Latest / Reformed Thinking / Life Under the Sun and the Fear of God (Ecclesiastes) | Thomas R. Schreiner

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Life Under the Sun and the Fear of God (Ecclesiastes) | Thomas R. Schreiner · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. For this deep dive, you've
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brought us, well one of the toughest books in the Bible to
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wrestle with Ecclesiastes. It really is.
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It gets called the Black Sheep in the Canon all the time, and
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for good reason. It seems to be the one book that
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skeptics love to quote and you know, Saints get a little
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troubled by. That title fits so well because
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if you just read it, on the surface you see phrases like
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vanity of vanities or always vanity, and it's really easy to
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walk away thinking the book is just, I don't know, ancient
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nihilism. Or that it's just a council to
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despair, written by a very, very depressed king.
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Exactly. And that's why we wanted to
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tackle this. We're leaning on Thomas
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Shriner's work on biblical theology to guide us here.
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The whole point is to find that God centered message that's
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actually at its core. And to do that, we have to
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resist the those popular readings, the ones that just
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treat it as existential dread and strip out all of hope.
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Yes, we have to read it as a part of inspired scripture.
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So the big paradox is right there from the start.
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How can a book that says everything a person does under
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the sun is basically pointless, like chasing the wind also be a
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part of God's divine wisdom? That's the puzzle we have to
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unpack. The whole thing hinges on
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understanding the limits of that earthly perspective, the under
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the sun part, to see the sovereign answer the preacher
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gives in the end. So establishing the right
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framework for reading it is I guess step one.
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It's the only way. If you just approach it as a
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random collection of gloomy thoughts, you're guaranteed to
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get it wrong. The wisdom isn't in the initial
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raw observations of chaos, it's in the final conclusion.
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OK, so let's dig into that black sheep reputation.
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It's known for staring directly at the the anomalies of life,
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right? The parts that don't fit the
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neat patterns. Precisely.
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The common take is that it's the anti proverbs you know.
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Proverbs focuses on the regularities of life.
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Work hard, be wise, and things will generally go well for you.
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Act like a fool and, well, you'll suffer the consequences.
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And our source Shriner points out that this is too simple, a
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bit too rigid of a dichotomy. The writers of Proverbs weren't
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naive. They knew that sometimes the
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righteous get crushed and the wicked get rich.
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They knew the world wasn't perfectly fair, at least not in
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the here and now. Sure, but the difference is
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focus. Proverbs gives you the general
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rule for living in God's ordered world.
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Ecclesiastes, on the other hand, just gazes intently at the
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irrationality and perverseness of life under the sun.
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So it's a deep dive into the exceptions, the times when
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everything seems backwards and unfair.
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Yes, the reversals, the vexations.
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And that's why people get tripped up.
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They proof text it, they pull out the darkest verses about
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death and toil and injustice, and they build the whole
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worldview from those pieces. Without seeing the bigger
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picture, the whole architecture of the book.
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Exactly. And if you read it apart from
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that Canonical lens, you can make it mean anything you want.
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It could just be one man's diary of depression.
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But in its final, inspired form, it can't actually contradict the
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hope we find everywhere else in the Bible.
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It can't be teaching that what we do is meaningless just
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because it feels that way sometimes.
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Right. The feeling of futility is an
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observation, not the final conclusion.
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So we need the key, the lens that reframes all those dark
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observations. And that brings us to the
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conclusion of the whole book in Chapter 12.
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This is the hermeneutical key, the principle that governs the
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whole book. It's verses 13 and 14, the end
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of the matter. All has been heard.
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Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the
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whole duty of man. And then the reason?
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For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret
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thing, whether good or evil. That's a complete 180 if you
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read the first 11 chapters and think, well nothing I do matters
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because we all just die. This ending just slams the door
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on that idea. It would be a bizarre
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contradiction if the point was nihilism.
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It confirms 2 huge truths that exist above the sun, not just
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under it. OK, what are they?
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First, what you do absolutely matters.
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It's not inconsequential. Obedience to God's commands is
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the whole duty of man. And 2nd, a future judgement is
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coming. A reckoning where everything,
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even the secret things, get sorted out.
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Good is rewarded, evil is punished.
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Which means the universe is moral, after all, even if it
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doesn't look that way from our limited vantage point.
