The period in our history from 1560-1780 is known as the Enlightenment. Whereas during the medieval world and in the Reformation the motto was, “I believe in order to understand,” showing that one only understands the world around him by first believing all that God has revealed to us in his Word, the motto became “I understand in order to believe,” arguing that one must first understand, that is, figure out the world around him, and then he can believe. Therefore, a little under 500 years ago the argument began: “Must we believe in order to understand the world around us, or must we first understand the world around us and then we can believe?” and it has continued to this day. And everyone of us has come down on one side of this argument or the other. Either you have bowed the knee to God and submitted to the truth of his Word so that you explain this world based on what the Scripture tells you or you have denied submitting to God’s authority and are attempting to figure out life, as what you believe changes with what you discover along the way. There is no middle ground here. Either you accept God’s revelation or you don’t.

What’s interesting about this argument, however, is that it was addressed hundreds of years before the Enlightenment. In fact, hundreds of years before the coming of Christ this question was taken up and answered by Solomon. He took up this question and answered it in his writing we call, “Ecclesiastes.” Specifically he asks and answers this question in the text we will look at this morning: Ecclesiastes 6:1-8:15.

Therefore, this morning if you are a non-Christian, having never placed your faith in Jesus Christ, and you are here, then this is a fitting text for us to look at. For you no doubt dismiss the notion that this world can only be understood by first acknowledging that there is a God who created all things and that he has revealed himself to us by inspiring men years ago to write down the very things he wanted us to know, including how we can know him and live forever with him after this life. No doubt that seems a bit foolish to you even as you hear it now. However, my hope is that you’ll find that this portion of Scripture we’ll look at this morning addresses your thoughts head-on.

With that said, however, a number of us are Christians this morning. So, how does this text help and equip us? Well, even though you have professed your faith in Christ, resting on his death, burial, and resurrection for your hope for eternal life, and trusting that what God has said in his Word is true, are there not times when you are tempted to think that what those who don’t know Christ are telling us is true? I don’t mean, necessarily, that there are times when you sit down and try to think through the way that some actor in Hollywood sees the world is superior to that which the Scripture gives us. Maybe you do think that way at times. But most of us, I imagine are tempted to think that their way of approaching life may actually have greater benefit than ours.

For example, isn’t it tempting at times to think that the man committing adultery really is understanding life better than us, pursuing his every whim of pleasure and knowing real happiness? Or isn’t it tempting to think that those who give no thought to what to do with their money except promote themselves are knowing greater happiness than we are who think through using our money in such a way that God would honored? Generally speaking, isn’t it tempting to think on occasions as we look at those around us indulging themselves in sinful lifestyles that maybe they understand the world better than us and are getting out of life its most precious rewards?

Now, I don’t expect a lot of public nodding going on when those questions are asked. However, I imagine we are all tempted to think that in times of temptation. In fact, the reason we sin is because even if only for a brief moment we believe all of those things. If only for a brief second, when we sin, we convince ourselves that there is greater gain in following the course of this world than in following the commands of Christ.

Therefore, this text is helpful for us this morning as well. For as it takes on the thoughts of the world around us telling us that we should not believe but simply attempt to understand life on our own, seeking out the pleasures our flesh dictates to us, I believe it will strengthen us in our understanding that the good, right, and superior understanding in life is one that comes from first believing what God has revealed to us. With that said, then, let’s turn to the text and see what Solomon tells us concerning our attempts to understand the world around us and find joy in this life.

Solomon first deflates our hopes to understand the world around us on our own by pointing out that things aren’t always as they appear.

Things aren’t always as they appear (6:1-7:14)

First of all, those whom we look at and envy, thinking they have everything one could desire and are getting out of life its richest pleasures may not have real joy at all. Solomon writes in 6:1-2, “There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil.”

Solomon declares that he has seen someone who has all that one could seemingly want, and yet he doesn’t enjoy them. Instead someone else gets his possessions and enjoys them. Perhaps Solomon thinks of someone who has no children to leave these possessions to, he dies, and people he don’t even know end up finding joy in all the things he never really enjoyed. Well, our response to that might be that this is a far-fetched scenario. After all, we have some control over who gets our possessions, and perhaps he had a challenging life. But what about the man who lives a long and prosperous life and has many children? Solomon addresses that situation as well.

He writes: “If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life's good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good—do not all go to the one place?” (6:3-6). Solomon’s answer is that even if you grant him a long life and many children, it doesn’t ensure that he has real joy, that his soul is satisfied. Rather, a stillborn child who never sees the light of day is better off than this pitiful man who had everything except the one thing he truly longed for: joy.

Howard Hughes was one of the richest (if not the richest) men in the world in his life. He achieved success in Hollywood, was an innovator in the aviation industry, and had at his side some of the most successful and beautiful women in the world. If anyone understood the way the world works, mastered it, and knew happiness, we would think he would be the one. However, he died as a recluse, not wanting to see anyone, and not willing to leave his room even to use the restroom. One might think Solomon had Hughes in mind. But Solomon didn’t have to know Hughes, for he knew the reality of what Hughes represents. Some men can have it all and yet not know joy. Things aren’t always as they appear.

