“The American Dream is Hevel (Ecclesiastes 2)” | 9/18/22
Ecclesiastes 2 | 9/18/22 | Will DuVal
In the 2005 film adaptation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, “a race of hyper-intelligent, pan-dimensional beings get so fed-up with the constant bickering about the meaning of life that they… build a supercomputer - named “Deep Thought” - to calculate the answer.” The computer instructs them to return in 7 ½ million years, when it’s finished running its program, and they DO, only to be informed that “the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything is… 42”.
Well, in the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon seeks an answer to that question - “What is the ultimate meaning of life?” - and so far, one chapter into his search, he’s been about as successful as Deep Thought. Last week, in chapter 1…
*Solomon looked for meaning in WORK, but concluded NONE of it makes any lasting, eternal difference; the earth outlives us all.
*So he looked for meaning in NATURE, but concluded it too is just as purpose-less; the sun just goes in circles, so too the wind and water - nothing ever seems to accomplish anything!
*So he turned to KNOWLEDGE, but concluded that the thirst for knowledge will always leave your thirsty; you’ll never know enough.
*So he tried PROGRESS… and LEGACY… and WISDOM… but ultimately concluded that ALL of it, EVERYTHING is meaningless, vanity, futile… it’s HEVEL. The Hebrew word for “smoke, mist, breath, vapor”. Life is SHAKY - it’s NOT SOLID - because it’s so FLEETING. It’s temporary. You’re here today, but you blink, and you’ll be gone tomorrow. It’s ALL hevel… at least it is here, “under the sun”.
And that’s Solomon’s point, his purpose in taking us on this journey: he wants to expose the eternal emptiness of all the idols here on earth that we are prone to attach ultimate meaning to. It’s not that they’re BAD things - work, creation, knowledge, wisdom - they’re all GOOD things; but an idol is when a “good thing” becomes a “GOD thing”; when it becomes your ultimate thing. And Solomon’s on his deathbed, trying to help us learn from HIS mistakes; he’s saying, “Save yourself the HEVEL! Don’t be stubborn and learn it the hard way; take it from me, learn from MY failed example - I already TRIED filling my heart with ALL those other idols, and you know what I discovered? Mick Jagger sang it best: [*sing*] “I can’t GET no… [*them*] Satisfaction” - NONE of it’s gonna SATISFY you… FULFILL you… at least not ultimately. It may distract you, it may keep you occupied for a time, but at the end of the day, or AT LEAST by the end of your LIFE, you’re going to find that NOTHING “under the sun” can fill that God-shaped void in your heart, because God PUT it there to be filled with HIM! To drive us to HIM. So once we’ve tried everything ELSE, “under the SUN” (S-U-N), it’s time to give the SON a try (S-O-N): JESUS! Quit looking horizontally and turn your eyes heavenward. Ecclesiastes is really just one long exposition of the apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15, v19: that “If… we have hope in this life only, (“under the sun” ONLY) then we are… to be pitied.” Solomon says, “let’s run a thought experiment for 11 ½ chapters, and just assume that this life, here on the earth, is all there is to our existence, and let’s see how much MEANING we can wring out of it. And so far the answer is clear: NOT VERY MUCH.
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But Solomon’s not done trying yet! This morning, he’s gonna continue his quest for meaning, by assessing FOUR possible answers. The first two are NEW (as “new” as anything CAN be in a world where there’s “nothing new under the sun”!), but his second two answers to the question are actually REPEATS from chapter 1. Remember, repetition conveyed EMPHASIS, in the Hebrew language. But he will offer us some new REASONS, at least, why none of these vain pursuits can bring us true meaning and satisfaction.
And here’s how I want to group all FOUR of them together - the common thread here (and props to Danny Akin and Pastor Thad, both, for helping me see it): that the “American DREAM”... is hevel. What’s the American dream? It’s the self-evident truth that “all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with the unalienable rights to… [*WHAT?]: Life… Liberty… and the Pursuit of Hevel.
That’s right, you HAVE the right (and not just the “right”; you’re downright ENCOURAGED, in our society!) to pursue all the hevel that your heart desires. “If you desire it, you DESERVE it.” And typically, that hevel tends to fall into one of four categories. So let’s examine each.
Would you STAND with me… SCRIPTURE - Ecclesiastes ch2:
“I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity. 2 I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” 3 I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. 4 I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5 I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. 7 I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. 8 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 sons of man.
