VANITY OF LIFE NOT CENTERED ON GOD If we accept "Qoheleth" (the preacher) as Solomon, we will behold him in this book after a temporary apostasy from the Lord, confessing and forsaking evil, and finding mercy. We behold him returning from the broken and empty cisterns of the world, to the Fountain of living water, recording for admonition of future ages his own folly and shame, the bitterness of his disappointment, and the salutary lessons he had learned from seeking happiness in the vanities of the world without God1. In this chapter we have, 1. Introduction [1]. 2. Theme: The vanity of life apart from God [2, 3]. 3. The arguments: a. The shortness of human life [4]. b. The inconstant nature of all the creatures [5-7]. c. The abundant toil man has about them [8]. d. Nothing new [9, 10]. e. Former things are forgotten [11]. 4. Pursuit after human knowledge vain [12-15]. 5. Pursuit after human wisdom vain [16-18]. +++ INTRODUCTION "The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem" [1]. Solomon, although not identified by name becomes the literary spokesman for the observations and convictions of the author. He is the king in Jerusalem who because of his wealth, wisdom, and worldly concern has ample opportunity to sample all of life. He conceals his name Solomon, "peaceable," because by his sin he had brought trouble upon himself and his kingdom, had broken peace with God, and therefore was no more worthy of that name. Call me not Solomon, call me Marah, for, behold, for peace I had great bitterness (Isa. 38:17). "Qoheleth" which comes from a word signifies "to gather," is a "penitent soul," or one "gathered," one that had gone astray like a lost sheep, but was "gathered" in from his wanderings. Being himself "gathered," and being reconciled to the church, he endeavors to gather others to her that had gone astray like him. His being "The Son of David" gives him no excuse, for he is the son of agood man. It also encouraged him to repent and hope for mercy, for David had fallen into sin, and repented, and therein he took example from him and found mercy as he did. "King of Jerusalem." God had done much for him, in raising him to the throne in the city of God where the house of God is located, and yet he had so ill requited him. 2. THE ARGUMENT: The Theme of the Book: "Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity" [2]. The word translated "vanity" denotes a breath-exhaled air that disappears2 (see Isa. 57:13) or "vapor" (see Prov. 21:6), like the condensed breath that one breathes on a cold day. It appears to imply here both 2 1. that which is transitory, and 2. that which is futile. It emphasizes how swiftly earthly things pass away, and how little they offer while one has them (cf. Job. 4:14). This concept is given greater stress by the repeated use of the superlative, vanity of vanities. 3 Many speak contemptuously of the world because they are hermits, and know it not, or poor, and have it not; but Solomon knew it. He had dived into nature's depths (1 Kings 4:33), and he had it, more of it perhaps than ever any man had. WHY ALL HUMAN THINGS ARE VAIN? 1. As God created the world for the sake of His most beloved creature, i.e., man, all things were good; but as aopostate man puts them out of place, and expets from them what is not in them, they vanish in disappointment. + If they are God's works, how are they vain? And great is the dispute concerning these things. But hearken, beloved: it is not the works of God which he calls vain; God forbid! The Heaven is not vain; the earth is not vain,-God forbid!-nor the sun, nor the moon and stars, nor our own body. No, all these are "very good" (Gen. 1:31). But what is vain? Let us hear the Preacher himself, what he says; "Implanted me vineyards, I gat me men singers and women singers, I made me pools of water, I had great possession of herds and flocks, I gathered me also silver and gold, and I saw that these are vanity." (Eccles. 2:4-8). And again, Vanity of vanities, all things are vanity (Eccles 12:8). Hear also what the Prophet says, "He heaps up riches, and know not who shall gather them" (Ps. 39:6). Such is "vanity of vanities," your splendid buildings, your vast and overflowing riches, the herds of slaves that bustle along the public square, your pomp and vainglory, your high thoughts, and your ostentation. For all these are vain; they came not from the hand of God, but are of our own creating. But why then are they vain? Because they have no useful end3. + "In the vanity," he says , "of their mind." (Eph. 4: 4). What is vanity of mind? It is the being busied about vain things. And what are those vain things, but all things in the present life? Of which the Preacher says, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." (Eccl. 1: 2). But a man will say, If they be vain and vanity, wherefore were they made? If they are God's works, how are they vain? And great in the dispute concerning these things. But hearken, beloved: it is not the works of God which he calls vain; God forbid! The Heaven is not vain, the earth is not vain, __ God forbid! __ nor the sun, nor the moon and stars, nor our own body. No, all these are "very good." (Gen. 1: 31). But what is vain? Let us hear the Preacher himself, what he says; "I planted me vineyards, I gat me men singers and women singers, I made me pools of water, I had great possession of herds and flocks, I gathered me also silver and gold, and I saw that these are vanity." (Eccl. 2: 4- 8). And again, "Vanity of vanities, all things are vanity." (Eccl. xii. 8). Hear also what the Prophet says, "He heaps up riches, and knows not who shall gather them." (Ps. xxxix. 