I. Introduction
Ecclesiastes levels a withering attack on the presumptions of human ambition. But the Koheleth, the teacher, who most believe was Solomon, talks about his great accomplishments.
II. Solomon’s Accomplishments (2:4-6)
2:4: Solomon’s building projects were legendary. He constructed the temple in Jerusalem, a magnificent structure made of cedar and overlaid with gold. It took seven years to complete.
But his own palace may have been even more impressive, taking almost twice as long to build. However, it wasn’t just a few capital projects in Jerusalem that Solomon undertook. He built entire cities and military outposts
2:5: Solomon created gardens, parks, and planted groves of trees in a semi-arid land.
“parks” The Hebrew word for these parks is paredēs, from which we get paradise.
“all kinds of fruit trees” – This phrase comes up three times in the creation account, where God created “all kinds of fruit trees” for the first humans to enjoy in the Garden. It’s possible Solomon was trying to recreate his own paradise, his own Eden by the labor of his hands.
Likewise, we attempt to recreate our own paradise here on earth. We toil to fill our homes with items that will entertain us and devices and furniture that will make us feel comfortable. By the sweat of our own brow, we’re cultivating our own version of the Garden.
2:6: Ruins of his cisterns still exist, over a football field in area and thirty feet deep, capable of containing millions of gallons of water in that semiarid region.
Most books that you read about work say that you are not successful unless inside there’s a sense that you are doing something that you are passionate about, that there’s a sense of satisfaction. If anybody was going to find satisfaction in his work, it was going to be Solomon. What does he see when he looks inside? For those of you who have been with us for this study, I think you know where this is going.
III. Solomon’s Assessment (2:17-23)
2:17: Can you think of anything more depressing? Not what you would expect from someone so successful.
Some of you have worked hard in school, to get into a certain program, to get a degree in your desired field, so that you can get a career that will make you money and successful, which will bring you the recognition and lifestyle that will make you happy. Some of you have obtained all of the things for which you have been laboring. You’ve reached your goal. Yet, you’re feeling somewhat disappointed with your life. It isn’t as great as you thought it would be. That’s how Solomon felt. The difference between you and him is that you think that a career change will fix this. Solomon accomplished more than anyone on earth. He went further down the path than any of us will and he found that it dead ended.
Solomon explains why he felt this way.
2:18-19: Either he was a prophet or he knew how much of a fool his son was. After Solomon died, his son Rehoboam ascended the throne. Immediately, each tribe in Israel sent a delegation to meet with Rehoboam. They said, “Your father put a heavy burden on us because of his lavish lifestyle. Lighten our load and we will serve you.”
So Rehoboam met with the elders who served his father Solomon. They advised him to give the people what they asked. Then he met with the young men he grew up with. These were like his college buddies who he drank and partied with. So he asked them, “What do you guys think?” The young men replied, “This is what you should tell those complainers who want a lighter burden: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins! Yes, my father laid heavy burdens on you, but I’m going to make them even heavier! (1 Kings 12:10-11) That’s an odd statement: “My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins.” What does your little finger have to do with one’s loins? I’ll let you unpack that during your personal study time.
Rehoboam foolishly listened to his buddies and within a week, the kingdom of Israel split in half. Rehoboam destroyed the kingdom his father built in one week. And as Solomon put it in chapter 1, “What has been will be again…there’s nothing new under the sun.”
Today, you see the children of wealthy people squandering their inheritance. They often use their trust to subsidize a lifestyle they cannot afford based on their income. Or they just squander it. A recent Time magazine article, says, “[Stephen Lovell] estimates that his grandfather, who founded the John Forsyth Shirt Co, had a fortune of at least $70 million in today’s dollars. But through a combination of bad decisions, bad luck, and alcohol dependency, the next generation squandered that money.
The article states, “70% of wealthy families lose their wealth by the second generation, and a stunning 90% by the third, according to the Williams Group wealth consultancy.
2:21: [Example of wealthy man wanting to be buried with his cash]
2:22-23:
“the pain” The sheer hurt of continual exertion. Work just wears you down…and that’s when everything is going well.
The second thing he says we end up with is…
“grief” Why? Because in a work based life, you are always being evaluated. In a work-based life, you come to grief. There has to be failure. There has to be disappointment. Markets crash. Pandemics force companies to furlough their employees.
So there is pain if everything is going well and grief if things are not going well. And that’s just during the day-time.
“at night their minds do not rest” – You worry: what will tomorrow bring? Will it bring grief or just bring pain? See what’s there to worry about? Either way, it’s bad. You should just stop worrying.
4:7-8:
“For whom am I toiling,” he asked. What a haunting statement. Here’s a successful person. He has recognition. But not the kind you need. If satisfaction is the psychological payoff we are looking for, then recognition is the social payoff.
