THE BETTER LIFE, LIVED UNDER THE SON

“The Remedy for a Plague of the Soul”
Ecclesiastes 6:1-12
Bob Bonner
February 28, 1999

The first British explorers to traverse Australia were led by one Hamilton Hume. While leading his band of pathfinders from Sydney to Melbourne, they experienced a great crisis. They came face to face with a range of mountains now known as the Hume Range. Utterly worn out, the party begged Hamilton Hume to be allowed to give up and return home. Hume pointed to a high mountain just ahead and said, “No, we must climb that. From that summit I’m sure we’ll see the ocean and can go back and tell others of our success.” So after a desperate struggle they climbed the mountain. But when they reached the top, imagine their utter despair when all they could see were miles and miles of ridges and gullies, all covered with trees. The goal they had dreamed about was not even is sight. What had begun as a joyous adventure had turned into a nightmare. It is to their everlasting credit that they kept on going and finally did arrive. But when they had left, they had named that mountain, Mount Disappointment.

Many of us have had to face our own Mt. Disappointment that has stolen either temporarily or in some cases permanently our ability to find real satisfaction in living. We have dreamed about an ideal vacation trip that turned into a nightmare. Or, maybe it was an assumed fact of life that you would be married someday and have a family, only to discover for one reason or another that this was not to be or you had a marriage and family, but it turned out to be the most dysfunctional group of people one could have imagined. As a result, life became such a disappointment, that life seemed like a waste of time. Or maybe, since the days of your youth you knew what you wanted to be when you grew up, only to have that dream snatched away from you at the last minute by some bizarre circumstance.

 I’m thinking of a young man whose desire since he was a child was to be in the United States Navy. As he got older what he really wanted to do was to become a Navy Seal, a highly trained specialist who would be assigned top secret missions behind enemy lines. The day finally came when this enlisted sailor had been accepted as a candidate for the seal program. All he had to do to pass the first stage of qualification was to score well on his target practice. This should have been no big deal because he had been raised on big game hunting since he was old enough to hold a gun. However, maybe it was nerves, who knows, but his performance on the shooting range turned out to be poor and he knew it. When he turned in his scorecard to his Lieutenant he remarked, “I feel like shooting myself. Look at that score!” The lieutenant looked at the scorecard and said, “You had better take two bullets!”

Many have been handed life on a platter, but still have not found it to be enjoyable or deeply satisfying. They have had their dream vacations realized, they have gained the careers they always wanted, they married the man or woman of their dreams, but in the end those things didn’t satisfy the longing of their souls.

No one in history had more of this world’s goods and pleasures given to them, with more bells and whistles than King Solomon. Yet as you read his personal journal, the book of Ecclesiastes, you soon discover that even with all of what this world has to offer placed at his feet, he still could not enjoy what God had given him. As king, he was deeply disillusioned with life. Our passage for this morning, Ecclesiastes 6, deals with this widespread plague of disillusionment that keeps many from enjoying the life that God has given to us.

In verses 1-2, Solomon introduces us to this plague upon the human soul.

Then, in verses 3-9, Solomon tries to remedy this disease from what he can learn from his own experience and from what he can gather from the wisdom he has collected from his own experiences in life. He identifies this wisdom as coming from “under the sun”; all of which proves to be futile in the end. He records for us what he tried, so that we might learn from his experience.

Then in verses 10-12, we find Solomon going back to his journal later in life and editing it at this point, to show us what the real remedy is. He now sees things more clearly and proposes the only solution or remedy to this plague of disillusionment and inability to enjoy life. This remedy is found only when we submit our lives to the living God, the remedy of life lived from “under the Son.”

Let’s begin our study with looking at Solomon’s description of this plague on the human soul in verses 1-2. Realize that as we are reading these verses, you are looking a self-portrait of a troubled king---a king who at this time in his life had turned his back on God, to search out the answers to the meaning of life on his own. This is not some philosophical discussion about someone’s imaginary condition being held in the hallowed halls of a university somewhere. These verses are speaking to the life Solomon was living at that moment. He tells us, “There is an evil which I have seen [or I have experienced] under the sun and it is prevalent among men [“prevalent = weighty, heavy or great problem among humanity] – a man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor so that his soul lacks nothing of all that he desires, but God has not empowered him to eat from them, for a foreigner [or a stranger] enjoys [eats] them. This is vanity and a severe affliction [evil disease that eats away at your soul].

So what’s the plague? In a nutshell, it is to have been given anything and everything your heart desires that this world can offer, except the ability to enjoy those things.

Solomon is saying in his wayward state, that his life presently is in a tragic state of affairs. Here you would expect that having everything he has ever wished for in life has been given to him by God, and then to have God withhold the ability for Solomon to find true joy in what God has given him. From Solomon’s point of view this had to be a cruel irony or an unfair twist to life, that God would give someone these things but withhold from them the ability to enjoy them.