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And I find that connection between fearing God and obeying
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him to be so important here. Feeling God isn't just a
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feeling. No, it's not an abstract
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emotion. It leaves directly to action, to
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keeping his commandments. It ties Ecclesiastes right into
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or a piety. So it's not some outlier book of
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philosophy. It's firmly planted in the soil
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of Israel's covenant life with God.
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It's wisdom literature, just like Job and Proverbs.
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It is. It's about what it looks like to
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live under God's rule, especially when that rule seems
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confusing or frustrating day-to-day.
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This isn't a book about an absent God.
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Not at all. Shriner makes the point that God
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is shown to be intimately involved in everything that
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happens. Yes, he's sovereign, he's
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predetermined things, but his ways are not fully
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understandable to us. And because of that, the only
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sane response is awe and obedience.
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So the conclusion isn't some awkward appendix an editor
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tacked on. No, it's the destination.
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The whole frustrating journey through the vanity of life is
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designed to push us there. And who's the guide on this
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journey? The preacher, or Kohaleth,
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identifies himself as the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
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So Solomon. The text deliberately puts these
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words in the mouth of Solomon, the wisest, richest, most
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powerful man, whoever left. Which is a crucial detail, isn't
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it? It's everything, because his
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life is the ultimate test case. If anyone could figure out how
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to master life under the sun with human power and wisdom and
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wealth, it was him. If he failed to find meaning,
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then no one else stands a chance.
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Right, he says. What can the man do who comes
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after the king? The answer is nothing new.
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It's already been tried at the highest possible level.
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So his failure to find meaning on his own terms sets the limit
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for all of us. And these aren't just his
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private thoughts. The book validates them as words
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of truth, as divine wisdom. Coming from God, the one true
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Shepherd. So even the observations about
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futility are themselves inspired lessons.
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They're telling us about our limits.
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The observation of vanity is the diagnosis, and the fear of God
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is the cure. That's a great way to put it.
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OK, so with that framework in place, let's look at this
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central idea itself. Futility.
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The Hebrew word is hibble and it's everywhere in the book 37
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times. 37 times it just saturates the whole text.
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And vanity isn't quite the best translation, is it?
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Sounds a bit abstract, yeah. A better image is vapor or a
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puff of smoke. Evil.
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It's real. You can see it for a moment, but
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it's impossible to grab. You can't hold onto it.
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It's ephemeral, unsubstantial, that feeling of putting in huge
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effort and having nothing lasting to show for it.
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That's Hebel, and it functions as this big envelope for the
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book. It opens in chapter 1, Vanity of
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Vanities is the preacher, and closes in chapter 12, Vanity of
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Vanities. All is vanity.
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It's the main observation from that under the sun perspective.
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And our sources connect this whole experience of futility
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back to the fall, back to Genesis 3, this world, thorns
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and thistles, this frustrating work.
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It's all a result of sin entering the world.
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It's not how things are supposed to be.
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The preacher reinforces this with another phrase, striving
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after wind. Which is just a perfect picture
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of the action. You run, you work, you build,
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you chase after the wind. Your hands are empty at the end.
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Every time. And this futility is always
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defined by that other key phrase under the sun that shows up,
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what, 29 times? Yeah, about that many.
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Yeah. And it's the boundary condition
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for the whole experiment. It means looking at life
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strictly from an earthly standpoint.
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A limited perspective. It excludes God's hidden plan.
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It excludes the final judgment. It's what you can figure out
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just by human experience and observation alone.
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So the book is saying right up front, if you try to find the
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ultimate meaning of life using only that limited data set, you
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will always come to the conclusion that it's all
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meaningless. You're doomed to fail.
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Your data is incomplete, so your conclusion will be wrong.
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So then the preacher starts taking apart all the areas where
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people try to find that lasting meaning.
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He starts with the labor trap. He does.
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He looks at the world and all he sees are these endless
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monotonous cycles. The sun rises, the sunsets, and
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then it just hurries back to do it all over again.
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The wind blows South, then turns N, going in circles.
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The rivers all flow to the sea, but the sea is never full.
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It's this heavy grinding repetition and the implication
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is there is nothing new under the sun.
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Our work doesn't fundamentally change anything.
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And even if you do build something, the fruit of your
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labor is temporary. That's what seems to really get
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to. Him.
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Oh, it's madding. Yeah.
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You spend your whole life building a business or
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reputation and then you have to leave it all to your heir.
