THE QUESTION `WHAT IS THAT GOOD?'
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This is exactly what Koheleth pronounced (1:8). What is the eye for but for `seeing'? yet it is not satisfied
thereby. If a man love silver will he not be satisfied with it? No. It is a weary business, this seeking satisfaction
from a world marked with corruption. Ecclesiastes utters truth at every step. All his findings point in the same
direction. Vanity is written over all by reason of death. THE good is the LIFE to come. Satisfaction cannot be found
here. `I shall be SATISFIED when I awake with Thy likeness' is as much the burden of Koheleth as of the Psalmist.
In chapter 6:1,2 the writer reverts to a phase of experience already touched upon in 2:24-26.
`There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men (or heavy upon men R.V.): A
man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he
desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil
disease'.
How many failures may be attributed to the lack of recognition of this principle! The present economic situation
is revealing to the mass of men that money is a false standard of value. Today (February 23rd, 1949) the newspaper
reports that 10s. notes were being sold in the West End of London for 4s. 3 1/2d. their present value - whether for
political purposes, or for a wager is immaterial. And when we remember such words as Haggai 1:6 we can see that
to earn much and yet to put it into a bag with holes is indeed vanity. Yet such was the condition of those who in
their selfish greed put their own house first and forgot the Lord's. We have still to do with the same Lord who fed
the prophet and the widow during famine with the last handful of meal, and who could multiply five loaves and two
fishes so that they would satisfy thousands. Chapter 5:19 tells us that this `power' is the gift of God, and a gift it is
verily.
Verses 7-9 of chapter 6, introduce another aspect of unsatisfied desires. `All the labour of man is for his mouth,
and yet the appetite (soul) is not filled'. So Proverbs 16:26, `He that laboureth, laboureth for himself; for his mouth
craveth it of him'. As we analyze the speeches of those who have pleaded for better conditions for labour, have they
not insisted that the man who labours week in week out shall earn something over and above the mere satisfying his
mouth? Do not they demand a higher standard of living and of bringing within reach some of the intellectual
refinements of life? True it is there is nothing new under the sun. Koheleth strikes the same note here. There is no
true satisfaction in merely satisfying the craving of the mouth.
Nevertheless Ecclesiastes is in advance of many of his self-appointed teachers. `Better is the sight of the eyes
than the wandering of the desire (soul)' (6:9) - for seek as he will and where he will man will never escape the curse
of vanity except by Him Who is the true and living way. Both Ecclesiastes and Christ say `a living WAY'. `A living
WAGE' is a poor substitute if taken alone. `This also is vanity and vexation of spirit'.
Chapter 7:6 sums up the senseless laughter of fools as so much crackling of thorns under a pot - mere vanity.
Koheleth's opinion of laughter and mirth, expressed in 2:2, remains unchanged. He also reviews the burial of the
wicked with all the pomp and splendour that may accompany it (8:10. See also 6:3). They had `come and gone'.
There is no `complex figure of Ellipsis' here. It is the observation of Ecclesiastes throughout the book. `One
generation passeth away (same word `gone') and another cometh (same word `come'). `He cometh in vanity', and
`goeth to his long home'. `To come and go' is the summary of human activity. They had conducted their business in
the very shadow of the holy place, yet `what shall it profit a man?' `This also is vanity'.
Finally, the apparent lack of equity that goes to make up the lives of men, the prosperity of the wicked and the
suffering of the righteous, this further emphasizes the unsatisfactory nature of things and cries aloud for the
`conclusion of the matter', viz., a definite hereafter for the rectification of all that now is crooked. Who is there,
taught by the Scriptures, that will say that Ecclesiastes is not soundly true? Members of the One Body, blessed with
all spiritual blessings, will do well to meditate upon the teaching of this book, for what is the practical exhortation to
us but the experimental teaching of Ecclesiastes in the doctrine of Paul?
`If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Set your affection (mind) on things above, not on things on the earth' (Col. 3:1,2).