9 So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10 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. 11 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.
12 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. 13 Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. 14 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. 15 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. 16 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! 17 So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.
18 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, 19 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. 20 So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, 21 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. 22 What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? 23 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.
24 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, 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26 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.”
This is the word of the Lord… Let’s pray…
Now interestingly, there’s OFTEN something of a CHRONOLOGY to these four stages of the American Dream. So what do most of us try first, in our early years, in our pursuit of happiness? We turn to PLEASURE, don’t we? For our first 20-25 years or so, we’re all basically HEDONISTS.
My 2 ½ year old son lives popsicle-to-popsicle.
My 6 ½ year old daughter lives soccer game - to - soccer game.
Your 12 year old middle schooler lives for his Minecraft.
Your 17 year old high schooler lives for her boyfriend.
Your 21 year old in college lives party-to-party.
We live for FUN! But eventually - and it takes some of us longer than others, sadly; there’s nothing sadder than someone in their 50’s, still dressed like someone in their 20’s, still out at the club partying like a 20 year old - but eventually we ALL discover that WHOOPIE is hevel.
Now let me just address 2 things up front: first, YES, you can prepare yourself for a “W” alliteration this morning. But second: “NO”, whoopie does NOT just mean “sex”; I’m sure that’s where some of your minds immediately went (and we WILL get to that…). But according to dictionary.com, to “make whoopie” technically just means “to engage in uproarious merrymaking or revelry”. It’s PARTYING. That’s where Solomon starts here in v1:
“I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; [with WHOOPIE] enjoy yourself.”
And then he tries 3 specific pleasures in his pursuit of happiness; we’ll continue the “W”s: with WIT, WINE, and WOMEN. Now as we work our way through each of these hevels, Solomon is also going to identify for us the PROBLEM with each of them. So he starts in v2 with “laughter”, and concludes VERY quickly that “It is mad”. Now, interestingly, the word for “madness” here, in Hebrew, “doesn’t refer to being out of one’s mind… but rather to something sinful” (Ryken, 47).
Because the ONLY things worth laughing at in this fallen world of ours are the very things we’re NOT supposed to be laughing at - that’s what MAKES them funny. Whether it’s slapstick humor - laughing at people falling down - or sarcasm - laughing at a cutting, ironic taunt - or just plain laughing at the hevel of everyday life - Elijah had us rolling yesterday talking for 15 minutes about his BAPTISM, and how all of you were CLAPPING for him, and now he eats the “church crackers” - he’s TWO! We don’t DO that here. It was MADNESS! It was actually SINFUL - he was LYING, and it was HILARIOUS. Just as funny and ridiculous as the idea of finding true fulfillment in laughter. That’s “madness”.
Okay, so Solomon “leaves the comedy club (in v3) and heads to the BAR” (Alistair Begg, cited in Akin, 24): “I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine”. Now, some commentators think that Solomon’s clarification here that “[his] heart [was] still guiding [him] with wisdom” suggests that he was “drinking responsibly”; not FRAT-BOY partying, more like fancy cocktail-hour at the country club partying. He became a wine connoisseur.
But whether his quest was to sip the finest wine, or ride the longest bender, the result for Solomon was the SAME: v3, it was “folly”. Foolishness. He says of this “pleasure” in v2: “What USE is it?” Whether you’re face-down in the toilet, or you’re flushing your MONEY down it, cuz you spent thousands on a bottle of wine that’s gonna bring you pleasure for all of a half hour that it takes you to drink it… it’s USELESS. It’s hevel.
So Solomon leaves the bar too, and heads to the brothel now. Wit, wine, and WOMEN. We skip down to v8b now, where Solomon says, “I got singers, both men and women [He didn’t have Spotify, but he didn’t NEED it; Solomon just bought the whole BAND! Private concerts whenever he wanted! Need some good driving music? T-Swift just hopped right up in the chariot with him. Working out? “Hey Yeezy, come spit some bars for me…” Trying to set the mood? Solomon lit some candles and called John Legend into his chambers. To serenade his…] many concubines” v8. Now, some of your Bibles have a footnote admitting that we don’t actually know what this Hebrew word means. It could be “concubines”, some translations have “musical instruments”. It doesn’t matter TOO much, because we know Solomon had plenty of BOTH! He tried filling his heart with BOTH music and mating. But let’s stick with the “concubines” for a minute - basically, sex slaves - because 1 Kings 11:3 tells us Solomon had 300 of them, and that was in ADDITION to his 700 WIVES! That means he slept with a different woman every night… for almost THREE years!
