Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 Who Can Eat or Who Can Have Enjoyment?

Introduction

The reality King Solomon uncovered does not become less true because we choose not to consider it. Death brings our control over everything we have accumulated to an end. Our work may remain for a time, our name may remain attached to it, and other people may continue to benefit from it, but it is no longer ours. We cannot keep it in our hands after we enter the grave.

That conclusion is sobering when it is considered without the knowledge of Christ. If this present life is the only thing available to us, then death eventually consumes everything for which we have worked. The gospel gives us an answer to what the grave accomplishes. Our time under the sun is not the only reality available to us. Because of Christ, our work can be enjoyed here while our hope remains fixed upon the kingdom to come.

This begins with recognizing that our lives do not belong to us. Humanity was made in the image of God, and the creation in which we live belongs to him. We do not determine the purpose of life, the proper use of creation, or what should be called good. The Creator does. The gospel then opens the door to the greater reality that the kingdom of God will be revealed and that those who believe in Christ will have entrance into it. Joy can be had here, and it will be fully realized there. This hope in Christ’s returning kingdom should govern how we work, obey, grieve, and receive the temporary gifts God places into our hands now.

Obtaining Joy

King Solomon had already made it clear that all toil and work are vanity. This does not mean that work has no purpose or that nothing we do matters. It means that there is ultimately nothing produced by our work that we can permanently keep. When death arrives, everything we have achieved will pass into the hands of another. As enough time passes, even the memory of us will depart.

Solomon then makes a conclusion that may initially sound like a contradiction. He says there is nothing better for a person than to eat, drink, and find enjoyment in his toil. He is not taking back what he said about vanity. Our work still cannot produce anything that death will allow us to keep. Solomon is instead showing us where the good can be found. The good is not found in permanently possessing what our work produces. It is found in receiving the work and its enjoyment as gifts while God gives us the time to do it (Ecclesiastes 2:24–26).

This enjoyment does not originate in us. Solomon says it is from the hand of God. He then asks who can eat or have enjoyment apart from God. Food may be available, work may be successful, and possessions may be abundant, but the ability to receive and enjoy them rightly is still given by God. Humanity cannot produce through gathering and collecting what only the Creator can place into our hands.

God given enjoyment is distinguished from the pursuit of pleasure in several ways. It produces gratitude toward the God who gave the gift. It is enjoyed within obedience to the One who determines what is good. It frees us from demanding that the gift last forever before we allow ourselves to enjoy it. It also directs our hope beyond the present moment because we know that the temporary gift is not our final inheritance.

Solomon repeats this recommendation throughout Ecclesiastes. He concludes that people should be joyful, do good while they live, eat, drink, and take pleasure in their toil because this is God’s gift to humanity (Ecclesiastes 3:12–13). He later says there is nothing better than for a person to rejoice in his work because this is his portion during the life he has been given. That person cannot control what will happen after him or return to see it (Ecclesiastes 3:22).

Solomon also calls it good and fitting to eat, drink, and find enjoyment in the toil God gives us during the few days of our lives under the sun. This is the portion available to us while we are here (Ecclesiastes 5:18). He again commends joy because eating, drinking, and being joyful can accompany a person through the days of toil God has given under the sun (Ecclesiastes 8:15).

Solomon is clear and consistent. The knowledge that our work is temporary should not prevent us from enjoying it. A person may spend years working or invest a lifetime into a particular effort, only to arrive at the end and discover that it cannot be retained. That is a harsh reality. Yet the coming end does not remove the gift God provides in the present. We can enjoy the work while we have it, even though we cannot make it permanent.

This also changes why we work. We do not work to make our name great as though our reputation can survive forever. We do not work to prove that we are superior to everyone else. We do not treat the riches of this world as though they can provide an answer to death. Because we know Christ, we are looking forward to the kingdom God has promised. Death has no controlling power over that kingdom. It will not pass to another, and it will never come to an end.

The earthly result of faithful work does not have to survive forever for the work to possess eternal significance. God remembers and rewards faithfulness. The people who are served through our work possess an eternal value that the things we produce do not possess. Our obedience also matters before God even when the visible result of that obedience eventually disappears. This does not mean our work earns salvation or purchases entrance into the kingdom. It means that death cannot make faithfulness meaningless simply because it removes the earthly product from our hands.

