Ecclesiastes 1,9,12: Boney Fingers and Other Problems

Ecclesiastes 1:3: What do people gain from all their labours

at which they toil under the sun?

We've heard the expression and maybe the Hoyt Axton song: work your fingers to the bone and what do you get? Boney fingers. Or maybe we've heard Tennessee Ernie Ford's version from an older song? You load 16 tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. The city of Detroit went bankrupt a couple of years ago. The Detroit Free press last year ran articles on the effect of the city's bankruptcy on pensioners. Some people had to all of a sudden find private health insurance of almost $1000 a month where it was covered before. In Canada pensions that people are working for are not necessarily much more secure. Our country has talked about raising the retirement age to 67 instead of 65 and many people my age and younger have lamented that they may never be able to retire. Hoyt Axton: You work your fingers to the bone what do you get? Boney fingers. Tennessee Ernie Ford's: You load 16 tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. Ecclesiastes: What do you gain from all your labour and toil under the sun?

We've heard the idea that if we work longer and harder we will earn enough to survive or even prosper. We have all heard of the prosperity heresy… that God won't let good hard-working Christians starve; they will all be rich: It is not true. Just like the parable Jesus tells about the man who builds storehouses to invest for his retirement. Luke 12:20: “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’  Another music reference for us today: you know the song by Harry F. Chapin, 'Cat's in the Cradle?'

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon

Little boy blue and the man in the moon

"When you coming home, dad?" "I don't know when"

But we'll get together then

You know we'll have a good time then

It is a song about a dad who works so hard, presumably for his family, that he has no time for his child because he is working so much. His child grows up and then his dad retires and has time for his son but his son is now too busy for him. Like father like son. The story of the song's writer is equally as tragic. Harry Chapin realized that he was a workaholic who desired to spend time with his family as the song says but Harry Chapin also did not get the chance; he died suddenly at 38 years old before he could retire, leaving behind his daughter who grew up to be a performer - just like him.

Hoyt Axton: You work your fingers to the bone what do you get? Boney fingers. Tennessee Ernie Ford's: You load 16 tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. Ecclesiastes: What do you gain from all your labour and toil under the sun?

This book does go through many things that one considers meaningless: study, work, moral perfectionism/over-righteousness, wickedness/foolishness, life, death, envy, fame, freedom, happiness, hopelessness, talk, fellowship, and even wisdom itself.

When I was a teenager or even a young adult I read this book as if it was written by a high school or university student. Looking for the poignancy in apparent contradictions, my favourite verses at that time came from Chapter 7:16-18:

Do not be over-righteous,

neither be over-wise—

why destroy yourself?

Do not be over-wicked,

and do not be a fool—

why die before your time?

It is good to grasp the one

and not let go of the other.

Whoever fears God will follow each extreme (or avoid them both).

I have spent some time in the past few weeks reading and studying this again and now I read it as a middle aged person who is not tempted to be caught up in the novelty of paradox as much as I am to be swept away by the apathy of experience. Many people try to sum up this book with the cliché that life is meaningless without God but I think that this book says much more than that. I think the book points out quite clearly that even with God in our lives these meaningless events occur. Even if you are a Christian you can lead your life as a health nut, only eating the appropriate amount of organic health food and still die of cancer. You can be an athlete who works out and exercises appropriately and still have a heart attack. You can study 15 years in University and spend all your money doing so and still not get a degree or you might get that degree but then not be able to find any work so that all that time and money you spent was indeed meaningless. You might be like that fellow in Luke’s parable that we mentioned earlier who is really good with his money and saves up for his retirement only to die before he is able to retire. You might work harder than anyone else in your job and never get a promotion. You may volunteer for a million years and never get a paid position. Life is like this. Life is not roses and puppies. You will have good times and you will have bad times. Whether you have money and health, or study hard and work hard or whether you don’t won’t affect that (cf. also James 4:13-17). You cannot inoculate yourself from trouble; you cannot vaccinate yourself against hard times. I think this is the message of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 9:11:

The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong,

nor does food come to the wise

or wealth to the brilliant or favour to the learned;

but time and chance happen to them all.

This is important. You cannot be vaccinated against bad times; you cannot be inoculated against life. Trying to do so, trying to solve all of life's problems on our own won't work.  It doesn't matter how rich or poor, smart or dumb, pretty or pretty ugly you might be, time and circumstance happens to us all. What we can do is seek to learn and have the joy of the Lord in all of our circumstances (Phil 4:4-8). We cannot ever fully prevent the tragedies of life from happening. Life happens. But when the tragedies do occur we can turn to the Lord who promises He will never leave us nor forsake us (Dt 31:6, Heb 13:5). As the Teacher tells us to conclude this book (12:13):

Now all has been heard;

here is the conclusion of the matter:

Fear (Respect) God and keep his commandments,

for this is the duty of all mankind.

And as we do that, as we seek the Lord and trust in Him, everything will be okay - even when it isn't.