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Who might be a complete fool? Right.
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A fool who could squander a lifetime of careful work in a
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single year. The thought just tortures him.
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It leads to this deep vexation. The work itself becomes a
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burden. The worry over it keeps you up
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at night. Yeah, he talks about the laborer
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whose sleep is sweet, whether he has a lot or a little.
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But the rich man, his abundance, his worries about protecting it,
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he can't sleep. The very thing that should bring
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security becomes the source of his anxiety.
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And even when we're successful, our motivations are often
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corrupt. A lot of humans skill, as he
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calls it, just comes from envy from trying to one up your
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neighbor. So the whole enterprise is
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rooted in rivalry and futility from the start.
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Now, he's not saying don't work. Proverbs is right.
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Diligence is good. A fool who doesn't work will
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starve. But he's warning against the
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illusion that the work itself will bring you lasting joy.
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It's about balance, he says. 1 handful with quiet is better
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than two handfuls with toil and striving after wind.
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Because in the end, it all gets forgotten anyway.
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The memory of the Wise King fades just as quickly as the
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memory of the fool. Time just erases at all.
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So if work doesn't provide meaning, what's next?
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He turns to the most obvious alternative.
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Pleasure the hedonistic test and he uses himself Solomon as the
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ultimate case study. This is the big experiment of
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the. Book He had the wealth, he had
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the wisdom, and he had total freedom to pursue any pleasure
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he wanted. And this wasn't just some, you
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know, weekend Bender. He systematically tested the
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idea. Can pleasure give my life
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meaning? He says he did.
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It was wisdom, too. It was a calculated pursuit of
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satisfaction. It was, and the scale is just
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mind boggling. He builds massive houses.
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He plants parks and gardens with every kind of fruit tree.
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He builds reservoirs to water a whole forest.
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This is national level engineering just for his own
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enjoyment. He piles up silver and gold.
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He has slaves, he has livestock. Beyond counting, it's
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consumerism on a level that's hard to even comprehend.
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And then there's the sensory pleasure.
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He gets the best singers and of course the harem wives and
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concubines without number. And he states it so plainly.
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Whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them.
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He tried it all. He reached the absolute peak of
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human experience and pleasure. So what's the verdict?
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Complete failure after all of that, all the building, the
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acquiring, the indulging. He looks at it all, and says,
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Behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there
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was nothing to be gained under the sun.
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It didn't work. It didn't cure that deep sense
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of emptiness, the anui. In fact, it made it worse
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because he had achieved everything.
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It was still empty. He knew for certain that the
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answer couldn't be found there. If it didn't work for Solomon,
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it won't work for anyone. So work is out.
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Pleasure is out. What about the one thing that's
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supposed to set the wise apart? What about wisdom itself?
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This is the most painful part of the analysis.
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I think. He starts by affirming what
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Proverbs teaches. Wisdom is absolutely better than
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folly. Of course it is.
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The fool walks in darkness. The wise person is prudent.
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Folly is never a good option. But here's the devastating
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catch. The great crushing insight of
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Ecclesiastes is that wisdom can actually be a curse.
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A curse how? Because the wise person sees the
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absurdity of it all more clearly than the fool does.
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So ignorance is bliss? Is that what he's saying?
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That seems to undermine all of wisdom literature.
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It's a tension you have to hold. He's not recommending folly,
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that's morally wrong. But he's saying the practical
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advantage of wisdom under the sun is temporary.
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Because the same fate awaits both.
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The same fate. The wise man dies, the fool
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dies, and a generation later both are forgotten.
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All that intellectual effort ends in the same grave.
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He says he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
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Because you see the brokenness more clearly, you see the things
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that can't be fixed, You understand that life is an
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unhappy business God has given us.
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And worse, your wisdom is fragile.
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What do you mean? Tell that little story about the
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poor wise man who saves his city.
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A brilliant act of wisdom and what happens?
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Nobody remembers him. His wisdom is despised.
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Exactly. Wisdom doesn't protect you from
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being forgotten or ignored. It's valuable, but its reward in
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this life is vapor. It's Hebel.
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This leads right into the next section, which is just this raw
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look at injustice and how powerless we are.
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It makes sense that he'd say so. I hated life.
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The feeling is completely understandable.
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The world looks completely mad, he says.
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Injustice thrives in the very places where justice is supposed
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to be found in the courts, in the halls of power.
