Introduction
People
ask me from time to time how I pick my lessons. Well first and foremost I
listen long and hard in prayer to what God is saying. Sometimes I try to argue
with Him about what He wants me to teach on because I don’t like it. Ultimately,
my lessons are just as much for me as they are for you. And I like hearing them
even less than maybe you do. But I always teach based on where God is
leading—even if it’s not what I want to hear. The last few weeks of work have
been more physically taxing than usual and as I get older my body reminds me each
morning of the work I did the day before. I’m thankful for the work and I’m
thankful there’s enough money to pay the bills each week but there’s usually
very little if any left over. I sometimes wonder what it would have been like
if I’d stayed working in corporate America more than 20 years ago instead of
starting my own business so I could be around my kids as much as I wanted. Back
then, I had a posh corner office; nice suits; golf outings; expense accounts; secretaries
that would bring me coffee, and lots of employees for me to tell what to do. I
wonder if maybe we might have a nest-egg built up or if I’d have to work so
many hours to make ends meet like I do now. And then right when I’m really
feeling pathetically sorry for myself, I run into someone that reminds about
how awesome my life has been since I made that choice more than two decades
ago. They reorient my perspective to be more eternal and less temporal. I have
a great customer that I’ve done work for over the last six or seven years who
has two children—a boy and a girl. When I first met him they were very young
but now his daughter is 13 and his son is 11. My friend is a baseball fanatic.
Unfortunately, his favorite team is the San Francisco Giants who happen to be
in the same division as the Colorado Rockies and in case you don’t know, the
Rockies are perennial cellar-dwellers while the Giants are always in the hunt
to win a World Series. Suffice it to say, it’s painful to talk baseball with
him. But I digress—this past week, he told me that his daughter has started
competitive softball and he is one of her coaches. He went on and on about the
practices, the equipment costs, the games, the tournaments, and the enormous
time commitment it took on his part to be engaged with her in her new-found
sporting interest. However, he also told me that it has been the greatest time
of his life. As I drove home that day, the memories of my own experiences with
both of my daughters who played competitive soccer flooded my mind; the
practices, the games; the tears; the joy; the plane rides to out-of-state
tournaments; the long talks about soccer, dreams, and life in general. And I
especially remembered our long talks about God and faith. I got to thinking
about the family vacations we took on a tight budget that have left a permanent
mark of joy in my memory. I got to thinking about all the people I have had the
opportunity to minister to and alongside of over the last 20 years—hospital
visits; sharing in the tears of loss at funerals; sharing the in tears of joy at
weddings; baptizing a customer’s mother on her death-bed; sharing Christ with
anyone willing to listen; back-breaking mission trips, and having the
opportunity to be part of this ministry and in some small way part of your life
of faith. Looking back over the last 20 years, I remember most of those things
even down to the smallest detail because I know, intuitively, that they have
eternal value. But I can’t remember how much or how little money we had. Too
often, I get caught up in the idea of “having enough” and maybe a little more
to pass on to my kids but I realize that I would never, ever trade the last 20
years for any amount of money or sacrifice the opportunities I have had to
minister in the name of Christ in exchange for money. One of the benefits of getting older is the wisdom to know
that the goal of making more money and having more things means that other
things have to be sacrificed. I also know that there is no such thing as
“having enough.” Do you know what a person who has everything wants? More! I
recognize that the constant drive to make more and have more is a poor
investment of time and energy. It’s like trying to grasp something that is
always out of reach. It’s like Chasing
After The Wind in the hopes of someday catching it. I know, I know, it’s
easy for me to disparage the pursuit of wealth and possessions because I don’t
have much of either but what if the richest person in all of history came to
the same conclusion? Would it matter to you then? Would you listen to his
advice? Follow along in this week’s lesson and let’s find out together what one
of the wisest, richest, and most powerful men had to say on the matter.
