As we enjoy life, doing the work God has granted us to do, what’s the worst thing which happens to us?
We achieve success…
I’m sorry, what?! Remember, in chapter 1 the author mentions God giving us this “burdensome task” as a means of “exercising” us. Instead of thinking about it as “toil” or a “burdensome task”, let’s think of it as desirable difficulty. How often have you heard of the hardworking individual who spends their life providing for him/ herself and their family; they make good choices, work diligently, plan for the future, especially the day they can retire. The day comes when they can reach their goal and retire. Within a short time they die. How often do you hear the reason for this was they no longer had a purpose in life? Why is that?
It turns out spending their days in labor was rewarding. Granted it was/ is also tiring. However, having something worth working toward (the future) keeps us: hopeful, motivated, inspired to move forward and make sacrifices in the short term, for a long term good. This is an exceedingly good thing. Then one day, it’s gone…now what? Puttering around a garden doing menial tasks may sound rewarding. Perhaps it is for a short time, as the relief of years of labor can be put aside. However, it will quickly lose its appeal.
Even in the Garden, Adam and Eve had a mission beyond simply frolicking in the meadow in their au naturale state. They were tasked with “tending” the garden, whatever that meant. I don’t get the impression it was overly exhausting; it was nonetheless, something for them to do. After the fall, their burden became greatly increased. This was obviously a curse. I believe it was also a hidden blessing, to a degree. Idle hands are the Devil’s playthings, or so I’ve heard. If their workload increases because sin has entered the world then they should have less time to sin. Human ingenuity being what it is, mankind found time to increase the level of sin regardless of their workload. This degradation of early society is what eventually led to God bringing a cleansing flood to enact a “Great Re-Set”. This will be covered more in the Genesis study; I don’t want to veer too far off track right now.
5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we may boldly say:
“The LORD is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?
-Hebrews 13:5-6 (NKJV)
We’re called to be sincerely grateful/ content with what we have. What does the quoted verse NOT say? It doesn’t say, “Settle for what you have.” But…isn’t that contradicting the spirit of the passage? Not necessarily. It does require wisdom. Have you ever noticed someone who’s ungrateful for what they have? How do they act? If they try to acquire more, do they become entitled? Do they become committed to acquire more regardless of the cost? Hebrews 13: 1-4 is admonishing us not to do that. Let’s paraphrase: be genuinely grateful for what you have, wherever you’re starting from. Enjoy it, God is with you and desires to bless you. I’m not promoting the prosperity gospel in any way. Take the opportunities to better your situation, as they come up, and use them for your good, without venturing into greed or other sins to do so.
What are we in right now? An endless cycle. Work for the future guided by hope and desire. Achieve the goal for which we worked and find the pay-off isn’t as glorious as we imagined thus, it becomes a source of bitterness. Find a larger goal that gives us hope and…repeat ad nauseum. What’s the answer to defeat this cycle?
What if we focus more on the moment? What if we acknowledge this is an endless cycle and we focus on genuinely enjoying the stages of the cycle?
9 What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? 10 I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
-Ecclesiastes 3:9-11 (NKJV)
If we can thoroughly engage with the moment from a perspective of sincere gratitude, I believe this will allow us to overcome the trap of the boom-bust cycle. Read each of the things listed in verses 2-8 and remember the idea of juxtaposition from the Introduction. There are natural cycles to life that we’re meant to be fully engaged in. We rob ourselves of a lot of joy by being detached from them or not being fully present in them. Should we have the attitude from times past of, “Just live for today/ the moment”? No, we’re not called to be hedonistic in any way. Verse 11 from the quote above mentions we should keep eternity on our mind as a time will come where God demands an accounting for things done in the past (also in verse 15 and 17).
Ironically, when we are fully engaged in the moment we inadvertently find ourselves in more sets of endless cycles. Each of the pairings from verses 2-8 are juxtapositions but, they are also cycles. There’s no getting out of it. Life truly is a grasping after the wind.
What if we live fully in the moment but turn our attention outward? Won’t that relieve the pressure of the vanity of life?
Unfortunately, all this seems to do is magnify the fallen state of the world. Being stuck in the despair of the vanity of life, the injustice and inequities of society come to our attention. Wouldn’t it be beneficial to engage the culture and try to save it from itself? Perhaps…but can you really (save society from itself)? Does society want to be rescued?
This unfortunately leads to the view that we are no better than animals, as stated in verse 18. What’s the point of doing anything as it all ends in death anyway. Why should we try? And this sets up the tie-in to chapter 4 perfectly.