6). Such is "vanity of vanities," your splendid buildings, your vast and overflowing riches, the herds of slaves that bustle along the public square, your pomp and vainglory, your high thoughts, and your ostentation. For all these are vain; they came not from the hand of God, but are of our own creating . But why then are they vain? Because they have no useful end. Riches are vain when they are spent upon luxury; but they cease to be vain when they are "dispersed and given to the needy." (Ps. cxii 9). But when you haste spent them upon luxury, let us look at the end of them, what it is; __ grossness of body, flatulence, pantings, fullness of belly, heaviness of head, softness of flesh, feverishness, enervation; for as a man who shall draw into a leaking vessel labors in vain, so also does the one who lives in luxury and self- indulgence draw into a leaking vessel. But again, that is called "vain," which is expected indeed to contain something, but contains it not; __ that which men call empty, as when they speak of "empty hopes." And generally that is called "vain," which is bare and purposeless, which is of no use. Let us see then whether all human things are not of this sort. "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." (1 Cor. xv. 32). What then, tell me, is the end? Corruption. Let us put on clothing and raiment. And what is the result? Nothing. Such are the lives of the Greeks. They philosophized, but in vain. They made a show of a life of hardship, but of mere hardship, not looking to any beneficial end, but to vainglory, and to honor from the many. But what is the honor of the many? It is nothing, for if they themselves which render the honor perish, much more does the honor. He that renders honor to another, ought first to render it to himself; for if he gain not honor for himself, how can he ever render it to another? Whereas now we seek even honors from vile and despicable characters, themselves dishonorable, and objects of reproach. What kind of honor then is this? You perceive, how that all things are "vanity of vanities"? Therefore, he says, "in the vanity of their mind.4" St. John Chrysostom 4 God created the world for our sakes, and not us for its sake. In other words we must it and leave us to use us, as its own slaves. 2. If a person looks at life merely in terms of earthly values, there is no discernible advantage to struggle and foil [3]. The writer does not exhort us to despair, but not to be absorbed in the temporal things even in our worship. In other words life in all its aspects is meaningless, useless, hollow and fain if it is not rightly related to God. Only when based on God and His Word is life worthwhile. + Why then are you held back by the love of things temporal? Why follow you after the last things, as though the first, which is vanity and a lie? For you would have them abide with you, which all pass away, as does a shadow5. St. Augustine + "Vanities, all is vanity." Let us go to the tombs; show me your father; show me your wife. Where is he that was clad in raiment of gold? he that rode in the chariot ? he that had armies, that had the girdle, that had the heralds? he that was slaying these, and casting those into prison? he that put to death whom he would and set free whom he was minded? I see nothing but boned, and a worm, and a spider's web; all those things are earth, all those a fable, all a dream, and a shadow, and a bare relation and a picture, or rather not so much as a picture6. St. John Chrysostom + He calls "vanity" everything we see and strive after in visible reality. What is vain lacks substance, and what lacks substance does not have power7. St. Gregory of Nyssa 3. All creatures cannot satisfy our inner life that is formed in the image of God. The Creator and the Savior alone can satisfy our hearts and souls. + "All things are vanity! as Ecclesiastes said, all things which are in this world. Accordingly, let the man who wishes to be saved ascend above the world, let him seek the Word who is with God let him flee from this world and depart from the earth. For a man cannot comprehend that which exists and exists always, unless he has first fled from here. On this account also, the Lord, wishing to approach God the Father, said to the Apostles, "Arise, let us go from here"8. St. Ambrose + Vanity not simply but superlatively. Let us believe him, and lay hold on that in which there is no vanity, in which there is truth; and what is based upon a solid rock, where there is no old age, nor decline, but all things bloom and flourish, without decay, or waxing old, or approaching dissolution. Let us, I beseech you, love God with genuine affection, not from fear of hell, but from desire of the kingdom. For what is comparable