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On Apr 25, 2007: Ecclesiastes 3-4 · Teachings On This Day On FerventWord

• You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2007. Because at the end of it, at the end of all the hard labor, at the end of all the hard work and all that you strive for in this life, Solomon concludes, all that you have left is what's left after a bubble pops. It's just emptiness, nothing. You have it for a moment and then just as quickly it's gone. We learn from Solomon that if you try to find meaning in your life, but you do not look to your creator for the answer, then you will not find anything worth living for. The Apostle Paul expressed this as well, if you remember, in 2 Corinthians 4. He was sharing there about the difficulties that he faced and how he was really involved in intense situations and problems and circumstances. But he says, you know, our light and momentary troubles, we consider them as nothing compared to what is going to come, the eternity that God has for us. And he says, we endure these things. Second Corinthians 418. While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporary. But the things which are not seen are eternal. See, we don't really disagree with Solomon in his conclusions in the book of Ecclesiastes. It is true. It is accurate. If you try to find meaning, if you try to find purpose, if you try to find fulfillment in this life, you will fail. It will be a fruitless endeavor. It will turn out to be absolutely worthless. Because as Paul teaches us, the things that are seen are temporary. They're like bubbles. They will pop. They will vanish. They will be gone. They will not satisfy. But the things which are unseen, those are the things which are eternal. Those are the things which satisfy. Those are the things which last. So the things that are seen, now that's quite a bit of stuff. But those things are temporary. The things that you can handle and taste and touch and feel and experience this life is temporary. But what is unseen is eternal. That's hard for us to grasp. It's hard for us to understand. But as I'll share with you throughout the evening, that is why the scripture says that we walk by faith and not by sight. Because if we walked by sight, we would be in trouble because the things that are seen are what? They're temporary. Way to pay attention. The things that are seen are temporary. The things that are unseen are what? Eternal. There you go. Now you're awake. If we walk by sight, all we see, what we hold on to, the things that we live for, it's all temporary. It won't last and it cannot satisfy. But if we walk by faith, if we live by faith, trusting in the Lord, trusting in his word, trusting in his promises. We don't see them now. We can't grasp them now. We don't experience them now, but they're eternal and we will find true fulfillment, purpose and meaning of life as we walk by faith and obedience to the word of God in relationship to God. Solomon is trying to be satisfied, trying to figure out life by what is seen and And the result is the only conclusion that he can come to or that you or I can come to, the only conclusion that this world can come to as a search for meaning without God is that there is none. It's worthless. It's meaningless. All you're left with is popped bubbles. You know, there's a saying Richard likes to quote it. There's only one life to live. It will soon be passed. Only what is done for Christ will last. We need to remember that. The things that we do for the Lord, our relationship with God, those things, the unseen, those are eternal. Those will last. But everything that a person accomplishes in this life and for this life does not last. Real fulfillment and meaning is not found in the temporary things, but in the eternal things. And so this evening, as we look at Solomon's example, we once again learn from his bad example to live for God. To have relationship with God because it's the only thing that will satisfy us. Now I think something important as you go through the book of Ecclesiastes. You need to kind of detox after you've been spending time in the book of Ecclesiastes. Because Solomon can really mess with your head. And so if you feel the need to detox, if some of the things are confusing, if it's difficult to understand. I would encourage you to spend some time reading Ecclesiastes. Matthew chapter five through seven, where Jesus gives the Sermon on the Mount. If you want the right perspective, if you get confused by all of this language and all of the things that he points out, then get the right perspective. Go back to what you know is true rather than try to figure out Solomon's confusing logic. Go back to Matthew chapter five through seven. Read what Jesus has to say on the Sermon on the Mount. Because in many of the things that Jesus teaches about are the things that Solomon struggles with and goes through and deals with. As Jesus teaches the real value of things and to seek first the kingdom of God and not the things of this life and not the things of this world, not looking for this time on earth to satisfy and fulfill us. but looking towards the promise of eternity. So Matthew 5 through 7, I would encourage you to spend some time in that on your own and allow God to speak to you and set things straight, perhaps, that are going astray within your heart. But we start out in Ecclesiastes 3, verse 1. Solomon says, "'To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.'" We stop there for just a moment. Solomon here is continuing his observations about life. He's looking around. He's observing all the things that are taking place in his life and the lives of all the people around him. Remember, he has wisdom. He devoted himself to search out all the things that take place under the sun. He's got the best education possible, the best education imaginable. He understands. He's seen everything. He knows what's going on. And as he does, he... concludes