Pt.3 Live Peacefully
GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE
“Live Peacefully”
Ecclesiastes 5:1-7, 10-12
There are many today that are seeking peace.
Peace in their homes with their children or spouse, peace at work where it never seems to calm down and is always very hectic,
peace at school when it seems no one likes you,
peace in relationships where it seems nothing you say is correct,
peace in many war conditions with other countries,
peace with our own neighbors.
Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder and former Executive Director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is also the founder and former director of its renowned Stress Reduction Clinic and Professor of Medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Kabat-Zinn recommends several guidelines for practicing mindfulness:
Breathing is the cornerstone of mindfulness. Kabat-Zinn calls it a natural tranquilizer.
Refrain from judging your experiences as good or bad.
Avoid striving. Allow things to be as they are instead of wishing your life were different.
Let go of the past. Let go of worrying about the future.
Peace is not something that comes with a special formula.
The only true peace comes from a relationship with God through His son Jesus Christ.
What we will see today is how our relationship with God will allow us to see every situation from a different perspective.
The two areas we are given in chapter 5 of Ecclesiastes give us the essential foundation of finding peace in this world.
INGREDIENTS OF A PEACEFUL LIFE
- RELIABILITY IN YOUR SPEECH – V.1-7
1 Guard your step when you go to the house of God.
Better to draw near in obedience than to offer the sacrifice as fools do, for they are ignorant and do wrong.
Reliability in your speech is when you do what you are going to say.
Action that matches your speech.
Living a life of obedience to God, not performance, is accomplished by following His plan and purpose for our lives.
Getting to know Him enough that His will is engrained into our minds.
It is relational.
Solomon is speaking of different areas we make promises about.
Concerning our worship – songs, offering, sacrifice
We should come with a…
- receptive attitude
- readiness to listen rather than lecture God on what He ought to do
- worship(sacrifice) offering to God
- don’t attempt to bribe God with vows, we think that worshiping God gives us leverage to bargain with God. (I came to church 3 Sundays now things should start going different.)
Concerning our commitment to God – v.2-5
2 Do not be hasty to speak, and do not be impulsive to make a speech before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.
3 For dreams result from much work and a fool’s voice from many words.
4 When you make a vow to God, don’t delay fulfilling it, because He does not delight in fools. Fulfill what you vow.
5 Better that you do not vow than that you vow and not fulfill it.
- Verse 4 is telling us not to make a commitment you have no intention to keep.
Commitment of giving your life to Christ.
Commitment to give up drinking
Commitment to stop cursing
Commitment to remain pure until marriage
Commitment to not fill your mind with dirty movies
– If you arouse God’s displeasure and He may well take away what we were thinking of keeping for ourselves. (our time, talents, treasures)
Concerning your comments in front of others.
6 Do not let your mouth bring guilt on you, and do not say in the presence of the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry with your words and destroy the work of your hands?
7 For many dreams bring futility, also many words. So, •fear God.
Living peacefully is not accomplished by doing enough.
We cannot do enough to have complete peace in our lives.
We think if we do enough than we can be meet a commitment.
It is like our salvation, there is nothing we can do to earn it. It is a matter of faith and trust.
Realize that you can't keep your promises.
Consider this question: If we could keep our promises, wouldn't we have done it by now?
How many times have we made the same promises?
Many of us have struggled with promise-keeping for one reason: We have focused on our performance more than on Jesus Christ.
The Bible teaches that effective Christian living doesn't come by trying.
It comes by trusting Christ to express his life through us.
Steve McVey, president of Grace Walk Ministries. Men of Integrity, Vol. 1, no. 2.
- FINANCIAL CONTENTMENT – V.10-12
10 The one who loves money is never satisfied with money, and whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with income. This too is futile.
Some people trust money as though it were a god. They love it, make sacrifices for it, and think that it can do anything.
The person who loves money cannot be satisfied no matter how much is in the bank account, because the human heart was made to be satisfied only by God.
1 Timothy 6:6-12 - 6 But godliness with contentment is a great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.
9 But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
Some people have sacrificed their worship to God through
their tithing (because they spend it on many toys),
their time (because of their working for pleasure),
their talents (using them for their own benefit not for God)
We have got to learn contentment if we want peace.
v.11 When good things increase, the ones who consume them multiply; what, then, is the profit to the owner, except to gaze at them with his eyes?
