Has the boss at work ever wound you up? Have you ever felt aggrieved about decisions the government has made? Have you ever disagreed with the preacher or a decision the elders made in the church you attend? God has placed people in positions of authority over us. We should be submissive to these structures as long as they don’t tell us to disobey God.

But what if someone in authority asks us to go where conscience will not let us? Further, what if there are consequences to our challenging them – such as fines, imprisonment, or loss of job? In these situations, which can be stressful, how do we behave? Fortunately the word of God has got this covered too, and gives us guidance that can bring joy in the midst of earthly trouble:

“Who is like the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.” Ecclesiastes 8:1

Challenge Authority Only When Necessary And In The Correct Manner (8:2 – 9)

By Default, be Loyal to those in authority over you (8:2,3a)

“I say: Keep the king’s command, because of God’s oath to him. Be not hasty to go from his presence.” Ecclesiastes 8:2,3a

God has appointed earthly authorities, and as a result when we oppose those whom God has appointed, we oppose God Himself. Or again, the Apostle Paul in the context of government, puts it this way in the book of Romans:

“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.  Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.” Romans 13:1,2

This principle can be widened to all who have authority over us – whether it is parents, elders in the church or the boss at work. The Biblical basis for submitting to parents is given in Exodus 20:12 and Ephesians 6:2, to church leadership is given in Hebrews 13:17, to those in the work place Ephesians 6:5 – 8. By and large our good, and the good of the organisation we are in, is found when we work together, under leadership. Indeed we have an obligation to those God has placed over us to seek their good. This includes our nation, our families and the companies we work for.

Challenge authority carefully, and in a just cause (8:3b,4)

“Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. For the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to him, ‘What are you doing?’“ Ecclesiastes 8:3b,4

If you make your stand for an evil cause, and you receive punishment from the king, then the king is doing what God has appointed him to do:

“For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval” Romans 13:3

But we know that human authority is imperfect – it is human after all. It is God and God alone who is the ultimate authority; we do have to disobey the earthly authority if it contradicts God. As Solomon brings to our attention, there could be real comeback on you when challenge authority. There are possible adverse consequences if you say to a king, “What are you doing?” We have a strong self interest in making sure our cause is just before making a stand. Are you willing to pay the consequences for your cause? Here the practical step of prayerfully taking advice from a few select, trusted and capable people (who will not gossip) helps establish whether your cause is truly “just”.

Challenge authority in the appropriate way (8:5,6)

“Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way. For there is a time and a way for everything, although man’s trouble lies heavy on him.“ Ecclesiastes 8:5,6

There is a way and an appropriate time in which to challenge authority. You may spot 50 things wrong about your employer, church or family life, but (even if they are all genuine) there will be a time and an appropriate manner in which to solve them. Sometimes the problems are clear to all (including the leadership), yet no one has offered to sort things out. Could you come up with a plan to solve the issues? Consider the complaint, that the church you currently attend is not doing enough evangelism. One approach is to bang on the elders door and to remind them of this and to encourage them to do more. However I suspect the elders would love it if even just 2 or 3 people came to them with ideas for evangelistic outreach and church members offered their support in the practical and spiritual support required. After all the elders primary duty is to equip God’s people for works of service (Ephesians 4:11,12), enabling the congregation to get involved with evangelism.

Solomon also brings to our attention that living under flawed authority can be a heavy burden, or in the language of verse 6, “although a man’s trouble lies heavy on him”. It can be emotionally tiring to live in a flawed system which causes trouble and pain to those in it – but don’t act rashly! The danger is that this pressure leads us to impulsive or rash behaviour. Instead we need to make sure that our stance is just, pray, and if needed, consult about a solution. Furthermore God often refines us through trial, making us lean more on Him, less on the things of this world, and He can display His power in our weakness! So remember God may be working good things in your character through the pressure you are under.

Remember the limitations of the earthly authority (8:7 – 9)

“For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it. All this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt.“ Ecclesiastes 8:7- 9

We may be convinced that our cause is just. Having prayerfully considered the options we might see the best means and approach to tackle the situation; however there is a nagging doubt, “What will the king do if I challenge him?” No matter how powerful the authority is, there are limits to their power. They cannot deliver themselves from death or war by their wickedness – it is God who gives the victory in the end. The Bible is full of examples where the victory has gone to the godly rather than to the mighty, e.g. Moses leading God’s people out of Egypt (Exodus 7 – 14), Gideon (Judges 7,8) and King Hezekiah battling the Assyrians (2 Kings 18,19). God is the ultimate power who raises or deposes at will. He alone has the power to eternally torment the soul in Hell for all eternity, while man has power over us in this life only (Luke 12:4 – 7).

The Wicked May Appear To Do Well, But Are Not Doing So In Reality (8:10 – 13)

Do Not Be Surprised If things go well for wicked in the world (8:10)

“Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity.” Ecclesiastes 8:10

The godless had power, influence and money, being honoured in church (the holy place) and the city, but then death comes! We cannot stop it. But their days are cut off and are soon forgotten by the masses. They are unable to take their wealth honour and influence with them, ultimately their lives are meaningless, and then they face God. It is possible that Solomon had himself in mind in these verses. He had unprecedented wealth and honour in both in Israel and the surrounding region (1 Kings 4:29 – 34). Yet for part of his reign his heart was far from God (1 Kings 11:1 – 8). For bringing great wealth to Israel, and building the temple of God (which was next to his palace), Solomon would have been honoured both in the city and the temple. Yet his heart was far from God, and in the end he knew that such a lifestyle was meaningless, which evidenced by his writing the book of Ecclesiastes.

People Do Wicked Things Because They Can (8:11)

“Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.” Ecclesiastes 8:11

We all have sinful natures, we all have a natural bias towards thinking of our own interests and concerns. All too often the interests of others are less important to us than our own. In the extreme this leads to crime as people take what they want and do what they want without any regard for others. Society requires the rule of law to prevent anarchy. God’s word and the Holy Spirit restrains the sinful passions which are present in all of us. In the context of the church Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) lied to the apostles and as a result the Holy Spirit put them to death.

Often in His mercy God gives sinners a chance to repent of their sin, yet people use God’s patience as an opportunity to sin all the more. They think themselves secure – because nothing seem to happen in their unbelief – but in reality they are storing wrath up upon themselves, wrath that will be revealed in the afterlife. Yet if God had killed Saul when he was persecuting the church (Acts 8:1-3), we would never have had the apostle Paul and his writings. Sometimes God’s mercy toward sinners reaps incredible results!

But things do not go truly well for the wicked (8:12,13)

“Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him. But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.” Ecclesiastes 8:12,13

The Bible is very clear – It will not go well for the wicked in the next life when they stand in judgment before God! Only those who have come in faith and repentance before God, trusting in the completed work of Christ alone, with be with the Lord Jesus Christ for eternity on the new heavens and the new earth.

However I also believe that it does not go well for the wicked in this life. They may have outward prosperity, but their desires (not constrained by the Holy Spirit) for money, status, drugs, alcohol or sexual desire often produce miserable private lives. The Christian has a God who provides for their needs, gives a sense of purpose to life, and they have a relationship with their loving heavenly Father. That godless king, politician, banker, businessman, or celebrity may have the appearance of doing well, but they are abandoned by God!

Don’t Let Your Inability To Understand Life Stop You From Enjoying It (8:14 – 17)

There Is No Discernable Reason Why The Wicked Prosper (8:14)

“There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.” Ecclesiastes 8:14

God is very aware of the differences between the righteous and the wicked, yet he does not make this the basis of His dispensing worldly gifts. The righteous at times are deprived of material things, are treated unjustly, are slandered, fined and falsely imprisoned. While in complete contrast, the wicked at times receive wealth honour and status. Humanly speaking we can understand why the wicked may prosper, a sinful world will applaud and honour its own, but why doesn’t God intervene? Solomon can find no meaning in these events, he could not understand them, or in his own words, “I said that this also is vanity.”

Enjoy What God Has Given You – Knowing He is Control (8:15)

“And I commend joy, for man has no good thing under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 8:15

Solomon tells us to enjoy life, to make time to eat, drink and have fun with those around us. He has stated previously that there are those in authority over us who will cause us grief. We are going to have to use wisdom to know the time and way to deal with this and we run the risk of those in authority oppressing us. The wicked will seem to thrive, perhaps including those who are oppressing us, and we will be unable to understand why all of this is happening. Does eating and drinking and enjoying life seem a strange response?

It is the enjoyment that comes from faith and confidence in God, knowing that He is in control. It is also the knowledge that in the next life good things will be given to those made righteous by Christ, and evil things will be given to the wicked.

Sometimes You Just Have To Trust That God is Control (8:16,17)

“When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one’s eyes see sleep, then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out.” Ecclesiastes 8:16,17

Our inability to understand life fully should lead us to have humility before God. We know that He is working all things out according to His wisdom and loving purposes, even if we can’t always understand what He is doing. Again our inability to understand shows our dependence on God. We cannot work out the meaning of life, and we need God to direct us. The importance of knowing God’s Word is brought sharply into focus. Many people work endlessly to understand the meaning and purpose life by examination and research of areas other than scripture – and are tired, frustrated and disappointed!

Lessons From Chapter 8

We should be obedient to God’s appointed earthly authorities
Our good, and the good of the organisation we are in, is found when we work together, under leadership. We have an obligation to those God has placed over us, to the nation, families, church leaders and companies we live and work in, to seek their good.

We can challenge God’s appointed earthly authorities with a just cause, carefully considering the correct time and way of doing so
The earthly authorities are not perfect, and it can be emotionally tiring to live in a flawed system which causes trouble and pain to those in it, but don’t act rashly! When the cause is just there will a time and way to address it.

We are dependent on God to make sense of and to guide us through life – this allows us to enjoy ourselves!
Sometimes the spiritual thing is to go out and enjoy yourself. It is the enjoyment that comes from faith and confidence in God, knowing that He is in control. What is to us the unfathomable nature of life, is in reality, our loving heavenly Father working out His wise purposes.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

The wisdom and power of God are known through faith in Christ. True satisfaction and lasting peace are not found in money, career, sex, fame, building monuments to the memory of ourselves or political power – they are found in knowing Christ. Satan will tempt many people to deny Christ with these things; however some are religious and want a form of knowing God. Satan has got this covered too; he is a master of counterfeit religion.

Counterfeit religious systems exalt themselves with an outward show of righteousness often through sets of rules, making mountains out of mole hills and losing the ability to discern what is truly important. The system usually promotes itself at the expense of others. Beware of committing yourself to systems where one individual or school of thought is promoted and all else rejected – such a system probably knows little of the power of Christ.

But don’t be deceived, we all have the ability to promote our views over the Lord’s ways, we all need humility before God, and to know His power in our lives!

Human Effort Should Be Directed According to Godly Knowledge (7:15 – 18)

Don’t Let Temporary Security Be Your Motivation for Righteousness (7:15)

“In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing.” Ecclesiastes 7:15

God is worth worshipping and adoring for who He is. Even if all is taken from us in this life, it would still be a privilege to know God. Who else is perfect in love, steadfast in their faithfulness, will never leave us or forsake us and will give us the grace to bear any trial?  God does provide for His people, even on occasions using miracles to provide for them, but faith in God is not a guarantee of long life and health. Indeed there are countries where expressing faith in Christ is the surest route for an untimely death – but knowing God is worth it!

Job was a man who suffered a great deal. Living before Christ, and almost certainly before Moses (Job sacrificed animals to God himself, not going through the Aaronaic priesthood) Job knew little of the life to come. He certainly did know there was a life to follow after death (Job 19:26,27) but did not have the clear view we have. His lack of clear view can be deduced from the lack of description in the book of Job about what life will be like beyond the grave. Job lost his material possessions, his children and his health. Yet in the midst of suffering Job worshipped God for who He is, not for what He could gain from God. We have a clearer view of eternal life from New Testament revelation, and we know that if a Christian dies, they go to eternal bliss. How much more should we be willing to worship God even if it means the loss of material wealth?

Zeal Without Knowledge Easily Leads Us Astray (7:16,17)

“Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time?“ Ecclesiastes 7:16,17

At first, the command to not be overly righteous seems puzzling. We cannot love or honour God too much, indeed we are told to love God with all our soul, mind and strength (Matthew 22:37,38). The danger lies in zeal for the wrong things, not in excessive zeal in right things; it is going too far in an inappropriate or wrong area. This inappropriate zeal can be an attempt to go beyond God given standards of holiness, or an inappropriate use of God’s standards.

Examples of inappropriate use of God’s ways are where boldness can become brashness or generosity becomes indiscriminate waste. A false humility becomes weakness or an excuse to avoid serving God because we dwell on our weakness, but willingly forget the strength that God gives. We should not shrink from principle, but it is wrong to court needless offence.

Some people seem to desire to be more righteous than the Lord Jesus. They do not meet with sinners, and make it an absolute rule that alcohol should never be drunk. The Bible is clear, we should not get drunk, and the danger of alcohol is that we lose self-control. It is wise that ex-alcoholics should not drink, and if you have people with a drink problem coming to your home then I would definitely advocate that alcohol should be removed. But if we decide to ban alcohol because it is sometimes abused, then we should also ban eating because equally some people abuse food (a more socially acceptable abuse).

Group A of believers decides to become more “conservative” than group B of believers. Now group B have become the new liberals although they have not changed at all! To regain the titles of “sound” and “respectable” group B now faces the challenge of having an even stricter view of the Christian life, and the pressure to be more righteous than God increases.

When there will always be more than we can ever know about God (He is infinite and we are finite), why does scripture tell us not to be overly wise? Again I think the key here is not to go beyond the revelation God has given us. Where scripture is silent on an issue we need to respect the fact that God has left a matter open, often for either personal or cultural interpretation. However where God is silent, some people are desperate to provide an opinion.

Beware the opinionative confidence that lays down the law and finds fault with every opinion not its own. Proving others wrong does not prove yourself right. Often people that spend their time criticising others are hiding the emptiness of their own opinions. False teachers argued endlessly over myths (things of doubtful truth) and endless genealogies (irrelevant things) at Ephesus (1 Tim 1:3). This was often done by the false teachers to gain their own following or to promote their own fame within the church. They had no discernment to identify what was important and what was irrelevant. Some seek to make their followers clones of themselves, without allowing freedom where scripture permits the freedom to exist. The key here is simple – where scripture leaves room for personal preference don’t lay down an arbitrary rule!

Take for example those who stipulate that worship using modern instruments is wrong. If God had required us to worship Him with particular instruments then He would have done at least two things. First this would be clearly declared this in His word, and secondly He would have ensured in man’s development that the required instruments appeared at the appropriate time on the earth. Yet in God’s word we find no such declaration. Instead the matter is left open, I suspect to allow God to be worshipped both across the globe and across history. In fact I would go as far as saying that in the same way Paul removed all unnecessary barriers when reaching different people groups (1 Corinthians 9:19 – 23), a modern worship style should be used to reach a modern generation. Not only is laying down a law that only a traditional worship style should be used going beyond scripture (being overly wise) but it also hinders evangelism to modern man and certainly is not in the apostolic mould!