that for everything there is a season, that there's a time for every purpose under heaven. Now, the following verses are familiar to you, I'm sure. As Solomon will say, there's a time for this and then a time for the opposite of that thing. And then a time for this and a time for the opposite of that. And he'll go back and forth throughout all of these different things. And I like what Pastor Chuck had to say about this portion of Scripture. He shares that, you know, these things have been used poetically as something that's very beautiful. You know, it's a time to love. And it's just been made very beautiful. But Pastor Chuck explained that the Hebrew idea, the Hebrew text here, the point of it was that it was monotonous. Solomon is not trying to be flowery and beautiful, Pastor Chuck says, but he's describing in agony really the monotony of life that is just circular over and over the same things over and over again. Nothing really lasts. Nothing continues on. It all comes to an end. But then it really doesn't come to an end because in another season it will start all over again. You know, there's a popular saying that It goes something like this. The problem with life is that it's just so daily. And that's the idea that Solomon is expressing. It's just daily. It's just every day the same things in the same seasons we go through over and over again. So let's read what Solomon says here in verses 2 through 8. It says, A time to gain and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to sew. A time to keep silence and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time of war and a time of peace. Solomon, as he looks at all of these contrasts, he's looking at the different seasons and times of life. They're opposites, but they each have their time in a person's life, in a nation's life, in a world's life. The world, the nations, individuals experience all of these things throughout their life. Some of them we consider to be good things and some of them we consider to be bad things. But the point is nothing lasts. Nothing really continues. It's there for a season and Whether good or bad, we experience it. We all experience those same things. And we just begin to experience them over and over and over again. A time to be born and we go, woohoo, life, that's awesome. And a time to die. Oh, bummer. These contrasts, these opposites. Sometimes you get things and sometimes you lose things. Sometimes we're crying and sometimes we're laughing. Sometimes there's war and sometimes there's peace. But there are these seasons that just continue to go on and on and over and over. And we all experience them. And these seasons and times are outside of a person's control. They experience them whether they really like it or not. They do not last forever. You want the good ones to last and the bad ones not to begin, but you experience them nonetheless. They do not last. Over and over again, you go through these seasons and times that Solomon is describing. It's like what Solomon described last week, saying that there was nothing new under the sun. It's just the same things over and over again. Sometimes in the world that's described as life on the hamster wheel. You're just running and running and the wheels turning, but nothing's really happening. You're just going through the same things over and over again. And so what is the answer? What is the solution? Well, I found it. This guy, Jim something or other. He says this about the hamster wheel of life, the same things over and over again. He says, have you ever noticed that you keep solving problems, but you keep winding up with new ones? Somehow you don't quite get what you expected. You study for years to get a new career. Then that career doesn't turn out as you had expected. Welcome to the hamster wheel of life. This is the endless struggle that is a part of the duality in which we live. We seem to spend our lives in endless struggles doing things we don't like doing. Supposedly, once we accomplish some project, we'll finally get to do what we like. Or we'll finally have enough money to do something worthwhile. Perhaps we feel that we won't have time to make the world a better place until after we do something else to make money. This hamster wheel really begins in our own minds. We have some problem. We try to figure it out. We try to know how to handle the problem. When we don't solve the problem, we beat ourselves up for not solving the problem. Things get worse. We keep spinning. This is the mental version of the hamster wheel of life. The result of all this is endless churning. We get more and more into our heads. How do you find peace? His answer is, Not more valuable than Solomon's. Just as worthless as Solomon's. How do you get peace, he says? Well, you meditate every day. And then it just fixes everything. It's just all there. Just that's all you do. After he describes this whole thing, he has a one line answer. Just meditate. It'll fix everything. I promise. No, the guy's full of baloney. I looked up who he is and it says, you know, supporting him and his work. It says that he's been in the human potential movement for more than 30 years. The human potential movement. That's what he's all about. That's what Solomon is working with here. The potential of humans. Strictly on a human level, what is the best you can do? He recognizes, Solomon recognizes, you experience these things and you struggle through these things and you go through these seasons and there's really nothing you can do about it. Solomon, he's fed up with the monotony of life, with not being able to do anything about it. This guy says, just meditate, then you'll be fine. Right, that'll work. That's going to help. No. No. We cannot. Let me just step back. There is no human potential. If you look at things from a human standpoint, if you're relying upon yourself, if you're looking to this life, you will not be satisfied. You will not be fulfilled. You