Ecclesiastes 6 – Law & Gospel Devotional Commentary

Main Reading: Ecclesiastes 6:1-12

v. 1-2 — “There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil”

Remember when chapter 5 ended with that warm, tender, fuzzy phrase about being “occupied with joy”? Well, I hope you weren’t expecting that positive note to go on very long…Because now Solomon quickly shifts us back into the negatives by saying: “Hold on a minute—I’ve got a few more evils in the world I’d like to report on!”

He starts by pointing out a man who had received money, treasures, & earthly glory. This guy had absolutely everything he wanted. [Now, I think this is probably hypothetical, because no one gets everything they want… But, nevertheless, this guy had so much that he might as well have had everything].

But even though he has all that stuff, he doesn’t have the ability or the opportunity to enjoy it… Imagine a business man who finally builds a big enough empire that he can finally retire, but one week into his slower-paced life of luxury at the golf resorts and white sandy beaches, he dies. “Now, that’s pure evil!” Solomon says.

And it’s cruel things like that which make life feel meaningless, empty—that Hebrew word, הֶבֶל hevel. Just like driving a brand new car off the dealership parking lot drastically decreases its value, these unfortunate events suck the meaning right out of life…

v. 3-6 — “If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life's good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good—do not all go to the one place?”

So, getting everything you could want isn’t going to satisfy you. And now Solomon moves on to a man who had a long line of descendants—a large legacy of children. Let’s say he lived 2 thousand years and had a hundred children [I’m sure Solomon himself had many]. Would that be enough to result in a happy ending? Well, not in this case…the man with a long life and lots of kids wasn’t satisfied…

And even worse, he didn’t have a proper burial. Imagine having a long life, lots of money, & a large family, but no one liked you enough to have a funeral…In the ancient world—and even today—it’s a huge dishonor to not have a proper burial… Even when Jezebel died by being thrown out of a window, the soldiers who did it were eventually like: “Hey, we need to pick her up and bury her, she was a king’s daughter.” But, before they got around to it, dogs came and ate her remains until only her skull and the bones of her feet & hands were found (2 Kin. 9:34-35)…In the Hebrew mind, this–having no burial–would’ve been the ultimate sign that she was a cursed woman.

Solomon also says something shocking in this section: If you’re going to have a long life with lots of stuff but end up forgotten or despised by your large family,

it’s better to be a miscarried baby! In a sense, it’s better to skip out on all the possible “joys” of life; like money, stuff, & even loved ones than to have those things but to be hated or forgotten by your family and not be able to enjoy anything you have.

What this is really saying in context is—not that we should do babies a favor by killing them—but that even a long life with lots of years won’t make you happier…it won’t even begin to solve your problems…And it’s better to be stillborn in this sense too: infants who die get to lie down in peace.

Some people disagree with me, here, but I believe there’s a strong biblical case to believe children who die, though they have been born in sin, are not punished. Here’s my case:

• Children of unfaithful Israelites got into the Promised Land because of they had no knowledge of evil (Deut. 1:39).

• David’s infant son died, but He was confident he would see him again (2 Sam. 12:23).

• Isaiah 7:15-16 alludes to a time before a child knows the difference between doing good and doing evil.

• In Matthew 19:14, and other places, Jesus says the kingdom of God belongs to children.

• Also, in a Christian household, you don’t have to treat your baby like a heathen until they’re old enough to talk…

• John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit in his mother’s womb (Lk. 1:51, 41-44).

• In Psalm 22:9 & Psalm 71:5-6 we learn that it’s possible to trust God in the womb and as a nursing child.

• In Psalm 8:2, it mentions the mouths of infants praising God.

• A baby’s entire life is one of faith. It doesn’t know it’s mother’s name or hardly anything else about her, but they live completely by trusting in their mother’s care.

But enough baby talk…this is Ecclesiastes, after all! Let’s get back to the unfortunate events of adulthood.

v. 7-9 — “All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind.”

Have you ever eaten so much that you say to yourself: “I’m so full I can’t think about food and I don’t even know if I’ll ever eat again!” …Yeah, well, what happens just a few hours later? What happens when you wake up in the morning? You’re hungry again! You work for your mouth, and it never gives you the day off.

Working for food is part of the punishment from the first sin, which involved eating! "By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread" (Genesis 3:19). The Devil deceived Eve away from the word of God and replaced it with his own narrative spin. Then, it says, Eve saw that the fruit was good. And gave some to Adam to eat. They ended up causing all of us to work for what we eat rather than freely plucking the gifts of God from the branches.

