Leaving it All Behind - Ecclesiastes 2:18-26
©Copyright May 3, 2020 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche
As we finish up the second chapter of Ecclesiastes you may find yourself a little wearied by Solomon's approach. He is beginning to sound a great deal like Eeyore from the Winnie the Pooh stories. Eeyore always sees the negative, there is never a hint of enthusiasm in his voice.
Philip Yancey points out the word meaningless appears 35 times in this book. It only occurs one more time in the Bible . . . i He writes,
The issues bothering the Teacher (Solomon) were the same ones that bothered Job, and that bother all fair-minded people today. The rich get richer and the poor poorer, evil people prosper as good ones suffer, tyrants reign, disasters happen, disease spreads, everyone dies and turns to dust. Life is unfair. Nothing makes sense; the whole world seems off-balance and twisted. . . You work hard and someone else gets all the credit. You struggle to be good, and bad people trample you. You accumulate money, and it goes to spoiled heirs. You seek pleasure and it turns sour. . . Death the ever-present stalking specter, contradicts any notion that we are born to be happy. (The Bible Jesus Read p. 145-146)
Ecclesiastes is Solomon's attempt to find meaning in life. So far Solomon has told us
our work is an exercise in futility
wisdom doesn't add up to satisfaction
pleasures do not please
and even being wise doesn't bring significance and satisfaction; it may even make you more aware of the lack thereof.
Today we are going to look again at the futility of work, and we will find ourselves staring at the grim reality of death. But hang on, Solomon is also going to point us in the direction of joy and satisfaction in life.
18 I came to hate all my hard work here on earth, for I must leave to others everything I have earned. 19 And who can tell whether my successors will be wise or foolish? Yet they will control everything I have gained by my skill and hard work under the sun. How meaningless! 20 So I gave up in despair, questioning the value of all my hard work in this world.
21 Some people work wisely with knowledge and skill, then must leave the fruit of their efforts to someone who hasn’t worked for it. This, too, is meaningless, a great tragedy. 22 So what do people get in this life for all their hard work and anxiety? 23 Their days of labor are filled with pain and grief; even at night their minds cannot rest. It is all meaningless.
24 So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God. 25 For who can eat or enjoy anything apart from him? 26 God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy to those who please him. But if a sinner becomes wealthy, God takes the wealth away and gives it to those who please him. This, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind.
What Is Meaningless?
Solomon observes that it is meaningless that we work all our lives under the sun and we have to leave it all behind. People sludge through their jobs in the hope they are making a better life for themselves. We (try) to save our money so we can do things. But then something happens; we die.
Jesus tells the story of the man who built more barns to store all his excess produce (think of it as his retirement account). He said, "This is great! I can retire, sit on the front porch, and just enjoy what I have earned over the years." But, said Jesus, what the man didn't know, was that he was going to die that very night.
My dad worked hard since he was 18 years old. He took the bus to downtown Chicago every day for 40 years. He did well in his job and saved well. He looked forward to retiring and traveling with my mom. Unfortunately, at 58 years old my dad was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. Most of that hard-earned money was eaten up by his disease and paid to a Nursing home.
This is what Solomon is reflecting on. You work hard all your life to amass your treasures and then you leave it to someone else.
It is also meaningless, said Solomon that the person who gets your stuff will not appreciate it because they didn't work for it. (In fact, many of them will feel entitled to what you earned.)
They will not value it as you did. They could very well squander it. This can happen because of a lawsuit, a divorce, or a hostile takeover of what you have spent your life buiding,
As history would show, that is exactly what happened in Solomon's case. He had a strong Empire, he was revered even by the nations around him. Israel had known a time of great peace during his time as King. And then, Solomon died. His son, Rehoboam took over.
The northern part of Israel (which consisted of 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel) came to Rehoboam and asked him for some tax relief. The senior advisors told Rehoboam this was a good idea. They said, if he gave some tax relief, they would adore and follow him. But Rehoboam's friends had another read on things. They said, "If you give them tax relief, they are going to think you are weak and certainly not as strong as your father. Let them know that if they thought you dad was tough they have not seen anything yet!
You can guess what happened. Rehoboam was more concerned about his ego than the strength of his father's kingdom. He followed the advice of his friends and the result was the 10 tribes formed their own country with their own King. Just like that, everything Solomon worked so hard to build . . . was dismantled.
