Work Diligently, Live Joyously and Responsibly
Ecclesiastes 11:1 to 12:8
Work diligently, live joyously and responsibly DIG: What does “bread” symbolize? What happens when you “cast your bread” in verse 1? What are “the many days of darkness” and why remember them? How are youth and vigor pointless? What does the long sentence from 12:1 to 15:5a describe? In 12:8 the motto is repeated from 1:2. What does this signal?
REFLECT: How well do you manage your time? Money? Emotions? In what areas of life are your “investments” too concentrated? Spread too thin? How much do “eternal concerns” affect your daily decisions? What areas of your life are least influenced by your faith in God? Which are most? How can you remember your Creator in the days of your youth?
Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.
Solomon closed his discussion on people’s ignorance of the future (9:1 to 11:6) with some practical advice about their activities in view of such ignorance. To emphasize that mankind is ignorant of the future, he said: You don’t know four times in 11:2 and 5-6. But he counseled that ignorance of the future should not lead to inactivity or despair but to diligent labor.
1. Work diligently: Solomon noted that people are as ignorant of God’s dealings in human affairs as they are of the way of the wind and the formation of a baby in its mother’s womb 11:5). Moreover, people don’t know which of their ventures will succeed (11:6) or what disasters may come on the land (11:2) and wipe out the results of their labor. But in view of the possibility of disaster, a person should make prudent investments in numerous ventures into seven or eight shares, rather than putting all his “eggs in one basket,” as it were. With this strategy, a person can minimize their risk. Therefore, go ahead and cast your bread upon the waters, engage in business, because eventually you will reap a return by following this advice (11:1).
Switching to an example of planting seed and reaping a harvest, Solomon urged his readers not to sit around waiting for the most opportune moment to work, but to be diligent constantly. The future is beyond one’s control as the acts of God in nature. If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth. Whether a tree falls toward the north or the south, the place where the tree falls is where it stays. So waiting for just the right moment to plant (when there is no wind to blow away the seed) or to reap (when there is no rain in the clouds to threaten the ripened harvest) would result in inactivity (11:3-4).
In watching for the wind a farmer has no idea which way it will go. He is as ignorant of that as he is something he cannot see such as a baby’s bones being formed in its mother’s womb. Mankind cannot know the future or the work of God, the Maker of everything. Using another merism – the polar opposites of morning and evening to indicate total days – Solomon urged his readers to work diligently, planting their seed all day long until evening, because they couldn’t know which planting would succeed, this, or that, or if both will do well (11:5-6). Thus, in two examples, one from maritime trade (11:1-2) and one from farming (11:3-4 and 6), Solomon urged people toward constant, diligent effort and prudent diversified investment of their energies and resources, recognizing that all is in the sovereign control of ADONAI.317
Solomon has shown that human effort is futile because its results are not permanent and the prospect of enjoying those results are uncertain (1:12-6:9). He has also shown that people cannot know which of their efforts will succeed because they are ignorant of God’s plan and what the future holds (6:10-11:6). Now the Teacher returns to the theme of the enjoyment of life (2:24-26, 3:12 and 22, 5:18-20, 8:15 and 9:7-9), and explicitly relates it to the idea of living responsibly before God. This is similar to what he had done at the first mention of this theme (to see link click Ci – The Life of Faith). The latter theme, that of living responsibility before God, is found at both the beginning (11:9) and the end (12:13-14) of this section.
2. Live joyously: Solomon wrote metaphorically of light and darkness as figures of life (Job 3:20 and 33:30) and death (Ecclesiastes 6:4-5; Job 10:20-22 and 18:18). He characterized the future after death as obscure and mysterious, saying: everything to come is pointless (8:10). Therefore, the Teacher encouraged his readers to enjoy life as long as they live because life, like the sweet light of the sun, should be enjoyed before the coming many days of darkness, or death, their eternal home (12:5) will last forever (11:7-8).
Solomon reiterated his advice to enjoy life, emphasizing that people should do so in their youth. Elsewhere, Solomon had said that living joyously consisted of eating and drinking (2:24, 3:13, 8:15, 9:7), wearing nice clothes and pleasant lotions (9:8), enjoying marital bliss (9:9), and finding satisfaction in one’s work (2:24, 3:22, 5:18). Now he encouraged his readers to do whatever their hearts desired. Young people, if you spend your youth only having fun, if you use your early years just to entertain yourself, if you follow your heart as you live your life, and let your eyes be your guide. However, those desires should be tempered with an awareness that God will judge their sinful actions (11:9).
As previously noted in 2:24-26, 3:17, and 7:15-18, there is no reason to believe from either explicit or implicit arguments in this book that Solomon believed this judgment would take place in the afterlife. Instead, like other wisdom writers of his era, he emphasized temporal judgment within a person’s lifetime. This may even be indicated in 11:10 where the Teacher said a person should remove anger from your heart (psychological); and keep from harming your body (physical); for neither adolescence nor youth has any lasting value.