can't just meditate and everything goes away and everything is fixed. You can't escape these cycles. And that's what Solomon is describing. He goes on, let's read verses 9 and 10 of what Solomon has to say. What prophet has the worker from that in which he labors? I have seen the God given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. And Solomon says that kind of in conclusion of a time for this, a time for that, a time for this, a time for that. The seasons that we just all go through them and there's a purpose for every of them and they all go through over and over again. And you can't escape them. You just experience them. And he comes to the end. He says, what profit has the worker from that which he labors? What's the point? What's the focus or what's the reason for going through all of this? What profit do you get from all of your labors and going through all of these seasons? In this monotonous life, what profit is there? That's the idea. It's the same things over and over again, and you don't gain anything from it. There's a time to get, but there's also a time to lose. So what profit is it if I've gained all these things? Because there's going to be a season very soon where I'm going to lose all these things. So what if we've established this peace? There's going to be another season shortly where there will be war. You can't change it. You can't break out of the cycle. You can't break out of the season. Solomon's point, you can't do anything about it. So what's the prophet? What's the point? There's a season for everything. You're going to experience all these things. Everyone does. You can't hold on to one part any more than you can stop another part from happening to you. What prophet is there? Again, Solomon, he's looking just at this life. He's looking at the human potential, and there is none. You're just... Bouncing around, going over and over again on the hamster wheel of life. Going on, verses 11 through 13. He says, I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice and to do good in their lives. And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It is the gift of God. Here Solomon is talking about God, but don't be fooled. He's not speaking the truths of God. Again, he's speaking from just a human standpoint. He's using his own logic and reasoning, which when we do that, we always get in trouble. You can tell by looking what he says in verse 12. I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice and to do good in their lives. This is Solomon's conclusion from what he has decided to believe about God. There's nothing better than just to rejoice in what you have. Rejoice in the moment is essentially what he's saying. There's nothing better than that. There's nothing beyond that. And of course we know that's not the case. It's not what the Bible teaches. It's not what God has promised. Solomon is talking about God, but he's not speaking the truths of God. He's speaking the demented view of a human mind that does not believe God is who he says he is. He says about God that he has made everything beautiful in its time. Solomon has been talking about the seasons and times. In verse 10, he basically says that God has subjected us to this, these cycles, these seasons and times. But in verse 11, he says that he's put eternity into our hearts, but we can't know it. We can't figure it out. He makes everything beautiful in its time, but we don't understand it. We can't know how it will be beautiful. We don't understand his works. We don't understand how all of this works out and how he makes it beautiful and how it's going to be all right. See, when Solomon is trying to do what Solomon is trying to do is he's living by sight and not by faith. OK, there's all these times and God works out everything, makes everything beautiful in his time, but I don't see it. He's put eternity in our heart. We know of God. We know that it's got to work out. It's got to be made beautiful in his time. But I don't see it. We can't know it. We can't understand it. So again, what's the point? Solomon says, I can't figure out what the point is. So I'm just going to enjoy what I have while I have it. That's the best we can do. This is his conclusion. Again, verse 12. Again, he's talking about God but not speaking the truths of God. This is a totally incorrect view of life. This is what much of society believes today. You know, you just need to be a good person. Solomon says to do good in their lives. You just got to be a good person. Have fun. Enjoy life. Do good things. Just don't hurt anybody and you'll be OK. That's that's what you need to do. It's the mindset that comes from not including God, not believing him, not believing his word, not including his ways in your perspective of life. That's what comes from walking by sight and not by faith. But Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5, 7, for we walk by faith, not by sight. In the book of Habakkuk, it tells us that the just, the righteous, those who are right with God, they walk by faith. They live by faith. That's how you and I are to live, not based on what we see or what takes place in this life, but based upon the word of God, the promises of God, the truths of God is presented to us in his word. We do not base our decisions and live our life for what we see, but instead for what is unseen, because those things are eternal. Believing God at his word, being obedient to him. Keeping our focus, not on this life, not on fulfillment and satisfaction here, but on eternity. It is true. We all go through the season that Solomon talks about. We experience the good times and the hard times in all of our lives. But we do know what God has promised. Romans 8, 28. Paul says, and we know. Just stop there for a second. We know. This is not... Something that's skeptical or perhaps or maybe, hopefully. Paul says, we know this is something we can count on. All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. He