Product Problems

 As we discussed in the previous chapter, Solomon’s research methods were flawed. It’s not surprising, then, that some of his conclusions are also flawed. “Wait,” you object, “it’s in the Bible, so it must be true! Are you saying there are errors in the Bible?”

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable (2Ti 3:16). What the Bible records is accurate, but it’s not all true. For example, God said:

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Gen 2:17)

The serpent said:

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: (Gen 3:4)

Both Bible verses are accurate, but only the first is true. The second is an accurately recorded lie. You see the same thing in the Book of Job. I still remember reading it for the first time. I underlined, highlighted, and wrote notes about the statements of Job’s three friends. Lots of great stuff. But then I read this in the last chapter:

And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.  (Job 42:7)

I had to review my notes! Some things Job’s friends said resonated with me because I had the same wrong view of God they did. I had to compare their statements with Job’s, and with the Bible as a whole, so I didn’t come away with the wrong idea.

We need to be careful about what we embrace in Ecclesiastes, too. Some of Solomon’s conclusions from his experience, experiments, observation, and contemplation are just wrong. We’ll touch on that from time to time throughout the book. Here, we’ll point out two of the more obvious errors.

Men are Beasts

I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth? (Ecc 3:18-21)

Solomon’s conclusions in this passage are based on observation. “My dog, Spot, died. We dug a hole and plated her in the ground. My uncle Jacob died. We dug a hole and planted him in the ground.” It’s all the same. The word beasts here isn’t an insult, it’s a synonym for animals. “What God’s trying to teach us,” Solomon said, “is that we’re beasts.” This is the conclusion of evolutionists and atheists, too.

“There is no fundamental difference between man and animals in their ability to feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery”—Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man

“We admit that we are like apes, but we seldom realize that we are apes.”—Richard Dawkins, The Ancestor’s Tale

“We are not the end product of a purposeful process. We are a tiny, late-arising twig on the enormously arborescent bush of life”—Stephen Jay Gould, Ever Since Darwin

That’s an easy conclusion to arrive at if all your data comes from your observations and deductions. But let’s compare Solomon’s conclusions to God’s Word.

• They have all one breath
• And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Gen 2:7)
• God doesn’t say this about any beast.
• They themselves are beasts / A man hath no preeminence above a beast
• And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Gen 1:26-27)
• When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: (Psa 8:3-6)
• All go unto one place
• For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me. (Job 19:25-27)
• Even Job knew that death isn’t the end of man’s story.
• If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. (1Co 15:19)
• Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward
• This is, in fact, a question. Who knows if the spirit of a man goes up. We say that, but we can’t observe it. It’s nothing we see under the sun.
• We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2Co 5:8)
• For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1Th 4:16-18)

Life’s the Worst!

So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter. Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive. Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun. (Ecc 4:1-3)

Solomon witnessed the tears of the oppressed in his land. They were powerless and comfortless. Here’s how Solomon rank contestants in the Oppression Olympics:

• Bronze: the living, who have to endure such oppression
• Silver: the dead, who have escaped oppression
• Gold: the unborn, who have never been exposed to such injustice

Solomon concluded it’s better not to be born, than to live in a world like ours. What if the Jews in Egyptian bondage embraced Solomon’s philosophy? Here’s what life was like for them:

And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour. (Exo 1:13-14)

Living Jews would have ended their lives to escape the grinding oppression of Egyptian bondage. Prospective parents, like Amram and Jochebed, would have said, “We can’t bring a child into a world like this.” And Moses wouldn’t have been born to lead Israel out of Egypt. Taken to its logical conclusion, the Jewish nation would be gone. God’s plan to bring His Son into the world to save us would have been thwarted.

Yet in the face of seemingly hopeless oppression, “the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.” (Exo 1:12) Getting up tomorrow is an act of faith. It says, “It’s hard now, but God is, so there is hope. Hope of deliverance. Hope God will work in and through the struggle.”

Christ’s offer of abundant life (Joh 10:10) is the antidote to despair. It reveals the Father’s heart—His desire for us to live life as He intended. There may be dark days, but our pain has purpose.

These are two cases where Solomon’s faulty process produces a faulty product. We’ll return to these and identify others as we move through Ecclesiastes. Throughout our journey, we’ll compare Solomon’s conclusions and recommendations with the rest of Scripture. (This is a good general Bible study principle. Compare Scripture with Scripture to be sure you’re interpreting it properly. That’s especially true in the Bible’s historical accounts. Often the Bible reports people’s deeds without providing God’s judgment about them. It’s up to us to search the Scriptures to confirm our understanding.)