Eccl. 2:20. So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun,
- because sometimes a man who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and industry must leave all to be enjoyed by a man who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.
- What has a man from all the toil and strain with which he toils beneath the sun?
- For all his days are full of pain, and his work is a vexation; even in the night his mind does not rest. This also is vanity.
“I called a halt,” he says, “and refrained from all the anxiety about the business that goes on under the sun.” This is the voice of a wise man, who calls his heart back from anxiety to peace. “I shall be content with present things and shall do what lies at hand. I shall bear what God wills and shall not be anxious about tomorrow” (cf. Matt. 6:34)….
Eccl. 2:24. There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God.
This is the principal conclusion, in fact the point, of the whole book, which he will often repeat. This is a remarkable passage, one that explains everything preceding and following it. This is how it agrees with the preceding: Those pleasures are to be condemned which we by our own counsels seek to achieve for the future, and those labors are to be condemned which we strive to carry out by our own counsels. But those pleasures and labors which God gives are good, and they are to be used for the present without anxiety about either future afflictions or future pleasures. But who is capable of such things? It is rightly said, but what is wisely set forth does not happen. Indeed, hearing we do not hear and seeing we do not see, and no one follows it. We are immersed in striving and anxiety about planning and carrying out our affairs. The heart is averse to plans, and every day it becomes more irritated and restless. Those who are pious refrain from anxiety; the rest of the human race have a restless life until they die. (Luther’s Works, v.15 p.45-47)