When individuals add to God’s word, declaring “rules of holiness” where God does not, or declare authoritative opinions where God does not, trouble is bound to follow. As our text states, “Why should you destroy yourself?”  Some bring needless trouble upon themselves by making matters of conscience things which are doubtful or are irrelevant. The argumentative types were to be thrown out the church after their second warning (Titus 3:10).

“Men make themselves martyrs to trifles magnified unduly” Charles Bridges

He Who Learns True Knowledge Avoids the Errors of Inappropriate Zeal (7:18)

“It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.“ Ecclesiastes 7:18

There is danger on every hand – who can direct us through the maze? God can! We will face a temptation at times to seek to go beyond God’s word, which can lead to problems of its own. We will face the opposite temptation to forget or break God’s word by our wilful sin. What will deliver us from these temptations? Having humility, being the one who, “fears God” is the key to the solution. Make scripture, the word of God, your guide. Don’t break it, don’t try to add to it, simply seek to obey what is says! Don’t endlessly compare yourselves to others, seeking to be the most “sound” or “respectable” in your beliefs, instead focus on God, make Him your priority! What He thinks about you is what matters. We need to recognise the danger, in all our hearts to a greater or lesser degree, of being the outwardly righteous Pharisee policing religious belief and practice around us. What we all need is the humility to allow God to direct us.

We Need Wisdom’s Strength – Especially With the Tongue! (7:19 – 22)

Seek Wisdom’s Strength – You Will Need It! (7:19,20)

“Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city. Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.” Ecclesiastes 7:19,20

When the scripture says wisdom brings strength, what does it mean? One way in which power comes through Godly wisdom is because wisdom brings influence. People who seek power without wisdom get into a lot of fights. Others do not readily accept their judgments or opinions and are reluctant to follow an individual who seeks to lead but lacks the judgement or ability to do so. Power in the church does not come from titles, robes, prestige, or man’s rules, it comes from a Godly life exercising wisdom and holiness. When a knowledge and humility before God’s word is displayed, when there is clear concern for the good of the Christ’s cause – God’s people will respect and listen to such individuals!

We all need to seek this wisdom, without exception. Why? Because “there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins”. Everyone sins, we are all prone to excesses. We are all prone to make foolish decisions, no matter how great our track record has been before, it is no guarantee of future wisdom. We need believe this, acknowledge this is true of us, and it will drive us to our knees and depend on God. There is no safer place to be than rejecting our own understanding and leaning fully on God’s word and ways (Proverbs 3:5-8).

Wisdom’s Strength Is Especially Needed With The Tongue (7:21,22)

“Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.” Ecclesiastes 7:21,22

There are times when others say things about us that they should not. Equally there are times when we say things we should not about others. As James puts it in his letter:

“but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” James 3:8

Often when someone offends us, or when we offend someone, there is a predictable pattern of behaviour which is followed. When we say something wrong we want grace, i.e. we want forgiveness. When someone says something wrong about us we want law, i.e. we want them to be punished. As others forgave us, we need to forgive others, and perhaps grow a thicker skin!

Being Corrupt, We Need the Power of God (7:23 – 29)

The Wise Know There Are Limits To Their Wisdom (7:23 – 25)

“All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, ‘I will be wise,’ but it was far from me. That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out? I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness.” Ecclesiastes 7:23 – 25

The wise man’s cry is, “Who Can Find It Out?”, There are things hidden from us. God is infinite in wisdom, understanding and knowledge. We are not. He does not need to disclose everything about His works and ways, nor does He choose to do so. As the word of God through Moses says:

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Deuteronomy 29:29

There are things we know, and other things which are less certain. To liberals all things are uncertain, to Biblical extremists all things are certain; they know exactly how and when Christ will return! It takes wisdom, humility and understanding to discern where the scriptures permit a healthy difference of opinion, and where no deviation should be taken from God’s clear message. While preparing this study (originally a sermon) I was under time pressure to get prepared for the service the next day. Two Jehovah’s Witnesses called at my door. I suspect they have a system to their door to door visitation. Whenever I say I believe in God I usually get the same response, one of seeking to build bridges, when they declare it is good to meet someone of faith. Being short on time my response was simple, “Unless you are correct in your belief in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ you will lose your soul on the Day of Judgment. Unless you believe that the God-man Jesus Christ lived under the law as man earning the righteousness we cannot, and died on the cross taking God’s wrath for your sin, you will lose your soul in Hell for all eternity.” At point they had to admit there were differences in our beliefs. Some things are very clear in scripture and cannot be compromised on.

Solomon had turned his intellect onto the subject of, “the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness”. Perhaps especially these areas would not yield to wisdom because they are inherently without reason. There is a component of sin which is irrational. Desire, the emotions, dominates the mind. Why does a man trade his career for transient benefits of wealth when he steals from his employer? Or why does a man trade his happy home life for passing pleasure when he has an affair? This is not rational behaviour!

Where Wisdom has Limits the Power of God Prevails (7:26)

“And I find something more bitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her.”  Ecclesiastes 7:26

This is perhaps an example of where reason fails, but the power of God can still work to preserve the obedient child of God. Reason tells us to avoid the immoral relationship of which the end is more bitter than death. Reputations are ruined, home life destroyed, many cares and troubles brought would be upon ourselves which can affect our work performance or ability in other areas on life. The mind tells us to avoid the immoral relationship – yet the emotions can still desire it! But where desire often reigns supreme, and hence wisdom and rational behaviour are forgotten, God can still work. The individual who avoids temptation, seeks God’s help and is wise in their relationships with others, preventing the emotional desire growing in the first place, will be preserved by the Lord.

By Nature We Are Corrupt (7:27 – 29)

“Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things—which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found. See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”
Ecclesiastes 7:27 – 29

The sad truth of these verses is that both men and women reject God, and create their own sinful schemes instead. Sin makes us schemers for self promotion, to control each other, or to try and manipulate God. The worst examples of this sadly can be found in the professing church. Yet true Godliness does not come from church leaders putting people on guilt trips for this or that duty. It does not come through manipulation of the congregation or by continually requesting money. True godliness comes from the heart. If we love the Lord we will pray, read our Bible, support the Lord’s work, tell others about him, and we know that we love Him because He first loved us.

Yet this does not stop man seeking to further his own cause through setting up a scheme of false religion. False religion often ends up being a scheme, a system of thought to think and a set of rules to follow. There is an outward appeal, an outward show of godliness, yet it denies the real power of God which comes through the Holy Spirit and not a system. It is no sin for us to have a set of rules, not in the Bible, that we find value in following. But it is wickedness for us to impose our rules (which go beyond the Bible) onto others, restricting their freedom, and putting them in the straight-jacket of our beliefs. People that impose their system on others put themselves in the place of God – and if God does not fit the system they have manufactured, God loses. The Pharisees were very religious, and when Jesus did not fit their system they killed Him.

Creating our own system of belief in God, our own scheme, is a temptation we all face, because none are inherently righteous before God. There is no one who is inherently righteous themselves, and there is no righteousness without the Lord Jesus Christ. False religion seeks to obtain righteousness through a system that bypasses Jesus. There are Protestant systems of righteousness equally as much as there are Roman Catholic systems. Gaining righteousness through religious systems is a heavy burden that God never laid on His people. The Lord Jesus gives us a new heart, breaks the power of sin, gives new life through the Holy Spirit living in us. Thanks be to God!

Lessons From Chapter 7:15 – 29

Humility is needed to make sure our enthusiasm for God is directed by His word

By ourselves we can become proud, confuse our opinion with scripture, have an incorrect emphasis in our Christian lives and cause needless offence defending the truth in a manner which is wrong. But humility before God, and obedience to His word will guide us through the dangers.

Wisdom gives strength – especially in the church!

True strength and power in the church comes from a Godly life, revealed in wisdom and holy living – God’s people will respond to these things. Where someone has a sincere humility before God and a passion for His glory and the good of His people, this is truly attractive to God’s people.

Having corrupt natures means we need to know the power of God!

There are limits even to Godly wisdom – we are not God and we will never have His understanding – but where reason fails the power of God can prevail. True spirituality comes from knowing and being obedient to Christ. It is not found in following an outward system of rules or agreeing with man made statements not founded on scripture.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

We have unparalleled opportunities for entertainment in our society. There is the potential to have 100s of channels of your TV set. If you miss a particular program you can catch up on the internet, where films and TV programs can be viewed at any time, irrespective of when they were broadcast. Opportunities for DVDs, computer games, clubs, sports and other leisure activities abound. Yet all this entertainment has the danger of distracting us from what is truly important.

Preserving a good name before God has much value, as we will meet Him when we die. Considering what is beyond death should be on everyone’s agenda, as unless Christ returns first, we will all die. How do we preserve a good name? – through wisdom. But we need to give wisdom the space to operate by remaining calm. Once we do so, wisdom can protect us and guide us through the circumstances God has appointed for our lives.

This is counter cultural; we will not receive many prizes or much acclaim for telling others to consider death. Many prefer to be distracted and try to ignore the inevitability of death approaching them. Yet a wise man knows the value of preparing for what will happen – meeting his maker – and will take every opportunity to be reminded of this.

Preserving A Good Name Before God Requires Seriousness of Life (7:1 – 6)

Having a Good Name Before God is All Important (7:1)

“A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth.” Ecclesiastes 7:1

The value of a good name is great; it is worth striving for, something worth desiring. Having a reputation for honourable, godly conduct gives confidence to the individual concerned. There is added authority to their advice, after all it comes from a good source, an honourable individual who knows God. There is also added weight given to the example of their life. While all else is vanity, a good name before God endures. How precious it would be to hear the words “well done good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23) as we are welcomed by our Lord Jesus Christ beyond the grave.

But it is one thing to start well, to preach well when young, or to demonstrate great spiritual gifts in your youth, it is another to finish the race without dishonouring the Lord. Consider the example of King David. As a youth he defeated Goliath, that giant warrior of the Philistine nation. In his teenage years he accomplished what grown men (who were better equipped and trained) failed to do. Yet as a middle aged man David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then murdered her husband Uriah. It is one thing to start well in spiritual things, it is another to maintain a constant witness and testimony to the Lord over years of service. The apostle Paul, in his latter years and suspecting death was near, could say to a younger Christian man:

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 2 Timothy 4:7

Hence The Wise Man Knows When To Seriously Consider His Ways (7:2,3)

What will help us to remember our creator, and to walk carefully in the world He has given us? The answer is simple, remembering that we will meet Him beyond death!

“It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.“ Ecclesiastes 7:2,3

The most effective aid to growth in spiritual wisdom can be considering death. It is not sweeter, but better, to go to the house of mourning. Solomon has clearly stated that there is a time to laugh as well as to weep (Ecclesiastes 3:4). He is not against laughter and enjoyment as part of our lives. What he is stating is that it is good for us to be reminded that our time here on earth will end. We are too easily absorbed in the world around us and funerals drive home to us that we are here on earth on a temporary basis. There are no lasting joys in this world, but there are important lessons in pain, pointing us to eternity. To a wise man focussing on what is beyond death is important. After all most people do die, it is something we need to be prepared for!

In some ways death is a mercy. It limits sin. Dictators and tyrants do not last forever, their evil influence will come to an end when their lives are over. Death also ends pain, whether this is from illness or injury, or perhaps long battles with the sinful nature in our fallen world, but out struggles and hardship will one day come to an end. By no means the least of death’s mercies to us, is that we will meet with God, death is our gateway to eternal life. Life is heaven’s departure lounge, God’s people wait until God calls them home to Himself.

“We are made to feel that if we had not leaned so strongly on our earthly props, they might not have broken under us. But if our Father takes away our all, does He not give His all – infinitely richer and more enduring?” Charles Bridges

Fools Continuously Look For Entertainment (7:4 – 6)

“The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fools; this also is vanity.“ Ecclesiastes 7:4 – 6

The wise seek what is valuable in this world, such as preparation for the next, and not just continuous distractions. They are not those who simply seek to ignore the reality of death, hoping that it will not happen until some distant time in the future. But knowing the importance of a good name before God, now, in this life, they want reminders (such as death) to keep them on track and to stop them becoming totally absorbed in the things of this life. When a timely word of rebukes comes, though perhaps unpleasant initially, the wise man knows that benefit will come in his character from a friends advice.

“It is better to have our corruptions mortified by the rebuke of the wise, than to have them gratified by the song of fools” Matthew Henry

Fools simply want entertainment, and never give serious thought to what is beyond this life. But here is their weakness; laughter in the face of grief has little value! Laughter is totally inappropriate when faced with the loss of a loved one. The best defence of the fool, laughter, distraction and entertainment, has no value when the fool is confronted with his greatest problem – death itself. The fool in his distraction is often noisy, there is continuous laughter rather than seriousness of heart, but the noise simply proclaims his shallowness. Because the fool does not consider eternity, he does not have a good name before God, his values, language and ambitions are ungodly. Why? Because he never studies God’s ways. He has no interest in them because he is absorbed in this world.

When Correctly Applied, Wisdom Brings Us Through the Circumstances God Appoints (7:7 – 14)

Wisdom Needs a Calm Spirit (7:7 – 9)

“Surely oppression drives the wise into madness, and a bribe corrupts the heart. Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools.” Ecclesiastes 7:7 – 9

We may think that talk of oppression and bribery affects others in more important positions than ourselves, such as judges or those in authority, but as one commentator writes:

“All of us are either subject to the power of others, and therefore in danger of oppression; or we are invested in power, and therefore tempted to oppress. Oppression may be either the active power of inflicting suffering, or the passive enduring of it.” Charles Bridges

As parents have authority over children and line managers have authority over staff at work, it is perhaps more relevant to us than we first think. We need to recognise the weight of the matters involved and the consequences of getting it wrong – which an uptight spirit can easily lead us into. Anger removes our ability to think, to be rational, or to be friendly. It also leads us to say things in an unsuitable spirit – in summary it produces foolish behaviour. Anger also removes the ability to pray (1 Timothy 2:8), it is the perfect alienation of the mind from prayer! The emphasis is on remaining calm and patient knowing that weighty matters are under consideration, and that inappropriate emotion can often produce the behaviour of fools. Besides, what matters are not weighty when it comes to our Christian witness?

“It [anger] may pass through a wise man’s heart. But the bosom of a fool is its home. The indulgence of causeless anger is the mark of a fool”
Charles Bridges

We are also given a reason why we need to maintain this patient spirit which allows wisdom to operate – the end of a matter is better than its beginning. The wise know that the test of something is how it performs over time. It is not how the project at work starts that is important, but how it ends. Was the project completed on time, to budget and to the sufficient quality required? The friendship may start well, but will it stand the test of time? It is not the marriage day itself that a marriage will be judged by, but the years of faithful, loving, productive and fulfilling time spent together.

There is another aspect to this to consider, that of God’s dealings with His people. God orders our ways, and when going through trouble or hardship, we may not see the benefit it produces until much after the events. However this does not alter the truth of Romans 8:28,29 – God orders all things well in the lives of His people who are called according to His purpose. We suffer now through temptation or hardship, but we will have bliss with the Lord Jesus Christ beyond the grave. I believe another aspect of our joy on the new heavens and the new earth will be that we will see something of what we have been saved from (Isaiah 66:24). God is working for our good, and we need humility and patience to accept what He gives, and to trust His judgement.

