Ecclesiastes 4: We’re All Envious

Image of a woman suffering from excessive envy via Wikipedia

Eccl. 4:4     And I saw that all labor and all achievement 

spring from man’s envy of his neighbor. 

This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 

Is envy really the motivation behind why we work, study, and try to lead comfortable lives?

Envy is all about comparisons. Envy is: “a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else’s possessions, qualities, or luck.” Envy is a drive toward superiority. Anytime we feel driven or resentful of others who have more, we have fallen into a fundamentally ugly mode of living.

Solomon calls envy “meaningless” or in Hebrew, HEBEL, like chasing a breeze, a mist over the water, or unprofitable. His word to anyone who is reading is to prompt these personal questions,

• Am I really driven by ENVY?
• Does envy make me want a lifestyle beside the pool ?
• Do I want people to say I’m “pretty” or  a “study”?
• Do I want a Wii or an iPhone because somebody told me it was a good thing to have? Advertisers cuddle up to us to get us to become envious, that is, to want things we don’t have.

To the wise Teacher, envy is a fundamental force in the system of life, just like oppression (verses 1-3). 

He has a third negative trait in the next verse.

Eccl. 4:5     The fool folds his hands

and ruins himself. 

A fool “folds his hands” (NIV) or “eats his own flesh” (KJV). Now, who wants to be the fool? The fool is someone who acts stupidly, whose roof is caving in because he thought shingles were unnecessary, and thinks that unsafe behavior is OK because he will never get caught. The fool, Solomon says, “EATS HIS OWN FLESH.” YUCK!!! A self-necrotizing, cannibalizing monster. So, ask yourself: “

• Am I a lazy fool?
• Do I consume more than I should?
• Do I think irrationally?
• Do I think I can get away with bad behavior, laziness, or disregard for the rules for success in this life?”

All wisdom literature begs a personal reaction. The wise person reacts to The Teacher’s words with repulsion. “Of course, I don’t want to be a fool, envious, or oppressed!” The wise person wants freedom from these negative forces in life.

Eccl. 4:6     Better one handful with tranquillity

than two handfuls with toil

and chasing after the wind. 

After three negative fundamentals, now, in verse 6, Solomon tells us a huge tip. This is the wisdom to free us from Oppression, ENVY, and THE FOOL. Spend time in Quiet, life without noise, and from the pressured living of our modern world.

Take a couple of deep breaths, and hide for a few minutes in a place without distraction or impulse.

I read Steven Baldwin’s autobiography, Unusual Suspect, about five years ago. His wife’s pursuit of tranquility in the middle of his chaotic acting career impressed me. One habit she had was to lie beside their bed in prayer each morning or in the middle of the night. This habit of falling prostrate before God in submission impressed Baldwin. He took note, realized the spillover of tranquility into the rest of her life, and began a life of faith in the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.

Solomon, too, knew that tranquility is a positive fundamental to counteract our “chasing after the wind.”

Related articles

• Ecclesiastes 3: Is God in Control or Is FATE? (journeymantom.wordpress.com)
• Ecclesiastes 4: We’re All Oppressed (journeymantom.wordpress.com)

Ecclesiastes 4: We’re All Oppressed

Eccl. 4:1    Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun:

I saw the tears of the oppressed—

and they have no comforter;

power was on the side of their oppressors—

and they have no comforter.

 

Eccl. 4:2    And I declared that the dead,

who had already died,

are happier than the living,

who are still alive.

Eccl. 4:3    But better than both

is he who has not yet been,

who has not seen the evil

that is done under the sun.

Oppression (Photo credit: Toban Black)

Are we oppressed? The oppressed feel powerless. The oppressed feel threatened. The oppressed feel disadvantaged and overwhelmed by impossible odds against their life. Think carefully!

Solomon portrays the bleak state of the oppressed.

1. They have no comforter.
2. They have a death wish.

They are like runners near the middle of the race who want to quit because they are so tired and have so far to go. They feel like no one cares. They feel isolated and beyond hope.  They spiral down an abandoned tunnel.

Growing up in extreme poverty in Limerick, Ireland in the 1940’s, Frank McCourt describes an entire block of houses using the same outhouse, constant sewage flooding his house, and battles with rats and lice. His father drank his paychecks away. Catholic charity brought food to his house or he stole bread and milk. He had no one to comfort him. The family was oppressed and gave into it. Three brothers died. However, McCourt, at 18, escaped!

Why does The Teacher bring up such depressing conditions? Because if you feel oppressed, you can stop it. You can change. The circumstances don’t have to stay that way. He’s going to teach us how to climb out, keep going, and quit our suffering victim mentality. McCourt became a successful teacher and author. Our conditions don’t have to define us even if we say:

1. “I wish I were dead.”
2. “I wish I never was born.”

The most powerful and wise person in the world knew that overwhelming feeling! He wished he had never been born! He felt powerless. He felt like giving up. Wealth, fame, and political power do NOT prevent feelings of oppression.

Well, these situations don’t exist. You aren’t dead. You were born. Our potential still exists. We can keep going, and find a reason to live.

Ultimately, oppression causes us to ask, “What is my purpose? Do I feel free to be me?” Ultimately, true freedom and purpose is found in connection to the Father. Thus, The Teacher’s admonition several times in Ecclesiastes to, “Fear God!”