will work it together for good. We go through the seasons, the difficulties, the ups and downs, and we don't understand it. And we can't figure it out like Solomon. Well, we could resort to the same things. Well, I might as well just enjoy life. Forget about the rest of eternity. Forget about everything else. Just enjoy this moment. Make the best of it because that's all there is. Make sure I do a couple of good things and not hurt anybody and I'll be all right. But we know that's not what the Bible teaches. No, we continue to walk by faith, not by sight, knowing that God will work together for good. All things to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. See, the important thing is not figuring everything out. We don't have to understand. If you have to understand, and that's what Solomon is working with here. He wants to understand. He has to understand. He needs to know what what is this? What are we living for? What's the point? What's the purpose? And if you force yourself to understand, you will be limited to the things of this life. Because your finite mind cannot understand the infinite God and his purposes. Remember God said in Isaiah 55, my ways are not your ways. If you have to understand to be satisfied, if you have to understand to be content in your relationship with God, then you will find yourself in the trap of Solomon. Hopeless, just monotonous life. I don't know what to do with it. It doesn't make sense. I can't figure it out. It's difficult, hopeless, bleak. But if you will walk by faith and not by sight, if you will believe God that he works all things together for good, then you will find great joy and peace in a loving relationship with Jesus Christ. If you limit yourself to this life, to this understanding, to what you can know and grasp on to, you'll be miserable. But if you lose your life for the sake of Jesus Christ, you will find it. Going on to verses 14 and 15. Solomon continues on talking about God. He says, I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it that men should fear before him. That which is, is, has already been. And what is to be has already been. What God requires and God requires an account of what is past. Here Solomon continues to talk about God. He's basically saying, look, I know there's a God. He's big. He can't change what he does. He can't take anything away from what he's done. He's put us into this cycle of seasons. He subjected us to this. This is what he said in verse 10. Once again, there's nothing new under the sun. God's done it. We can't change it. I don't understand it. And so I'm just doing the best I can. Live in life for today. Enjoying the moment because that's all there is. Verses 16 and 17. Here Solomon brings up one of the key phrases that's used in this book, under the sun. Again, reminding us he's limiting his perspective. He's limiting his understanding to this life, to under this sun, under heaven, not looking at eternity, forgetting all about that. But just what he can grasp onto, just what he can figure out the things under the sun, because it tells us at the beginning of Ecclesiastes, he searched out everything under the sun. He had an understanding of everything under the sun. He knew he was educated. He knew what was going on. He knew about all the things that took place. And as he looked at all of these things, at all that he understood, at all that he had experienced and watched, he says, I found that in the place of judgment, instead of justice, there was wickedness. When you look at life under the sun and just look at this world, this life, the here and now, it's easy to come to these same conclusions. I look and instead of righteousness, instead of justice, there's wickedness and and there's iniquity. There's injustice instead of justice. What's good is called bad and what's bad is called good. It's backward, Solomon says. It's happening all over. We see it continued throughout this day. But he goes on in verse 17, and it seems that Solomon is talking about eternity, but personally, I don't think so. I think he's still just talking about this life because he makes reference again of the time and the purpose. Going back, he says, well, there's a time for every purpose and for every work. Going back to chapter 3, verse 1, where he says, there's a season, there's a time for every purpose under heaven. He says, look, God's going to deal with them. God's going to judge them. But he's just, again, looking at this life. He's including God in the picture, but he's not including eternity. Now, it's so easy to think like Solomon does here. Understand that, yes, there is wickedness instead of justice. And we can think, but God will take care of it. And so, you know, there's this criminal and he does all of this wickedness and all of this evil and hurts all these people. And then he gets killed. And and we could say, well, see, God judged him. But that's not the reality. Did he reap what he sowed? Yes, of course. Did he get what was coming to him? Well, probably. But is that God's judgment? No, God's judgment is not limited to this life. If that person dying is God judging him, then how do you explain the good person, the righteous person who dies? See, death is not judgment. Solomon says God's going to judge him. What does that mean? He's going to go through hard times. What about the righteous person who experiences hard times? See, you can't logically put all this together. You can't limit life to just this life here and now and not include eternity. Even if you try to use the name of God and talk about God. But if you're only focused on this life, it won't make sense. You will not understand. It will, again, just like Solomon, become a hopeless cycle, circle of depression. God will bring justice. But it extends more than just the death of a wicked person. His justice is done in eternity. Not in this life. Understand that. Believe that. Don't look to this life for justice. Don't look