely forgotten about. This does not mean that their effects ceased to exist, but it does mean that their names like Ozymandius’s, can disappear.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

The Value of Friendship

Do friends make everything better?

Rarely does the Teacher praise and celebrate something. When he does, we need to pay attention. In Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, he does, and that something is friendship.

9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! 11 Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? 12 And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

It has been said that you do not have to have friends to live. You will never go to a doctor who will prescribe you 10mg of friendship, for instance. However, while you do not have to have friends to live, it can be questioned if life is worth living without friends.

Often, family are people that we probably wouldn’t even care about at all if we were not related to them and then, they can become indispensable. Meanwhile, friends are people who come into your life and are in it because they choose to be in it for whatever reason. While you can form friendships on a utilitarian basis, such as reaching a common goal together, the best of friendships come with those who build one another up in character and aid them in difficult times.

When I started going through my divorce, having friends around was essential for me. I had people I knew who had walked down the path of divorce before and were there to guide me through it. I joined a support group for people walking through divorce.

I moved to a new campus in a new city and new state. Who do I have to rely on? Friends. There are things I cannot do for myself due to physical disability, namely having a steel rod on my spine. When I order packages with pet supplies for little Shiro, I have to have a friend bring them up the stairs to my apartment because I cannot lift them on my own. I also count on my friends to guide me in social situations.

I also treasure that many of the professors here on campus have become people I can call friends. I have one that has had me join him for trivia night at another location on a monthly basis and even came to his house to play Diplomacy with him and some other professors. I have another who really understands video games and we have connected through that. My boss and I now get along great.

Then, there’s the medium of the internet. Because of this, I have met people who I would not have any chance of ever meeting in real life most likely. I get together with an Aquinas group on Thursday nights via Zoom as one of the token Protestants to make sure they don’t fall into heresy and answer Bible questions. I have supporters who reach out to me and scholars and others I have met first through this medium.

The Teacher is right here. Friends make everything better. To those of you who are out there and I count as friends, thank you. I treasure you.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Is Work A God?

Do we idolize work? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Today, we’re looking at two verses from Ecclesiastes 4:

7 Again, I saw vanity under the sun: 8 one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, “For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?” This also is vanity and an unhappy business.

Let’s start with talking about feminism. Many women today have been bought a lie that says that they can have everything that a man has the same way. They just have to make the sacrifice of not having children in the sake of pursuing a career. News flash. Men and women are different. A man can father children all throughout his lifetime. A woman has a certain limited timeframe and too many women are putting off children in the name of pursuing a career and then finding later on when they are alone that they regret it.

After all, you have the career and then…..what? What do you have to show after that? This does not mean that all men or women have to get married and have children to have a positive impact on the world, but if you are pursuing a career just for the sake of a career, you are selling yourself short.

Meanwhile, if you have riches and no one after you, why are you putting in all this work? Why not indeed kick back and enjoy your life? Let someone else take over the reins of your company, have enough to live on, and take time to enjoy the world that God created. In our country today, we often think we have to be working to be doing something productive.

I have a substack that I encourage you all to subscribe to called The Gaming Theologian and I recently wrote this piece. In it, I wrote about the death of George Wendt, most famous for playing Norm Peterson on Cheers. I contended that while Wendt could likely say the most important thing he did in his life was be a husband and a father, if someone thought his life was not used since he gave it to acting, they would be wrong. Wendt was part of a field that gave us stories, several small stories that turned out to be part of a larger story about a simple neighborhood tavern. Those stories united us so much that for the series finale, 93 million people tuned in.

Work, but make sure you know what you are working for. Do not work just for the sake of work. Your true identity is not to be found in your work. Your true identity is to be found in Christ. If all you do is work and then have no one to pass it on to, someone else will take what you worked all your life on and you will be forgotten in the sands of history.

Next time, we will look at one of my favorite topics, friendship.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

 

 

The Sin of Envy

What makes envy so different? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

We read the following in Ecclesiastes 4:4-6:

4 Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

5 The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh.

6 Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.

Envy is a strange sin in comparison to all the others. Murder is a sin, but one can understand why someone would want to, for instance, in the case of getting revenge for a perceived wrong done to them. Such a person could delight in eliminating someone whom they do not like.

Theft is a sin, but one can understand the desire to have wealth. Adultery is a sin, but one can understand the desire to have sex. Pornography is a sin, but one can understand the desire to look at the naked human form outside of a marital covenant. I am not saying that these are right to do, but we can understand why people do them. The reason we commit sin is normally that we think that we get something out of it.

Envy is different.