Now: how do you end up with 1,000 women in your harem?
The same way you end up with 1,000 bottles of wine in your cellar, or 1,000 followers on Instagram, or 1,000 kills in Elden Ring (I guess that’s the most popular video game now…?) - whether your vice is sex, or alcohol, or social media, or video games, or porn, food, drugs, nicotine, gambling, applause… they ALL function in the same way: they give you a temporary hit of dopamine, the so-called “happiness hormone”, but when it wears OFF, not only does the “come-down” actually leave you feeling lower than before, but it takes MORE of that same stimulus the next time to achieve the same level of euphoria as before. Now you need harder porn, harder drugs, a harder level to beat on that video game, harder applause, to get the same “hit” of happiness. It’s just basic brain chemistry.
And Solomon says: “It’s HEVEL. It’s a FOOL’S game.” v11: a “striving after the wind”; you’ll NEVER catch it. The thousandth woman won’t make you a BIT happier than the first one did; as a matter of fact, you’ll be LESS happy after #1,000; you’ll feel MORE empty.
I had a student at Culver - super popular, likable guy - who started attending our youth group cuz he was trying to get with one of my student leaders (probably because he’d already BEEN with all the NON-Christian girls on campus, and he needed a challenge; higher dopamine threshold!), but he came to me one night after youth group and confessed: “Mr. D, I’ll be honest: I only came to youth group for [this girl]…” I said, “I know, Max.” He said, “But since I’ve been coming, I’ve really been listening. And I’ve started PRAYING more. And I’m starting to realize that I DO need God in my life.”
He said, “But the problem is: I ALSO love to PARTY; I live for the weekend.” 17-years old; he said, “I’ll be honest: I love to drink, and get high, and have sex. And if giving my life to Jesus means giving those things UP, then I just don’t think I’m interested in it, at least not right now.”
And I looked at him, and I thanked him for his honesty, and I gave him probably the most controversial advice any youth pastor has ever given: I said, “Well, Max, maybe next weekend you should go out and party as hard as you possibly can on Friday and Saturday night - get as DRUNK as possible, as HIGH as possible, sleep with as many GIRLS as possible - and then come back HERE again next Sunday night for youth group - for worship, and Bible study, and prayer, and fellowship - and then decide which one of them leaves you feeling most fulfilled, LEAST empty. (And then I went and found my student leader and I warned her to stay away from him!)
Friends: wit, wine, women… WHOOPIE will NEVER leave you satisfied. If it could, then of ALL people, SOLOMON would’ve been fulfilled. 1 Kings 4 says “threw epic parties for 30,000 people every single day!” (Driscoll, quoted in Akin, p23). But it was never enough; you’ll always need more. And afterward, you’ll be left feeling emptier than before.
Well, #2 - Once our prefrontal cortex finishes developing, and we’ve sown our wild oats, sobered up, and we’re ready to settle down, where does society tell us to look NEXT for happiness? To WEALTH. To money, and all the material pleasures it can afford us.
Write this down, back under bullet point #1: if the pursuit of WHOOPIE says, “What I EXPERIENCE will fulfill me,” now under #2, write: the pursuit of WEALTH says, “What I OWN will fulfill me.” Maybe what I OWN can bring me fulfillment.
But Solomon’s conclusion is just as clear on this point: Wealth is HEVEL. All the money in the world can’t buy you happiness. And once again, if ANYONE should know, it’s SOLOMON! I found a website - wealthresult.com - that ranked Solomon as the #1 richest man to ever walk the planet, by a LANDSLIDE! 2 Chronicles 9 tells us he was raking in 23 TONS of gold every year, and he reigned for 40 years. Adjusted for inflation, that puts his net worth somewhere in the ballpark of 2 TRILLION dollars. Solomon was the ONLY trillionaire ever; no one else even comes CLOSE. The Bible says Israel was so affluent during his reign that people wouldn’t even bother bending OVER to pick silver up off the ground (9:20); they were blowing their NOSES with Benjamins.