Subject Text
Ecclesiastes 2:17-26
17So I hated life, because the
work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a
chasing after the wind. 18I hated all the things I had
toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after
me. 19And who knows whether he will be
a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work
into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is
meaningless. 20So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome
labor under the sun. 21For a man may do his work with
wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who
has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. 22What does a man get for all the
toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? 23All his days his work is pain
and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This
too is meaningless. 24A man can do nothing better than
to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work.
This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25for without him, who can eat or
find enjoyment? 26To the man who pleases him, God
gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he
gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it
over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a
chasing after the wind.
Context
In
case you were unaware, Ecclesiastes is actually a Latin transliteration of the
Greek translation of the Hebrew, Qoheleth
(also Koheleth), meaning “teacher” or “preacher.” And that teacher or
preacher, in this case, is Solomon. You know, if we’re to learn from someone,
we should know a little about that person to see if they’re actually qualified
to teach on a given topic. Let me try and reconstruct an image of Solomon to
reassure you that he is quite qualified to teach us this valuable lesson.
Solomon was the third king of Israel and the son of David. Solomon built the
original Temple in Jerusalem. Biblically and historically, Solomon was
considered the wisest man to have ever lived. But Solomon was not only endowed
with wisdom, he also accumulated great wealth among other assets. Consider
this:
- It is estimated that Solomon accumulated over $300 billion in gold during his reign.
- There was so much silver and bronze in the treasury that they stopped keeping track.
- Solomon received $25 billion in inheritance from David to use toward building the Temple.
- Solomon received gold and silver annually from the kings of Arabia, governors and merchants.
- Israelites paid significant taxes to the kingdom.
- The kingdom received tribute money from allies and other countries and kingdoms seeking to ally themselves with Israel.
- The king of Tyre sent gold, silver, ivory, apes, monkeys, Ethiopians (slaves and servants), and peacocks every three years as part of a business arrangement.
- Solomon received gifts of gold, silver, spices, precious stones, garments, armor, horses, mules and virtually anything else you can imagine. Often the gifts would arrive piled high on the decks of shipping barges
- It was said that gold and silver was as common as stones in Jerusalem. In fact, all of Solomon’s cups were made of gold. Silver was so plentiful in the kingdom that it was considered essentially worthless.
- In case you think that Solomon only accumulated wealth, he also had 700 royal wives and 300 concubines (a live-in sex partner that is not a wife) which perhaps explains why he needed so much money!
You could say
that Solomon had it all—well all the things that many today consider to be the
most important—money, sex, and power. In fact, he had more of these things than
anyone so we should probably listen to what he has to say about them;
especially when he is critical of them.
Text Analysis
We
mistakenly think that wealthy people always love their work or whatever they do
to earn money. We think their lives consist of sleeping late, parties,
vacations and easy living. However, the only people who work harder than people
who have no money and are trying to make ends meet are people who have lots of
money and don’t have to worry about making ends meet. Their lives are not
without stress or struggle. They simple have different issues to deal with.
People lose sleep trying to figure out how they will earn enough money to
survive and people lose sleep trying to figure out how they will keep from
losing what they have worked so hard to earn. People who are not wealthy wish
they didn’t have the problems that come with not having money while people who
have money wish they didn’t have the problems that come with having money. This
appears to be what Solomon was talking about in v. 17 of our Subject Text.