Wisdom Helps Us Keep Perspective Of the Day We Live In (7:10)

“Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.” Ecclesiastes 7:10

Wisdom knows that when looking at the former days you are probably looking through rose tinted specs (giving you a more favourable view than they really were). Further, today is the day God has appointed for us, and our purpose in life is to glorify our maker in the day he has given us. Finally, we also need to recognise that God organises history for His glory and not our private benefit! It is too easy to forget present blessings. A dissatisfied spirit will often exaggerate our evils and quickly charge God with not providing what is good for us. Ultimately we need to remember that God has appointed the day of our birth and life, which is now, so don’t long for past perceived “glory days”, but seek to glorify God now. Charles Bridges ably puts things in perspective:

“Yet in general view, God has always been good, and men have always been bad, there is nothing new under the sun.” Charles Bridges

Wisdom Protects Us (7:11,12)

“Wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun. For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.” Ecclesiastes 7:11, 12

The fool will squander an inheritance, yet the wise knows how to handle it carefully. Wealth alone can fail to bring lasting benefit. It can be squandered and wasted and there are certainly many examples of this in our society, but an inheritance with wisdom can offer real benefit. Wisdom is similar to money in that it can offer some protection against the misfortunes of life.

A biblical example of this is the wise woman who saved the town of Abel (2 Samuel 20:1 – 22). Sheba son of Bichri rebelled against King David and then fled to Abel. However he was pursed by Joab, commander of King David’s army, and Joad then proceeded to besiege the city of Abel. It is only through the intervention of an unnamed wise lady that Abel is saved. She asked Joab why he was attacking Abel, in essence seeking to bargain with him, to find out what he really wanted. Joab replies that he wants Sheba, whose head is duly handed to him by the inhabitants of Abel. A modern (and less violent) example of this is where I have found myself in the position where the project team are under pressure, and the demands from the client area seemingly impossible to meet  in the required timescale. The key can be to know and understand the pressures your client is under, and then focus your efforts in supporting him/her achieve their objectives. This has cut down unmanageable workloads to manageable sizes!

There is effort in learning wisdom, yet unlike money it does not disappear in a recession!

“If it is worth seeking at all, it is worth seeking first. And if it be not sought first, it will not be sought at all.” Charles Bridges

Know That Gods Appoint Your Circumstances (7:13 – 14)

“Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked?” Ecclesiastes 7:13

Events in our life do not always go in the way we planned or would want. God’s appointed ways may seem crooked to our eye, our will goes one way yet God’s providence, His ordering of our lives, goes another. However we know that our God is infinitely wise and loving towards His people. What God appoints cannot be undone, we need to accept this while avoiding the error of fatalism. God does call us to act in certain ways, e.g. to work to provide for ourselves and others. To just accept that one avenue of employment has come to an end without seeking another is to risk denying the faith we hold (1 Timothy 5:8). In the UK, our society and government are moving away from God, but we are also called to pray for those around us and especially those in authority (1 Timothy 2:1 – 4).

“In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.” Ecclesiastes 7:14

The wise understand that both prosperity and adversity are from the hand of God and they accept both – God has wise purposes in both! Prosperity has its unique temptations that would lead us from God. There is little chance of misusing money if you don’t have it. Equally there is little chance of misusing time if you have to fulfil daily work and family commitments. Without hardship we would be proud, thinking we had no weakness or that all was achieved by our own strength. Sometimes adversity reveals weakness that would have remained hidden otherwise. This humbles us and brings us to God. We are driven to Him for His aid and strength. We trust ourselves less and Him more. I love this doctrine of God appointing His providence, both what we define as good and bad events, in our lives. Both the clear journey and the 8 hour delay due to an accident, both the clear run and the 30mph driver in the 50 mph zone, God has appointed both sets of circumstances and has His purposes in both. Knowing that should bring peace to our lives and calmness of spirit, which is essential to give wisdom room to guide us through the circumstances God has appointed for us.

Lessons From Chapter 7:1 – 14

Preserving a Good Name before God is a Serious Business that Requires Death to Remind Us of Our Duties

Fools allow themselves to be distracted and entertained by this world without considering death or what is beyond death. The wise know that to stop them being distracted by this world, they need to consider the reality of death.

Wisdom is One of God’s Means of Bringing Us Through the Times He Appoints For Us

God has appointed our circumstances. Prayer, the church, the word and wisdom (which is applying God’s word to our lives), will bring us through what God appoints for us. Do not long for the former “glory” days, seek how you can glorify God in the day he given you to live.

Wisdom Requires A Calm Spirit To Operate

Be wary of the strong influence on you. Whether it comes from yourself, such as anger or impatience, or outwith yourself such as a bribe or tyranny. Such strong influences have a tendency to produce emotions that destroy wisdom and produce foolish behaviour.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

We are drawn to this world. We see and desire, wealth, success at work and solid family relationships. These things are not wrong in themselves, and the right measure of each can constitute part of God’s blessing to us. However we will never find lasting or true satisfaction in these things alone. The fault is not that we haven’t had the right opportunities in life (job, school, training, marriage etc), or that we don’t have the required abilities (such as intellect), the problem is more fundamental – God has designed us and this world so that we cannot find true satisfaction in it without Him.

The writer of Ecclesiastes experienced great wealth, great pleasure, and had unparalleled opportunities for self indulgence. He obtained what is far beyond the possibilities of many in even our wealthy western economies today. What were his conclusions? He stated that lasting satisfaction is not found in a life without God (Chapter 1). Lasting satisfaction is not found in pleasure, self indulgence or great wisdom and learning (Chapter 2) – it is found in knowing the God who made us and who gives both what we need and the ability to enjoy what we have (Chapter 3).

After this initial statement of his observations on life, the writer covers his topics in more detail. Man rejects his creator’s message. This leads to oppression and corruption of work. Yet even in this fallen world God’s mercy is evident in that He grants us companionship and value in wisdom (Chapter 4). What is meaningful in life is obedience to God. Be humble before Him, not filled with your own ways. Don’t be deceived by the wealth of this world, which is uncertain (Chapter 5).

In Chapter 6 we are reminded that even with great worldly blessing, enjoyment can be far from our lives.  Our desires for more than we currently have, even if we have so very much, are an unalterable part of our makeup. Only God truly knows what is best for us and can make us content with what He gives.

Life is So Easily Filled With Dissatisfaction (6:1 – 6)

1) The Inability to Enjoy the Fruit of Our Labours (6:1,2)

“There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honour, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil.” Ecclesiastes 6:1,2

The basis of our love for the things of this world is that we think we will be content if have what we desire. Yet Solomon has seen the very opposite case. He has observed a man to have great wealth, but was unable to enjoy the great things he had. Indeed this man had all he desired, yet he still experienced sadness. We can have so much, but the end result of all our efforts can be to benefit a stranger – not our own families or friends. Perhaps sickness, affliction, unfulfilled ambitions or goals restrained the blessing. Whatever the affliction was, this was a deep disappointment to the man, it “lies heavily” on him, just as a weighty burden would.

There is however another danger in having much wealth. We come to love money and it dominates our thinking and our affections.  We set our hearts on it. This again feeds the desire for more, leading to discontent with what we already have. This craving for more, what the Bible calls covetousness, can become a tyrant who is much stronger than ourselves.

It is the gift of God to enjoy the fruit of our labour (Ecclesiastes 3:12,13), a gift that can be withheld! True happiness comes from knowing that God provides what we need and what is right for us, and then in thanking Him for His gracious provision. There is perhaps at times more enjoyment is found in thanking God than in the material provision itself.

2) The Inability To Enjoy Life In the Midst of Family Blessing (6:3)

“If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life’s good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.” Ecclesiastes 6:3

But perhaps great wealth is not what an individual desires. For some it is health, long life and a happy family life that is important to them. Yet lasting satisfaction can escape those who have these great benefits too. Solomon takes two of nature’s greatest blessings, children and length of life, and shows that even with both of these, an individual’s soul can still not be satisfied with life’s good things. Further to this Solomon also shows the possibility of the individual perhaps coming to a dishonourable end – the individual who had all these things may end their life unhonoured and unlamented, “he has no burial”.

Solomon is taking the things we naturally value, perhaps the greatest blessing the world can bestow on us, and shows that they in themselves are not a guarantee of enjoyment or honour before our fellow man.

3) The Inability To Enjoy Life is A Great Evil (6:4 – 6)

“[The stillborn child] For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good—do not all go to the one place?” Ecclesiastes 6:4 – 6

The still born child, who has no life, but does not know the worries and pain of life, is better than this man who has so much but does not enjoy what he has. The key here is that both the wealthy man and the stillborn child go the same place – but the stillborn child has less pain on its journey.

Long life with family and riches, but without enjoying real good, is simply lengthened misery. None of a man’s wealth can exempt him from death, in the end  he is neither fit for life or death.

“Surely it is not life, but enjoyment that gives value to existence, and makes the vital difference” Charles Bridges

It is in Christ that we have true contentment and enjoyment in this life, as He provides all that we need spiritually and materially. What He desires for His people, what the Good Shepherd gives to His people, is life to the full (John 10:10). It is possible to have so very much of this world’s good things, but a discontented heart is satisfied with nothing! Making the earth our goal means we will never be truly satisfied (especially when the infirmities of old age or illness set in). However when we come to God through the Lord Jesus Christ He gives us what we need of this world’s blessing, and makes us content! In the words of CS Lewis:

“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.” C S Lewis

C) Covetous Hearts and the Nature Of This World Prevent Us From being Satisfied (6:7 – 12)

1) Our Covetous Hearts Prevent Us From Being Satisfied (6:7 – 9)

“All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied.” Ecclesiastes 6:7

The previous examples of individuals with wealth, long life and family, but still not finding satisfaction may have surprised us. However Solomon now supplies a reason for such discontentment amongst the midst of great earthly blessing. We work to satisfy our cravings, and once we obtain that which we originally craved, new desires begin to grow and form with us. Once our old desires are satisfied, we simply gain new desires. We delude ourselves if we think that the more of his world we have the more satisfied we will be.

“For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind.” Ecclesiastes 6:8,9

The wise man, or the man who knows how to conduct himself, has more ability and will almost certainly have more wealth and honour than the fool. Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs as well as Ecclesiastes. He knows there are many advantages to wisdom, and wants his readers to grow in understanding and wisdom. However, in this context of always wanting more, in having a gap between what the individual has and what they want, the wise man has indeed no advantage over the fool. The wise man may have more wealth and honour than the fool, but there is still a gap between what the wise man has and what he wants.

The danger is that the more we have, the more we want. The gap between wanting and having is maintained as much for the wise man as for the fool. In Solomon’s words, “Better is the sight of the eyes”, better is the reality before us (what we have) “than the wandering of the appetite” the restless desire for more than we already have. The constant desire for more wearies us and wastes time and effort, it is a “striving after the wind”. He who always wants more has no peace, and often expends time and energy in activities that cannot bring lasting satisfaction or contentment.

We can apply this to various areas of life. The rich man is often not content with his riches. Do not envy him, because if you had his wealth, you would want more too. The great sports person is often aware of their own deficiencies, and wants greater achievements. If they obtain medals then there are world records to be broken. Do not envy them, if you had their ability you would want greater achievements too. There is always someone better at the sport (perhaps younger, or a historical figure). The handsome individual who is good with relationships may land the beautiful partner they want. But by nature, they will want other partners too, look at the marriage breakdown amongst the outwardly “beautiful people” of Hollywood. Do not envy them, if you had that “beautiful” partner, you too would be attracted to other people. The academic who knows so much also knows the unanswered questions and the limits of their knowledge. Do not envy them, if you had their intellect you would yearn for more knowledge too.

2) Our True Peace Is Found in Being Content

It is better to enjoy what we have than to tire ourselves endlessly chasing after more. The labourer has more peace and better sleep than the affluent man. Or as one put it:

“he who is truly rich is he who has enough”

Again:

“Our position is not so much looking up to heaven from earth, as looking down from heaven to earth. And it is when we thus realise our rightful standing in heaven (Cf Eph 2:6, Phil 3:20) we rise above the dying vanities of earth” Charles Bridges

Yet it is so easy to get side tracked by our desires for earthly things. We allow our thoughts to dwell on their empty promises of satisfaction, and to lose our vision of heaven and forget the truth that earthly things alone do not satisfy. It is only through a knowledge of God are we released from the enslaving belief that this world brings lasting satisfaction.

3) Our Hearts and This World Prevents Us From Being Satisfied (6:10 – 12)

“Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he.” Ecclesiastes 6:10

I believe that in this perhaps seemingly obscure passage, Solomon is stating how utterly unalterable our state of affairs is. “Whatever has come to be has already been named” – Solomon has surveyed so much of life already, understanding the world God as made. Further Solomon has turned his great wisdom inward and studied his own nature, desires, aspirations and what makes up his personality, “it is known what man is”. What was is his conclusion? There is much cause for lack of contentment in this world (described in previous chapters) and ultimately no new source of contentment will appear. Everything is meaningless. We cannot change the fact that this world does not, and never will, give lasting satisfaction. We are not able to dispute with one stronger, God, who has ordained these things. However this does not stop man trying!

“The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?” Ecclesiastes 6:11 – 12

Mans in his search for satisfaction expresses many opinions and thoughts on how to obtain lasting satisfaction, but this all proves fruitless, “The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man?” Man himself does not know what is truly best for him, “For who knows what is good for man”. Our limited ability and knowledge in understanding the world reveals our own limitations and inability to discern what is best, “For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?”

We need to recognise and acknowledge our limitations in wisdom and understanding. We need to depend on God who has all wisdom and knowledge, and in His great love for His people withholds no good thing from those who love Him (Rom 8:32).

D) Lessons From Chapter 6

It is possible to have long life, great wealth, a large family and still be discontent

It is God who provides the blessing of both what we need, and the ability to enjoy what we have. This blessing is not in our own power to bestow on ourselves.

We will always want more than this world can provide

No matter what our abilities are, and the corresponding wealth or success that we have, we will always want more than we have.

We have an innate inability to discern what is good for us – we need to know and follow God’s leading

Many individuals will multiple words, seeking to find ways of being content with this world alone. We can weary ourselves chasing these fruitless directions, but there is one, and only one, who can give us contentment in this world, and eternal rest in the world to come. In the words of the Lord Jesus Christ:

“Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28 – 30

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Many in our society are seeking deep satisfaction. Some seek to find it in a successful career, or a successful home life, or great wealth. However the writer of Ecclesiastes states that lasting satisfaction is not found in any of these areas alone (Chapter 1). In fact it is not found in pleasure, self indulgence or great wisdom and learning either (Chapter 2) – it is found only in knowing the God who made us and gives both what we need and the ability to enjoy what we have (Chapter 3). Yet man rejects his creator’s message. This leads to oppression and corruption of work, however even in this fallen world God’s mercy is evident in that He grants us companionship and value in wisdom (Chapter 4).

In Chapter 5 the spotlight is turned on an area of life which does have lasting meaning, how we act before God, and an area where we can be deceived, that is money. The positive is contrasted with the negative. All too often our world ignores a relationship with God, which matters for all eternity, and focuses on wealth which cannot be taken beyond the grave. Wealth, all too often, can deceive and harm us. But to focus on God’s things means to be humble before Him and have a desire to learn His ways. These are attitudes of mind which not everyone has.

