Ecclesiastes 3:16 - Meaning and Application

Solomon is still showing that everything in this world is empty without godliness and the fear of God. Take religion away, and nothing is truly valuable among people, nothing a wise person would think worth living for. In these verses, he shows that power, which people crave more than almost anything, and life itself, which people cling to most closely, mean nothing without the fear of God.

He first shows the emptiness of human power, even at its highest level. He means a ruler, a judge, someone whose authority is respected and whose decisions are trusted, and who, if governed by religion, acts as God’s representative on earth. Such a person is even called a god in Scripture, yet without the fear of God, all of this is vanity.

If a judge does not judge rightly, he does not use power well, but abuses it. Instead of doing good, he does harm, and then his office becomes more than vanity, it becomes a lie, a cheat to himself and everyone around him (Ecclesiastes 3:16). Solomon knew, from old writings, from reports of other lands, and from corrupt judges he had seen, even in Israel despite his efforts to appoint good men, that wickedness often sat in the place of judgment. It is not like that above the sun. God does no wrong and never twists justice.

But under the sun, the very place that should protect the innocent can become a prison for them. When people are honored and do not understand what they should do, they become like the beasts that perish, even like savage beasts that prey on others (Psalm 49:20). Not only the people who sit in judgment, but also the courts where justice is supposed to be given, can be filled with wrongdoing. People sometimes meet their greatest injustice in the very place they ran to for help.

This is vanity and trouble. It would have been better for the people to have had no judges than such judges. It would have been better for the judges to have had no power than to have power and use it so badly. One day they will say that themselves.

The judge will also be judged for not judging rightly. When Solomon saw justice perverted among people, he looked up to God, the true Judge, and looked ahead to the day of His judgment (Ecclesiastes 3:17). In effect, he says that this unfair judgment is not the final word, because there will be another review. God will judge between the righteous and the wicked. He will defend the righteous, even when they are now pushed down, and He will judge the wicked for their unjust laws and cruel orders (Isaiah 10:1).

By faith we can see not only the end of the pride and cruelty of oppressors, but also their punishment (Psalm 92:7). It is a great comfort to those who suffer that their case will be heard again. So they should wait patiently, because another Judge is already standing at the door. Even if suffering lasts a long time, there is still a set time for every matter and every work done under the sun. People may have their day now, but God’s day is coming (Psalm 37:13). With God there is a time for causes to be heard again, wrongs to be fixed, and unfair rulings to be reversed, even if we do not yet see it here (Job 24:1).

Solomon then speaks more generally about human life and death. He shows that human reason, without religion and the fear of God, lifts people only a little above the beasts. He wants to do two things in this account. First, he wants God to be honored and shown to be right, so that people will clear God of blame. If human life is full of emptiness and trouble, people should blame themselves, not God. God did not make the world as a prison for man or life as his punishment. He made man, in honor and comfort, a little lower than the angels. If people are low and miserable, that is their own fault.

Second, he wants people to be humbled. He wants them to see that they are like beasts when they live without God. It is hard to convince proud people that they are only human (Psalm 9:20). It is even harder to convince sinful people that they are like beasts, because without religion they are like the beasts that perish, like horses and mules that have no understanding. Proud oppressors are like savage animals, like roaring lions and roaming bears. In fact, every person who cares only for the body and not the soul brings himself down to the level of a brute, and should at least wish to die like one.

He proves this by showing that a worldly, fleshly, earthbound person has no advantage over a beast, because everything he sets his heart on, trusts in, and hopes to find happiness in is vanity (Ecclesiastes 3:19). Some take this as the voice of an atheist, who excuses his sin by denying a coming judgment (Ecclesiastes 3:16-17) and says there is no life after this. But others, more likely, think Solomon is speaking his own mind and teaching the same point his father taught, that people are like sheep laid in the grave (Psalm 49:14). He is showing the emptiness of wealth and honor in this world by comparing men and beasts in their outward condition.

The events that happen to both often seem the same (Ecclesiastes 3:19). What happens to human bodies is much like what happens to animal bodies. Much knowledge of the human body has been learned by studying animals. When the flood swept away the old world, beasts died along with mankind. Horses and men are killed in war by the same weapons.

The end of both also seems the same to the eye. They all have one breath, and they breathe the same air. Scripture gives both this description, that the breath of life is in their nostrils (Genesis 7:22). So as one dies, the other dies too. At death there is no visible difference. Death makes much the same change in a beast as it does in a man. As for their bodies, the change is exactly the same, except for the different respect that survivors give them.

If a person is buried with the shameful burial of a donkey (Jeremiah 22:19), what advantage does he have over an animal? Under Moses’ law, touching a dead human body brought greater ceremonial uncleanness than touching the carcass of an unclean beast or bird. Solomon also notes here that all go to the same place. The bodies of people and animals decay in the same way, and both come from the dust, because we all return to dust in death.

So what reason do we have to be proud of our bodies or our physical gifts? They will soon go back to the earth, and they will do it in the same way as the beasts. Our dust will mix with theirs. That should humble us and keep us from putting too much value on outward things.

There is, however, a real difference between their spirits, even if we cannot see it with our eyes, as Ecclesiastes 3:21 says. The spirit of human beings rises at death. It goes up to the Father of spirits, who made it, and to the world of spirits to which it belongs. It does not die with the body, but is rescued from the power of the grave (Psalm 49:15). It goes up to be judged and to enter an unchangeable state.

The spirit of a beast, by contrast, goes downward to the earth. It dies with the body, and that is the end of it. The soul of a beast at death is like a candle blown out, there is no more light. The soul of a person at death is like a candle taken out of a dark lantern, which leaves the lantern useless but shines more clearly itself.

This is a great difference between people and animals, and it gives us a strong reason to set our hearts on things above. We should lift our souls toward heavenly things and not let them cling to this earth like the souls of brute creatures. Yet who really notices this difference? We cannot see the upward rise of one spirit and the downward descent of the other with our bodily eyes. So those who live only by what they can see, the carnal and sensual, have no better view than the beasts by their own way of thinking (Isaiah 53:1).

Very few people seriously think about this. If they did, the world would be much better. Most people live as if they will be here forever, or as if death ends everything. It is no surprise that people live like beasts when they think they will die like beasts. In that case, the noble powers of reason are wasted.

From this comes a practical lesson (Ecclesiastes 3:22): as far as this world is concerned, there is nothing better than for a person to rejoice in his own work. That means, first, keeping a clear conscience and never allowing wrongdoing into the place where righteousness should be. Let each person test his own work and be approved by God in it, so he can have joy in himself before God (Galatians 6:4). He should not gain or keep anything that he cannot enjoy with a good conscience (2 Corinthians 1:12).

Second, he should live cheerfully. If God has prospered the work of our hands, we should enjoy it and take comfort in it. We should not turn it into a burden for ourselves and let others have the joy of it. That is our portion in this life, not the portion of our souls. Those whose portion is only in this life are miserable (Psalm 17:14), and fools are the ones who choose that and settle for it (Luke 12:19). Still, it is only the portion of the body, and we should take what can be had here and make the best of it.

The reason is simple, no one can show us what will happen after we are gone, or who will have our property, or how they will use it. When we are dead, we will probably not see what follows us. There is no known connection between this world and the next (Job 14:21). Those in the next world will be so fully occupied there that they will not care what is happening here. And while we are alive, we cannot know what will come after us, either in our families or in public life.

It is not for us to know the times and seasons that will come after us. That should make us less anxious about this world and more serious about the world to come. Since death is a final farewell to this life, we should look ahead to the life after this one.