Inspirational people: Solomon part 2, the Wisdom literature

‘Fleeting, fleeting’, says Qohelet, ‘everything is fleeting’.

Things are hebel because they constitute an illusion or delusion, a human aspiration to possess what they cannot own, and to find a profit that will always be annulled by their own deaths. This is illustrated by 1:12-18 the more knowledge, the more grief, and 7:23-29 still searching but not finding. Human perception of the world is limited and short-sighted.

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Fear of the Lord:

It is a theme common in the wisdom book that: "fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom". Proverbs chapter 1 begins with such statement, Job 42 concludes with it when Job indicated complete submission to God. The fear of the Lord is not so much terror as it is awe and humility. But what does this mean?  

The Hebrew term for fear typically used in the expression “fear of God/Yahweh” has a semantic range that runs from respect to horror. It may be that the word falls somewhere in between these two English words. “Respect” may not do justice to the gravity of the word, though “fear” may connote an unhealthy dread. An English word that may be a candidate for translation is “awe,” understood as veneration of the sacred.

Proverbs begins with the “fear of Yahweh” (Prov 1:7) and reflects on different situations in life from this perspective. It is a key theme in the book of Proverbs and occurs throughout the book repeatedly.

Job is presented as a man who “feared God” (Job 1:1). Throughout the dialogue (Job 3–27), although Job speaks about things beyond his knowledge, he constantly seeks to restore his relationship with God. This is the essence of wisdom. The book of Job reiterates this at the end of the central wisdom poem (Job 28:28). The epilogue (Job 42) presents Job as the wise man humbly submitting to God.

In Ecclesiastes, the call to fear Yahweh is a key theme (E.g., Eccl 3:14; 5:7; 7:18; 8:12; 12:13). The epilogue commands: “Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone” (Eccl 12:13).

Suffering in the world:

The book of Job deals with the issue of suffering and has important things to say about it, but it never answers the question of why there is suffering in the world.

l   It demonstrates that some suffering falls outside of divine retribution. Job’s friends insist not only that the just are rewarded and the wicked are punished, but that those who suffer must be sinners who deserve the suffering. The prologue and epilogue of Job show that this is not the case in Job’s situation – his suffering is not caused by any particular sin.

l   Satan uses suffering to destroy the faith of God’s people. Satan acted as a prosecuting attorney, questioning whether Job only served God because of his blessings, and God gave Satan permission to attack Job. Initially it seemed as if Job’s relationship with God was shaken under the weight of his suffering. In chapter 9-10 Job launched a prolonged argument against God’s moral government of the world. The lament-like complaint in 10:1-17 sees God as the potter who skilfully fashions men and women in the womb not for the purpose of providentially caring for them but in order to destroy them. God is like a lion, seeking out Job to slay him (10:16). God fashions mortals only to ascertain their weakness and to harass them until they die (10:8-17). In his suffering, Job feels that God has completely abandoned him, but he still holds on to his faith, and it is interesting to note that out of all the friends, it is only Job who ever prays to God. It seems that while Job’s friends knew about God, Job knew God personally. However, not all have faith like Job.

l   God allows Satan to cause his people to suffer, but God uses this suffering to strengthen Job’s personal godliness. Through suffering, Job’s faith is strengthened. the display of the fear of God as the beginning of wisdom in action as these sufferings instigate a profound formation of Job into the genuinely humble wise man of great faith who serves God simply because God is worth of such service.

l   Humans cannot fully comprehend God’s ways. Rather than conforming to the tidy demands of human logic, Job presents God’s ways as mysterious. As the sovereign ruler of the universe, Yahweh is free and beyond human comprehension. Humans can never understand why God does what he does; we can only trust in faith that somehow innocent suffering fits into a larger plan of His.

l   On another note, Job’s friends thought they were wise but they were doing more harm to Job through their human wisdom and self-confidence. In contrast, Job’s children, family and friends came to him for feasting and consolation, bringing him gifts of money and gold for all the “evil that Yahweh had brought upon Job” in chapter42. What a suffering person needs is the comfort of the close human community, not debate and doctrinal instruction.

The message of the book of Ecclesiastes:

All is “hebel”: there are many suggestions for its meaning of this Hebrew word in English:

l   Vanity: All things “under the sun” are worthless. pursuit of worldly things is frivolous.

l   Meaningless: All things are without significance.

l   Futile: Human work produces nothing.

l   Fleeting: Brevity of life and its fleeting nature.

l   Incomprehensible: Limitations of human reason.

l   Absurd: His observations are counter-rational or a violation of reason.

l   Enigmatic: Not within our power to comprehend.