Solomon isn’t saying that work has no value. What Solomon is saying is that if
our identity and personal value are too closely intertwined with what we do, we
will ultimately find that we have been wasting our time. What happens when you
work your whole life to accomplish something only to find out that it wasn’t
what you expected? You too might confess that you “hate life” like Solomon. So
where does that leave us—should we work or shouldn’t we? “Though greatly
hindered by sin’s curse, all are to engage in some form of work six days a
week...as they are able. Idleness (sloth) is condemned by its very
consequences. Work is the ordained means of the production of wealth and
material culture, yet God’s people were repeatedly warned never to trust or
boast in either; one is not to find any final integration point in either work
or its produce, for all these things will pass away.”[1]
We
intuitively recognize the truth of Solomon’s words in vv. 18-21 but none of us have actually experienced its reality for
our own lives if you think about it. However, I have had the chance to look
behind the curtain to get a glimpse of what Solomon is talking about. My wife’s
grandmother was fairly wealthy in large part because of the wise investments
made by her husband while he was alive. She was not wealthy in comparison to
Solomon but pretty wealthy in comparison to the average American. She lived for
a number of years after her husband passed away and was obsessed with her
wealth. She kept a ridiculously large sum of money in her checking account
because it made her feel safe. She was not particularly generous with her money
or her possessions even with her two children. During the final few years of
her life she began to suffer from age-related dementia. Ultimately she failed
to recognize even her own children. In her final days, my wife would sit with
her even though her grandmother had no idea who she was. And when the end got
close, all she wanted was for someone to hold her. So my wife would lay down in
bed next to her and just put her arms around her. After she passed away and
after the funeral, I remember the entire family and extended family gathering
at a family member’s house where names were drawn out of a hat to determine how
grandmother’s remaining possessions would be distributed. I’m not kidding! Her
possessions were distributed as a game! Of course her significant monetary
wealth was left to her two children who promptly lost virtually all of it to an
unscrupulous investment scheme organized by another family member (think about
that the next time you think your family is the most dysfunctional family). In
the end, a lifetime of possessions were divided like they were party favors and
the money served to line the pockets of crooks. And just like that a lifetime
of striving was gone! I can only surmise that if grandmother had known about
that before she passed away, it probably would have killed her. “Death
introduces an element of futility into human life, even making work seem
useless. What can be gained from work if death erases one’s accomplishments? In
spite of all our work, there is nothing we can take with us. We labor trying to
take the wind, and what do we get? Grief [Ecc 5:13-17].”[2] Ultimately, no matter how
proficient and successful we are in this life, we will leave everything behind
to those who come after us and they may perpetuate that success or they may
squander every last penny. Either way, your past efforts will be meaningless in
determining how your wealth will be managed in perpetuity.
Ask
any successful person and they will be quick to tell you that sleep can be an
elusive luxury. Fitful sleep is often one of the costs of success when mental
machinations are constantly at work to build and/or protect wealth. In vv. 22-23, Solomon’s describes that a
person can toil and strive anxiously at their daily task and be rewarded not
just with pain and grief but after a day of exhaustive effort they can expect a
fit-filled night of sleep. Think about this and see if it hasn’t been true for
your life. You work diligently on an important project at work and you’re
exhausted at the end of a very long day but your reward is a night filled with
tossing and turning because your mind cannot stop thinking about the important
project. You study for days and days for an important examination and then
exhausted, can’t sleep the night before the test as you review all the
materials in your head over and over. You wear yourself out caring for your
family and your home and then find yourself exhausted at the end of the day
lying in bed unable to sleep as you think about all the things you didn’t accomplish and the things you
have to do tomorrow. It seems backwards doesn’t it? You would think that after
expending ourselves by toiling all day at our given task, we would be reward by
a night of peaceful rest but too often the exact opposite is true. “Solomon’s
life is the life of many men [and women] in our culture: the carrying through
of great projects, the building of personal monuments, the exertion of power over
many other human beings, [and] the amassing of wealth…What does it add up to? ‘A
chasing after wind,’ with accompanying stress and anxiety (particularly about
how to ensure that one’s legacy is passed on) and sleepless nights, and at the
end death—the ultimate auditor’s report.”[3]
It
seems that in every group of texts, there’s at least one verse that is taken
out of context in order to justify a certain lifestyle and vv.24-25 are no exception. Solomon exclaims that nothing is better
than for a person to eat and drink and enjoy their work. You might recognize
the text as it is alternatively recited as “The purpose of life is to eat,
drink, and be merry.” But is this what Solomon is saying? Think about it in the
overall context of the Bible—does Scripture ever teach that life’s primary purpose
is self-satisfaction and personal happiness? I believe that part of the answer
is found in v. 25. Solomon concedes
that nothing is possible without it first being ordained by God—food, drink, or
the joys of life. In our modern vernacular, Solomon is saying that it is good
for us to live each day in the present; thankful for what we have right now.