Pursue God’s Ways – You Will Find Lasting Good In Them (5:1 – 9)

Be Quick to Listen to God (5:1 – 3)

“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words” Ecclesiastes 5:1 – 3

All in this world is vanity and has no lasting influence or consequence – except the service of God – so be quick to listen to find out about Him! Solomon has multiplied the areas of life that have no lasting or eternal value, yet now he introduces one area that does have eternal value. We need to avoid being continuously filled with our own thoughts, ideas and plans. The need of the hour is to be ready to hear the almighty’s word. What is the cause of any poor service in us? Is it the lack of good teaching or the inability to apply good teaching to our lives? It is easier to hear the direction “Love our neighbours as ourselves”, but often harder to put it into practice. It is easier to be occupied with the preachers dress, mannerisms, tone of voice, gestures or emphasis than to hear the word of God spoken to us from the Bible.

The contrast is immediately made with those who do not listen to their creator – those whom Solomon calls fools. We need to be careful to avoid the same criticism. Worldly thoughts or plans are all too often brought not just to the door, but into the church itself. It is all too easy to be distracted by cares, concerns and the pleasures of this world instead of focusing on the worship of God. True worship comes from the adoration of God. If we are adoring the great football game played yesterday (in our minds) while outwardly singing the praise of God, then no matter how good the musical accompaniment is, our worship will be hollow.

The foolish are filled with their own ways, interests and religious desires – they form their own God and serve that idol! If it is not the God of the Bible that fills our thoughts, but instead a god of our own making that is acceptable to our lifestyle, then we flatter and deceive ourselves and are fools indeed to reject the worship of the one true God. He alone, due to His truth, holiness, love, faithfulness, grace and mercy is worthy of all honour from His people. But worse still such people do not know they do evil – poor deluded people who are in danger of judgment, of hell. Why? Because they have never listened to God.

We have a God, in heaven, who is worth listening too. He is enthroned in majesty, majestic in splendour and holiness. The motivation to hear Him is love for His attributes, love for who He is, and respect for His holiness. We need to recognise that we are sinful by nature, prone to foolishness. It is God who is infinite in wisdom and knowledge, strength and power. Yet the believer has the Holy Spirit working in them, helping them to pray and illuminating His word (the Bible). We need to hear God’s word, recognizing that we are limited by our corrupt nature and in desperate need of God’s infinite wisdom.

Be Careful With Your Vows (5:4 – 7)

“When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.” Ecclesiastes 5:4 – 7

While many areas of life do not last or have no real significance before God – our words do have real significance. The rashness of the mouth causes the individual to sin. In a Biblical context the vow was often a promise to make a sacrifice if God looked favourably on a particular petition – e.g. Jacob giving a tenth if the Lord provided for him (Gen 28:20-22). Japheth promised to sacrifice whatever came out of the doors of his house to meet him if God gave him victory in battle (Judges 11:30 – 31), and Hannah asking for a son which she promised to dedicate to the Lord (1 Sam 1:11). As the sacrifice was often costly people looked for an excuse to avoid making it, but in breaking the vow the individual incurred guilt before God. If you do not make a vow you cannot be held responsible for breaking it.

Our words will affect our eternal destiny. God will hold people guilty for broken promises. On the last Day, when all of humanity will stand before God, unforgiven guilt (which can only be forgiven through the work of Christ on the cross) will condemn people to hell for all eternity. Instead of a vow, instant readiness is the best proof of sincerity. It is better not to make the promise than to make and then break it.

The most common vows people make are their marriage vows. If a married individual seeks a relationship with an individual who is not their spouse then God will call them both to account. Yet further to the promises we make there is how we use God’s name. God has also promised to hold guilty those who misuse His name (Exodus 20:7), yet God’s name is used often as a swear word, or an expletive to reduce tension. How much God means to an individual is revealed by how they use His name. It is a real danger that Solomon considers – adultery, the breaking of the marriage vow,  is common in our western secular society.

“There must be a real conviction of our total weakness, acted out in simple dependence upon Omnipotent grace; else the most sincere vow will be found too feeble an engagement for the hour of temptation, and will issue in discouragement and perplexity” Charles Bridges

Be Careful With Your Actions (5:8,9)

 “If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them.” Ecclesiastes 5:8

Solomon brings to our attention that oppression can occur on a wide-scale. Oppression occurs in not just a village, or a town, or a city, but a whole province, and we could add, across a country. The UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission has admitted that UK law has been interpreted too narrowly against Christians [1]. The political manoeuvring of sinful ruling officials often results in suffering for the powerless. We should not be amazed when our state or society takes a dim view of Christian ethics or morality as we know that, in spite of our “liberal and tolerant” society, that the sinful nature and the prince of this world, Satan (Ephesians 2:2) is stirring up disobedience against God. Yet the highest authority, the Lord, does not look on as an unconcerned spectator. Instead He watches and waits for the perfect time to right the wrongs, either here or in eternity.

“But this is gain for a land in every way: a king committed to cultivated fields.” Ecclesiastes 5:9

God has perhaps established a balancing mechanism to check the tendency of the sinful heart to oppress others. Oppression can be suppressed to some extent, by mutual interest. Our happiness and misery is given into each other’s power to a certain degree. The king benefits from the field; hence it is in his interest to have productive workers and not to emaciate them. Humility is the lesson for the rich, and contentment the lesson for the poor. The rich need to value the efforts of the poor and realise their good depends on those efforts. The poor need to recognize that the land often cannot support many rich individuals and that usually, but by no means always, it is the rich person’s skill or hard work that has created their wealth.

There is an application for us all – we need to use our actions wisely for the benefit of others as ultimately this is a blessing to us also. The apostle Paul makes this clear in the husband and wife relationship (Ephesians 5:28,29). Similarly parents will often have their own greatest peace when the children are happily occupied.

Do Not Pursue Money – You Will Not Find Lasting Satisfaction In Wealth (5:10 – 17)

Money Does Not Provide Satisfaction (5:10 – 12)

“He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes?” Ecclesiastes 5:10,11

The desire for money is rooted in so many – the popularity of the UK’s National Lottery, the desire of many to gain wealth through sport or popular music all testify to this – as do to a certain extent the recent riots in the UK (August 2011). While the riots started as a grievance against Police action in London, they soon spread to other major cities with looting and greed as the main focus.

Yet the man who had great wealth says it does not give true satisfaction. We end up worshipping it, putting it central, and then we can never be satisfied. Our naturally covetous hearts prevent this. The more we have, the more we want. But the more we have the more time, effort, energy and cost it takes to run and maintain what we have. Big houses require more work to clean and look after. Big cars are notoriously expensive to insure, service and repair. All of this places more demands on our time and finances, which can run us down in the end.

“Sweet is the sleep of a labourer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.” Ecclesiastes 5:12

Work tires out the body promoting sleep, and having enough satisfies us as much as having more than sufficient, this is simply put in the phrase “enough is as good as a feast”. Yet the rich man’s wealth often denies him sleep. He can have worries over losing his wealth, worries over planning and executing all the work required to maintain his lands, houses and finances. But sleep can also be denied because of the love of wealth. The thought of possessions dominates the rich man’s thoughts preventing rest. Only the Holy Spirit can control the covetous sinful nature giving us peace. Enough is as good as a feast, and the Holy Spirit makes us content with enough.

Money Can Fail Us Now (5:13,14)

“There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand.” Ecclesiastes 5:13, 14

Many a man may use concern for his family as a cloak for covetous desire, but Solomon has seen estates disappear and leave the heir penniless. Uncertain riches are to be contrasted with solid promise from the Lord to provide for His people (Philippians 4:19). The best provision we can make for our children is to give them a work ethic and to fear the Lord, that they may know His perfect provision. It is a poor substitute to teach our children, by our example if not by explicit speech, to trust in uncertain riches. But riches have the capacity to harm our souls and others and not just prove uncertain for our own provision.

 “Their riches do them hurt, make them proud secure, and in love with the world, draw away their hearts from God and duty, and make it very difficult for them to enter the kingdom of God … (riches) not only put them into a capacity for gratifying their own lusts and living luxuriously, but give them an opportunity of oppressing others and dealing hardly with them.” Matthew Henry

Money Can Fail Us In Eternity (5:15 – 17)

 “As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. This also is a grievous evil: just as he came, so shall he go, and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind? Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger.” Ecclesiastes 5:15 – 17

All our physical labours will be burned up with this present earth (2 Peter 3:7). Ultimately this is another part of Solomon’s central idea he states in this book – all (in this world) is vanity. All our efforts are short lived, we leave them behind and they will be burnt up when this present world is transformed (Romans 8:20,21).

Do you envy the rich person? Then don’t! As God’s people we have far greater blessings, with less care, less temptation and without the disappointment!

Pursue Contentedness – True Satisfaction (5:18 – 20)

What Is Truly Good – Enjoying What We Have (5:18)

“Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot.” Ecclesiastes 5:18

Solomon now turns to a much brighter contrast than the blight of great wealth. True consolation for the labour and hard work we experience in this life is found in having our needs met (being able to eat and drink) and to find enjoyment in some aspects of our work (enjoyment in all our toil). True contentment is not found in wealth, much ease or much leisure, but in working to provide sufficient for self and others.

I can’t see me retiring before the age of 70, but I do know of individuals my age who are planning on retiring at 55! I am often curious as to who will be most content. Our desires (and the world) tell us the one with much ease and leisure. However Solomon’s experience seems to point in another direction. Again we need to remember – the more we have, the more we want and the more time effort and energy it takes to maintain what we have.

Enjoying What We Have Is A Gift From God – And Truly Satisfying (5:19,20)

“Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.” Ecclesiastes 5:19,20

True contentment arises from thanksgiving to God! We need to acknowledge and thank God for His provision of the blessings He gives us. Are we successful in our jobs? Then it is God who has given us the health, strength, abilities and stability in our lives to achieve our success. He has promised to meet our needs when He is placed first (e.g. Matthew 6:33, Philippians 4:19) and He graciously delivers for His people. To have and enjoy the fruit of our labour is a gift from God worthy of thanks.

The true servant of God is a truly happy man. They enjoy what God has provided for them and have their covetous heart tamed by the Holy Spirit. In contrast having riches makes entering into this earthly rest (as well as the heavenly rest) very difficult. In terms of this present life the Apostle Paul makes the dangers of riches very clear:

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” 1 Timothy 6:10

But the greatest danger is when the love of money chokes out a love for God:

“Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Matthew 19:24

Lessons From Chapter 5

Don’t Come To God Full of Your Own Ideas – Learn From Him

Fools rush into God’s presence bringing their own thoughts and ideas. Remember who God is. He is the infinitely wise, powerful and holy creator of this universe, who will judge our words and actions, holding us to promises we make to Him.

Don’t Be Seduced by Money – It is Uncertain, It Does Not Satisfy, and It Can Lead Us Away From God to Our Hurt

Remember that by nature we have covetous hearts, the more we have the more we want. Enough is as good as a feast, but it is only God that can make us truly content with enough, as the Holy Spirit works in our hearts. Wealth is unreliable, but God’s everlasting provision is completely reliable!

Be Content with What You Have – as the Believer Has God Himself with Them

“Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said, ‘will never leave you nor forsake you.’” Hebrews 13:5

God does not disappoint, He loves us with a depth we cannot imagine, He always does what is right and good, and He is personally committed to His people for all eternity. Let us be content with what we have, knowing that we have God presence with us, and Him providing for us.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

One outline of the structure of Ecclesiastes is to view chapters 1 to 3 as an initial statement of Solomon’s problem. The conclusions are given upfront in chapter 1. Nothing of lasting value or that is truly satisfying can be found in this world alone. Chapter 2 details the areas of life that Solomon has investigated. Pleasure, possessions, self-indulgence, wisdom and work all produce at best a transient satisfaction – they all fail to produce anything that endures. But why should man desire a permanent memorial to himself, or look for lasting satisfaction? Chapter 3 tells us why. God has placed eternity on our hearts, we long for something that outlasts our short lives. But further to this God has ordered the world around us, which is more evidence of His existence and influence in the world. There is something more than the world around us to know, and that something is the eternal God Himself. Knowing Him fulfils the yearning for eternity set upon our hearts.

Now Solomon reviews in more detail the ground he has covered. He has clearly stated that there is nothing of lasting value in this world, but God has given us transient benefits in this passing world. There is the opportunity of doing good, of working, the blessing of companionship and value of wisdom. Yet what does man do with these benefits? Some he abuses, seeking to twist to his own ends, yet in reality this leads to his own hurt and the hurt of others. Some he enjoys and uses wisely, yet again, even when man does act according to God’s ways (which is to his greatest good) there is no lasting benefit derived from this world.

The question for us all is, “How do we use God’s gifts to us?” Do we use them wisely to our good and the good of others, or foolishly to our hurt? Even if we use them wisely, the temporary benefit gained, the best we can obtain in this life, should point us to the eternal benefit of knowing God.

The Corruption of Doing Good – Oppression Leading to Despair

Oppression

“Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them.” Ecclesiastes 4:1

Solomon saw that man’s greatest good here below could be found in doing good and enjoying God’s gifts (Ecclesiastes 3:12). Yet what he finds is a corruption of God’s purpose for man. The sinful world is full of selfishness – might prevails against right – which leads men, and in particular those oppressed, to hate and to despise life. Twice Solomon alludes to the lack of comforter for the oppressed – there is no one to give relief to soul or body. Such was the depth of cruelty that it ensured no way out for the oppressed.

God’s command is to, “love our neighbours as ourselves” (Matthew 22:39), and this includes loving our enemies (Matthew 5:43). The oppression here described is the very opposite of God’s plan for mankind, and indeed is the fruit of the sinful nature, given free reign, when the relationship with God is ignored. The second part of the 10 commandments (Exodus 20) deal with relating to others (commandments 6 – 10: respect your parents, respect others life, family, possessions, reputation and do not desire what is not yours), but we can only keep them if we love God (Matthew 22:37) and protect our relationship with Him (commandments 1 – 4: Worship God alone, worship Him His way, honour His name and day).

The fact that oppression exists, oppression that can come upon us from individuals powerful enough to remove all earthly hope or comfort, should lead us to trust in God. He is the one who can help us through the trial, and is the one who also has the ability to remove it. Why trust in your own resources when there exist situations here below that can overwhelm them?

Oppression Leading To Despair

“And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.”
Ecclesiastes 4:2,3

When life is viewed in having value only in this present time, death is preferably to prolonged suffering. This may explain the rise in interest in euthanasia in the UK. When all life seems to hold for us is pain and despair why live? The presence of a God who can comfort and support us, teach us and encourage us through the hardship is not considered. The fact that it is God who ultimately gives life and takes it away (Deuteronomy 32:39) is not considered. Indeed Baroness Warnock has also argued that the elderly have an economic duty to volunteer for euthanasia[1]. When God is removed from our thinking, the value and dignity of man, along with the presence and help of God, are quickly removed.

