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Chapter 4 Numbers
Verses 1-3 Man wrongs man
Numbers do play a part in this chapter. We have ones and twos. In verse
12 we have one, two and three. In verse 5, we go from one to nothing.
By the end of the chapter, we can find a large number. But this does not
help us to see what the chapter speaks about.
The Teacher spoke about man’s bad work in 3:16. That is the real subject
of this chapter. It has been called ‘the Rat Race’! Another thought here
is that we should not all work against one another. It is better to work
together. The chapter has in it all sorts of pictures.
It does raise one difficult question. If Solomon is the Teacher, why
does he not put right the bad things he sees? Indeed, Solomon made things
worse in his old age. The answer may be that he sees these things outside
Israel.
So in verse 1 the Teacher looked. He saw that some people had power.
They were hard and cruel to those who were poor and weak. This only happens
‘under the sun’! Where God is, it cannot happen. With Him, there is goodness
and justice. If we have faith in God, we shall work for justice in this
life.
Not only were the poor and weak badly treated or ‘oppressed’. Other people
took no notice. No one helped them. Of course, the followers of Jesus
must never be like that. If we see that the strong people oppress the
weak and poor, we must do what we can to help the weak and the poor (verse
2). He says that the dead are better off than the living. Yet (verse 3)
even the dead have seen the bad things that go on. So those who have never
lived are better off still. ‘Better’ here only means ‘less bad’!
Behind this there is another great question. It is all very well to say:
‘Why did the Teacher do nothing to put it right’? We should rather ask:
‘Why does God do nothing about it’?
Verses 4-8 The Rat Race
The answer to that question is there in verse 4. Men have wrong reasons
for what they do. It is the sin of men that brings so much of the trouble
into the world. We should not blame God.
In verse 4 we have a picture of people who work hard. They work well
too. They have ‘skill’. Sadly, their reasons for this are all wrong. They
do not want the man next door to have more money than them. They do not
want him to have a better home or garden. Envy is not a good reason for
hard work. We shall not make good friends that way. It is all empty. Once
again, it is like a man who tries to chase the wind.
Verse 5 may well be a ‘proverb’. (See Proverbs 6:9-11.) This man is very
different from the people in verse 4. He is a ‘fool’. He is far from wise.
He does not want to work. He folds his hands together, or as we say, he
‘twiddles his thumbs’. He wastes all that he has, but he also wastes himself.
The second part of the verse says that ‘he eats his flesh’. This may mean
that he expects his family to feed him. He is a ‘drop-out’.
In verse 6 the Teacher says what he thinks. It is not always better to
have more. It is better to have less, that is ‘one handful’, if we know
how to rest. This is not the same as the ‘drop-out’ in verse 5. He is
idle or lazy. We can want to have ‘two big handfuls’. This is more than
one. It is too much if we do not know how to stop work. What one or two
hands can hold is not as good as what God’s hand gives to us. (2:24) God
gives us rest (Isaiah 63:14; Hebrews 4:9-11).
In verse 5, we saw how one became nothing. Verses 7 and 8 are rather
like that. The Teacher turns and sees something else. Here is one man.
He is alone. He has no family. He works and works. He makes money but
still wants more. If he asks why he does it, he finds no answer.
Verses 9-12 One, two, three
These verses are ‘proverbs’ again. They give one answer to the problem
with which the chapter began. This was the way that the poor and weak
suffer. These verses say: ‘At least if they work together they are a little
better off’. First in verse 9, there is the picture of two men. If they
work together, they can earn more than twice as much as either one could
earn on his own. This is often true, in fact. It is something for Christian
men to think about. Perhaps they should work with another Christian man.
They will find happiness when they work together. They may also understand
better how to spend what they earn.
In verses 10-11 we look at a journey. There are pits by the side of the
road. People have dug out stone from these pits. A man may fall into one
of these pits. He may hurt himself quite badly. He is in real trouble
unless he has someone with him to help him out. It is cold at night. So
people on a journey often sleep next to their donkey to keep warm. (Verse
12) Two robbers may steal from one man. If there are two men, the robbers
will leave them alone. The verse ends with another proverb. A rope is
made up from three ‘strands’ or cords twisted together. It is hard to
break. This means that if two are better than one, three together are
better than two are. This proverb seems to be a very old one.
George Whitefield was one of the greatest English preachers. He lived
250 years ago and crossed the Atlantic thirteen times to preach the Gospel.
He preached his first sermon at Gloucester. His text was verses 9-12.
Verses 13-16 Climb to the top
Some Bibles print these verses in a block. It is better to look at the
pictures in these verses one at a time.
So in verse 13, we have the picture of the old king. Years ago he used
to listen to what other people said to him. That helped him to rule his
kingdom in the right way. Now he is old and silly. He does not listen
to what wise men say to him any more. He gets things wrong. There are
people around him yet he is alone. There are two things for us to learn.
It is right to show honour to aged people. But not everyone becomes wiser
as they grow older. The other is that it is good and wise to listen to
what other people say to us.
Then there is the second picture in verses 13 and 14. This is of the young
man. He is wise and he may have a great future. He is poor, but he is
better than the king who is old and silly is. In verse 14, the youth who
has come from prison may be Joseph. The story is in Genesis 41. In verse
14 of that chapter, Joseph is still in prison. By verse 41, Pharaoh, the
king of Egypt, puts Joseph in charge of the whole land of Egypt. The Teacher
does not mean that the youth has become ‘king’ himself. [4.1] He has a
top job under the king. The other young man could be David. He was a poor
young man when Saul was the king of Israel. (See 1 Samuel 16.) The people
are tired of the old and silly king. So (verse 15) the crowds of people
follow the young man. (Verse 16) This will not last. The young man will
grow older. The people will no longer be pleased with him. He may even
get a bit silly, like the old king. He in turn will find that he is alone.
So the Teacher says once again that all this is empty. It is like a shepherd
who tries to ‘round up’ the wind
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