Go, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God hath already accepted thy works.
Ecclesiastes 9 opens with a bleak picture. The same thing happens to the righteous and the wicked, and the grave closes over both. Then comes a sudden command: go and enjoy your food and drink. The reason given for it sounds almost like the gospel.
The command comes right after the writer has traced every human path to the same end. That end makes the advice necessary. It also shows how dim the light was then.
Death is the end of everything here below. But in Him is life, and those who believe have that life in Christ. Before He came, death could only be dreadful, because the light beyond it was so dim, even to a believer... Now we can call death gain, and far better than the life of this world, because it means to depart and be with Christ... So comes the advice to accept and enjoy with thanks what God gave "all the days of your vain life."
The reason given — "God has already approved what you do" — carries the whole verse. One writer points out the order. God approves the works because He has first approved the worker.
God accepts the person, and so He accepts his works. He cannot accept the works and not the person, because "the prayer of the wicked is detestable in His sight." But those whom God accepts have good reason to rejoice. He now accepts not only them, but their works as well.
Another writer makes the same point from Job. God's verdict fell on the man himself, not on anything he had done.
"The Lord accepted Job." It does not say that the Lord accepted his acts, or his works, or anything connected with him. It says He accepted the man himself. And that is just what we want. The moment our souls wake up to what God is and what we are, we want to know that God accepts us. Until we know that, we may try to clothe ourselves with our acts and our works. But once we have really come into God's presence, we clothe ourselves with nothing, and then we sense God's favour.
Read as a word to the believer, the verse makes joy a duty. That duty covers the plain routines of eating and working.
He is not to doubt that his sins are forgiven, or that God accepts him in the Beloved. He is to be happy in knowing these things... He stands as a pardoned sinner, accepted and born again of the Spirit. So God now accepts his works. He is, then, to eat and drink with joy. He is to take up the everyday duties of life with a happy heart, as to the Lord.
The verse names bread and wine. One writer follows those two words through Scripture.
When we find "bread" and "wine" mentioned in Scripture, we can usually be sure that the Holy Spirit is reminding us of Him who said, "I am the bread of life." Christ is the Christian's food... We cannot eat a loaf until it is broken. In the same way, we could not feed on Christ until His body was broken.
Not everyone hears God's invitation here. Some read these words as the conclusion of a man whose view stops at this life.
So, because "death ends it all" — that unbelievable conclusion of the man without God — make the best of life... Is this also "revelation" for faith to follow, or is there something better from above the sun? The New Testament gives a wonderful answer to that question.
That reading rests on a phrase that runs through the book. Ecclesiastes weighs everything "under the sun," and one writer says what follows.
Notice carefully that this is only making the most of every material thing "under the sun" — that is, looking at things from an earthly viewpoint alone. So it teaches us that, apart from what God has revealed, man's history is hopeless misery.
If God commands joy, why do so many believers lack it? One writer points not to circumstances but to a lost grip on Christ.
Why do God's dear children not rejoice more? Because they are not believing the precious words of Christ, not living on Christ, not feeding on Christ, not drawing on the fullness of Christ, not grasping their acceptance and standing in Christ... So passing things fill the mind too much. Painful circumstances drag our spirits down in a moment, and pleasant things lift them up just as fast.
- Accepted first. God takes the person, then the work — never the other way round. He turns away a wicked man's prayer because He has not taken the man.
- Then commanded. Acceptance is settled first, so joy is not a mood here but an order: eat, drink and work with a happy heart.
- Then ordinary. This joy reaches bread, wine and the daily routine, done as to the Lord — and Scripture's bread and wine point to Christ, the Christian's food.
- Then guarded. Joy fades when we stop feeding on Christ. Then circumstances lift us and crush us by turns.
- But bounded. Commentators differ. Some hear God inviting a believer. Others hear a man making the best of a life that ends in the grave, since the book weighs everything "under the sun."
Let thy garments be always white, and let not thy head lack oil.