Two things need to be underlined here; first God is not only the giver of good things, but He is also the giver of the ability to enjoy the things He gives us. Secondly a question is raised here in the human soul that demands an answer. That question is, “Why would God withhold the gift of the ability to enjoy His gifts to us?” Why would you give someone something, but not the ability to enjoy it? The answer to that question will come at the end of our study. But this inability to find true lasting deep joy that fills the soul; that inability eats away at the human soul.

Solomon then adds that here he has this wealth, health and privileged position, his excellent foods and delicacies and he can’t eat or enjoy them. But instead, some other stranger, or foreigner gets to enjoy them. Some “foreigner” has done ripped him off! He has stolen Solomon’s ability to enjoy God’s gifts. Interestingly, the foreigner, this stranger is not identified, so we are left to guess what or who that might be. It could be a spiritual adversary, like Satan who has deceived Solomon and lead him away from God so that Solomon could not enjoy these things. Or, it could be a personal political enemy who has caused Solomon such grief that he could not enjoy all that God has offered him. Rather than being able to sit back and enjoy life, Solomon’s attention is turned to protecting his role as leader and king over Israel.

Or, this “foreigner” could be some kind of sickness. He once enjoyed good health, but now, he is too old or temporarily bedridden so that he can’t enjoy life.

Or, this “stranger” could be some domestic conflict he has going on at home. When you got troubles at home, whether it is with your kids or your spouse, it can make the rest of your life miserable. One husband described it this way, “If mama ain’t happy, nobody’s happy!”

This “stranger” could be death personified, who has come unexpectedly and stolen the life of a loved one.

Or, this “stranger” could be some natural calamity, like a drought, flood or fire that destroys or eats up all of your possessions.

Or finally, this “foreigner” this “stranger” could be nothing more than the weighty responsibilities that go along with being a leader. You are so focused on doing what you were called to do that you can’t enjoy life.

Whatever it is, this “foreigner” has gobbled up your joy or taken it from you. It has destroyed your hopes and ruined your dreams. When it happens to you, you will be forced to look into the face of heaven and question God. It is a “severe affliction” or this evil, agonizing disease that eats away at your soul.

In verses 3-9, Solomon lists all the remedies he could find from “under the sun”. He has looked for the answer to fulfillment and enjoyment or deep soul satisfaction in every area he could, tells us why they don’t cut it. Specifically, he lists six of them in these verses.

The first one is given to us in the first half of verse 3. There we read, “If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, however many they [children] be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things, and he does not even have a proper burial, then I say, ‘Better the miscarriage than he,’” 

In other words, Solomon looked for the secret of enjoying life in having a family, but that wasn’t it. Often time children bring more heartache than joy even to those parents who have genuinely given sacrificially to their kids. Here a Dad could give his kids all the emotional support, all the spiritual instruction and all the things that money can buy and he still won’t be sure that when his life comes to an end, that they will love or respect him enough to give him a proper burial; the type of burial that a faithful parent deserved in Solomon’s day, which was to be buried in the ancestral tomb. So the secret to joy in life is not getting married or having a lot of kids.

He then adds at the end of verses 3b-5, that maybe the secret of life is living a shortened life. He exaggerates it here by pointing to having been created and staying in the womb where it is safe, but never quite being born. Maybe it would be best to never have been actually born, but just miscarried. He says, “then I say, ‘Better the miscarriage than he, for it comes in futility and goes into obscurity [darkness]; and its name is covered in obscurity [darkness]. It [or really “he”, referring to the fetus] never sees the sun and it never knows anything; [neither possibility of experiencing satisfying joy or no joy] it is better off than he.’”

Solomon is being sarcastic here. He is saying, “Lucky baby. Now that he has died, and the darkness has come over him,” which is a picture of being buried in a tomb, that when it is closed is dark, “this lucky baby has no problems to endure, no history to live up to.” But the obvious point is also clear, that he also has no opportunity to enjoy life either. This shortened life obviously isn’t the answer either.

So he now shifts to the opposite extreme in verse 6, that of living a lengthened life. He writes, “Even if the man lives a thousand years twice [or a person lives for 2,000 years] and does not enjoy good things---do not all go to one place?” He says, it doesn’t matter if you live a short life, like the miscarried child or you live a ridiculously long period of time you are going to die and end up in the same place. If you can’t find joy in life in 70 years, only pain and hardship, what good does it do to add a couple thousand years to your life span? Absolutely nothing, why? Because, in the end you still die like the rest of us, ending up in the grave just as disillusioned and joyless.

