one28 PodcastAct Now Before It’s Too Late
Ecclesiastes 9:7-10
2007.12.23
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If Ecclesiastes 9:1-6 was the ocean floor of despair, Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 is the Everest of delight. There is nothing more negative and pessimistic and miserable than being faced with the fact life is brutal and death is killer. If the best reason to be alive is that at least you know you’re going to die–that’s not a very wonderful life.
I really felt like I didn’t just preach last week’s paragraph, I owned it. I felt like a light breeze would have blown me over and a feather would have crushed me under the burden of vanity. But I want to own this paragraph too. And if you find that our stomach can’t handle going right from the lowest valley to dangling your toes over the highest peak, you’ll have to blame Solomon.
There is a remedy for misery. There is light in the tunnel, not just at the end of it. We may be afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; bent, but not broken. For the sake of your joy, act now before it’s too late!
Ecclesiastes is changing me. I knew that I needed to learn how to enjoy the process but I didn’t know how bad. It’s as hard for me to be melancholy as it is to stay in bed under the covers for another five minutes. You’ve got a lot of work to do to convince me there is any joy to be had in the cold, morning darkness. But even though I haven’t made a perfect transition yet, Solomon keeps persuading me to get up and get dressed and get going and get some coffee and get to it and get tired and get to bed and get up again tomorrow and to enjoy the process!
If you want that, you’ve got to follow Solomon’s commands. Think, “Solomon says…”
Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 is the fifth buoy (2:24-26; 3:13-14; 5:18-20; 8:15) in Ecclesiastes. It bears similarity to the first four but also builds on a few new features. So far Solomon has plunged our heads under the raging River Vanity and then pointed us to the buoy of joy. But whereas he has commended joy, now he commands it. Before ETP was his advice, now it is our responsibility. Specifically, there are four parts to the game plan for joy when we’re playing for keeps.
1. Dig In v.7
It looks like verse 7 has three commands (and it does) but I think they are best understood under one umbrella.
Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.
Eat your bread and drink your wine naturally go together. Eating and drinking represent the most earthly, temporal, monotonous, never-ending, mundane type of activity. Solomon already disclosed that there is nothing better under the sun than to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all our toil.
We don’t need special things to have enjoyment in life, it is the simple things. And the implication is that whatever you have to eat and drink will work, your bread…your wine. Happiness is found in what you have in hand, not hoping for something else. If we have food, let’s be content.
But there is more to it than that. Further clarification is found with the very first word in the sentence, Go. It is typical Hebrew grammar to construct an imperative with two commands like “go” or “get up” for the sake of intensity (for example, “Get up, go!”). So don’t just roll into your chair for your Cheerios, get to it!
And it isn’t just act of eating and drinking, eat with joy and drink with a merry heart. Whether you’ve got Ramen Noodles or Daniel’s Broiler, whether it’s a gourmet mom-cooked meal or microwaved instant mac-n-cheese, BAM! Go for it like it’s the last meal you’ll ever eat.
Now wait a second, are we really allowed to enjoy food that much? Won’t that make us gluttons? What if we start to love food more than God? In fact, shouldn’t we feel (at least a little) guilty for enjoying something so insignificant in light of eternity?
Solomon explains why we can and should enjoy: for God has already approved what you do. This is more than a divine authorization for your meal plan. While some (unbelieving commentators) have taken this phrase as a blanket to cover all kinds of sin, obviously Solomon is not granting us unlimited license for unrighteousness. Remember he is primarily concerned in chapter 9 with the righteous and the wise (v.1). Those with whom God is pleased are those who fear Him. And those who fear Him should stop fretting that they’re messing everything up. If you’re good with God, if you strive to follow God’s Word (living righteously and wisely) then relax! Your deeds are in God’s hands and He has already approved them. So dig in! He’s already approved your enjoyment. It is God’s will that we enjoy the mealtime process.
2. Dress Up v.8
Again there are a couple of commands in verse 8 but they’re partners, not competitors.
Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head.
Let your garments be always white. Perhaps this is a comfort issue. In a predominately hot region white clothes would keep a person cooler by reflecting the sun. It may have also had a connection with cleanliness. In a day before washing machines and hot showers putting on some clean clothes was pleasant (for everyone involved).
And there were possibly some cleanliness, hygienic considerations behind Let not oil be lacking on your head. Under the heat, one’s scalp might get dry and flaky and itchy. Before shampoo, conditioner, and mousse, oil helped to keep the skin moist.
And while comfort and cleanliness are good things, fresh clothes and a dandruff free scalp are not the point. When a person put on white garments and put oil on their head that meant the mourning and sadness and grieving was over! Compared to mourning in sackloth and ashes, white clothes and a well oiled head were associated with festivity and merriment. They were what you put on to go to a party!
For example, when King David and Bathsheba’s child died, “David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped” (2 Samuel 12:20). See also 2 Samuel 14:2 where a mourner wore “mourning garments” and her head was not anointed with oil. See also Proverbs 27:9 and Isaiah 61:3 where oil and gladness go together. Even in the NT Jesus tells those who are fasting to anoint themselves with oil so they didn’t look half-dead (Matthew 6:17). Liven up! Look alive!
By itself, what we wear is mundane. So can fresh clothes and smell good lotion really make life more enjoyable? Solomon’s answer is Yes. Just like we can enjoy feeding the body we can also enjoy clothing it. Everyone has to get dressed and deal with dry skin–might as well celebrate! In fact, your garments are to always be white and oil is never to be lacking. ETP should be without interruption.
