The Curse of God
(Bible Study - March 1999)
Ecclesiastes, as we saw last time (Tidings, 2/99), is a book framed by death. Death is that harsh fact of life from which there can be no escape. Death puts everything else in life into context. In this article, we shall be considering both why this theme of death should be so prominent, and how it, and other major themes in Ecclesiastes, arise out of the punishments God handed out in the early chapters of Genesis.
The theme of death
We have really already answered the question of why death should be such a dominant
theme. It is the ultimate limiter of life, and, thus, of all human endeavour. It is the
great leveler. One cannot reach beyond death in any way; this means that death, more than
any other fact about our existence, shows how pathetic and small life is, with all its "ambition,
noise and show." Everything else in Ecclesiastes happens within these boundaries
of death described in chapters 1 and 12.
Even if the Preacher were to discover that there were some value to any of the activities of human life which he describes within his book, these would still fall under the condemnation of death and thus ultimately be futile and limited in the way that is characteristic of human life as a whole. In this sense, therefore, the Preacher has already established one of his fundamental points in the first and last chapters -- human life is vanity.
This, however, is only the beginning of his stark message. We are reminded again and again of the finality of death in a number of further passages throughout the book. Chapter 9 is perhaps the most famous example, since we frequently use it when we preach the gospel:
"For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in anything that is done under the sun" (9:5,6).
In addition, there are the famous words of chapter 3:
"For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them; as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?" (3:19-21).
A problem considered
It is worth just pausing a moment to examine this passage. The Preacher here states
that, with respect to death, we are no better than the animals. We share the same fate as
they do. To this is appended, however, a verse which reads rather awkwardly in the KJV
suggesting that, in contradiction to what has just been said, there may be a distinction
between the spirit of man and beast -- one going up and the other going down (3:21)! We
are sometimes asked about this by those who believe in the immortal soul. How should we
respond?
There is no doubt whatsoever that the passage cannot be read as a factual statement about what happens to the spirits of man and beast. The Hebrew does not permit such a reading. Rather, the verse is a rhetorical question, the Preacher engaging in polemic against a view he rejects. The verse takes the form of a question, best understood in the rhetorical sense: "Who knows whether the spirit of a man goes upwards and the spirit of a beast downwards to the earth?!"
It seems most likely the Preacher is alluding to then-current beliefs or superstitions concerning the spirits of men and beasts. Some in the ancient world did suggest a distinction between the two, just as they do today: claiming men have one fate, animals another. But the Preacher, who has just asserted that man and beast share an identical fate, would be contradicting himself if he was supporting this view. Instead he is showing that it is impossible to make a distinction between the fates of man and beast. He is pointing out that such speculation is entirely unverifiable by humans ("who know!") He is, in effect, saying, "Some people might say that the spirit of man is different to an animal -- but how are you going to prove that this is true? Where is your evidence going to come from? Who knows? Nobody. It’s just someone’s unverifiable idea."
The verse is thus almost an exclamation. The Preacher does not explicitly come out and say that such a view is wrong (although he implies it by his statement in verses 19, 20); rather he pours scorn on it because the view is such a hypothetical and unprovable position to take. It is a view which has no basis in observable fact. Quite the opposite, when contrasted with his own realism.
True, all this may be rather difficult to explain to a believer in the immortal soul, but we must at least be assured that our position is a correct understanding of the original, which theirs is not. The passage does not make sense in its context if taken any other way.
We have only scratched the surface -- the theme of death continues and is probably to be found in every chapter of the book. We have not dealt with it in sufficient detail for the purposes of this series, however. There is, of course, still the question of what effect this teaching is to have on our lives -- a matter which the Preacher does address -- but we shall leave this for a future article, God willing.
The curse of Genesis
The Bible first introduces us to death in Genesis 3, and it is significant that there
are a number of parallels between the account of the fall of man recorded there and the
book of Ecclesiastes. Indeed, the statement of Ecclesiastes 12:7, considered last time,
draws directly on the creation accounts: "Then shall the dust return to the earth
as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." This is a reversal
of the process by which God formed man and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,
and it is a deliberate echo of God’s condemnation "dust thou art, and unto
dust shalt thou return" (Gen. 3:19).
We saw the same echo in Ecclesiastes 3:20. It is not just the death sentence, however, which echoes Genesis. The Preacher’s conclusion in 7:29 reminds us once again of the fall: "Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions." This is the picture that the first section of Genesis illustrates: God’s good and upright creation perverts itself through sin, first in the garden and then again and again as the first part of Genesis unfolds.
It was because of Adam and Eve’s sins that God placed creation under a curse. Romans, as we shall see later, describes the whole of creation "groaning and travailing in pain together" as a consequence of this. Ecclesiastes describes that very situation. Its abundant use of the key terms labour, toil, travail and work reminds us of the sentence that God placed on man that in the sweat of his face he was to eat bread till he returned to the dust again.