Boy, isn’t that a cheery thought? About this time we’re thinking, “This guy, Solomon, is a real bearer of good news?” But quite frankly Solomon is being very honest with us about his feelings. He is describing what many in this room have lived with for most of their lives. That on their own armed only with this world’s wisdom and separated from the living God who has created us, leads us to a dead end street named disillusionment or depression. Or to give you my daughter’s paraphrase of a popular vernacular statement, “Life sips!”

So having a family, shortening or lengthening your life are not remedies to the plague of being able to enjoy life. Solomon adds another popular but failed remedy in verse 7. This is the popular idea that working hard will bring joy to your life. Solomon says, “All a man’s labor is for his mouth and yet the appetite [the word there is really “the soul”] is not satisfied.” This past Wednesday at Rotary, we had a guest speaker sharing her recent travels to Viet Nam. Her guide told her that the Vietnamese people have two things that make them very happy. The first was that they have food. But Solomon, who had the most delectable food in the world available to him says, “No, the answer isn’t being able to possess the where withal to feed your face. Because even though your belly is full, your soul can still remain starved.” Working hard to provide food for the table isn’t the answer to having a satisfied life. 

Neither does the next remedy in verse 8 bring deep and lasting satisfaction to one’s life. Solomon says in verse 8, “For what advantage does the wise man have over the fool? What advantage does the poor man have, knowing how to walk before the living?” In scripture the wise man is often portrayed as the rich man. And the foolish man, the poor man. Hence Solomon’s point is, “What advantage has the wise and learned or educated man? Is education the remedy to what ails the human soul?” His answer from experience is “No.” Becoming wise and learned is not the answer to what ails the human soul.

Finally, Solomon looks at one last remedy the lust of the eye. I lack the ability to come up with the proper word to describe what Solomon intends here. The best way I can describe what Solomon is driving at here is a kind of emotional voyeurism. And by that I don’t mean voyeurism in its normal meaning. I’m not referring to experiencing sexual by observing others at it. I am referring to trying to share in other’s joys, by imagining yourself as a part of them.

Solomon declares that this is no remedy. It’s a waste of time. He writes, “What the eyes see is better than what the soul desires [literally, the term here describe the “wandering, dreaming soul”]. This too is futility and a striving after wind.” You can look and look and look at those things that bring pleasure to others, but somehow, it won’t satisfy your soul.

It’s like being a poor child, but pretending that you are living in that palatial home on the other side of the tracts, as a sister or brother to the little rich girl or rich boy who lives there. You sit outside the estate grounds, peeking through the fence, observing them at play and somehow hoping that through your fantasy of sharing in their play, sharing in their joy, that you can experience that joy as well.

Solomon had tried every remedy known to man, under the sun, but nothing brought him satisfaction. That is, nothing brought him satisfaction until late the end of his life, when he returned to the love of his early life, the Lord. When he came home to the Lord, he discovered the remedy to experiencing deep soulish satisfaction, joy and meaning in life, regardless of what this world has to throw at you. Beginning with verse 10, we have a paragraph break, because the subject or focus of Solomon’s words change. Here is where we find the clues to the question that was crying out from the text, back in verses 1-2. That is, “Why would God give us gifts, but not allow us to enjoy them?”

Before we look at these verses, allow me to remind you of what Solomon has already written back in chapter 2:25-26. Solomon said this, “For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him? [God] For to a person who is good in His sight He has given wisdom and knowledge and joy.”

Now don’t misread this “good in His sight” to mean that if you religiously perform so as to please God; like joining a church or going to Bible Studies, that this will flick God’s spiritual blessings switch and suddenly you will be given the ability to enjoy life. That is not what this is saying, scripture never says that.

Instead we read that faith is what pleases or brings honor to God. That is for us to believe Him, to believe what God says is true and to act upon what He says is true, that honors Him. To that person who seeks to honor or glorify God, to that person God gives the gift of enjoying whatever God has given him.

Solomon had turned his back on God. He refused to believe what the scriptures had declared was true. Instead he turned his back on God and tried to figure out life on his own. In so doing, God removed the ability to find true and long lasting soulish satisfaction from Solomon’s live.

But when a person seeks to honor God, two things happen. You will see two things in this person’s life, first they will enjoy or find deep satisfaction or contentment in humble or rich surroundings. Secondly, you will find that these same people are grateful to God for what they have.

Gratefulness is just the opposite of what we see in our society today. Rather than a spirit of gratefulness surrounding us, what we have is a spirit of demanding our rights. We are brain washed with, “You deserve a break today…” or “You’ve got it coming to you.”

How contrary to scripture! I ask you to think this through logically, how can you be grateful, if we only get what we deserve? Gratitude only comes when we realize that we have been given something that we could not earn, did not earn or did not deserve. Thankfulness and gratitude come from those who knowingly have received a gift.

