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Ecclesiastes 4.5, 6
5The fool folds his hands
And consumes his own flesh.
6Better a handful with quietness
Than both hands full, together with toil and grasping for wind.
The Story: So how should we respond to the absurdity of life? The fool will say, “Well, what’s the use? Qué será, será. I’m not gonna exert myself for any purpose or person.” So he just wastes away, feeding off his own selfish interests and aspiring to nothing greater than whatever is immediately at hand. On the other hand, the diligent man gets busy with as many projects and activities as he can keep going at once. He is so busy – “both hands full of toil” – that, while he embodies the idea that life and happiness consist in things and experiences, he has no time to enjoy them, and dies exhausted and defeated. Solomon slips in a glimpse of life “under the heavens” by the phrase “handful with quietness (‘rest’).” In the divine economy men need to work – it is the gift of God – but they also need to rest. But they can only truly rest when they live toward God rather than toward themselves. God not only authorizes rest but commands it as vital to full and abundant life. Solomon’s glance at the fourth commandment here is his way of keeping his primary theme in view.
The Structure: Doubtless we can think of examples of the three types of people Solomon mentions here: Ne’re-do-wells and sluggards, workaholics and manics, and those who manage to know true contentment amid the trials and troubles of life. Solomon’s ability to speak in generalities that transcend time and place is a measure of the wisdom God gave him for ruling well. He shows us, like Augustine in City of God, that the two perspectives – under the heavens and under the sun – intermingle and intertwine in all human experience. The challenge to the redeemed of the Lord, who are working for restoration and renewal in this life, is to maximize their experience under the heavens and to beware of and avoid every tendency to pursue life under the sun.
How are you trying to “maximize your experience under the heavens”? In what ways does the secular world around you tempt you to live its way instead?
Each week’s studies in our Scriptorium column are available in a free PDF form, suitable for personal or group use. For this week’s study, “Frauds, Follies, and Fleeting Joys: Ecclesiastes 4,” simply click here.
T. M. Moore
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.