That can happen in a business, it can happen on a farm (the next generation may decide to sell off the land and take the land that had been in your family for generations). Even in the church, a Pastor can build a healthy and strong congregation only to be followed by someone who does not have the same commitment to the goals that made the church strong. A church of several hundred can quickly become a church of just a handful of people.
Solomon said, what makes this all even worse is that you worked long hours, you sacrificed, you spent many sleepless nights, all for what will be given to someone who may dismantle the very thing you thought would be your legacy. And Solomon concludes . . . it is meaningless. Or as Eeyore would say, "What's the point of working hard when it isn't going to last anyway."
We live at a time when many people derive their identity and value from the work they do. The first question we ask most people is "What do you do?" As a result, we look to our jobs for significance, for security, and hopefully to find fulfillment and happiness (if not from the job itself, from the money and contacts we make through the job). Unfortunately, as we have seen recently you can lose a job due to circumstances beyond your control. It could a pandemic, it could be a new owner, it could be because of the accusations of another, or an honest mistake on the job. The job which is so much a part of our identity can be lost. Then what do we have? If we put our hope in these things we are on very fragile ground.
The last thing he says is meaningless is in the last verse of our text.
But if a sinner becomes wealthy, God takes the wealth away and gives it to those who please him. This, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind.
Solomon is saying, in the end, believers will inherit everything. So, from the perspective of life from under the sun, this too makes it all futile, meaningless, a waste of time.
A Better Way of Living
The verses that follow are interpreted by people in two different ways.
24 So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God. 25 For who can eat or enjoy anything apart from him? 26 God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy to those who please him. But if a sinner becomes wealthy, God takes the wealth away and gives it to those who please him. This, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind.
The first group of people says, Solomon is saying, since you are going to leave it all behind, just grab all the gusto now. The phrase is Carpe Diem. It is to live in or for the moment. The argument is: This is all we have, so make the best of it. Don’t worry about other people or eternal consequences . . . just have a good time.
This is the justification behind many divorces, drug or alcohol addictions, or people borrowing themselves into oblivion in order to squeeze as much enjoyment out of life as possible. The idea is: we're going to die anyway, why not have a good time before you go. When your relationship becomes difficult or you no longer “feel” anything, find someone new. Life is too short to be miserable. And why not borrow all kinds of money and have fun? The credit company can repossess everything when I die. After all, isn’t that what bankruptcy is for? (That is NOT what bankruptcy is for. It is designed to help people manage debt not to bail people out who were reckless in taking on debt with no real intention to pay).
Carpe Diem is the kind of life we often see on television and in the movies. It is also the approach many people we know take to their lives. The most important thing is riding the wave of excitement. The good feeling is all we can hope for in life so . . . run after the good feeling. If it feels good to tell someone off . . . do that! If life is frustrating, get drunk or get high. If you want something you can’t afford, get another credit card!
I do not believe this is what Solomon is saying at all. I think Solomon is pointing us beyond the empty pursuit of our life “under the sun” to something better.
Think about something here. The fact that we yearn for delight, beauty, personal fulfillment, and a sense of meaning seem to argue for something more in life. Where does this yearning for meaning come from? Where do we get the idea of pleasure? Why do we long for something that will endure after we have gone? The answer I believe is there is something deep inside of us that seeks these things. Why? God created us with these longings. In my mind, this argues for something and someone beyond this world who gave the longings to us.
I think what Solomon IS saying is: enjoying food, drink, and finding satisfaction in our job and life can only happen as we live in fellowship with God.
You have heard me say before: I am always troubled by those people who say, “I don’t mind going to Hell because that is where all my friends will be.” The implication being, “I’d rather have a good time with my friends in Hell than be with the stuffy church-goers in Heaven.” But the faulty point in that logic is this: friendship, enjoyment, satisfaction, and even a “good time” are all gifts from God. Hell is the absence of God and His blessing. These things will not exist in Hell because they come from the hand of our Creator and Lord. Hell has perhaps been best described as “utter loneliness.” Jesus said it will be a place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Not exactly a good party flier.
Solomon understood that eating, drinking, and finding satisfaction in life were all good things but they are not ultimate things. When you look to these things to find ultimate meaning and purpose you are going to be left empty, and even these "good" things, will seem hollow. We must not make the things God has given us into gods. They will only disappoint us.