The writer continues in his evaluation of suffering when this world is made the only object of our thinking. The more fortunate individual is the one who has never lived. Death, even if longed for, is viewed as an enemy. The writer judges it better to have never lived than to have suffered (or have witnessed suffering) and died. Believers are not exempt from these feelings (Job 3:12-19, 1 Kings 19:4). Indeed the apparent prosperity of the wicked can cause great distress to the believer, David (Psalm 73:3, 17), Jeremiah (Jeremiah 12:1) and Habakkuk (Habakkuk 1:13) all passed through the same dilemma until they looked beyond death (Psalm 73:17, Habakkuk 2:20; 3:17,18). This world is not everything! Habakkuk’s beautiful declaration of faith, in the face of God’s impending judgement upon Israel, (Habakkuk 3:17 – 19) reminds us to value the future eternal things which are of far great value enjoyment and worth to us than the present things, and that God is our present strength also.

Our birth, perhaps into trouble, is a gateway to everlasting life beyond death – the individual who has never been born and then born again, will not know eternal life. Yet even now partial judgements are given to assure us of the future reality of eternal life. We have the life changing influence of the Holy Spirit and the comfort and encouragement of other believers all reminding us of the future joy to come. If we had never been born, we could never know Christ for all eternity on the new heavens and the new earth. Yet in the meantime we need to show practical action to help the lot of those suffering – Christ not only wept over the lost but also shed His blood for them.

The Corruption of Work – Wrong Motives, Laziness and Workaholics

Solomon now describes three ways how work can harm the individual. Something meant for man’s good, a lawful outlet for his gifts and talents, an honest means of providing for self and others, can be corrupted to his own hurt.

Working From the Wrong Motive – Insatiable Envy

“Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man’s envy of his neighbour. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.“ Ecclesiastes 4:4

A man does a right work, yet his neighbour envies him. There is always someone to envy, someone who is richer than ourselves or has achieved greater success or status. The envy, without God’s help, often can never be removed, it is a form of self torment. The irritation is always there. There can be a natural tendency in our hearts to feed on our own good and upon the other person’s evil. As a result the individual who is striving to “Keep up with the Jones”, to have at least the same status or possessions of those around them, is never satisfied. Either their own work has not achieved enough benefit for them, or what they have does not compare well to those they want to keep up with. It is truly a recipe for constant frustration. Contrast this with God’s guidance of being content with what we have!

Christian’s have to watch out for this danger in the church. It can be expressed as “God’s work must be done and we must be the doers of it” – how can some other have the praise? The temptation is to throw something into the balance and depreciate the other fair name, and to preserve the glory of our dearest idol, which is ourselves. Instead of working out of the motive to please the Lord and to help others, the danger is that we work for our own glory with works provoked out of envy.

Working Too Little – Poverty Through Inaction

“The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh.” Ecclesiastes 4:5

When a man sees ill, the tyranny of an oppressor above him, and many on his level begrudging their neighbour’s happiness, he can be tempted to do very little. The fool does nothing because others do ill. But this inactivity leads to his own hurt. Without working we cannot (unless in some very exceptional cases) lawfully provide for our families or others in need. Food on the table, the maintenance of property and activates for the family are seldom free. Yet the lazy man would deny the provision of these things to those around him. We need to cultivate a mind of pleasure in its proper place, after the required work is done, and not to make pleasure the end in itself.

Working Too Much – The Isolated Unsatisfied Workaholic

“Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind. Again, I saw vanity under the sun: one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, ‘For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure’ This also is vanity and an unhappy business.” Ecclesiastes 4:6-8

“Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind”. The mental tranquillity from honest labour providing what is needed is now contrasted with both laziness that leads to poverty (v 5) and the workaholic that is never satisfied and ruins himself through work, “two hands full of toil and a striving after wind”. Some stress is often good for us, it pushes on to action and helps overcome the natural inertia or tendency to laziness that we may have. Too much stress can damage family and other relationships, hinder our daily time with the Lord, and lead us to actions or behaviour we later regret. To strive after material gain to the exclusion of the relations God has called us too (e.g. knowing Him, being with His people and our families) is truly a “striving after the wind”, as will never find true rest or contentment there.

Sometimes covetousness, the desire for more and more, is the motive of the workaholic. The lazy man sits inactive with folded hands, whereas the covetous individual is often active, seeking to acquire more. In effect the covetous man has chosen money for his god, and honours this god above all else – yet he is never satisfied with what his god delivers, he must always have more. This time the covetous man has wealth (in contrast to the lazy man who does not), yet does not benefit others, or himself, with it. The grasp of wealth on the individual grows with time and habit – in complete contrast to Christ who was rich yet made himself poor for our benefit.

“Frequently the more men have the more they would have; and on this they are so intent, that they get no enjoyment from what they have.” Matthew Henry

“for whom am I toiling”. This man has no heir to bestow his wealth to. He has not realised the uncertainty of riches and that he may be toiling for others who will take his wealth for themselves. Furthermore the picture is one of loneliness; there is no companion who can be a real help and pleasure.

In the end what lasting benefit does the covetous individual have from his wealth when in Hell for all eternity? He has worked to the exclusion of relationships in this life, isolating himself, perhaps enduring stress and burnout, and to the final end of eternal torment.

“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?” Matthew 16:26

The Benefits of Companionship – From Both A Close Companion and From Friends

The Help of Close Companionship

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?” Ecclesiastes 4:9 – 11

The misery of solitary selfishness, a man so absorbed with covetousness that all interest in his fellow creatures is sacrificed, is now contrasted with pleasures and advantages of social relationships – marriage, friendship and Christian fellowship all confer great blessing. The miser labours for himself, the wise man labours for those he loves. Jealous striving to be first isolates, yet God has called us to give and freely share.

There are great benefits, as well as responsibilities, from companionship. If distress of mind body or soul occurs a human comforter is at hand. Much more can be achieved by co-operative ventures than on our own. If it was not good for man to be alone in paradise (Gen 2:18), how much less so is it good for a man to be alone in the wilderness of this world with all its dangers? Each individual has a responsibility in helping and comforting the other – the benefits are not one way, they flow from a mutual concern and desire to help each other. We are after all, called to help each other as we would like to be helped ourselves (Matthew 7:12).

The Help of Friends

“And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” Ecclesiastes 4:12

Our attention is now brought to wider companionship, “a threefold cord”. One possibility is certainly the Christian Church. We should look for opportunities of Christian fellowship. It is better to be in an imperfect, but not heretical, church than in no church at all – untwist the cord and the threefold strands are quickly broken!  In a church fellowship we can mutually encourage and help one another continuing steadfastly in Apostle’s doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and prayers (Act 2:42). By ourselves the temptation of sin can overcome us – with no thought of accountability to God or His human representatives in the church.

Yet there is another interpretation which is equally admitted by scripture. The obedient Christian has a divine friend (John 15:14,15) who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24). That the Lord should call us friends, who sin against Him and justly deserve His wrath upon our lives, is grace indeed. That this friend should never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5) and be with through every trial, helping and aiding us, is wonderful awe inspiring grace indeed.

The Benefit of Wisdom – Invaluable, But All too quickly Forgotten

The Invaluable Benefit of Wisdom

“Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice. For he went from prison to the throne, though in his own kingdom he had been born poor. I saw all the living who move about under the sun, along with that youth who was to stand in the king’s place. There was no end of all the people, all of whom he led.” Ecclesiastes 4:13 – 16a

The benefit of wisdom, and how it can overcome great disadvantages, is now described through a historical example. The writer contrasts the king and the poor individual, the old man and the child, the foolish and the wise. In terms of influence and status the youth is disadvantaged. He had been born poor and even landed in prison, and without great years of experience he surely, it would have been thought, is unfit to govern. Yet while the youth had age and poverty against him, yet he had wisdom.

Wisdom gave the youth real worth, not outward show. It gave him solid usefulness. From the ragged school or wretched hovel rich stores of intellectual and moral worth may be found compared to which a kings crown may be tinsel in comparison. Indeed, in some ways Solomon’s words may have been prophetic concerning the king that followed him, his own son Rehoboam. Solomon’s servant Jeroboam had proved very able (1 Kings 11:28 – 40). As Solomon’s heart turned from the Lord, the Lord promised Jeroboam that he would rule 10 of Israel’s 12 tribes. As a result Jeroboam had to flee from Solomon to Egypt. After Solomon’s death, Jeroboam gained control of the promised tribes through, on a human level, the foolishness of Rehoboam (1 Kings 12:1 – 24).

All Too Quickly Forgotten

“Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a striving after wind.” Ecclesiastes 4:16b

How Solomon returns to a recurring theme in the book – what we achieve in our lifetimes is soon forgotten. While the youth’s influence was great and he achieved much, yet he was soon forgotten – a new individual quickly charmed the masses. The people no longer rejoiced, no longer took pleasure in remembrance of the youth, he made no permanent impact on the populace.

Human nature has not changed since Solomon’s day. We will be quickly forgotten by the current generation as well! People have always looked for the something new thing, we may have done great things and great good, but once past our sell by date the crowd will look for something new to inspire them or to entertain them.

Lessons From Chapter 4

God’s Plans Are Corrupted By Man

In the place of God’s plan of doing good to our fellow man, there is often oppression.

In place of diligent work performed using our God given abilities to the benefit of ourselves and others – there is often laziness, selfishness and covetousness which leads to either no gain to share with others or to all the worldly profit being kept by the individual themselves.

Man ignores the witness of God upon his nature (God has placed eternity in our hearts), and the witness of God in the world round about us (an order and time for everything), and corrupts God plans to suit his own ends. These ends can often be hurtful to himself or others.

Yet He has Still Left Us Benefits in This Life

Companionship is a real blessing that God has given to us in this life. While enduring the hardships and trials of this life, we have the companionship of family, friends, other believers and of the Lord Himself. We need to be with the Lord’s people, and seek to help them as we have ability and opportunity.

Wisdom can overcome many disadvantages in this life. True wisdom comes from above, is peaceable and confers many blessings.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” James 1:5

“Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” James 5:13 – 17

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Ecclesiastes is a startling book. The opening verses proclaim the utter meaninglessness of life. The writer has investigated every sphere of human activity, and found it void of lasting peace, contentment and satisfaction. Such findings were a great cause of sorrow for the book’s author. The author takes the hopes and dreams of every human on the planet and pronounces them worthless, in and of themselves.

So unless we want to induce a dose of depression, why read the book of Ecclesiastes? The book drives us to find our value, joy, contentment and lasting peace in God and God alone. Every other apparent source of lasting satisfaction is a sham – only God truly delivers. Do you envy the highly paid and famous premier league footballer? Then read this book. Do you think ultimate fulfilment is found in being the most famous and influential politician, celebrity, sportsperson, businessman or even philanthropist on the planet? Then read this book. If the true meaning of life was to be found in these activities, true fulfilment would be found by only an elite few.

The message of Ecclesiastes is that true fulfilment, lasting peace and satisfaction is within the grasp of every human being, it is found in knowing God. Ecclesiastes is such an important book!

The Writer – King Solomon

“The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.” Eccles 1:1

While a measure of debate exists around the identity of the author of Ecclesiastes, the best candidate would seem to be King Solomon. The Hebrew term translated “son of” in verse 1 can mean “descendant of”, and not necessarily that the writer’s father was David. However Solomon who was both a son of David and a King in Jerusalem who had unparalleled wealth, wisdom and opportunities for pleasure, which are activities and attributes that are discussed in Ecclesiastes. Of Solomon is was said,

“Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind.” 2 Chron 9:22,23

Unfortunately Solomon’s heart was seduced to follow the foreign gods worshipped by many of his 700 wives and 300 concubines. The Lord judged Solomon for his idolatry, but it would seem that Solomon returned to the Lord in his later years, writing the book of Ecclesiastes. As David wrote Psalm 51 after he sinned, a case can be made that Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes after he returned to the Lord.

The Purpose – Teaching the Gathered Congregation

The title of the book “Ecclesiastes “ comes from the Greek word “Ekklesia”, which in the New Testament is translated “church”, or “assembly”. This Greek word is in turn a translation of the original Hebrew. The word carries the idea of a preacher or debater speaking to a gathered assembly, seeking to discuss a problem and come to a conclusion.

The topic for debate is, “What is the true meaning of life?” The speaker is the wisest man on the earth, who has had every opportunity to thoroughly investigate the meaning of life, and to try and find the purpose of our human existence on the earth. We can imagine silence falling over the gathered assembly as people wait to hear King Solomon’s conclusions on existence under heaven. Would he describe some complex philosophical construct? How many of his hearers that did not have his great wisdom and intellect would be able to understand Solomon’s conclusions? They need not have worried. Solomon’s conclusion on the meaning of life was very simple. Without God, life is meaningless.

Lasting Satisfaction Cannot Be Found In The World

“ Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities!  All is vanity.” Eccles 1:2

“’Meaningless! Meaningless!’, says the Teacher. ‘Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!” Eccles 1:2 NIV

Solomon examined all of the opportunities available to man in this world, and his conclusion was simple, this world cannot bring lasting satisfaction or purpose to human life. All of its pleasures, profits, honours, endeavours and business cannot provide lasting happiness. We are satisfied for a time, but these pleasures create a larger whole in our desires than they fill. So often we are left empty with a feeling of, “Was that it?” which then drives again to seek another high, which proves only as transient as the last.

There is a real temptation to try and find our satisfaction and purpose in the things of this world. Many around us, who do not know God, are seeking to make this world their source of happiness. They know of no other way, having denied the existence of God. Our desires are for the things of this world – they look so attractive! Ultimately we try to find meaning of life in the gifts and not the giver.

The Lord Jesus Christ states,

“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” Mark 8:36

Even if we gained all the material wealth and political power in this world, this is still nothing compared to a lost eternity in Hell.

Solomon states

“What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?” Eccles 1:3

Why would you want to gain the world? Even with all material gain and power you would still be disappointed, finding no lasting peace, contentment, satisfaction or meaning in life. Yet people still try!

Man Is Insignificant Compared to the Created World

“A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.” Eccles 1:4

We are here briefly and then we die, the earth is a stage with persons continually coming and disappearing before our eyes. Our time is limited on the earth in comparison to the age of the earth itself. What lasting influence can a man produce from all his hard work? What lasting good can a man do for himself? All he has is left behind at death, none of his material possessions are taken with him into eternity beyond the grave. Man is insignificant compared to creation around him – we have no lasting influence and no ability to change our state.

The sun, wind and water cycles are described in Ecclesiastes 1:5 – 7. They all repeat their cycles, but man dies once, never to return to the earth, his time and influence are over.  Man is completely dwarfed by the age, power and scale of creation. If we are looking to find meaning for man in relation to his surroundings, then we find he is utterly insignificant, which is a far cry from the meaning and purpose in life he seeks.

Another aspect to this section are the endless cycles of repeated activity. The natural world continues in its cycles, not producing anything new. Man too has his own treadmill of activity. We eat, sleep, work, look after family and then repeat the whole process day after day. Man does not escape the treadmill of continuous repetitive activity.

