 |  |
"Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God
Who gave it. Vanity of vanities saith the preacher, all is vanity."
Death is the final expression of vanity, and that which is associated with it the
aggravating factors.
Oppression (4: 1), all travail and rightness of work (4), the heaping up of riches for
whom? (8), pass under review, punctuated at every step by a reflection on that which is
good, or that there is nothing better than to accept quietly the limitations of our present
position, fret not ourselves because of evil doers, but wait patiently for Him. This we
indicate for the student and pass on.
3: 10 - 4: 16.
A1
| 3: 10. Travail for exercise.
B1 | 3: 11. Full enquiry baffled.
C1 | 3: 12, 13. GOOD.
A2
| 3: 14, 15. God's work for the age.
B2 | 3: 16-21. The one event "as the beast".
C2 | 3: 22. NOTHING BETTER.
A3
| 4: 1. Oppressions and power.
B3 | 4: 2. The dead and the living.
C3 | 4: 3. BETTER.
A4
| 4: 4. Travail and envy.
B4 | 4: 5. Folly eats own flesh.
C4 | 4: 6. BETTER.
A5
| 4: 7, 8. Labour without object.
\
Not
B5 | 4: 8. Sore travail and vanity.
}
a
C5 | 4: 9-12. BETTER.
/
second.
C5 | 4: 13. BETTER.
\
B5 | 4: 14, 15. Poverty and prison.
}
The second
A5
| 4: 16. Fickleness and vanity.
/
child.
Chapter 5: brings us to the sanctuary, and bids us keep our foot, be not rash with our
mouth, "For God is in heaven, and thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few".
From this standpoint, as with Asaph (Psa. 73:), the writer can view many distressing
prospects with calmness and hope.
"If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and
justice in a province"--play the man, act the citizen, champion the right, raise rebellion,
overthrow the tyrant, assert the claims of humanity--so speaks the man of this world, and
even the believer who imbibes its wisdom and traditions; such however is vain, the
crooked cannot be put straight by such means, "Marvel not at the matter, for He that is
higher than the highest regardeth". What we have to do is to regard our foot when we go
to the house of God (5: 1), regard His commandments (12: 13), and to remember that
"He that regardeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep" (Psa. 121: 3, 4), "And there be
higher than they", concludes Koheleth. This thought is carried over to 6: 10, where we
appear to have reached the heart of the whole book.