Laborious Days Under the Sun

Introduction

Revisiting the book of Ecclesiastes one last time as Solomon had much to say about labor in its few pages.

He begins where most of us do: work and labor seems to be unending but ultimately unproductive.

Ecclesiastes 1:8 NKJV

8 All things are full of labor; Man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor the ear filled with hearing.

Which raises a question most of us recognize

Ecclesiastes 1:3 NKJV

3 What profit has a man from all his labor In which he toils under the sun?

Transition

While Solomon’s viewpoint in Ecclesiastes is “under the sun” and largely apart from God, he is able to both capture our response to labor while still commending it to us.

Illumination

We have a conflicted response to labor

Sometimes labor brings joy and fulfillment

Ecclesiastes 2:10 NKJV

10 Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, For my heart rejoiced in all my labor; And this was my reward from all my labor.

Sometimes labor seems pointless

Ecclesiastes 2:11 NKJV

11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun.

Sometimes labor is a repetitive necessity

Ecclesiastes 6:7 NKJV

7 All the labor of man is for his mouth, And yet the soul is not satisfied.

When labor turns from fulfillment to requirement, our response to it grows more consistent, and more consistently negative.

We grow to hate labor

Ecclesiastes 2:18 NKJV

18 Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me.

We grow desperate in labor

Ecclesiastes 2:20 NKJV

20 Therefore I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun.

We have a constant question about labor

Ecclesiastes 2:22 NKJV

22 For what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun?

We have a consistent commendation regarding labor

We should enjoy the fruit of our labor

The necessities of life

Ecclesiastes 2:24 NKJV

24 Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God.

Ecclesiastes 3:13 NKJV

13 and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.

While we focus on procuring and providing the necessities of life, these verses also suggest that we can, and should, find some satisfaction from our labor itself.

Rest (both its necessity and opportunity)

Ecclesiastes 5:12 NKJV

12 The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, Whether he eats little or much; But the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.

Heritage

Ecclesiastes 5:18 NKJV

18 Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage.

Labor allows us to leave a legacy (Heritage)

it is part of what we inherit and

it is part of what we bequeath but

It is a part, not the whole

We should remember the source of our labor

Ecclesiastes 5:19 NKJV

19 As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God.

We should resolve to be positive in, and about, our labor

Ecclesiastes 9:9 NKJV

9 Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which He has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity; for that is your portion in life, and in the labor which you perform under the sun.

Conclusion

We are reminded, especially in that last passage, that this discourse on labor is under the sun. We remember that is largely life apart from God. BUT we cannot escape that much of Solomon’s commendation of labor is shaped by the understanding that it is a gift from God.

This is the reminder that we need when we begin to view work as a curse or a consequence. Work preceded sin, it is part of God’s design for us.

That said, the nature of labor intensified as a part of the curse and as a consequence of bad choices. We can certainly experience that in our life, but we need to recognize when work is a burdensome necessity that is the consequence of bad choices, we can and should make better choices so that labor remains in the domain God assigned it.