Even Jesus felt oppressed and overwhelmed in his ministry. The the thought of his suffering overwhelmed him. The crowds overwhelmed him so he escaped to the desert. The ignorance of his disciples overwhelmed him. The vile, evil perpetrators of the powerful elite oppressed him. Yet, we never hear him wishing he were dead or never born. Jesus had life-giving resources.

Instead,

1. He submitted to the filling of the Holy Spirit in the Jordan River.
2. He cut off from human contact to maximize connection to His Father. (Went to lonely places often)
3. He obeyed all the commands.
4. He helped others.
5. He studied the scriptures.

To those who do not believe these practices fight the system or rescue the oppressed these look like weak tactics to confine or create religious enslavement. To those of us who have faith in God through Christ, these practices gain purpose and freedom, shedding oppression like water off a duck’s back. We live to tell others about purpose and freedom! We know The Teacher is right: Fear God!

Luke 4:17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

Luke 4:18    “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and

recovery of sight for the blind,

to release the oppressed,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

"Which of these three beings is thinking, 'Yum. These oats are going to taste great next fall?'" Image via Wikipedia

We are NOT like the animals. Please don’t clump me with worms, dolphins, cats, monkeys, aphids, and even dogs! While watching a documentary on dolphin slaughter in Japan (23,000/year in one bay!), (http://www.savejapandolphins.org/), people equated dolphins with humans almost 20 times! Yes, we overlap in some behaviors, but please don’t equate animals and humans. Here’s why…

In Ecclesiastes 3, verses 18-21 Solomon says that, yes, we are like the animals because they live and die and so do we. They breathe. We breathe. We have similar functions, and then we die. In verse 19, he states that this is HEBEL, a misty, transient, temporary, and “crappy” condition of our life on earth. We are both doomed to die. We have no choice in the matter at all!

21 Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

Some people have taken this verse out of context to say that humans and animals both have “spirits”. They make this verse say too much. Solomon simply states the obvious: When a person or animal dies, we don’t see a “ghosty” cloud leaving the body going up or down. You can believe what you want about dogs or animals in heaven, but that is not what is being said here. We humans cannot see beyond this life. We cannot see spiritual things with our eyes. What can we see?

22 So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?

Solomon sees a powerful, life-giving force at work when someone enjoys working (producing results). Animals don’t work and find meaning. An oxen plowing a field has no greater satisfaction at the end of the day. A dog doesn’t lick itself, and say, “I love the feeling of being clean!” A horse doesn’t think when plowing and say, “Yum! These oats are going to taste great next fall!” They don’t find satisfaction in labor like humans do! Only humans are given that “lot in life.” That is our place! Enjoyment is what distinguishes humans from animals.

Humans CAN act like animals! Humans CAN act animal-ish, ruled by impulse, desires, and basal bodily functions. Humans CAN ignore the ultimate questions of why we do what we do, what happens after life, why are we here, how do we find real pleasure, how do we know God exists. The brilliance of Solomon’s wisdom is in asking the question in verse 22, “Who can bring him to see what will happen after him?” He begs the greatest question, “Where is God in this world?”

God is within this world, a good God, a God that wants our happiness in an unjust world, who can make work meaningful because he is present in it somehow. He asks us to think less like an animal and ultimately to acknowledge his presence! No animal can do that!

Oh, the Grip Eternity Has On My Heart!

Image via Wikipedia

Philosophers have tried to capture the meaning of life for thousands of years, yet always seem to come up short. Solomon says that this is because, “God has placed eternity in our hearts.” Philosophical flashlights shine just three steps ahead. We can’t see the end. The tunnel is too long. We know there is more to life, to this journey, to these events we are living, but our understanding comes up short!

Solomon says, “That’s OK! God placed something of eternity within you so you will know it exists. You will want it, but since it is eternity, it will continually slip out of your grasp.”

All religions are man’s attempts to get a grip on the eternal, that slippery search for meaning and beauty. All religions practice rituals we’d never do anywhere else in life just to satisfy that continual gnawing and nagging thought:  “This can’t be all there is!”

To find meaning in life, Solomon takes a completely different route. His continuity with the rest of the Bible, that God is a giver, is astounding!

• Ecclesiastes 3:12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.  14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.

The wise teacher writes TWO “I know” statements. He knows happiness and doing good are better activities on earth. What moron would say that evil is better? (Oh yeah, Lex Luther and Adolph Hitler, or baby killers or slave traders.)  Even work is good. Work brings satisfaction, i.e. meaning. Looking at a finished product, a garden planted, a house built, an afghan knitted, a cake baked, or a diploma on the wall is satisfying. Solomon connects satisfaction and pleasure to a point outside of ourselves in God alone. They are God’s gifts, not our right or guaranteed, but gifts!

He knows a second thing: God cloaks his beauty and the meaning of life for one purpose only: God wants people everywhere to revere Him.

• As people search for meaning, they are really searching for God.
• As people search for fun and happiness, they are really searching for God.
• As people work hard to finish a product they are really searching for a deeper connection with God’s work.

God hid eternity deep within our pores. We feel the unseen end of things. We know there is more to this life. Solomon says that when God gives satisfaction we feel complete. Our yearning feels completed. We get connected to the Eternal One. We sense His eternal grip on our hearts.  We look down that long tunnel to see God standing there with arms open wide! We lose ourselves in His gift and revere Him, knowing he’s been standing there for us all along!

Cover via Amazon

(Philip Yancey has one of the best books on unseen connections, “Rumors of Another World.” He asks, “Are we missing something?” and then shows all the ways we inherently know more exists and ways people implicitly want a connection to God. It’s brilliant!)