Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
Our stroll through the Bible looking at words the NIV 84 translated as "heart" or "hearts" has brought us to the rather gloomy book of Ecclesiastes. Sarcasm, cynicism, delusion, and finally recognition of the actual wisdom of living in the fear of the Lord and in obedience to his commandments.
So, we can expect some rather pessimistic opinions as we search through this book; as we are only looking at verses that contain 'Heart/ Hearts', we likely will not see the conclusion at the end. But we will definitely see the grappling the author (who refers to himself as 'The Teacher' and is believed to be Solomon himself, from the clues about his wisdom, his riches, his building program and, um, other characteristics) did with the Big Questions of Life.
I've split this up into four chunks of roughly an equal number of verses; today, we're looking at chapter 2, which starts right off with a verse containing 'Heart':
I thought in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good." But that also proved to be meaningless. -- Ecc. 2:1; 'Heart' is the familiar Strong's H 3820 - Leb: inner man, mind will, heart, understanding.
The Teacher is not really discussing his searching with anyone else...this is something that is internal. He himself is asking questions of life, looking for answers and meaning; something that satisfied his heart ('I will test you').
I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well -- the delights of the heart of man. -- Ecc. 2:8 the word translated 'Heart' isn't 'heart' at all in the Hebrew...it's Strong's 254, ben, which means son, grandson, child, member of a group.
The KJV translates that phrase 'the delights of the sons of men' and 'harem' is translated 'musical instruments'...but when I looked up that phrase, (Strong's H 7705,sida), I found that, while the word literally means musical instrument...the usage implies wife, concubine or harem. A polite euphemism, perhaps? In any case, these are all things that will delight men in general, so I suppose the implication is that if a thing delights a man, it certainly delights his heart. But that's an interesting translation decision. I checked the Amplified, which is probably the plainest of the three in exactly what the delight is: 'I provided for myself male singers and female singers and the delights and pleasures of men -- many concubines.' As we know, Solomon had a ridiculous number of concubines....
I am going to chase a rabbit here; something that always comes up when I'm looking at Solomon, by looking at the requirements God had for a king, way back in Deuteronomy 17:16 - 20:
The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt t get more of them, for the LORD has told you, "You are not to go back that way again. He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. It is to be with him, and he is to read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.
I find it rather telling that the Teacher freely admits to failing almost all of these requirements (we also know from other passages that Solomon sent to Egypt for a passle of horses...2 Chron. 1:14, 16); we can infer that he also failed the main one...to make himself a copy of the Law and read it daily. This was not just a suggestion, but there's no evidence that any king followed that instruction; certainly Solomon didn't or he would have recognized his errors. I'm just going to link an old post about the value of reading God's word for oneself, then consider that rabbit run to ground and go back to the topic at hand....
I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. -- Ecc. 2:10-11; both instances of 'heart' are H3820.
He does allow that the delight his heart took in his accomplishments was the reward for his work, but ultimately decided that didn't amount to much in the grand scheme of things. It didn't last; it had no eternal value.
He considered living wisely vs. living foolishly or even madly, and concluded that it was better to be wise than foolish...but, again, ultimately it didn't matter.
Then I thought in my heart, "The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What do I gain by being wise?" I said in my heart, "This too is meaningless." For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered; in days to come both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise man too must die! -- Eccl 2: 15 - 16; both instances of 'heart' are H 3820 again.
I have written a note in the margin of my Bible here -- 'Not quite ...we all still remember Solomon. He was not considering legacy.' Solomon, in his despondency, did not consider all the writings he was leaving behind. True, he faced the same physical fate as a foolish person, but he is not forgotten; in fact, he still has some degree of influence millennia after he penned those words. I wonder if he could have seen into the future to know that we are still reading his writings and still learning from his history if he would feel like it was useless to pursue wisdom. He failed to pass his wisdom to his son, but it was recorded for generations to come.
And because Solomon couldn't see the future value...he wrote
So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. -- Ecc. 2:20; 'heart' is H 3820 again.
I'm going to throw one more idea into this mix; the Enemy had an audience here. That's his narrative. 'You're no good. You're useless. All this work you've done is for nothing. It's not changing anything." I dare say every one of us has heard that condemning voice at some point. It's hard to realize that there might be another perspective...an eternal perspective...a legacy, a lesson that can come from all circumstances. And if that voice can darken and burden the heart of someone as wise as the Teacher, then all of us need to be on guard against it.