Should you enjoy it while you can? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
Chapter 11 of Ecclesiastes is short so we’ll wrap it up with the last few verses today.
7 Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.
8 So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.
9 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
10 Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.
The first one is easy enough to see. It’s pleasant to see the things of this world. We should never forget the value of sight and especially of beauty. God created a world full of beautiful things, things that reflect His nature as the being of supreme beauty.
Often, the Teacher is depicted as negative, but in many ways, he is positive as well. He encourages joy in life while you have it. However, he could be saying here to not take it for granted. Yes. You have lived a long life. However, when your time comes, you will be dead for much longer.
This could be a good point to talk about the resurrection. Ecclesiastes seems to have no hope of resurrection in it. My contention is this book is a sort of reductio that the Teacher is given based on what God had revealed at the time. We could say that this book actually points us to the necessity of Christ.
So what is going on is that if you have just wisdom, you can’t get the doctrine of the resurrection from that. You could get the hope, but not the promise of it. There are some doctrines about God, such as the Trinity, that you cannot get from reason alone. Sitting on your armchair thinking all day will not get you to the fact that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity and died and rose again.
Moving on, the Teacher encourages the young man to enjoy his life again, but there is a caution here. Jews knew that God will judge you when your time comes. So if you want to go out there and fool around, you can do that, but you will have to give an account to God of what you did while in the body.
Vexation can refer to anger or grief or sorrow. Perhaps we should take it to refer to any strong emotion that can be destructive. There is a time and place for it, but it should not be allowed to control us. Youth often leads to vanity, as many of us remember when we were younger and as many parents of younger children know today.
Next time, we start the final chapter.
In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)
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