So Solomon remembers, v4: “I made great works. I built houses”, notice: houseS, PLURAL. We know about his palace in Jerusalem, but I’m sure he had a couple summer beach homes, on the coast (the Mediterranean), and a few WINTER homes too, maybe a private ski chalet up north, on Mount Hermon. He continues: “I planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees.” Danny Akin notes: “This phrase “every kind of fruit tree in them” is used [verbatim] three times in the creation account [of Genesis]... Literally, Solomon was trying to create a new garden of Eden… [But] all the money in the world can’t buy our way back to Paradise” (Akin, 25).
V6: “ I made myself pools… I bought myself slaves… I had [lots] of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me… [I had more] silver and gold [too]... ”
By the way, there’s one word that Solomon has repeated in every single VERSE so far, all 11 verses of the first two bullet points; did you catch it? What is it? It’s the word… “I”. And in 9 of these verses, he repeats the words “my” or “for myself” (Ryken, 46). One pastor, whose sermon on Ecclesiastes 2 I watched this week, titled his message: “Me, Myself and I” (Baltodono, 2015). And that really gets at the HEART of it here, for Solomon - it’s all about HIM. Solomon is after HIS kingdom here; not God’s. Jesus said, “You can’t serve two masters… You can’t serve both God and money…”. You gotta pick. But here’s the thing: he said, “Seek first the kingdom of God [not YOUR kingdom, but GOD’S…] and his righteousness,” and Jesus promises: I’ll throw in the REST as a BONUS! (Matt 6:24, 33)
See MONEY, just like so MANY of the pleasures from point #1 - comedy, alcohol, sex - they’re not EVIL, in and of themselves. But the Bible warns us that “the love of money IS a root of all kinds of evils” (1 Tim 6:10). But then again, so too is the love of wit, or wine, or women… of ANY pleasure that replaces God as the driving love of our hearts. Idolatry is when we fall in love with the GIFT, and forget all about the GIVER. James reminds us that “every good gift comes down from our Father above” (1:17), so Paul declares that “everything created by God is good, and… is [to be] received with thanksgiving” (1 Tim 4:4).
But the problem is that so many of us are like that kid on Christmas who rips open his presents and we immediately get so infatuated with our shiny new toys, that we forget all about the loving parent who BOUGHT them. We’re so busy playing - we become so self-absorbed; we’re so caught up in the “me, myself and I”s! - that we don’t even stop to say “Thank you”.
And that highlights TWO of the great DANGERS with wealth: if we’re not CAREFUL, we can easily become 1) SPOILED, and 2) SELF-SUFFICIENT.
We no longer 1) want for any-thing, nor do we 2) need any-ONE. Solomon alludes to BOTH of these dangers in vv9 & 10:
He says, “I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem…. [I was totally self-sufficient; no one else could TOUCH me] And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure [he admits: “I was spoiled ROTTEN]”.
And here’s the thing - yet another danger of money, just like sex or booze or ANY dopamine fix: it really can bring you HAPPINESS… in the short term. Solomon admits in v10: “my heart found pleasure in all my toil” - all that work I put into building my palaces, my gardens, my pools… it really DID pay off… cuz they brought me PLEASURE… at least for a LITTLE while.
But friends: you can only shove money into that God-shaped void for so long before you wake up one day and realize, v11, that it’s all HEVEL. The palaces, the servants… your prized, top-of-the-line espresso maker, my sweet new 2018 Honda Odyssey - when I told my D-group about it, Jack Gentile was SO jealous; apparently I am living his 25-year old DREAM right now, in my certified, pre-owned minivan.
But at the end of the day, it’s all hevel. It’s temporary. It’s all gonna rust. And then burn up when Jesus returns.
So ultimately Solomon concluded in v11 that “there was nothing to be gained under the sun.” Isn’t that fascinating? He says, “You can’t actually ‘GAIN’ ANY of it!” You think you own your possessions, but really they own YOU.
And the REASON you can’t “gain” ‘em, you can’t truly acquire them, you can’t actually OWN anything, in any sort of ultimate sense, is that you can’t take it WITH you, when you DIE. He’s gonna emphasize this even more in points 3 and 4 below, but he hints at it here: You can build stuff, you can BUY stuff, but you can’t KEEP stuff, because even if it doesn’t break or get stolen first, you gotta leave it all behind when you DIE! As Cicely Tyson put it, “You’ll never see a hearse pulling a U-haul.” Cuz you can’t take it with you.
