Ecclesiastes: Peace and Strife

Open The Text (Ecc 2:18-26)

Verses 18–19

Ecclesiastes 2:18–19 ESV

I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.

The Preacher looks at the vast Eden-like empire he built — palaces, gardens, projects, wealth — and realizes he must hand it all over. He hated his labor because the next man may be a fool who squanders everything.

Illustration idea (current): A master engineer designs a flawless machine, only for his successor to misuse it and destroy its purpose. (Or the Monopoly board: hours of shrewd play, then everything goes back in the box.)

Verses 20–21

Ecclesiastes 2:20–21 ESV

So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.

Here the Preacher’s despair deepens into a full surrender of heart. Not only must he leave his labor; he must leave it to one who never sweated for it, who never planned it, who may waste it. The wise man’s lifelong effort becomes the fool’s inheritance. This, he cries, is not merely vain—it is a great evil. The thought of it torments him.

Illustration: Imagine a wise and diligent ruler who spends years carefully stewarding the realm — improving the economy, bringing stability, and lowering costs so that even the simplest provisions become affordable. Then a foolish successor comes into office and, with the stroke of a pen, undoes everything the previous ruler worked so hard to build, causing prices and burdens to skyrocket. That was a great evil.

Verses 22–23

Ecclesiastes 2:22–23 ESV

What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.

All he gets is sorrow, vexation, and sleepless nights. “All his days” describes the constant inner turmoil of a heart that never rests.

Verses 24–26

Ecclesiastes 2:24–26 ESV

There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

Thus the conclusion to the matter comes: It is better, instead of continuing in worry and despair, to receive life as God’s gift—so that we eat and drink and find enjoyment in our toil, because God Himself is with us in it, blessing our labor and granting peace that frees us from restless striving “eat and drink and find enjoyment in the work we do,” because it is only through God that these things come about. These ordinary gifts of life — food on the table, drink to refresh us, and joy in honest labor — are not to be despised. They are good, but they are good only when received as gifts from the hand of God. Apart from Him, who can truly eat or who can have any real enjoyment?

Not only that, but the peace and joy we experience in these ordinary things are given by God Himself. “To the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy.” The point is not that a man secures these by his labor—the Preacher has already shown that, though he pursued this with wisdom, effort, and intensity, he always came to the same end: vanity and a striving after wind—but that God grants this enjoyment as a gift, so that a man may receive his work with rest instead of anxiety. The sinner, however, remains caught in the same restless cycle the Preacher has described—gathering and collecting, yet never arriving at settled enjoyment. And even what he gathers does not finally serve him; it is, in God’s providence, handed over to another. So his striving cannot yield what he seeks. There is no peace in this life. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

II. The Doctrine

All the toil and labor of men, when pursued and evaluated apart from God (“under the sun”), is nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit, producing only despair and sorrow; yet the true and comfortable enjoyment of life and labor is a sovereign gift from the hand of God, bestowed with wisdom, knowledge, and joy upon those who please Him, while the sinner’s gathering profits him nothing and is given to another.

Proof of the Doctrine (by Scripture and necessary consequence)

We arrive at this doctrine not by human speculation, but by the plain and necessary reasoning of the text itself. The Preacher has examined life “under the sun” (that is, apart from God) and now lays out the evidence step by step:

Toil pursued and evaluated apart from God is nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit. The Preacher testifies: “I hated all my toil” (v. 18) because he must leave it to another who may be a fool. He “gave [his] heart up to despair” (v. 20) over the possibility that a lifetime of wise labor would be enjoyed by one who never toiled for it. This he calls “a great evil” and “vanity” (v. 21). What does a man gain? “All his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest” (vv. 22–23). The repeated conclusion of the text is “This also is vanity.” Logic demands: if the wisest man on earth, after the greatest labors, finds only hatred, despair, sorrow, and sleeplessness, then every labor evaluated without reference to God must be the same.

