Lesson 7                                      

Ecclesiastes

The Things That Don't Work!

 

INTRO: In the next two paragraphs Solomon gives us a more in-depth analysis of the experiments he has already performed.   (2:12-17;  2:18-23)

What he gives us is a true analysis, a true appraisal of his experience of the ultimate and the best of life,  the value of life apart from God’s revealed grace resources and what it can offer the natural unregenerate person or the revernsionistic believer.

 

2:12  So I turned (the idea here is that he stopped his activity and experimentation to evaluate the results he had obtained more thoroughly.)

 

to consider wisdom, madness and folly;

- makes a mental comparison - which is the best course to pursue in life.

 

for what will the man do who will come after the king except what has already been done?

 

His conclusions:

2:13  And I saw that wisdom excels folly  (yatar - advantge - profit)

 

The analogy he gives shows the breadth of the difference between the two!

    as light excels darkness.

 

- the wise person goes thru life with their eyes wide open – using clear thinking, discernment,  while the fool operates as if in a dark room....no clue as to what is coming next.

 

2:14  The wise man's eyes are in his head, 

- shows discernment and recognizes the pitfalls of life 

but the fool walks in darkness.  

- the fool has no discernment

 

     And yet I know that one fate befalls them both.

 

- the implication is that he is not the first to come to this conclusion. 

 

 

2:15  Then I said to myself, "As is the fate of the fool, it will also befall me. Why then have I been extremely wise?"

 

- The question he raises here is where is the long term advantage to having wisdom? - The answer is there is none! 

 

So I said to myself, "This too is vanity."    (HEBEL)  futility – here  with the idea of being senseless, makes no sense to man that both  have the same end.

 

 

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Apart from DVPT - wisdom alone is unfulfilling.  

- He fails to see God's purpose in anything – even His control of history.

 

2. Solomon has left out the true basis of evaluation in his analysis,  the Word of God..  which sheds light on every human endeavor.

 

2:16  Man wise or foolish dies and is forgotten

For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise man as with the fool, inasmuch as in the coming days all will be forgotten.

 

 

 

** Solomon says to us don't build your happiness on a straw hope, that is that you'll long be remembered,  you won't - neither will I.

 

2:17 His attitude after thorough reflection on his pursuits

So I hated life, (word for hate sane' – strongest word for rejection, here describes an emotional attitude towards things or people one is opposed to, detests or despises;

 

Next he explains why he despised and detested life.

for the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me;

 

because everything is futility and striving after wind.

 

 

2:18-21  Question of one’s legacy  

His view point expressed in this section is that perhaps my perspective will change if I build a great estate to leave to my heirs - maybe that will give satisfaction.

 

2:18  Thus I hated  (same as in 2:17) all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me.

 

 

2:19  And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool?

- This is the where the futility lay - in not knowing whether his heir would be a wise man or a fool.

 

Yet he will have control  (rule, mastery)  over all the fruit of my labor for which I have labored by acting wisely under the sun.

 

This too is vanity.   (hebel)

2:20  Therefore I completely despaired, 

- The thought of turning all of his possessions over to someone else  - put him into depression; word is  ya'sh - (piel very intense)

 

Even though he didn't live to see the results he must have had some clues as to the outcome.

 

2:20 Therefore I completely despaired of all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun.

 

 

2:21  When there is a man who has labored with wisdom, knowledge and skill, then he gives his legacy to one who has not labored with them. This too is vanity and a great evil.

 

-  great evil = ra’ah h['r' - evil, misery, distress (1:13, 2:17 grievous task)  same use here to describe something that brings misery, distress great pressure on an individual

 

2:22  For what does a man get in all his labor and in his striving with which he labors under the sun?

 

 

2:23  Because all his days his task is painful and grievous; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is vanity.