The Secret Of A Joyful Life
Ecclesiastes 3-6
I don’t know about you, but as I read Solomon’s words I envision an extremely depressed man. He is spouting a morose, fatalistic view point. I want to give a warning here that you need to be careful in what you take away from what he says. Solomon has wandered away from God. He has married foreign women and they have pulled him away from right relationship with God with their foreign gods. In the mean time, he has been hailed across the known world for his wisdom in ruling his people. He has wealth beyond belief. He has a palace full of wives and concubines. He has wealth, power, and fame; everything the secular world has to offer and you can hear in his words the emptiness of his life. Considering all with which God has blessed him, why is he so down?
He is down because life has no meaning without a right relationship with God. Notice that Solomon acknowledges God’s existence, sovereignty, and even the need to show Him proper respect but none of this means that he is in right relationship with God. In one of my posts on Proverbs I wrote about the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is the possession of information. Wisdom is the right use of that information. For example, if I know that to be healthy I need to exercise and eat right then I have knowledge. If I actually exercise and eat right I have wisdom. In what “Solomon the Wise” writes in Ecclesiastes we discover that he is lacking in both knowledge and wisdom.
I found the following set of verses particularly instructive.
Ecclesiastes 5:18-20
“Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.”
In verse 20 Solomon says “…because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart”. Now I have had joy in my heart and I have got to tell you that there is no joy like that which comes from being in right relationship with God. It is an incredible thing! Joy just radiates from you. Everything just seems to be coming up roses and others notice the joy in you; they are drawn to it. This joy is indeed a gift from God as is everything you are, have, and see. Solomon is correct that God can fill your heart with this kind of joy but he is incorrect to suggest that it comes from taking pleasure in worldly things.
Appropriate pleasure in worldly things only comes when one is in right relationship with God. The over arching message Solomon communicates in Ecclesiastes is that the best the world has to offer is emptiness and yet he says you should take pleasure in that emptiness. How can you take pleasure in something you know does not bring pleasure? You can’t. The pleasure in life comes from God. It is in right relationship with God that one can truly enjoy His creation and all that He has provided.
Solomon is experiencing the same disease that permeates our world today. People have no sense of purpose. Their existence seems empty and meaningless. They try to fill the hole in their lives with eating, drinking, the pursuit of wealth and sex, and any number of meaningless pursuits. You cannot fill a God sized hole with meaningless stuff. Enjoying your life, having a sense of contentment and purpose, are a by-product of right relationship with God. The problem is the world tries to get the by-product rather than the “main-product”. Solomon’s solution to the emptiness of life is no solution at all.
You want to be happy? Praise God, trust and obey Him, read your Bible every day, pray every day, make the focus of your life right relationship with Him and as Christ told us, “all these things will be added to you”.
Matthew 6:33
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
The secret of a joyful life is no secret, it has been known since God first breathed life into Adam. The secret to a joyful life is a right relationship with God.
Have a joyful day brothers!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Bill, I have always liked Ecclesiastes, but since I seem to be in the company of atheist and other nonbelievers, I don’t know if I should even admit it! Actually, I know of at least one other moderately famous believer who loves the book, so at least I’m not alone. I don’t have any of Dr. McGee’s commentaries, but I don’t really agree that the book is just about man’s wisdom and the wisdom of Solomon outside of God’s leading. I might be making too broad of a conclusion from your comments about the book, but this seems to be the gist of matter. Should we understand Proverbs to be just the wisdom of man, at least those verses contributed by Solomon himself! What about the Song of Solomon? Is not the physical beauty
of a wife to be enjoyed? I don’t think it is best to see the book of Ecclesiastes as only or even predominately teaching Solomon’s or even man’s wisdom. If that is the case, why include it in the canon of Scripture? Solomon admits that he tries all the the world has to offer “under the sun”. This is an obvious reference to the pleasures that the world has to offer. He reaches the conclusion that , ultimately, all we do under the power of our own flesh, without God, is vanity. This seems to be what the Bible teaches. I DON’T see this as a teaching of human philosophy. I’m not sure why you draw such a negative view of Ecclesiastes 5 verses 18- 20. I don’t see how this contradicts the overall teachings of the Bible. That God often times rewards the faithful with material goods is a basic Biblical teaching, especiallly in the Old Testament. Many times we are taught to enjoy those earthly pleasures which reflect the nature of our God, including those things which reflect his creativity, artistry and wisdom. God desires for us to enjoy the fruits of our labor! (verse 18). God described the promised land as a “land of milk and honey.” Were the Hebrew people not the enjoy the bounty of their new home? Were they not to look forward to the earthly pleasures it was to provide them? I use the New Geneva Study Bible as my main Bible, and it describes verse 5:18 and 19 with the following commentary, ” God intends that people should enjoy the benefits of their work as a due reward of their labor. The ability to enjoy earthly labor comes not from stoic human strength, but from God-given grace, granted to rich and poor (v. 12) alike. I will quote verses 18 – 20 from the NKJV, ” Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him, for it is his heritage. As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor-this is the gift of God. For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life, because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart.” Bill, I think you are unduly reading too much darkness into these verses, and perhaps the entire book. Solomon was indeed a worldly man, and the book reflects his life. But the overall conclusions that Solomon draws from his life are truly the wisdom of God.