And Solomon gives us a window into why there is sometimes little joy in the pursuits of the world, writing, “All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind” (6:7-9). What drives us in a never-satisfied appetite for more. Therefore, Solomon concludes, we are better off just to be content with what we have, for the pursuit of more is simply meaningless.

Why is this then the case? Why is it that there is really no true joy found in the things that the world and our flesh tell us will bring us real joy? It is because, as Solomon has mentioned throughout this book, there is a God-ordained link between finding joy in life and knowing God. And we can’t change this. It is meaningless to try to argue with God on this one, Solomon concludes. “Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he. The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?” (6:10-12). It is meaningless to try to argue with God over this link between delight and knowing him, and the more you argue with him the more meaningless it is. After all, how do we know what is really good for us? We’ve already seen that having all of the things we desire doesn’t necessarily mean happiness.

And by the same token, Solomon shows us in 7:1-14 that the things we perceive as bad aren’t always bad for us. Sometimes they are better for us than the things we perceive as being good for us. Only God know what is good for man.

In 7:1-4 Solomon says that a good name is better than ointment, and because one’s name is really only sealed at the moment of one’s death, then the day of death is better than the day of our birth (7:1). Also, it’s better to go mourn at the funeral home than to go feast and party, for mourning allows us to take to heart what really matters while laughter often blinds us to the true condition of our hearts (7:2-3), thus “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but he heart of fools is in the house of mirth” (7:4). We might not long for these things, but Solomon says they are better for us.

Continuing from there, Solomon points out in 7:5-6 that a rebuke of a wise man is better than the praise of a fool, for the one is actually helpful, while the other is pointless. Again, oppressing or bribing others might seem to bring great benefit, but it really only corrupts the heart (7:7). And patience may be hard, but if you are patient, you will do better than he would acts quickly (7:8-9). Then, to top it off, Solomon shows how poorly we at times judge the world by longing for the “good ol’ days” which is simply a reflection of our ignorance of how things were then (7:10).

We are simply not equipped to rightly judge and understand the world because things aren’t always as they appear. Sometimes the very things we try to avoid are the very things we need, and the people we most pitied might be those who are really the most blessed. Therefore, Solomon points to the blessing of and our need for wisdom in verses 7:11-12, for we cannot understand what God does and cannot change how he’s made this world (7:13).

So, what is Solomon’s advice? He tells us in 7:14, “In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.” When life seems good, rejoice. When it seems bad, stop and realize that God (who is wiser than us) has ordained this part of our life as well. Yet we might not understand why. That is okay, however, for it just shows us our need for God.

So, Solomon first points out to us in 6:1-7:14 that things aren’t always as they appear. So, we can’t necessary claim too much concerning our ability to understand the world. However, Solomon doesn’t simply point out the difficulty of understanding the world apart from bowing the knee to God, he drives home the impossibility of it and our need for God in showing us in 7:15-29 that we cannot rightly understand the world apart from God because we are wicked in our very nature.

We cannot rightly understand this world apart from God, for we are wicked (7:15-29)

Solomon points out in 7:15-18 that he’s seen things that go against our conventional thinking. He’s seen the righteous man dying young and the wicked man living a long and prosperous life. So he warns us in verses 16-17 that we should not overly ambitious in thinking we can dictate our lives based on how we conduct ourselves. I think that’s what Solomon means by saying don’t be overly righteous or overly wicked. He does not mean here that we should make sure we sin a bit and go from there. Rather, by overly righteous or overly wicked I think he means that we should not think that by pursuing a certain way of life we can dictate what that course of life will bring about. We simply cannot know.

Then he concludes, writing in 7:18, “It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.” What does this mean? What are the two things he wants us to hold onto and not let go of? I believe he is saying that we should indeed pursue righteous living, but we should also not let go of a heart that admits we do not have ultimate control in life but must yield to God’s sovereignty.

Thus, Solomon has said that he’s seen things go against conventional thinking. But why does he mention that? I think it’s to build on what he has said previously in pointing out that things aren’t always as they appear but also to create a bride for what he wants us to see next. He wants us to see our need for wisdom, for how can we really understand the world around us (even this world in which things go against our conventional thinking) without wisdom.

Then, he builds on our thinking and desire for wisdom by pointing out in 7:19, “Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.” So, at this point we may be saying, “Yes, that’s right. I see, I am going to gain this wisdom. I am going to figure out life.” And maybe you’re saying, “I don’t need to accept God’s revelation to do this. I can gain wisdom without him.” But it is precisely here that Solomon points out another weakness of ours. It is this: wisdom requires righteousness as its foundation. That is to say, if you are going to have true wisdom, then you must be righteous. Otherwise, you will see what you want to see, long for selfish things, and judge in a way that is not best for all. Only he who is truly righteous can be truly wise in understanding this world. And here’s the reality, no man is righteous apart from Jesus Christ.

Solomon points out in 7:20-22 that there is no man who is righteous, who does good, and who never sins. And he makes it easy by pointing out the fact that others have spoken badly of us, but he encourages us not to take it to heart for he points out that we have spoken badly of others ourselves. If nothing else, we have all gossiped. Thus, because we are not righteous, we cannot have the wisdom needed to understand life and this world under the sun.

