By James Riley Strange, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of New Testament, Samford University
The Problem with Pleasure
Ecclesiastes 2:1–11
Last week we were introduced to the book of Ecclesiastes. Your study Bible may note the author calls himself “the teacher” or “the preacher.” He speaks in the voice of King Solomon through chapter 2. Beginning in chapter 3 he speaks like one of us: an average Joe who lived long enough to observe the way the world worked, to test his assumptions about what was worthwhile and to decide much of what he valued was “mere breath” and “herding wind” (most translations say “vanity of vanities” and “chasing after wind”).
He can find no evidence that one is rewarded for doing good or punished for doing bad. Though he struggles to find meaning in the contingencies of life, he does not conclude that one should do as one pleases.
In today’s passage he speaks as a king who could have whatever brought him pleasure: building projects, possessions, wealth and sex. This tale is practically as old as time, isn’t it? In the telling we have heard over and over again people with power and wealth learn that no genuine or lasting pleasure comes from indulging their desires.
Pleasure for pleasure’s sake accomplishes nothing. (1–3)
The teacher decided to test whether or not he was right about pleasure and in verse 1 he anticipates his findings: he had pleasure but it was fleeting and he could find no use for it. Note he wanted to “see what was good for mortals to do” (v. 3), but by “good” he did not mean “morally upright.” He meant “effective” — whatever would succeed in gratifying him.
Possessions fill our lives with everything except what matters. (4–8)
It turns out much would gratify him. He drank wine; built impressive works; amassed wealth in the form of slaves, flocks and precious metals; listened to beautiful music; and brought many mistresses into his harem. Moreover, he “laid hold on folly” (v. 3) more impressively than prior kings did (v. 9).
What the teacher hoped would please him was to leave a legacy of buildings, vineyards, gardens and parks in Jerusalem; to subdue nature by planting fruit trees and by redirecting runoff and springs to irrigate his man-made forests; to treat human beings like livestock; and to indulge his desires.
Pleasure and possessions may feel like rewards for our work, but they are rewards that don’t last. (9–11)
The teacher succeeded in doing three things. First, he found pleasure. Second, he outdid his predecessors. Third, he says he retained wisdom. He suggests that he was able to avoid being mastered by his desires and to reach a valid conclusion about their value.
Surely the language in verses 10 through 11 is ironic. The teacher claims, “My heart found pleasure in all my toil,” but other people toiled at his command. He says, “Then I considered all that my hands had done,” but it was others’ hands that blistered and grew callused by doing what pleased him.
In any case the teacher did find pleasure in these things, but he suggests that pleasure was not enough in the end. “And this was my reward for all my toil,” he says. The pleasure he enjoyed “was mere breath and herding wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun” (v. 11).
Having made a test of pleasure, next he will consider wisdom itself. That is for next week. Today we ask whether we are capable of learning from the teacher: can we accept his conclusion that pleasure, as its own reward, has no lasting value? We can indeed with God’s help.
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