Ecclesiastes (5)
Yes ... But ...
(Bible Study - May 1999)

Last month (Tidings, 4/99), we looked at the way in which the Preacher sometimes undercuts his own conclusions or juxtaposes two apparently contradictory truths. On some occasions, he appears to have a deliberate ploy to subvert conventional wisdom by showing it to be limited and incomplete. In this article we shall take two more examples in which contradictory or paradoxical truths are placed together, followed by some general comments about why the Preacher uses such techniques.

To be diligent or lazy?
We shall first examine a passage about work in chapter 4. It consists of three observations which I have numbered in order to simplify the discussion which follows:

1. "Again I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit."
2. "The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh."
3. "Better is a handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit" (Eccl. 4:4-6).

The difficulty lies in working out how these three statements relate to one another. We shall have to think through them step by step.

First, the Preacher observes the frustrating fact that someone who works hard and does the right thing is the object of envy on the part of others — even by those who would probably acknowledge diligence as a virtue. Envy lies behind much human achievement and toil; competitiveness and jealousy spark the desire to outdo the other. This raises the question whether diligence and hard work are quite so praiseworthy after all! Who wants to be the constant victim of envious workmates?

This is where the second observation comes in. On the basis of the previous observation, one might decide that it is better not to be over-diligent because at least this prevents being envied by others. The downside to such a position is that a lazy person will not be able to feed himself and will end up eating his own flesh! (the second observation).

Thus there are disadvantages in being too diligent and disadvantages in being too lazy. The third observation now balances these two statements by saying it is better to strike a middle balance in one’s efforts: it is better to have a handful with quietness (free from stress and the jealousy/antagonism of others) than it is to work one’s hardest and have both hands full.

We observe, then, that neither of the first two statements say precisely of themselves what the Preacher wants to say, nor do they contain the whole truth on the matter. Looking only at the second observation, for instance, one could say that the best thing to do was to work as hard as one possibly could so that one always had plenty to eat. And yet the first observation says that this is not such a good idea because others will be jealous if that is what one does — not to mention the fact that one may end up with more stress than one can cope with (the third observation). Nor does the first observation say it all; it is by placing the two side by side and by reaching a balanced conclusion (observation three) that it is possible to achieve a useful perspective on this issue.

Another interpretation
There are yet other possibilities in the passage, however. The second statement is ambiguous when looked at closely, and in a book as subtle and clever as Ecclesiastes it is always best to assume that such ambiguities are deliberate. Noting the word "flesh" is also the word for "food," (e.g. Isa. 22:13 "eating flesh and drinking wine") we must consider the statement again: "The fool foldeth his hands together and eateth his own flesh." This can be taken as a cynical observation stating that even though the fool folds his hands and doesn’t do anything, and yet he still has his meat to eat.

If we take the statement this way then the first two statements are both presenting a cynical view of excessive diligence in work, and, indeed, in the value of work per se. The third statement presents a conclusion based on this — that it must be better not to work too hard, but simply to have one "handful" with quietness.

We can see that in this passage the Preacher is undercutting conventional assumptions that the harder one works the better things will be. He is also showing that the world is not always fair. It is not always true that the more effort one puts in the more benefits one will have, since there are other factors which detract from this such as the envy of others and the fact that some people do not work at all and yet still manage to have a good living. The world, as the Preacher is at pains to show, is a complicated and unfathomable place. Our existence under the sun is indeed vain, and we must find something more sure than the present order of things in which to place our faith.

A poor wise man
Moving to a second example, Ecclesiastes 9:13-15 tells the story of a little city that was delivered by the wisdom of a poor wise man when it was attacked by a great king. Once the danger had passed, however, everybody forgot about the poor man and no one esteemed him for what he had done. The conclusions which can be drawn from this tale are presented in a series of contradictory truths. First, a positive statement is made about wisdom, and this is counteracted by another more negative statement:

(+) "Then said I, wisdom is better than strength,
(-) "Nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not heard,
(+) "The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools. Is better than weapons of war.
(-) "But one sinner destroyeth much good." (9:16-18)

The Preacher’s story about the poor wise man confirms what we may presume to be conventional wisdom (the positive statements). It shows wisdom is better than strength and weapons of war, because the poor wise man was able to save his city from a great and mighty king. Furthermore, the quiet words of a wise, though unimportant, man have more value than the loud cries of a king of fools.

We are not at all surprised to see such conclusions drawn from the story; what is surprising is the negative truths which the Preacher also presents. The positive axioms about wisdom are not the whole truth, for there is a flip-side which weakens the entirely positive view of wisdom that we might otherwise have had. People are so fickle that they do not even remember the wise man despite all he did for the city! The implication is perhaps this was because he was poor. People did not care for him because of his low status, even though he was wiser than them all. Although everyone would claim wisdom is better than riches, the facts of the matter show money talks louder than anything else. As if this of itself were not enough to undermine the supposed value of wisdom, the Preacher also points out that one foolish move achieves an effect as great if not greater than one wise move — only in the opposite direction.

