The Meaning of Pleasure, Prudence, & Productivity in a Meaningless World Ecclesiastes 2:1-26 Part 2

Why are we studying Ecclesiastes?

The Dream of Prudence is Meaningless Apart From Jesus (Eccl 2:12-17)

Prudence is another word for wisdom and knowledge. To be prudent is to be wise, to be skillful and use discernment with ones resources. A prudent person is a shrewd person.

Keep in mind that Solomon is doing a series of experiments to find the meaning of life. Previously, he experimented with pleasure-he sought a life of hedonism, and he found hedonism to be worthless in the end. In verse 12, Solomon turns his attention toward wisdom, madness and folly.

There is a part of this text that is notoriously hard to translate from Hebrew to English: “For what will the man be like who comes after the king? He will do what has already been done.” What does he mean here?

Solomon is instructing his son to learn from his experiments and his mistakes. In other words, as Jonathan Akin says, “Son, don’t try to outdo me because you can’t. You will only wind up coming to the same result. Be wise and listen. Seeking a life of prudence has the same result as seeking a life of pleasure. it’s a meaningless endeavor.”

In verses 13-14, Solomon says

Ecclesiastes 2:13–14 HCSB

And I realized that there is an advantage to wisdom over folly, like the advantage of light over darkness. The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also knew that one fate comes to them both.

Solomon realizes,

Wisdom has its virtue… (v13-14)

When God created the world, he ingrained wisdom into its fabric. Wise people learn how to live and have their being inside the fabric of God’s creation. For example, a good and wise farmer knows how and when to grow crops. He studies the land, observes the seasons, and works hard to fertilize the soil. He knows that if he plants corn in the Spring the ground will be soft enough to till, the rain will provide enough water, and the heat will help the corn mature. He also knows after a few weeks he will need to harvest the corn before it dies. Farmers have tapped into the way the world works, which is why prudent farmers don’t plant corn in December.

Wisdom is also in the fabric of society and life. Even in a broken world, God has provided wisdom for how societies flourish. When communities live inside of that wisdom, such as loving your neighbor or obeying the Ten Commandments, society flourishes with life.

Think about how the Proverbs describes the fool: lazy, quarrelsome, adulterer, and mis-handlers of fortune. All of these character traits bring about ruin for the fool and the society that lives that way.

Solomon contends that wisdom brings light, and the wise person walks in the light. That is a good thing because wise and prudent people are skillful and good at discerning right and wrong, good and bad. Foolishness brings darkness and the fool walks in the dark, stumbling round bringing ruin (Proverbs 4:10-19). Fools do not do the right thing. Fools lack the ability to foster prosperity. Fools plant corn in December. Society does not want fools leading the clergy, the courts, or your colleges. (consider our own society for a moment. Where do we see the most foolishness? What happens when fools take over the colleges, the courts, and the church?) Wisdom, prudence, has its good place in society. Solomon, however, contends that at the end of the day both are meaningless because both the fool and the wise person share the same fate.

Wisdom has the same end as foolishness…(v15-17)

Look at Ecclesiastes 2:15-18

Ecclesiastes 2:15–18 HCSB

So I said to myself, “What happens to the fool will also happen to me. Why then have I been overly wise?” And I said to myself that this is also futile. For, just like the fool, there is no lasting remembrance of the wise man, since in the days to come both will be forgotten. How is it that the wise man dies just like the fool? Therefore, I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind. I hated all my work that I labored at under the sun because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.

No matter how prudent one may be, death comes for both the fool and the wise person. Furthermore, the wise person, as one commentator points out, cannot even count on having a legacy that outlasts the fool (v16). Old Testament Scholar Duane Garrett puts verse 16 in this light, “If we live a wise life and leave the world a better place than we found it, then people will at least remember us. Solomon says, “Nope. Even the hope of lasting fame is an illusion” (Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, 294).

Philip Grahm Ryken wrote, “Many years ago, when I heard Dr. Haddon Robinson preach from Ecclesiastes, he recounted what it was like for him to stand at the graveside of a man who had a working knowledge of thirty-four languages. Most people know only one or two languages, at the most, but here was a man who understood nearly three dozen. Yet in the end it didn’t matter how smart he was—he was still as dead as could be. “Even the wise die,” the psalmist says; “the fool and the stupid alike must perish” (Psalm 49:10). (Philip Graham Ryken, Ecclesiastes: Why Everything Matters, Preaching the Word 62.)

Solomon seemingly says to himself, “Why deny myself the pleasure of being a fool in this life if being prudent does nothing to help me avoid death or sustain my legacy?” Do you fell the tension of skepticism in Solomon’s words? Seeing that prudence fails him, he says in verse 17

Ecclesiastes 2:17 HCSB

Therefore, I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

Prudence is meaningless apart from Jesus (v17)

Every morning I tell my children to be wise today. Make it a great day by working hard, doing the right thing, obeying your teachers, be kind to your classmates, love your enemies, and make your school better today than it was yesterday. Do these things and you will have a good day, even set yourself up for a good life. A prudent life is a good life.