Focusing on the blessings of the here and now regardless of how few or
plentiful they may be frees us from the tyranny and anxiety of striving and
toiling to reach an unknown and unknowable tomorrow. What Solomon is trying to
say is Carpe Diem which in Latin
means “seize the day.” “Evangelical Reformers with their robust doctrine of
creation were right in their approach to the carpe diem passages. The carpe diem passages celebrate creaturely human life as God has made it.
The attitude recommended will certainly include eating and drinking and
working, those fundamental, embodied human activities, but these activities are
also metaphors for an approach to life…It has been rightly stressed that this
exhortation to be aware of happiness and of anything that enhances life is not
to be confused with that zest for life which so often settles in the shadow of
despair. Here for the first time, Koheleth
is aware that his is in accord with a divine purpose; here he sees himself face
to face with a beneficent God…eating and drinking and enjoying one’s work are
an expression of the shalom [Heb.
“peace”] that God intended for his creation and humankind in particular.”[4] The principle expressed in
v. 25 is clarified by Paul in his
letter to the Corinthians when he writes, “Whether eating or drinking or
whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” Specifically because of the
blessings God brings to our lives on a daily basis.
Some
verses can create considerable consternation and v. 26 has done that for some people. Our final verse seems pretty
cut and dry—those who please God can expect a life of wisdom, knowledge and
happiness. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to say that these people are blessed.
Conversely, sinners (those who do no please God) can expect a life of hardship
and toil while the fruits of their hard labor will go to those who please God. Maybe
cursed isn’t entirely accurate to describe these people but the idea is that
this person is the antithesis of the one who pleases God. Now think of this in
the overall context of the Bible. Doesn’t the Bible teach that we are all
sinners (Rom 3:23)? If that’s the case then how do we reconcile this verse with
the reality of our world because it seems pretty clear that there are plenty of
sinners who enjoy wisdom, knowledge, and happiness and many are abundantly
wealthy? Here is where we need to be very careful to read this verse within the
context of Solomon’s theological construct. The Jews believed in a quid-pro-quo
relationship with God. If they were faithful and observed all the laws, rules
and regulations then they would enjoy God’s blessings of health, wealth and
peaceful existence in the Land. This theological construct is not without
justification considering all the Old Testament affirmations of blessings
promised by God provided the Israelites proved to be obedient to His
instructions and consequent curses if their obedience failed. The important
principle Solomon is trying to convey is that even striving to attain God’s
blessing or avoid his curses is misguided because it focuses on the future
which is unknown instead of our immediate existence within the sphere of God’s
daily blessings. There is an irony in Solomon’s teaching that we must recognize
as well when he ends the verse. Solomon recognizes that based on his personal
experience, even if the one who pleases God is the beneficiary of the efforts
of the sinner, death will always be the great equalizer. Therefore, the
incessant quest to achieve more, accomplish more, and acquire more, if there is
no eternal value, is like Chasing After The Wind. To add to the
complexity of this final verse is trying to gain a clear understanding of what
pleases God and what doesn’t. Ultimately, we are each blessed according to
God’s will and should enjoy those blessings as we receive them daily. “These
passages constitute the true message, a message of solid joy in God’s
creation…but it is difficult to find more than a mood of resigned conclusion in
such passages. There are no recommendations that Qoheleth truly finds joy in. He can only offer them in a mysterious
and incalculable world: What else can one do? So take whatever joy on can find.
