Ecclesiastes 2: When Pleasures Burst Like Bubbles

Introduction

"How many Netflix series does it take to make you feel happy permanently?" That is the question that opens this second message in the Westminster Chapel series on Ecclesiastes. Nobody has a number to give. Yet sometimes a single insult, a single slight at work, is enough to feed anger that lasts for weeks, for years, sometimes for a whole lifetime.

The preacher sums up this paradox with an image: when it comes to grudges, we are like reinforced steel, and we hold on to them forever. When it comes to pleasure, we are like a colander: it runs straight through us in an instant. Why? Is God displeased with us, so much so that he punched holes in us to punish us? The question of the day is simple: is God a killjoy, or the one who gives joy?

To answer it, the message follows Ecclesiastes 2:1-11, then the conclusion of the chapter in verses 24 to 26. The book belongs to the wisdom literature: it is designed to "prod, push, and provoke" the way we think.

Outline of the message

1. The Teacher's great experiment

• The preacher imagines the Teacher, whom we can picture as King Solomon, invited by a young podcast host to talk about what he has learned from life. Ecclesiastes 2 is the first episode.
• "I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with mirth. Therefore enjoy pleasure!”" (Ecclesiastes 2:1). It is an experiment: he compares and weighs, he does not leap in blindly.
• The list is long: laughter, experiences, the liberating effect of wine, letting himself go, then the great projects. Houses, vineyards, gardens and parks, pools to water the trees, servants, flocks, silver and gold, male and female singers.
• The preacher imagines him turning his vineyard into a business, designing his own parks with a zoo attached, retiring early, and paying people to do everything he does not feel like doing. He surpassed every king of his day.
• A king thinks about his biography, his statue, his place in the history books. Many leaders today, the preacher remarks, make their decisions to polish their biography.

2. Everything is vapor: the bubble bursts

• The conclusion comes in verse 11: everything is vanity and chasing after wind, and there is no advantage to be gained from what we do under the sun.
• The preacher finds translations such as "vanity," "absurd," or "meaningless" unhelpful. The Hebrew word means "vapor." To make it more vivid, he blows soap bubbles: you try to catch one, and it pops.
• The word "gain," very present in the book, refers to what remains, something solid enough to change you forever. The Teacher squeezed everything to see whether anything would last. Nothing did.
• "Everything that gives you pleasure in this life ends up bursting."

3. Two wrong answers: denial and despair

• The first reaction is denial: since everything is empty, the most pious thing would be to deprive yourself of every pleasure, flee to a monastery, listen only to Christian music, and refuse birthdays and parties because they are "too worldly."
• The preacher smiles as he pictures two nuns slipping away to listen to Taylor Swift in secret, full of guilt.
• The second reaction is despair: you stop taking an interest in life and just hang on until heaven. You go to the party, but you are the one who says, "None of this lasts anyway."

4. The Teacher's conclusion: savor what comes from God's hand

• "There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labor. Even this I saw, that it is from the hand of God." (Ecclesiastes 2:24).
• The logic is clear: everything that gives me pleasure in this life is going to burst, so I will enjoy it while it lasts.
• It is gratitude for the small things. The preacher tells of a Saturday with pancakes, a coffee tasting ("the geekiest thing ever"), and pesto pasta: he should have savored them more. And your breakfast, did you swallow it without a thought?
• It is also gratitude for the big things, like the work of a lifetime. Solomon's great building project, the temple, must have given him days of reluctance, headaches, and logistical worries, but also moments of joy.
• No moment of joy is an accident or a stroke of luck: it is a gift straight from God's hand.
• But isn't this the "let's eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" denounced elsewhere in the Bible (Isaiah 22:13, 1 Corinthians 15:32)? Like Jesus' two houses, which look alike until the storm hits (Matthew 7:24-27), everything depends on the foundation.

5. First foundation: everything good comes from a happy God

• The preacher recommends Andrew Wilson's book Happiness, from which he quotes the phrase: God is "the happiest being in existence." God is happier than you are, and it is you who must become like him, not the other way around.
• God was the first happy person in the Bible: at creation, he saw that everything was good (Genesis 1:31). At the end of the book of Job, he proudly shows off what he has made, from gazelles to stars. Jesus speaks of the flower of the field that God clothes even though it will be withered by evening (Matthew 6:28-30).
• God did not discover joy by creating the world. Jesus prays: "for you loved me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:24). Father, Son, and Spirit were already living in unity, love, and joy. "God did not create this world in order to be happy. He created it because he is happy."
• "But our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases." (Psalm 115:3): what pleases him is what he does.
• The Son did not come in a hazmat suit, tiptoeing. Even the most skeptical historians acknowledge Jesus' reputation: he went to parties. "The Son of Man has come eating and drinking; and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man, and a drunkard; a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’" (Luke 7:34). The accusation of sin was false, the one about parties was fair. At Cana, he turned water into wine without posting a "no touching the wine" sign.
• The man who said "take up your cross" took his disciples to many parties: that is where wisdom is needed to hold the two together.

