Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Ecclesiastes 2:24-26
His Preliminary Conclusion (Ecclesiastes 2:24).
‘There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good as a result of (in) his efforts. I also saw this, that it is from the hand of God. For who can eat and who can have enjoyment more than I? For to the man who pleases him (literally ‘is good before him') God gives wisdom, knowledge and joy, but to the blameworthy one he gives constant struggle, to gather and to heap up, so that he may give to the one who pleases God.'
This partial conclusion, which he acknowledges is not fully satisfactory, brings God into the equation as a solution for the first time. Indeed it is noteworthy that up to this point he has ignored God so that his only previous mention of God has been in terms of what God ‘had given to man to be busy with' (Ecclesiastes 1:13). Now he recognises that that is the problem. That man is so busy with the things that God has ‘given to men to be busy with' that he has no time for God Himself. He has noticed that it is far better for a man to relax, and eat and drink, and work in order to enable him to enjoy ‘good things' in life from the hand of God (that is, wisdom, knowledge and joy which cause him to please God), than it is for him to struggle to excess but fail to enjoy what God wants to give him. This was where the Preacher recognised that he himself had failed. After all no one had been able to eat and have enjoyment more than he had. And yet he had not found contentment in it because he had been too occupied with his thoughts to be open to receive the blessings of God. It is this benefit of open-heartedness towards Him that he concludes is what God supremely offers to a man. Thus he, as it were, envies the man who has not had to struggle within himself as he has done. He sees that such a life, which is lived by quiet faith open to God for His blessings, is from the hand of God. (Compare ‘Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness' - Genesis 15:6). And the consequence is that such a man ‘pleases God', and continues quietly to learn from Him. A man like that is not too busy to receive God's wisdom, knowledge and joy. This is the ‘good' that he receives, and it is by not being so taken up with the stress of life that he has time for God. (It is in contrast with the wisdom, knowledge and pleasure that the king has sought - Ecclesiastes 1:12; Ecclesiastes 1:16; Ecclesiastes 2:1).
And a further consequence of this life of quiet trust is that he also benefits from the labours of others who are too busy to have any time for God. Such people are to be seen as blameworthy because they live to themselves and not to please God, and in the end their efforts, aimed at pleasing themselves, will not benefit themselves, but will rather benefit those who please God.
So he concludes that it is by pleasing God in this way that man reveals true wisdom, knowledge and joy, and not by his struggles to attain the unattainable. It is indeed in contrast with the one who exerts himself with great effort to gather possessions or knowledge of all kinds, but who thrusts God to one side, only to discover that what he does simply benefits these very ones who are pleasing God. There is a remarkable similarity between the Preacher's ideas here and the words of Jesus Christ Himself when He also warned His disciples against being so anxious about obtaining the things of this life that we fail to trust God (Matthew 6:25). Rather men were to receive from God's hand what He gave and were to look for the blessing that is from above by ‘seeking first the Kingly Rule of God and His righteousness' (Matthew 6:33). Then ‘all these things will be added to them'. A similar idea is in mind here.
So the idea of ‘pleasing God' here is on the basis of living a normal life before Him, without self-seeking but which is the result of an unstressed heart which is open to receive God's wisdom, knowledge and joy, and seeks to please Him, while exerting sufficient honest effort into his toil to make it possible. To such a man, he says, God gives such wisdom, knowledge and joy, that is to say, the equivalent of what the writer had been looking for in all his exertions but had failed to find (Ecclesiastes 1:16; Ecclesiastes 2:1). The writer has observed this in practise, and acknowledges it to be so.
The wisdom, knowledge and joy given to the man with an open heart towards God is not, of course, the in-depth wisdom and knowledge that the writer had sought. They are the general wisdom and knowledge of a life sensibly lived before God, which experiences God without overexertion and is not overtaken with other things. But most importantly such wisdom and knowledge are accompanied by joy (something which is later very much stressed - Ecclesiastes 8:15; Ecclesiastes 9:7). His view may be seen as rather idealistic. He has probably only noticed those who were reasonably well-to-do, not those whose lives were lives of constant and excessive toil and struggle, with no means of enjoying life, who would not come to the attention of a king, although even such people can find joy in God. That is why the Psalmists indicated that it was the poor and needy who were most aware of God.
Such a man's life is not complicated, it is lived before God. And he also receives benefit (a result of fallout) which results from the labours of those who are self-seeking and strenuously exert themselves to become rich or knowledgeable, who provide work and trade and other benefits for godly people, which they gladly accept. Note that these self-seeking would-be rich people are, in contrast, not pleasing God. In His eyes they are blameworthy. Their exertions have thrust God out of their lives and have caused them to behave in non-ethical ways. Interestingly the ideas expressed have some affinity with Egyptian Wisdom teaching.
‘This also is vanity and a striving after wind.'
This insight into the life of the godly man is seen as revealing. It shows that the Preacher has recognised that the one who puts God first (and receives wisdom, knowledge and joy) is more content than the one who struggles for pleasure, enjoyment and deep wisdom. But he recognises at the same time that there is still something missing in his definition. He acknowledges that he has not yet reached a fully satisfactory conclusion. For in a sense this also is vanity and a striving after wind, because it still leaves such a life without an ultimate purpose. It is still in its own way meaningless and empty. In a way this godly man, as he sees him here, is also falling short. His life is not achieving something sufficiently positive. And so he feels that his search must continue.
Alternately ‘this also is vanity and a striving after wind' might be seen as applying only to the last phrase in the verse ‘but to the blameworthy one he gives constant struggle, to gather and to heap up, so that he may give to the one who pleases God'. The impression give, however is that it is a summary statement, summing up all that has been said.