But even here, there is a wild card. One never knows the way things will turn
out with this God, who disposes of things according to an inscrutable divine
will.”[5]
Application
Unfortunately,
our Subject Text can leave us with
the impression that life is pointless, meaningless, and hopeless. But rest
assured that this isn’t Solomon’s final word on life’s ultimate purpose. By the
time you get to the end of the Book of Ecclesiastes Solomon concludes that our
whole purpose is to fear God and keep his commandments and in the end all our
deeds, whether good or evil, will be judged by God. Now all that is certainly
true but Solomon is unable to see the full course of history from his vantage
point in time. What Solomon is left with is uncertainty; Uncertainty because
his theological perspective did not include the revelation of God in Jesus
Christ; Uncertainty because his perspective on daily activities lacked the
eternal and personal relationship aspect with God through Jesus Christ. This is
why the Gospel message begins in Genesis and ends with Revelation because the entire
Gospel message offers a clearer picture of God’s involvement with his creation
that is less clear along any given point of the message. Here let me
demonstrate—Solomon says that our toil and work are meaningless because we
can’t take it with us. Jesus says, what good does matter if a man gains the
whole world yet loses his soul (Mt 16:26)? Solomon had a limited perspective on
life while Jesus always had an eternal perspective. Solomon taught that we
should eat and drink and enjoy our work as much as possible because it was
something that would pass away. Paul taught that whether we eat or drink or
whatever we do, we should do it to the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31). This again
puts our lives in an eternal perspective. Jesus introduced a new perspective on
God. Solomon saw God only as someone to be feared and obeyed. Jesus introduced
us to a God who was not only perfectly holy but a God who desperately wants to
be in relationship with us. Jesus has given eternal purpose to our earthly efforts
if for no other reason than they bring glory to God and serve to build our
relationship with Him. The only way for our efforts to have meaning is if they
have eternal value. So the question is, is there eternal value in what we do?
The short answer is yes, what we do matters because what we do adds to God
creation as co-creators. And if we have been created in the image of God then
we need to change our perspective on what we do as co-creators made in the
image of God. As such, our work, what we do, adds to God’s creative order.
Although it may be flawed as a result of sin, it is not worthless or
meaningless. “The ‘image of God’ verses in Genesis 1 show us that our ordinary
human work is an essential aspect of deepening our relationship with God—what today
we might call being transformed into his image. Our relationship with God, our
imaging him, is our essence as humans—while the working activity is the
expression and realization of that essence…God makes our creative working
possible in the first place. He uses whatever we do to direct us toward his
purposes, which always means toward our flourishing as created beings…It may
surprise some to find that what Jesus, the Lord of the universe, desires of us
is friendship rather than servitude.”[6] So does that mean that
Solomon was wrong? Not technically, but what is missing in Solomon’s assessment
of toil and work is the eternal and relational element. It is our relationship
with God through Jesus Christ that puts eternal meaning in everything we do
because we do everything to bring Him glory and to fulfill the purpose He has
set for us. Think about it—without a relationship with Christ, nothing we do
has lasting meaning to us personally. It may provide meaning for a while but
without the eternal perspective that is only possible through Christ, what we
do will eventually become meaningless. We will be left wondering why we work so
hard. What’s the point since we can’t take anything with us to the grave? Without
Christ, meaning will always be just beyond our grasp and no matter how hard we
work or how much money we earn or how many “things” we own, the meaning we
chase will always elude us just like Chasing
After The Wind.
[1]
Willem A. VanGemeren, gen. ed. New
International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis, Vol. 2,
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), p. 944.
[2] Walter
A. Elwell, ed., Baker Theological
Dictionary of the Bible, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1996), p. 833.
[3]
Iain Provan, Ecclesiastes/Song of Songs—The
NIV Application Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), p. 84.
[4]
Craig G. Bartholomew, Ecclesiastes—Baker
Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker
Academic, 2009), p. 152.
[5]
Roland Murphy, Ecclesiastes—Word
Biblical Commentary, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1992), p.27.
[6]
Darrell Cosden, The Heavenly God of
Earthly Work, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2006), pp. 89; 91; 121.
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