Man Will Try to Find Lasting Satisfaction In The World

We Seek New Sources of Lasting Satisfaction

“All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.“ Eccles 1:8

Weariness not joy is our portion, as we continually labour to find something that will satisfy. The restless nature of our search is described as the eyes and ears never being satisfied. Clothing and hair fashions continually change as the next and greatest “look” is sought after. Music styles change, language changes as people seek to mark themselves as the in crowd or to be “cool”. Automotive styling changes as the marketing men seek to make the latest offerings tempting to buy. The world continually desires the next new look or sound.

The fact that things change so often clearly demonstrates that people quickly grow discontent with what they have and continue their restless, tiring search to find contentment in something new. Our eyes and ears drive us on to find fulfilment, yet we return wearied from the search with no lasting satisfaction. We cry for more of the world, but when it comes, it does not satisfy.

The Search Fails To Reveal New Sources of Lasting Satisfaction

Not only does the current universe not satisfy us, but there will be no new avenue for satisfaction that will open to us either.

“ What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, ‘See, this is new’? It has been already in the ages before us.” Eccles 1:9 – 10

Before I deal with technological innovation, let us consider how the universe remains static. The universe has operated under the same rules and in the same manor since its creation. There is the same cause and effect, the same physical laws, these do not change. God has given us His word fully revealed to us in the Bible. The revelation in the scriptures is complete and sufficient for a life of faith and godliness – no new revelation (until the return of Christ!) will be given. The sinful nature does not change, the 10 commandments are as relevant to us today as when first given some 3 500 years ago. There are numerous ways in which our world does not change.

Let us now turn to technological innovation. Certainly computers, smart phones, widescreen televisions and hi fi systems did not exist in Solomon’s day! As one (Victorian) commentator remarks:

“Look again at man in all his pleasures, pursuits and changes of life. His intellect may be gratified, and his appetite for novelty supplied in the multiplied new openings of science. But no new springs of vital happiness are opened to him. He is as far as ever from true rest.” Charles Bridges

The context determines that when Solomon states there is nothing new under the sun, what he means is that there will be no new source of happiness for mankind. People always have and will always travel (whether by foot, horse, car or spaceship), they always have and always will speak to each other (by word of mouth, telephone or satellite link), and they always have or always will explore (a new country, continent or planet). Technology aids our activities, but does not bring a new source of lasting contentment and satisfaction.

We and The Satisfaction We Find Are Both Soon Forgotten

“There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.” Eccles 1:11

Such is the transient nature of satisfaction in this world that we soon forget our last “high” and move onto seeking the next. Indeed one of the reasons why we continually search for satisfaction is that we do not know what has already been tried (and found wanting) by our forefathers.  As a wise man once said, “What history teaches us is that history teaches us nothing”. If a true source of lasting peace and contentment could be found in this world it is reasonable to expect that it would have been enshrined in our history and culture. Yet no such evidence can be found. Instead the fruitless searches of our predecessors is forgotten and we are destined to revisit their dead ends.

The inescapable truth is that the majority of the human race live and die in obscurity. The vast majority of people do not make a lasting impression on their land or nation. If we are trying to find the meaning and purpose of our existence in how many people remember our names after we have died, then the lives of almost all people have no purpose or meaning at all.

The Preachers Testimony, “I Could Not Find Lasting Satisfaction in the World”

The Preacher Diligently Applied Wisdom To His Task

“I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.” Eccles 1:13

Why does man experience unsatisfied desires, weariness of life, and an unsuccessful search after happiness? This was a problem worth investigating. If Solomon had found an answer that could be applied to his kingdom, it would have transformed the lives of many. But this search for a solution was hard work, and ultimately fruitless, as evidenced by his opening statements. It was an unhappy work.

The Preacher Could Not Change God’s Established Order

“I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.” Eccles 1:14, 15

Solomon had personally investigated all that this world had to offer, and found it empty. Matthew Henry gives something of the scale of what Solomon’s search may have consisted of:

“He set himself to get all the insight he could into philosophy and mathematics, into husbandry and trade, merchandise and mechanics, into the history of former ages and the present state of other kingdoms, their laws customs and policies, into men’s different tempers, capacities and projects and the methods of managing them; he set himself not only to seek, but to search, to pry into that which is most intricate and which requires the close application of mind and the most vigorous and constant prosecution” Matthew Henry

Yet Solomon could not change the established order of how man relates to the natural world through the application of wisdom or intellect. Applying wisdom and knowledge Solomon could not change the either the heart of man to align it with the world or the world to align it with the heart of man. Lasting satisfaction, peace and contentment could not be “manufactured” from world through the application of even Solomon’s mighty intellectual abilities.

Should we be surprised by this conclusion? We have no power to alter our physical natures. We cannot discover, never mind remove, the cause of our lasting dissatisfaction through our intellectual abilities alone. Furthermore we have no innate power to subdue the sinful nature present in us all. An examination of ourselves reveals our inability to change ourselves or our environments in a manner which produces lasting satisfaction.

The Preachers Wisdom Led Only To Sorrow

“And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.” Eccles 1:17, 18

The conclusions from Solomon’s enquiries into the meaning and purpose of human life in this world were troubling. No source of lasting satisfaction could be found in this world. No new source of lasting peace or contentment would present itself for mankind either. Yet, even more crushingly, there was no means of man being able to change either himself or his circumstances to derive a means of lasting satisfaction from this world.

Man is utterly insignificant in comparison to creation, with no lasting influence on the world or for himself. Indeed, no one will remember his life, his trials, his joys, his struggles after he has died. Man’s life amounts to no lasting influence or memory. He is here today and gone tomorrow with almost no trace of his existence. Man’s life is utterly meaningless.

If Solomon with his mighty intellect could not find rest in earthly wisdom then who can expect it? His studies revealed more that troubled him, and a solution was farther from his grasp than he began.

Lessons from Chapter 1

If you feel small and insignificant in comparison with the world – it is because you are.

Our true value is found at the cross of Christ! The Lord Jesus Christ valued us enough to die for us. Who else has died for you, or loved you enough suffer the wrath of God for your freedom? Our true value is found not in the world, but in the cross of Christ and the eternal love of God for His people.

If you feel that you will never amount to much in the eyes of the world – it is because you probably never will amount to much of worldly value.

But being involved in God’s purposes, in whatever role, can bring eternal significance to our lives. If we are involved in a work, either directly or indirectly, that brings the gospel to others, then this has eternal consequences. A soul reconciled to God through Christ will still be praising God a billion years from now!

If your experience a fruitless search for peace and contentment in this world – realise God designed this world to prevent you finding your peace in it.

Understand, there is only one place you will find lasting satisfaction, and that is in God Himself! We are made in the image of God, which separates us from the animals, made for a personal relationship with Him. God has so designed us and this world that the only place we will find peace and contement is in Him alone.

If you feel wearied and sorrowful from your disappointments in the world – come to the one who can give joy and peace!

The Lord Jesus Christ said:

“Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.“ Matthew 11:28

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

In chapter 1 Solomon described the conclusions he reached when attempting to find lasting satisfaction, meaning and purpose without God in this world. The conclusions he reached were:

1. Nothing currently brings lasting satisfaction, and no new thing will appear that will bring lasting satisfaction
2. Man is insignificant compared to his surroundings and has no lasting influence on either himself or creation
3. By applying wisdom he cannot change either himself or the world to produce lasting satisfaction

These conclusions produced much frustration and sorrow in Solomon– he was unable, using this world, to resolve man’s need for purpose, meaning and lasting satisfaction.

After his stating his initial conclusions Solomon outlines the extensive areas of life he has examined. He has found that pleasure, possessions, self-indulgence, wisdom and work all produce at best a transient satisfaction – they all fail to produce anything that endures. In our society we have more opportunity than ever for pleasure and work. Will we learn from Solomon’s experiences, or have we to learn the hard way from wasted time, effort and expenditure that leaves us feeling empty?

Self Indulgence Ultimately Disappoints

Pleasure Ultimately Disappoints

“I said in my heart, ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.’ But behold, this also was vanity.” Eccles 2:1

Solomon examined the areas of laughter (v2), pleasure (v2) and wine (v3), all the time with his wisdom guiding him, yet even in this the brevity of life still weighed heavily on him (v3). Why the does he feel such emptiness? He wished for pleasure, yet in reality he needs to experience eternal life in knowing God through the Lord Jesus Christ. We carry the seed of our misery within ourselves; we want and crave that which will destroy us – pleasure to the exclusion of knowing God.  Even if the pleasure is not sinful in itself, it can engage in to such an extent that we have little or no time and energy for God. If we are not seeking heavenly pleasures, we shall soon desire that which is shadowy and delusive.

“How desperate is the wickedness of the heart of man – even of regenerate man! The sparks of unmortified corruption – long kept under, not wholly extinct – may burst out into a flame, even after apparent maturity of godliness” Charles Bridges

A light hearted view to life has real limitations given the tragedies, sorrows and brevity of life. Ultimately pleasure, while making our lives more tolerable, does not remove these limitations on our lives. Pleasure alone cannot extend our lives, overcome the loss of loved ones or change our bodies or temperaments into that which we long for.

Pleasure in itself can lead to dangers. Wisdom may have restrained some of Solomon’s excesses, but to give himself to wine, with the resultant danger of the loss of self control, surely transgressed the limits of Godly liberty. Self-discipline and self-distrust are the laws of self-preservation. We can all too easily find that repeated indulgence can lead to physical harm or loss of reputation.

Possessions Ultimately Disappoint

“ I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the children of man.” Eccles 2: 8

Solomon’s material wealth surpassed both the Israelite kings before him (Saul and David) as well as many of his contemporary kingdoms. Indeed, Solomon was given the greatest of respect by the Queen of Sheba for his servants and house (1 Kings 10:4 – 10). But further to this, the abundance of Solomon’s wealth is described in glowing terms:

“Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. And the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind. Every one of them brought his present, articles of silver and gold, garments, myrrh, spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year.” 1 Kings 10:23 – 25

The pleasures that tempt mankind are remarkably similar across 1000s of years! In our modern secular Western society so many people desire such things as material wealth, a sports personality or music celebrity lifestyle, and so often unrestrained sexual pleasure. Solomon had all of what many people in our Western culture today desire. So how satisfied was he?

“And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.” Eccles 2:10,11

He did have a measure of pleasure and comfort in all his toil (v10), yet the end result did not last (v 11). The pleasure faded along with the novelty, leaving an unsatisfied appetite. A momentary pleasure is all that can be expected from this world. Possessions cannot redeem our souls from death, or indeed reverse any part of the aging process. While our general health can be improved with good diet and exercise, money cannot prevent the decay of our bodies – many an aging Hollywood film star knows this all too well!

God gave Solomon an extravagant material blessing to experience and tell the emptiness of it. God would have us to rejoice in our earthly blessings, but not rest in them. True lasting satisfaction is found in Him alone, and not in this world. The Christian has immense spiritual blessings that last for all eternity. We shall still be rejoicing in Christ our saviour 1 billion years from now – that is eternal life. Solomon seems to be the reverse of the Christian, he possess all things, yet in reality has nothing, whereas the Christian’s testimony is one of being,

“as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.” 2 Cor 6:10

Wisdoms Produces Nothing Lasting

Wisdom Has Value

“So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done.  Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness.” Eccles 2:12 – 13

With the disappointments of possessions and pleasure on his mind, Solomon now turns to examine the value of wisdom.  With his great wisdom Solomon had reached a pinnacle of achievement for his day.  His reign surpassed all others, so all who follow him will at best only be able to copy what he has achieved – but Solomon thought that even his own impressive reign is vanity.

Wisdom is God’s means of securing pleasure, security and usefulness to our fellow creatures. The wise man has good sense in managing his affairs, skill and taste in building and planting, and he keeps within safe and respectable bounds in pleasure. While wisdom cannot secure lasting satisfaction, we should not underrate its value; it is infinitely superior to a life of foolishness.

Wisdom Cannot Preserve From Death or Secure a Lasting Influence

“The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. Then I said in my heart, ‘What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?’ And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten.  How the wise dies just like the fool! “ Eccles 2:14 – 16

Yet while the difference between the wise man and the fool are great, the same providential change of circumstances or fortune happen to them both. Earthquakes, Tsunamis and financial crises sweep both away. Wisdom cannot preserve from death – indeed what good can commendations on earth do for the body in the grave or the soul in hell? In fact, beyond the grave God’s people will not want earth’s commendations.

There are trials (such as death and illness) where wisdom can offer only a little support. The truly wise man realises who has appointed the trial, and will turn to Him for aid, worldly wisdom cannot replace true wisdom!

Few survive the wreck of time. It seemed a great insult for the man of wisdom to die and to be forgotten just as the fool – there seemed no purpose in living.

“The wise man of science hoped to secure – though not his body – yet his name from decay. But to the mass there is often no remembrance of the wise man more than the fool” Charles Bridges

Solomon Hated The Ineffectiveness of Wisdom!

“So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.” Eccles 2:17

Solomon had great torment of conscience; Hell has begun on earth for him. What was a main cause of this distress? The wise man dies as the fool, how can this be fair? All the skill acquired, all the learning and effort, all the knowledge gained and his piercing wisdom profited nothing in the face of death. Indeed all the self discipline and labour of study was wasted as it could not prevent death. Solomon hated life in the sense that he found it deeply disappointing in certain key respects; life had lost much of its sweetness for him. As the French philosopher Voltaire stated:

“I hate life, yet I am afraid to die” Voltaire

Labour Produces Nothing Lasting

All A Man’s Labour Is Left To Another

“ 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.“ Eccles 2:18,19

Solomon realised that the kingdom he had carefully built up, with skill and wisdom, must be left to another. Would that individual build upon Solomon’s lifework, or squander it away? As history revealed the next king, Solomon’s son Rehoboam, lost 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel from the kingdom. This event was God’s punishment for Solomon’s sins, but in human terms the loss came through Rehoboam’s foolishness in responding to his subjects (1 Kings 12:1 – 24).

The same question needs to be asked by ourselves. The fruit of our labour, will it be given to worthy or unworthy hands? Will it be squandered away or built upon? We face the same uncertainty as Solomon did in his day.  Sometimes the motive for a person’s provision for their children is an attempt to perpetuate their own name through the possessions or advantages given to that child. Yet again the limitation of this approach is revealed – will the possessions or advantage given to the child be squandered and quickly forgotten?

Solomon Despaired at Losing His Carefully Built Up Wealth

“So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labours 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.”
Eccles 2:20 – 23

He heaps up words such as despair, labour, great evil and sorrow to describe the painful experience of leaving his possessions. All he had laboured would be left to one who has not worked for such a prize (v21) – this was not fair! Solomon shows that the world is a vale of tears, even to those who have much of it. It is as if Solomon seems has given up on the idea of leaving a lasting name through his material works, and this was a painful experience for him. Our heart’s naturally cling to the world, and sometimes sharp measures are required to break us from it.

“All his great works of wisdom and labour, which had ministered to him a temporary satisfaction, after a while became objects of disgust. They must be left, and to whom he could not tell” Charles Bridges

God’s Blessing is To Enjoy the Fruit of Our Labour

“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.”
Eccles 2:24 – 26

Solomon now describes the greatest good which may be had from earthly things. He is a man brooding over his disappointments seeking to find what comfort he can. There are legitimate enjoyments in the world, to be used but not abused (1 Cor 7:31). The things of this world are to be subordinate to the greater plans and purposes of God in our lives; they are not our primary source of happiness or contentment. Godliness with contentment in our material circumstances is great gain (1 Tim 6:6).