Solomon underlined the thought of responsible living in one’s youth by vividly depicting in a series of word pictures the increasing gloom and declining power of old age which culminate in death. These word pictures are arranged in three groups, each containing the word before, and modifying the basic duty: Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.318
3. Live responsibly: So remember your Creator in the days of your youth. The command to remember your Creator means to revere ADONAI, to keep His mitzvot faithfully, to serve Him responsibly, remembering that because He created people, everyone owes Him their lives. The description for God, your Creator, emphasizes Him as the Author of life, who gives it and takes it away (12:7). Solomon advised responsible living in one’s youth, before the evil days come, that is, the days of old age when you will say, “They no longer give me pleasure” (12:1).
Using various figures to depict the declining joy and waning physical powers of old age, Solomon advised responsible living before old age set in. The miseries of old age and the approach of death are likened to recurring rainstorms. Before the sun and the light grow dim, also the moon and the stars; before the clouds return after the rain. As clouds often block out the sun, the moon, and the stars, so old age is a period of diminishing joy (light) and increasing gloom (dim), heralding the approach of the long night of death under the sun. On the day when the guards of the house are trembling, and men of courage are bent over double; when the women stop grinding grain, because there are so few; when the women at the windows can no longer see out. When the doors to the streets are kept shut; when the noise from the grain-mill fades because of loss of hearing; when a person is startled by the chirp of a bird, yet their singing is hard to hear; When they will be afraid to go up a hill because of lack of stamina, and terrors will stalk the way, even though the almond tree is in bloom as their hair turns white; when the locust can only drag itself along, and the caper berry has no [aphrodisiac] effect – because the person is headed for his eternal home, and the mourners are already gathering in the marketplace (12:2-5).
Solomon urged people to live responsibly before death comes, before the silver cord holding a golden bowl (in which the light burns) is snapped and the bowl is broken. Death is also referred to by water being unavailable: the pitcher, which holds the water, is shattered at the spring, the pulley which it is drawn from, is broken at the cistern (12:6). The final description of death, by which Solomon sought to motivate people to live responsibly was that of a reversal of creation. The dust of the body returns to earth, as it was, and the spirit (Hebrew: ruach, also meaning breath) returns to God, who gave it (12:7)! Obviously, this alludes to part of the Genesis account (see the commentary on Genesis Au – God Formed Man from the Dust of the Ground, and Breathed into His Nostrils the Breath of Life). This makes it clear that Solomon was not referring to the return of individual human spirits to Ha’Shem for judgment. Similar descriptions of the dust of the body returning to the earth are found in Job 34:14-15 and Psalm 104:29-30.
Having demonstrated the limitations of all human efforts (1:12 to 6:9) and of all human wisdom (6:10 to 11:6), Solomon then reiterated the motto with which he opened the book (1:2): Pointless! Pointless! Nothing matters at all (12:8)! As stated before, this applies to all human endeavors under the sun, and cutting God out of the picture. Obviously, however, not included in this assessment is the advice to enjoy life as God enables, a course which the Teacher repeatedly recommended (2:24-26, 3:12 and 22, 5:18-20, 8:15, 9:7-9), and which he had just discussed explicitly above. But apart from enjoying one’s lot in life (see Cr – The Crook in the Lot), life under the sun is indeed pointless.319
Dear Heavenly Father, Praise You for Your great wisdom! You made the great, powerful and fire-breathing dinosaurs. “Look now at Behemoth, which I made along with you. He eats grass like an ox. Now look at his strength in his loins, and his power in the muscles of his belly. (Job 40:15-16). What wisdom it must have taken to create Leviathan that can breathe out fire! Out of his mouth go flames, sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke pours from his nostrils, as a boiling pot over burning reeds. His breath sets coals ablaze and flames dart from his mouth (Job 41:19-21).
Your wisdom knows and understands the future as if it was the past. You foretold thru Dani’el the future kingdoms of the world and how the last kingdom would be iron mixed with clay, but You most powerful God, will set up Your Kingdom that will never be destroyed. Now in the days of those kings [fourth kingdom-partly strong and partly brittle] (Daniel 2:40 and 42), the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will this kingdom be left to another people. It will crush and bring to an end all of these kingdoms. But it will endure forever. For just as you saw a stone cut out of a mountain, yet not by hands, crush the iron, bronze, clay, silver and gold, the great God has made known to the king what will happen in the future. Now the dream is certain, and its interpretation is trustworthy (Daniel 2:44-45). Though mankind does not know the future – You know the future with complete certainty and as we follow and trust You to lead our lives, we can rest in Your love to guide us in our lives. We love to trust and to follow You. In Yeshua’s holy name and power of His resurrection. Amen
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