An Unexpected Discovery

My friend Dennis Burgess once told me about strolling through a flea market where a man and a woman were selling firearms at a deep discount. After making his purchase, Dennis asked the couple where the guns had come from. The woman explained that they had belonged to her late husband, and that she and this man were now clearing space in her house. “You know what that taught me?” Dennis asked, “One day, you’re gonna die, and your wife and her new boyfriend are gonna sell all your guns!”

This has been Solomon’s message in chapters 1–2: no matter what you do, life in our machine-like world is vain and unprofitable. Whichever path you choose to chase meaning and joy under the sun, the quest is unsatisfying. And at the end of it all, we die! But in 2:24, Solomon finally delivers his breakthrough insight about finding true joy.

Unfortunately, a translation issue obscures Solomon’s message. The English Standard Version translates 2:24 as, “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat, and drink, and find enjoyment in his toil.” The trouble is, that word “better” is not in the original Hebrew. A translator added it, thinking that it helped clarify the meaning. Solomon is really saying, 'There is nothing in a person that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil.' Solomon is saying that the reason you and I can’t find satisfaction under the sun is we just don’t have it in us. Left to ourselves, we can’t be happy in this world. We can’t find peace. We can’t be content. We always end up restless, discontent, and despairing. This is why so many people with designer lives are so miserable. And Solomon tells us that God rigged it that way: “This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him, who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” (24)

This insight takes us to the heart of Ecclesiastes: it is possible to have joy in this vain life, but God only gives that ability to his children! If you don’t know God, if all you have is life “under the sun," if you’re scrambling to find meaning in this impersonal machine—then at some point, you will despair. But Jesus Christ graciously offers you two gifts.

First, Jesus will give you hope beyond this life. Christians know death is certain (Heb 9:27), but we don’t despair. Jesus has already blazed a trail through the grave to resurrection life and has promised to bring us with him! He frees us from our slavish fear of death! (Heb 2:14–15) With Jesus, death is neither a descent into nothingness nor a terrifying encounter of judgment: it is everlasting gain! (Phil 1:21)

In the meantime, Jesus also offers you a second gift: joy in this life. We live in the same vain, broken world as everyone else. It can be confusing and painful. But believers are not shocked by this. We know this is not heaven! At the same time, God has filled the world with so much good stuff: family, friends, work, good food. And when we know Christ, we can enjoy these simple, daily gifts from our Father. Unbelievers never really can. They are always frantically seeking heaven here and surprised at how it always seems to elude them (26). Dennis could tell me his story with a grin and a wink, because we both knew that even though we would both die one day, we belonged to Jesus Christ. By God’s grace alone, heaven awaited us both. In the meantime, we could keep enjoying funny stories, firearms, and our friendship.

God’s children don’t expect this life to satisfy our deepest longings. That doesn’t mean we can’t laugh and play and feast in this broken world as our Father leads us to our true home.

Have you received the wise joy of Ecclesiastes?

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Article by Eric Smith
Senior Pastor, Sharon Baptist Church