Look at what the scriptures teach over and over: I Thessalonians 5:18, “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Immediately someone is thinking, “But what about those painful, anxious moments we all go through, am I suppose to be thankful then?” Well the answer to that is no and yes. No, God isn’t asking you to be sadistic or masochistic or phoney. He realizes that there are events in our lives that will be painful and that we would just as soon skip over them. However He does want us to be thankful for those painful events because they are gifts and have a purpose in our life. Allow me to point you to three passages. The first is Philippians 4. In this passage there is a problem of personal conflict between two women. It is causing hurt to them and others, in the midst of that unpleasant experience, notice what Paul says to us:

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication

with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the

peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your

hearts [protect your soul] and your minds in Christ Jesus. [supernatural life

of Jesus being lived out through you] Finally, brethren, whatever is true,

whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is

lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if

anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.”

James 1:2-3, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trails, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Here is another section of Scripture that has become precious to me. Many of you have heard this verse before, but I doubt many of you know its context. First, in Romans 5:8 we read this, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, [later he calls us “enemies”] Christ died for us.”

What’s the point of this verse? God’s incredible love for us! But what’s the context and why is it so important? Go back to verse 3 where we read, “And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” So what’s the point? Well, this is not just repeating what we already read and know from James 1, that God allows trials to come into our life, in fact those trials are a gift to us that enable us to grow up and mature. No, that’s not the whole purpose of this verse. The context is declaring that the very same loving God who while we were yet sinners and enemies came to die for us, this very same loving God has allowed painful difficulties to come to our lives because he want to do good for us through them. And even in those difficulties, as Philippians 4 teaches us, we are to give thanks and to focus on what possible good can come from those trials.

Now, let’s go back to Ecclesiastes. What remedy is Solomon pointing to in those last three verses? Solomon writes, “Whatever exists has already been named,” this expression “to be named” is parallel in meaning to the concept of “creating” someone. You can see this in Isaiah 40:26. And obviously, as Isaiah shows us, the only one who can “create” is God. Hence the point of this line is that whatever exists, and that includes you, was personally created and named by God.

Continue reading, “… and it is known what man is;” this expression in Hebrew, “to know a person” as seen in Jeremiah 1:5, means to “appoint or set apart someone for a specific purpose.” In other words, the same God who created you also gave you specific purpose for living. Therefore, nobody knows you better, what will satisfy you, how you best function, than God. The implication is that if you want to experience the joy of life that comes with knowing who you are and fulfilling your purpose for being created in the first place, you had better get to know and submit your life to the One who created you, God.

Let’s keep reading, “…for he [you] cannot dispute with Him [God] who is stronger than he is [you are].” You and I can’t outsmart or out debate or out fox God so as to change His laws as to how life is to be best run. We can’t change His decrees.

He goes on to say, that we can argue with God till we are blue in the face and it won’t change things. “For there are many words which increase futility.” It’s a waste of our time to spew words out to God, by way of argument. He knows what’s best for you and until you are willing to completely submit your life to Him, you will not find the ability to enjoy in your soul deep satisfaction. Be stubborn, bullheaded, fool-hearted all you want, but you will not change God’s mind.

Solomon closes with this statement, “What then is the advantage to a man? For who knows what is good for a man during his lifetime, during the few years of his futile life?” Obviously, from what Solomon, the wisest man to ever live has shown us, we don’t have a clue. The answers to how to find meaning in life can’t come from us. But as long as we continue to ignore God and try to figure things out on our own, Solomon concludes, “He will spend them [the few years of your life] like a shadow. For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?” In other words, man’s knowledge is limited. He can’t even tell for sure what will happen to him tomorrow, so how can he know what is best for himself?

On the other hand, God know what will take place in eternity. He is not limited by a lack of knowledge. Why not trust Him?

If you want the gift of enjoying life, then seek to know and honor God, for He has created you for a purpose.

Secondly, begin with submitting your life to Jesus Christ. Jesus stated it very clearly in John 14:6, if you really want to know God and to really experience life, rather than existence, it begins with Jesus. He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one can come to the Father buy by me.”

How does one submit his or her life to Christ? Simple, begin with admitting that you have been either stubborn or dumb (or both) and that you have ignored God and been running your own life. Ask Jesus Christ to forgive you and to come in to your life. Trust Him to be not only your Savior, the only one who can forgive your sin, but trust Him to be the master of your life. You do that, and you will become a new person, one able to have an intimate relationship with the living God.

Thank Jesus for His forgiveness and His willingness to take over your life. Thank God for all that He brings to pass in your life because He loves you and has your best interests at heart.

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