Vain pleasure
[Ecclesiastes 2:1-11]
What is hedonism? In the Internet Wikipedia, it defines as follow: “Hedonism is a school of thought that argues that the pursuit of pleasure and intrinsic goods are the primary or most important goals of human life.” In the end, hedonism is based on the belief that pleasure is an essential good and pain is evil. It is a form of happiness that claims that promoting happiness is good (Internet). The goal of life pursued by hedonism is happiness and happiness is achieved by pursuing pleasure. I personally think of “Epicureanism” when I think about hedonism. Epicureanism is “an ancient school of philosophy founded in Athens by Epicurus. “Epicurus believed that what he called "pleasure" (ἡδονή) was the greatest good, but that the way to attain such pleasure was to live modestly, to gain knowledge of the workings of the world, and to limit one's desires. This would lead one to attain a state of tranquility (ataraxia) and freedom from fear as well as an absence of bodily pain (aponia). The combination of these two states constitutes happiness in its highest form” (Internet). “The school rejected determinism and advocated hedonism (pleasure as the highest good), but of a restrained kind: mental pleasure was regarded more highly than physical, and the ultimate pleasure was held to be freedom from anxiety and mental pain, especially that arising from needless fear of death and of the gods” (Internet). In addition to this school, there was another school that represented the ancient Greek hedonism. The school is called the "the Cyrenaic School". This was a sensual hedonist Greek school of philosophy founded in the 4th century BCE, supposedly by Aristippus of Cyrene, a friend of Socrates (Internet). Aristippus was influenced by Socrates and emphasized the principle of happiness that a virtuous man should pursue. According to his assertion, virtue is the ability to get pleasure, and this joy is obtained by satisfaction of pleasure. Pleasure is the only good and the greatest good. The thinkers of the Cyrenaic School emphasized the sensual and physical pleasures of the moment because the future is beyond our capabilities. According to Aristippus, the wise man, the philosopher possesses the ability to enjoy the present, and thus does not become a slave of pleasure, but a master of pleasure. Therefore, the ideology of hedonism is to pursue physical desire, but to control the pleasure with wisdom (Internet).
When we look at the passage Ecclesiastes 2:1, we see the Teacher King Solomon testes himself with pleasure to find out what is good. Look at verse 1: “I thought in my heart, ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.’ ….” Here, “I will test you with pleasure” means King Solomon would test himself with pleasure. So he tried to see what can make him enjoy the pleasure. There are three things that he tried to enjoy the pleasure in today’s passage. Today I want to meditate on those three things and pray that God will give us grace so that we may live wisely in this vain world.
First, King Solomon tried to test himself with “wine”.
Look at Ecclesiastes 2:3 – “I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly--my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.” The first thing that King Solomon tried to cheer himself was with wine. He tried to make his body cheerful with wine. So as he drank wine, he controlled his mind with wisdom. Like what the Cyrenaic School emphasized, King Solomon enjoyed drinking wine but not becoming a slave of wine but a master of wine. In other words, he tried to delight himself with wine while dominating the pleasures of wine with his wisdom, as the claims of the Cyrenai School. But what was his conclusion? It was “embracing folly” (v. 3). In a word, King Solomon's conclusion was ‘It is foolish to try to enjoy pleasure by drunkenness.’
What is the pleasure of alcoholism? Why do people drink until they are drunk? I saw an article on the internet and this is what it says regrading why people drink from Monday to Sunday (Internet): 'Monday is - the day of drinking; Tuesday - a hot day to drink; Wednesday – a day to drink from time to time; Thursdays - the day of drinking with a long neck; Friday - the day of drinking soon and drinking again; Saturdays - a day of drinking until you vomit; Sunday - the day of drinking until you cannot get up. The same internet article mentions about following as well: ‘A cup is said to drink for health. If it is hot, you drink for pleasure. And if it gets drunk, there will be indulgent behavior and madness (Internet). One of the reasons for drinking is that it feels good. Why do people feel better when they drink alcohol? The reason is that when you drink a little alcohol, the central and peripheral nerves are initially excited, the secretion of the stomach is promoted, and the neurotransmitter called dopamine is secreted. However, alcohol overuse or long-term abuse can lead to brain cell destruction, which, unfortunately, inhibits brain function. If not, normally 100,000 brain cells die automatically every day. Drinking a lot of alcohol causes more brain cells to die. Both academic and memory or thinking abilities decline and their decline is directly proportional to the concentration of alcohol. When you drink alcohol too much, you cannot remember what you said and what you did. This is called ‘film break’ phenomenon. Another man says he drinks because these reasons: ‘I drink when I have good things. I drink when I have bad things. I drink when I have something to celebrate. I drink to get acquainted. I drink to confess. I drink in order to forget a person whom I missed. I drink alcohol when I am upset. I drink when I want to see someone. I drink when my heart is depressed and when it rains. I drink when I am tired of exhaustion. I drink for unity. I drink because of curiosity. I drink drink when I am lonely’ (Internet).
