Have you ever had an issue you just couldn’t stop talking about or ruminating on? Hopefully you had a patient friend who let you verbally process as much as you needed to. The Teacher requires of us similar patience because he returns again and again to the same topics throughout these twelve chapters. We’ve already talked about joy four times in this month’s study, and today we return to it again, but this time from a slightly different perspective.

In Ecclesiastes 6 the Teacher gives another example of something that is “Abel-like” (or “meaningless”) and “a grievous evil” (v. 2): The inability of someone to enjoy the gifts of God. In this scenario, the Teacher imagines a person who has received everything “their hearts desire,” and yet they remain dissatisfied because “God does not grant them the ability to enjoy them” (v. 2). The author goes on to say that even if such a person could live thousands of years, it would be better if he never lived at all because he was unable to enjoy the gifts God had given him.

Here the Teacher helps us to understand a second facet of God’s gifts more fully. We have learned that “every good gift” comes from God (James 1:17) and that humanity’s “portion” or “lot” in this life is the ability to enjoy these gifts (Eccl. 5:18). It is a two-part equation. First, God gives us gifts. And second, He gives us the ability to enjoy them. Both are important. We also see here that God is sovereign over everything, not just what He gives us but even how we interact with what He gives. God is the one who grants us the gift of enjoyment.

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