The effect of the passage as a whole is to praise wisdom as we would expect, but it is also to present other truths which undermine and show the limits of human wisdom.

Yes … but …
In all of these examples, and in others too, the Preacher is using a strategy that we might term, "Yes...but..." He presents one truth and agrees with it — but only in certain respects. He is prepared only to go so far with it because he realises there are other angles and other truths which qualify or contextualize the first. Thus, it may be true that it is good to be diligent or to be wise (indeed it is true); but there are other aspects which must also be considered, as the Preacher is quick to point out. We observed the same phenomenon last month with the time poem, and it is a phenomenon which appears again and again throughout the book. It may be true that there is a time for everything, but if humans do not know when that time is, and if they cannot fathom the eternity which is God’s, then they are hopelessly at sea unless God condescends to help them out.

Interpreters have agonised over paradoxes and apparent contradictions in Ecclesiastes throughout the centuries, and where they have become unstuck it is often because they have failed to realise truth can be expressed in contradictory statements. One statement can be true to a certain extent. Another statement, which is apparently contradictory, can be true in another sense. Put the two together, and one begins to develop a complete picture.

This is somewhat akin to the position we find ourselves in when we discuss freewill and predestination, or when we ask the extent to which God is involved in controlling people’s lives and the extent to which we take the initiative in controlling our own destiny. There is truth in both: God directs and we have free will. The precise sense in which they are to be reconciled is not spelled out for us in scripture, and we are to take encouragement and instruction from both truths. Many arguments arise because of apparent overemphasis on one side or the other, but it is when they are taken together that we can begin to perceive the truth of the matter. Likewise in Ecclesiastes, the apparent contradictions are the Preacher’s way of expressing truth. There are different ways of looking at things, different perspectives and levels, and this means that apparently contradictory statements can turn out to be simultaneously true and can express the whole truth in a way that one simple statement could not. This is very important to remember.

Contradictions
While on the subject of contradictions, it is also important to bear in mind that words can be used in different ways, and that a word may mean a different thing in a different passage, depending on the context. Thus, when the Preacher concludes that wisdom is no better than folly (2:16) in the sense that both lead to death, we deduce that he is talking about worldly wisdom. Later on he tells us that wisdom is better than folly because wisdom "gives life to those that have it" (7:12 NKJV). Here he is talking about a different kind of wisdom, the wisdom of God which does give life. The Preacher does not spell out for us that he is using the word in a different sense; it is up to us to recognise the fact.

Most of the Preacher’s paradoxes or contradictions cannot be resolved so easily, however. Indeed, we must be wary of an approach to Ecclesiastes which tries to paste over them or explain them away; they are to be interpreted, not eliminated. The Preacher sees paradoxes a plenty as he observes the world; he insists on them and then moves on. They are part of the way things are "under the sun;" they are not puzzles to be "solved" by a crusade of reconciliation.

One of the Preacher’s main points in Ecclesiastes is that there is a limit to what we can understand about God, about life, and about ourselves. Certain facts are true and indisputable, like the facts about death, and the supremacy of God. But there are many things that simply cannot be understood fully by our limited minds. One of the ways in which the Preacher brings out this conclusion is through the use of contradiction. Whatever one says, there is always some other fact which must qualify it or in which it can be shown not to be entirely applicable. This is why it is a mistake to seek to resolve every apparent discrepancy in the book. Some discrepancies are there deliberately to show us that God and life are ultimately unfathomable for our finite minds. This conclusion is spelled out explicitly in the following passage:

"When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:) Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea farther; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it" (8:16,17; cp. 7:13).

The message at the end of that passage is very clear: we cannot find out the work of God in all its fullness — not even with the scriptures to guide us. Ecclesiastes teaches us that the world is like this: essentially unfathomable and beyond man — and hence frustrating and vain to him. One cannot read Ecclesiastes and fail to come away with this impression. God has made the world like this deliberately so that we may realise the gulf between ourselves and Him and so that we might seek after Him in order to understand and to have direction. We can go so far in understanding the world by our observations of it and by our experience, but we must remember that this is only "so far" and not all the way. God’s ways are ultimately inscrutable to human view. There will always be things that we cannot fully understand. And if we claim any different — if we "think to know it" — we shall only be deceiving ourselves for the Preacher tells us that we "shall not be able to find it." This is because we are man and not God. We must recognise and bow to His supremacy in all things. We must learn to recognise our finiteness and weakness, the dullness of our minds, and learn to place our trust and confidence evermore in Him.

Mark Vincent

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