But even as the words come out of my mouth, I have a sick feeling in my stomach that I am not being completely honest with them. I know the world we live right now. I know that they can be prudent and still be sinned against. They can act wisely with the classmates and it will still cost them relationships. They can work hard on their school work and still fail. They can do the right thing and still suffer a bad outcome. Some times the fool wins.

Think about Antonio Brown. He is a talented wide receiver who played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. A couple of weeks ago, he became so enraged that he was not getting the ball enough in a game that he threw a fit on the sideline, took off his pads and shoes and shirt, and jumped up and down making a spectacle of himself as he ran off the field, on an ankle he said was hurt. He committed the unpardonable sin in sports. He quit on his team during a game they were losing. The Bucs cut him from the team that day.

Crazy thing is, he had already done similar things to the Raiders and the Steelers. Why was he even playing football for a professional ball club? He had a record of acting the fool, being unwise, to the point he was cut by two other teams. Why would he get so many chances, while someone like Tim Tebow, who is a man of greta character and ability gets cut from Jacksonville? It could be argued that Brown is a much better athlete than Tebow. Fine. But how is that working out for the Bucs? Sometimes, in this life, the fool gets what the prudent deserves. What gives prudence its place in this life? What gives Tim Tebow hope for being prudent in this life? Jesus.

When you repent of your sin and ask Jesus to be your Savior, he gives you his Holy Spirit. You become a new creation. Paul says

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

You are no longer enslaved to sin. You have been crucified with Christ and you no longer live, but Christ lives in you. The life you now live in the body, you live by faith (Galatians 2:20). Jesus transforms your heart and your mind, and it can be said of you, “Behold, I make all things new. (Rev 21:5).”

Jesus gives you his wisdom to live by so you can enjoy God now in this life. He renews your mind to live wisely so you can enjoy abundant life now. A life so fruitful that your wisdom right now will pay huge dividends in heaven. Jesus gives your prudence meaning because your wise living now bears fruit for heaven. You will receive an eternal inheritance.

Proverbs 3:35 ESV

The wise will inherit honor, but fools get disgrace.

Jesus promises the meek will inherit the earth Matthew 5:5

Matthew 5:5 ESV

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Daniel says

Daniel 12:3 ESV

And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

What this means for my children then is in Christ Romans 8:28-29 is a promise they can lean into when it looks like the fool wins and prudence is not paying off.

Romans 8:28–29 ESV

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

For the prudent person who has Jesus, everything, even the foolishness of fools, serves for the good of a believer. God will use the brokenness and foolishness of this world to conform you into the image of His Son. Jesus gives your prudence meaning.

The Dream of Productivity is Meaningless Apart from Jesus (Eccl 2:18-23)

On average, Americans work over 1,800 hours per year, which is the most of any developed nation in the world. For a comparison, europeans work nineteen percent fewer hours than Americans. We value work and a strong work ethic. You cannot achieve the American Dream without a strong work ethic. Solomon soon discovers, like many Americans, that work is meaningless in and of itself. He explains in

Ecclesiastes 2:18–23 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. 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. 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.

You work and work and work every day of your life. You work so much that even in the night your heart does not rest. You toil 40, 50, 60 hours a week to pay off your house and build up your retirement. You’ve been faithful to invest in your future so that when you are 67 years old you can receive free Medicare and Social Security to supplement your retirement. Six months after your retire you have a lingering cough that came out of nowhere. The doctor tells you the cancer is terminal. You have less than a year to live. How do you feel at that moment? How do you feel about all the work you did to build up the wealth you need to retire, only to have it taken away from you by death? That is Solomon’s point. He toiled all the days of his life, to the point his day were filled with grief, to build up his wealth, only to give it to someone else who did not work for it. I do all the work. The next guy gets all the wealth. You might says, “Well, at least I’ll leave it to my kids.” Solomon recognizes in verse 19, that one does not know if your kids will even be wise with that wealth. If you read 1 Kings 12, you realize that Solomon’s son Rehoboam lost the majority of his fathers kingdom (1o/12) under his reign.

Solomon was the guy who indulged in architecture, agriculture, and engineering. He was an administrator and politician. He was by far the greatest businessman and diplomat the world had seen at the time. Solomon understood the value of productivity, but he could not get away from the reality that all he had done would be one day lost. Death and foolishness took it away from him.

I know of a man who built up a successful care dealership. For thirty plus years he poured his life into selling cars. He made a great living that provided for his family to live in a nice home, have nice vacations, and send his kids to private schools. When he died, his eldest son took over the business. The son did not have the work ethic his father had, but still had desired to live the same life he had lived growing up. The dealership closed within a year of the son taking over the business. The only thing that remains now is an empty parking lot with grass and weeds growing over it. Thirty plus years of work and wealth and life gone. When people drive by the lot, its as if a Eccl 2:19 is right before their eyes.

What is so frustrating about this?