Philippians 4:10-13 - 10 I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last you have renewed your care for me. You were, in fact, concerned about me, but lacked the opportunity to show it. 11 I don’t say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 12 I know both how to have a little, and I know how to have a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content—whether well-fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. 13 I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me.
In his autobiography Just As I Am, Billy Graham recalls a story demonstrating that true greatness is not defined by wealth or fame, but by character.
Some years ago Ruth and I had a vivid illustration of this on an island in the Caribbean. One of the wealthiest men in the world had asked us to come to his lavish home for lunch. He was 75 years old, and throughout the entire meal he seemed close to tears. "I am the most miserable man in the world," he said. "Out there is my yacht. I can go anywhere I want to. I have my private plane, my helicopters. I have everything I want to make my life happy, yet I am as miserable as hell."
We talked to him and prayed with him, trying to point him to Christ, who alone gives lasting meaning to life.
Then we went down the hill to a small cottage where we were staying. That afternoon the pastor of the local Baptist church came to call. He was an Englishman, and he too was 75 and a widower who spent most of his time taking care of his two invalid sisters. He was full of enthusiasm and love for Christ and others. "I don't have two pounds to my name," he said with a smile, "but I am the happiest man on this island."
Billy Graham relates how he asked his wife Ruth after they left, "Who do you think is the richer man?" She didn't have to reply because they both already knew the answer.
Billy Graham, Just As I Am (Harper Collins, 1999)
12 The sleep of the worker is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich permits him no sleep.
Do we think the only way for us to be happy is to have more money? More money will not bring more peace.
The more things we have, the more we have to keep track of and worry about.
John D. Rockefeller, at the age 53, was the world’s only billionaire, earning a million dollars a week, but he was a sick man who lived on crackers and milk, and could not sleep because of worry. When he started giving his money away, his health changed radically and he lived to celebrate his 98th birthday.
A Little Bit of Prayer and 19 Cents
Lyle Eggleston served as a missionary for many years in a little town on the rocky coast of northern Chile. In time, the congregation grew to about eighty adults, but Eggleston was concerned that the Christians in that area didn’t seem able to support their own national pastor. The people were very poor, and the church’s offerings amounted to no more than six dollars a month.
One day, Eggleston brought the problem to the Lord during a definite time of prayer. A few weeks later he stopped to visit a middle-aged couple, new converts who had begun the habit of reading their Bibles every day.
“What does the word tithing mean?” asked Manuel. “We ran into that in our reading, and we don’t understand it.”
Eggleston didn’t really want to answer the question, for he knew that Manuel and his wife were unemployed and on the verge of destitution. They were somehow managing to feed themselves and their twenty-five Rhode Island hens on the income from the eggs laid each day.
Nevertheless they insisted he explain the concept of tithing to them, so he turned to 1 Corinthians 16 and 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 where Paul urged believers to lay aside each week a portion of their income to the Lord.
The following Sunday Manuel handed Lyle an envelope and, smiling, said, “That’s our tithe!” Inside were a few bills amounting to about 19 cents.
The next Sunday afternoon, the couple flagged down Lyle as he rode his bicycle past their house. They had some exciting news. The Tuesday morning after they had given their tithe, there’s wasn’t a bite for breakfast, nor any money. Their first impulse was to take the few pesos that had accumulated in their “tithe box,” but on second thought they said, “No. That’s God’s money. We will go without breakfast this morning.”
There was nothing to do but tend the hens. Much to their surprise, there were eggs in the nests that had usually at that hour been empty. Later in the day, a little man came along with a pushcart wanting fertilizer. They cleaned out their hen house, and the manure brought a good price. After buying groceries, there was enough money left over for the wife to purchase a pair of shoes, so she rode the bus 12 kilometers around the bay into a larger town. There she bumped into a nephew she had not seen in five years, and who, to her utter surprise, owned a shoe store. After she had found just the pair she wanted, he wrapped them for her and handed her the package with these words, “Oh no, Aunt, I can’t take your money. These shoes are a gift from me.”