6. Second foundation: created to rejoice

• None of the blessings of your week got lost in the mail: God delivered them to you from his own hand.
• In the parable of the talents (Matthew 25), the master says to his faithful servants, in the version the preacher quotes: "Come on in and share my happiness!"
• Psalm 16 begins in distress ("Preserve me, God, for in you do I take refuge") and ends in joy: "In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand there are pleasures forever more." (Psalm 16:11).
• Thomas Aquinas: the most perfect union with God is the most perfect human happiness and the goal of all human life, and it is a gift that God must give us.
• That is the answer to the colander: God is an eternal spring who wants to pour himself into us without ceasing. The worst thing would be to tell him, "Thanks, I'm full."
• Beware of the "more spiritual than God" attitude. Psalm 104:14-15 speaks of grass, crops, wine that makes the heart glad, oil, and bread. The smile of a child running to his father, a scone at breakfast, a kite, a good burger: this is also how God pours pleasure into your life.
• The "blue feather attitude": the magpie looks black and white, but if you look closely, you can see a hidden blue feather. The preacher sometimes takes his camera along to train himself to notice what he would not otherwise see.
• Michael Eaton: "Holiness includes happiness. Nobody is holy unless they are happy." To be holy is to be set apart like God, and God is happy.
• Entering into God's joy does not mean forcing yourself to like certain TV shows or certain Christian songs. It is, as George Müller put it, seeking each morning to make your soul happy in God before you start the day.

7. Casting your bread on the waters: receiving instead of grasping

• "Cast your bread on the waters, for you shall find it after many days." (Ecclesiastes 11:1). The preacher sees in it a guiding principle of the book: a life of faith that holds things with an open hand.
• For someone who has not yet followed Jesus, the first step is to admit that you have been clinging to a bubble, making it carry all your weight.
• God actively helps with this return. To the sinner, he gives "the task of gathering and heaping up" (Ecclesiastes 2:26). And he can give a man riches and honor without allowing him to enjoy them (Ecclesiastes 6:2). The unease of someone who feels his life slipping away is a gift: God is inviting him to come back.
• The first gift to receive is Jesus. He gave his life to bring you back to the Father. "For the joy that was set before him endured a cross" (Hebrews 12:2): the joy of seeing crowds return to God and enter the eternal joys of the new creation. His resurrection is the guarantee.
• Andrew Wilson: Jesus wants his friends' joy to be complete (John 15:11), "as full as jars of wine and baskets of bread, rivers of water and nets that are bursting."
• The believer learns to hold pleasures with a light hand, to receive them with immense joy, and to bring pleasure to others: a compliment that will never be returned, genuine interest in someone's passions. "Honoring God is our joy, not just our job."

Key takeaways

• Everything that brings pleasure in this life is a vapor: the bubble always ends up bursting.
• Neither denial nor despair: Ecclesiastes 2:24 invites you to eat, drink, and enjoy your work while acknowledging God's hand.
• God is the happiest being in existence. He did not create the world in order to be happy, he created it because he is.
• We are colanders because God is a spring who wants to pour himself into us without ceasing.
• The first gift to receive is Jesus, who endured the cross for the sake of joy and wants your joy to be full.

Personal application

1. Which "bubble" are you trying to grasp by making it carry the full weight of your life?
2. Do you lean more toward denial, out of guilt, or toward despair, seeing only what passes away?
3. Which small pleasure of this week can you receive as a gift straight from God's hand and thank him for?
4. Where is the "blue feather" you did not take the time to notice today?
5. Who can you bring joy to this week, without expecting anything in return?

Verses cited

• Ecclesiastes 2
• Ecclesiastes 6:2
• Ecclesiastes 11:1
• Isaiah 22:13
• 1 Corinthians 15:32
• Matthew 7:24-27
• Genesis 1:31
• Matthew 6:28-30
• John 17:24
• Psalm 115:3
• Luke 7:34
• John 2:1-11
• Matthew 25:14-30
• Psalm 16
• Psalm 104:14-15
• Hebrews 12:2
• John 15:11

Frequently asked questions

What does "vanity" mean in Ecclesiastes 2?

The Hebrew word first means "vapor." The preacher prefers this image to "vanity" or "absurd": everything that brings pleasure in this life ends up bursting, like a soap bubble you try to catch. The Teacher tested everything and found no lasting gain under the sun.

Do we have to give up pleasures to please God?

No. The preacher rules out two wrong answers: denial, which flees every pleasure out of guilt, and despair, which sees nothing but emptiness. Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 concludes that there is nothing better than to eat, drink, and enjoy your work, while acknowledging that it comes from God's hand.

Is God a killjoy?

For the preacher, it is the opposite: God is the happiest being in existence. He was happy before creation, in the communion of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Jesus had a reputation for going to parties, and God invites his children to enter into his joy, the source of all happiness.