One of the frustrations of being human is that because God has put eternity in our hearts, we long for things that are eternal. We long for our work to last forever. We have a desire to make something that will endure over time, to leave a legacy that will endure for all eternity. I mean, no body lives to be forgotten. We want our productivity to matter. But because we live under the sun, in a Genesis three world, we eventually lose everything we try to keep. We can take nothing with us when we die. It’s enough to drive someone to despair, at least that is what Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy seemed to experience. Listen to the despair in what he wrote in his work Confessions,

“My question—that which at the age of fifty brought me to the verge of suicide—was the simplest of questions, lying in the soul of every man … a question without an answer to which one cannot live. It was: “What will come of what I am doing today or tomorrow? What will come of my whole life? Why should I live, why wish for anything, or do anything?” It can also be expressed thus: Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy?” Leo Tolstoy

I think Tolstoy expresses what Solomon is getting at in verse 23

Ecclesiastes 2:23 HCSB

For all his days are filled with grief, and his occupation is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.

In the New Testament , you pick up sentiments of what Solomon is saying in Ecclesiastes 2. Jesus tells parables like The Parable of the Rich Fool. The rich man looks at what he has and decides he wants more.

Luke 12:18–19 ESV

And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’

Then

Luke 12:20 ESV

But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’

All the stuff you worked for that you stored in your barns will go to someone else. And what will happen to your soul? You spent your whole life working for yourself to gain the world. Jesus asks you, friend,

Matthew 16:26 ESV

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

Pleasure, prudence, and productivity in this world are meaningless if you are living to gain the world. If your goal in this life is primarily the American Dram, then “your right now pleasure, your right now prudence, your right now productivity” is meaningless because you will gain the world but loose your soul. If you want your productivity to matter, if you want it to have an eternal legacy, your productivity must be the work of Christ and His kingdom.

Solomon points to this better way in verses 24-26.

Pleasure, Prudence, and Productivity Find Their Meaning in Jesus (Eccl 2:24-26)

Solomon says God has made a way for your pleasure, prudence, and productivity to have great meaning in this life and for all eternity. He wants you to enjoy pleasure, to be prudent, and productive in this life, but he wants you to do it by recognizing God is the sole giver of pleasure, prudence, and productivity.

Ecclesiastes 2:24–25 HCSB

There is nothing better for man than to eat, drink, and enjoy his work. I have seen that even this is from God’s hand, because who can eat and who can enjoy life apart from Him?

Ecclesiastes 2:26 HCSB

For to the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy, but to the sinner He gives the task of gathering and accumulating in order to give to the one who is pleasing in God’s sight. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

Solomon asks you this morning, “Jason, can you eat and enjoy life apart from God?” The answer is no. No one can enjoy life, true life, life that is abundant and eternal apart from God. God is the giver of life and the sustainer of life.

Look at what God gives to the one who pleases him: v26, wisdom, knowledge, and joy. God gives you a heart that fears him, an understanding of his ways and salvation, and he gives you joy. Joy comes by living your life inside of his covenant, his grace, his salvation, his commandments, his holiness, his righteousness, inside of his kingdom. Living God’s way brings you the most pleasure, the best prudence, and the greatest productivity that is not limited to this world, but will greet in your eternal life. How does God do this? Solomon gives you a clue when he says God gives to the one who pleases him.” What pleases God?

You cannot please God in the flesh. You are a sinner. Your heart is desperately wicked and runs away from God. Paul says of your natural heart

Romans 8:7–8 ESV

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

And Solomon says to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and accumulating for the sake of giving to someone else. That is, what the sinner has will be taken away from them and given to those whom God is pleased. Their life will be in vain. God will take everything away from them and give his kingdom to his elect. The sinner will perish.

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Part of the death you experience in hell is the realization that you wasted your life on yourself. You have nothing to show for all your work. You are a fool. All your pleasure is taken away from you and you will have nothing to show for the fruit of your work.

But to the one who

Romans 10:9–10 (ESV)

confesses with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believes in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Your faith in Christ saves you from his wrath, makes you righteous-justified from your sin. Your faith pleases God.

Hebrews 11:6 ESV

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

God rewards those who seek him by faith, and your rewards are being kept for you in heaven to be enjoyed for all eternity (1 Peter 1:1-6).

To the one who believes in His Son Jesus Christ, to that person God’s joy, his pleasure, his prudence, and his productivity rest in them.

If you have not come to Christ, today is the day of your salvation. Come and find true pleasure and prudence. Come and labor in this world under the yoke of Christ so that your productivity will have an eternal reward. Your work can last forever in God’s kingdom.

Christian, listen to Paul’s words to the rich in his letter to Timothy.

1 Timothy 6:17–19 ESV

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

Christian, find your pleasure in the work of the kingdom. Fear the Lord and be be generous with your time and talents. Be productive in storing up treasures in heaven, taking hold of what is truly life. Live today abundantly by putting your hand to the plow of God’s work in Litchfield (TTV, Youth Group are two pressing ministries) Don’t be so concerned about the American Dream. Fix your eyes on Christ and set your heart on the Kingdom Dream, and

“Trust the Son with everything under the sun.”