Ecclesiastes 9:10

http://pastormark.tv/2012/03/22/tough-text-thursday-ecclesiastes-9-10


Scripture study by Pastor Mark Driscoll
March 22, 2012


Ecclesiastes 9:10
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.”


Introduction
Ecclesiastes 9:10 is not the most cheerful verse in the world. Depending on where your soul is at the moment, Ecclesiastes on the whole can be pretty depressing. The book records the words of the “Preacher,” who remains anonymous in this book, but evidence suggests that he is Solomon, “the son of David” (Ecclesiastes 1:1).


Solomon begins this book, saying, “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity” (v. 2). The word for “vanity” is the Hebrew word for “vapor” or “breath.” The idea is similar to “mist” in James 4:14, “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” This is a passage that you won’t see often on church signs.


So yes, Ecclesiastes is painful. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If you’re in a hard place, if you’re suffering, if you’re wondering what the point of it all is, Ecclesiastes can actually be good medicine for your soul.


The Preacher’s perspective in Ecclesiastes is limited but honest. He has lived a full life and done great things, but he realizes that in a very real sense, all of it amounts to nothing. In the end, the same things happen to the righteous and the wicked, history continually repeats itself, and, eventually, we all end up in the grave. If this is where you are, then it might be good to have these words of Solomon renew your mind and remind you that God inspired a book of the Bible that feels your pain.


Ecclesiastes isn’t a book to look to for a quick pick-me-up but rather one that enters into your suffering with you. In Ecclesiastes, “Death is introduced not with a passing glance but with a steady look at its desolating features,” says one commentator. It’s a book that points us forward to Jesus, sweating blood in the garden, entering into the pain and futility of humanity, fighting and enduring.


Of course, the truth is that in Christ everything has meaning but life is also hard, and in these hard seasons, we don’t always faithfully believe that Jesus holds us in his hands and has good purposes for us.


For this reason, we need Ecclesiastes. We need these words from God. Commenting upon this very reality, Iain Provan said, “Struggle with the text is to be engaged in with determination . . . but not with fear or trepidation, for whatever the truth is that Ecclesiastes has to tell us in the context of biblical truth overall, Christian readers know that it will be truth that sets us free (John 8:32).”


The book touches on a lot of subjects, and in the verse in questions, the subject is work. Before addressing a couple of issues, let me provide a little context to the passage.
Context of the Verse


Ecclesiastes 9:10 is found within a small section of Scripture that emphasizes finding joy in what you do wherever you are (9:7–10).


What we see in this section is that we’re to eat with joy and drink wine with a merry heart (9:7). Solomon isn’t saying that we should be gluttons and drunkards, but that as we live, we should eat good food. Get your family and friends together, enjoy good food, and have a good time. Ecclesiastes 10:19 says that a feast is made for laughter. Not only should you eat good food with your family and friends, but you should drink good wine as well. The Lord has given us wine to gladden our hearts (Psalm 114:15). Solomon isn’t permitting drunkenness, but is speaking to enjoying God’s gifts with good company, which is a foretaste of what heaven will be like at the wedding supper of the Lamb (Isaiah 25:6; Revelation 19).


Solomon says that our garments should “be always white” and that we should oil our head (9:8). He’s not saying that our clothes should be soaked in bleach and that we should use some sort of organic, oil-based, hair product. Rather, he is symbolizing joy with white clothes and oil in contrast to sackcloth and ashes that are symbolic of mourning and repenting.


Solomon also wants those of us who are married to “enjoy life with the wife whom you love” (9:9). Men, the Bible says, “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD” (Proverbs 18:22). Seek joy in your wife the Lord has given you.Serve her. Love her. Treat her well. Make the most out of your life with her.


Finally, find joy in “whatever your hand finds to do” (9:10).


With this text there are two main issues that need explanation. First is the idea of doing “whatever your hand finds to do.” Second, what does Solomon mean by telling us that we are going to “Sheol” (sometimes translated “grave”), where there is “no work or knowledge or thought or wisdom”? How does this help us work with all our might, as the verse tells us?