to this life for God to make things right. Verses 18 and 19. I said in my heart concerning the condition of the sons of men, God test them that they may see that they themselves are like animals. For what happens to the sons of men also happens to the animals. One thing befalls them as one dies, so does the other. Surely they all have one breath. Man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. So now Solomon comes to the conclusion, men are no different than animals. Because when you do not look to eternity, when you do not include in your picture of life, in your understanding of life, an eternal and infinite God, then it reduces humanity to nothing more than just being animals. We still have it today. The belief in evolution is a result of this. You exclude God and we become nothing more than just superior apes, chimpanzees. We just become another part of the animal kingdom. We're just part of the rest of the animal life. If there is no God, if all that's in this life, all that happens here and now, that's all that we got, that's all that there is, then why not live like animals? What's the point of doing anything else? It breeds really poison in the heart of society when they begin to think this way. Solomon says, look, we breathe the same air as animals breathe. We die the same way. Same things happen to us. We experience the sun and the rain and all the same things. But what makes us any different? He says, man has no advantage over animals. This is Solomon's logical conclusion. Since all we get is this life, we really have no advantage over animals. Why? Why does he come to that conclusion? Because, he says at the end there, verse 19, for all is vanity. It's all vanity. So it doesn't matter. I mean, we're just like animals because everything we do comes to nothing. It's all just bubbles that pop and they don't last. We don't really accomplish anything. We don't change any cycles. We don't change and really substantially impact anything. You can work hard for 70 years and not get anything for it. You can do wrong and be wicked and not be punished for it. So since everything comes and goes and you don't escape the seasons of life, then there's no advantage to being a human than to being an animal, Solomon concludes. Of course, this is not true. Genesis 1.26, then God said, Man is different. We're not the same as animals because we were created in the image of God. He created us in his image that he might have a personal relationship with us. And he has given to men dominion, authority over, superiority to all of the animal kingdom and all of the earth. See Solomon, he takes God out of the picture. He takes eternity out of the picture. And he throws out all of what the Bible says. He throws out all of what is true about God. And he comes to some very wrong, very harmful, very bad conclusions. Going on, verses 20 and 21. All go to one place. All are from the dust and all return to dust. Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth? Solomon says, man and animals, they all go to the same place. They're from dust. They return to dust. And basically in verse 21, he's saying, look, who can really tell if a man's spirit goes to heaven and an animal's spirit goes down to the earth or ceases to exist? Who can really say that there's a difference? Again, he's limiting his search, his understanding to what he can see, what he can know. And he says, look, there's no evidence that there's a difference. There's no proof of eternity. How do you really know? That like the animal, we just don't cease to exist. It's just over. How do you really know? How do you prove that? You can't prove that. If you ever take a philosophy class in college or in high school, man, they will circle you over this point and over this thing over and over and over again. Trying to prove by logical means, trying to prove by philosophical understanding. And you can't do it that way because our ways are not His ways. You can't live life based on your understanding and what you know and what you can grasp hold of. Again, 2 Corinthians 5, 7, Paul says, we walk by faith, not by sight. If you're living by sight, if you're living based on your understanding, what man says, what you've learned in school, what you've learned from society, then you're backwards. The logical conclusions of those things result in terrible tragedies. No, we need to believe God at his word and live in relationship with him because there is a hereafter. We will stand before him. Verse 22. So I perceived that nothing is better than that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his heritage. For you can bring him or who can bring him to see what will happen after him. This is Solomon's conclusion. This is the best he can come up with. Life's this horrible, monotonous cycle. It's just over and over and over again. We're nothing more than animals, so just rejoice in what you've got now. Enjoy what you got now. Enjoy life now. That's all there is. Just enjoy it while you can because you're not going to be able to enjoy it later. There's nothing better than that. Nothing worth living for besides that. What a bleak and horrible outlook on life. But Solomon is not finished. It gets bleaker. Let's continue on. Verses 1 through 3 of chapter 4. He says, Then I returned and considered all the oppression that is done under the sun. And look, the tears of the oppressed, but they have no comforter. On the side of their oppressors there is power, but they have no comforter. Therefore I praise the dead who are already dead, more than the living who are still alive. Yet better than both is he who has never existed, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun. Solomon, on the one hand, concludes, man is nothing more than an animal. There is no eternity. So just enjoy life and what you have while you have it. Live it up. On the other hand, he looks at those who are oppressed and he says, how can they enjoy life? They can't just enjoy life what they have right now because they're poor and oppressed. How can they live it up? So what's the point for them? What do they do? And he can't come up with anything. All he can say is, well, the dead are better off than those who are alive. And even better than them are those who never existed. Sounds like someone who's about to go postal. He's gone to this fatalist type of thinking. It's better to be dead, it's better to never exist than to live this life, Solomon says. This is the danger of refusing to recognize the God of eternity. This is the danger of refusing to follow Jesus Christ and believe Him. It begins a downward spiral that gets worse and worse and worse. Because our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked. Look at verses 4 through 6. Again, I saw that for all toil and every skillful work, a man is envied by his neighbor. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind. The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh. Better a handful with quietness than both hands full, together with toil and grasping for the wind. There's lots of different ways that we could discuss these portions. I'm just going to share it one way. I wouldn't really bother to look at all the different perspectives. But Solomon, he's observing toil and skillful work. He says that when someone works skillfully, then he's envied by his neighbor. Now, he could be meaning two things by this. First of all, he could be meaning that the person works hard in order to be envied by others, which we know that's a reality and a temptation in our hearts. But he also could be meaning that his neighbor works hard because he envies what this guy has. The mentality of keeping up with the Joneses. Either way, it ends up with all bubbles, Solomon says. It's all just vanity. He looks at the fool and he says, look, the fool folds his hands and refuses to work. And he destroys himself because he won't work. He just consumes himself. So the wise thing to do is to work. However, the only way for there to be quietness or peace... As you work is for you to be content with just a handful, because if you're not content with a handful, then you're going to toil. You're going to have both hands full and you're still going to be striving and reaching for more and trying to get the wind and you'll never be satisfied. Look at verses seven and eight. He says, then I returned and saw vanity under the sun. There is one alone without companion. He has neither son nor brother. Yet there is no end to all his labors, nor is his eye satisfied with riches. But he never asks, for whom do I toil and deprive myself of good? This also is bubbles and a grave misfortune. This guy, he goes on to describe, is alone, but he's working hard. He's denying himself pleasure in order to toil and work hard, never being satisfied with what he has, always wanting more. But he never stops to ask, why am I working so hard? What am I doing this for? Solomon says it's bubbles. It's worthless. He's he's. pouring himself into all this and there's no benefit from it and he never stops to consider it. I came across this study that came out just a little bit under a year ago talking about money. And the study says that money won't make you happy. The study was based on the question, would you be happier if you were richer? And they concluded, no. They said wealth is just an illusion that wealth brings happiness. They explain why. Try to follow along. Says relative income rather than any certain level of income affects well-being. OK, so if your income is good relative to where you are and who you are, if you get richer than your peers, you may feel that you're better off than they are. But soon you'll make richer new friends. So your relative wealth won't be greater than as great as it was before. So I'm hanging out with all of you guys and you guys barely make anything. And then I get rich and I stop hanging out with you. I start hanging out with richer people and then I don't feel as rich as I used to because, you know, I'm not hanging out with you poor people anymore. And so there's this now need. Well, now I need some more. The study said. They also went on to say that people quickly get used to the new stuff their money can buy, which I think you've probably experienced that before. Then they say the amounts of money people say they need rises along with their income. So just as much as you make, just as much as you spend. Then they say the final conclusion, when you start making more money, you spend more time making money and have less leisure time than you did before. The activities that higher income individuals spend relatively more of their time engaged in are associated with no greater happiness, but with higher tension and stress, they concluded. So the more you make, the more you spend, the more you want, the more you work harder and harder and more stressed out. And it's just an endless cycle. That's what Solomon's describing here. This guy, he's working hard. He's not satisfied with what he has. He continues to pour into, but he has nothing to show for it. It won't make you happy. So Solomon decides something else in verses 9 through 12. He says, Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken. So Solomon decides, look, it's not good for one person to be consumed by greed. It's better for two people to work together. Sounds good, right? They have good reward for their labor because two people can work together and produce more than they could alone or individually. They have help because they can pick one another up. They can keep each other warm. They can withstand hardship. The enemy or those who come against them. Now, this portion of scripture is often used to talk about marriage and those principles, I'm sure, are good and it's fairly safe to apply that. But that's not really what Solomon's talking about. Let me sum up what he's been saying. Toil and hard labor is wearisome. It's hard