EnJOYing the Process

Ecclesiastes is a depressing book. In chapter one we learn that life is full of meaningless monotony and then you die. In chapter two we learn that no amount of pleasure or wisdom will change this unhappy business.

But then we get to Ecclesiastes 2:24-26. There is something very different about this paragraph. In fact, there is a word used in this paragraph that has not been used yet in the book of Ecclesiastes. This one little word buoys us back to the surface and thrusts our head out of the water, allowing us to fill our lungs with air again.

It is the word joy! To the one who pleases Him, God has given…joy (v.26). Here is the first real hint of meaningful gladness.

We might have wondered if this “good news” was ever coming based on what the Preacher has said in the previous sections. This is what we’ve been looking for: the prospect of joy.

And it is no coincidence that there is another major difference between this paragraph and what we’ve studied so far in Ecclesiastes, namely, attention on God. The only allusion to God so far was in 1:13, not as the answer to mankind’s problems but as the Organizer of them. Everything else has been dominated by qualifying phrases like “under the sun” rather than living “before God.” In this paragraph, however, the sovereign, joy giving God dominates the landscape.

In everything else the Preacher pursued so far, at best he found temporary joy or relative happiness. Wisdom is better than folly, but then you die. The best pleasures that this world has to offer are still empty. But here Solomon points to the possibility of genuine joy.

We must look at life through the lens of this paragraph if we want joy. The Preacher will sing this refrain throughout the book (not as much as vanity of vanities, all is vanity, but a refrain nonetheless) and must learn to sing along. We need to master the not-so-secret to life — enjoying the process as a gift of God.