Eating, drinking and enjoyment in work are gifts from the hand of God to those who please Him. God laying up for those who please him, was true of the Old Testament covenant and in some measure is true in all ages (Phil 4:19), though not as visible or immediate as then, it is no less real now.

“To those that are accepted of the Lord, he gives joy and satisfaction in the in the knowledge and love of him. But to the sinner he allots labour, sorrow, vanity, and vexation in seeking a worldly portion, which yet afterwards comes into better hands” Matthew Henry

Lessons From Chapter 2

God mercifully denies us Solomon’s experience by not giving us all the work, pleasures and possessions we desire.

Solomon experienced only misery and frustration when he considered that the fruit of all his works would be left to one who had worked for them, and that he himself would receive no lasting benefit from them. Our hearts naturally cling to the things of this world, by not having them God spares us the heartache of tearing our affections from them.

Living for today does not completely satisfy because humans want to go beyond today.

“Apart from Jesus Christ life would be unbearable. Why endure the trials of life when there is no God to glorify? Then we would be like the sinners who say,’ Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’ (1 Cor 15:32). But life is not a burden, a sigh, a sleep in the night. With Jesus Christ in control, life is an adventure, a challenge, an investment for eternity.” Warren Wiesrbe (on Psalm 90)

The fullest enjoyment this world can offer, having what we need to live and being able to enjoy our work, comes from God.

What stands in great contradiction to the aims of many people, is that contentment is found not in large houses, great wealth or abundant opportunity for pleasure, but it is found in being able to work productively and in enjoying the fruit of our labour.
 

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Solomon was seeking for something of lasting value, a lasting satisfaction, and realised he could not obtain it in this world. But why should he even have this desire in the first place? If man is of the world, and the world is all there is, why does man seek something more than the world can offer? The answer is that God has set eternity (a yearning for something that lasts more than today) on our hearts.

Solomon had found that pleasure, possessions, self-indulgence, wisdom and work all produce at best a transient satisfaction – they all fail to produce anything that endures. There is nothing that currently brings lasting satisfaction, and no new thing will appear that will bring it either. Worse still man is utterly incapable of changing this. He is transient compared to his surroundings, and by applying wisdom he cannot change either himself or the world to produce lasting satisfaction.

In our western secular society, the view that the natural world is all that exists holds dominance, and this view can be safely be expressed without fear of reprisal on the individual. The view that there exists a Biblically defined God, who can be known through Jesus Christ, and that His followers should make the Bible their rule for daily life, is fiercely resisted in modern Britain. A GP faces being struck for sharing his faith with a patient [1], street preachers have been hand-cuffed and locked in cells [2],[3] or fined £1000 pounds [4].  A teacher was sacked for offering to pray for a sick pupil [5]. Yet if Solomon is right, it is believers, sometimes suffering believers, who know true eternal contentment, and not those who oppose them.

A Time for Everything –God’s Presence In the World

A Time For everything

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:” Eccles 3:1

It was Solomon ‘s inescapable conclusion, there is a definite time and purpose for events in this world. This purpose comes not from man, but the circumstances around him, and often man has to wait to respond at the proper time.  The tides follow a natural rhythm which is predictable. Boats will choose to sale at the most advantageous point for them. Farmers sow seed at regular times of the year and then must wait for harvest. During the harvest season farmers watch and wait for weather which allows them to gather the crop. The world is not random. It is not a chaotic sequence of purposeless events. There are physical biological and chemical laws that are obeyed, these laws point to an order, not established by man. Where did this order come from? Who imposed this natural order on the world if not man?

God has appointed the season and determined the purpose. It is He who balances life: birth and death, sorrow and joy, seedtime and harvest  – an order which we cannot easily explain using natural phenomena alone.

“It is the wise, and regular, and orderly administration of One, who sees the end from the beginning, and to whom there is no unanticipated contingency; and whose omniscient eye, in the midst of what appears to us inextricable confusion, has a through and intuitive perception of the endlessly diversified relations and tendencies of all events, and all their circumstances discerning throughout the whole the perfection of harmony.” Charles Bridges

God has appointed this order, which man can determine through wisdom. By understanding the order God has placed in creation man is enabled to enjoy this world. Through our knowledge of agriculture we have food to eat. Through our knowledge of science and engineering we create many aids to our lives – transportation, domestic appliances and medical equipment. But again we face a danger. If we make the lawful pursuit of understanding and using God’s order in the universe as our chief end, this causes problems, in doing so we ignore the purposes of God for ourselves and this world. Both reason (our minds) and revelation (the Bible) are given to control our use of nature. To expect unchanging happiness in a changing world must end in disappointment, as this world revolves around God’s purposes (Isaiah 46:10), which are centred on His glory and not our happiness.

A Time For Various Activities

There is a time to be born, and a time to die (v2). Our birth is not by chance or random act, yet who can control his birth? It is God who determines the time we are brought into being! Do we curse the day of our birth, as Job did under trial (Job 3:3), or see it as God’s appointed time to live out His purposes for us now? Our lives are a seedtime for eternity, what we do in this life influences our experience in the next life, beyond death. We also have a time to die. None can evade God’s appointed time for our death. Not with a great fortune or all the skill and wisdom in the world. God’s work in us and through us will be done, man is immortal until it is done, and then our lives end.

A time to kill and a time to heal (v3). While these events are more under man’s control, yet God still has providence over these actions (Deut 32:39, 1 Sam 2:6, Hos 6:1).

There are times for weeping, laughing, mourning and dancing (v4). We look around to the right or left to avoid this or that trouble, our natural instinct to look for the easy path. However the danger is that we enter some by-water out of God’s will where we will have neither His promise, His comfort nor His guidance. We need to be content with our lot, there is godly joy even in suffering. Even if, as God’s children, we are disciplined by Him, it is because He disciplines those he loves (Heb 12:7). Should we who deserve to be cursed complain against His loving application of the rod? We need to rest in God’s wise dealings with us and be happy.

There is an appropriate time to speak and an appropriate time for silence (v6). Wisdom is needed in determining when as well as what to speak – the afflicted is comforted, Christian rebuke is rightly and lovingly applied, the ignorant is instructed. The ability to discern the correct opportunity to speak as well as when to be silent offers a powerful opportunity to build God’s kingdom. The talent for conversation will be of little use unless it is combined with the talent for silence.

There is a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace (v8). Nations experience situations where war is required as well as times to pursue peace. Nor can individuals at all times shun dispute and contention, and the need for self-defence may be required. All this is not chance – it is the providence of the Great Ruler of the Universe (Ps 46:9, Ps 147:14).

All of these examples point to God’s overruling Providence and governance of His creation, in contrast to God’s man’s impotence and inconsistency. How can man expect happiness from an unstable world where the God orders events for His own glory?

“If the sun shines today, the darkening clouds may come tomorrow. Only one thing remains unchangeable – the glorious gospel of the blessed God – God’s love for His people – Christ’s work perfected for them, and in them. Not a shadow of change is found here.” Charles Bridges

A Yearning For Eternity – God’s Presence in Our Lives

God has Placed Eternity on Our Hearts

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.“ Eccles 3: 11

God has placed within us a longing to be or do something that lasts beyond our short lifespan. We stare into the abyss of death left with an uneasy sense that life may continue in some form after death. Yet death is impenetrable to us. No scientific experiment has yet credibly examined what is beyond death for human beings. We simply cannot, from this world alone, understand what is beyond death.

Both our desire to understand life in its entirety (including death), and the limitations on our ability to do so, have been ordained by God. God put into Solomon’s heart a desire to study and a great power to comprehend life in all its order and beauty. However the field of study is so wide, life is so short,  our knowledge of the past so imperfect, and of the future so clouded, that no man can find out the purposes of  God through history from beginning to end. Indeed our short lifetimes are part of the problem, much of God’s work is begun in one age, and finished in another. Our desire to understand life, and our inability to do so, drives us to faith and to trust in God.  Where we cannot discern God’s plans we have to trust in the character of God.  Do we expect to always be able to understand the divine mind, weak, limited and fallible as we are in our abilities?

Because the world cannot satisfy us (God has placed eternity on our hearts) we must find God’s will for our lives and let Him work according to His purpose. Here is true peace and contentment. Those who live for this world cannot be satisfied by it. This has been ordained by God. He has placed both eternity in our hearts and our inability to find it in this transient world. When God promises there shall be no peace for the wicked (Isaiah 48:22) – the godless – He means it! Yet there is a challenge here for us all. We all can be so taken up with this world that we have neither time or desire to think of God, but the world leaves us restless, dissatisfied. By making the world our whole object we miss the influence and purposes of God in our lives and deny ourselves true contentment from finding eternal value in the things of God.

The Best We Have Within Our God Given Limitations

“I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live;  also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.  That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.” Eccles 3:12 – 15

The best enjoyment we can obtain from this world is to do good, be able to enjoy the fruit of our labours, and to have sufficient for our bodily needs, all of this is a gift of God. Rather than becoming embittered about what God has not given us (namely the ability to comprehend all of reality) we should enjoy the gifts God has given us. God encourages us to trust Him – and He returns our trust by the overflowing fulfilment of grace beyond our prayer and expectation. If we have God with us, then surely joy and gratitude should be in our lives. Thankful godliness is a bright portion in a cold disappointing world, a true enjoyment, a real good.

The contrast is drawn between God’s enduring purposes and the short-lived “vanities” of this world in verse 14. Whatever God does stands. It cannot be altered or set aside by man’s will or power. Man’s plans are subordinate to God’s plans that cannot be overruled. There is nothing defective in God’s plans in and of themselves that may render them void.

“That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been” God’s work, and this world, is the same in each age. In Providence (God working His purposes out in the world), the same laws of governance are in force as from the beginning. We face the inherently the same world as Solomon did. We will find contentment in the same place Solomon did, in knowing God. The children of God have the same trials as from the beginning (1 Pet 5:9, 1 Cor 10:13), and most encouragingly God has not changed (Heb 13:8). He is every ready, as He always has been, to help and encourage His people and carry them through every trial they face here on earth.

Man Reduced to the Level of The Beasts – God’s Presence Ignored

Ignoring the Just God’s Presence Produces Injustice

“Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work.”
Eccles 3:16, 17

We might think that with such evidence for God both in the created order around us and placed upon our own natures, that men would seek God and have unity in following His purposes. However the reality is very different. In the place of justice was injustice (v16). Injustice is seen in the best of governments, all too often the guardian of the innocent often becomes the hangman of the innocent. Power if not the instrument of promoting godliness, can often make is possessor a wolf or a tiger to his fellow creatures – possessing power is fraught with danger. Yet injustice extends into broader human relationships such as the home or the work place. There is a desire to sin in all our hearts, no-one is exempt from the possibility of either receiving from or committing injustice against our fellow man. The picture painted is one of man’s brutishness – the stronger oppresses the weaker just as in the animal kingdom.

What makes the view of such injustice, which brings suffering to the innocent, tolerable? It is that God will bring judgement at the appointed time, if not here on earth, then at the judgement to come, when every human being shall stand before God. Why does God delay His judgement? Because there is a time for every work. Why is this time sometimes delayed? Only God truly knows the answer, but here are some thoughts. Further, If judgement followed immediately after each sin, there would be no room for faith, perseverance or trust in the face of difficulty. If judgement immediately followed an individual’s sin, then that individual would not have an opportunity to repent (2 Peter 3:8, 9). But we have the great and certain hope that the darkness now will be replaced by a glorious eternity with the one who judges justly.

Ignoring the Eternal God’s Presence Removes Man’s Hope of Eternity

“I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity.  All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? “ Eccles 3:18 – 21

In our society we see even the most gifted of individuals deny the eternal existence of their souls, and as a result, all accountability before God. They reduce themselves, in their minds, to the level of the beasts in that they are simple following their own instincts and motives without reference to a holy and just God, living for this world alone, with no possibility of an afterlife.

“Yet when we see men of vast capacity – of the mightiest grasp of mind in earthly things – living as if they had no souls – seeking happiness in sensual pleasures – never looking beyond the grave – never calculating soberly the Infinite stake of eternity – rather determined to perish in rebel stubbornness, than willing to return to God – does not man here sink immortal nature to the very lowest brutishness?” Charles Bridges

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 – 1821) was one of the greatest military leaders in history and emperor of France, he conquered much of Europe. He did not believe in the God of the Bible. He never believed in a living God, his deity was an absent and distant God. Yet when dying in exile on the island of St Helena, he stated:

“I die before my time; and my body will be given back to the earth, to become the food of worms. Such is the fate which so soon awaits the great Napoleon …  What an abyss between my deep wretchedness, and Christ’s eternal kingdom, proclaimed, loved, adored, and spreading through the world!” Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon recoiled at the thought of what would happen to his body. The fact that people die is an insult to man’s dignity, he is reduced to the level of a beast. Realising that we will die in like manner to all other creatures, but that we are vastly superior in knowledge, skills and abilities to them, should lead us to humility (acknowledging our mortality) and to seek God. By making this world our only portion we lower ourselves to the level of beasts that have no eternal hope or awareness of the judgement to come.

“The spirit of a man goes upward , to be judged, and is then fixed in an unchangeable state of happiness or misery. It is as certain that the spirit of the beast goes downward to the earth; it perishes at death. Surely their case is lamentable, the height of whose hopes and wishes is, that they may die like beasts.” Matthew Henry

Lessons From Chapter 3

God has placed eternity in our hearts – it is impossible for us to be satisfied with this world alone.

Don’t try to find your lasting satisfaction in the things of this world. God has made this impossible. We should instead come to God in faith and obedience to be truly happy, discovering His purpose for our lives.

The world has an order and a purpose placed on it which is there to establish God’s purposes – not our happiness

God work’s out His plans and purposes through this world. These plans are based around His glory and not solely man’s happiness. To try and find you happiness, without God, in a world that not designed for that purpose will only lead ultimately to frustration. Our true happiness and contentment are found in God alone.

Acknowledging our eternal souls and coming to know God through Christ gives us our proper value and dignity

Denying our eternal souls reduces us to the level of brute beasts where we act according to our instincts and desires without reference to the eternal states of Hell and Heaven which are to come. This lack of awareness of the coming judgement all too often leads man to oppress his fellow man.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All of mankind are guilty before God, having not lived out the light of His ways that they have received. Every human being knows something of God’s law, either through the conscience or the Bible, and yet we have rebelled against this law, and innately tried to suppress it. All of humanity needs salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the sobering message of Romans chapters 1 – 3. In Romans chapters 4 -5 the apostle Paul then shows that faith in Christ saves us from sin’s penalty. Chapter 4 reveals that salvation from the coming wrath of God’s judgment upon man’s sin has always through faith.  Chapter 5 reveals that through faith in Christ we have peace with God and eternal life, escaping the judgment to come. As we come to Romans 6 – 8, we see that faith in Christ also breaks sins power over us.