Yet there is something better — the comfortable enjoyment of life and labor. The Preacher turns and declares: “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil” (v. 24). This is not a counsel of despair but a positive discovery. The ordinary blessings of life (food, drink, joy in work) are good — but only when seen as coming “from the hand of God.” He immediately adds the logical proof: “for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” (v. 25). Without God as the Giver, even the simplest pleasures have no lasting substance. This is the necessary contrast the text itself draws.

This true enjoyment is a sovereign gift from the hand of God, given to those who please Him. Verse 26 states the divine distribution with perfect clarity: “For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy.” The enjoyment, the wisdom, and the knowledge are not earned by toil alone; they are given by God to the heart that pleases Him. This is sovereign grace in action — God Himself bestows the very joy that makes labor sweet.

The sinner’s gathering profits him nothing and is ultimately given to another. The same verse continues: “but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God.” The sinner may labor, amass, and collect without end, yet he finds “no rest or ease” (as the Preacher has already shown in vv. 22–23). His hoard does not benefit him; it is transferred by God to the one who pleases Him. The text seals both sides of the contrast with the same verdict: “This also is vanity and a striving after wind.”

Thus, by the Preacher’s own reasoning and by the direct words of the Holy Spirit, the doctrine stands proved.

III. The Uses

Use of Information (Instruction)

Earthly pursuits without God are empty. The Preacher has shown that even the wisest labor, pursued with skill and diligence, collapses into vanity when it is considered “under the sun.” You may build, plan, save, and succeed, and yet you cannot secure the outcome, nor can you guarantee who will receive what you have built. And even while you labor, your heart may be filled with unrest. Therefore, your career, your savings, and even your legacy cannot bear the weight of meaning. They are not foundations to stand on, but gifts to be received. This is the point pressed throughout the book so far—they cannot bear ultimate meaning—but now Solomon gives the other side. Though they lack ultimacy, they are not nothing; they are the very gifts of God, given to be received with joy.

Only when they are viewed as coming from the hand of God do they find their proper place.

What does this look like in the life of a Christian? It begins with a heart that gives thanks. To receive something as a gift is to recognize the Giver—to pause and acknowledge, "This did not come from me, but from the Lord." (Count your blessings) Gratitude reshapes how you see even the simplest things—a meal, a day’s work, a moment of rest—and turns them into occasions of worship.

But it does not stop there. A heart that truly receives God’s gifts does not hoard them. Joy shared is joy multiplied. The one who is thankful uses what he has to bless others—opening his home, giving generously, encouraging freely—because he knows he is not the source, only a recipient. And this also restores the ordinary rhythms of life: fellowship, laughter, shared meals, and community. The man who enjoys life as God’s gift is not closed off or withdrawn, but gladly partakes in the good things God has given, inviting others to share in that same joy.

Use of Reproof (Conviction)

Rebukes the idol of work and inheritance. Many lose sleep and joy because they treat their labor as their god. You can see it in the restless heart that cannot shut off at night, constantly turning over plans, outcomes, and possibilities—because everything feels like it depends on you. You can see it in the anxiety over the future, the need to control what will happen to what you have built, and the frustration when things do not go according to your design. This is not merely diligence; it is a heart trying to secure what God has not promised to be secured by human effort.

It also exposes the way we look to legacy for meaning. We want what we build to last, to be handled wisely, to justify the years we have poured into it. But the Preacher confronts this directly: you cannot control who comes after you, nor what they will do with what you leave behind. When your peace rises and falls with those things, it reveals that your hope is misplaced.

And at its root, this is a refusal to receive life as a gift. Instead of receiving from the hand of God, we grasp, we strive, and we attempt to extract from our labor what it was never meant to give. The result is exactly what the Preacher describes—sorrow, vexation, and a heart that does not rest. This passage calls that what it is: vanity and a striving after wind.

Yet this does not mean that building, planning, and laboring for future generations is wrong. The tension must be held rightly. Scripture commends faithfulness that looks beyond the present, seeking the good of children and even generations to come. But the error comes when we confuse faithful labor with guaranteed outcomes. You are called to build, to plant, to invest, and to pray that God would bless it far beyond your lifetime—but you are not given control over how it will unfold.

