“There is nothing
better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy
goodness in his labor. This also I saw, that it [goodness as our labor] is from
the hand of God. For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?” (2:24-25)
We
have said often that the man who understood the Torah the best is King David,
and the proof of that is his book of Psalms from which his heir also learned
part of his great wisdom. The psalmist recalls frequently that God’s creation
came from His eternal loving kindness, and from this we realize that the latter
is the cause and purpose of all that exists. Hence goodness is for which we
labor in this world to also be our food and drink that make us enjoy life, for
goodness comes from the Creator.
The
last part of the second verse should not be understood as an arrogant statement
by King Solomon. We must understand every statement in the Hebrew Bible in the
context where is mentioned. He is telling us that because of his full awareness
of the goodness coming out of God, he is the one who enjoys it the most as his
food and drink. The more we are aware of God’s love in all His creations, the
more we delight in His love.
“For to a man who is
good before Him, He has given wisdom, and knowledge, and joy; and to a sinner
He has given travail, to gather and to heap up, to give to the one who is good
before God. Even this is vanity and vexation of spirit.” (2:26)
Again
we are reminded that wisdom, knowledge and joy are inherent in goodness, and
also are its rewards. From this we learn that goodness doesn’t exist without
wisdom and knowledge as its ethical frames in which we find joy.
“For the Lord gives
wisdom, from His mouth knowledge and understanding.”
(Proverbs
(2:6)
The “sinner”
is one who pursues ego’s fantasies and illusions for which he toils and wastes
his life gathering and piling up material possessions that eventually will end
up in the hands of those who God sees proper give. Solomon repeatedly insists
that the travails of fantasies and illusions are vanity and a vexation to the
spirit that sustains life. We can also understand the “sinners” as the negative
traits and trends that will end up serving the purpose of goodness as God
promised for the Messianic age.
“To everything [there
is] a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens. A time to be born
and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is
planted.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
We
know that life is a learning process since we are born, and we are destined to
go through stages that enable us to ascend in understanding, awareness,
knowledge and wisdom which lead us by and for goodness in life as our “every
purpose under the heavens” in the material world.
In regards to the last part
of this verse, it refers to planting goodness in order to harvest goodness, for
we already know that whatever we reap what we sow.
“A time to slay and a
time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up.”
(3:2-3)
We must not take “to slay” literally, for the context
of the phrase is to counter balance or correct a negative action. Hence
“slaying” refers to the damage we may cause physically, mentally or emotionally
on us or onto others, and the next phrase has the same meaning and message.
As we mentioned before, life is a learning process
that God wants us to experience as much as we can in order to assimilate goodness
in contrast to wickedness. This may be a painful process because the endure suffering
as a result of living with a negative and destructive approach to life out of
ego’s materialistic fantasies and illusions.
The Creator also wants us learn
not only from goodness but also from the negative choices He presents before us
in order to choose always goodness in all its forms, ways and expressions.
“Come,
let us return to the Lord, for He has torn us but He has healed us. He has
wounded us but He has bandaged us.” (Hosea 6:1)
“Return,
O faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness. Behold, we come to You, for
You are the Lord our God.” (Jeremiah 3:22)
We can understand this also as a refining and
strengthening journey toward appreciating the expanding qualities of goodness
in human consciousness that God will reveal for us in the Messianic times.
“He
will revive us after two days, [and] He will raise us up on the third day, that
we may live before Him.” (Hosea 6:2)
The prophet Hosea reminds us that after the
destruction of the second Temple of Jerusalem (“one day” for each Temple), God
will appear to us in the Third and eternal Temple for us to live (dwell) before
Him forever. In those Messianic times we will live only to know abundantly our
Creator “as the waters cover the bed of the oceans”.
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