work and you don't get much for it. To be by yourself and work so hard and deprive yourself to get riches is And yet not be able to enjoy it. That's that's vanity. It's bubbles. It's worthless. But if you team up with someone, then you'll be able to accomplish more with less effort. You'll get to enjoy the reward, helping one another and being strong together. He's just basically saying, look, again, the goal and the purpose is just live life now. Live it up now. Enjoy life now because that's all there is. But if you try to do that on your own, then it's just going to be a lot of hard work. So try to team up with someone. You can work together and then you can enjoy life now without having to work so hard. That's basically what Solomon's figuring out here. The best way, just team up with someone. Then you can really enjoy life. Then you'll be satisfied. Then you'll be fulfilled. Then you'll be happy again. The search for happiness, the search for fulfillment, to be satisfied. He goes on a different subject now, verses 13 through 16. He says... Better a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who will be admonished no more. For he comes out of prison to be king, although he was born poor in his kingdom. I saw all the living who walk under the sun. They were with the second youth who stands in his place. There is no end of all the people over whom he was made king. Yet those who came afterward will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and grasping for the wind. Solomon concludes this chapter talking about power, popularity, prestige, status. And he says people will receive a poor and wise youth instead of an old foolish king who won't be admonished anymore. And that's true to some degree in some elements, I suppose. But Solomon says, but even that won't last. No matter how great your following is, those who come afterward will not think that you're so great. And you'll become to them just like the old foolish king and someone will replace them. And then someone will replace them. And again, it's just the same thing, the vicious cycle over and over again. Bubbles and bubbles and bubbles and it's all bubbles and it never amounts to anything. So no matter which way you look at it, if you're working hard, if you're doing good, if you've got power or got prestige or got any of these things, again, Solomon is just concluding it's all worthless because he refuses to believe God at his word. He refuses to live his life for the Lord, to include eternity in the scope of his life and recognize that there is a hereafter. At the very end of the book, Solomon comes back to his senses. After all this fruitless searching and working so hard to find meaning and purpose, concluding that there's just emptiness under the sun, he comes to his senses at the end of the book. In Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verses 13 and 14, he says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter, all the things I've been talking about. He says, fear God and keep his commandments. For this is man's all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. Solomon recognizes, look, here's man's all. Here's the whole purpose. Here's the way to live. Fear God and keep his commandments. This is all you got. This is all that's worth living for. This is all that will satisfy you. This is all that will bring you fulfillment. This is all that will bring you joy. This is the only way to truly live, to fear God, to keep his commands, to walk in his ways. You want to understand him? His ways are not our ways. That's why you need to walk by faith and not by sight. We need to walk in relationship with Jesus Christ, not looking to this life for fulfillment, for satisfaction. but looking to the things of God, trusting him at his word, believing him at his word, living our life by his word. I encouraged you to read Matthew 5 through 7, and I encourage you to do so again. The Sermon on the Mount. As Jesus touches a lot of these subjects and gives you the true insight, Of what the Lord says. But you know. He concludes that sermon. The end of chapter 7. Saying if anyone will take these words of mine. And put them into practice. He'll be like a man. Who built his house upon the rock. And the floods came. The storms came. And that house stood. But the person who doesn't. Put these things into practice. Will be like a man who built his house upon the sand. The storms came. Floods rose up. And the house collapsed. And great was its fall. It was swept away. If you refuse to be obedient to relationship with God through Jesus Christ, to live life according to God's principles, you will collapse. You'll be swept away. But if you will take the word of God and put it into practice, learning from Solomon, you can try all those other things and not find fulfillment. Learning from his example, trusting in his example. He had all the resources. He already tried it all and he discovered it does not satisfy. You don't have to try it on your own. Learn from his failures or his experience. Believe God at his word. Fear God and keep his commands. For this is your all. Heavenly Father, we... ask that you would help us, Lord, because there are so many times where we desperately want to understand. And Lord, we make decisions and choose the way that we live our life based on what we know or what we can figure out. But God, help us to recognize in our lives those areas where we're not being obedient to you, not living according to your word, but according to our own understanding. Lord, help us to trust in you with all of our heart. Help us not to lean on our own understanding, but in all of our ways, God. We ask that you would help us to acknowledge you, that you are, that there is eternity, that your word is true. Lord, because then you will direct our paths. Teach us to walk in relationship with you, Lord Jesus. We pray this in your precious name. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.