In my case when I look back in the years of my puberty, the reason why I drank was because of curiosity. I drank with my friends and even vomited because of too much drinks. Then, in the first year of college, I was called by the Lord during the church college retreats. And I repented my sins and lost interest in drinking. However, I often stayed at the drink places with my friends. In those times, I thought about what is beneficial for drinking. I even remembered two of my friends who were shot and killed at the drinking places. I still remember the memories at the funeral of my friends. There is nothing beneficial to alcohol. Liquor is useless.
This is what Ephesians 5:18 – “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.” In Genesis chapter 9, Noah was blessed by God after the flood (v. 1) so he proceeded to plant a vineyard (v. 20). One day he drank some of its wine and became drunk. And he lay uncovered inside his tent (v. 21). Although Noah was “a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God” (6:9) he was drunken and naked. When I think about this Noah, Matthew 24:37-39 came into my mind: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” I think this era is a time when we can not understand the crisis of destruction while eating and drinking like the days of Noah. I think people seem to be absorbed in many kinds of pleasures. It seems that they are preoccupied with wealth, absorbed in sexual pleasure, and addicted to so many things of this vain world. Among those, I think alcohol addiction is serious. About drunkenness, King Solomon says ‘Drunkenness is talking folly.’
Second, King Solomon tried to test himself with “great projects”.
Look at Ecclesiastes 2:4 – “I undertook great projects: ….” In order to know what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives (v. 3) King Solomon tested himself with “great projects” (v. 4). Here, the great projects that he tried without relying on God was to build houses for himself, to plant vineyards (v. 4), to make gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them (v. 5) and to make reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees (v. 6). And in order to manage all these houses, the vineyards, the gardens and parks and so, King Solomon bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in his house (v. 7). Why did he make such great projects? What was the reason? Of course, there was reason to try to enjoy pleasure, but in the end it was 'wealth'. Look at v. 7b – 8a: “… I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. ….” King Solomon sought this kind of glory for his own personal life. He was corrupted in such a time of peace (1 Chron. 22:9) (Park Yun-sun).
We can pursue a luxurious life when we are as peaceful as King Solomon. And luxurious life eventually destroys the personality (Park Yun-sun). What is luxury? Luxury means spending more money than you need or excessive lifestyle (Internet). I saw an article on the internet OhmyNews titled "Why are you enthusiastic about luxury?" (Internet). In that article, a person named Kim Nan-do said there are four types of people who buy luxury goods: Show off, Jealousy, Fantasy and Sympathetic.
- Show off luxury is the rich people buy luxury goods because they are conscious of their class characteristics. They are afraid that they are like others. They are the owners of wealth in capitalist society who think of themselves as special. So, they have class consciousness as capital. For them, luxury is to show off.
- Jealousy luxury is the fake rich people imitating the real rich. They are desperately trying to avoid being ignored. So do not give up luxury even if you have no capacity.
- Fantasy luxury is a kind of narcissistic people who are afraid of shabby things and are dreaming about transformation. They want to own expensive and popular things. If they do, they believe that they will be like them too. Although I understand such a thing because everyone has a narcissism, but fantasy luxury is very worrisome because it can cause horrific results. It can lead to addiction.
- Sympathetic luxury is a case when you are purchasing to level up to avoid being bullied by your friends or others. For example, all of my friends are dressed in expensive clothes, so I have a feeling that I should wear them too. This is especially true in young people. People rationalized themselves by thinking ‘Since others are buying it, I buy it too’. So they buy luxury even though it is irrational. And they have guilty feelings about this. But the problem is this can continue as an adult.
We must not live beyond our limit. To do so, it is important to know our limitations. I want to share a story about an American immigrant society that is satirized in the world. When people come to the United States, those who go to Los Angeles buy luxury cars first, even if they live in a rented room. Those who go to New York, they buy business first, and people who go to Chicago, they buy house first. This means that New York and Chicago immigrants look out for themselves and know their limit and prepare for the future to live, while Los Angeles immigrants are gorgeous outwardly but poor inwardly. They are externally-minded and conscious of the other person’s eyes first (even though they are not) (Internet). Each of us has our own limitations. We should know our limitations and should not act too much on our limitation. It’s not good to go beyond our limitation. If we go beyond our limitation, we will surely make mistakes. Also it is the cause of misfortune and of disease. Overeating, overdrinking, overworking and overuse all harm our health and make us unhappy. Keeping a limitation means that we are not being excessive. We must be satisfied with our life and know how to stay where we are supposed to stay (Internet). We must watch out for a desire to possess things. Especially those who do business, they should guard their hearts against possessiveness. Ultimately, possessions can never be satisfied. Look at King Solomon. Although he owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before him (v. 7) he wasn’t satisfied with them. So, he amassed silver and gold for himself and treasure of kings and providences (v. 8). We can never satisfy our desire to make all these things our own. The more we possess, the more desire we will be. After all, such possessions are also vain. King Solomon confessed that doing the great projects was “embracing folly” (v. 3).
Third, King Solomon tried to test himself with “many concubines”.
