Commentary on Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-23

During the Christian calendar’s “Ordinary Time,” Christians are invited to deepen our understanding of our faith by reflecting on the life and ministry of Jesus as depicted in the Gospels. But we can also grow in our understanding of the Divine by studying other parts of scripture. It’s fitting, then, that the lectionary asks us to reflect on the words of “the Teacher” (the main speaker in the book of Ecclesiastes, also called Qoheleth). 

But one might wonder: Why is the Teacher apparently so discouraged in the verses in the day’s reading? 

Ephemeral existence

One answer to this question is that he is bothered by the fact that he will die (verse 18). He knows well that no one lives forever and that an individual’s “life is short,” especially when compared with the seeming eternality of the cosmos.

All is vanity, says the Teacher.

The Hebrew word for vanity—hevel—most basically refers to a mist or vapor. The Teacher knows that just as the vapor from the pot boiling on your stove exists only for a moment and then disappears, so too are humans, and their efforts to secure their own advantages through wealth or pleasure, fleeting. As Ecclesiates 1:4 says:

A generation goes, and a generation comes.

Only Earth “remains forever.”

You can’t take it with you

But more than this, the teacher seems to lament that he can’t take his wealth—all for which he has toiled in life—with him when he expires. As 2:18 says: 

I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to my successor.

And we know from Ecclesiastes 2:4–9 that the Teacher was immensely wealthy. Like some Christians today in North America—especially compared to the material status of the rest of the world—the Teacher possessed a lot in this life that he could not take with him to the next, to Sheol—the grave, or abode of the dead in the Hebrew Bible. As Ecclesiastes 9:10 says:

There is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

No control 

The Teacher, however, knows not only that he can take nothing with him when he dies. He also recognizes that when his life ends, he will have to leave all that he worked for to another person, and this person, not the Teacher himself, will enjoy the fruits of his labor. 

This, too, leads the Teacher to despair. 

By contrast, for many of us today, there is satisfaction in knowing that we can make arrangements to leave something of our wealth to others—our children, or a worthy cause perhaps. Still, even if one might diligently plan—by composing a last will and testament, say—in the end we really can’t control what happens to our material possessions after we are gone. 

Seeking advantage

One can’t help but wonder if the Teacher’s concern with what will happen to his wealth after he is gone is a sign that he has overvalued wealth. Indeed, the Teacher in Ecclesiastes has from the book’s outset been interested in discovering some “gain” or “advantage” in life that he can seize. He wonders:

What do people gain from all the toil
     at which they toil under the sun? (1:3)

The Teacher, it seems, is looking for meaning in life, what it is that makes people—including him—happy. 

Perhaps pleasure is the key: Ecclesiastes 2:1 says:

I said to myself, “Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself.” 

But the Teacher discovered that “this also was vanity”—fleeting, not of genuine value. 

Perhaps wealth, achievement, power, and the fulfillment of any and all desire is the key. Despite the Teacher’s great riches, building projects, power over others, and sexual exploits, as 2:4–10 describes, he was again forced to conclude that all this also was fleeting, not the key to happiness and a fulfilling life:

Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and again, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. (2:11)

Looking in all the wrong places

Yet like Johnny Lee, who in his old country music hit was “Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places,” the Teacher in Ecclesiastes seems to come to understand that he had been looking for meaning and happiness, or flourishing in his short life—in all the wrong places.

We learn that the Teacher concludes that both his life and his wealth—along with efforts to enjoy his goods and control what happens to them—are fleeting, not long-lasting, and so not nearly as valuable as he had thought. They alone were not able to secure for him the meaning and happiness he desired.

As we read Ecclesiastes, however, we discover that the Teacher comes to a famous conclusion, one he repeats in some form at least seven times in the book. In light of all that he has discovered, he comes to believe that there is nothing better for humans than to eat, drink, and enjoy what we might have (for example, 9:7–9).

Has the Teacher’s discouragement regarding the fleetingness of life and the lack of value in all those things so many people believe will provide true gain in life—real meaning or happiness—changed to joy, that key Christian virtue? Has he realized that in light of the hevel of life and our sometimes wrongheaded pursuit of goods we think will fill our lives with joy but won’t (at least not for long), what we should do is slow down and enjoy the basics, the simple things—our food, our drink, our friends and family? Quite possibly.

If so, this is certainly a message that many modern people, caught up in the pursuit of well-paying careers and different sorts of achievements—but who, despite the plethora of things and achievements we hold, lack genuine happiness or flourishing—may well need to hear. Christian faith is not centered on the pursuit and enjoyment of wealth, power, pleasure, and status but the acceptance of the divine gift that frees us to a life of humble service.