That first sin was eating beyond the boundaries of what God had given. And even the next Adam-like figure in the story, Noah, when he got off the ark, sinned with his mouth by drinking too much! Ironically, when Adam & Eve sinned by eating, they clothed themselves. But, when Noah sinned by drinking too much, he got naked. But that’s a side note…the point is many sins have been caused by the mouth.

We have to work for our food as a result of sin. That’s true. But we also get to enjoy eating. We just have to be careful that we’re eating to live and not living to eat…Food never satisfies you because you’ll always want or need more eventually. And God does not want us eating more than necessary…

One example of this comes from the Israelites gathering manna in the wilderness. We’re told that some gathered a lot and others a little. But God saw to it that those who gathered a lot had no leftovers (Ex. 16:17-18). And there were some who tried to stockpile a large amount of the food until the morning, which was against God’s command, so He made it rot with worms and a bad smell. But the fact remains, we do have to work and we do have to eat. But we shouldn’t get caught up in overworking or overeating…

You will work for your stomach to feed yourself and your loved ones all the days of your life…It’ll never stop! You can never check it off your list. That’s why Jesus told us this: " Do not work for the food that perishes , but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you” (John 6:27).

Instead of constantly wanting more than what you have and letting your desires wander

all over the place, Solomon says it’s best to have what’s right in front of your eyes.

In other words, it’s better to desire what you have than have your eyes wandering.

v. 10-12 — “Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he. The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?”

Well, if you don’t like the way things are under the sun or the subjects Solomon speaks about, that’s too bad, because it’s the way things are. And we can’t fight God, the One stronger than us, on this. It’s useless for us to keep talking about these things as if we could come up with a strategy to fix them.

But, ironically, even though Solomon is the guy saying “no one can figure this out…

no one can satisfy themselves, and speaking more words leads to more foolishness…”

He’s also the guy who keeps writing and talking about it—haha! He’s like: “Complaining won’t accomplish much, but ugh! Here’s how I feel about all this!”

Here, in chapter 6, he says “there’s no use in talking”—but we’re only halfway through the book…But, then again, words might be all we’ve got…Everything is meaningless anyways,

so what’s the harm in me offering up a few more words on this?

Well, I think there a few good words that could be said…a few gospel words to help us out here. It’s true that from the very beginning, our eating has been tangled up with sin.

That first great act of rebellion in the world was an act of eating. Since then, all of us—like Adam & Eve—have been craving, reaching, & eating but never being satisfied. We work, we hunger, we eat, and then we hunger again. Our mouths remind us every day that we are needy creatures living under a curse. But the Good News is that God has answered our hunger, not by ignoring it, but by experiencing it!

When Adam & Eve couldn’t keep their cravings at bay in paradise, and when Israel grumbled in the wilderness complaining about a lack of food, Jesus withstood hunger in the desert! "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry . And the tempter came and said to Him, 'If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, 'It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’ ” (Matthew 4:1-4).

And this same Jesus doesn’t come to earth just to tell us: “Hey, quit being hungry!”

“Shut up, and quit asking for food!” No, instead, He feeds us! He invites sinners to His table.

Remember, this is the God who was criticized for eating with tax collectors and sinners!

And on the night when He was betrayed, He sat His friends down for a special meal. "Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, 'Take, eat; this is my body.' And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks He gave it to them, saying, 'Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins " (Matthew 26:26-28).

That first eating in Genesis 3 brought sin and death into the world. But now Jesus has given us another meal—one that proclaims that sin is forgiven, that His body was given for us, and that His blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins. In Adam, eating became tie to guilt; in Christ, eating is joined to grace.

See, bread alone could never satisfy you. A full stomach is no replacement for an empty soul. A long life, in a big house, with a full table can’t break the curse. We need God Himself to feed us and give us the things that cannot be found in us or in the world. That’s why He said this: "Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness , and all these things will be added to you" (Matthew 6:31-33).

Now, He isn’t telling us to go out and try really hard to do things that will please God

so that He’ll just have to give us everything we need…He’s telling us to stop worrying about what we’re going to feed ourselves or do for ourselves. And just like we don’t need to worry about where our food, clothing, & essentials are going to come from, We don’t need to worry about where our righteousness, forgiveness, & salvation is coming from either! He’s got you covered.