Ecclesiastes Chapter Three, The Great Leveler

Ecclesiastes 3:18 I said in my heart, “Concerning the condition of the sons of men, God tests them, that they may see that they themselves are like animals.” [19] For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them all: as one dies, so does the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. [20] All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all return to dust.

The word “tests,” in verse 18 is rendered “manifest” in the KJV. It is the Hebrew word “barar,” and it means “to clarify (i.e. to brighten), examine, or select.” It is used only 18 times in the Old Testament and is variously translated: choice, chosen, clean, clearly, manifest, bright, purge out, polished, purge, and purified.

What is the condition of the sons of men? To wit, we die. That is our hopeless and objectively real estate. In the previous verses, the preacher makes it clear that men corrupt positions of power. Those who should relieve the needy of their burden and execute justice, pervert it for a bribe. Righteousness is inconvenient to the man led by his sinful, carnal nature. Furthermore, God will judge all mankind for our actions on earth. Nothing escapes the Lord’s judgment. Musing to himself, the preacher asserts that, in regard to man’s spiritual condition, God tests us, that we may see that we are like animals.

Again the word “barar,” means to clarify or examine. Perhaps clarification by examination. That is why the preacher commends the house of mourning over the house of mirth. Mourning reveals our ultimate destiny under the sun, which is death. The corrupt man at ease with his crooked justice will die. The righteous man whose piety commends him to all who know him will die. Death reveals that man has no advantage in the war on death; as the animal dies, so does the man.

Now I have actually heard a Calvinist author use this passage to suggest that since men behave like animals, it is evidence that mankind is incapable of responding to the gospel message. Animals cannot receive spiritual things, the argument would go; God must grant the ability to receive such things before man may believe. In other words, God regenerates us animal-like men before we believe the message of the gospel. All I will say in regard to this passage is that the preacher, as with everything, is looking at man’s destiny “under the sun.” He isn’t concerned at this moment about where the spirit of man (or animal) departs to. From a horizontal perspective, man dies like the animal does. We live, grow up, grow old, and finally pass away. In this regard, and this regard only, is mankind like the animal.

Man is not made like the animal. This is something clearly displayed early in Scripture when God created Adam and Eve. When God created animal kind, He said, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth,” Genesis 1:22. Later, when creating mankind, He said to them, “fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth,” Genesis 1:28. A deep and distinct gulf was created when God gave authority over the animal kingdom to mankind. Man was to rule the earth and subdue it, and mankind were God’s regents, governing the created order in His name and by His authority. Man cannot be part of the very thing he was commanded to subdue and rule over. To those in modernity that want to see humanity as nothing more than a self-glorified extension of the animal kingdom, it is a perversion, a distortion of man’s purpose on earth. Human life is infinitely more valuable than animal life. Yet we find people protesting eating animals, hunting whales, or wearing fur coats but killing their children by the thousands in abortion mills. As the preacher stated earlier, “In the place of judgment, wickedness was there,” Ecclesiastes 3:16.

The preacher clarifies this point in verse 19 when he goes on to state that mankind and animal kind share a fate. He summarizes it by saying that man and beast have one breath. The idea of one breath is the commonality of mortality. We breathe out and are no more; life has passed and we disintegrate into the base elements God dug us out from. The concluding thought is that mankind possesses no distinct advantage in life under the sun over the animal, since both meet the same end. Mind you, and I must stress this again, the preacher means the same end from a human perspective. When someone passes away they breathe out their last and are dormant. The spark of life is spent and they appear to be sleeping, which is why the Bible is rife with that euphemism. So too is a household pet’s death. They breathe their last and are no more, and seem to be asleep, but life is gone. The preacher can’t help but punctuate this thought by stressing how vain life under the sun is. 

All is vanity; how men die like animals, and in this instance are no better than them and have no advantage over them. All go to one place: the grave. Referencing Genesis, and how God created Adam, the preacher reminds his readership that the state God created Adam from, all living beings return to upon death. There is nothing physically unique about the human body in terms of what comprises us. The native elements found in the soil are found in us. It is a tacit reminder of God’s word and our creation, that we are but dust, our mortal frame will not endure forever, and this notion vexes the preacher to no end. Having put eternity in mankind’s hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11), God also put the realization of our mortality before our eyes with every death we bear witness to. Human accomplishment suddenly feels insignificant in light of our individual fate. That, perhaps, is why the preacher bemoaned how his kingdom would fall into the hands of men that would abuse it. Why should he travail to create and build up when he cannot endure to reap the benefit of his success? Our greatest triumphs are tarnished by the slow approach of death’s presence in every life. It is the ultimate conclusion for a life perceived well lived, or poorly lived, but it is the conclusion nonetheless.