Solomon says God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy to the one who pleases him. Wisdom allows us to see our situation rightly. Knowledge keeps us from blindly treating temporary things as though they were eternal. Joy allows us to receive the good God provides without demanding that it accomplish something it was never intended to accomplish. The best thing available under the sun is not found in what we accumulate. It is found in receiving the work itself and enjoying it while it is being completed.

For Those Who Please God, Not the Desires of the Flesh

Solomon’s recommendation can be misunderstood. Someone may assume that as long as an activity is fun or produces pleasure, it must be good. But enjoyment cannot mean whatever we want it to mean. Solomon wrote with knowledge of the Law of Moses, and his own participation in idolatry brought terrible consequences upon the nation of Israel. His recommendation cannot be separated from the counsel God has given in the Scriptures.

The question is not simply which activities can make us feel good. The text directs our attention to the person who pleases God. The enjoyment Solomon commends belongs within a life that receives wisdom, knowledge, and joy from God. It is not permission to satisfy every desire of the flesh.

The fuller revelation given through Christ helps us understand who pleases God. John teaches that confidence before God is connected to keeping his commandments and doing what pleases him. He then identifies God’s commandment. We are to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he commanded us (1 John 3:21–23).

The one who pleases God believes that Jesus was sent by the Father and that he is the promised Messiah, the Christ. This belief does not stop at agreeing with facts in the mind. Those who believe in Christ are also commanded to love others who belong to him. Our love for them is connected to what God has done for us through the work of salvation.

The order is important. Obedience and love do not create the faith that saves us, and they do not contribute merit toward our salvation. They result from genuine faith, demonstrate that the faith is real, and are produced through the Spirit of God. The believer does not obey in order to make the work of Christ sufficient. The believer obeys because the work of Christ is sufficient and the Spirit is at work within the life that has been saved.

Jesus is the one who perfectly pleased the Father. He declared to the world what he had heard from the Father. He did nothing upon his own authority but spoke as the Father taught him. The Father remained with him because Jesus always did the things that were pleasing to him (John 8:25–29). Jesus did what no sinner has done. He perfectly obeyed the Father and completed the work he was sent to accomplish.

What Solomon did not yet have was the fullness of this mystery. God had a plan and the ability to save sinners from the coming wrath of his judgment. He would give them entrance into a kingdom that will not remain under the curse that has marked this creation. This plan was fulfilled and made known in Jesus of Nazareth.

Through Christ, those who believe receive the inheritance he secured by his own merit. We do not earn entrance into the kingdom through our work. Our confidence rests in the work of Christ. This is why the known end of our present lives does not leave us without hope. Death is not the final state of those who belong to Christ, and the work done because of our knowledge of him is not directed toward a world we expect to keep forever. We desire the kingdom that Christ will bring.

This enjoyment is therefore not rooted in pursuing personal pleasure or defining good and evil in our own eyes. It is rooted in reconciliation with the Creator and the restoration of the communion sin has broken. All humanity bears the image of God, but those who have been transferred into the kingdom of Christ have been reconciled to the One whose image they bear.

Paul makes the contrast clear. Those who live according to the flesh set their minds upon the things of the flesh. Those who live according to the Spirit set their minds upon the things of the Spirit. The mind set upon the flesh is death, but the mind set upon the Spirit is life and peace. The flesh is hostile to God and does not submit to his law. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Romans 8:5–8).

This keeps us from confusing pleasure with what is good. Things that are truly evil can still fulfill a desire of the flesh and produce an overwhelming sense of excitement. Both what is good and what is evil can produce a moment of pleasure. The presence of pleasure does not tell us whether an activity pleases God.

Everything we do must be considered in light of the knowledge of Christ, the certainty of death, the coming judgment, and the proper order of God’s creation. We should invest our lives in the things that agree with the work of the Spirit of God. The Spirit is not involved in acts of evil. We should never conclude that an act is good merely because it gives us pleasure.