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And this is what just vexes the righteous person.
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There's no clear cause and effect between being good and
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having a good life. None.
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You see the wicked getting ahead, living long prosperous
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lives. Will the righteous suffer and
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die young? For someone whose worldview is
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shaped by proverbs, where there's a general sense of
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order, that observation is just devastating.
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It makes you question if God is even paying attention.
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Again, you have to remember the hermeneutical key.
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The preacher sees the injustice. He feels it deeply, but he
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immediately follows it up. In 3.17 he says God will judge
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the righteous and the wicked. So the present chaos doesn't
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cancel out the future judgement. It doesn't.
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That final reckoning is the anchor that keeps the whole
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thing from drifting into despair, but it doesn't make the
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present any less painful. At times, he says, it seems like
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we have no advantage over the animals.
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We all just die and turn to dust.
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He gets incredibly bleak. He looks at the oppressed who
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have no one to comfort them and says it would be better to be
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dead or even better to have never been born at.
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All And on top of the injustice, there's just the sheer
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randomness of it all, the unpredictability.
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This is in Chapter 9, right? The race is not to the swift,
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nor the battle to the strong. Yes, because time and chance
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happened to them all. That is such a humbling thought,
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especially for us today. We think we can control
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everything with our planning and our metrics.
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But you can't. You can be the fastest runner,
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the strongest warrior, but a random accident can undo it all
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in a second. Things completely outside of our
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control determines so much of our lives.
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He says we're like fish caught in a net or birds in a snare.
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We're just trapped suddenly with no warning.
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It all adds up to this one conclusion.
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We don't manage our lives. Life manages us.
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That famous poem about time. A time to be born, A time to
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die. A time to weep, A time to laugh.
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It shows that we're always responding to circumstances.
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We're not in the driver's seat. We can't change the basic
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structure of the world. He asked that rhetorical
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question, Who can make straight what he has made crooked?
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And the answer is nobody. We can't fix the fundamental
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brokenness. We certainly can't control the
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ultimate uncontrollable death. No man has power over the day of
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death. It just comes, and all our
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wisdom and wealth are useless against it.
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We are just trapped in this, this opaque, mysterious present.
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We don't have the big picture. And that powerlessness extends
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to our finances, too. Yeah, he comes back to wealth
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and how it fails to bring happiness.
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He says loving money never satisfies you because the more
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you have, the more people there are to help you spend it.
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And your net gain and happiness is 0.
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We talked about how it deprives the rich of sleep and it can all
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vanish overnight in a bad venture.
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All that work was just for the wind.
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Then he gives that tragic, almost unbelievable
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illustration. The man who has everything, 100
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children, a long life, great wealth, but he never actually
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enjoys it. He says a stillborn child is
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better off than that man. It sounds so shocking, but from
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the under the sun perspective, the stillborn at least finds
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immediate rest. It avoids a lifetime of
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meaningless striving that ends in sorrow.
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So life is precious. A living dog is better than a
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dead lion, but it's also bafflingly futile because of
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death and randomness. But he doesn't leave us there,
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no. This is the turn.
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This is where all that darkness and frustration gets converted
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into true wisdom, the sovereign antidote.
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And it all comes back to fear and God.
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It does, because even if things look completely wrong in the
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moment, God is the one who will ultimately assess every life,
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the preacher says. It's so clearly in chapter. 8
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Even though a Sinner does evil 100 times and lives a long life.
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Yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, but it
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will not be well with the wicked.
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So there is an ultimate justice, even if we can't see it now.
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The present confusion shouldn't lead us to doubt God's rule.
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In fact, the confusion has a purpose.
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God has designed the world this way to humble us.
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That's a huge idea, he says in 3.16.
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I perceived that whatever God does endures forever.
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God has done it so that people fear before Him.
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God intentionally makes things crooked so that we stop relying
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on our own plans and start relying on Him.
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We have to learn that we are not the masters of the universe.
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We have to stand in awe of Him. The fact that the world is
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confusing is actually a grace, a mercy to keep us from our own
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pride. And part of that fear of God is
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just practical wisdom. He says.
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The wise person thinks about death.
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Pondering the end makes you live more carefully in the present.
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If you know you can't control your last day, you're less
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likely to be obsessed with controlling every last dollar,
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right? But it's not all doom and gloom.
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There's this other major theme that keeps popping up.
