What if you can’t enjoy something? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
Chapter 6 starts off with another great evil the Teacher has seen:
There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: 2 a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil. 3 If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life’s good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. 4 For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. 5 Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. 6 Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good—do not all go to the one place?
As I wrote about it:
Ecclesiastes 6:1, starts with a case of a man who has great wealth but cannot enjoy it and strangers end up enjoying it. As Garrett says “Nothing is more pitiful than to be rich but unable to enjoy it; no amount of prosperity can make up for a life without joy.”[1] Garrett also says that the speaking of a hundred children and such a long life represents Hebrew hyperbole. The Teacher presents a man with everything he wants materially, children to ensure his name carries on, and a long life, but unless the man can enjoy his wealth and have a proper burial, a stillborn child has the better deal. A proper burial matters since in the ancient world, how one died and received burial spoke about how the community viewed their life such that if a man dies without an honorable burial, what profit does he have?
Yesterday, I wrote that the Teacher says it was good to enjoy life, but notice that he not only says that, but he says here it’s a tragedy if you can’t. Life is meant to be enjoyed. If you have 100 sons and have all the wealth, but you do not enjoy your life, what good is it?
Let’s take time to consider this people. This is in the Bible. This is the book that belongs to us that people usually think are stick-in-the-muds who just want to suck the fun out of everything. The Teacher commands us to enjoy life. If you have everything in the world and you have not enjoyed your life, it would have been better for you if you had been stillborn in the womb.
Ecclesiastes is often seen as a depressing book, but in many ways, it’s also a joyous book. It faces life realistically. In an odd way, Ecclesiastes is also a book about joy. It teaches us the importance of seeing the world as it is and then saying “How are you going to live in this fallen world?”
The Teacher recommends enjoying your life.
I’m inclined to agree.
In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)
[1] Duane A. Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (vol. 14; The New American Commentary; Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1993), 315.