The Joyless Work of Sinners

Solomon then turns to the sinner. God gives the sinner the business of gathering and collecting, only for what has been accumulated to be given to someone who pleases God. This is also vanity and a striving after wind (Ecclesiastes 2:26).

The sinner may work, achieve, gather, and collect. The sinner may reach heights that other people call greatness. Yet none of these accomplishments can provide an exemption from the end faced by all humanity. Death still comes. Everything gathered will eventually be transferred into the hands of another person who did not perform the work required to obtain it.

This raises a question that should be considered carefully. What will still be ours the day after we die? Simply put, nothing under the sun will remain in our possession. Something may still be associated with us. Our name may be inscribed upon it. It may help preserve a memory of us for a time. But as the sun continues to rise and set, time will reveal that it is no longer ours.

Some people live as though the height of their work will protect them from what has happened to everyone who came before them. Wealth can create a sense of power, but it cannot purchase another day of life. The psalmist asks why he should fear those who trust in their wealth and boast in their riches. No person can ransom another or give God the price required for a life. The wise die, and the fool and the stupid also perish. They all leave their wealth to others. People may name lands after themselves, but their graves still become their homes. A person in pomp cannot remain (Psalm 49:5–12).

Jesus makes the same reality clear through the account of the rich fool. The man’s land produced plentifully, and his concern was where he could store everything he had accumulated. He decided to tear down his barns, build larger ones, and store his grain and goods. Once the work was completed, he intended to tell his soul that it possessed enough for many years. He believed his possessions had secured his ability to relax, eat, drink, and be merry.

But God called him a fool. His soul was required from him that very night. The question God asked exposed the vanity of all his gathering: Who would then possess the things he had prepared? Jesus says this is the end of the person who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich toward God (Luke 12:15–21).

The rich fool tried to obtain through accumulation what Solomon says comes from the hand of God. He believed full barns gave him the power to enjoy life. But the food, the drink, the work, the possessions, and the next day of life were all under God’s authority. He had gathered and collected, but he could not keep what he gathered or guarantee himself the time required to enjoy it.

It is foolish to believe that accumulating wealth or fulfilling the passions of the flesh can make life worth living. Wealth is not evil in itself, and it can be received and used as a gift from God. But wealth cannot stave off death, ransom a life, or make us complete. The desires of the flesh may provide moments of excitement, but they cannot provide lasting peace or wholeness. They cannot overcome death or produce eternal gain. Their inability to do these things is what makes the sinner’s work ultimately joyless, even when there are moments that feel pleasurable.

There is nothing under the sun that can provide permanent gain. There are many things here that can be enjoyed, but none of them can restore us to God or make us whole. The one made in the image of God needs to be reconciled to the One whose image is being borne. The rest and peace we require cannot be gathered or collected. They must come from God.

The Joy of the Kingdom

The knowledge of Christ keeps Solomon’s conclusion from producing despair. We should not neglect the enjoyment available in what we do now as we seek to please God. Present joy does not require us to pretend that death is absent or that our work will last forever. We can enjoy what God gives while honestly recognizing its temporary place under the sun.

Jesus connects obedience, love, fruit, and joy. The Father is glorified when the disciples of Christ bear fruit. Jesus commands them to abide in his love and keep his commandments, just as he kept his Father’s commandments and abided in his love. He spoke these things so that his joy would be in them and their joy would be full. He then commanded them to love one another as he had loved them (John 15:8–12).

This is not the isolated enjoyment of someone pursuing whatever the flesh desires. It is the joy of Christ found within communion with him, obedience to him, and love for his people. It begins now, even while we remain in a world marked by death. Yet the joy available now points forward to something that will be fully realized when Christ returns.

Jesus describes the welcome given to a faithful servant. The master commends the servant for being faithful over a little, promises to set him over much, and calls him to enter into the joy of his master (Matthew 25:21). The same welcome is repeated to the next faithful servant. He also enters into the joy of his master (Matthew 25:23). Their faithfulness does not purchase their master’s kingdom. It shows that they faithfully used what had been placed into their hands while they waited for his return.

This gives our present work a proper place. We do not have to make it eternal. We do not have to use it to build a name that death cannot erase. We do not have to demand that it give us complete satisfaction. We can be faithful with what God places before us, enjoy the gift while it is present, and look forward to the joy of our Master.