Turning to 7:23-29, Solomon admits that wisdom is unattainable on our own because there folly in this world that, like an evil woman, seduces us into believing it. And we are grasped by it so easily because we are wicked and sinful in our very natures. There’s no getting around it. He concludes in 7:29, “See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.” God made us good in the beginning, but we have sinned, and are sinful.

Therefore, it’s not as if in our attempt to understand the world and all live lives that are right and best we are starting from neutral. We are born sinful and continue along a sinful course through life unless we bow our knees to the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, we cannot understand on our own. If you attempt to understand so that you might truly believe, you will never understand, for your problem is not more knowledge so that you may be wise. Your problem is your sin and your need for righteousness.

So, is Solomon’s desire here simply to sweep the platform out from under us? He has shown us that things aren’t always as they appear and that we cannot exercise wisdom in observing life because we are not righteous but wicked in our nature. “Fine, then,” we might say, “what do we do? What are you advising?” Solomon answers in 8:1-14 our only answer is to submit to God’s commands and trust him. That is the only way to understand ourselves and this world around us. We must bow to him and believe. Only then may we begin to understand.

Therefore, our only answer is to submit to God’s commands and trust him (8:1-14)

Solomon begins chapter 8 by asking against who is indeed wise and knows the interpretation of a thing. He is pointing out our lack of wisdom and inability to understand rightly the world around us. He also notes that it is only with wisdom that our faces shine and our hearts soften (8:1). But again, we remember that he has pointed us to the elusive nature of wisdom apart from Christ. So, again, what is it that Solomon advises.

He tells us that we must obey God’s commands, specifically pointing us to his command to obey our authorities, for they have been set in place by God. And wisdom begins with fearing God and obeying him. He points out that we should obey the king, for example, because his word is final (8:4) and because in obeying we can begin to understand what is evil (8:5). That is to say, understanding comes with obedience to God’s commands, even carried out in our obedience to others (as obedience to God).

Solomon points out that we do not know what is to come or have power to prevent death, and will we ever be able to stop some things we don’t enjoy. Therefore, we should just submit and obey. Yes, he acknowledges that there are times when those over us will do things to our hurt (8:9), but in these times we must simply trust God.

In 8:10-11 he notes that we will go through life seeing the wicked buried and praised in his death and judgment handed out so slowly from our governing officials that man’s heart is only encouraged to do evil. Solomon sees the evil around him. He knows the difficulty of obeying and trusting God. But he also knows something else. He writes in 8:12-13, “Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him. But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.”

Solomon tells us that though there is much that doesn’t make sense and though the righteous will seem to get the fate that should come to the wicked and the wicked get the fate that should come to the righteous (8:14) that there is only gain in fearing God, obeying him, and trusting him. Solomon trusts God and his commands, and he knows that only in submitting to God do we understand life.

Only in trusting and obeying God does the world around us make any sense. We understand why men are evil. We understand why bad things happen. We know of the Fall. We know of the reality of sin. Yet we also know the answer for this, and we know that no man can prosper by overlooking his sin. He might gain the whole world, but his soul will cry out for he is not reconciled to his Creator. We may not be able to understand why every particular thing happens as it does. We certainly cannot know that; only God knows. But we know that there is a day when God will judge all men and this world itself will be redeemed.

So do not follow the course of this world. Do not believe the lies that we can find the secret of understanding life apart from God. No, that road only leads to frustration and emptiness – vanity. Rather, believe. Bow your knee today and confess Jesus Christ as Lord, accepting his Word as truth, and then (and only then) will you begin to understand. Only in trusting in Jesus Christ who is the revelation of God the Father can we really begin to understand the world around us. Only then can we have wisdom, for only then are we credited with righteousness before God.

So, Solomon’s conclusion is to bow to God, obey him, and trust him. But Solomon wants us to remember one other thing. This course of obedience to God is not only that which opens our eyes to understand this world, it is also the only thing that can bring us true joy.

Trusting and obeying God is also our means of knowing joy in life (8:15)

Solomon writes in 8:15, “And I commend joy, for man has no good thing under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.” Solomon has already told us that we cannot have joy without God in 2:24-25. Now, he returns again to joy and commends it.

So, putting these two together, Solomon is saying, I commend joy, which is also found in submitting to God. He commends that which is only known in confessing Jesus Christ as your Lord. Therefore, non-Christian, turn from your pursuits to understand this world and believe, for only then will your eyes be opened to understand and only then will your heart know the joy for which it longs.

To the believe this morning, do not fight against joy by striving after those things which are meaningless. Stop your dabbling in sin, for it is like a man who walks away from the ocean on a hot summer day because he sees a drop of water behind him that he thinks could provide him relief. Your eyes have been opened, so trust and obey, for as the song says, “There is no other way to be happy in Jesus.” Indeed, our joy is found in obeying our God and trusting him through that which we do not understand. So may our cry be “yes” and “amen” as we come to the table. Amen.

UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD AND LONGING FOR JOY