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In the midst of all this toil and sorrow, what are we supposed
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to do? Enjoy life, yes?
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Enjoy the good moments. This isn't the hedonism he
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rejected before. This is different.
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This is about receiving joy as a gift from God.
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That passage in chapter 2 is key.
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There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat
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and drink and find enjoyment in his toil.
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This also I saw is from the hand of God.
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That's the theological pivot. Joy is not a human achievement.
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It's a divine grant. It's Grace.
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So you don't earn it through hard work or cleverness, It's
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just a gift that comes unexpectedly.
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Exactly. And since we can't figure out
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God's grand plan from beginning to end, the right response isn't
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to despair over the confusion. But to humbly and gratefully
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accept the good gifts He gives us day by day.
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And this gift isn't a guarantee. He's very clear about that in
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Chapter 7. In the day of prosperity, be
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joyful. And in the day of adversity,
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consider God has made the one as well as the other.
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God is sovereign over both the good days and the bad days.
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He keeps the future hidden from us.
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So that man may not find out anything that will be after him.
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He keeps us ignorant of the future so that we can't try to
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manipulate him or control the outcome.
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We are kept in a state of dependence.
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Fearing God means we recognize we can't control His favor.
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Joy is unearned. It is so the final instruction
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is clear. Since you can't figure it all
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out. Fear God and rejoice in the good
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things He gives you, and do it now, while you're young.
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Yeah, that section on old age is so vivid and frankly a little
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terrifying. He tells young people to enjoy
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their youth, but to remember their Creator before those hard
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days come. And the poetry he uses to
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describe physical decline is just powerful.
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The sun and moon are darkened, the strong men, the legs stoop,
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the grinding ceases because the teeth are gone.
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The doors on the street are shut because you can't hear.
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You wake up at the sound of a bird because you can't sleep.
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Your hair turns white like an almond tree in blossom.
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You walk stiffly, like a grasshopper dragging itself
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along, and desire fails. The message is use the vitality
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you have now in service and remembrance of God.
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Don't wait until it's too late, until the dust returns to the
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earth and the Spirit returns to God who gave it.
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So it all comes together. Life under the sun is crooked,
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unfair and seems to end in nothing.
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But you should still find joy in the good days when they come,
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seeing them as a gift. And in the middle of all this
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confusion, you fear God and trust Him.
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Because He will reward those who fear and obey Him, even if that
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reward is totally invisible from our perspective right now.
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So to sum it all up, this deep dive really shows that
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Ecclesiastes is not a book of nihilism.
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It's a vital theological corrective.
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It affirms God's rule, but it forces us to be humble about how
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much of that rule we can actually understand.
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Right. It's a push back against any
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simple mechanical view of the world.
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It forces us to look beyond this life, to see the need for a
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final judgement, to make sense of all the present chaos.
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And our response should be that mix of fear, obedience and
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gratitude for the small daily gifts.
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And you can see how this lays a foundation for the New Testament
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worldview. Romans 8 talks about creation
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being subjected to futility. Paul understood Hebel.
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We still live in that fallen world, but the gospel goes
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further. Jesus Christ has come.
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The condom has been inaugurated. And now we show our fear of God
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by being reconciled to Him through Christ.
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We still work hard, but we're commanded not to be anxious
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because our Father knows what we need.
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The new creation has begun in Christ, so while we're still
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physically under the sun, we have this hope of a new heavens
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and a new earth where righteousness dwells.
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Our labor in the Lord is not in vain.
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That's the ultimate answer to the preacher's dilemma.
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So as we wrap up, maybe here's something for you to think about
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this week. Yeah, practical take away.
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If the preacher is telling us that you can't manufacture or
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control joy through your own efforts, what are the specific
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ways that we still try to do that, even with good things like
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our work or our planning for the future?
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That's a great question. In what ways do we still try to
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earn the joy that God only gives as a gift?
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Think about your daily approach to work and life.
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How much of our anxiety, our fear of losing things, or our
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drive for more is really an attempt to manage a future we
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can't control? Instead of just living today,
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recognizing that the final judgement is what truly matters,
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how much energy do we spend trying to make straight the very
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things God has allowed to remain crooked in our lives to keep us
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dependent on Him? Thank you for joining us for
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this deep dive into Ecclesiastes.
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We hope it helps you to read this amazing book with your eyes
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fixed firmly on our sovereign God.