The following week, Manuel got a job on a project that would last for two years, and soon the little couple was tithing on a much larger salary. Word got around the church, and others began experimenting with giving. Soon the church’s income begin to rise dramatically, and they were able to pay their own rent and utility bills, support a national pastor who was working with Indians, and, in a short time, they were able to call and finance a pastor of their own.
Lyle Eggleston and his wife were able to move to a new location and start a new work as the little church grew in numbers, size, property, and faith. “We had offered up a bit of prayer and 19 cents,” Lyle later said, “and God did the rest.”
E. The Vanity of Popular Religion and Politics (5:1–9)
Man is instinctively religious, but that is not necessarily good. In fact, it may be positively bad.
His very religiosity may hide from him his need of salvation as a free gift of God’s grace.
In addition, man’s own religion may be nothing more than a charade, an outward show without inward reality.
Vanity may seep into religious life just as much as in any other sphere, maybe even more so.
So, in chapter 5, Solomon lays down some advice to guard against formalism and externalism in dealing with the Creator.
5:1 First, he advises people to watch their steps when they go to the house of God.
While this may refer to reverence in general, here it is explained to mean being more ready to learn than to engage in a lot of rash talk.
Rash promises are the sacrifice of fools. Unthinking people make them without considering that it is evil.
5:2 Worshipers should avoid recklessness in prayers, promises, or in professions of devotion to God.
The presence of the Almighty is no place for precipitate or compulsive talking. The fact that God is infinitely high above man, as heaven is high above the earth, should teach man to curb his speech when drawing near to Him.
5:3 Just as a hyperactive mind often produces wild dreams, so a hyperactive mouth produces a torrent of foolish words, even in a prayer. Alexander Pope wrote that “Words are like leaves, and where they most abound, much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.”
Solomon did not intend verse 3 to be a full, scientific explanation of the origin of dreams; he was merely pointing out what seemed to him to be a connection between the whirring wheels of his mind during the day and the restless dreams that often followed at night.
5:4 In the matter of vows to God, simple honesty demands that they be paid promptly. God has no use for the dolt who talks up a storm, then fails to deliver. So the word is, “Pay what you have vowed.”
5:5 If you don’t intend to pay, don’t vow in the first place.
How well the Preacher knew man’s propensity to strike a bargain with God when caught in a tight, desperate situation: “Lord, if you get me out of this, I’ll serve you forever.” But then the tendency is to forget quickly when the crisis is past.
Even in moments of spiritual exhilaration, it is easy to make a vow of dedication, or celibacy, or poverty, or the like. God has never required such vows of His people. In many cases, such as in the matter of celibacy, it would be better not to make them anyway. But where they are made, they should be kept. Certainly the marriage vow is ratified in heaven and cannot be broken without costly consequences. Vows made before conversion should be kept, except in those cases where they violate the Word of God.
5:6 So the general rule is not to let your mouth lead you into sin through shattered vows. And don’t try to excuse yourself before God’s messenger by saying it was an error and that you didn’t really mean it. Or don’t think that the mechanical offering of a sacrifice before Him will atone for careless breaking of vows.
The messenger of God may refer to the priest, since broken vows were to be confessed before him (Lev. 5:4–6). But this presupposes a knowledge of the Mosaic law, whereas Solomon is speaking here apart from revealed religion. So perhaps we are safer to understand him as meaning anyone who serves as a representative of God.
The basic thought is that God is exceedingly displeased by insincerity of speech. Why then say things that are certain to anger Him? This will inevitably cause Him to obstruct, frustrate, and destroy everything you try to do.
5:7 Just as there is tremendous unreality in a multitude of dreams, so in words spoken unadvisedly there is vanity and ruin. The thing to do, says Solomon, is to fear God. However, he does not mean the loving trust of Jehovah but the actual fear of incurring the displeasure of the Almighty. G. Campbell Morgan reminds us that this is the fear of a slave, not a son. Unless we see this, we give Solomon credit for a greater burst of spiritual insight than is intended here.
5:8 Next Solomon reverts to the subject of oppression of the poor and perversion of justice. He counsels against complete despair if we see these evils in a province. After all, there are chains of command in government, and those in the higher echelons watch their subordinates with an eagle eye.
