- There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, -
Listen, this is the hardest to explain verse in the entire book.
Key up; we need to focus.
You’ll notice, as we continue through the book, that this verse repeats, like the verses on vanity.
It’s a note we are going to hit again and again, calling us to pay attention to the idea as we learn more about the vanity of life.
Let’s start with the plain reading of what we see. On its face? An upbeat message. It’s almost an encouragement to engage in feasting and celebration.
Why do we feast? Because enough of the terrifying world has been understood and cared for that we can enjoy our storehouses.
Any man can feast. A cookie here and there or an extravagant fifteen course meal.
It’s hard not to look at modern life and not see it as a feast in some real sense. We now have more people overweight than starving.
Self-control and discipline are larger problems, by the numbers, than adequate nourishment.
It’s a stunning time.
Who gives the right to enjoy these gifts? God of course. The ability to see, store, and produce all come from an undiscernible concoction of blessings.
Perhaps you need be constant in your prayers to understand your blessings.
In summary? The plain reading is this: enjoy your profits and work, for they are God’s gifts.
Before we examine the context, there is an ancient writing technique where one voices the opposing argument.
I’m not an expert in this, but know that’s what some scholars believe is happening here.
It’s as if another debater has intruded upon the book and said, “Ah yes, Solomon, but have you not considered the joy one can have from a feast? And is this not a gift of God?”
In a sense, the rest of the book and thesis (vanity of vanities) is the rebuttal. By using this technique, Solomon tells us he’s considered this as well.
Now for the context. We know everything to be vanity, or at least, that’s the argument of the book, meaning we can easily assume that Solomon assumes even this activity to be vain.
The question to us, especially since Solomon isn’t making it clear, is why is it vain?
Think back to the last two topics we just covered in Chapter 2. To put them into questions, they were 1) what does man gain from his toil and 2) where can those who inherit find meaning.
Feasting can only be gained by work. It results in a present moment of freedom and joy gained by negligence, specifically to the work that created it and parts of ourselves concerned with the future.
Note, this is only the best thing available to us. That’s not even a comment on if it’s good.
There’s no hope for the future in this statement. It means only in the “present” can we find the “best available.”
The second question is now answered. If the best man can find is the “now” then why create the future, i.e. children.
Despite this meaninglessness, it’s an indication of when want and need will be removed by the presence of our Savior.
Enjoy the fruit of your work, knowing that the hand of God will one day bring you into true paradise.
Strap on those shoes of peace and meditate on this. We’ll return to the idea in future verses.
Housekeeping: With Christmas and New Year’s upcoming, we’ll be taking a break each week for all of us to have no distractions from the celebrations.
For the next two weeks, there will be no post on Thursday. We’ll be back to our scheduled programming on January 4th.
Stay warm and Merry Christmas =)