Barry Webb believes that it is a mistake to try to nail down the meaning of hebel, as if there is only one “right” meaning through the book. Like all it refers to, it shifts in meaning. Provan notes that the closing words make it clear that “meaningless” is not a good translation of hebel, for the whole thrust of 11:7–12:8 is that life is a precious gift to be enjoyed, even though life is brief. He suggests a better translation is: ‘Fleeting, fleeting’, says Qohelet, ‘everything is fleeting’.

Things are hebel because they constitute an illusion or delusion, a human aspiration to possess what they cannot own, and to find a profit that will always be annulled by their own deaths. This is illustrated by 1:12-18 the more knowledge, the more grief, and 7:23-29 still searching but not finding. Human perception of the world is limited and short-sighted.

God is sovereign

l   God is clearly in control and has ordered all things (e.g., Ecc 3:1-11, a time for everything). The confidence in this order comes from the knowledge that God is the Creator of the world (e.g., Ecc 3:11).

There is a limit to human wisdom

l   3:11 declares that human beings are limited in what we can know. We see little more than a snapshot of something much bigger. As human beings, we cannot see things from God’s perspective.

l   God’s purpose in making things this way is so that we might stand in awe before him (3:14).

l   The universe has a flow and a regularity to it that is beyond any human control and renders futile all attempts at ‘profit’. The wise person lives life in the light of this massive truth.

God is just and will judge

l   God will judge all people (Eccl 2:26; 3:17; 9:1; 11:9; 12:14). This is an affirmation that God cares about human behaviour.

Life as “gain” vs. life as “gift”

l   Eccl 3:12-24 talks about being happy and to do good while we live; to eat and drink and find satisfaction in our own toil; to enjoy our work.  Rather than representing a hedonistic response to Qohelet’s despair, these passages are more a confessional evocation of a holistic, positive approach to life.

l   Qohelet argues that it is impossible to control and profit from the world as it has been created. If one lives life in order to profit, reality has the capacity to spoil the enjoyment of life itself.

l   The other worldview, which Qohelet commends, is to see life as a gift from God. Life is an end in itself, rather than an object to manipulated for profit. “It is in the humble things, received as gifts from God – eating and drinking and finding satisfaction in one’s work – that joy is to be found. The good life is the life centred on God and not on the striving self.”

l   In 4:4, the root of all toil and success is envy. Many studies show discontent comes from your neighbours having a higher standard of living! However, the equal and opposite mistake to striving after gain is illustrated in 4:5: fools with arms folded doing nothing. Life is no more achieved through grasping with both hands than through folding them. The single handful as illustrated in 4:6 symbolizes the way ahead.

(The above is largely based on the lecture notes by Anthony Petterson at Morling College Old Testament Prophets and Writings)

Book of Ecclesiastes,“an essay in apologetics”?

Ecclesiastes can be seen as an essay in apologetics that establishes the superiority of faith in God over the alternatives. Without God, life results in futility and pain. With God in the picture, the outlook changes.

“All is vanity” says the preacher of Ecclesiastes. This refrain ‘everything is meaningless’ occurs time and time again through the book and casts over it a mood of gloom and pessimism. Qohelet’s mood of meaninglessness is not to be confused with the modern philosophy of nihilism. Nihilism is the logical outworking of an atheistic view of the universe. Once a personal and purposeful God is removed from the scene, everything becomes the result of pure chance and thus without meaning. Atheistic nihilism is an impossible philosophy because it sets forth as meaningful the proposition that nothing has meaning. Qohelet is convinced of the reality of God and of meaning which is known to God. That there is a personal, creator God makes it possible for us mortals to grasp life as his gift, and that alone gives reality meaning.

If we detect a note of despair in Qohelet, we should not write him off for his failure to be a victorious Christian. Great reformers are usually tormented men, and the road to reform is seldom easy. Those who would light a candle in the dark must first wrestle with the darkness and even risk being tainted by it before they can point the way through it. Qohelet is a rebuke to the false optimism which comes from a simplistic view of wisdom’s goal. He sets God’s sovereign will and purpose over against the apparent vanity of all things. He warns us against slick solution of life’s mysteries, so that we must always be open to having the lessons of our experience contradicted by further experience.

So the purpose of Ecclesiastes is to defend the life of faith in a generous God by pointing to the grimness of the alternative. For much of the time the argument leaves God out of account. Then dramatically the Preacher introduces God and all changes. Ecclesiastes is thus an exploration of the barrenness of life without a practical faith in God.

Goldsworthy, G., Gospel and Wisdom: Israel’s Wisdom Literature in the Christian Life (Exeter: The Paternoster Press, 1987), 106-114.