But do they really? Too often the system of checks and balances breaks down, and every level of officialdom receives its share of graft and payola.
The only satisfaction that righteous people have is in knowing that God is higher than the highest authorities, and He will see that all accounts are settled some day. But it is doubtful if Solomon refers to this here.
5:9 Verse 9 is one of the most obscure verses in Ecclesiastes. The reason is that the original Hebrew is uncertain. This can be seen from the wide variety of translations:
JND: Moreover the earth is every way profitable: the king (himself) is dependent on the field.
NASB: After all, a king who cultivates the field is an advantage to the land.
TEV: Even a king depends on the harvest.
NKJV: Moreover the profit of the land is for all; even the king is served from the field.
The general thought seems to be that even the highest official is dependent on the produce of the field and thus on the providence of God. All are accountable to God.
F. The Vanity of Passing Riches (5:10–6:12)
5:10 People who love money are never satisfied; they always want more. Wealth does not buy contentment. Profits, dividends, interest payments, and capital gains whet the appetite for more. It all appears rather empty.
5:11 When a man’s possessions increase, it seems that there is a corresponding increase in the number of parasites who live off his wealth, whether management consultants, tax advisers, accountants, lawyers, household employees, or sponging relatives.
A man can wear only one suit at a time, can only eat so much in a day. So the main benefit of his wealth is to be able to look at his bank books, stocks, and bonds, and to say with other rich fools, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry” (Luke 12:19).
5:12 When it comes to sound sleep, a laboring man has the advantage. Whether he has had a banquet or a snack, he can rest without care or apprehension. Across town, the rich man is having a fitful night worrying about the stock market, wondering about thefts and embezzlements, and swallowing antacid to calm the churning sea of dyspepsia that is in his stomach.
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The magazine cartoon showed a dismal looking man walking out of a bank manager’s office with the manager saying to his secretary, “He suffers from back problems: back taxes, back rent, and back alimony.”
Many people today suffer from similar “back problems.” They refuse to heed the warning Bill Earle gave many years ago: “When your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep will be your downfall.”
The wealthy King Solomon knew something about money. Some of this wisdom he shared in the Book of Proverbs, and some he included here in Ecclesiastes. After all, he couldn’t discuss “life under the sun” and ignore money!
But he goes beyond the subject of mere money and deals with the values of life, the things that really count. After all, there is more than one way to be rich and more than one way to be poor. In this chapter, Solomon issues three warnings that relate to the values of life.
1. Don’t rob the Lord (Ecc. 5:1–7)
Solomon had visited the courtroom, the marketplace, the highway, and the palace. Now he paid a visit to the temple, that magnificent building whose construction he had supervised. He watched the worshipers come and go, praising God, praying, sacrificing, and making vows. He noted that many of them were not at all sincere in their worship, and they left the sacred precincts in worse spiritual condition than when they had entered. What was their sin? They were robbing God of the reverence and honor that He deserved. Their acts of worship were perfunctory, insincere, and hypocritical.
In today’s language, “Keep thy foot!” means “Watch your step!” Even though God’s glorious presence doesn’t dwell in our church buildings as it did in the temple, believers today still need to heed this warning. The worship of God is the highest ministry of the church and must come from devoted hearts and yielded wills. For God’s people to participate in public worship while harboring unconfessed sin is to ask for God’s rebuke and judgment (Isa. 1:10–20; Amos 5; Ps. 50).
Solomon touched on several aspects of worship, the first of which was the offering of sacrifices (v. 1). God’s people today don’t offer animals to the Lord as in Old Testament times, because Jesus Christ has fulfilled all the sacrifices in His death on the cross (Heb. 10:1–14). But as the priests of God, believers today offer up spiritual sacrifices through Him: our bodies (Rom. 12:1–2); people won to the Saviour (Rom. 15:16); money (Phil. 4:18); praise and good works (Heb. 13:15–16); a broken heart (Ps. 51:17); and our prayers of faith (Ps. 141:1–2).
