The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree in the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat…” — Gen. 2:15-17
Jewish scholars have long noticed the similarities between the Garden of Eden story (Gen. 2-3) and the Book of Ecclesiastes. In fact, in the autumn during the holiday of Sukkot (Tabernacles), the Book of Ecclesiastes and the first chapters of Genesis are read together in the synagogue, each passage acting like a commentary on the other. What links these passages to one another? In the first place, there is the theme of ‘breath’ or ‘breathing’; that familiar refrain from Ecclesiastes: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity” could also be translated: “Breath of breaths, all is breath.” The Hebrew word for ‘vanity’ or ‘breath’ is hevel; that word, hevel, happens to be the name of Adam and Eve’s second son, Abel. His name means “breath”. Dr. Ephraim Radner recently noted in a sermon another “breath” connection between the Genesis and Ecclesiastes passages, highlighting the contrast between the human “breathing”, or aspiration after acquisition and achievement (the futility of which is so devastatingly exposed in Ecclesiastes), and the divine “breathing” mentioned in Gen. 2:7 — God’s own breath, the “breath of life”, making alive and quickening our human clay.
The writer of Ecclesiastes also ends his little book with the admonition to the reader, “Remember your Creator…before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened…and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” (Eccl. 12:1,2,7). In these words we hear the echoes of the first chapters of Genesis — the creation of the greater and lesser lights, the coming and going of the Spirit of God, and the human creature fashioned from the dust. There is a third connection between the two books: Ecclesiastes often sounds like an extended reflection on the passage in Gen. 2:15-17 (above) where the Lord God gives the human work (“toil”) to do (to tend the garden), and many delights (“every tree”) in the well-watered garden to eat and enjoy. The writer of Ecclesiastes reflects: “It is God’s gift to man that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil.” (Eccl. 3:13).
The two trees in the Garden (the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge) represent for the writer of Ecclesiastes two themes that preoccupy his attention: How long can we live? and, “How much wisdom can we acquire?” He sees humanity (including himself) struggling fruitlessly to extend life and avoid death, that great leveler. If only we could eat of that Tree of Life and be empowered to “live forever”! (Gen. 3:22) We labour endlessly to increase our knowledge as if that, too, will help us to elude our mortality and finitude. O, that we could eat of the Tree of Knowledge, “desirous to make one wise”! (Gen. 3:6)
But it is not how long one lives, he says, nor how wise one becomes that should be a person’s life concern. We may, indeed, breathe after these things, but the pursuit of these as things in themselves leads to frustration and grief; God was right to place limits on them. Rather, says Ecclesiastes, we should “Remember our Creator!”, that is, live out our lives in the life-giving knowledge of His love for us and of all the gifts He has generously bestowed on us. “Behold, what I have seen to be good and to be fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun…this is the gift of God.” (Eccl. 5:18,19) For Christians, God’s gift of gifts is His Son, Jesus Christ. In the light and love of this gift, our lives find their purpose and meaning and joy. In Him, the Life and Knowledge we need and seek after is graciously given to us; we needn’t strive after it, it is already our gift to enjoy and share.
Prayer:
Gracious God,
Open our hearts and minds to see Your good purpose for our lives. Let our lives be shaped on the knowledge of Your beloved Son, Jesus, that we might be filled with Your love and direct our labour with joy to the service of our neighbour and the glory of Your Name. Through Jesus Christ – the Power of God and the Wisdom of God – we ask this. Amen.