Ecclesiastes 9 has just said that one event comes to everyone — the righteous and the wicked, the clean and the unclean. Then it tells the reader to dress in white and oil his head. Is that the shrug of a man who sees no further than death? Or is it God's word about joy?
The chapter has just closed every door beyond the grave. One writer reads the counsel against that limit, and says what Christ changed.
Death is the end of everything here below; but in Him is life, and those who believe have it in Christ. Before He came, death could not help being dreadful — the light beyond was so dim even to the believer. Now we can call death gain, and far better than the life of this world, for it means departing to be with Christ. But in the old days the present life was the sphere of knowledge and activity, and death shut it in darkness. So the advice is to accept and enjoy thankfully what God gave "all the days of the life of your vanity."
Commentators differ. Another reads the same words as the verdict of a man reasoning without God's revelation.
Because "death ends it all" — that unbelievable conclusion of the natural man — make the best of life. … Dress spotlessly in the height of fashion, be well groomed, put ointment on your head. … Is this also "revelation" for faith to follow, or is there something better from above the sun? The New Testament gives a blessed answer to this question.
Joy rests on being accepted by God. And acceptance runs one way only.
God accepts the person, and therefore his works. He cannot accept the works and not the person, for "the prayer of the wicked is an abomination in His sight." But those whom God accepts may well rejoice, because He now accepts not only their persons but also their works.
As a picture of the Christian life, white clothing calls for watchfulness. The road we walk makes that warning necessary.
The garments of salvation are pure and spotless. The world we travel through on our wilderness journey is unclean and defiling, and our evil flesh is easily worked on by Satan; so we are told to keep our garments unspotted. If our children were dressed in white and costly clothes, and we sent them to walk along a muddy road, we would surely warn them to be careful how they walked and to watch that they did not dirty their clothing. So our heavenly Father, having put on us "the best robe," tells us that the world we walk through is evil and lying in the wicked one, and charges us to be watchful, so that our garments may always be white.
White also shows every stain.
White is a symbol of purity… Spots are plain on a white garment. So the Lord counsels us "to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself."
Garments do get dirty. Alongside the once-for-all washing, there is a daily cleansing.
Washed from our sins in His blood once for all, we continually need the word applied by the Spirit to our walk and ways… By the Holy Spirit He brings His word home to every attentive believer. So we are led to confess the sins of our walk when we fail in communion, and we receive forgiveness from God our Father in His government of our souls day by day.
The word behind "ointment" tells us what kind of occasion this is.
It is used for "fatness, oil, spiced oil," and so "ointment." On joyful occasions people anointed the head with it, Psalm 133:2. Elsewhere it is called the "oil of gladness," Psalm 45:7.
For the believer, the oil is what others notice. Its absence explains a religion with little of Christ in it.
Some people of the world do not consider themselves fully dressed unless they have perfumed themselves with some pleasant scent, and wherever they go they leave traces of it. So the true Christian is not only made the righteousness of God in Christ; he is anointed with the Holy Spirit — "you have been anointed by the Holy One." … That is why many talk so much about Christianity with hardly any reference to Christ. Some preach a long sermon, and if Christ is named at all, He is only briefly mentioned at the end. Others write on religious subjects with Christ-less pages. If such people are really God's, it is because their heads lack ointment.
- Setting. Death shuts the whole view in darkness here. Commentators differ: is this God's word to enjoy His gifts, or the natural man's "make the best of it"?
- Accepted. God accepts the person first, and his works after — never the other way round.
- White. God gives the robe clean. The road is muddy, so watch — spots show on white.
- Washed. The blood washes the sinner once for all. Then the word, brought home by the Spirit, keeps the walk clean day by day.
- Fragrant. Oil marks glad days. A head that lacks it leaves us with a religion that hardly names Christ.
Enjoy life with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity; for that is thy portion in life, and in thy labour wherein thou art labouring under the sun.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, whither thou goest.