The important thing is that the worshiper “be more ready to hear,” that is, to obey the Word of God. Sacrifices are not substitutes for obedience, as King Saul found out when he tried to cover up his disobedience with pious promises (1 Sam. 15:12–23). Offerings in the hands without obedient faith in the heart become “the sacrifice of fools,” because only a fool thinks he can deceive God. The fool thinks he is doing good, but he or she is only doing evil. And God knows it.
Then Solomon issued a warning about careless praying (vv. 2–3). Prayer is serious business. Like marriage, “it must not be entered into lightly or carelessly, but soberly and in the fear of God.” If you and I were privileged to bring our needs and requests to the White House or to Buckingham Palace, we would prepare our words carefully and exhibit proper behavior. How much more important it is when we come to the throne of Almighty God. Yet, there is so much flippant praying done by people who seem to know nothing about the fear of the Lord.
When you pray, watch out for both hasty words and too many words (Matt. 6:7). The secret of acceptable praying is a prepared heart (Ps. 141:1–2), because the mouth speaks what the heart contains (Matt. 12:34–37). If we pray only to impress people, we will not get through to God. The author of Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan, wrote: “In prayer, it is better to have a heart without words, than words without a heart.”
Verse 3 presents an analogy: Just as many dreams show that the person sleeping is a hard worker, so many words show that the person praying is a fool (Prov. 29:20). I recall a church prayer meeting during which a young man prayed eloquently and at great length, but nobody sensed the power of God at work. When an uneducated immigrant stood up and stammered out her brief prayer in broken English, we all said a fervent “Amen!” We sensed that God had heard her requests. Spurgeon said, “It is not the length of our prayers, but the strength of our prayers, that makes the difference.”
Solomon’s third admonition had to do with making vows to the Lord (vv. 4–7). God did not require His people to make vows in order to be accepted by Him, but the opportunity was there for them to express their devotion if they felt led to do so (see Num. 30; Deut. 23:21–23; Acts 18:18).
The Preacher warned about two sins.
The first was that of making the vow with no intention of keeping it, in other words, lying to God. The second sin was making the vow but delaying to keep it, hoping you could get out of it.
When the priest [“angel” = messenger] came to collect the promised sacrifice or gift, the person would say, “Please forget about my vow! It was a mistake!”
God hears what we say and holds us to our promises, unless they were so foolish that He could only dismiss them. If providence prevents us from fulfilling what we promised, God understands and will release us. If we made our vows only to impress others, or perhaps to “bribe” the Lord (“If God answers my prayer, I will give $500 to missions!”), then we will pay for our careless words. Many times in my pastoral ministry I have heard sick people make promises to God as they asked for healing, only to see those promises forgotten when they recovered.
People make empty vows because they live in a religious “dream world”; they think that words are the same as deeds (v. 7). Their worship is not serious, so their words are not dependable. They enjoy the “good feelings” that come when they make their promises to God, but they do themselves more harm than good. They like to “dream” about fulfilling their vows, but they never get around to doing it. They practice a make-believe religion that neither glorifies God nor builds Christian character.
“I will go into thy house with burnt offerings; I will pay thee my vows, which my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble” (Ps. 66:13–14). When we rob the Lord of the worship and honor due to Him, we are also robbing ourselves of the spiritual blessings He bestows on those who “worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).
2. Don’t rob others (Ecc. 5:8–9)
Solomon left the temple and went to the city hall where he again witnessed corrupt politicians oppressing the poor (3:16–17; 4:1–3). The government officials violated the law by using their authority to help themselves and not to serve others, a practice condemned by Moses (Lev. 19:15; Deut. 24:17).
The remarkable thing is that Solomon wrote, “Don’t be surprised at this!” He certainly did not approve of their unlawful practices, but he knew too much about the human heart to expect anything different from the complicated bureaucracy in Israel.
The NIV translation of verse 8 gives a vivid description of the situation: “One official is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still.” Instead of the poor man getting a fair hearing, “the matter is lost in red tape and bureaucracy” (v. 8, TLB), and the various officials pocket the money that should have gone to the innocent poor man.
