PM Home Bible Study Group; October 28, 2009
Ecclesiastes 4.1-12
Theme: Without the hope of the justice of God beyond life “under the sun”, man neither dies nor lives better than the beasts of the earth.
Solomon continues his look at the pointlessness of life “under the sun”—that is, when the reality of God’s ultimate work of bringing about justice is removed from the picture, and when the hope of future vindication in righteousness is taken out of view. In this evening’s section, Solomon looks at the frustration this view of life brings about because of the reality of oppression.
Solomon is a great and capable student of life. And his observation is that, because of their inherent fallenness, people cannot seem to live or work together as they should. They hurt one another. They take advantage of one another. They exploit one another. They envy and mistrust one another; and treat each other with injustice and prejudice. Man oppresses his fellow man; and even brings oppression upon himself! How hopeless life on this earth becomes when all man has to hope in is what is “under the sun”!
And in stressing this, Solomon calls our outlook away from the grievous plain below, and turns it to what is above; forcing us, once again, to seek meaning from somewhere other than the activities and resources of fallen humanity.
Solomon’s observations about oppression ‘under the sun’ takes into consideration that . . .
I. OF THE STRONG AGAINST THE WEAK (vv. 1-3).
A. Solomon—after considering the frustrating fact that man, apart from a hope in eternity, is little better than the beasts (3:18-22)—now turns to a new theme: “oppression” (v. 1). He took in a comprehensive view of the subject; taking into consideration “all the oppression that is done under the sun”. Just think of what he must have considered! His encyclopedic mind would have took in all the enslavement of one man to another. He would have thought about all the exploitation of the poor by the greedy—all the exploitation of the vulnerable by the powerful. He would have thought about all the orphaned children who labored and died in all the mine-shafts and sweatshops around the globe. He would have considered all the helpless laborers who would have been taken-advantage of by ruthless task-masters. The absence of oppression from the scene of the human story would have been the exception rather than the rule. Any faithful consideration of the history of life on earth must include the story of ‘oppression’ into account—and would have had to see the one being the story of the other! Who could have taken it all in?
1. On the one hand, Solomon says, “And look! The tears of the oppressed . . .” He, no doubt, had heard the cries and saw the tears often. He very possibly caused them (see 1 Kings 12:4). But if there is no God to defend them; if there is no hope of justice at the end; if all that there is to see under the sun is all that there really is; then as he says, “they have no comforter”. Add to their tears the fact that they cry in genuine hopelessness.
2. On the other hand, Solomon considers their oppressors: “On the side of their oppressors there is power.” When oppressors are able to oppress the powerless without hindrance—and if there is no hope of relief from one more powerful than the oppressor—then the oppressor only increases in power over those they oppress! But as for the oppressed, “they have no comforter”.
B. The only conclusion Solomon can come to in this is to “praise the dead who are already dead, more than the living who are still alive” (v. 2). At least the dead cease to be oppressed! Every forgotten prisoner is at long last set free from his oppression when he dies alone in his cell! “Yet, better than both,” Solomon goes on to say, “is he who has never existed, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun” (v. 3). Those who are never born never experience the oppression, nor even know about the grievous state of oppression that prevails in the world that they never entered. These words are very much like Solomon’s shocking words in 6:3-4, concerning the advantage that the still-born child has over the man who labors in frustration his whole life long; “for it comes in vanity and departs in darkness, and its name is covered in darkness. Though it has not seen the sun or known anything, this has more rest than that man.” They are shocking words; but true ones if there is no hope for the oppressed above the plain of fallen humanity.
C. Gratefully—though Solomon doesn’t mention it here—we can praise God that the oppressed do have a helper! As God Himself has said through Solomon’s father David, “‘For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now I will arise, ‘says the LORD; ‘I will set him in the safety for which he yearns'” (Psalm 12:5). Because, as he also writes in Psalm 103:6, “The LORD executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed”—if not now, then surely in the day in which He will judge the righteous and the wicked (Ecclesiastes 3:17).
II. OF ONE WORKING MAN AGAINST ANOTHER (vv. 4-6).
A. “Again”, Solomon says, “I saw that for all toil and every skillful work a man is envied by his neighbor. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind” (v. 4). Even in the case of those who are not oppressed in their labors by another, but who work freely with their own hands to better their own lives, “oppression” is still present. Men may—and most often do—work for all the wrong reasons. They labor to keep up with their neighbors; or to outdo them in wealth and prestige. They work out of frustrating ‘envy’ and ‘jealously’ because their neighbor or colleague has more success or greater results than they do. So few do what they do out of a desire to simply do the very best they can at what is done. It’s a dog-eat-dog world! It’s a rat race. And all that is done, from that narrow sense, is done in vanity!
B. Someone may respond to all of this by checking-out. He may fold his hands; and let all the other dogs do the eating, and all the other rats do the racing. But as Solomon says, “The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh” (v. 5). Such a man eats away at what he has until there is nothing left. No one, it seems, can escape the oppressiveness of work.
C. A good solution, it seems, is found in the middle-ground. “Better a handful [that is, one hand holding what it has in calm repose] with quietness than both hands full [that is, in a clutching, desperate manner] with toil and grasping for the wind” (v. 6). This may be very much like what Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:6-10; “Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” But if we have no hope of anything beyond what we see under the sun, what would be the point of it all?
III. OF THE LONER AGAINST HIMSELF (vv. 7-12).
A. Once again, Solomon turns to consider further this “vanity under the sun” (v. 7). This time, he looks at the man who oppresses himself; and could there be any greater oppression than the kind we impose on ourselves? “There is one alone”, Solomon writes, “without companion. He has neither son nor brother” (v. 8). Here, Solomon is describing a situation many of us may have seen—a man who works and labors and saves his whole life long; but who has no one to leave it all to. It all piles up; and he hordes it all to himself. It does him no good in this life at all. And when he dies, it all becomes the property of the state. “Yet there is no end to all his labors, nor is his eye satisfied with riches.” He labors out of a motive of miserly greed; and yet keeps none of it in the end but loses it all. It was all a tragic waste of time, labor, and rest.
B. And note the oppressive nature of this! “But he never asks, ‘For whom do I toil and deprive myself of good?'” He never asks this at all. He just keeps on working, and saving, and hoarding, and robbing himself of rest and joy and peace. “This also is vanity”, Solomon says, “and a grave misfortune” (or, as it can be translated, “an evil task”). When it’s all over, death will mock the loner’s life of labor.
C. The conclusion Solomon comes to in this is that it is far better for the self-imposed loner under the sun to live a life of labor with someone else—someone who may benefit from it all. “Two are better than one,” he writes, “because they have a good reward for their labor” (v. 9).
1. One reward is that they can share together in the labor. “For if they fall, one will lift up his companion” (v. 10). When the work becomes too burdensome, and the load too heavy to carry, a companion can be there to help lift it. “But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up.” How foolish, then, to labor one’s life away alone when the aloneness is by choice!
2. Another reward is in that they can share together in the comfort. “Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm . . .” (v. 11). The comforts of the life of a working man are doubled when they are shared. “But how can one be warm alone?” Even Solomon’s father David found this to be true in his later years—though his method of dealing with it isn’t recommended (1 Kings 1:1-4).
3. And still another reward is that the two can protect each other. “Though one may be overpowered by another,” Solomon writes, “two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (v. 12).
* * * * * * * * * *
We are not bound to an “under the sun” view. Because there is a God who is a just Judge, we can follow the example left for us by our Lord Jesus: “’Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth’; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1 Peter 2:22-23).