Brilliantly Wrong: Why You Should Read and Not Heed Ecclesiastes ~ Ecclesiastes 12:8-14 (Poets Series)

When I was a seminary student I studied with the theologian Miroslav Volf who was well-acquainted with then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who you now know as Pope Benedict XVI. Despite being an Evangelical seminary, he had us a read a

fair amount by the Cardinal, forcing us to listen well, and carefully understand the Cardinal’s theology and perspective. One student asked Miroslav why we had to read the Cardinal because none of us were Catholic. He responded that we needed to read him because he was “brilliantly wrong.” That woke a few students up with some asking what such a phrase meant. Volf responded, “Just because someone is wrong doesn’t mean that they are not worth readying, that they can’t teach us anything, that they can’t be learned from. But nevertheless, don’t forget he’s wrong.” And that my friends leads us quite appropriately to our sermon topic today: Ecclesiastes. Like Miroslav and Benedict, we also have two voices in the text: the narrator who edited Ecclesiastes and wrote the prologue and epilogue for the book (1:1-11; 12:8-14), and the words of

the Teacher who make up the center (1:12-12:7). And the narrator believes that we should read and understand the Teacher’s words but, he would also remind us, the Teacher is brilliantly wrong. We begin in chapter 12, vs. 8 as the narrator for the book begins to sum up for us all that the teacher has said.

⁸ “Completely meaningless [hevel hevel],” says the Teacher. “Everything is meaningless [hevel]!”

It ain’t smoke, vs. 8.

That’s it. That’s the entire summary. Let that sink in. Vs. 8’s summary of the Teacher’s words demands that we make sense of Hevel. It’s true that the word can mean “smoke” as

well as “meaningless” so the challenge is which is right? It impacts how we understand the book. Does it mean “meaningless” as the NIV translators attest or, with the Bible Project, is it a nod to impermanence as “smoke” or “vapor.” This is not so much for us to pick the word or image which we like best, that suits are needs, but to carefully look at the word both in context of Ecclesiastes as well as the whole of the OT.

The word occurs approximately thirty-two times outside the book of Ecclesiastes. Examining these can help settle the matter. In thirteen passages, the word characterizes idols, claiming that they are useless or meaningless. Their damage to Israel is not that they are lacking in permanence (e.g. smoke or vapor) but rather that they are false and deceptive. For many of the other passages, only “meaningless” is possible (e.g. 2 Kings 17:15; Job 9:29; Psalm 31:7, etc.)  Furthermore, when the Rabbis translated Ecclesiastes into Greek they chose to use the word, “emptiness or frustration” rather than “smoke.”  So now I’m going to do something I generally don’t do; that is, defend the translators: meaningless, rather than smoke, is correct. The temptation of smoke, of course, is that it softens the message of the Teacher. The Teacher is claiming that “life is utterly meaningless” NOT kind of random, or somewhat impermanent. It is a vision of life as seen under the curse. It is a life which acknowledges a seemingly distant God.  It’s a vision that is brilliantly wrong.

⁹ Furthermore, the Teacher was a wise man. He taught the people knowledge. He heard, investigated, and put in good order many proverbs. ¹⁰ The Teacher sought to find words of delight and to write honestly words of truth.

The Teacher tried, vss. 9-10.

After summarizing the Teacher in vs. 8, vss. 9-12 serve as a critique of the Teacher’s message. The narrator begins with a description that is somewhat complimentary but very reserved choosing to offer a lukewarm description (“heard, investigated, and put”) rather than full-throated praise.

It’s like a recommendation that says, “showed up for work, tried to do his best” but with little specifics or actual praise. He did teach wisdom and was wise, we’re told, but vs. 10 moves toward a more subtle and important critique. In fact, vs. 10 subtly suggests the teacher is a double failure. After all what did the Teacher seek to find? In the first place, “words of delight.” Delight always refers to something pleasing. It’s a bit of a jab at a message that, while including some nice turns of phrase, could hardly be characterized as pleasurable: everyone dies, without reward, without being remembered, so wisdom is of limited value (9:5). In the darkness of life that has no ultimate meaning, enjoy the temporal pleasures that lighten the burden (5:18-19). His words are not a delight but troublesome. In the second place, the narrator says that the Teacher sought to write “words of truth.” Is the narrator admitting to the truthfulness of the Teacher’s words? By using the expression “sought to find”, then, the frame narrator falls far short of commending the Teacher’s truthfulness. The Teacher does describe well the world as it exists under covenant curse but is this the truth that we should live under? At the very least it affirms and validates our ability to name difficult realities of death and circumstance. It names our arrogance but does it offer an answer for how to live? Because “life is meaningless” the Teacher never really calls people to action. He is moved by the oppression of others, for example, but never suggests doing anything about it and actually says that God is responsible so you can’t change it (7:13). What the Teacher found was truth “under the sun.” Indeed, apart from God, which is one of the meanings of this phrase there is no meaning nor reason to do anything more than pursue the simple pleasures. So read the Teacher but think about him in this way, “We must love them both, those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject. For both have labored in the search for truth and both have helped us find it.”~ Thomas Aquinas.