Verse 9 is difficult and major translations do not agree. The general idea seems to be that in spite of corruption in the bureaucracy, it is better to have organized government, and a king over the land, than to have anarchy. A few dishonest people may profit from corrupt practices, but everybody benefits from organized authority. Of course, the ideal is to have a government that is both honest and efficient, but man’s heart being what it is, the temptation to dishonest gain is always there. Lord Acton wrote to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887, “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Solomon’s investigation bears this out.
3. Don’t rob yourself (Ecc. 5:10–20)
Solomon had already discussed “the futility of wealth” in 2:1–11, and some of those ideas are repeated here. What he did in this section was demolish several of the myths that people hold about wealth. Because they hold to these illusions, they rob themselves of the blessings God has for them.
Wealth brings satisfaction (v. 10). Some people treat money as though it were a god. They love it, make sacrifices for it, and think that it can do anything. Their minds are filled with thoughts about it; their lives are controlled by getting it and guarding it; and when they have it, they experience a great sense of security. What faith in the Lord does for the Christian, money does for many unbelievers. How often we hear people say, “Well, money may not be the number one thing in life, but it’s way ahead of whatever is number two!”
The person who loves money cannot be satisfied no matter how much is in the bank account—because the human heart was made to be satisfied only by God (3:11). “Take heed and beware of covetousness,” warned Jesus, “for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things which he possesses” (Luke 12:15, NKJV). First the person loves money, and then he loves more money, and the disappointing pursuit has begun that can lead to all sorts of problems. “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Tim. 6:10, NKJV).
Money solves every problem (v. 11). There is no escaping the fact that we need a certain amount of money in order to live in this world, but money of itself is not the magic “cure-all” for every problem. In fact, an increase in wealth usually creates new problems that we never even knew existed before. Solomon mentioned one: relatives and friends start showing up and enjoying our hospitality. All we can do is watch them eat up our wealth. Or perhaps it is the tax agent who visits us and decides that we owe the government more money.
John Wesley, cofounder of the Methodist Church, told his people, “Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” Wesley himself could have been a very wealthy man, but he chose to live simply and give generously.
Wealth brings peace of mind (v. 12). The late Joe Louis, world heavyweight boxing champion, used to say, “I don’t like money actually, but it quiets my nerves.” But Solomon said that possessing wealth is no guarantee that your nerves will be calm and your sleep sound. According to him, the common laborer sleeps better than the rich man. The suggestion seems to be that the rich man ate too much and was kept awake all night by an upset stomach. But surely Solomon had something greater in mind than that. The Living Bible expresses verse 12 perfectly: “The man who works hard sleeps well whether he eats little or much, but the rich must worry and suffer insomnia.”
More than one preacher has mentioned John D. Rockefeller in his sermons as an example of a man whose life was almost ruined by wealth. At the age of fifty-three, Rockefeller was the world’s only billionaire, earning about a million dollars a week. But he was a sick man who lived on crackers and milk and could not sleep because of worry. When he started giving his money away, his health changed radically and he lived to celebrate his ninety-eighth birthday!
Yes, it’s good to have the things that money can buy, provided you don’t lose the things that money can’t buy.
Wealth provides security (vv. 13–17). The picture here is of two rich men. One hoarded all his wealth and ruined himself by becoming a miser. The other man made some unsound investments and lost his wealth. He was right back where he started from and had no estate to leave to his son. He spent the rest of his days in the darkness of discouragement and defeat, and he did not enjoy life. Like all of us, he brought nothing into the world at birth, and he took nothing out of the world at death (see Job 1:21; Ps. 49:17; 1 Tim. 6:7).
This account makes us think of our Lord’s parable about the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13–21). The man thought all his problems were solved when he became rich, but immediately he was faced with providing bigger barns for his wealth. He thought he was safe and secure for years to come, but that night he died! His money provided no security whatsoever.
Keep in mind that Solomon was advocating neither poverty nor riches, because both have their problems (Prov. 30:7–9). The Preacher was warning his listeners against the love of money and the delusions that wealth can bring. In the closing verses of the chapter (vv. 18–20), he affirmed once again the importance of accepting our station in life and enjoying the blessings that God gives to us.
The thing that is “good and fitting” (v. 18, NKJV) is to labor faithfully, enjoy the good things of life, and accept it all as the gracious gift of God. Solomon gave us this wise counsel before in 2:24, 3:12–13, and 3:22, and he will repeat it at least three more times before he ends his “sermon.”
