And I commended mirth, because there is nothing better for man under the sun than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry; for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God hath given him under the sun.
The Preacher has just watched the wrong people prosper and the right people suffer, and his answer is to praise enjoyment. Is this God's counsel for living, or the best a man can reach when he never looks above the world he can see?
The verse says "under the sun" twice. That short phrase sets the character of the whole book, and it shapes how we read a line like this one.
This expression "under the sun" occurs no less than twenty-eight times in the twelve chapters, and gives the character of the book. It describes life "in Adam," and seeks an answer to the questions, What is best for man? How should he spend his life to be happy on earth? The writer speaks as a human philosopher in his wanderings. Sometimes he gets near the truth, but at other times he is far removed from it. So some passages state man's false conclusions: compare, for example, Ecclesiastes 3:18-22; 7:16-17; 8:15.
The verse begins with "and." It answers what came just before, and one writer explains why God's government looks so uneven now.
Evil abounds and flourishes till the Lord comes. Yet just as surely, the moral government of God secures good to those who fear before Him, and retribution to those who do not fear Him... God is not mocked, nor is man overlooked. But it is not yet the day when righteous power permits no evil and good openly triumphs. That day is kept for the kingdom, just as the kingdom is kept for Christ appearing in glory, and for those who suffered with Him and are then glorified.
One writer reads this praise of mirth as surrender rather than discovery.
He is at the end of his wit. He gave moral lessons, spoke of better things, made his observations and gave his advice. He has a measure of light to judge certain things, but the darkness is too overwhelming. His boasted wisdom has left him stranded completely... Despite the higher tone he took, he is back at his old conclusion, only more emphatic than before... Enjoy life! There is no better thing! Thank God, through revelation we know "the better part," that which satisfies and which abides.
A saying can stand in Scripture without being God's own verdict on the good life.
after
Is this a revelation from God? Is it God's voice telling us that food and drink are, after all, the highest good? Emphatically no! What, then? It is God's inspired record of the extreme folly the wisest of men can fall into when he has no light above his own reason and observation. How good of God to give us a glimpse of this in His inspired record!
Take away the life to come, and the same logic appears in the New Testament.
Suppose we have only this life to think about, and there is no life after death. Then with Paul we might well say, "If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" (1 Cor. 15:32). This is also the conclusion of the writer of Ecclesiastes when he viewed things as "under the sun," without reference to the future life.
Commentators differ here. Some read the words as a false conclusion. Kelly hears real thankfulness in them, since the verse ties the joy to what God gives.
Meanwhile the Preacher again praises a thankful acceptance of what God gives for this present life, in a scene as mixed as this one. He takes it without puzzling over life's riddles, which escape even those who do not sleep day or night. They are beyond man's understanding to solve, however wise he may be. Christ alone clears them up, and the Spirit sent to dwell in all who are His.
If nothing under the sun holds the weight of a human heart, the search has to move.
Turn where you will "under the sun" and you will not find anything the heart can rest on. You must rise on the steady, strong wing of faith to regions "above the sun," to find "a better and an enduring substance"... None but Jesus can give "substance." None but He can "fill." None but He can "satisfy."
- Under — the book says "under the sun" twenty-eight times. That phrase fences in the whole search and explains why this verse aims so low.
- Baffled — the mirth follows a riddle. God's government is real, but its open triumph waits for Christ to appear in glory.
- Recorded — Scripture keeps the conclusion of a wise man with no light from above. God inspired the record; He did not recommend the advice.
- Hollow — take away the life to come, and the words become "let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."
- Above — receive what God gives for this life with thanks. Only Christ, above the sun, fills and satisfies.
When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes),
Here the Preacher — the writer of Ecclesiastes — sets his whole mind on one task. He wants to understand the restless business of human life, right down to the man who never sleeps. The next verse gives his answer: he cannot find it out. Commentators read the two verses together as the honest end of a search made without God's revelation.
One writer sets this search beside the Gentile world's attempt to reach God by thinking. Both end the same way.
Again, the Gentile was left to his own wisdom — so dearly bought — to find out by searching about God. But, says the apostle, "For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe" (1 Cor. 1:21). And yet again, the book of Ecclesiastes shows us a Jew — the wisest man on earth — setting himself on the same quest, to find out by wisdom what God's ways with man are, only in his turn to be utterly baffled (Ecc. 8:16-17).
The verse notes a man whose eyes never close, day or night. One commentator says those sleepless hours solve nothing, and names where the answer does come from.
Meanwhile the Preacher again praises a thankful acceptance of what God gives in this mixed scene, for the life we now live. He praises taking it without puzzling over its riddles. Those riddles escape even people who do not sleep day or night. They are beyond man's power to solve, however wise he may be. Christ alone clears them up, and the Spirit sent to live in all who are His. For He searches everything, yes, the depths of God. But this is lost, just so far as man is trusted with a divided heart.
Learning more about creation, one writer observes, is what taught Solomon how little he knew.
Of the works of creation he had learned a great deal, as is recorded elsewhere; but man is only a finite being, unable to fathom the infinite. This Solomon discovered… There are fields of knowledge beyond man's capacity to explore or even reach. He may, like Solomon, arrive at this point: to learn from all he knows how little he knows. Knowledge gained is the mother of many a question the student cannot answer. He cannot understand even all that he sees around him. Such must always be his condition here. By the light of revelation we can look forward to a day when we shall, but not down here, know as we are known (1 Cor. 13:12).
"The business that is done on earth" includes what people do to each other. A second pain runs underneath the failure to understand: the observer sees clearly and can change nothing.
Turning to investigate the actions of men, he may learn the evils that are done under the sun. He sees the crying injustice, the lawlessness, the frauds, and the many acts of oppression constantly practised among men. And while he sees them, he finds he has no power to stop them… So wisdom may show its owner what is wrong, and make him feel the bitterness of it. All the time he knows he cannot correct it.
The Preacher had moralised and urged better things. One commentator marks where all of it ends.
He is at the end of his wit. He moralised, spoke of better things, made his observations and gave exhortations. He has a measure of light to judge certain things, but the darkness is too overwhelming. His boasted wisdom has left him completely stranded… Then comes the confession of utter helplessness in verse 17. A man, the natural man, cannot find out; he is not able to find out anything.
The search fails not because God has no order, but because the day that shows it has not come.
Evil abounds and flourishes until the Lord comes. Yet God's moral government just as surely secures good to those who fear before Him, and retribution to those who do not… But it is not yet the day when righteous power allows no evil and good openly triumphs. That day belongs to the kingdom, and the kingdom belongs to Christ appearing in glory, with those who suffered with Him then glorified.
- The quest. The wisest man alive tried to reach God's ways by wisdom, and ended baffled. The Gentile world's own thinking hit the same dead end.
- The effort. Losing sleep over it adds nothing; the riddles escape even the man who never rests, however wise he is.
- The limit. A finite mind cannot fathom the infinite. More knowledge only teaches how little we know — until the day we know as we are known.
- The ache. Wisdom shows the injustice and the oppression. It leaves the watcher feeling the bitterness, with no power to fix it.
- The answer. Christ clears up what searching cannot reach, by the Spirit given to His own. The open triumph of good waits for His kingdom.
then I saw that all [is] the work of God, [and] that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun because however man may labour to seek [it] out, yet doth he not find [it]; and even, if a wise [man] think to know [it], he shall not be able to find [it] out.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.