to seeing Christ? Surely nothing! What to the enjoyment of those good things? Surely nothing! Well may there be nothing; for "eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love Him." (1 Cor. 2:9)9. St. John Chrysostom + I am your father, brother, bridegroom, house, clothing, root, foundation. I am everything you wish; you stand in need of nothing. I shall be your servant, for I came to serve, not to be served. I am your friend, your member, your head, your brother, your sister, your mother, and all things. Only be my friend... What more do you desire? Why do you turn away Him who loves you? Why do you labor for this world? Why do you draw water in a leaky jar-for that is what toiling for the present life is? Why do you comb wool into the fire? Why do you beat the air ? Why do you run in vain? Does not each art have its purpose? This is clear to all. But you do not have a purpose. Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity [2]10. St. John Chrysostom 5 4. If this world, in its present state is vanity, it will not be worth for man to be absred in it, but to search for the eternal and heavenly life, and to transfer our hearts, thoughts, hopes and even our possessions unto it. + Therefore the true life must be laid hold upon, our riches must be removed to the place of the true life, that we may find there what we give here. he make this exchange of our goods who also change ourselves11. St. Augustine "What profit has a man of all his labor which he takes under the sun?" [3]. Verses 3-11 is a poem, its subject is: "Nature's Cycle is Pointless." All human business is pointless - at least so far as can be observed under the sun. It is said concerning the profit of the soul and the life that is to come. For all man gets by his labor will not supply the wants of the soul, will not atone for its sin, nor cures its diseases. "Under the sun." There is a world under the sun and other above it. Here we suffer the heat of the sun (Matt. 20:12); but there we will be not in need of the sun. God Himself is its Sun and Light. + The righteousness of man is as nothing accounted. The work of men, what is it? His labor is altogether vanity. Of You, O Lord, of Your grace it is that in our nature we should become good. Of You is righteousness, that we from men should become righteous. Of You is the mercy and favor, that we from the dust should become Your image. Give power to our will, that we be not sunk in sin12! St. Ephram the Syrian + By labor here it refers to the life of the body which does not seek its advantage in any good deed. And it says: What has a man- that is, What does the soul get out of all the toil of life in those men who live only for the superficial13. St. Gregory of Nyssa a. The shortness of human life [4]. One generation passes away, and another generation comes: but the earth abides for ever"[4]. Solomon here shows the time of our enjoyment of these things is very short. It is said: "Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day" Job 14:6. "For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away" Jam. 4:14. We continue in the world but for one generation, which is continually passing away to make room for another, and we are passing with it. The earth, man's workshop, appears permanent, while man ever passes. The earth which is created for man's pleasures will remain until the end of this world. + The mortal remains mortal whether he is honored or not. What good does the possessor of many acres gain in the end? Except that the foolish man thinks his own that which never belongs to him, ignorant seemingly in his greed that "the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof" (Ps. 24:1) for "God is king of all the earth" (Ps. 47:7). It is the passion of having which gives men a false title of lordship over that which can never belong to them. "The earth," says the wise Preacher, "abides for ever," ministering to every generation, first one, then another, that is born upon it; but men, though they are so little even their own masters, that they are brought into life without knowing it by their Maker's will, and before they wish are withdrawn from it, nevertheless in their excessive vanity think that they are her lords; that they, now born, now dying, rule that which remains continually14. St. Gregory of Nyssa b. The inconstant nature of all the creatures [5-7]. All things in this world are movable and mutable. 6 "The sun also arises, and the sun goes down, and hastes to his place where he arose. The wind goes toward the south, and turns about unto the north; it whirls about continually, and the wind retunes again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again" [5-7]. The earth, its productions and afairs, abide much the same through successive ages, but its inhabitants are continually changing15. The sun sets indeed every night, but it rises again in the morning, bright and fresh, while " man lies down, and rises not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep" Job 14:12. + In the sun we have a symbol of the rise and setting of our nature. There is one path for all; there is once cycle for all in life's journey. By birth we rise, and then we are drawn back