There are three ways to get wealth: we can work for it, we can steal it, or we can receive it as a gift (see Eph. 4:28). Solomon saw the blessings of life as God’s gift to those who work and who accept that work as the favor of God. “To enjoy your work and to accept your lot in life—that is indeed a gift from God” (v. 19, TLB).
Solomon added another important thought: the ability to enjoy life’s blessings is also a gift from God. Solomon will expand on this thought in the next chapter and point out the unhappiness of people who possess wealth but are not able to enjoy it. We thank God for food, but we should also thank Him for healthy taste buds and a digestive system that functions correctly. A wealthy friend, now in heaven, often took me and my wife to expensive restaurants, but he was unable to enjoy the food because he couldn’t taste it. All of his wealth could not purchase healing for his taste buds.
Verse 20 may mean that the person who rejoices in God’s daily blessings will never have regrets. “The person who does that will not need to look back with sorrow on his past, for God gives him joy” (TLB). The time to start storing up happy memories is now. “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Ps. 90:12).
It may also mean that the believer who gratefully accepts God’s gifts today will not fret and worry about how long he or she will live. It is an established fact that the people who have the most birthdays live the longest, but if they keep complaining about “getting old” they will have very little to enjoy. People who are thankful to God “will not dwell overmuch upon the passing years,” as the New English Bible translates verse 20. They will take each day as it comes and use it to serve the Lord.
In chapter 6, Solomon will conclude his discussion of “the futility of wealth.” He might well have chosen Matthew 6:33 as the text for his message, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (NKJV). The important thing is that we love the Lord, accept the lot He assigns us, and enjoy the blessings He graciously bestows.
If we focus more on the gifts than on the Giver, we are guilty of idolatry. If we accept His gifts, but complain about them, we are guilty of ingratitude. If we hoard His gifts and will not share them with others, we are guilty of indulgence. But if we yield to His will and use what He gives us for His glory, then we can enjoy life and be satisfied.
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5:1-7. These verses are often wrongly interpreted as an interlude in Solomon’s argument. They are assumed to give advice on proper worship, including the proper attitude for worship (v. 1), the proper practice of prayer (vv. 2-3), and the proper payment of vows (vv. 4-7).
In reality, however, they are an important part of Solomon’s argument, warning against the folly of rash vows which could cause a person to lose the fruits of his labor through God’s destroying the work of his hands (v. 6). Thus Solomon warned against the folly of rash vows which he called the sacrifice of fools (v. 1) and the speech of a fool (v. 3).
He warned against uttering a hasty and ill-considered vow to the Lord: Do not be quick with your mouth; do not be hasty in your heart (v. 2).
Solomon also warned that it would do no good to try to get out of fulfilling such a vow by pleading with the priest that it was a mistake (v. 6, something done inadvertently; cf. “error” in 10:5).
The temple messenger probably refers to the priest as in Malachi 2:7. The basis for this warning was Deuteronomy 23:21-23, where vows were described as voluntary but binding once made, because failure to fulfill them was called sin and would result in God’s punishment.
Thus Solomon called foolish vows wrongdoing (they do wrong, Ecc. 5:1) and warned that a person’s mouth could lead him into sin (v. 6), which could result in God’s displeasure (v. 4) and anger (v. 6).
Such a sin can ultimately lead to the loss of all a person worked for (v. 6).
Since a rash vow might result in the destruction of the fruits of one’s labor (and his labor might thus prove futile), Solomon compared rash vows to futile or meaningless dreams. This is the thought in verse 7a, which may be translated somewhat literally, “Through many dreams there is futility and also through many words.” So Solomon exhorted his readers to fear God (v. 7b), being cautious not to make rash vows (vv. 1-2) and to fulfill the vows they had made (v. 4).
b. Labor’s fruits may be lost to corrupt officials through extortion (5:8-9)
The point of these verses and their connection with Solomon’s argument has often been misconstrue d because of erroneous interpretations of some enigmatic expressions in verses 8b-9. Though many other interpretations are possible, as is obvious from the diversity in various translations (e.g., kjv, nasb, niv), these verses probably refer to a hierarchy of corruption. This view, reflected in the NIV, seems to fit Solomon’s overall argument in 5:1-6:9 best.
