Mirth
In chapter two of Ecclesiastes, we came across a word
that is rarely used among young people today. According to Webster’s II
New Riverside Dictionary the word “mirth” means, “Gaiety and merriment
expressed by laughter.” Unfortunately, we do not use the term “gaiety”
or “merriment” very often either. So, let’s notice what Roget’s
Thesaurus says about the word “mirth.” Some synonyms might be,
“cheerfulness, geniality, gaiety, cheer, good humor, spirits, glee,
light heart, sunshine of the mind, alacrity, vivacity, animation,
joviality, levity, jocularity, merriment, hilarity, exhilaration,
laughter, merry-making, rejoicing, etc.”
It may help us to understand the meaning of “mirth” by looking at many
of the occasions of it. “Mirth” may be the cheerful and joyous attitude
that surrounds a going-away party (Genesis 31:27). “Mirth” is the
feeling that was to surround the happy and joyous Feast of Booths in
Nehemiah 8:10-12. We might compare it to the joy we have at holidays,
family reunions, anniversary or birthday parties or Thanksgiving
dinners.
It might also be helpful to observe times that were the very opposite of
“mirth.” For example, God warned the children of Israel that they would
be placed in Babylonian captivity for seventy years because of their
sins and refusal to repent. Jeremiah writes, “Moreover I will take
from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the
bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and
the light of the lamp. And this whole land shall be a desolation and an
astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy
years” (Jeremiah 25:10,11). Slavery is not a situation that would be
surrounded with great “mirth.” God also threatens punishment to His
bride through the prophet Hosea saying, “I will also cause her mirth
to cease, Her feast days, Her New Moons, Her Sabbaths—All her appointed
feasts” (Hosea 2:10,11). These days that were to cease were all
times of celebration, festivity, fun and happiness—they were times of
mirth.
Though nothing is wrong with “mirth” itself (Jesus attended weddings,
feasts and joyous occasions) it becomes wrong when it becomes the
purpose and focus of our lives. Solomon said, “Come now, I will test
you with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure: but surely, this also was
vanity. I said of laughter—“Madness!”; and of mirth, “What does it
accomplish?” (Ecclesiastes 2:1,2). He added in Proverbs 14:13,
“Even in laughter the heart may sorrow, and the end of mirth may be
grief.” Jesus Christ should be the true source of all joy and peace
in our lives—not the fickle and temporary occasions of mirth.