In Romans chapter 6 Paul is defending the Gospel against an accusation.  The accusation is this, “If God’s acceptance of me is based on faith and not works, does that mean I can sin all the more and that God will forgive me if I have faith?” People who reason like this are completely ignorant of the sanctifying power of the Gospel, the Gospel’s power to impart holy living. The key question is this, “Does God accept us because we are good, or does the only chance of us being good depend upon God accepting us in the first place?”

Union With Christ In His Death and Resurrection

Some might instantly turn around and say, “Ah, so if it’s not by what we do that gets us right with God, that means I can go off and sin and do all sorts of things knowing that as long as I believe, I’m right with God.”  That the Gospel might give people a license to sin is what Paul is refuting in this chapter.

“What shall we say then?  Shall we continue and sin that grace may abound?  Certainly not!  How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”  Romans 6:1,2

If God’s grace is displayed in forgiving sin, won’t God receive more glory if I sin all the more, giving more for God to forgive? This would be another way of twisting this doctrine.  To this question, Paul gives an emphatic “No”.  This query arises from ignorance of how true holiness is obtained.  Once in Christ, the believer has died to sin, and has new power for holy living. As the power of sin is broken over the believer, how can they remain in sin?  This raises the question of how power of sin has been broken. There are two important principles here.

First Spiritual Principle – The Believer is United with Christ in His Death

The fact that we are united with Christ in His death is stated in verse 3, while verse 6 makes the implications known:

“Or do you not know that as many of us were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?”  Romans 6:3

“knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.”  Romans 6:6

Christ died a physical death on the cross – verse 3.  The consequences for the believer is that they have died a spiritual death to sin by being linked with the Lord Jesus Christ.  Or as Paul puts it, “our old man was crucified with Him that the body of sin might be done away with that you should no longer be slaves of sin.”  Sin is no longer the dominant and ruling power in the believer’s life because they have been united with the Lord Jesus Christ as He died upon a cross.

Second Spiritual Principle – The Believer is United with Christ in His Resurrection

But the believer is not only united with Christ in His death, as I’ve mentioned, but also in His life; verse 4:

“Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”  Romans 6:4

Christ was raised from the dead, and just as He is raised from the dead to live a holy life, even so we walk in newness of life.

“For if we have been united in the likeness of His death, certainly, we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection.” Romans 6:5

The believer is united with Christ in His death, breaking the power of sin over us, and is united with Christ in His resurrection infusing something of that divine, holy life into us.  The believer is united with Christ in His resurrected life. Christ was raised physically from the grave, and as Christ now lives a holy life, He also empowers the believer to live a life of holiness. The whole point of the believer being united with Christ in His death was to be united with Him in his newness of life.  This is the source of our holiness.

Sis no longer the dominant effect over us.  Christ working in us by His Spirit stimulating, promoting holiness within our lives.  People who say that they will be accepted by God because they’re good people have put the cart before the horse; they have got it totally and utterly the wrong way around.  You can’t even begin to live out something of the holiness that God wants until you have confessed your sin and your utter wretchedness before Him, seeing your need of salvation. When you do that, God gives you a new power to live a holy life.

Water Baptism is a Picture of Spiritual Union or Baptism

The Greek root word ‘baptizein’ means to plunge, immerse, sink. When Paul uses the word ‘baptism’ he talks about the believer having been baptized into the Lord Jesus Christ, being immersed, being brought into His death and life. This is the believers spiritual baptism. People often think of water baptism, but water baptism is simply a picture of what the spiritual baptism has accomplished. Spiritual baptism is the reality; water baptism is simply the picture of the spiritual.  The scripture never gives any saving or cleansing effect to the physical ritual that is performed; it was always a picture of what the spiritual has already accomplished.  Water is used to symbolize the washing, the purifying, the cleansing of our lives achieved by the Holy Spirit who unites us with Christ, sanctifying our lives.

I believe in baptism by immersion, but I should also say that I am certainly not to going to fall out with anybody who has a different view on that.  We can push the picture further. As the believer goes underneath the water, this symbolizes their unity with Christ in His death. As the believer comes up from the water, this symbolizes being raised in newness of life, being washed by the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual baptism, being united with Christ, being immersed, brought into His body – the church – happens at the point of conversion, when we find that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  In 1 Corinthians 12:13 Paul states that whether we are Jew or Gentile, whatever background we have, we are baptized by one spirit into the Lord Jesus Christ. All believers are brought into his presence.

We Are Either United With Christ (Believers) or Will Be United to Hellfire (Unbelievers)

“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.  His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, gathering His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Matthew 3:11,12

When John the Baptist says He (meaning Christ) will baptize you, he’s talking to a multitude of people. This multitude contains those whom he knows will believe and those whom he knows will reject the Lord Jesus Christ.  Talking to this multitude of people, he says, “The Lord Jesus Christ will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”  The Lord Jesus Christ will immerse people into one of two things – the Holy Spirit for believers, and eternal judgment, the fire of Hell, for unbelievers.

Why do I believe he’s meaning the spiritual baptism of conversion, immersing, uniting believers with the Lord Jesus Christ but also the baptism of being immersed into hell fire for all eternity for unbelievers? In the very next verse John, while talking to this assembled body of people, says the Lord Jesus Christ has “His winnowing fan is in His hand.”  As the harvest came in off the field, the grain and the chaff were mixed together.  The winnowing fan was used to throw the grain up into the air, the lighter chaff blew away, the heavier grain fell down.  It was a tool of separation, of division into two distinct groups; the chaff was separated and removed from the grain.  John continues, “He will gather His wheat into the barn,” – the believers will be immersed through spiritual baptism into the body of the Lord Jesus Christ in union with Him, “but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” the unbeliever will face Hell for all eternity.

So a serious question for us to ask ourselves is which baptism do we have?  Have we already experienced this spiritual baptism, this immersion into Christ that happens to the point of conversion through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?  Are we immersed and brought in to His body, where we are united with Him and have a new power for holy living? Or is our baptism one of hell fire for all eternity?  Have we made Him Lord and Saviour, or do we still trust in our own righteousness to carry us through the Day of Judgment?

Union with Christ has Means the Believer is Dead to Sin and Alive to God

“For he who has died has been freed from sin.” Romans 6:7

Not just part of, but the whole of the believer is transformed as the old man is crucified and the body of sin is removed.  Sin corrupted every part of us – heart, mind, soul.  We wouldn’t recognize or accept God’s laws; we had our own wills and wanted our own way.  We had a sinful nature which lusted against the things of God.  Every part of man has been corrupted by sin and requires reworking by the Holy Spirit.  As a believer has died in Christ to sin, the power of sin is broken over them.

“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.”  Romans 6:8

The believer lives with Christ; sharing in His life which is a life lived to God – a holy life.  The believer has Christ at work stirring up holiness, constantly, continually; Christ is one who never sleeps, never needs rest, who can never lose track of where we are.  He is working within us continuously, trying to stir up holiness.

“The effect of His death is to destroy the power of sin, and the result of His living is the communication and preservation of divine life to all who are connected with Him.” Charles Hodge

Or as the Lord Jesus Christ puts it elsewhere, we are the branches and He is the vine.  If you cut the branches off from the trunk (the vine) they don’t live for very long; but as long as the branches are connected to that vine, they receive the sap, the nutrients, all which they need for growth and development.  We are connected to the Lord Jesus Christ in His resurrected life and we cannot be separated from Him.  This life can never be extinguished from the believer as Christ lives forever;

“knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.  Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.”
Romans 6:9,10

Christ died once and will not die again.  He voluntarily assumed the burden of paying the penalty for His people’s sin and that was fully accepted, fully paid, fully accomplished upon the cross.  Christ will never die again; (verse 9). He always lives to God (verse 10). The believer cannot be separated from the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul will tell us this at the end of Romans chapter 8.  So believers will always have Christ infusing a work of holiness in their lives.

Did you really know what you were committing yourself to when you became a Christian?  This was a one-time irreversible process.  You are linked with the Lord Jesus Christ; you can never be separated from Him.  This can never be undone.  It changes you for eternity.

It is because we have been accepted by God, declared innocent before Him and united to Him through faith that we can show holiness in our lives.  Far from giving a license for sin, if we are declared innocent by faith before God, the fruit of holiness in our lives resulting from our union with Christ is the proof that we had been accepted by God. The moment we are saved we are linked for all eternity to the Lord Jesus Christ – immersed, brought into Him. If you are born again; you are a new creation, you are remade; you are linked inseparably to the Lord Jesus Christ – you’re changed.  You cannot find satisfaction in the things in this world as you once did.  We can try, we can run; we can try and put God out, but there is no peace, because you’re different – you’re not of this world.

We Need to Live Out Our Union With Christ

When Paul states the two principles that promote holiness in the life of the believer he is majoring much on God’s sovereignty, what God has done in the life of the believer. But then wise pastor that he is, he calls his people to live out what God has done for them.

Do Not Let Sin Dominate You

“Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”  Romans 6:11 – 13

This is a call to the mind and the will.  First the call to the mind, consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God, to share in His divine life.  Reckon that in your minds; know it, understand it, know what’s going on, understand the doctrine.  But Paul is also targeting the will. He makes a call to resist evil; as sin’s power over the believer is broken, you have a new ability to resist, to stand fast against sin.  Choose do to good; choose to live that holy life.

Consider the example of David.  Psalm 51 is David’s great psalm of repentance after his adultery with Bathsheba, and his attempt to cover that up with the murder of Uriah, her husband.  David was a man after God’s own heart and yet he let sin have dominion over him to his own great hurt.  God’s judgment on David’s adultery and murder was that the sword would not depart from David’s household.  The power of sin has been broken over the believer, the believer should not then resubmit themselves to that power. Meditate on that which is right and pure, not on that which is wrong.  Know that which Christ has done for you; choose what is right.

Because Grace Dominates You, Live Out a Holy Life

“For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but grace.”  Romans 6:14

Paul will show in chapter 7 that as an unbeliever sin had the upper hand in his body, the sinful nature’s power had not yet broken.  As the unbeliever comes to God’s law, they are stimulated to sin all the more; the sinful nature is the dominating power in the unbeliever.  Paul has the theological argument in Romans chapter 7, but I could also say if somebody tells you not to do something, what is your immediate urge?  You want to do it.  He says to them, “You are not under law but under grace.”  The Holy Spirit is the dominating power in the believer; the power of sin has been broken.  They are moved to obedience when they come in to contact with God’s law.

“Grace dethrones sin. It destroys sin’s lordship and enables the believer to offer himself, and whatever pertains to him in loving service to God.” William Hendriksen

There’s something new in the believer – it’s God’s grace.  As they come to God’s law, they want to follow it, to understand it. We have a stronger master in God than in sin:

“What then?  Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?  Certainly not!  Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, that you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?”
Romans 6:15,16

We submit ourselves to a power greater than us.  If we choose to sin, we put ourselves under sin’s power.  If we choose holiness, we put ourselves under God’s power.  The thought that God’s pardoning grace is an opportunity to sin is emphatically denied by Paul.  Believers must know that they are a slave to the one that they have offered themselves to, to the one they seek to obey. The believer has a stronger master in God and ultimately will show signs of righteousness. Charles Hodge describes the influence of sin as follows:

“The slave does not obey his own will but his master’s.  He is subject not for a time but for life.  He is under an influence which secures obedience; this is true in spiritual as in external relations.  He who serves sin is the slave of sin; he is under its power.  He cannot free himself from its dominion.  He may hate his bondage; his reason and conscience may protest against it.  His will may resist it but he is constrained to obedience.  This is the doctrine of our Lord has taught:  He that commits sin is the slave of sin.  This remains true although this service is to death; the wages of sin is death.” Charles Hodge

Many years ago, I was talking to a pastor of an inner city church when he said to me, “Have you noticed when people become Christians their wealth tends to increase?”  I asked, “What do you mean?” His reply was simple, “To begin with they tend to give up smoking which frees up a lot of income.  You then notice that their drinking is reduced or cut out, that frees up a lot of income.  People who might have been entrapped with gambling and enslaved by it, they get a new freedom from it; that frees up a lot of income.  They tend to work more diligently, that helps generate more income”. This illustrates the power of sin being broken over people’s lives.  They might want to rebel against the tyranny of sin.  They might see the destructive effects of drink or cigarettes or whatever enslaves them, but they cannot shake it off.  There is a power greater than themselves which is dominating them. But when it comes to the believer;

“What is true of sin is true of holiness.  He who by virtue of union with Christ is made obedient to God, becomes, as Paul says, a slave of obedience. Obedience (personified) is the master to whom he is now subject.  He is not only bound to obey, but he is made to obey in despite of the resistance of his still imperfectly sanctified nature – he cannot but obey. The point of analogy to which reference is here made is the certainty of the effect, and the constraining influence by which the effect is secured.” Charles Hodge

The believer is dominated by a power greater than themselves.  We can backslide for a time but if we are truly God’s, He will bring us back.  God will not let the believer find rest and peace in the world, so don’t try; you’re not going to get very far.

Paul is doing a marvelous balancing act between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility.  God has broken the power of sin over the believer by uniting the believer with the Lord Jesus Christ. Being united with Christ in his death upon the cross breaks the power of sin in the believer. Being united with Christ in His resurrected life means the believer has an eternal influence promoting holiness in their lives that will never stop, rest, or be taken away from them – the sovereignty of God.  At the same time, God calls out to His people, “Be aware, you still have a sinful nature.  If you sin, you are submitting yourself to that power.”  He’s calling them to shun sin and to pursue holiness – man’s responsibility.

“But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”
Romans 6:17,18

In verse 17 that God’s people are described as being delivered to this teaching.  Paul does not state that they were delivered by the teaching which they received, but he says they were delivered to that teaching, emphasizing the power of God over their lives.  It is as if the whole chapter is a dance between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man.

Learn From the Fruit of Sin’s Domination, and Look Forward the Fruit of Grace’s Dominion

“I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.” Romans 6:19

Their weakness was not an intellectual one but a spiritual one; as believers, we still have the sinful nature.  The master and slave relationship illustrates it well.  Part of what we can do to help ourselves to choose that which is right and live out that which God has given for us, is to look back and remember the shame:

“What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed?  For the end of those things is death.”  Romans 6:21

We can look back on the things that we used to engage in are ashamed of – fights, arguments, jealousy, lust, lying, stealing, adultery, fornication.  We can look back and remember but also look forward and look at the eternal life that God has for us:

“But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 6:22,23

Formerly, they had bondage to sin, now they have freedom from it.  They used to be slaves to sin, now they are servants of God.  Formerly, there was vice, now there is holiness.  Formerly there was shame, now there is peace of mind.  Formerly there was death – eternal death, hell fire waiting for all eternity – now there is life – everlasting life with the Lord Jesus Christ, being in His presence. Believers will have their own glorious bodies at the resurrection, there will be nothing to hinder fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.  As believers we will be close to somebody who loved us so much, He would die for us upon the cross.  We will be close to somebody who is morally perfect and worthy of all worship and praise. This is waiting for us, and it will be more thrilling and exciting than anything we have known in this world.

Union with Christ accomplishes what all our legalistic efforts failed to secure, it gives us holiness and eternal life. The gospel is not a license to sin, it’s actually the only way believers can live out the holiness that God wants. May God help us to live out this glorious truth in our lives.

All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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