3. Maximize Marriage v.9
Here is the third part of the game plan for joy.
Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.
It’s tough for some people (like myself) to deal with despair and big bills and car wrecks and cranky people by themselves let alone adding someone else’s despair into the mix. But in chapter 4 we learned that two are better than one, and in 9:9 a wife is a gift from God for a joy-filled life!
Enjoy life with the wife whom you love. That’s almost too simple. It doesn’t mean that you won’t have conflict and strife and sickness and “for better and worse.” It means you can enjoy each other, together, in the middle of your vain life that He has given you under the sun. Solomon wrote something similar in Proverbs 5:18-19.
Let your fountain be blessed,
and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
a lovely deer, a graceful doe.
Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight;
be intoxicated always in her love.
And here’s the reason: your wife is God’s gift to you, she is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. The marriage is not a perpetual honeymoon in the sense that there is still a lot of work to do (notice that toil is repeated twice in v.9 and there’s more work in v.10). It’s not about having date night every night. But life is fragile, so we should fight less and have some fun.
Your wife (or your husband) cannot replace God any more than a good sandwich or a crisp dress shirt and body spray. As Doug Wilson wrote, “We may only enjoy what we do not worship.” But the marriage relationship was given by God for pleasure, to enjoy, and to share the vanity of your short lives. He assigns our portion with infinite wisdom. Life is short. It’s a breath, a shadow. I think John Piper might say, “Don’t waste your wife!”
4. Get Busy v.10
Solomon moves the fence out another foot to corral even more joy. He started with the stomach, moved to the exterior, then to relationship, and now to work.
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.
The final command relates to toil. As I’ve said over and over and over, ETP is not about getting out of work. The happy life is not idle or useless. You will get out of work one day–when you die. But if you’ve got work to do, do it the best you can!
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might suggests that there are all kinds of opportunities around us. Some don’t look very hard, but there are plenty of open doors to go through. We should do it with (all our) might. Give it all you’ve got. Get to work and work hard. Work and strain to the measure of your capability. Work wholehearted; which might seem crazy in light of the fact that tomorrow you might die, and even if you don’t die what you made is probably going to fall apart and you’ll have to fix it. But instead of vanity being a reason not to work, Solomon says it is a reason to get to work.
Act now! This is the day, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going. This has totally led liberal commentators to conclude that Solomon had no belief in an afterlife. But we know that isn’t true from within Ecclesiastes. Solomon told us that God put eternity in every man’s heart (3:11). And later he’ll tell us that God will bring us into judgment (11:9). So the word Sheol simply represents “the place of the dead,” the grave. Everyone dies, gets buried, and when the casket is closed the doors of opportunity are gone.
The point is you get one shot at this life. Knowing that will either cause you horrible despair or create intense joy and eagerness to “have a blast while you last.”
Conclusion
Food, clothing, family, and work are reality. Television producers know this so they produce reality programs like Top Chef, Project Runway and What Not to Wear, The Bachelor and Wife Swap, and The Apprentice.
God made cooks, tailors, 80’s ballad bands, entrepreneurs, and Guinness Book of World Records holders. God made fruit and fabric and hands to hold and business opportunities. He created taste and texture and color and smells and sensations and emotions and relationship and unfinished projects. These things didn’t always exist. So why did He create them? Certainly to show off His glory, but also to share His joy! Daily life is not just to be endured, but to be enjoyed since we know three of the four (eating, marriage, and working) were part of man’s life under the sun before the fall. So have a happy meal, put on your party dress, hold your wife’s hand, take the bull by the horns and make the most of every opportunity.
Since it is only two days before Christmas I can’t help but think about how Jesus relates to Ecclesiastes 9:7-10. Obviously Solomon wasn’t thinking about Jesus when he wrote his book, but we’ve got a bigger Book.
In one sense the Christmas story is a story of God embracing the vanity of life under the sun. Have you thought about it like that? Jesus is Emmanuel–God with us. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus shared in flesh and blood, He partook of the same things and was made like us in every respect so that He might become a faithful and merciful high priest in the service of God. God became a man and lived among men, identifying Himself with vain repetition and injustice and tiredness and hurt and death.
From the start of the incarnation God knew vanity. Here was the Creator born a helpless baby. Here was a king born in a stable. No fanfare. No worldwide press coverage. Soon after his birth his family had to move to another country. All around was governmental injustice as thousands of baby boys were slaughtered under Herod’s command. His mother bore the stigma of suspicious, gossipy neighbors. Jesus had to take baths. He had to get up early. He grew up learning carpentry and mistakes and deadlines. He traveled everywhere he went on foot. His disciples were thickheaded and deserted Him when it counted. He was put to death by people who didn’t and couldn’t see what He saw. He was betrayed by someone close to Him for money.
What was it like for the Creator of taste buds to have oatmeal for breakfast again? What was it like for the Inventor of fabric when His mom shrank His favorite sweater? What was it like for the Maker of trees to nail together tables and chairs? How could that be anything but vanity and striving after wind?
But Jesus had joy! Certainly there were times of grief and burden, but they could not steal His joy. He even prayed that His disciples would follow Him in such a way that their joy would be complete. He came that we would have life, and that abundant!
If you don’t think joy under the sun is possible for you today, you don’t know Jesus or understand Christmas. Emmanuel–God with us. He embraced and identified with our sin and the world’s vanity so that we might have His joy and eternity.
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