#3 - The pursuit of WEALTH may occupy you up until your mid-life crisis or so, at which time, fortunately, many of us DO eventually wake up to the hevel-ness of trying to “keep up with the Joneses”, and we turn elsewhere for meaning; perhaps, to the pursuit of WISDOM. If what I experienced couldn't fulfill me, and neither could what I OWNED, then maybe what I UNDERSTAND will finally set me FREE from all this hevel. I’ve been looking for love and LIFE in all the wrong places; maybe I just need to learn to LIVE RIGHTLY, wisely.
And at first, wisdom seems pretty promising. Solomon starts in v12: “the man who comes after the king [can] Only [do] what has already been done”. He admits how FOOLISH he was to try and find happiness in all his building projects, when Solomon was following in the footsteps of his father, the great King DAVID. He realizes, “I might have built a palace, a Temple, but my father built the whole KINGDOM! I can’t out-build him!” That’s why, when God granted him just one wish, in 1 Kings ch3, Solomon asked for what…? For WISDOM.
Because v13: “there is more gain in wisdom than in folly”. Solomon says, “there’s no gain in whoopie or wealth; but there IS in wisdom”. It’s not as fleeting and unstable. As far as foundations go, wisdom’s a pretty good one.
v13b: it’s like “LIGHT.” V14: “The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness.” We’re all on this crazy journey called “LIFE”, full of twists and turns, especially so in a fallen world. The fool stumbles his way through life, but wisdom is like a LIGHT, that helps us navigate the way.
So wisdom seems promising… until v14B: “And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them” - the wise and the foolish alike. And what IS that “same event”?
It’s almost like the thought is so PAINFUL, Solomon can’t even bring himself to say the word…
V15: “I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also.” And what’s gonna HAPPEN? He can’t bring himself to say it…
V16: “For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance”. WHY NOT? He still can’t go there… until finally, at the end of v16, he can’t hold his DESPAIR in any longer, and he bursts:
“How the wise DIES just like the fool!”
DEATH! If one person STUMBLES his way down the path of life, while the other navigates it beautifully, only to discover that they BOTH arrive at the exact same final destination - DEATH - then what good was wisdom in the first place?! As Solomon ponders in v15: “Why then have I been so very wise?”” What’s the POINT?
Death is the “great equalizer”; “the same event happens to us all”. The story is told of Alexander the Great, who one day found his friend, the famous philosopher Diogenes, out in a field, looking intently at a pile of bones. When Alexander asked what he was doing, Diogenes replied, “I am searching for the bones of your father King Philip, but I cannot seem to distinguish them from the bones of the slaves. (told in Ryken, 63)
The rich and the poor, the wise and the foolish - death comes for us ALL.
So Solomon concludes in v17, probably his LOW point, in ALL of Ecclesiastes: “So I hated life.” The palaces and concubines can only distract you for so long, before eventually you take a peak up AHEAD, at where this path of life is inevitably LEADING you, and you realize it ends - for ALL of us! - in a giant CLIFF, and NO amount of whoopie or wealth or even wisdom can change that. Solomon says, “It’s enough to make anyone HATE life.” It’s “grievous” - it “causes grief, great sorrow”; life is “characterized by great pain and suffering”; it’s “extremely or shockingly wicked, cruel, brutal, atrocious”. It’s grievous, v17. It’s hevel.
As the great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy contemplated, “Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy?” (quoted in Ryken, 70)
#4 - Solomon tried WHOOPIE; it left him empty.
He tried WEALTH; it left him wanting still more out of life.
He turned to WISDOM, finally got his life on the right track, until he woke up one day and realized ¾ of his life was now BEHIND him, he was a WHOLE LOT CLOSER to that cliff than he realized! So where do you turn next?
Solomon tries WORK. He “employed his wisdom”, v19, and “toiled” to leave his mark on the world, a piece of him that will outlive him. Desperately grasping for meaning in what he can BUILD.
But before he even begins, Solomon has already ruled work out as well: v18, “I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun”. For three reasons, quickly now, 1) you can’t keep it (v18); 2) you can’t protect it (vv19-20); and 3) you can’t even fully enjoy it (vv21-23) (Wiersbe, 1116).
First, v18: you can’t KEEP it - “I’m just gonna DIE and leave everything I BUILT - all those palaces, my life’s work, my entire client portfolio, my legacy, my ministry…” - “to the man who will come after me”. You can’t take it with you.
