Here or There?

When I was little I remember watching Sesame Street. I was not the biggest fan of the show, but as I have gotten older I have grown to appreciate the show more and more. So in one of my seminary classes our professor used a lesson from Sesame Street in her lecture. The lesson was about the difference between "here" and "there." Simple enough right? Wherever you are, you are "here" and you can move towards "there" but whenever you think you have arrived there your prospective changes and you are just "here." Here and there change according to your prospective. So the lesson from Kermit and Grover about "here" and "there" surprised me when it was used to talk about the book of Ecclesiastes and it's implications for Qohelet's world and our own.
For the writer of Ecclesiastes, Qohelet (the Hebrew name), was living in a rapidly changing world. Qohelet's world was rapidly being changed by the changing economic structure of the time. The Persian's were in power and Darius was beginning to use coin money, people were being charged taxes, and the economy was shifting from a barter system to a cash system. Everything was getting a monetary value. This rapidly changing world was impacting how the people viewed the things around them. With everything having a monetary value, one can begin to move to a place where everything can be bought or sold at the right price. In this system there becomes a widening gap between the rich and the poor. Everything was changing. Into this world the writer of Ecclesiastes begins to write.

Qohelet sees his audience as anxious, fretting, hoarding, preoccupied with gaining money. However, Qohelet sees this as vanity, for when we die, which is the only thing we can be certain of, all we have worked for will be gone. It is like chasing after the wind. It is like the Sesame Stree lesson, people are always trying to go "there" but when they arrive "there" has moved further away... To this world, Qohelet urges people to enjoy what they have, for all will go away when we die.

7 Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has long ago approved what you do. ⁸Let your garments always be white; do not let oil be lacking on your head. ⁹Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that are given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. ¹⁰Whatever your hand finds to do, do with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.
Ecclesiastes 9:7-10

For Qohelet God is so transcendent that we are unable to grasp the understanding of the mind of God. The only thing we can understand is what is here in front of us. God will provide, and we are to enjoy life at every chance we get, for nothing is guarantee. It is a gift from God that we eat drink and take pleasure in what we do. For seeking after wealth, "All was vanity and a chasing after the wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 2:11)