Solomon has just been looking at death, which comes to everyone alike. Now he turns from that dark fact to a command: work now, with all your strength. That raises two questions. Why should a short life make us work harder? And what do the words about Sheol teach about the dead?
The book argues from what a person can see in this world. One writer shows why a life that ends in darkness leads to a call for urgency:
Death is the end of all here below; but in Him is life, and those who believe have it in Christ. Before He came, death could only be dreadful. Even for a believer, the light beyond was that dim. In those days this present life was the whole field of knowledge and activity, and death closed it in darkness… So the call was to be earnest in what lay before each person.
The lesson here is practical. It is not a description of what happens to the soul after death:
So the moral is: be busy now. Work stops in the grave. There is no wisdom there for this busy scene, no heart that plans, no planning head. All true in its way. But this was man's musings, not divine revelation of the state of the dead at all, nor given as such. Had you asked this man what he knew of that, he would have said, as he did say, Who knows? "Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward?" He saw the dust laid in the tomb, and that was all he knew. The rest was conjecture, nothing more.
Another writer answers those who use the verse to prove the dead are unconscious:
Yes, but this is NOT revelation. It is the inspired record of what Solomon summed up about his knowledge of things "under the sun." He was looking at things as they affected his work, knowledge and wisdom in the affairs of this life. For people alive on earth, such things do not reach beyond this life.
Nothing starts or finishes in the grave. So the most important business of a life will not wait:
You die only once, and after death there is nothing left to do. If you die without repenting, there is no repenting in the grave. If you leave your work at death half done, there is no finishing it in the grave.
Solomon tells his reader to enjoy the present. One writer shows what shadows that enjoyment, and what later removed the shadow:
Yes, let him enjoy himself in the present, but there is "a dead fly in the ointment" (10:1). The dark future is looming up. Days of darkness are coming for him — that is the grave. Human reason, philosophy and science cannot bring light into this baffling darkness, and nothing else can either. "All that comes is vanity!" But thank God, through revelation we know more. Some believe what God has revealed, and believe on the One God has sent. He is the propitiation for our sins, and He conquered death and the grave. For them, "all that comes is glory!"
The command covers your daily work. But that energy needs the right aim:
Yes — working hard honours God. A lazy Christian is a disgrace to the coat he wears. But it is one thing to do our work with all our heart. It is another to be so taken up with it that Christ is shut out… Start by running your business as the Lord's steward. Work for His glory first, not for your own profit. Then the dull routine of business has a halo of glory around it. Ordinary actions take on a dignity that makes a crown and sceptre look like nothing at all.
Elsewhere the same phrase is used to define how wide "business" reaches:
The "business," I suppose, means whatever might claim a believer's just attention — "whatever your hand finds to do." The wisdom of urging simply "not slothful," as to such matters, is most obvious. On the other hand, the word is "fervent in spirit," not in business. The one refers to the outward, the other to the inner life… We are to redeem the time or opportunity, but to serve the Lord.
Solomon's motive was that everything stops at death. There is a motive that runs the other way:
We know, with Solomon, that what God does He does for ever. It is certain therefore that if God establishes upon us the work of our hands it will be forever. Just think of it! You and I have at this moment the opportunity of putting our hands to work, the results of which will never disappear. The work of kings and statesmen, of conquerors and diplomats and builders of big business, is nothing compared with it.
- Vantage — The verse looks at life "under the sun," where death closes all activity in darkness. That view is what makes the call urgent.
- Limit — "No work in Sheol" teaches be busy now. It does not reveal the state of the dead. Solomon himself asked, "Who knows?"
- Urgency — No half-done work gets finished in the grave, and no one repents there. That business belongs to today.
- Light — Solomon saw only coming days of darkness. For those who believe in the One who conquered death and the grave, "all that comes is vanity" becomes "all that comes is glory."
- Might — Work with all your heart, as the Lord's steward and for His glory. What God establishes through your hands will never disappear.