The people of faith described in Hebrews understood that this world was not their final home. They died in faith without receiving the fullness of what had been promised. They saw the promises from a distance and acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles upon the earth. Their confession revealed that they were seeking a homeland. They desired a better country, a heavenly one, and God prepared a city for them (Hebrews 11:13–16).

There are hardships in this life, and some difficulties may never be overcome or properly resolved here. The Christian does not have to deny that pain or pretend there is no reason to grieve. Christian joy is not constant happiness, and the presence of grief does not prove that joy has disappeared. Joy can coexist with real grief because it rests upon the promised kingdom rather than the immediate removal of suffering. We remember that this present world is not our eternal home. We are travelers awaiting the promised kingdom that will come with the return of Christ.

The kingdom will answer the full problem Solomon has placed before us. Those who belong to Christ will not remain in the grave. They will be raised from death. The creation will not remain forever under the curse that now brings pain, frustration, and decay. Christ will rule eternally, and his people will live under his righteous authority. The communion with God that was broken by sin will be permanently restored. Nothing accumulated under the sun can provide these things, but all of them are included in the hope secured by Christ.

Death takes everything we attempt to keep under the sun, but it cannot prevent us from receiving God’s gifts with joy now. It also cannot take away the eternal joy secured for those who belong to Christ. What we have here is temporary, but what awaits us in his kingdom will not pass into the hands of another.

Conclusion

The knowledge of death should not stop us from enjoying our time under the sun. Solomon does not tell us to stop working because our work is vanity. He tells us to recognize what our work can and cannot provide. It cannot produce permanent gain, defeat death, or give us control over what happens after us. Yet the work and the enjoyment found within it can still be received from the hand of God.

The joy that is good and profitable is not found in surrendering ourselves to the desires of the flesh. Pleasure alone cannot tell us what is good. Those who believe in Christ must consider their lives in light of his commands and the work of the Spirit. We enjoy God’s gifts within the order established by the One who gave them.

We must also remember that the reward we ultimately desire is not found in this world. The sinner gathers and collects but cannot keep what has been accumulated. The believer can work faithfully without demanding that this world provide an eternal return. Our hope is fixed upon Christ and the kingdom he has promised.

Joy can be had here because God places good gifts into our hands. Joy will be fully realized there because Christ will welcome his people into a kingdom over which death has no power. The primary response to Solomon’s conclusion is therefore to live in hope of Christ’s returning kingdom. That hope allows us to work without demanding permanence, obey without measuring faithfulness only by visible results, grieve without surrendering to despair, and enjoy what God gives today while waiting to enter into the joy of our Master.

Scripture References

Ecclesiastes 3:12–13: Solomon identifies joy, doing good, eating, drinking, and enjoying our toil as gifts from God during the life he gives.

Ecclesiastes 3:22: A person should rejoice in present work because it is the portion God has given, while what happens afterward remains beyond human control.

Ecclesiastes 5:18: It is good and fitting to enjoy food, drink, and work during the few days God gives us under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 8:15: Solomon commends joy because it can accompany a person through the days of toil God has appointed.

1 John 3:21–23: Pleasing God is connected to believing in Jesus Christ, keeping his commands, and loving one another.

John 8:25–29: Jesus spoke what he received from the Father and always did what was pleasing to him.

Romans 8:5–8: The mind controlled by the flesh cannot please God, while the mind set upon the Spirit is life and peace.

Psalm 49:5–12: Wealth cannot ransom a life from death, and both the wise and foolish eventually leave their possessions to others.

Luke 12:15–21: The rich fool trusted his accumulated possessions to secure future enjoyment, but death exposed that he could not keep what he had gathered.

John 15:8–12: Jesus connects full joy with abiding in his love, obeying his commands, bearing fruit, and loving one another.

Matthew 25:21: The faithful servant is commended by his master and welcomed into his master’s joy.

Matthew 25:23: The repeated welcome shows the promised joy awaiting those who remain faithful with what their master places into their hands.

Hebrews 11:13–16: The people of faith lived as strangers and exiles while seeking the better country and city God had prepared for them.