again into our connatural place. And when we come to life's setting, our light too goes below the earth with the sense faculty which perceives light. What is of earth is completely resolves into its element, and so the cycle continues on and on in the same way15. St. Gregory of Nyssa c. The abundant toil man has about them. "All things are full of labor; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing" [8]. Can we expect rest in a world where all things are thus full of labor?! All talking, seeing, and hearing is useless toil, for curiosity will never be satisfied; man himself seems to be moving in vain rounds. It is impossible to put into words the futility of it all. It never brings real satisfaction to the eye or the ear of man [8]. At the beginning of this century many phsicologists used to say that many sexual problems occur becaause of abistinance. Now in North america youth are not in abstinance of any sexual relationship, and they are not satisfied. On ythe contrary many of them are homosexual, not because of their nature, but because the are not satisfied even when the sexual intercources were permitted by the society. + We arise each day to eat and drink: yet no one is filled so that he does not hunger and thirst after a short time. Daily we seek profit, and to greed there is set no limit. "The eye will not be satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing. He that loves silver will not be satisfied with silver. There is no limit to toil, and there is no profit in abundance16 St. Ambrose 7 d. Nothing new [9, 10]. "The thing that has been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and {there is} no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it has been already of old time, which was before us" [9, 10]. Many things seem to be new simply because the past is easily and quickly forgotten. The old ways reappear in new guises. We boast of new fashion, new hypotheses, new methods, new expressions, which jostle out the old, and put them down. But this is all mistake. What is there in the kingdom of nature we may say, "This is new?" Solomon explains the foolishness of men who are rejecting all that is old and are absorbed in all that is new. We hear about the Israelites who despised the manna, saying: "But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes" Num. 11:6. St. Luke also says, "For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing" Acts 17:21. While men asks for what is new, their hearts and their inner corruptions are still the same; their desires and pursuits, and complaints, still the same. If we would be entertain with new things, we must acquaint ourselves with the things of God, get a new nature, as it is said: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" 2 Cor. 5:17. "And he has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord" Ps 40:3. "And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new" Rev. 21:5. + And God being perfect becomes perfect man, and brings to perfection the newest of all new things, the only new thing under the Sun, through which the boundless might of God is manifested17 Fr. John of Damascus e. Former things are forgotten [11]. "There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after" [11]. What profit has a man? He gains nothing, not even a memory of his struggle. The world of nature is futile; human activity is also futile. The one thing that is thought to have permanence is a family name. People live on in that endless remembering that is so much a part of their religious heritage. Qoheleth denies it18. PURSUIT AFTER MAN'S KNOWLEDGE VAIN 1:12-15 Qoheleth's first attempt to solve the riddle is by human knowledge and wisdom. Those with knowledge and wisdom are the observers, sometimes the natural scientists of their day. Qoheleth sees it all and concludes that it is all made up of crooked lines and leads nowhere - "a chase after the wind." All that work for nothing! He can only reach the opposite conclusion that the sages before him reached: "For in much wisdom there is much sorrow" 1:18. Disillusionment, not contentment, is the fruit of learning19. If knowledge and wisdom are vanity and vexation, all other things in this world, being much inferior to them in dignity and worth, must needs be so too. "I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail has God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered" [12-15]. 8 God gave man the desire and the obligation to investigate all things, the wisdom that man has ought to be the guide. As he speaks concerning knowledge and wisdom, Solomon declared that he was the king of Israel in Jerusalem [12], for the neighboring nations used to say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people" Deut. 4:6. Jerusalem deserved to be called "the eye of the world20." In Solomon sought knowledge and wisdom more than anyone else did. His court in Jerusalem was a center of learning and rendezvous of learned men. What did he mean by "Vexation of spirit"? Some translate it "striving after wind," or "feeding upon wind," i.e. to make a meal on food as unsubstantial as the wind. It refers to the aimlessness and futility of human activity, for one can never lay