A Commentary in Simple English on Ecclesiastes

Chapter 2 Work and pleasure

In Chapter 1, the Teacher talked about wisdom as an idea. Now in Chapter 2, the Teacher will talk to himself about wisdom and the work which man does. Then in Chapter 3 he will talk about God’s work. Of course, God’s work is not the same as man’s. God makes things in our lives change. Now God has given us work to keep us busy. This was true about Adam from the very start in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:5 and 15). Very often we work and try to do things, but we fail.

Verses 1-11: Man at work

So (verse 1) the Teacher does not give up. He asks: ‘Do we want wisdom because with it, we can enjoy ourselves?’ He was in a good position to find out. He was rich. He had power. Other people could try and they would fail. He could do what he liked. He need not fail. Even before he tells us what he did (verse 2) he tells us that it led nowhere. He had a ‘good laugh’. (Verse 3) He drank wine to ‘draw his body on’. Yet his mind kept control over his body. He looked for what was good for men to do in this life. Life is short, we often say. Make the most of it!

At once (verse 4) he went wrong in two ways. First he thought that big was good. ‘I made great works’. Then second, he did it for himself. He did not do it for the glory of God. He did nothing for the good of other people. He would have said: ‘If I can find the answers to my questions, that will help everyone else’. That was wrong too. If only he had done good to other people, he would have enjoyed that. His work was all selfish.

‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’. (12:13 and Proverbs 1:7). We must begin to think there. The Teacher, sadly, does not. He begins with himself.

(Verse 5) He tried to make a new Garden of Eden. In Eden there were four rivers. (Genesis 2:10-14) So the Teacher planted trees in his garden. Then (verse 6) he made sure that there was plenty of water. Then he goes wrong again. In Eden, Adam and Eve were united. They were ‘one flesh’ (Genesis 2:23). The Teacher is rich. He has power. So in verse 7, he has slaves. He became richer and richer. He had ‘herds’ of cattle and ‘flocks’ of sheep and goats. He had silver and gold. People used lumps of silver and gold before they made coins. The Temple choirs were all men. The Teacher had choirs of both men and women. The meaning of one word at the end of verse 8 is not known. Some Bibles suggest that it means slave women. It may even be ‘hot baths’.

So verse 9 sums it all up. The Teacher became far greater than any ruler before him in Jerusalem.

Verses 10 and 11 are a short poem in which the Teacher looks back on what he has done. If he wanted anything, he did not say ‘no’ to himself. He did not ‘deny’ himself anything. He did find pleasure in the work itself, but really he had gained nothing. It all meant nothing. Once again, it was like a man who chased the wind.

The Teacher makes another mistake in all this. Our best work is often what is hard to do. For him, it was all easy.

When we do not have the right tools or the right people to help us, we often do our best work.

Jesus teaches us to deny ourselves. See Mark 8:34, for one example and Titus 2:12. Each one of us has to work out what this means for ourselves. Other people cannot do it.

Verses 12-23: Wise man and fool both die

In verse 12, the Teacher says that he ‘turns’ his thoughts. He means: ‘Let us talk about something else’. All his work has done him no good. But he will have to die. Another king will rule in his place. ‘Wisdom, madness and folly’ are ideas. They are only ideas. We are men. We have flesh and blood. So the man who comes after the Teacher cannot do anything else. The Teacher has done it all. He will not need to try it out again. This is the last time that the Teacher speaks about himself as ‘king’.

Now in verse 13, he ‘sees’ something. He says for the first time that one thing is better than another is. Light is better than darkness. When it is dark, things are still there. You cannot see them. In the same way, wisdom is better than ‘folly’. Folly does not see that there is a problem. With wisdom, you can see that there is a problem, even if wisdom cannot answer the problem. Now the word ‘better’ is one that we need to think about. We shall find it quite often in the book. Here it means that one thing is bad; another thing is less bad. In a world which is full of sin, we often have to make that choice. In the New Testament, ‘better’ means that one thing really is good. Another thing really is even better. The Letter to the Hebrews uses the word like that a number of times.

Verse 14 brings in the thought of death. The wise man and the fool are not the same in life. In death, they are just the same. There is no difference between the dust of a dead king and the dust of the poorest man. The Teacher saw this in others. Then (verse 15) he thought to himself: ‘I too must die’. The wise man and the fool may be different in life. They are united in death. (Verse 16) When someone dies, we say: ‘We will always remember them’. Yet soon we forget them.

Christians can see that only the hope of glory can change all this. We hope to live with God for ever. This gives meaning to our present life.

From verse 17 down to verse 23 the Teacher works out this thought of death. He adds the thought of work to this now. (Verse 17) He says that he hated ‘lives’. Add all human life up. He hated it all. We ought to love life because it is God’s gift to us! (Verse 18) He must die and leave all his work to someone else. (Verse 19) No one knows whether that man will be wise or a fool. So (verse 20) he turned and he gave up all his big works. He hoped for nothing good from them. (Verse 21) When he dies he will have to leave it to someone who does not share his wisdom, knowledge and skill. Maybe this person is not even his son. This, he says, is wrong. (Verses 22 and 23) By day, a man works. He makes himself tired. At night, he worries. He cannot sleep. He gets nothing out of his work.

Verses 24-26: The first answer

In these verses, the Teacher begins to turn from man’s work to God’s work. So here we read about man’s place in God’s world. Here the Teacher gives some real answers to the questions that he has asked. We shall find some more verses like this later. See 3:12-14; 3:22; 5:18-20; 8:15; 9:7-10. (Verse 24) It is more important to enjoy what God has given to us than to try to get more. We should be ‘content’ (Philippians 4:11). The ordinary things of life like food and drink are good. What spoils them is when we try to get too much out of them. They cannot satisfy our real desire, which is for God. (Verse 25) Only with God can we really enjoy food or anything else. (Verse 26) In this verse, the Teacher leaves us with some questions. He gives no answers to us here!

1. Who pleases God?
2. How do they please God?
3. How can we too please God?

You can find the answers in Hebrews 11:6. It is the man who has faith who pleases God. God is the God of grace. Grace gives. So to the man who has faith in Him God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness. In fact God does not just give happiness. Rather He gives joy and peace! The man who does not please God is ‘the sinner’. We all sin as 7:20 makes plain. ‘A sinner’ here then is the man whose life is taken up by sin. He has the task of working to be rich. Then he dies. Everything that he has is left to someone else.

Notice that in 1:16 a man had to work for wisdom. Here in verse 26 God gives wisdom. God made Jesus our wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:30). God will give us wisdom if we ask for it (James 1:5). James 3:17 tells us what this wisdom is like.