Ecclesiastes 2:12-26

The last half of chapter two Solomon looks back and examines wisdom and toil. He goes deeper and looks at not just what he accomplished and did but what will be left behind after him in light of this fallen world that we are in. Then at the end of chapter two, after giving an account on life in this fallen cursed world, his assessments bringing dark clouds all over head in what some could see as a gloomy view of life, we see a bright beam of sunshine piercing through the clouds. He reminds us that God is the giver of gifts and that there are some enjoyable things that God has given us to enjoy in this temporal life. And as the chapter closes we come to sort of a turning point as God becomes more and more of the discussion and focus through the rest of the book. There are still more vanities to discuss but God moves more into focus and prominence as we continue.

12

Ecclesiastes 2:12 “So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done.”

Solomon looks back at all his experiences with having great wisdom, and all the pleasures and less than academic efforts, the madness and folly, and compares them against each other. He has done it all, seen it all, and as far as a human can, knew it all. But before he gives his judgement between the two, wisdom on one side, and madness and folly on the other, he pauses and makes another observation on repetitiveness like he did in his opening poem, Ecclesiastes 1:9–10 “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us.” Solomon remarks when he is looking at all that he has done, what is left for the kings who come after him to do? Nothing new, it has all been done before and their repeated efforts will have diminishing returns. Shortly after Solomon died and passed the kingship to his son Rehoboam the kingdom split in two and neither Rehoboam nor Jeroboam ruled over as much as Solomon had ruled.

13-14

Ecclesiastes 2:13–14 “Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them.”

As Solomon steps back he sees that the path of wisdom is a better one than that of immoral pleasures, those that seek after wisdom can at least see and discern what is going on, but those who cloud their minds with earthly immoral pleasures are blinding themselves. But whether you seek after wisdom and knowledge or bury yourself in worldly pleasures, the same event comes for both, death. With only two notable exceptions, Enoch and Elijah, death has reigned supreme with the human race. Side note to that, depending on your interpretation of Revelation, Enoch and Elijah may be the two witnesses in Revelation 11 that are killed for proclaiming the wickedness of the world, and even if you don’t interpret it that way, there were a few whom Jesus brought back from death, Lazarus and the daughter of Jairus to name two, that died twice, so overall death would still be 100%. Second brighter side note to the record of death is 1 Corinthians 15:26 “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” Which was done by Christ’s resurrection, becoming the first fruit and what we have to look forward to with faith and hope. Death may come for us all but through faith in Christ there is no more sting in death.

We get a glimpse in this verse that there is brightness among the dark clouds

15-16

Ecclesiastes 2:15–16 “Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool!”

But even though is it better humanly speaking to live your life wisely and not in a fog of utter immorality, death still comes for all. For the unbeliever, for those without faith in Christ and our assured hope of everlasting life, this would be a devastating realization.

17

Ecclesiastes 2:17 “So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.”

Not a suicidal statement

Expressing the utter frustration with the fallen world and the curse that we are under due to sin. Under the sun, or under the curse

All of human history we have been looking for a way out of death, escaping

No fountain of youth

Cryogenics

Put our consciousness into a machine

Modern medicine, hormone supplements, life support, quantity over quality

Vanity, substitute the word vanity with brevity or temporary, one definition of hebel, both the Hebrew word here and for Abel, is breath or vapor, meaning only seen for a short period of time as your visible breath on a cold day.

What the world is looking for is already promised in Christ

18-19

Ecclesiastes 2:18–19 “I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.”

Solomon’s review of the vanity of toil, or the brevity of toil

Under the sun, under Heaven, under God and under the curse

Toiling vs working, God gave us work to do and is not a curse.

Genesis 2:15 “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”

Toiling is part of the curse and makes the God given pleasurable work into sweating and toil

Genesis 3:17–19 “And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.””

All that we do and build and acquire through our toiling we cannot keep in the end. You can’t take it with you when we die.

Mentioned in verse 12 also all that we have acquired will be left to someone or multiple people who did not work to gain it.

Will they use it wisely or will they squander it in a day?

Vanity or temporary

Have we given any thought as to what we are leaving behind for our descendants?

Things or Godly wisdom and examples

20-21

Ecclesiastes 2:20–21 “So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.”

Echoes of verse 17 and 18 “hating life” and “hated all my toil” Solomon describes the despair, without a secured eternity

Everything will be left behind when we die, verses 12, 18, and 19

Evil, not a moral evil like Satan evil, but a disaster, wrong, or calamity

22-23

Ecclesiastes 2:22–23 “What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.”

We reach the end conclusion of Solomon’s vanity of laborious work due to the curse, apart from the light of God, which he presents in the next few verses, but apart from God, the brevity of life, just a short vapor and its over, the repetitiveness of it, get up, go to work, sweat for your food, go to bed and repeat, the fact that if you do manage to gather some wealth or possessions you will leave them for someone else to use or squander when, not if, but when you die, it makes all of your days filled with sorrow, all your work a challenge and chore. It makes a life filled with anxiety so real and intense that you can’t even sleep and rest well.

24-25

Ecclesiastes 2:24–25 “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?”

We see a bright spot and a turning in the book in this verse. God is sovereign, and all things are a gift from God.

Before the fall God made us to work and enjoy all that we work for and work at, it was not toil but what God wanted us to do, tend and care for the garden that he made for us and for us to enjoy it. Even after the fall we can enjoy things, eating a good meal, spending time with loved ones, even enjoyment in our work I am told sometimes happens.

This may seem like a contradiction to all that has come before in Ecclesiastes but this whole time we have been looking at the world apart from God and right after Solomon gives his conclusion that all our toil under the sun is temporary and fleeting, he reminds us and points out in his way that nothing it truly apart from God. God’s common grace is extended to all, both in and out of the faith and everything that we do, however fleeting and temporary, we can find enjoyment in, and this is in fact a gift from God.

26

Ecclesiastes 2:26 “For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.”

I see this as the division between believers and unbelievers, the faithful and the unfaithful.

How does one please God? By following his commandments and having true and saving faith in Christ.

To the saved saints of God he has given his wisdom and knowledge, his living word in which contains what God wants us to know about him and our salvation. And in that we can have true joy and peace in God for all eternity.

To the one who does not follow God’s commandments and denies our true Lord and savior Jesus Christ there will be toil and unhappiness. And what is sought after, longed for, and attempted to gain by all of humanity, not to die and live forever, will not be given to the unfaithful but given to God’s saints, eternity, without sin in heaven with God himself.