¹¹ The words of the wise are like goads, and like firmly implanted nails are the masters of collections. They are given by a shepherd. ¹² Furthermore, of these, my son, be warned! There is no end to the making of many books, and much study wearies the body.

Warning! It stings and wearies, vss. 11-12

A goad is a shepherd’s tool – a long rod with one or more points on the end of it and is used to stir cattle into motion. The image is critical for understanding the narrator’s point. Both images “the goad” and the “implanted nails” are united in one purpose – they both sting. If the narrator wished to focus on the positive aspects of the shepherd’s function, he would have used the image of the rod and staff (a la Psalm 23:4). So the point seems to emphasize the dangerous and painful aspects of wisdom teaching, a very appropriate image after presenting the skeptical and pessimistic teaching of the Teacher. This makes all the more sense as we move into vs. 12 where the narrator warns of “these” (vs. 12). “These” things, refer to the writings of the Teacher, which are good for making us aware of our own futility. In essence he is saying to his son, “The Teacher’s thinking is dangerous material – be careful.” In the wrong hands, it can be dangerous. At the wrong time, it can be deadly.

¹³ The end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of humanity. ¹⁴ For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

This is “The end of the matter,” vss. 13-14.

In the last two verses the narrator turns from a critique of the Teacher to sharing what the reader of Ecclesiastes should learn. The abruptness of the Hebrew is once again suggestive, Tremper Longman III suggests rendering the Hebrew: “Enough of the Teacher, let’s get on with what is really important.”

First, there is the injunction to “fear God.” We’ve already gone over this two sermons ago. Unlike the Teacher, who also states that one should fear God, there is the sense of a right relationship. There is a sense that we fear God but God is still good. God will come and make things right whereas the Teacher suggests that “fear God” because God is distant and has set things in motion which can’t be changed.

Second, keep the commandments. Ironically, the Teacher never makes such a statement. This command points the reader to other Biblical texts, namely the Torah or Law, as being critical for a healthy human life. The exact phrase following reads: “for this is the whole of humanity.” To do these things, in other words, brings life, are what we are made for, are what helps us thrive. Life is not hevel or meaninglessness, it is a life filled with joy which is what the commandments are for – text from Deuteronomy 30: 11-14, 19-20. This is also what Jesus suggests, Matt. 22:34-40.

Third, God will bring judgment. Judgment is always for the sake of salvation, since it is a bringing to light of that which has lain destructively in the dark. The judgment is Jesus. Jesus is the ultimate answer to the Teacher’s conclusion of meaninglessness. Jesus emptied himself of his divine prerogatives to subject himself to all that is “under the sun” in order to free us from the chaos and pain of sin. The answer of judgment is that Jesus comes and sits under it before he sits over it.

What is the Bible?

One of the things that I keep coming back to in this series as I read all these texts is the question: What is the Bible? How should we read it? And while these questions are too complicated for one sermon, particularly the end of one, I’d like to offer a few remarks.

It’s more Library than book. It is filled with multiple authors writing very different genres. Let’s take a quick glance at the books alongside the authors that we’ve encountered so far. Do you know how many authors we have in our Poets series? What’s a count for these 6 books? A conservative estimate would be 16 with others arguing close to 20. Psalms alone has 8 authors: David, Asaph (and family), the sons of Korah, Heman, Solomon, Moses, Ethan the Ezrahite, and Anonymous. Proverbs has three: Solomon, Agur, Lemuel. Listening to one voice of Scripture is like trying to field a baseball team with one player. No matter how good – it’s not going to work. The Bible itself is a corporate word, a team sport, a communal experience and it contains internal challenges and critiques from different experiences of the one and only God, all working together, all a part of the same story.

The Bible is a book that you can trust and not always follow. The Bible validates feelings that it doesn’t always promote. It gives voice to people who aren’t always correct. Much like the Job’s friends, for example, Ecclesiastes will devote a great deal of time for a message that is still found wanting, that is still not fully correct. It’s scripture, it should be read, it’s important, but it’s not the whole truth. So you must always place what you read in the story the Bible wishes to tell. You should pay attention to internal critiques.

It’s like a pharmacy with many drugs that can heal or harm. Proverbs from the Book of Proverbs are a good example. These are nuggets of wisdom. But a proverb in the mouth of fool is a different story. The Book of Proverbs describe such a person as a drunk with a switch. The Bible is not so different. Not everything you read should be done at all times. E.g.

Proverbs 26:4, 5, 9. "Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of another . . . and you can look down the street an d see the results.” Harper Lee is right. The test of our Bible reading, the care that we exercise, is not necessarily determined by our theories about the Bible but the results on the streets.