hold of real satisfaction. It vexed him to see many that had wisdom not use it, and many that had folly not strive against it. The minds and manners of men are crooked and perverse. Solomon thought with his wisdom and power together thoroughly to reform his kingdom, but he was disappointed. He found no lasting satisfaction, for the world was still full of problems that could not be solved. All the philosophy and politics in the world will not restore the corrupt nature of man. Human wisdom will never be able to change the course of things, since all things are ordained and cannot be different from what they are. + This is his stay in his perplexity, and this is your only gain from, life here below, to be guided through the disorder of the things which are seen and shaken, to the things which stand firm and are not moved21. St. Gregory Nazianzen Eccl 1: 13 + We are to be like alert and armed soldiers, who immediately execute the orders given to them and perform them without that travail of mind which, according to the preacher, is given to the men of this world `to be exercised therewith'. St. Jerome 1. Letter 48:7. + We read in Scripture concerning the striving after temporal things, "All is vanity and presumption of spirit;" but presumption of spirit means audacity and pride: usually also the proud are said to have great spirits; and rightly, inasmuch as the wind also is called spirit. And hence it is written, "Fire, hail, snow, ice, spirit of tempest22." St. Augustine + A perverse one will not be able to be ornamented, and the impairment will not be able to be counted (1) ... It can also be understood thus: There is so great a wickedness in this world that it is really changed about and can scarcely return to its pristine state of good, nor can it anymore find it easy to receive again the order and perfection in which it was first created. Otherwise, integrity would be restored to everything through penance and only the devil would persist in his error ... Finally, so great is the number of seducers and of those whom they snatch away out of God's flock that such a computation were simply beyond comprehension23. St. Jerome 5. PURSUIT AFTER MAN'S WISDOM VAIN 1:16-18 Qoheleth now seeks to gain greater insight by a study of wisdom's opposites - madness and folly. But this effort turns out to be just as frustrating as "a chase after wind." The greater the devotion to wisdom, the greater also the sense of frustration and defeat. The more we know the more we see of our own ignorance. He who does not care about human wisdom, will be better off. "I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this 9 also is vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow" [16-18]. Not only does the search for life's meaning prove frustration and its goal unattainable, but it also brings mental and spiritual pain. There does not appear to be any consistent standard for life upon which one may base his conduct. Humanistic wisdom - wisdom without God - leads to grief and sorrow. It is vain, therefore we should ask for the divine one. "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy" James 3:17. "But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory" 2 Cor. 2:7. + The more I long for what is not here, do I not so much the more groan for it until it comes? do I not so much the more weep until it comes?..24. St. Augustine + I said, I will be wise, says Solomon,but she (i.e. Wisdom) was far from me beyond what is: and, Verily, he that increase knowledge increase sorrow. For the joy of what we have discovered is no greater than the pain of what escapes us; a pain, I imagine, like that felt by those who are dragged, while yet thirsty, from the water, or are unable to retain what they think they hold, or are suddenly left in the dark by a flash of lightning25 St. Gregory Nazianzen + And by obtaining this knowledge, he has obtained also sorrow; but sorrow for straying away from the desire of reaching his own proper country, and the Creator of it, his own blessed God26. St. Augustine We do not hate knowledge but sin that we discover working in us and knowledge has no power to abolish. + It is evident, then, that the oldness of the letter, in the absence of the newness of the spirit, instead of freeing us from sin, rather makes us guilty by the knowledge of sin. Whence it is written in another part of Scripture, "He that increases knowledge, increases sorrow,"-not that the law is itself evil, but because the commandment has its good in the demonstration of the letter, not in the assistance of the spirit; and if this commandment is kept from the fear of punishment and not from the love of righteousness, it is servilely kept, not freely, and therefore it is not kept at all27. St. Augustine St. Clement of Alexandria explains the Christian point of view concerbning knowledge, humwn wisdom and philosophy. + But all, in my opinion, are illuminated by the dawn of Light. Let all, therefore, both Greeks and barbarians, who have aspired after the truth, __ both those who possess not a little, and those who have any portion, __ produce whatever they have of the word of truth. . . And this also is the choice of the spirit, because in abundance of wisdom is abundance of acknowledge." He who is conversant with all kinds of wisdom, will be preeminently a gnostic. Now it is written, "Abundance of the knowledge of wisdom will give life to him who is of it." And again, what is said is confirmed more clearly by this saying, "All thing are in the sight of those who understand" __ all things, both Hellenic and barbarian; but the one or the other is not all. "They are right to those who wish to receive understanding. Choose instruction, and not silver, and knowledge above tested gold, and prefer also sense to pure gold;" for wisdom is better than precious stones, and no precious thing is worth it"28. St. Clement of Alexandria 10 1. Henry and Scott: A Commentary upon the Holy bible, Eccl. 1. 