May 24, 2020
Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:26
12 I the Preacher have been king over Israel in
Jerusalem. 13 And I applied my heart to seek and to
search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an
unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be
busy with. 14 I have seen everything that is done under
the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.
15 What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is
lacking cannot be counted. 16 I said in my heart, “I
have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem
before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and
knowledge.” 17 And I applied my heart to know wisdom and
to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a
striving after wind. 18 For in much wisdom is much
vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
2:1I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with
pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity.
2 I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure,
“What use is it?” 3 I searched with my heart how to
cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and
how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the
children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their
life. 4 I made great works. I built houses and planted
vineyards for myself. 5 I made myself gardens and parks,
and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I made
myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees.
7 I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who
were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and
flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem.
8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the
treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women,
and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man. 9
So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in
Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10 And
whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart
from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and
this was my reward for all my toil. 11 Then I considered
all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it,
and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was
nothing to be gained under the sun. 12 So I turned to
consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who
comes after the king? Only what has already been done.
13 Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in
folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness.
14 The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the
fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event
happens to all of them. 15 Then I said in my heart,
“What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I
been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is
vanity. 16 For of the wise as of the fool there is no
enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have
been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool!
17 So I hated life, because what is done under the sun
was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.
18 I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun,
seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me,
19 and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet
he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom
under the sun. This also is vanity. 20 So I turned about
and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors
under the sun, 21 because sometimes a person who has
toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to
be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity
and a great evil. 22 What has a man from all the toil
and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun?
23 For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is
a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is
vanity. 24 There is nothing better for a person than
that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This
also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25 for apart from
Him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26 For to the
one who pleases Him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but
to the sinner He has given the business of gathering and
collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is
vanity and a striving after wind.
Today, we observe Ascension Sunday, perhaps the most neglected of
the “five evangelical feasts” which are celebrated in most
Christian traditions (along with Christmas, Easter, Good Friday,
and Pentecost). This day marks the commemoration of the events of
Acts 1:6-11 when Jesus completed His earthly ministry by ascending
into Heaven and sitting down at the right hand of the Father. I’d
like to draw your attention to two Ascension hymns we’ll be singing
this morning, A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing and O
Christ, Our Hope. The former, which will open and close the
service this morning, was originally a Latin text by the English
monastic the Venerable Bede and will be sung to the familiar LASST
UNS ERFREUEN tune. O Christ, Our Hope (also a medieval
Latin text set to a German tune, in this case LOBT GOTT IHR
CHRISTEN) is often associated with the Easter season. While the
second verse speaks eloquently of Jesus’ “cruel death” on the cross
to set His people free, the following verses echo Bede’s phrase,
calling Him “ascended Lord.” Lines like these should remind us that
our Lord not only died for our sins and rose from the dead, but
that He also ascended into Heaven. Even now, He intercedes for us
from His Father’s throne “in glorious robes arrayed.” —Henry C.
Haffner
Key Words: Wisdom, Vanity, Crooked, Folly,
Pleasure, Treasure, Light, Darkness, Toil
Keystone Verse: God has given wisdom and knowledge
and joy. (Ecclesiastes 2:26)