I don’t know anyone who has ever enjoyed envy. Envy causes us to look at someone with animosity and wish we had what they had. To some extent, I do not think wanting what someone else has is always a bad thing. This is why we have role models and mentors. There are people we are told to emulate. I think it is fine for me to look at people with good marriages and say “I want that”, but it is not right for me to look at them and say “I hate that you have that and I don’t!”

In this passage, we deal with the case of envy. The man who works and works but does so out of envy has done something meaningless. He could reach his goal, but then what? HIs desire wasn’t so much the good of the object desired, but rather the being superior to his fellow man in having it, or at least being equal.

The Teacher contrasts this with the fool, a term that shows up in the Proverbs. This is the person who doesn’t do any work and in the end, his own body dies. Still, the Teacher says that it is better to have peace in what one does than to do work out of envy. Envy is something that will destroy a person from within.

If you want something, it is important to ask why you want it. If you want it just because the other person has it, then you do not really want it and it will bring you no joy to acquire it. If your wanting it leads you to work hard and become a better person while still delighting in what the other person has and being able to be happy for them, then you are on a better path. As a man struggling with the divorced life, this is something I have to remind myself of regularly. When other people marry, they are not hurting me intentionally or depriving me. Indeed, I try to give students who are getting married here advice to make sure they stay married and offer any help to them I can along the way.

Envy profits no one. It is the one sin that brings us no pleasure when we commit it.

Next time, we’ll look more at the question of work.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Where’s The Justice?

It’s not just a musical number.

At the start of this section, the Teacher asks a question about justice.

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.

As I said about this in my own research:

Ecclesiastes 4:1 continues the problem of corrupt judges with the poor having an oppressor and no one to comfort them. The idea of a comforter and the poor being oppressed shows up twice while the tears of the oppressed show up only once. This could indicate that the standout shows what the Teacher wants the audience to focus on. Under the sun, the poor suffer and no help comes. He says he considers the dead happier than those alive, but better still those not yet been born to see what goes on under the sun. The Teacher looks and sees injustice in the courts and suffering by the poor and sees a great evil.

Justice is a powerful cry in our world. The musical Death Note actual has the main antagonist sing about it as his theme song.

In our political climate today, it is easy to just tag the word “justice” on to something and it gets traction. Social justice. Racial justice. Economic justice. Environmental justice. After all, no one is against justice. Right?

The Teacher in this case is concerned about legal justice. He sees the poor as being oppressed by those in power and considers them so bad off that those who are dead are better off than they. He goes even further then and says that while the dead are better off, those who have not been born are still better off because they have not seen what goes on under the sun.

Again, as I will expound on later, when we see under the sun in the text, we should see the Teacher as speaking about this mortal realm. He is also speaking about it I contend apart from divine revelation. That does not mean that he is an atheist, but it means that this is as far as you can go without any special revelation. The Teacher is a realist. He does not sugarcoat anything. He sees a dark world and if my analysis of Ecclesiastes 2 is any indication, he longs for a world where somehow, we can get back to Eden. He sees how far we have fallen. It could be that we need to see how utterly hopeless our situation is before we see what the hope we have really is.

Next time, we will look at what the text has to say about envy.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Death Awaits You!

What happens when it comes? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Part of my idea of Ecclesiastes is that the writer is showing what can be known from reason alone and without the idea of revelation. If so, what happens when we get to the end of chapter 3? First, the Teacher says:

16 Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. 17 I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work. 18 I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. 19 For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. 20 All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? 22 So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?

In my writing on this, I looked throughout the book at the phrase “under the sun”, which shows up here. As I said there:

In this reference, the Teacher speaks about seeing wickedness in the place of judgment which Ryken says refers to a courthouse. The problem consists not just in that injustice exists where justice should take place, but also that no remedy exists for the problem.[1] Even if corrupt judges get replaced by good judges, those can also get replaced by more corrupt judges or become corrupt themselves. As said by Lord Acton, “Power corrupts.” Psalm 82 gives an example of these kinds of people who consider themselves gods of judgment, but they will die like mere men.

[1] Philip Graham Ryken, Ecclesiastes (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2010), 100-101.

Death comes to the wicked and the powerful, but it comes to everyone else. It also comes to the beast. The Teacher asls who knows which way the spirit goes when a person dies. The same applies to animals. It is for reasons like this that I think the Teacher is taking a viewpoint that what if all you have is the wisdom of the world. What will that get you? If anything, it could be a reductio ad absurdum for the meaningfulness of God in a Christian’s life.

The Teacher is a realist. Death changes everything. An atheist today could say “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die!” The Teacher could agree, but would not be able to let go of that last part. “Tomorrow, we die.” If we die tomorrow, what was the meaning of today?

The Teacher is raising hard questions, questions everyone needs to think about and questions we will think about as our study continues.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)