A lot of people, even a number of Christians, try to find satisfaction in life through the things they do or own: work, partying, sex, money, houses, cars, pets, a spouse, kids, etc. Last week, I wrote about Solomon’s experience trying all of these things to achieve that satisfaction and realizing exactly how unfulfilling they are.
The way Solomon makes it sound in Ecclesiastes is as if living life and achieving things here have no meaning, then, but that’s not the case either. At the end of my last article on Ecclesiastes, I left you with this:
See, as Christians, we can have happiness in the things we do here because we have the joy of Christ in knowing that, once we’re done here, there is everlasting joy to look forward to. We can enjoy the things of this world because we are already satisfied by Christ. We will never be satisfied by the things of this world, but we can have a little fun doing the things that are not sinful. There’s nothing wrong with pursuing some of these empty things if you’re already full.
Solomon tackled the why behind this in verses 13-17, but specifically, I want to point your attention to verse 14. “The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness.”
See, we’re all, prior to Christ, walking around on the road of life. None of us know where we’re going or how to get there. It’s like we’re stumbling around, trying to feel the road with our feet, or grasping for a guardrail that lays alongside it. That’s the fool walking in darkness. The worst part: the fool even has the ability to see. The fool has eyes, but either does not know how to open them or willfully refuses to do so.
The wise, on the other hand, have had our eyes opened by God. We see clearly the road that lies ahead of us and know exactly where to put our feet. We have no need to feel the road with our feet or grab onto the guide rope or a guardrail to go in the right direction. God is above us shining brightly on the entire road so that we can always see to follow it.
But the rest of verse 14 says that the same thing happens to us all: “Yet I also knew that one fate comes to them both.” But at the end of it all, whether you can see the road you travel or not, every person will eventually come to the end of their life on this Earth and find an eternal existence. There is an end to the road of life.
Think of it this way: the road of life isn’t a very nice road. There are portions of the path that are overgrown with vines and trees and thorned plants. Some parts have giant holes with a thin beam of wood stretching across it. Some portions of the road are guarded by wild animals. But just as much as it has bad parts, the road has good parts, too.
At one section of the road, there’s a quaint restaurant giving away refreshing drinks and food. At another, the road changes from hard asphalt to a nice, soft grass so you can take your shoes off and walk barefooted. At one point, you even get to take a ride in an air conditioned limousine. And if you make it to the end? You walk off the edge and fall to your death. But afterwards, you are resurrected to live eternally with God.
But some people walk along this road and, because they cannot see, they stumble into the nasty traps laid out on it. Some may get past a few obstacles, but if their eyes remain closed, they will eventually succumb to one of the traps and die. Instead of finding eternal life in Heaven, they are condemned to an eternal existence of suffering in Hell.
But all of that isn’t the real point of this section of Ecclesiastes. The real point is made to those of us who had our eyes opened to see the road. Some of us who are blessed with wisdom take it far too seriously.
When we come to the restaurant handing out drinks and food, we walk by it without partaking because we’re suspicious it’s poisoned. When we reach the soft, grassy section, we keep our shoes on and step gingerly, afraid of potential spikes hiding in the soft grass that could pierce our feet. When we get to the limousine, we ignore the chauffeur telling us to get in out of fear that it would turn off the road into disaster.
When I say we take it too seriously, I mean it. There are some believers out there who don’t allow themselves to have fun with anything, and that’s just not it. Yes, our absolute, primary goal is to turn people to Christ, but what good is it to walk this life on Earth just to die without enjoying some of the pleasures that God has put here for us to experience?
Solomon realized that, as he says in verses 15-16. “So I said to myself, ‘What happens to the fool will also happen to me. Why then have I been overly wise?’ And I said to myself that this is also futile. For, just like the fool, there is no lasting remembrance of the wise man, since in the days to come both will be forgotten. How is it that the wise man dies just like the fool?”
See, there’s no special reward for ignoring the restaurant, the grass, and the limousine. You don’t get an extra commendation from God because you forsake the pleasures He provided for us on the path we walk. Not everything that exists on this Earth is a lie from the pit of Hell meant to distract you from Christ. You can build up some things on this Earth without it being sinful.
The important thing about each of these enjoyable parts of the road of life is the perspective of the one experiencing them. For the believer, we know that it is just a blessing on the road to our final destination: Heaven. We know that there’s no point in putting our stock in those enjoyable activities. We partake and continue on, preparing for our eternal life.
Wisdom, sight, is valuable not because it is the be all end all but because it can give you perspective for each situation. It allows you to determine that the pits and thorns are surpassable. It shows you that the restaurant, soft grass, and the limousine are not the end of the line.
Foolishness, blindness, however, blocks the perspective of those who come across the obstacles and pleasant experiences on the road. While a believer might eat a meal at the restaurant and move on, the nonbeliever will sit at the restaurant for days, stuffing himself with food believing that the death that comes from overeating is the fulfillment of the road.
Whereas she with sight might see the grass and feel the softness of it on her feet until she crosses to the next section of the road, she who is blind might frolic in the grass until she dies of starvation thinking that the ultimate joy of life is to experience the softness of it on her feet.
While the wise man might ride in the limousine to the stop, exit, and thank the driver for the ride, he who is foolish might ride in the air-conditioned limousine long after he was supposed to get out, reveling in the coolness of the air and the comfort of the leather seat until it careens off the edge and takes him to his death.
And that’s what Solomon is saying in verse 13, “And I realized that there is an advantage to wisdom over folly, like the advantage of light over darkness.”
See, on the road of life, we all get to experience some hardship and some happiness. The advantage believers have is that we know that neither the hardships nor the happiness are the end of the line, but that the end of the road is us being smothered in absolute, never-ending joy as we experience an eternity of worshiping Christ.