5:8-9. Having shown that the fruits of labor could be lost through a rash vow to God (vv. 1-7), Solomon added that one should not be surprised if the result of his labor were lost to the next highest authority, the king and his officials. In terms much briefer than but similar to Samuel’s view of some typical evils of kingship (1 Sam. 8:10-18), Solomon described the oppressive exactions of officials at all levels. They were watching not to protect the poor and oppressed (cf. Ecc. 4:1) but to find ways to squeeze revenue out of the officials under them. At the head of this whole corrupt system was the king who himself profited from the fields of the oppressed. The potential of all a man worked for, the increase from the land, could be taken or extorted by all these corrupt officials.
Many commentators, arguing that Solomon would scarcely have depicted his own government in such poor light, have seen this passage as evidence that he did not write this book. But there is no evidence that Solomon was referring to any specific government. Like the other references in 2:18-6:9 (e.g., the hypothetical case in 4:13-16), Solomon was generalizing. Moreover, Israel’s demand that Rehoboam, Solomon’s successor (1 Kings 12:1-10), reduce his oppression suggests that the provincial governors under Solomon had made financial demands to support his opulence (1 Kings 4:7, 22-23). Solomon’s government could scarcely be excluded from the truth in Ecclesiastes 5:8-9.
c. Labor’s fruits may not be enjoyed because of one’s own covetousness (5:10-12)
5:10-12. Having shown that the fruits of one’s labors might not be enjoyed because they might be lost to God (vv. 1-7) or to governing officials (vv. 8-9), Solomon next argued that a person’s own covetousness might keep him from enjoying them. Calling covetousness or the love of money futile or meaningless, Solomon argued that a covetous person never derives enjoyment from his wealth (v. 10) because his increased wealth merely brings him increased anxiety (v. 12b). While a laborer might rest content with little or much, a covetous person cannot sleep (his abundance permits . . . no sleep, v. 12). He has to be constantly on guard to protect his riches from the ever-growing number of people who would try to consume them. Thus Solomon asked satirically what benefit a covetous person gets from increased riches except to keep an eye on them (v. 11, lit., “to look at them with his eyes”). In summary, Solomon argued that the only results of increased wealth for a covetous person are increased anxiety and increased vigilance, not increased enjoyment.
[3]
GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIFE
“Live Peacefully”
Ecclesiastes 5:1-7, 10-12
INGREDIENTS OF A PEACEFUL LIFE
- RELIABILITY IN YOUR SPEECH – V.1-7
- FINANCIAL CONTENTMENT – V.10-12
A 2005 article in National Geographic identified three regions of the world where people have consistently shown longer life spans: Okinawa, Sardinia, and Loma Linda, California. Dan Buettner, a researcher and explorer involved with the 2005 article, decided to do a follow-up study to determine if there were more regions to be discovered. His team found an abnormally large number of people living past 90—even into their 100s—on the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica.
Intrigued, Buettner and a large research team made their way to the region to discover what factors aided in living a longer life. They found that longevity is due in part to diet, sun exposure, and source of water, but they also found the following factors to be crucial in the survival of the people:
- The people on the Nicoya Peninsula have a strong sense of purpose. They "feel needed and want to contribute to a greater good."
- They choose to focus on the family. Persons over 100 years of age in this region "tend to live with their families…. Children or grandchildren provide support and a sense of purpose and belonging."
- They have strong social networks. Their neighbors visit frequently, and they all seem to know the value of listening, laughing, and appreciating what they have.
- They know the value of hard work. They even manage to "find joy in everyday physical chores."
- They understand and appreciate their historical roots and spiritual traditions. In essence, they know their story.
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[1]MacDonald, W., & Farstad, A. (1997, c1995). Believer's Bible Commentary : Old and New Testaments (Ec 5:1). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[2]Wiersbe, W. W. (1996, c1990). Be satisfied (Ec 5:1). Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books.
[3]Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., & Dallas Theological Seminary. (1983-c1985). The Bible knowledge commentary : An exposition of the scriptures (1:988). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.