In Ecclesiastes 2 the teacher is in the midst of trying to find out what can be gained by life under the sun. What do you get from all of your efforts in this world? What do you have to show for all the work you do in this life? In our last lesson we noticed that he tried to be a pleasure seeking, seeing if this would be the answer for life. He drew the conclusion that living for pleasure is an empty pursuit and you still have nothing lasting to show for all the effort. We also noted how many rich, famous, and powerful people in our American culture have drawn the same conclusion. But the teacher of Ecclesiastes is not done. There are more areas in life to try to see if there can be lasting satisfaction and something to show for all the effort given. Open your copies of God’s word to Ecclesiastes 2:12-17 and we are going to see that the teacher is going to consider a life pursuing wisdom and work.
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ToggleThe Problem with Wisdom (Ecclesiastes 2:12-17)
In verses 12-17 the teacher considers a life that seeks wisdom in contrast to a life seeking foolishness and madness. In the prior paragraph the teacher explored living for the weekend and doing everything your eyes desire and saw that it all was empty. So what about the opposite? You see in verse 13 that wisdom does have value. Wisdom is better than foolishness just as light is better than darkness. I want to pause here for a moment because I think this is important to see in the book. The teacher is not just saying everything is meaningless and miserable. There is an advantage to wisdom. The scriptures tell us to seek wisdom. The Proverbs is a whole book about wisdom and the book of James teaches us important concepts about wisdom. The teacher points out in verse 14 that the wise are able to have insight and understanding. They are able to see where they are going in life while those without wisdom are walking in the darkness.
Possessing wisdom is important and living wisely is better than living foolishly. However, there is still a problem of a life spent pursuing wisdom. At the end of verse 14 the teacher notes that the same fate happens to the wise and the fool. The wise dies just like the fool (2:16). All the wisdom in the world cannot stop the inevitable. No matter how wisely you live your life, you are still going to die and be forgotten like everyone else. Life will still have problems and difficulties. Now we can wonder how does wisdom fit in the scheme of life. The teacher is going to explain in a moment. But first, the teacher wants to consider one more pursuit of life before he draws that important conclusion.
The Problems with Work (Ecclesiastes 2:18-23)
Sometimes we try to find our purpose in life and lasting satisfaction in our work. We are going to work really hard, be successful, and then we will be satisfied. I think it is important to recognize that this is what our culture does tell us to do today. Our culture tells us that if you make something of yourself then you will be truly happy. So the normal work week in the corporate world is far more than 40 hours a week now. But I want you to notice that the teacher observes two problems with trying to find your satisfaction in your work. In verse 18 the futility is that all of your success cannot be taken with you. For all of your work and all your success, the results of your success must be left behind. For all of the great successes in the work world, everything that you obtain will be left behind. All of your money, all of your possessions, and all of your success cannot be taken with you. You are still going to die just like everyone else and there is not one thing you will enjoy from this life when you die. Further, the teacher observes in verse 19 that those who you left all that stuff to are not going to appreciate what you left them and may act like a complete fool with all of your accomplishments and wealth. The point the teacher makes is that working hard and making something of yourself will not give you something to enjoy when you die, but when you die someone who did not work like you did is going to have all your possessions (2:20-21). They have no appreciation for any of it. Please think about how we understand this even on a small scale. How many times have parents been concerned that their children are not appreciating what was given to them through their own hard work! This is a cause for despair in people when you realize that even rising to the top of the world with all of your wisdom and work does not leave you with anything to show for it all. Listen to the words of verses 22-23.
For what does a person get with all his work and all his efforts that he labors at under the sun? 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. (Ecclesiastes 2:22-23 CSB)
You spend so much of your life filled with pain and sorrow from your work. You are just working and working. You are so exhausted from all your work. You cannot even rest at night because your mind continues racing with endless thoughts. Work has frustration. Work is monotonous. The more you have, the more you have to worry about. You are working so hard and you cannot take it with you and it is not worth leaving behind. If you make your life about work, you are going to be disappointed. The more you make your life about work, the more you are going to hate Mondays. The more you make life about work, the more pain and grief you will have and you are still going to die at the end of it all. So what is the conclusion we should draw about wealth, work, and wisdom? Look at verses 24-25.
Enjoy Life Properly (Ecclesiastes 2:24-26)
The teacher proclaims that there is nothing better than to eat, drink, and find enjoyment in your efforts because this is from God’s hand (Ecclesiastes 2:24-25). This is such an important point for us to hear. God made life to be enjoyed. You are to enjoy the fruit of your labor. Do your work and eat the food that comes from your efforts. Don’t try to make more out of this life than what God has given for you to enjoy. The teacher further says that we cannot enjoy life apart from God in verse 25. If we can take what God has given us and enjoy it the way God wants us to, then this life will not seem empty and futile. Here is what we are to see. If you try to find satisfaction and lasting joy in having the newest stuff, you will never be satisfied. There is always something more and there is always be something newer to come along. However, if you can see that your car is just a car, then you can enjoy it for what it does. If you can see that your phone is just a phone, then you can enjoy it for what it does. If you can see that your job is just a job so that you can pay your bills, then you will not feel empty with your job but will see it for what it is. If your home is just a home to keep your warm and gives you a place to rest, then you can enjoy your home for what it is meant to be in your life. Our problem is that we try to assign value and worth to these things when all we are to do is see these things as blessings from God’s hand to be enjoyed for what it is.
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV)
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17 ESV)
It is just a car. Do not make much out of the car but thank God who gave you the car. It is just a vacation. Do not make much out of the vacation but make much of God who let you enjoy your vacation with your friends or family. It is just a home. Do not make much out of the home but thank God who gave you your home to rest and enjoy. It is just a job. Do not make much out of your job and career but make much of God who gave you the ability to do your job, make money, and enjoy what there is in this life. We are being told that it is a blessing of God to get to the end of your crazy day and to sit quietly and enjoy your dinner. Take the moments during your days of work and trouble and enjoy the things that God has given to you for enjoyment.
Christians can make a really big mistake about this that I have seen over the years. Sometimes good meaning Christians think that serving God means not enjoying the fruit of your work. In Colossians 2 we see Paul dealing with people who were submitting to regulations to not handle, taste, or touch. Paul said in verse 23 that these things have an appearance of wisdom with this false humility, self-made religion, and severity to the body but have no effect in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. We are not impressing God by not enjoying what God has given to us. The problem is that we take the blessings of God and make them our idols. We make God’s blessings and gifts the things that matter most to us, trying find our meaning and purpose in having those things. Jesus told a parable that expressed the same point in Luke 12:15-21.
And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 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.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:15-21 ESV)
There are a number of things wrong with what this rich man thinks, says, and does. But, for our lesson, I want us to notice one thing. Rather than enjoying the plentiful bounty he received that year, he worried about getting more. He thought that enjoying life was in the future and he did not have the future promised to him. Friends, none of us have the future promised to us. This is a point we will see made later in the book. We spend so much time working for the future that we are not enjoying the present. Look at what God has already given to you. Enjoy it. Don’t let it pass through your fingers. You will not regret enjoying his blessings in your life today. This is the point of verse 26. God gives wisdom, knowledge and joy to those who seek him. They understand how to look at work, how to look at wisdom, and how to look at wealth. But to those who do not seek God, they do not understand this and it is just the monotony of working, storing, and giving it away to someone else.
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. (1 Timothy 6:17-19 ESV)
Use God’s wisdom and enjoy the fruit of your labor. Do not waste your life trying to make this life do more for you than God intended or else you will find it empty and futile.