Ecclesiastes Chapter Two, Enjoying The Moment

 Ecclesiastes 2:24 Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God. [25] For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?

The preacher resorts to the commendation of enjoying what one is engrossed in to derive gratification. Labor is satisfactory when it yields pleasing results, or results the laborer intended or foresaw and then brought to pass. A meal is best enjoyed to gratify genuine hunger, especially after laboring successfully in whatever endeavor man applies himself to.

Now, before one subscribes too fully into the preacher’s commendation of satisfaction in labor, the question arises: better than what? The preacher begins this passage by stating that “nothing is better.” A little later he writes, “I know that nothing is better (there is that saying again) for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of his labor—it is the gift of God,” Ecclesiastes 3:12, 13. Later, he adds, “So I perceived that nothing is better than that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his heritage,” Ecclesiastes 3:22.

To labor and rejoice in one’s labor is better than the alternative, for if one cannot find purpose, one may manufacture it. Business replaces objective, universal explanatory power for man’s existence. Note that in these three instances (2:24, 3:12,13, and 3:22) the terms rejoice and enjoy are employed. I will refrain from further commentary on the verses in chapter three, but the preacher adds in the noun “good” in 2:24. Mankind is to enjoy good as a benefit of the labor he partakes in. Or perhaps this good is the reason one ought to partake in labor at all. Note that the preacher doesn’t say that every man should find labor that brings him pleasure, but that man finds pleasure in his preoccupation. I manage a Subway, and I am to find enjoyment running this business. I am to enjoy the good in my labor: that is of governing the business’s affairs responsibly for the sake of my staff, my patrons, and the business owner.

Why is this? Paul writes, “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men,” Colossians 3:23. This is the perspective of life above the sun, so to speak, when man, by God’s grace, may view both time and eternity in their proper place. Here we may have peace in what we do, no matter how menial or pointless some may find it. Conversely, there is the carnal perspective: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going,” Ecclesiastes 9:10. The preacher isn’t commending labor under the sun as something truly meaningful in some existential way; he is rather putting it forward as something to occupy one’s mind, to derive momentary pleasure in as we creep closer to death, where work and wisdom end. 

Now this takes the reader back around to the superficial nihilism this book smacks of. But I will attest that I do not believe anything in this book is nihilistic, if it is considered thoughtfully. Why? First, read through the gospels of our Lord and Savior, and see how He spoke with the self-righteous Pharisees, scribes and elders. His words were goads that pricked and angered them; but this wasn’t of course done at random. Our Lord never spoke a pointless utterance. He chose this tactic to pierce the pride of the earthly-wise, to get them to consider their lives from Heaven’s perspective, not from human perspective. The preacher, who is uniquely wise among men, agrees with the Lord, stating, “the words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well driven nails, given by one Shepherd,” Ecclesiastes 12:11. The truly wise (wise through godly wisdom) dispense their wisdom through the fount of one Shepherd. God the Holy Spirit moved men throughout the ages to speak His truth for the sole revelatory purpose of saving the lost sons of Adam and reconciling them to God through the gospel of His Son. Wisdom dictates that sometimes sharp words are needed, such as the images elicited in this book.

Verse 25 has the preacher speaking of his own aggrandizement again, as a larger than life fixture in Israel, who is capable (and willing) to endure and indulge in what is good to reach the heart of a matter. Interestingly, the LXX and the Tanakh (in a footnote) add a secondary reading, saying, “For who shall eat, or who shall drink, without him?” The rendering here suggests that man’s ability to enjoy food and drink or derive pleasure from his labor, is a gift from God. For even the rank atheist who rejects universal truth and revelation, they still benefit from God’s willingness to permit mankind to enjoy himself while awash in rebellion and futility. This only makes sense, since it is written, “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust,” Matthew 5:45.

What might be termed common blessings are implied here. That though mankind remains in rebellion, antagonistic to the gospel message, God grants Adam’s race many boons to enjoy while on earth that have nothing to do with whether or not we are reconciled to Him. Eating, drinking, and finding accomplishment in one’s labor fall in this camp, it would seem.