Ecclesiastes (6)
The Economics of Ecclesiastes
(Bible Study - June 1999)

The book of Ecclesiastes betrays a great interest in the way things add up, or, as is often the case, don’t add up, in the world. The Preacher knows all about economics — as we shall see shortly, much of his terminology derives from the world of commerce and accounting — but although one may know the rules of trade and business inside out, life as a whole is not always subject to the same logic. The economics of life are a strange affair.

The Preacher’s economic vocabulary
Although we shall not dwell much on matters of vocabulary, it is worth listing a number of terms used in Ecclesiastes which come from a context of business and finance:

In the light of all this, the Preacher’s comment in 7:27 takes on a new meaning: "Behold, this have I found, saith the Preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account…" The term "account" is quite definitely a commercial one; it is as if the Preacher has been poring over the ledgers of life item by item, counting all the discrepancies and calculating all the totals.

Further examination of this theme will have to be left to readers, for there is only space to develop just one of these terms here.

What profit is there?
It goes without saying that one of the most fundamental concepts in the economics of any business is that of profit. It is one of the Preacher’s favourite terms, and one of his primary objects of investigation. Indeed, after his introduction (1:1) and the opening "vanity of vanities" frame (1:2), it is the very first thing to which he refers: "What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?" (1:3; cf. 3:9). In many ways this question sums up the Preacher’s investigation throughout Ecclesiastes. His main focus of interest is life "under the sun," and he wants to understand what there is to be got out of it, how a man may profit from what life has to offer. This question in 1:3 is a good summary of the investigative purpose of the entire book. What net gain is there in the various activities of life?

As our studies so far have shown, the answer is predominantly a negative one. Though there is a positive side (as our next and final article will consider), the Preacher’s conclusion is that there is no ultimate profit: life under the sun is essentially unfathomable, it is part of a curse imposed by God, its pleasures are transient and unable to fulfil man’s deepest yearnings and needs, the experiences it throws up are often contradictory and frustrating, and it is bound by that great limiter of all things -- death itself.

No profit under the sun
This, then, is the bad news of Ecclesiastes: We have seen a lot of it already in earlier articles, and a study of the word for "profit" drives the point home and provides a convenient summary. The Hebrew word means "to extend, to go beyond," yet the Preacher finds nothing in life under the sun which does this. Even positive experiences, when we think we are enjoying ourselves and "really living," turn out to be but fleeting. Memories are forgotten, and death sweeps everything away no matter how much fun we have had or how diligent we may have been.

Ecclesiastes 2 is for me one of the most powerful passages on this theme. In that passage Solomon tries out everything — from the accumulation of wealth, art and property, to an interest in music, the performing arts, wine and women, to virtually every activity you care to mention, whether base (drunkenness and sex) or cultural, elitist and esteemed. In each one of these Solomon tries to discover whether there is any ultimate satisfaction to be found. The conclusion is that there is none: "Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun" (2:11). It may have been enjoyable, (v. 10) but there was no profit.

It is human nature to think, "If only we had this particular thing or that, if only we had more opportunities to indulge ourselves in such-and-such a way — then we would really be happy; then we would find what we had been looking for all along." But of course this is all illusion. Solomon has been there and tried it all, and we know he is right. True happiness and real fulfilment are not to be found in human pursuits, no matter how appealing they may seem. None of those things has any ultimate profit or gives that deep fulfilment for which we long. None of them extends or goes further than a few fleeting moments, for we are all destined to die.

Good news at last!
Chapter 7 gives us a pleasant surprise, for at last we find a passage which tells us about a more profitable dimension to life. The passage takes the form of a comparison between wisdom and worldly goods ("money" and "an inheritance"). At first, one is balanced against the other as their similarities are compared, but the punchline comes at the end of verse 12, in which we read that the "excellency" of wisdom (our word "profit," that which goes further) is that wisdom gives life — something money never can.

"Wisdom is as good as an inheritance:
By it there is profit to them that see the sun.
For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence
— but the excellency of knowledge is:
That wisdom giveth life to them that have it" (7:11-12).

There are several things to notice here. First, wisdom profits those who see the sun. This is us; worldly wisdom may or may not profit those who don’t see the sun, the people in the world — elsewhere the Preacher shows us some situations in which it does not — but wisdom (Godly wisdom, we presume, although not necessarily so) is certainly profitable to those who trust in God. Second, wisdom is like money with respect to its "profitability:" they are both defences, things we can fall back on. The Preacher may be saying, "Just as people in the world consider it profitable to have money, so, for those who have faith, it is profitable to have wisdom." Or, he may be saying, "For those who have faith, both worldly resources and (spiritual?) wisdom are valuable commodities to be put to service. (Money is worth more if you’re in the Truth than if you’re not, because you can put it to more profitable use)."

Either way, the crux of the matter comes in the last part of the passage: the excellency or profit of knowledge/wisdom over money is that knowledge gives life and money does not. This is great comfort to us, and it is important in the prioritisation of our lives. We may or may not have access to money, but we certainly have access to wisdom, for it is there for us every time we open our Scriptures. This wisdom, unlike everything else the Preacher considers, is not transient, vain or without profit. It is life-saving and life-giving.

The wisdom of God, mediated to us through history, through the Scriptures, and in the person of Jesus, gives us both fulfilment now and a hope for the future greater than any of the glitzy pleasures the world can offer. Wisdom gives life to those who have it — life that goes beyond the death that limits every other form of human endeavour. This is why the economics of the Bible are not the economics of the world.

Mark Vincent

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