Holiday Fun
All things are wearisome; Man is not able to tell it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing. Ecclesiastes 1:8 NASB
To tell it – Enjoying the season? Eating too much? Taking a break from the rat-race of work? Ah, just in time to follow the observations of Koheleth once more. Now he turns his attention to one of humanity’s greatest achievements: words.
The opening thought does not restrict futile exhaustion (yegeim) to particular tasks. In fact, Koheleth uses the term devarim, translated “things,” which means both “things” and “words.” His point is that it isn’t only tasks that exhaust us. It is also the plethora of speech, the continuous stream of verbalizations that generate no conclusions. Haven’t we had enough talk? Aren’t you just sick of all the pontificating, arguing, opining, explaining? Michael Fox notes, “In the light of the next sentence, it is better to translate ‘All words are weary.’”[1] The gift that separates human beings from the rest of creation—language—is also the most tedious of all presents. According to Koheleth, the universe without speech might just manage to squeak by, but human beings obscure even the simplest of nature’s wonders with their endless prattle. Here our exegesis must notice that debar is used for both words and things, both the speech of the mouth and the speaker. It is probably significant that one of the derivations of dabar is midbar, the word for “wilderness.” There is something about human speech that makes life uninhabitable. TWOT notes, “Hebrew also has a root dbb attested in the noun dibbâ ‘whispering, slander.’”[2] Koheleth would nod in agreement.
This observation allows us to properly understand the next two sentences. Koheleth is not saying that no man can distinguish what is happening (“tell” in the sense of “recognize”). Rather, he is saying that no man can express just how exhausting all these words really are. That would take more words, and continue the endless verbal diarrhea. The grammar does not contain a direct object for ledabber. Therefore, the addition of “it” in the translation is unwarranted. Fox suggests that the better translation is the simple, “Man is unable to speak.” He points out that the reaction is emotional, not investigative. The effort to understand and articulate is just too overwhelming, too complex and twisted. The hard facts of life on earth boil down to this: everything wears us out.
We probably wish we could deny this, but if we are truly honest about our time here, we must admit that it is typically consumed with routine trivia. Insight is rare, awe is unusual and wonder seems to be relegated to special effects in movie fantasies. Even our relationships tend to be swallowed up in petty disagreements, disappointments and dysfunctional behaviors. Koheleth is a student of the obvious but discouraging. He forces us to re-evaluate. Is that a bad thing? It might seem so. After all, his analysis, if true, is almost nihilistic. But perhaps this is precisely the process needed in order to recognize just how much YHVH desires to bring us peace and meaning. Left to ourselves, does life really make any sense? Do things really matter? Koheleth’s contribution is a whack on the side of the head, a kick in the ass. Wake up! Realize what you are really dealing with here. Perhaps you will find that without God’s grace there is little purpose to living. If you want to have meaning in your life, you will need to attach yourself to something much bigger than you.
Topical Index: words, devarim, exhaustion, yegeim, Ecclesiastes 1:8, Michael Fox
[1] Michael Fox, The JPS Bible Commentary: Ecclesiastes, p. 6.
[2] Kalland, E. S. (1999). 399 דָּבַר. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (178–179). Chicago: Moody Press.
I have decided that everything that wears us out is a function of a curse. The curses are heavy, for they are designed to put the brakes on our lemming-like rush for the closest cliff. It’s not supposed to be pleasant to be thwarted! But we also do not have to put up with it. In fact, we are told over and over to stop and do whatever is necessary to get rid of the cause. (Repentance, anybody?)
I had the privilege of going to a coastal marsh last week with my oldest son ( we go every year to collect sea water). We had camped on the edge of that marsh for a year when the kids were young, and they had all fallen in love with it, particularly this kid. He spent some quality time that day picking up discarded snail shells from under the cedar trees on a small hammock (he loves snails and limpets). When I asked him why he was doing it, he replied that he thought it was unusual for the snail shells to be there, as they are VERY heavy, and do not float at all. The snails stay only in the marsh grass and swim in and out with the tidal flow brought by the river, but there they were, under the cedar trees. He was excited to find them, and proceeded to tell me that the snails can get infected by a parasite living in their brains that hijacks their instincts to stay only in the grass and causes them to leave the grass and to climb the tallest thing they can find, for there, up high in the air, they can be noticed by tree birds and their eye stalks or heads pecked off, thus infecting the bird as a vector of the protozoan.
Parasites are much more sophisticated than we realize (maybe we don’t want to know), and they all have living arrangements with the life around them. We have many hundreds of varieties that live in us, too, believe it or not. From the highly specialized mites that dwell only at the bases of human eyelashes (relatively benign), to the digestive ones in our guts that hijack our tastes to exactly what THEY prefer to dine on, to the heartworms that can live in our lungs and cause masses that show up and get diagnosed sometimes as ‘benign tumors’ that can be successfully removed (yes, it can be worms, and no, you are not likely to be told that’s what it was), we are hosts to an entire ecosystem. Parasites don’t want to kill their host, typically (and don’t, unless our immune system just crashes), but the immune is designed to keep them in check, which is a good reason to support the immune and quit doing things that belabor it, like eating free sugars, which only takes a teaspoon to acidify the body and plunge the immune as much as fifty percent for as long as six hours, and which lots of species of parasites just adore.
