Life Under The Sun

Introduction

The world always has a lot to say for itself, even though it hasn't got a lot to say. So, it should come as no surprise to see that Qoheleth spends almost three chapters dealing with life in the world - life under the sun. Indeed, life under the sun hardly deserves the name of life at all; it is mere existence, at worst foolish and incoherent, at best sensible and ordered, but ultimately pointless.

A Pointless Existence

And that is where he starts in chapter 8. Life under the sun is pointless. At every turn this chapter faces us with our inability to call the tune and be the master our own lives. In one scene after another we find ourselves pinned down, hunted down and tossed about. We are searching here for something predictable. And after a long search it is cold comfort to find that the only thing that is predictable is death. And, as we recoil from that prospect, we are confronted by the present which is full of suffering and evil.

Even wisdom is limited by the evils of life under the sun. With the dangerous whims of a dictator to reckon with, wisdom has, as it were,  to fold its wings and become discretion - able only to keep the wise man out of trouble.

Far worse than that is the sight of wicked men complacently flourishing. Yet even more sickening is wickedness respected and given the blessing of religion. And the people don't even have the excuse of ignorance. The villains are being honoured at the very scenes of their misdeeds - and they are dead.

That shows us very clearly that popular opinion can go totally astray, swayed by the evidence of success or failure. The dictator or the corrupt business tycoon may have bent the rules, it will be said; but after all, they got things done, they had flair, they lived in style.

Yet, wickedness brings no true benefits; it fills life with insecurity. The wicked man's life is all show, no substance. That was well illustrated for me by someone I knew a number of years ago. He was a chiropodist, who had his own very successful business. So successful, in fact, that he often had clients who required home visits or evening treatments because they were working during the day. He soon realised that, if he did not declare the money which he earned from such after-hours or home treatments, no one would really be any the wiser, and he would have a lot of extra spending money for an extravagant lifestyle. Thus, began a life of wine, women and song built on tax evasion. But the trouble was that he found it almost impossible to spend all his surplus money without attracting the attention of his accountant and the tax inspector. Soon, he began to wonder if he was being watched. He started to travel long distances in order to spend his illegal wealth. So, far from enjoying the extra money he had, his dishonesty brought him only insecurity. His rich life was utterly futile and brought him only misery.

But, even honest, hard work and simple living can only shelve our ultimate questions about life, never settle them, as the end of chapter 8 shows us clearly. The very busyness of life worries us into asking where it is taking us, and what it means, if it does mean anything. In the end such a life is a pointless existence.

A Foolish Existence

In case we should be cherishing some comforting illusions, chapter 9 confronts us with the little that we do know, then with the vast extent of what we cannot handle: in particular, death, the ups and downs of fortune, and the erratic favours of the crowd. But first it asks the crucial question, whether, in this pointless existence, we are in the hands of friend or foe.

While the world around us gives no clue as to what God thinks of us, our present and future prospects make it only too clear. It often appears as if God is just not interested. Moral or immoral, religious or irreligious, we are all, like grass, mown down by death. As Psalm 90:5-6 graphically puts it: You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning - though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered. In a hundred years, as they say, it will all come to the same thing.

We look at the world, as it shows itself to us, with death as the universal obliterator and evil running riot.

And that leads to disillusionment and cynicism. To live in an apparently meaningless world is deeply disillusioning for people, especially the young, and disillusion breeds both destructiveness and despair - either the madness of the violent or of the hopelessly withdrawn.

When a whole society becomes secular, the process is far more obvious and widespread. And that is what we see today in our secular society - wicked madness, flourishing in an atmosphere of selfish indifference or fearful apathy.

Idleness and neglect which silently destroy a house or an individual personality are as fatal to a nation as they are to a building or a person. Nothing else is needed to bring it down, and, in the end, nothing is more devastating. We see that today in Britain. What foreign enemies could not do - neither the Nazis nor the Communist bloc - is being quietly but comprehensively accomplished from within. The very fabric of our society is being destroyed. Do you wonder we live in a binge-drinking culture?

A Sensible Existence

Whatever kinds of damage can be safely overlooked, decay is not among them: time is on the side of decay. As the saying goes: for evil to triumph, it is only necessary for good men to do nothing.

But, is despair all that is left in life under the sun? Surprisingly enough, people in general think not, or the human race would have perished long ago. And Qoheleth agrees. Life is definitely worth living. Chapter 10 takes a calm look at life, sampling it at random, so as to help us to keep our own standards high, without being too surprised at the shortcomings of others, or taken off our guard in our dealings with the powerful. After all, even at its worst, or near it, life is better than nothing, which is what death appears to be.

Perhaps the living know too much for their comfort? But who would be a corpse and know nothing, expect nothing, count for nothing in the world? Under the very cloud of death, this life-affirming spirit lights up the rest of the passage, as far as anything under the sun can; for though it is not the full answer, it is a partial answer, and it does enjoy the approval of God.

It is not for nothing that He is the source of all the gifts of earthly life: its bread and wine, work and leisure, marriage and love. All good gifts around us come from heaven above. And should be enjoyed while we still have the opportunity to do so, for death is not the only hazard facing us.

Time and unpredictable events both have a way of taking matters suddenly out of our hands. This is obvious enough where the unpredictable is concerned - for life is largely made up of steps into the unknown and events happen out of the blue. And any of them may change our whole lives in a moment. Chapter 3 with its "time to be born, time to die” rhythm has already shown how relentlessly our lives are swung from one extreme to another by the pull of forces we do not control. All this contradicts the impression that we control our lives. We are not the masters of our fate or the captains of our souls.

But, if life under the sun is fickle, so is public gratitude. Qoheleth tells the cautionary tale of the treatment of the poor wise man who saved his city, to show what people are like. We should learn not to count on anything as fleeting as public gratitude.

Life is unpredictable and cruel and always prone to disaster and ruin. Ours is the world of Murphy's Law: whatever can go wrong will go wrong! It takes far less to ruin something than to create it. This is part of the unfair advantage which evil seems to enjoy under the sun; for to put it bluntly, as Qoheleth does, it is easier to make a stink than to create sweetness.

Yet, what should the wise person do under the sun? Retreat from society? No, indeed! The wise man cares very much about the way his country is governed, and about the way to rule himself and his life, in a world which is at once demanding, delightful and dangerous. In such a world wisdom makes for a sensible existence. It is the essential survival aid!

Conclusion

To survive is the first step, but it is by no means the last. We were made for more than survival and mere existence, even sensible existence; we were made for life. We were not made for darkness and death but rather that we should with all our hearts, live by faith and come closer to God. There is a real alternative to pointless, under-the-sun existence - it is purposeful life under heaven, under God. Are we really living it?