The same is true with your job. It is good to enjoy what you do. However, the real satisfaction from our work comes from working as if you were serving the Lord. When all is said and done, what matters is not the amount of salary you earn or the title you are given. What will matter is the Lord’s "Well Done."
Conclusions
Let's draw some conclusions from this grim reality of life under the sun contrasted with life lived for the glory of God.
We Matter. G.K. Chesterton once wrote,
All men matter. You matter. I matter. It's the hardest thing in theology to believe.
God created us with a longing for something more. We are all like Adam and Eve after they forfeited life in the Garden of Eden. They lost what they were meant to enjoy. Instinctively, we know something is wrong with the world. We know we were created for more than what this life has to offer. We see the futility and meaninglessness of life outside of Eden. We can choose to believe we are simply frustrated creatures of chance, that have no hope of happiness, (again we have to ask: Where does the concept of happiness come from?) or we embrace the message of the Bible that says we are sinful souls alienated from our Creator.
The message of the Gospel is this: God wants to begin the process of bringing us home. In Romans 1 Paul says God has created us with a sense of the presence of God. We instinctively know He must be there. Unfortunately, we also know we cannot reach Him or seem to find Him.
The coming of Christ into the world is God doing what we could not do for ourselves. Jesus tells us He became man because we matter to God. We don't matter because we are good. Because we are not. We matter because we are His. We are like children that have rebelled repeatedly against their parents yet are still loved by mom and dad. We are broken, but He has come to make us whole.
God went to great lengths to save us from the wrath that is to come. Jesus willingly went to the cross for us. These facts show us God cares about us. He paid the price for our sin. You and I are very much aware of our failures. We see the stains when we look in the mirror, but God has removed those stains from His record! In His eyes He sees what He created us to be.
It is astounding news! The Creator of all that is, loves and cares for you.
When we Turn to and trust Jesus, Life is Lived with a sense of purpose and joy. The things of this world cannot make us happy. They cannot bring us fulfillment. However, when we are made new through faith in Christ it is as if our taste buds are transformed. What once was futility and frustration are now blessings from the hand of a gracious God.
We know this life is not our home. We understand there are inequities, pain and frustration in life. But we also see some things that give us a foretaste of Heaven. When we are not looking for things to bring us fulfillment in and of themselves, we come to understand that things and relationships are designed to point us beyond this life. The good things in our relationships point to an intimacy this world cannot sustain. The beauty around us draws us upwards to a Heavenly beauty that is beyond what this world can offer. Those glimpses of satisfaction in a job well done summon us to yearn for the "Well Done" of our Lord and King.
Faith in Christ is the key that unlocks the joy of living. It is a joy that transcends sorrow. It is a peace that is independent of our circumstances. It is a satisfaction that is anchored to our relationship with Him and not to the opinions of men.
Finally, Until you are prepared to die, you will never understand what it means to live. Solomon is going to come back to this a number of times in this book. Understanding that there is more to life than our existence here . . . changes how we live here. The Apostle Paul understood this. In the book of Philippians, he said, "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain." Once we deal with our fear of death (because of the work of Christ) we no longer have to live tentatively. It is not a coincidence that the book of Philippians written from Paul’s jail cell, is a book that brims with joy. Once we understand life is to be lived for the glory of God, in anticipation of the life that is beyond description, we can relax and enjoy the journey.
I like going on tours while on vacation. You get on a bus and you are free to enjoy the trip. You don't have to worry about directions, about parking, or even about getting sleepy. You can look at the sights and learn things you would not have seen if you had been distracted by all those other things.
We spend so much of our time afraid of the threat of death. We don't enjoy eating because it may cause us to die earlier. We are afraid to share the gospel with someone because they might become hostile. We are tentative in our relationships because we protect ourselves, afraid of the pain of losing one another. We panic in difficult circumstances because we are afraid we are going to be cheated out of our share of the enjoyment of life. We spend so much of our life trying to ward off death that we miss out on the enjoyment of life. If we are right with God, through Christ, we no longer need to fear death and that frees us to more fully enjoy life.
This is one or the lessons Solomon is trying to get us to see. Life apart from a relationship with God is frustrating. It cannot deliver what we want it to deliver. Because of this, many people despair. Some live recklessly. Others take their own lives. They don't see any point to this life. What they don't understand is that the futility of this life is designed to whisper to us: "There is a life that is bigger than this one." That voice summons us to a relationship with God. And when we hear and understand that . . . this life turns from black and white, to high definition color.