Why this dissertation on the underbelly of life? I think we can be infected by spiritual parasites as well. Our spirits were made to cohabit with other spirits. Try being around a spiritually dominating or oppressive person and you can feel your spiritual immune system take a dive. Some people just aren’t safe to be around, but some people are like green trees that provide shelter to all who inhabit their force field, too (had to get that in there). Of course, our design is to seamlessly connect with the Holy Spirit and follow His directions, but we can also be infected with unholy spirits, such as the spirit of fear that 2Tim. 1:7 talks about, too. We are VERY permeable on all levels; susceptible in the highest degree to connection on the mental, spiritual and biological level with all we are around. (This is a necessary design if we are to be able to communicate with, influence and actually direct all the rest of creation.) Not for nothing are we told this in many ways. Even our eyes can be a vector point, for we can literally BECOME what we are looking at! Time to pause. Perhaps its time to clean house! Deliverance, on our end, consists of identifying what does not belong in our mobile homes and reasserting our God-given authority, through His power. After all, parasites only creep in when the defenses are low. Perhaps we could take a better look at those rationalizations that tell us we are able to stay pure while living in Sodom. Maybe, just maybe, that is not so true. If you are experiencing oppression, perhaps it may be time to clean your mobile home AND your yard. Whatsoever is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, good report, with any virtue or praise may be better things to be hanging out with!
Cliff Notes: I think we are highly susceptible to foreign hijackers of the spirit, mind and body. From spiritually oppressive people who can persuade us to be dominated by them, to mental influences that bend and pollute our will, to parasitical spiritual forces that can actually derail us entirely and even subsume our identities and personalities (know anybody who is fearful in ALL their reactions to life?) we are highly susceptible to experience as well as what is around us. We are designed this way. In a perfect world, it would likewise be effortless for us to connect on all levels with all around us, but it would be GREAT because all around us would be great and all our experiences would be great, too! Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth, we have some housecleaning to do. As we are very susceptible to influences by design, we need to make sure our bodies, minds and spirits are only getting the good stuff, and if not, to make sure our defenses for that spiritual warfare are up. Choices.
interesting thoughts, I often wonder about the nature of the human psyche or condition as it were in a world gone awry, are we displaced from our original status, and does this reflect in our confusions and difficulties. I think so, a lot of the law and Hebrew thought is basically expressed in a noticeably proscriptive format, in what we should not be doing. It seems this is an occupy until all matters are resolved approach, and everything else is a matter of learning and continuing to develop in this time and place
Indeed as you give a variety of examples of how this can occur we are easily disposed to becoming extremely conflicted, and the more sensitive someone is then the more likely they are probably going to end of confused and in serious disarray. Which is definitely not homeostasis of the heart and mind, as a whole we are in a perplexing place. This is why I think the teachings which Jesus explained are very much about not judging the individual (even as we properly distinguish between good and harmful), learning to be caring, kind and understanding. These values are at least somewhat self-evident but I also think as much as we take these ideas into our heart we also learn more about God’s will, we begin to comprehend more clearly the majesty of God’s will (Psalm 18:25, Psalm 25:8 – 9)
this is not necessarily a source of physical protection, we can find ourselves in incredibly violent, terrible, and upsetting situations, as with many confusing challenges, but we can derive a certain strength from the absolute truth of God’s will, God is good, the world may be terrible and overrun with confusions, and we may even find ourselves beset, but if we have faith we can believe, even if our world is completely shattered, once we have that faith we have trust, although that trust extends beyond the justice and temporarilities of this time and these situations
I agree that may not sound like the most reassuring of ideas, but it is important to develop faith that endures above the challenges life can pose even especially to believers, I don’t want to pretend the world has been overwhelming to me, but that we are to try and learn to have this faith, for our everyday lives and their circumstances, and even as it were for a time of final tribulation that may try many people’s faiths (Revelation 12:11)
Choices. Life is filled with em. Wish I always made the right ones but I even benefit from making wrong ones if I am listening.
Laurita–I love your story of the coastal marsh! I enjoy experiencing God’s creation where ever I go. I live in rural Missouri and last night, I had to stop and enjoy the view of God’s stars up in the sky. They are so bright out here and it was so clear. Beautiful!
I love the movie, The Last Samurai. In it there is this quote-“too many minds.” Thinking about too many things instead of focusing on the task at hand is the idea here. It is distracting and causes one to be sidetracked or in the case of the movie-beaten by your opponent.
Learning to hold your words. Difficult lesson but doable. We can all benefit by less words and more listening with all that is within us!
“Mind the sword, mind the people watch, mind the enemy, too many mind… [long pause] No mind.”
“…mind the comparisons, mind the self-doubt, mind the undesired behavior, too many mind…
… No mind.”
only then can the Spirit move in and through me
Obviously another Last Samurai watcher!! Yes, exactly the quote I was referencing.
In the world but not OF the world. Hmmmm
Strip everything down —-
and we’re left with:
good and evil.
We’re given two ways to deal with this reality:
1.) God’s
2.) Our own
Hint: This is not a coin tossing event.
Concise use of language — both in speech and writing — requires careful editing of our ideas and words and then the ruthless cutting of the excess. It’s interesting that Rashi, Maimonides, and Chief Rabbi Jonathon Sacks are all known for the conciseness of their commentaries. I would rather consider a single well-thought-out idea than wade through an explosion of words that barely support a single point. Indeed, it is the “plethora of speech” which exhausts us. Perhaps it is time to consider that the distillation of our words is also a spiritual exercise.
Great idea. I am often challenged to communicate something valuable to the reader in the space of one page. Sometimes I succeed, I hope.
Most of the time. 😉 Often in less space than that.
You definitely succeed — and when you are longer, it is always worth the read!