2. Interpreter's Concise Commentary, The Book of Ecclesiastes, Harvey H. Guthrie, p. 249.] 3. Hom. on Ephes., hom 12. 4. Ibid. 5. On Ps. 4. 6. Homilies on Matthew, 76:5. 7. Commentary on the Song of Songs, hom. 4. 8. Flight from the World, 1:4 (Fathers of the Church). 9. Hom. on Timothy, hom 15. 10. In Matt. hom. 77 (PG58:700 B-D). 11. Sermons on New Testament Lessons, 11:11. 12. On admonition and Repentance, 7. 13. The Commentary on Ecclesiastes, homily 1, PG 44: 624 B - 625 D). 14. On Virginity, 4. 15. The Commentary on Ecclesiastes, homily 1, PG 44: 624 B - 625 D). 16. Death as a Good, 7:28. (Fathers of the Church) 17. Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, 3:1. 18. The Collegeville Bible Commentary, p. 816. 19. The Collegeville Bible Commentary, p. 816. 20. Henry, Eccles., ch. 1. 21. Panegyric on His brother S Caesarius, 19. 22. Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, 1:1:3. 23. Commentary on Ecclesiastes. 24. On Ps. 39. 25. In Defense of his Flight to Pontus, 75. 26. On the Trinity, 4 Preface. 27. On the Spirit and the Letter, 26. 28. Stromata 1:13. 1 Eccl 2: 1 + "Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher, "all is vanity." But if all created things are good, as being the handiwork of a good Creator, how comes it that all things are vanity? If the earth is vanity, are the heavens vanity too? -- and the angels, the thrones, the dominations, the powers, and the rest of the virtues? No; if things which are good in themselves as being the handiwork of a good Creator are called vanity, it is because they are compared with things which are better still. For example, compared with a lamp, a lantern is good for nothing; compared with a star, a lamp does not shine at all; the brightest star pales before the moon; put the moon beside the sun, and it no longer looks bright; compare the sun with Christ, and it is darkness. "I am that I am," God says(Exd. 3:14); and if you compare all created things with Him they have no existence. St. Jerome 1. Letter 48:14. 2:18-26 is devoted to human toil (see above on 1:3). Everything gained by toil is left behind at death. The only reward for gain is the exhaustion it produces (vs. 18-23). Yet some enjoyment is to be found in devoting attention and energy to what each moment brings. That enjoyment is from the hand of God. God has given the toil, and has given us the ability to see the meaninglessness of it. [1. Interpreter's Concise Commentary, The Book of Ecclesiastes, Harvey H. Guthrie, p. 250.] Eccl 2 + For wisdom and folly are widely separated, and they are as different from each other as day is from night. He, therefore, who makes choice of virtue, is like one who sees all things plainly, and looks upward, and who holds his ways in the time of clearest light. But he, on the other hand, who has involved himself in wickedness, is like a man who wanders helplessly about in a moonless night, as one who is blind, and deprived of the sight of things by his darkness. And when I considered the end of each of these models of life, I found there was no profit in the latter; and by setting myself to be the companion of the foolish, I saw that I should receive the wages of folly. For what advantage is there in those thoughts, or what profit is there in the multitude of words, where the streams of foolish speaking are flowing, as it were, from the fountain of folly? Moreover, there is nothing common to the wise man and to the fool, neither as regards the memory of men, nor as regards the recompense of God. And as to all the affairs of men, when they are yet apparently but beginning to be, the end at once surprises them. Yet the wise man is never partaker of the same end with the foolish. Then also did I hate all my life, that had been consumed in vanities, and which I had spent with a mind engrossed in earthly anxieties. St. Gregory Thaumaturgus 1. A Metaphrase of the Book of Ecclesiastes. Eccl 2 + But the good man who gets wisdom from God, gets also heavenly enjoyment; while, on the other hand, the evil man, smitten with ills divinely inflicted, and afflicted with the disease of lust, toils to amass much, and is quick to put him to shame who is honored by God in presence of the lord of all, proffering useless gifts, and making things deceitful and vain the pursuits of his own miserable soul. St. Gregory Thaumaturgus 1. A Metaphrase of the Book of Ecclesiastes.
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