CRITICAL NOTES.—
Ecclesiastes 2:24. There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink] Not in the Epicurean sense, worshipping the triad of sensual life—eat, drink, and be merry; but in the sense of a rational and righteous enjoyment. In his labour. Thus it was not the luxurious enjoyment of the idle.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Ecclesiastes 2:24-26
THE WISEST USE OF THE PRESENT WORLD
I. A proper enjoyment of the blessings of life. The good things of this world can never bring us true and lasting happiness if we live for them alone. But we must not despair of finding external happiness even in these, if we use them aright. There must be some lawful means of enjoying the world’s good. The Creator, in His works, has provided both for ornament and delight. We must not be as sulky children, refusing to enjoy ourselves when He invites us. To condemn all that the world offers to cheer the spirit of man, without showing how it may be properly enjoyed, or substituting some other pleasures, would either drive the soul to despair, or plunge it more deeply into unlawful pleasures. The state of our souls determines what is good or bad in pleasure. We project our nature upon the external world. “To the pure, all things are pure.” How are we to enjoy the blessings of this life?
1. They should be subordinated to our higher wants. As long as we remember that they only minister to our lower wants, we preserve the true dignity of our soul. He who has the highest good can rightly and well enjoy the lowest. When pleasure is made the end of life, the soul becomes debased, and unfit for the vision of God. The pure light of heaven in the soul can transfigure all things in life. Christ used the world, but He had superior meat, drink, and joy than He could find here. To Him, the world was a place of duty and trial; but He tasted the world’s pleasures as a “Brook by the way.”
2. They should be used with moderation of desire. “Enjoy good in his labour.” There is a happiness naturally arising out of the things of life. What we force out of them beyond their natural yield will only prove a bitter portion. The path of the wise is ever traced between dangerous extremes.
3. Superior power and facility of enjoyment must not tempt us to abuse them. (Ecclesiastes 2:25.) Solomon had riches and position—means to procure enjoyments. He had the skill to devise exquisite pleasures, and to secure an agreeable variety. But he found that all must be under the control of some exalted purpose. The best gifts of heaven may be abused; but while reason and conscience govern, we are safe.
II. A recognition of the Divine source of the blessings of life. (Ecclesiastes 2:24.)
1. The blessings of this life are the gift of God. They are His provisions for the creature whom He has made. A remembrance of the great source of all our good makes life sacred. To abuse this present world is to take an unfair advantage of infinite kindness. To worship God’s gifts instead of Himself is idolatry. We must use God’s creatures for the same end for which He made them—His glory.
2. The power to enjoy them comes from God. If we can enjoy His gifts with contentment and cheerfulness, this power comes from Him. How soon God may destroy our happiness, by either removing His gifts, or depriving us of the power of enjoying them!
3. Their true value and use can only be known by Divine teaching. If we can taste with grateful cheerfulness what is provided for us here on our way to our superior home, the idea is divinely imparted to us. When we realize the true idea of life, we can best enjoy the world. The repose of mind, and peace of conscience thence arising, are favourable to the truest enjoyment.
III. A conviction that there are Divine provisions for the good. There is an apparent indifference on the part of God to moral distinctious in the human character. Yet there are, even in this life, indications of retributive justice. God will make abundant provision for the man who is “good in His sight.”
1. He will be supplied with the true guiding principle of life. “Wisdom and knowledge.” For lack of these, many leave the best pleasures of life untasted. They are the dupes of imagination and fancy. When our earthly enjoyments are not held in check by a superior guiding power, they turn to vexation and misery. A careful observance of the facts of life, and the wisdom to employ them for the highest ends, will secure for us the purest enjoyments.
2. He will have the rational comforts of life. To him “joy” shall be given; and this depends upon the state of the heart. “A man’s life” (not the sustenance of his life, but the life by which he lives) “consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” Existence is the gift of God’s goodness to all men, but the life of life, the joy and real soul of it, is a mark of His favour.
IV. A conviction that the impious use of the Creator’s gifts is rainous. (Ecclesiastes 2:26.) The sinner, as he riots in pleasure, may appear to have the best of the world, but he is only laying up a store of misery. The justice of heaven is not a wild passion of revenge, but is caim and dignified; and though the sword of God is not in haste to smite, yet, if not averted by repentance, it will descend with fearful destruction upon the sinner. A wrong use of this world must end in utter ruin.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Ecclesiastes 2:24. True piety is opposed to asceticism. Revealed Religion does not destroy the plain truths and duties of nature.
Piety obliges no man to be dull [South].
The common actions of life may be sanctified by a general purpose of consecration to God.
The Creator not only sends us gifts which minister to our use and delight, but even the power to enjoy is also His gift.
Christianity has ennobled many words which once served the uses of superstition by making them the representatives of nobler thoughts. In like manner, the worldly man’s triad—to eat, drink, and be merry—may be ennobled by an abiding intention of pleasing God in all that we do.
Christians may have earthly joy. Let there be no half-remorseful sensations as though they were stolen joys. Christ had no sympathy with that tone of mind which scowls on human happiness. His first manifestation of power was at a marriage feast. Who would check the swallows’ flight, or silence the gush of happy melody which the thrush pours forth in spring? [Robertson.]
Ecclesiastes 2:25. He can best lay down the law of life who is qualified by experience.
I take the original word here used to signify to call or cry aloud, and so should render the verse according to this sense: “Who can call for more freely, who can enjoy more speedily, the good of this life than I can?” And, therefore, who should also be believed rather than I, who deny the enjoying of the good of this life to be the good of man? From hence we may take this lesson, that no one do promise to himself, or take upon himself, those things which those who have been far more able than himself have not been able to perform. And for an instance: let not those promise to themselves heaven who live carelessly in religion, when it is hard for them who are very careful to attain thither [Jermin].
Ecclesiastes 2:26. True goodness is that which can endure in the sight of God.
Here we have:
1. A satisfaction for the intellect—“Wisdom and knowledge.”
2. A satisfaction for the affections—“Joy.”
3. A satisfaction for the conscience—“Good in His sight.”
Man, in the present world, is under the moral government of God, even in his pleasures. No part of his conduct is indifferent, for it has some relation to the formation of character, and therefore to our future destiny.
All the vanity, all the toilings of men after wisdom, happiness and rest, which in so many ways lead men to the grave, where ceases all the distinction which they strive to obtain on earth, are not allotted to the pious man by God; they are a curse which sin has laid upon man, but which God will make a blessing to His chosen ones. For these busy, restless creatures gather and heap up for those who are good in God’s eyes. And these latter shall gratuitously receive by the sinner’s labour what he seeks and finds not, what he labours for and cannot enjoy: wisdom, knowledge, joy. What is the Divine word, and whence are taken this wisdom, knowledge, and joy that in it exist? Are they not honey made by bees in the slain beasts? What are the stories that they tell us but examples of sinner’s toil, of the vanity and folly into which men have fallen? [Hamann.]