Eclesiastes 6

Eclesiastes 6

THE BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES The Search for Significance The Quest for Contentment The Pursuit of Purpose Exploration Exhortation All is Vanity Vanity of Doing Vanity of Having Vanity of Being Using Life Well Source of True Living Eccl 1:1-18 Eccl 2:1-26 Eccl 3:1-6:12 Eccl 7:1-9:18 Eccl 10:1-11:10 Eccl 12:1-14 Declaration of Vanity Demonstration of Vanity Deliverance from Vanity Subject Sermons Summary Fickleness of Life Versus Fear of the Lord Place: "Under the Sun" Decades of Searching (in the days of King Solomon) circa 936BC King Solomon Author Ecclesiastes 6:1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun and it is prevalent among men-- (NASB95) KJV Ecclesiastes 6:1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men: NKJ Ecclesiastes 6:1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men: BGT Ecclesiastes 6:1 ἔστιν πονηρία ἣν εἶδον ὑπὸ τὸν ἥλιον καὶ πολλή ἐστιν ἐπὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον LXE Ecclesiastes 6:1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is abundant with man: NET Ecclesiastes 6:1 Here is another misfortune that I have seen on earth, and it weighs heavily on people: CSB Ecclesiastes 6:1 Here is a tragedy I have observed under the sun, and it weighs heavily on humanity: ESV Ecclesiastes 6:1 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: NIV Ecclesiastes 6:1 I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on men: NLT Ecclesiastes 6:1 There is another serious tragedy I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily on humanity. YLT Ecclesiastes 6:1 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it is great on man: NJB Ecclesiastes 6:1 I see another evil under the sun, which goes hard with people: NRS Ecclesiastes 6:1 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy upon humankind: NAB Ecclesiastes 6:1 There is another evil which I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily upon man: GWN Ecclesiastes 6:1 There is a tragedy that I have seen under the sun. It is a terrible one for mortals. BBE Ecclesiastes 6:1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is hard on men; William Barrick - By application, the Preacher found the explanation for apparent inequalities in divine providence (Eccl 6:1–8:15). After discussing the role of wealth in one’s life (Eccl 5:10–17), Solomon explains that people can enjoy God’s gifts of possessions and wealth (Eccl 5:18–19). Such enjoyment provides relief from the toil and trouble of mortal life under the sun (Eccl 5:20). Now Solomon moves on to address an apparent inequity: someone can possess wealth but be unable to enjoy it. Life’s manifold mysteries confound even a man as wise as Solomon. Mere mortals cannot adequately understand all that occurs in God’s world. How is it possible for a person to gain all that his or her heart desires (gold, wealth, honor, family, long life, and education), yet never find any joy in those attainments? Thus, Solomon presents • An evaluation of man’s outward fortunes (Eccl 6:1–7:15). • An evaluation of man’s character (Eccl 7:16–29). • A consideration of the role of government (Eccl 8:1–14). (Ecclesiastes 6 Commentary) There is an evil which I have seen under the sun and it is prevalent among men - This passage does not describe the evil but just states that it is under the sun, that is on the God-rejecting earth and secondly it is prevalent. For the specific evil go to Ec 6:2. William Barrick - Case History #1: A Full Treasury (Eccl 6:1–2) By experience and by observation, Solomon comes to the conclusion that prosperity is not always as good as it might appear.1 “There is” (Eccl 6:1) involves a common formula in Ecclesiastes (Eccl 2:21; 4:8; 5:13; 6:1, 11; 7:15; Eccl 8:14; Eccl 10:5) introducing specific examples or cases that he employs to formulate his argumentation. He clearly identifies the viewpoint of the discussion: “under the sun.” Mere mortal beings who conduct their lives without God in this life will face enigmas seemingly without solution. An individual who lives by faith in the Creator and Sovereign of all things may experience the same enigmas, but God’s sovereign control provides the means for enjoying His gifts in spite of the difficulties and discouragements. 1 Daniel J. Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005), 334. Two contrasts between Eccl 5:18–19 and Eccl 6:1–2: “Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting” (Eccl 5:18) vs “There is an evil which I have seen” (Eccl 6:1) “every man to whom God has given riches and wealth” (Eccl 5:19) vd “a man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor” (Eccl 6:2). Those good things that God has given look, in at least one situation, as though they bring nothing but evil, calamity, or trouble upon a person. How can this be? James 5:1–6 reveals one of the key causes of such a turn of events: the individual thus gifted spends his or her wealth on wanton pleasure while oppressing the poor. His heart is not right with God. To be sure, a wicked heart and wanton life style are not the only causes for gold’s loss of glitter. A righteous individual might also lack the opportunity to enjoy possessions and wealth. But God alone controls both the giving and the enjoying—note that “God has not empowered him to eat from them” (Eccl 6:2). 2 Chronicles 1:11–12 also mentions “riches and wealth and honor” (Eccl 6:2) as gifts from God to Solomon (cp. Eccl 2:1–8). If Solomon speaks of himself, the question that arises concerns the identity of the “foreigner” (or, “stranger”). The stranger might be someone outside the family. In Eccl 2:21 Solomon identifies an individual who did not work for what he receives. He might have Jeroboam in mind (see previous discussion of Eccl 4:13–16). The truth of the matter, according to William Brown, involves the fact that, “Ownership is, thus, a misnomer. One’s possessions are exclusively gifts of God, and as easily as God gives, so God takes away to give to others. The givenness of material possessions is a two-edged sword.”(Borrow William P. Brown, Ecclesiastes, Interpretation - Louisville, Ky.: John Knox Press, 2000, 65.) In other words, there are no guarantees in life when it comes to one’s possessions and wealth. (Ecclesiastes 6 Commentary) David Wells - “We may now have everything, but none of it means anything any more. The most we seem able to do is to take daily inventories of personal needs and then try to match up people, products, and opportunities with them. The irony is that this psychological hedonism, in which self is the arbiter of life, is self-destructive. Not only are we betrayed; we betray ourselves. Meanwhile, we also pay the price of destroying all interest in the Transcendent, the sole source of genuine meaning in life. God, the supernatural, moral absolutes—these have become strangers in our modern, secularized world. We are like Yeats’s falcon, increasingly oblivious to the voice of the falconer. The center no longer holds. All is flung to the periphery, where its meaning is lost.” (Quoted by David Moore in Holman Old Testament Commentary Volume 14 - Ecclesiastes) F B