I recently finished
teaching through Ecclesiastes for the second time. As I taught through it, I
appreciated anew the spiritual depth to which this work leads us, and how vital
its wisdom is for living as God’s covenant people this side of Genesis 3. In
fact, I asserted over and over that Ecclesiastes is an expansive meditation on
Genesis 3:17-19. Much of how I taught Ecclesiastes stayed the same as when I went
through it with a different congregation five years ago. There is one aspect to
Ecclesiastes, however, that I realized this time around was key to a proper
understanding of biblical wisdom, and, in particular, the book of Proverbs.
The element of Ecclesiastes
to which I am referring is the concept of “better.”
It’s just “good” in the Hebrew (טוֹב), but “gooder” has never taken root in the
English language, despite the best efforts of all of us in the first years of
learning the language.
Ecclesiastes opens with
the statement הֲבֵל הֲבָלִים, variously rendered “absolute futility” (CSB, the translation I’m using in this post), “meaningless! Meaningless!” (NIV), “everything is meaningless” (NLT), and,
most popularly, “vanity of vanities!”
This is the seemingly senseless repetition of the days of our lives that is all
undone and must be done again, over and over. It is the reality that “what is crooked cannot be straightened”
(1:15), and that it is God Who has done the twisting (7:13). The cursing of creation
in Genesis 3:17-19 (see also Romans 8:20) set up the comprehensive and total
frustrating of every human being on the face of the earth. Human beings were created
to “rule” (Genesis 3:26) and “subdue” (3:28) creation, but, after the
Fall, God caused creation to resist and war against human beings. To live in
this world is to live frustrated. All that we do is temporary and must be
endlessly done again. Having just moved to southwest Missouri from southwest
New Mexico, the “absolute futility”
for my family is mowing. By the time we finish mowing the property, we already
see signs that we will need to be mowing again very soon. It must be done, but
there is no endurance to the results of our effort. And God is the One Who has decreed
it.
Believe it or not, this “absolute futility,” this twisting of
all creation to fight against beings made to subdue creation, is an act of
grace.
If all done “under the sun” wasn’t endlessly futile,
I wouldn’t seek an eternal satisfaction in the only One Who can provide that
for me. If, after the Fall, the creation yielded perfectly to me, I would
create a substitute heaven here, and wouldn’t long for the one created for me
in eternity by my Jesus.
My frustration here for a
few brief moments of life is promised to be utterly eclipsed because of the re-making
that Christ will bring about.
But, as a child of God in
Christ, I am still in this world, still daily moving through this “absolute futility.” How then shall we
live? The answer of the wisdom works of the Bible is found, at least in part,
with the idea of “better.”
“There
is nothing better for a person than
to eat, drink, and enjoy his work. I have seen that this is from God’s hand” (Ecclesiastes 2:24).
“I
know that there is nothing better
for them than to rejoice and enjoy the good life” (3:12).
“I
have seen that there is nothing better
than for a person to enjoy his activities because that is his reward” (3:22).
“Better is one handful with rest than
two handfuls with effort and a pursuit of the wind” (4:3).
“Two
are better than one because they
have a good reward for their efforts” (4:9).
“Better is a poor but wise youth than an
old but foolish king who no longer pays attention to warnings” (4:13).
“Better than you do not vow than that
you vow and not fulfill it”
(5:5).
“A
good name is better than fine
perfume…” (7:1a).
“It
is better to listen to the rebuke from
a wise person than to listen to the song of fools” (7:5).
“…a
live dog is better than a dead lion” (9:4b).
“Wisdom
is better than strength” (9:16a).
“Wisdom
is better than weapons of war” (9:18a).
There are plenty of other verses
that carry a similar idea without using the language. While we cannot undo the
twisting of creation, we are nonetheless called to daily attempt to bring it
into order (we can’t help it…it’s hard-wired into us). Ecclesiastes is written
by “the Teacher, son of David” (1:1),
who concludes that all true wise “sayings
are given by one Shepherd” (12:11). The book begins and ends leading us to
the final “the Son of David,” Jesus
Christ, Who is also our “Teacher” and
“Shepherd.” How do we walk through
this world as citizens of another without falling into a paralyzed fatalism?
“Better.”
With “better” are not promises of “best” or the total undoing of “absolute futility”; in fact, there are
no this-world promises at all with “better”!
As the people of God in this twisted world, though, it is “better” for us to live in obedience to God’s wisdom than
otherwise. Will we still have to deal with the consequences of living in this “absolute futility”? Yes. Ask Job. But
following the Lord’s Spirit-given wisdom in the Scripture is “better” than doing otherwise.
Here’s what I realized
this time around in Ecclesiastes: this doctrine of “better” helps us rightly read Proverbs. We tend to read Proverbs
as a series of iron-clad promises. Wisdom literature doesn’t speak in iron-clad
promises, though. Wisdom literature speaks honestly and deeply about living as
God’s children in a fundamentally messed-up world. We are called to the “better” of God’s wisdom, recognizing
that everything will fall apart on a daily basis, and that all things in this
world are temporary.
I can give one illustration:
“Start a youth out on his way; even when
he grows old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). How many parents
do we know that did all they could to bring up children “in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4) only
to see them wander as far away from it as possible? How many, reading Proverbs
22:6 as some sort of guarantee, therefore beat themselves up because of
feelings they must have failed, given the result?
When we plug the “better” of Ecclesiastes into our
reading of Proverbs, something helpful happens.[1] The world cursed by sin
doesn’t go away, but a way of living “better”
than eating thorn sandwiches appears. It is God’s way in Christ, Who is the
fullness of God’s wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:24,30; Colossians 2:2,3). If trusting
Jesus exempted us from a daily living in the “absolute futility,” it wouldn’t be long before we would decide we
didn’t need him, heaven, or a resurrection. Instead, we are reborn by faith in
Jesus Christ, but still find ourselves beating back the thorns in a million
areas in our lives. But we do it, not only because we can’t help but do it, but
because we are doing it in Christ, Who leads us to push back briars in a way “better” than the world does it.
There is a beautifully
hopefulness in this way: the “better”
of today in Christ among the thorns will one day be eternally transformed into
the infinitely, unimaginably “best” in Him. I can’t wait. But, until then, may
we day-by-day continue on in this “absolute
futility” walking in Jesus in the “better”
that He has mapped out for us in this world.
[1] For occurrences of “better” in Proverbs, read 3:14; 8:11,19; 12:9; 15:16,17;
16:8,16,19,32; 17:1; 19:1,22; 21:9,19; 22:1; 25:7,24; 27:5,10; 28:6. Beyond
just the actual instance of the word itself, I hope you see the principle I’m
driving at!
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