Therefore, the reproof is not against long-term faithfulness, but against anxious control. You may labor with a view toward generations, and you should ask the Lord to establish the work of your hands—but your peace cannot rest on whether those future generations steward it well. You sow in hope, you labor in faith, and you entrust the results to God. Anything beyond that slips back into the same restless striving the Preacher condemns.

This speaks especially to the father who feels the weight of responsibility for his household. Scripture calls you to provide, to lead, and to care well for your family—and that is a real duty before God. But it is possible to carry that responsibility in a way that slowly turns into anxious striving. When your thoughts are constantly consumed with “Am I doing enough? Will this be enough? What if I fail them?”—your heart begins to live in the very restlessness this passage exposes.

What does it look like to walk this rightly? You labor diligently and wisely, taking seriously the charge to provide—but you do so as one who is not the ultimate provider. You work hard during the day, and you rest at night, entrusting your family to the Lord who loves them more than you do. You plan, but you also put the plans down. You build, but you also sit at the table. You provide food, and then you actually eat it with joy. In other words, you do not let your responsibility rob you of the very gifts God is giving you. Faithful fatherhood is not only seen in provision, but in peaceful presence—receiving your work from God and enjoying the life He has given you with those He has entrusted to you.

Use of Exhortation (Direction)

Choose the better way: work hard, but receive every good thing as a gift from God. Fear Him and He will give you joy in your toil.

This means you must actively learn to live with open hands before God. Do your work with diligence, skill, and care—but refuse to let your heart cling to the results as though everything depends on you. When the day is done, you must be able to step away, entrusting both your labor and its outcome to the Lord. This is not passivity; it is faith working itself out in rest.

It also means you must deliberately practice enjoyment as an act of obedience. Sit at the table and eat with gratitude. Receive rest without guilt. Rejoice in the work God has given you to do. What does that look like? To the homemaker: the Lord has given you your household as a gift—your children, your home, your daily labor. Now ask honestly: which honors that gift? Sweeping the floor with a grumbling, frustrated spirit the entire time, or doing the same work while singing hymns with your children? Washing dishes as a burden to get through, or turning it into a moment of shared joy and conversation?

The difference is not in the task, but in how it is received. One turns the gift into a burden that makes you someone no one wants to be around; the other receives it as from God and invites others into that joy. These are not distractions from a "greater" purpose—they are part of the very life God has given you, and they are to be received with gratitude and joy. To neglect them through constant striving is not faithfulness, but a failure to receive what God is presently giving you.

And you must bring your household into this as well. Lead your family not only in provision, but in participation—showing them what it looks like to enjoy God’s gifts together. Let them see not just your labor, but your peace. Let them hear not just your plans, but your thanksgiving. In this way, you are not only building for the next generation—you are shaping how they will live before God.

So work hard. Plan wisely. Build with a view toward the future. But do it all as one who knows that God is the giver, God is the sustainer, and God is the one who grants joy. And therefore, you are free—not to withdraw from life, but to fully receive it.

Use of Consolation (Comfort)

Sweet comfort for the godly: your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Your true inheritance is secure in God’s hand. Even when you cannot see the outcome, even when what you build seems fragile or uncertain, nothing done in faith is wasted before Him. The God who gives you work is the same God who remembers it, receives it, and will establish what He pleases in His time.

And this frees your heart. You are not carrying the weight of making your life meaningful—that has already been secured by God Himself. You are not responsible to guarantee the future—only to be faithful in the present. So you may work diligently without fear, rest without guilt, and enjoy without anxiety. The Lord is both the giver of your labor and the keeper of its fruit.

Therefore, you can live with a settled soul. You can sit at your table, look at your work, look at your family, and say: “This is from the hand of God.” And whatever becomes of it in days to come, you are safe—because your life, your labor, and your inheritance are all held fast in Him.