“Whatever your hand finds to do . . .”
We see this phrase appear in a couple of other places in the Old Testament.


Judges 9:33 reads, “Then in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, rise early and rush upon the city. And when he and the people who are with him come out against you, you may do to them as your hand finds to do.”


Then, in 1 Samuel 10:6–7, Samuel tells Saul, “Then the Spirit of the LORD will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. Now when these signs meet you, do what your hand finds to do, for God is with you.”


The idea expressed here isn’t to do whatever we want to do. This would ignore the reality of our fallen nature and the fact that not all our desires are holy. At the same time, it does affirm our legitimate and righteous desires.


While God is sovereign, we aren’t puppets attached to strings. We have thoughts, affections, emotions, and a will. We make decisions and take action based on these. At some point, we have to entrust them to the Lord and do what our hands find to do.


Another way of understanding this phrase is to do “whatever you are able to do” with what is right in front of you. If you’re a student, apply yourself to your studies. If you’re a stay-at-home mom, apply yourself to your kids and the host of other responsibilities you have. If you’re occupied, work as hard and as smartly as you can. For everyone, seek God through Christ now. Don’t wait. Pray, read your Bible, get involved with a Jesus-loving, Bible-believing church, and share Jesus with others.


That being said, don’t be consumed about what you’re going to do one day, at some undisclosed point in the future, putting off what you should do today, because none of us is guaranteed a tomorrow.


What Is Sheol? Why Does It Matter?
Sheol is the place of the dead. Similar to other peoples in their time, “the Old Testament Israelites conceived the world of the dead as a great space in the depths, as an underworld.” In the Old Testament, Sheol is a dark, shadowy place. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, the word “Hades” was used for the Hebrew word “Sheol.” By Jesus’ day, says one commentator, “it was common for Jews to believe that the righteous dead go to a place of comfort while the wicked go to Hades.” Sheol, though, is more of a mysterious, dark place where both godly and ungodly go when they die, which is why some translations use “grave.”


While some will want to tease out implications for afterlife from this verse, the reality is Ecclesiastes is poetic, and the author is not interested in commenting on the doctrines of heaven and hell but rather speaking to the shared human condition of death. The point is this: life is short, we all die. As John Piper says, don’t waste your life.


Understanding that we will all die drastically affects how we live our lives today. Nothing follows us into the grave. Naked we came, and naked we go. The Bible teaches us that, as unpleasant as this thought is, it’s absolutely necessary to live a life for God today. C. S. Lewis once wrote that “the Present is the point at which time touches eternity.” Rather than focusing on temporal things, we must focus on eternal things. And by doing so, the Bible promises God will take care of us. As Jesus teaches, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).


Living in light of the earthly grave compels us to live in the moment that God has given us. It shatters our pipe dreams and unrealistic visions of any future that doesn’t depend on Christ’s cross and forces us into the present, into dependence upon God and his Spirit and what he is doing in us and those around us—now. It frees us to live a life completely devoted to God rather than to things that will pass away.


Conclusion
In Ecclesiastes, the author encourages us to take action with whatever it is God has given us to do and to do it wholeheartedly right now. As one writer puts it, “In Sheol there is no real activity or life, so act now!”


We must put aside false notions of our own future glory here on earth and trust the Spirit to guide us in the moment we are in. Knowing that one day we will all die compels us to do what God has given us to do now. In an odd way, death gives meaning to our work. “As a means to self-advantage, work becomes self-demoralizing (4:8),” says William Brown, but “work is redeemed both by community and by its very nature as an exercise of human dignity before death . . . . Meaningful work is a gift on par with the delights of food and drink.”


At the same time, because we also have the benefit of greater revelation in Christ, we understand that Jesus has carried all death, futility, and despair on our behalf. We don’t have to make sense of it all, because we know God works all things for the good of those who love and wait for him (Romans 8:28). In this way writes Paul in Colossians, whatever we do, we can, “work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.”