The Teacher at this point tells his readers to eat and drink with a merry heart (Ecclesiastes 9:7), to which most scholars warn he isn’t telling us to abuse alcohol. While they are correct, they also miss the Teacher’s point. He isn’t speaking of the food and drink (alcohol) that may be on our tables. He is speaking of the Lord’s Table. We need to keep in mind that the context of the Teacher’s thesis is that he decided to investigate the sore travail God had given the sons of man (Adam) to be exercised therein (Ecclesiastes 1:13). Everything the Teacher records for us concerns this sore travail or ‘troublesome business’ mankind has been sentenced to endure (cp. Genesis 3:14-19).
Many folks grow dissatisfied with the Table of the Lord (Ecclesiastes 7:8-10). In the state of war (Ecclesiastes 3:8) the Lord’s Table for the victor is the defeat of his enemies (Ezekiel 39:20). However, the Lord prepares a table daily for those who trust him (Psalm 23:5). While those who live in a state of unrepentance (rebellion) consider the Lord’s table contemptible (Malachi 1:7, 12; cp. Genesis 5:29), the wise receive their portion, rejoicing with a glad heart (Psalm 118:24). This is the gift of God (Ecclesiastes 3:13; 5:19), for the Lord has accepted the works of the just (Ecclesiastes 9:7).
While the Lord doesn’t offer man a menu from which he may order or dictate what is on the Table of the Lord, man is able to respond with delight or contempt for what the Lord offers him for his good. White is a symbol of purity and joy, so to wear white garments is to walk with the Lord and have one’s sins covered (Revelation 3:4-5, 18), and not lacking ointment on one’s head (Ecclesiastes 9:8) was a symbol of one’s joy in what the Lord had done (Psalm 23:5; 45:7; Isaiah 61:3).
Next, the Teacher encourages his readers to: “Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of the life of thy vanity…” Most scholars think they must immediately apologize for the Teacher language. Woman must mean wife, and a monogamous relationship. Nevertheless, the article is absent, so woman is not wife. Moreover, considering the context of a righteous life lived with the Lord (verse-8), neither could the Teacher’s advice be to become promiscuous. So, how should we understand his words? Moreover, how would his words encourage a female reader?
Often, the text uses the word, woman, for a symbol of the wise (Proverbs 3:13-18) or the foolish (Proverbs 9:13-18), meaning, the righteous and the unrighteous, depending upon the point the writer wishes to make. I believe this is what the Teacher has in mind in Ecclesiastes 9:9. He tells his reader to rejoice in the understanding he has been given to do the labor that the Lord has given him at his Table (verse-7). Take joy in what one is given to do, because this is one’s portion from the Lord.
Finally, the Teacher tells us that whatever we do, do it with all our strength (Ecclesiastes 9:10). Brooks, the librarian in Shawshank Redemption, didn’t do that. He was content to be a librarian and deliver the books in his meager library to his fellow prisoners in their cells. Andy Dufresne, the main character of the flick, while he embraced the duty of librarian, when it was given him, he wasn’t content with just delivering books. He pestered the warden and other folks in the government, until he was given a grant to build a real library. He worked at being a librarian with all his might, and changed life, such as it was, in that prison for at least as long as he was there. The Teacher concludes with: “there is no activity (from the Table of the Lord, verse-7) or plan (to walk with the Lord and be clothed in white and anointed with oil, verse-8) or knowledge (to do the labor one is given, verse-9), or wisdom (doing it with all one’s strength for the benefit of others, verse-10) in the grave where everyone is certain to go!
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