Ecclesiastes 2:24–3:22 Living By Faith Day By Day

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Living by Faith Day by Day

Ecclesiastes 2:24–3:22

Introduction: Throughout our study through Hebrews while talking about the keys to overcoming apostasy, this text in Ecclesiastes repeatedly came to my mind. The Ecclesiastes Preacher attaches details to how to think clearly and live by faith day by day even in the midst of trials and a crooked world. I find this text to be one of the most important keys to living in faith and hope and joy. The more I have thought about this text connected with Hebrews 11 and the oft repeated statement in Habakkuk, “The righteous shall live by faith,” I have more and more appreciated the need for us to daily keep this concept before our eyes.

1. Principles Leading to the Text
   1. The context is Solomon’s search (1:13). It is a search to discover “what is good for man to do under heaven during the few days of their life” (2:3). This search is typical of all people, and is considered by Solomon as “an unhappy business that God has given the children of man to be busy with” (1:13). Please keep that statement in mind: it is an unhappy business.
   2. In order to illustrate the frustration and vanity, Solomon proclaims: “Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. 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” (2:10). However, in 2:11 he proclaimed that once he had finished his efforts, “behold all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained [no profit] under the sun.” Do not quickly pass over the phrase, striving after wind, or other versions, chasing the wind. The implication is, it is the dumbest thing a person could do.
   3. As a result, Solomon said, “I hated life…” (2:17).
   4. Then, as we get to 2:24, and Solomon has thoroughly depressed us, taking away any hope of finding joy, the Preacher interjects hope by giving us the only alternative to duplicating his vain search. 
2. Seeing the Overall Context
   1. The “Preacher’s” sermon has the intent of turning his people away from the lifestyle that all humanity follows–the attempt to find “profit” or “gain” in this earth-life by one’s own personal strength, mental abilities, or wealth. In the passage above (2:1-11), we see the pronouns “I” used repeatedly as Solomon extols his efforts to find profit under the sun. But in the end, there was nothing to be gained.
   2. However, in 2:24-26 we see a marked contrast. The approach in this text is quite different from the description of Solomon’s life. This person realizes that “apart from God” no one can eat or have enjoyment. And again, twice in verse 26 the emphasis is on the “one who pleases God.” It is to this person that God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy. Instead of trying to attain profit under the sun by one’s personal efforts, this person trusts God, puts God first, and is content with what God provides. This person recognizes that wisdom, knowledge, and joy are not attained by one’s ingenuity, but is a gift from God.
   3. To prove this point, 3:1-9 lists 14 pairs of contrasting events in the lives of humans. This is an excellent description of life following the fall from the Garden. As we read these events we quickly realize that we have no control over any of these, whether they will happen or when they will happen. We simply know that they will happen, and there is no profit for the worker to stop or manipulate these events for ones own benefit.
   4. Therefore, in 3:12-13, the Preacher again asserts that there is nothing better than to be joyful and do good as long as we live. The preacher repeats the principle that joy and pleasure is “God’s gift to man.”
   5. In 3:14, the Preacher gives the reason for God ordering life in this fashion: “Whatever God has done endures forever…so that people fear before him.” In other words, God has created us in a world in which we cannot change the major events of life that would affect our happiness on this earth. The expectation is that a wise person will come to realize the vanity of such a search and instead turn and fear God, knowing that he is the only one who has ultimate control.
   6. The Preacher ends this section of his sermon in 3:22 by repeating the principle a third time. Since no one can bring us to see what will happen after us, there is nothing better for us than to simply rejoice in the labor and lot in life that God has given us. We are to see what God has given as a gift. A gift, especially and gift from God, should be rejoiced in. Only God knows what will happen after us and therefore his gift, whatever it is, can only be a positive.
      James said, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” 
3. Using the Preacher’s Message Living by Faith Day to Day
   1. First, notice that three times in the text the Preacher stated, “There is nothing better…” These words should be a huge motivation for us to quit thinking that there is some possession, some pleasure, some experience that is eluding us and therefore keeping us from the ultimate joy. No person has or will find any greater enjoyment or anything better than what is found by one who devotes his life to pleasing God.
   2. This statement also highlights the importance of contentment. Whatever God has provided, whether little or much, is enough to give us that which is better than anyone else could attain who seeks the Solomon-type lifestyle. 
   3. Further, verse 26 offers us two choices. We can be the sinner who devotes his life to “gathering and collecting” or we can be the one who pleases God and is content with God’s gifts. What is especially interesting is, if we decide to be the the gathering and collecting person, God will take what we have and give to the person who pleases him. And as the Preacher complained, “This also is vanity and a striving after wind.” 
   4. The second lesson we must learn is that there is no permanence to anything in this life. There is a “time to mourn and a time to dance.” Our tendency is to believe what is going on in the present will go on forever. Whether we are presently experiencing good or bad, we get mentally stuck in the present. We think our good days will always be good days, and we think bad days will endure endlessly. Neither is true. Lessons:
      1. We must not think tomorrow will be the same as today. This is where patience and endurance is critical. Just as with the weather, thought today is good, tomorrow may be a day of adversity. And if our present state is adversity, tomorrow may be a day of prosperity. 
      2. This fact warns us against complacency or discouragement. If we are complacent, thinking that life will always be prosperous, trials will rock our world and we are putting our hope in this life instead of faith in God. If we become discouraged and depressed over days of adversity, we again are not living by faith, recognizing that this is the purpose of God.
   5. Ecclesiastes 7:13-14 gives the summation: “Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.” 
4. Final lessons:
   1. 1. God is pushing us to accept the reality of how he has created this earth-life. We cannot create our own fantasy world thinking that we can attain what even Solomon could not attain. To attempt to do so is vanity and striving after the wind. In other words, it is absolute foolishness and it will not give joy.
      2. 3:18-20 challenges us with the lesson on which few people reflect. The ups and downs of life are to teach us that we have no more control over what will happen to us than an animal does. If we will live with this knowledge, we will live by faith, trusting God who does have control. Paul said, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” 

Conclusion: Therefore, “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I say, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” Now what is it that you are pursuing in life that you think is better than that? If so, you are chasing the wind and not living by faith.

Berry Kercheville