Look at Ecclesiastes 2:8 – “… I provided for myself male and female singers and the pleasures of men--many concubines” (NASB). This is what God said in Deuteronomy 17:17 regarding a king of Israel: “He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.” But King Solomon broke this commandment. Obviously, God commanded the Israelites not only to intermarry with the Gentiles, but also not to let them interfere with the Israelites (1 Kgs. 11: 1-3). God forbids this because the Gentiles would turn the hearts of the Israelites to follow the Gentile gods (v. 2). But King Solomon, the leader of a nation, "loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter" (v. 1). He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines, and his wives led him astray (v. 3). When King Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods (v. 4). Eventually, the problem that King Solomon intended to satisfy the lust of the flesh made him to sin against God, even to the sin of spiritual adultery of worshiping idols. In other words, physical adultery which is done to satisfy the lust of the flesh will eventually bring forth the sinful fruit of spiritual adultery.
Long time ago, I read an internet news ‘Sex with God’s will … a pastor who sexually assaulted a woman in a church’ (Internet). A police has filed for arrest warrants for a rape charge against pastor “A”(46 years old) of “T” religious organization who raped women for more than 10 years. After organizing a “T” religious organization in Dongjak-gu, Seoul Korea, “A” had raped six teenage 20-year-old many times for the past 10 years by telling them that he was doing it according to God’s will and their sins would be washed away if they have sex with him. Although I was little bit relieve by seeing that the “T” organization wasn’t Protestant but Unification church but nevertheless I think this crime of sexual degradation seems to be inevitable reality among us too. When we speak of the lust of the body, we can have ‘sexual desire’ as an example. ‘Sexual desire’ is one of the three needs of human beings along with appetite and sleeping desire (Internet). When a man is captured by sexual desire then he will commit serious crimes such as rape. A typical example of sexual desire explosion is rape. Swapping of an upper class couple without any guilt, a change of life that has even removed the concept of marriage, unbelievable premarital sexual intercourse under the pretext of love, easily get divorce because no more love, phone sex, video chatting sex, instant sexually transmitted images through camera phones or computer cameras, teen sex trafficking through Internet chat, rapid growth of sexual experiences spreading even to elementary school students, not to mention not only middle and high school students, internet or cyber porn that causes addiction to men as well as women! If we see our sex culture becoming more and more exciting, outspoken and anomalous, there seems to be no one who can control sexual desire, and sexuality can also be perceived as a natural phenomenon by instinct, regardless of time, place or object (Internet). Indeed, this is a serious social phenomenon. Nowadays it seems perception that the couples’ having affair is prevalent in the world. Now we live in an era where sexual pleasures are prevalent. We who live in this era must realize how dangerous and foolish King Solomon’s efforts were to satisfy his own physical desire.
In conclusion, what is the message that God is trying to give to us through King Solomon who tested himself with wine, wealth and possessions through his great projects and 1,000 women of wives and concubines in order to know what pleasure is as his heart was controlled by his wisdom? Look at Ecclesiastes 2:1-2: “I said to myself, ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure. So, enjoy yourself.’ And behold, it too was futile. I said of laughter, ‘It is madness,’ and of pleasure, ‘What does it accomplish?’” In other words, King Solomon’s experiential conclusion of enjoying himself in falling into pleasure was ‘This is also vanity’. Why is it vain to pursue pleasure? How did King Solomon know that pleasure was vain? That was because he asked this question: “what does pleasure accomplish?” (v. 2) This was King Solomon’s answer: “Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun” (v. 11). Although he denied himself nothing his eyes desired and refused his heart no pleasure (v. 10) the conclusion through such an experience was “everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun” (v. 11). In conclusion, pleasure is vain and empty.
How should we live? How should we live after listening to the message of King Solomon who concluded that the pleasure he pursued in this vain world actually and experientially was vain and empty? I looked up the answer in Westminster Short Catechism question and answer 1: Q. What is the chief end of man? A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. Enjoying God here means that we should make our God our highest joy (Ps. 43: 4). And living a life that makes our God our highest joy is to keep God’s commands as we fear God (Eccle. 12:13). Therefore, as we remain in Jesus’ love by keeping the Lord's commandments, our joy will be full (Jn. 15: 9-11). This is the joy of obedience. We must seek the joy of obeying the Lord's commandments. The apostle Paul, who enjoyed this joy, obeyed the Lord's command and boldly proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ. And as he wrote the letter to the believers in Philippi, he said “my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown” (Phil. 4:1). I hope and pray that Jesus is our greatest joy, and we will be able to dedicate our lives in obeying the Lord’s command
in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and make His disciples. As a result, they will be more Jesus’ disciples who are our joy and our crown and thus the Lord’s joy can be our joy as well.
- O! Thou, in whose presence my soul takes delight, On whom in affliction I call,
My comfort by day, and my song in the night, My hope, my salvation, my all!
- Dear Shepherd! I hear, and will follow Thy call; I know the sweet sound of
Thy voice; Restore and defend me, for Thou art my all, And in Thee I will ever rejoice.
(O Thou, in whose presence)
My joy, my hope, my life, the Lord who became all these for me, I praise you during the prayer meeting,
James Kim
(Admiring the Lord who has become my greatest joy)