Second, what’s worse, v19: you can’t PROTECT it. “Who knows whether [my successor] will be wise or a fool?” I spent 5 years of my life, building a ministry in Culver up from NOTHING to 60-something students, involved in our youth group, only to have the school hand it off to some DEADBEAT who ran the entire thing back into the ground within 18 months. Solomon left EVERYTHING - all his riches, his KINGDOM, at the height of Israel’s splendor - ALL of it, to his son Rehoboam. And within a matter months, Rehoboam had LOST 10/12th of his father’s Kingdom.
Third, and worst of ALL, even while you’re still ALIVE, v23: you can’t fully ENJOY your work, like we were created to. Remember, work was supposed to be GOOD. God HIMSELF worked, to create the universe. Then God gave ADAM good work to do, in the garden, to cultivate it, even before the Fall. But in the Fall of Genesis 3, the ground gets “cursed” with “thorns and thistles”, and now POST-Fall, God says our work is gonna involve “pain” and “sweat”.
In Solomon’s estimation, work is now characterized by THREE things: sadness, frustration, and restlessness: v23, “all [man’s] days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest.”
I’ll confess: I get a little depressed, most Sunday afternoons, when I consider how many hours, how much WORK I put into that sermon that I’ll NEVER preach again - 45 minutes later, it’s all over. And A THIRD of the church didn’t even show UP for it! And those of you who DID would be lucky to REMEMBER ⅓ of it… Honestly, a year from now, how much of this sermon do you think you’ll be able to recall? Maybe 10%?! If you’ve got a GOOD memory… If you REALLY took it to heart?!
That’s frustrating - my work is a “vexation.” Sometimes it keeps me UP at night - “Even in the night, my heart does not rest.”
And I mostly LOVE my job! I’m sure there are MANY aspects of YOUR work that leave you sad, frustrated, and restless.
Okay, so where does all this LEAVE us?
If I CAN’T be fulfilled by what I EXPERIENCE, what I OWN, what I UNDERSTAND, or what I BUILD?
Solomon’s gonna LEAVE us here, with the one thing that CAN truly fulfill us. Vv24-26 are the first positive note in the opening two chapters thus far! Phillip Ryken calls these verses “an oasis of optimism in a wilderness of despair” (71).
And what is it? The answer to the ultimate question of the meaning of life, the universe, and everything?
#5 - It’s WORSHIP. Only WORSHIP is NOT hevel.
The word “worship” literally means “to assign worth”. Solomon discovers that true contentment and joy under the sun comes from assigning SUPREME worth to God (who alone is above the sun!), and then and ONLY then will we find that all other things - lesser things, created things - find their worth in and from HIM!
The paradox of life is this: try and find meaning in anything OTHER than God, and it’ll prove meaning-LESS. But find meaning and worth supremely in God, and everything ELSE becomes meaning-FULL as well!
“Notice what brings [Solomon] joy… [in vv24-26;] he embraces the very activities that he had previously rejected as failing to bring him meaning. Work… food… drink… could not satisfy his soul. But now he eats and drinks and finds enjoyment in his toil. What makes the difference? [Friends:] GOD makes the difference! [God makes ALL the difference!] …According to v25, NO ONE can find any true joy in anything apart from him.” (Ryken, 72)
It’s the difference between pleasure, wisdom, work… “under the SUN” ( “S-U-N”) and pleasure, wisdom and work under the SON - JESUS!
V26: “For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy [as good gifts, to be enjoyed under the sun, and to point us back to their GIVER, a life of gratitude; the #1 predictor of happiness, even according to secular social studies, is GRATITUDE], but to the sinner God has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God.” Because ultimately, in the NEW heavens and NEW earth, the Bible declares that “all things will be OURS, if we’re united with Christ” (1 Cor 3:21).
I LOVE this reminder from commentator Danny Akin: “Solomon’s life reminds us of the prodigal son (in Luke ch15). So many people think the prodigal son’s sin was partying too much, and then he came to his senses and wanted to leave his party days behind. We so often forget that the story doesn’t just begin with partying; it ends with partying too. Yes, there’s a party in the far country that leaves the son broken, but there’s also an epic party when he gets back home… The difference is the son cannot enjoy the party rightly until he is satisfied in his father’s love.” (Akin, 33)
How about YOU, friend: Are you satisfied in your father’s love? Only THEN, will you be truly fulfilled.