The Preacher issues this command toward the end of Ecclesiastes:
Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth (Ecclesiastes 11:9).
In a world that is rife with evil, injustice, and suffering, how do we begin to do that? To rejoice in the midst of hebel, you must first revere your Creator. What does that mean and how do we get there? We’ll answer that question, but first we need to consider the context.
Context: The Incomprehensibility of Life and Death in Ecclesiastes (This section is adapted from last week’s post: “A Lesson from Ecclesiastes—Slothfulness and the Gospel”)
The Preacher’s words in Ecclesiastes begin and end with the same refrain: “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2; 12:8). The word we translate “vanity” is the Hebrew word hebel, and if you just glance across different translations (ESV = vanity, NIV = meaningless, NET = futile) of the Bible it quickly becomes clear that we don’t really have a nice one-to-one gloss in English that we can provide. The Hebrew word more literally describes “vapor” or “breath.” Most translations like those above tend to convey a negative connotation to our ears. But if everything is truly meaningless then that would make Ecclesiastes and the words of the Preacher self-contradictory:
Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth (Ecclesiastes 12:9–10).
Notice, the book itself and the Preacher certainly seem to understand the message of Ecclesiastes to be meaningful. Indeed, the Preacher notes many meaningful things in life “under the sun.” For example,
Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness (Ecclesiastes 2:13).
Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun…(Ecclesiastes 11:7).
Thus, the message of Ecclesiastes seems to understand hebel as something more akin to the incomprehensibility of life, the paradoxes of life, or the enigmas of life—the frustrating mysteries we just cannot explain.[1] For example,
In my hebel life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing (Ecclesiastes 7:15–16).
While its often the uncertainty of life that amount to hebel, it is the certainty of death that often proves the greatest enigma of all. The Preacher notes that no matter who you are, death comes to all,
This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead (Ecclesiastes 9:3).
The Preacher expresses the inevitable days of dying and death with the haunting yet beautiful words of Ecclesiastes 12:1–8. He likens the moment of death and the loss of a priceless life to a silver cord snapping, a golden bowl breaking, a pitcher of water shattering, and the water wheel at a cistern splintering. Death is the hebel of all hebels,
the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.
So, Ecclesiastes understands hebel to be perhaps more closely related to an aspect of its literal meaning of vapor or breath. Indeed, the Preacher often describes man’s attempt to overcome the hebel of life as striving after wind or, more literally from the Hebrew, shepherding wind (Ecclesiastes 1:11). Thus, the hebel of life are those enigmas of life under the sun that we as humans experience. The ones we can’t wrap our heads, hearts, and hands around. Hebel is the mysterious tension of the good and bad, the sweet and the bitter, life and the greatest enigma of all, death. What can happen, will happen, for “time and chance happen to them all” (Ecclesiastes 9:11). And the Preacher says that trying to get your hands around and overcome the hebel of life is like shepherding wind. You cannot do it, so quit trying to overcome hebel.
But the Preacher’s message is not a fatalistic one. It is simply a realistic one. Romans 8:20–21 says,
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Because of the Fall, God subjected the world to futility. But it wasn’t meaningless. God did this so that through the futility and yes, the hebel, of life under the curse, we would learn to depend upon, seek refuge in, and find freedom and joy in him. And this is the message of Ecclesiastes. The Preacher commands us to rejoice in this life. And he says that the path to joy and life under the sun is not to fear hebel. What path does he suggest instead? Toward the end of Ecclesiastes the Preacher offers four overarching commands to us that form the path: rejoice, remove, remember, and revere.
Rejoice
First, the Preacher commands us to rejoice.
Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth (Ecclesiastes 11:9).
This is the command we considered at the outset. And it is a common refrain throughout Ecclesiastes—the Preacher instructs us to be joyful or rejoice in life under the sun (Ecclesiastes 3:12, 22; 5:18; 8:15; 11:8). This is because all of life as a creature under the sun is a gift from God’s hand, from the breath in our lungs to the food on our plates to the drink in our cup. Therefore, even though life is full of hebel, the proper response is not to fear the hebel that is a result of the fall but to rejoice in the good gifts God gives us. The natural question that comes to mind is, “How? How do I begin to do that in a world of hebel?” Here the Preacher will begin to lead us to the bedrock of this command to us. But first, he gives us another command that undergirds this one. So let’s follow him down one step at a time to the foundation.
Remove
Second, the Preacher commands us to remove.
Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity (Ecclesiastes 11:10).
The Preacher says removing of vexation and evil is essential to your rejoicing. The vexation the Preacher refers to is the unnecessary frustration and sorrow we bring upon ourselves by futilely trying to overcome hebel whether it is through the accumulation of wisdom, knowledge, pleasure, money, or stuff (Ecclesiastes 1:18; 2:23). Do not rail against the hebel of life and do not let it define you and vex you unnecessarily. Rather, the Preacher instructs us to mourn and lament the hebel of life when we experience it because this will lead us to joy (Ecclesiastes 7:3). Again, the natural question that comes to mind is, “How? How do I begin to do that in a world of hebel?” Here the preacher brings us closer to the bedrock of his commands by pointing to the source of our hope in the midst of hebel in his third command to us.
Remember
Third, the Preacher commands us to remember.
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth (Ecclesiastes 12:1).
The Preacher says remembering your Creator is essential to your rejoicing and removing vexation in this life of hebel. When the hebel of life and death presses in on us, our tendency is to forget our Creator. This leads to railing against the hebel rather than removing the vexation of it and rejoicing in life as a gift. But, the Preacher knows that when we remember our Creator, then we remember that there is hope. We remember that we are but a creature subjected to hebel, but he is our Creator who is sovereign over hebel. Here is where we begin to stand firmly on the bedrock of the Preacher’s logic. Because to remember our Creator is to revere him. And this is the final command the Preacher offers us.
Revere
Fourth and finally, the Preacher commands us to revere.
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
After establishing the inevitable hebel of life and death, the final word the Preacher offers us is fear and obey. And here we’ve come full circle. The sinful human response to hebel is to fear it and try to overcome it in whatever sinfully idolatrous, self-dependent way we choose. But the Preacher says this is the path to unsatisfied vexation. Instead, we should fear God and obey him. That is, we should worship, we should revere, we should depend on the Creator. This is the path to joy and life in the midst of hebel. How do we rejoice in the midst of hebel? We first must revere our Creator. And when the hebel of life and death arise, we should remember and revere him all the more. Only in this way can we strip off our self-dependent vexation. And only in this way can we rejoice in the midst of hebel.
Conclusion
So this is the final word of the Preacher to us in Ecclesiastes, and this is the bedrock, the starting place of your joy. When the hebel of life and death arises, don’t fear it and respond to it by depending upon yourself to overcome it. Rather, respond to it by fearing and revering God and depending upon him in the midst of hebel. Reverse engineer these commands: revere, remember, remove, and rejoice. This is the path to joy in the midst of hebel.
[1] Jason S. DeRouchie, “Lecture 23: Ecclesiastes: The God who sustains through life’s enigmas,” Jason S. DeRouchie © 2017 https://jasonderouchie.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Lect-23-Ecclesiastes-1.pdf
