God created me – and you – to live with a single, all-embracing, all-transforming passion – namely, a passion to glorify God by enjoying and displaying his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life. Enjoying and displaying are both crucial. If we try to display the excellence of God without joy in it, we will display a shell of hypocrisy and create scorn or legalism. But if we claim to enjoy his excellence and do not display it for others to see and admire, we deceive ourselves, because the mark of God-enthralled joy is to overflow and expand by extending itself into the hearts of others. The wasted life is the life without passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples.
I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life. Ecclesiastes 2:3 (KJV)
The experiments continue to the senses – “He treads one path with his body while taking another with his mind, hoping in his intoxicated state to experience the full depths of ‘folly’ and to arrive at discernment.” (Provan, 80) The phrase ‘give unto wine,’ does not indicate ‘debauchery.’ (Bartholomew, 110) The word for ‘give,’ i.e., māšaḵ מָשַׁךְ (literally) means ‘pull,’ or in extension to the context, it could also mean ‘refresh.’ (H4900)[1] Sometimes it is also read as ‘to support.’ In this context, it could also mean ‘to sustain,’ i.e., the pleasures of wine help sustain through the struggle of life’s meaninglessness.[2] In other usage, (Ps 28:3) the word ‘give’ takes a ‘personal object;’ – “do not drag me away with the wicked” (NASB). Seow illustrates by drawing similar usage through Talmud and Gilgamesh Epic. Two points: (1) the word has a deviating quality – it refreshes as in it pulls the ‘object’ off its course, like ‘water is pulled, flows downstream.’ And (2) the word refers to act of ‘inducing,’ such as the ‘bravado of youth.’ – “you are young, O Gilgamesh, and your heart carries you away.” (127)
Comments:
Qôheleth seems to sample, what we’d call ‘good living;’ i.e., eating good and drinking good for its own sake. (Gill) This is a ‘living’ mostly associated with common folk. Qôheleth seems to indulge, or be allowed to be pulled towards the pleasures of the common folk. This means, to be merry, eating and drinking without any ‘big’ objective, meaning or ambition in life. These are pleasures, perhaps a ‘royal’ is not permitted to. (Pro 31:4) But beyond these speculations, the central point that Qôheleth still seems to make is that even this ‘pleasure,’ no matter how benign and innocent it may seem, or how ‘sustaining’ it may seem against the horrors of existing, it is still vanity without God. This inquiry continues till v11.
Image: William Blake, The Body of Abel Found by Adam and Eve (1826)
References:
Bartholomew, C. (2009). Ecclesiastes, Baker Academic
Gill, J. (1748-63). Exposition of the Old Testament, Eccl. 2:3
Provan, I. (2001). Ecclesiastes/Song of Songs: The New Application Commentary, ZondervanSeow, C.L. (1997). Ecclesiastes, Yale University Press
[2] Bartholomew, “Sustain” fits well with the sense of drag or pull because Qôheleth is looking for that which will hold him through his struggle as to whether life is meaningful and provide an answer. (110)
(the Psalmist) don’t clean up the mess of their lives before seeking out their heavenly Father. God already knows what is going on… so they don’t pretend that their lives are better than they actually are… (Ps 6:6) they ask God to step in (Ps 71:12)… (they) remember who God is and what He has done, they end their laments with response of trust, praise and worship. (Ps 86:12)
Semper Reformanda 
