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"Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing". Partisans for either side could
easily be found. So with eating, drinking and being merry. It may be a sign of reckless
worldliness. It may also be a sign of godly contentedness. In Eccles 9: 7-9 the subject
is repeated, and with emphasis:--
"Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy (same word `mirth' and `merry' in 8: 15) and
drink thy wine with a good heart; for God now accepteth thy works. Let thy garments be
always white; and let thy head lack no perfume. Live joyfully (Hebrew `see life') with
the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which He hath given thee
under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy
labour which thou takest under the sun."
We can imagine that such language comes as a shock to some, whose conception of
spirituality is something devoid of either natural affection, a merry heart, or a cheerful
countenance. If however I have given up the futile search into the mysteries of
providence and have gratefully fallen back upon the blessed words of Eccles. 9: 1 that
"The righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God"; if when I see
oppression and injustice I remember that "He that is higher than the highest regardeth;
and there be higher than they"; then I too can say with the Preacher:--
"Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and drink, and to
enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life which
God giveth him: for it is his portion . . . . . power to eat thereof, and to take his portion,
and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God" (Eccles. 5: 18, 19).
This by no means conflicts with the teaching of 7: 4, "The heart of the wise is in the
house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth", for a house of mirth,
in that sense, can never be a true description of the house of one redeemed by precious
blood and taught by God. Sin and its ugly accompaniments press too closely for that.
Nevertheless the admonition of the Preacher is salutary and true.
The commendation of mirth or rejoicing, and the finding that a man hath no better
thing under the sun than to eat, drink and be joyful, follows immediately upon that
inequality seen in the affairs of men where the righteous suffer evil, and the wicked
prosper. The parallel in 9: 7-9 "Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, etc." follows
immediately upon the statement concerning the "one event' that comes alike to all. In the
centre, between the two passages, comes 9: 1:--
"The righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God."
The man who believes that, in face of the inequalities of providence and the "one
event" which comes alike to all, he of all men can "eat, drink, and rejoice", and "live
joyfully with the wife whom he loves", etc.
"There is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes" (8: 16).
"The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the
abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep soundly" (5: 12).