Main news for 14 November 2024

King James Version (en)

Ecclesiastes, Chapter 5, verse 12

¹²The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.

NOTES

With the attitude toward life that Ecclesiastes expresses so clearly, even suicide would perhaps not have looked like...

With the attitude toward life that Ecclesiastes expresses so clearly, even suicide would perhaps not have looked like something out of the ordinary. But the thought of it, clearly, does not occur to the author of the book at all. He apparently understood that suicide is one of the most terrible sins before God. And therefore Ecclesiastes goes on living. And life without God is unthinkable for him. Still, Ecclesiastes is very far from that clear hearing of God's voice which is so characteristic of the prophets. He undoubtedly believes in God's providence.

But he is not a prophet; he is cautious in everything that concerns the experience of direct revelation. It is not worth saying too much when standing before God, for the quality of prayer is not determined by the number of words the one praying speaks (vv. 1-3). It is not worth making careless vows, and those that have been made must be fulfilled quickly and exactly (vv. 4-5). And it is not worth denying the truth of a revelation received from God: perhaps completely unexpected for a person, it may prove genuine, although, of course, it is also not worth believing every dream indiscriminately (vv. 6-7).

Caution, restraint, and a certain critical spirit — this is how Ecclesiastes' attitude toward everything connected with spiritual and mystical experience could be defined. This is not surprising: for he expects no special, new revelations from God. Everything has already been said, opened, and created; new revelations may concern certain private questions of a particular human life, but no more than that. From God one can expect new instructions, but not a new revelation. Apparently, this frame of mind was generally characteristic of the era of Ecclesiastes, when the rabbinic tradition replaced the prophetic tradition.

But no revelation can change anything radically; a country and a people should rather hope for a good king than for a new revelation or for the coming of the Messiah (vv. 8-9). But even then, in the final analysis, all human labors and efforts remain meaningless, and Ecclesiastes again returns to the image of a person who has spent the best years of his life in hard labor that has brought him no benefit at all (vv. 10-16). Enjoyment of the few joys of life during the brief days allotted by God to a person — this is the only happiness still possible in this hopelessly spoiled and hostile world (vv. 19-20).

FAQ

What are the 2 variants of understanding life (what is common, what is different) in the book of Ecclesiastes and in the Sermon on the Mount (Gospel of Matthew chapters 5-7)? What is the purpose, meaning, and value of life?

Both of these biblical texts, so different at first glance, reflect a single understanding of life. The foundation of the understanding of life in Ecclesiastes is, perhaps, that within the framework of earthly life everything that seems valuable and significant to man is, in fact, vanity and a chasing after the wind...

Both of these biblical texts, so different at first glance, reflect a single understanding of life.

The foundation of the understanding of life in Ecclesiastes is, perhaps, that within the framework of earthly life everything that seems valuable and significant to man is, in fact, vanity and a chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes seeks and finds nothing on earth to which the heart should be attached, which could become a source of happiness, a source of life for man. Even wisdom and moderation, so valued by the ancients, give us nothing but privation, even voluntary privation. Only in God does Ecclesiastes hope to find meaning; but God remains incomprehensible and distant to him. To draw near to Him is hardly possible for man.

The understanding of life in Ecclesiastes is colored by inescapable sorrow, because in this life he sees suffering and emptiness behind everything. The book ends with an unspoken hope for "that day" when the sun and stars will grow dim, and this earthly world will come to its end. The "Day of the Lord," the "Day of Judgment," as the great prophets of the Old Testament called it, may perhaps give man some understanding of the meaning of existence. But the light of this hope is hidden from Ecclesiastes; written in the period between the return from the Babylonian captivity and the coming of Christ, this book sums up the hopeless, joyless, and meaningless existence of man before Christ. The sorrow of Ecclesiastes is such that nothing earthly can quench it, and in this lies the greatest realism of this book.

The fundamental meaning of the understanding of life behind the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount is that only God Himself can be the answer to all our questions. The only thing that can be the purpose and meaning of human life is God Himself. Not something proceeding from Him, not earthly life in itself, nor even eternity can quench the thirst resounding in the words of Ecclesiastes. Only God… And the most important thing that the Lord Jesus proclaimed to people is that God has come to us to give us meaning, joy, and life. Even suffering becomes for us not just a symptom of mortality, but a meeting place with the Incomprehensible. Deeds of mercy and the fulfillment of the law, meekness and the rejection of violence, love for people itself — everything gains meaning only because here we find God. "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," the Lord repeats more than once in the Gospel. That Kingdom where life finds meaning, that for which it would be worth living, is inaccessible to us — but this Kingdom itself has drawn near to us out of God's great love.

In Christ, man finds what Ecclesiastes sought and did not find. But nowhere else but in Him can this be found — in this both the book of Ecclesiastes and the Sermon on the Mount converge. Of course, this answer is necessarily brief and most likely incomplete. If we briefly answer your second question in the same way, it will be something like this: The purpose of our life is God Himself, a Person whom one can love, seek, comprehend, and trust. At the same time, the purpose of our life is to fulfill God's design for us: to bring His love into the created world, to serve as a creative principle in the world. This is possible for us only together with God; by ourselves we can create nothing but chaos. These two aspects of the purpose of our life unite in the possibility of being the presence of God in this world, a Temple of the Holy Spirit, as the apostle Paul expresses it.

The meaning of life is thus hidden in the Almighty Himself. As Saint Augustine, the great Christian thinker of the late 4th — early 5th centuries, said addressing God: "You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You." The Lord Jesus Christ Himself expressed this mystery in the words of a prayer addressed to the Father: "That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us." The love that unites us with God to the very depths of our and His nature — this, perhaps, is the meaning of our life. The value of human life I would measure by God's love for each of us. We are weak, empty, and barren; our life often seems worthless to us. But God loves us not because we are good, but because He is God. And we are valuable not because we are good, but because we are loved by Him.

It is unlikely that this answer can claim completeness and objectivity. But, I hope it is direct enough. Practice shows that it hides a wonderful power of life; moreover, it is important to bear in mind that when we meet God, questions disappear. Not that we receive answers, — but there comes a moment when you forget about questions and begin to live, because God Himself is the answer to everything.

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