Reading Ecclesiastes in the light of Genesis 3 is a very fruitful and helpful thing to do. The ground was cursed for Adam’s sake and in sorrow he was to eat of it all the days of his life (Gen. 3:17): one could not have a more poignant expansion of this sorry state of affairs than that which we find in Ecclesiastes. Furthermore, the Preacher stresses that it was God’s deliberate action to subject man to this vain existence. It is no accident that the world is this way -- it all came about and was ordained by God because of man’s foolishness and rebellion: "I have seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it" (Eccl. 3:10). Note what the verse says: God has given this to man. Enduring (and, paradoxically, enjoying) this futile existence is the role God has given to humanity. He has decreed that there should be no profit in our daily toil of working to feed ourselves. In a matter of a few hours, we grow hungry again and so enter another circuit of working to feed ourselves -- and so on, ad infinitum: "What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?" (3:9).
In this way, all the depressing, vain things the Preacher describes can be seen to arise as a result of our own folly. Ecclesiastes is a fleshing out of the curses recorded in Genesis, of the bondage to which man was to be subjected because of his sin.
A brighter side
The message is not entirely pessimistic, however. While recognising that "all
the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled" (6:7),
the Preacher also stresses that participating in these activities God has commanded is
both good, satisfying and fulfilling for us.
Yes, in one sense it is a travesty that we have to spend our lives with such ultimately vain preoccupations, yet, conversely, life is a gift from God. Satisfaction is to be found even in these very punishments:
"Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion. Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God" (Eccl. 5:18,19).
The Preacher’s conclusion is not that all life is miserable because of Adam’s sin. His point is that there is no ultimate profit or lasting value in life, subjected as it is to God’s punishments meted out in Genesis. But more than this, so gracious is God that delight and satisfaction is still to be found in those activities, even though they are transient. More of this in a later article.
The New Testament
We have seen how Ecclesiastes reaches right back to the very earliest parts of the
Bible, the creation account and the record of the fall and its punishment. But
Ecclesiastes points forward too, for its language is picked up in a number of places in
the New Testament to describe a time when these curses will ultimately be removed. There
are two such passages to consider.
The first is the one already alluded to, Romans 8. Here Paul describes how God has subjected the creation (not "creature" as the KJV) to vanity. The very use of the word vanity in Romans 8:20 takes us back to Ecclesiastes. The Greek word used in Romans 8:20 is the same word used repeatedly for vanity in the Septuagint (the Greek) translation of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes demonstrates the way in which the creation has been subjected to vanity by God, as we have seen, and Paul also stresses that it is God who has done this subjecting (Rom. 8:20). Paul goes on to say, however, that the creation will be delivered from this "bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now...even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body" (Rom. 8:21-23).
The bondage to which we are now subject will be transformed into liberty when our Lord returns to establish God’s kingdom. Then there will be no more groaning and travailing, no more pain and suffering -- all of which were key themes in the writings of the Preacher. The curse depicted so powerfully in Ecclesiastes is to be removed.
Our second passage is I Corinthians 15. Here Paul speaks of the time when at last sins and death will be removed. He explains:
"So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory...But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord" (I Cor. 15:54,57,58).
It is the last of these verses which deliberately echoes the language of Ecclesiastes. Paul encourages us to be steadfast, immovable, to abound in the work of the Lord. Why should we do this? Why should we be engaged in the work of the Lord? Because our labour (shown by the Preacher to be futile and vain in a worldly sense) is not in vain in the Lord! Thus we have a complete contrast with Ecclesiastes.
Whereas labour in Ecclesiastes is ultimately of no profit, and is to be rewarded only with death (and temporary satisfaction, perhaps, while we are alive), work in the Lord is entirely different. Our labour for Him is not in vain in any sense. Because it will lead to our redemption from the bondage of sin and death, to the reversal of the pessimistic world-view which the Preacher was forced to portray when he considered life "under the sun." There are two types of work, two levels of living -- with two very different rewards: work for this world, and work for the Lord.
In this way, the very pessimism of Ecclesiastes enshrines both the past and the future. On the one hand, the Old Testament allusions back to Genesis 3 remind us that we are locked into an order of things inaugurated by God because of sin: the futile existence of endless work and vain pleasure. Ecclesiastes describes the facts that we believe about sin and death and about the way the world is at present: meaningless without God. But on the other hand, the language of Ecclesiastes, as taken up in the New Testament, points to a kind of work and a level of existence in serving God now which has abundant purpose and abundant satisfaction and which, through God’s grace, will usher in a new order when the bondage of corruption will finally be taken away.
Mark Vincent