To some people, success means money. In some fields you don’t make that much money.
But the one thing success always means is esteem, approval, recognition. No matter what professions you have whether it's plumbing or investment banking, success always brings recognition. “I finally have people who see who I am, who value me, and who respect me.”
“There was a man all alone.” This picture right here is very frightening. Here is a man all alone. And this is what always happens. Why is that man alone? Shouldn’t he have admiration? Yes, but from afar. The real relationships, that you really want, have been destroyed by work.
Why isn’t his family there? Probably because neglect destroyed it. Why aren’t his friends there? Well, I can think of two reasons. 1) He never spent any time to maintain friendships, too busy 2) he alienated and trampled on people on his way up the ladder.
Henry Ford once said, “I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night…work not only makes us a living, it gives us a life.”
4:4: Of course, he’s make a wide sweeping statement about all work. But remember, this is wisdom literature. He’s saying this is axiomatic. It holds in most, but not all situations.
One of the major reasons why work so hard is because we compare ourselves to others and we want what they have. That’s why we work so hard. And that’s why we are so deeply dissatisfied with our work. You’re not actually manufacturing a product or a service, you are manufacturing a self. You don’t know who you are. You are trying to prove yourself. You see the problem is: It’s never about the work, it’s never about others, it’s all about you.
Those at the bottom are chasing those at the top. Those at the top are trying to keep those below them at bay. You see those at the top, striving and pushing themselves to keep going. And for what? It’s to solidify their legacy, so that it doesn’t leave the door open for someone to overtake them. That’s why you see 44 year old athletes chasing their 8th ring.
[Example of Nick Saban’s focus on work]
You see, if work was only about doing your best, then you would never overwork. But you do. You push the needle into the red.
You sometimes see people who under work. You begin to say, “It means nothing.” Why? Just like those who succeed, you’re simply working for recognition. If you don’t get the recognition, if people don’t notice you, then doing a good job or helping people means nothing. It's this identity vacuum that drives you into the ground.
4:5: Now, Koheleth isn’t saying there is anything wrong with work. He explicitly states that a “fool” is a person who disregards God and his wisdom. Proverbs 6:10 which was written by the same author says, “A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.” There’s nothing wrong with work. It’s when you take your identity from your work, when you make your accomplishments the foundation of your identity that he’s critiquing.
4:6: Now what he’s actually saying here is that on the one hand you have two handfuls of work and on the other hand you have one handful of tranquility. In the Hebrew, this word literally means quiet. In other words, you need a handful of quietness. The problem is there is a deep kind of rest, that’s so powerful calm that happens in the midst of work.
We often believe that we need rest from our work to recharge us and to help us enjoy our work. But then we return to work and it immediately begins to grind us down? Why? It’s because you need rest from your work in your work.
IV. Finding rest from your work in your work
Jesus said in Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
“weary” – The Greek word for weary means “to exert oneself physically, mentally, or spiritually, work hard, toil, strive, struggle.”
“burden” – These represent “loads” you must carry. They’re not circumstantial. These could be new responsibilities at home or at work.
We often feel a burden of trying to perform or live up to a standard. Obviously, Jesus was speaking to first century Jewish people who were living under the yoke of the Old Testament law that they could not bear. [Example of self-reproach when we try to rest]Some of us feel crushed under the need to live up.
“you will find rest for your souls” – [Example of poor sleep
quality]
Jesus says, “You are taking time off. You are taking breaks. And yet, you still can’t get the deep inner rest, the REM of the soul.” Jesus says, “Only I can give you rest from the machinery of self-censorship and the eternal inner murmur of self-reproach.” What is it? What is this rest? Jesus’ answer?
“take my yoke upon you…and you will find rest” – Jesus is using these counter-intuitive ideas synonymously. “Take my yoke upon you…and you will find rest.” I thought rest is the absence of work, not putting on a yoke. This seems paradoxical until you understand…
What’s a yoke? A lot of us are unfamiliar with farm implements. A yoke was something you put on a beast of burden. It’s something you put on a mule or an oxen. They carried plows. They carried carts. The yoke itself wasn’t the problem. But every yoke attached you to a burden. That why Jesus could say, “Come to me and take my burden upon you.” This is astounding because Jesus doesn’t just say, “Come to me and believe in me.” He says, “You must yoke yourself to me.” Now in the ancient world,
It was said of all disciples who went to be with their rabbis that they were “yoked” to their teacher. Today, when you want to get an education, you take a couple classes and take that occupies a certain amount of your time. But in the ancient world, when you gained formal training as a rabbi, you yoked yourself to a rabbi. You served him, you traveled with him, you devoted yourself to him.
Our culture strains to understand this way of thinking. Our culture says, “You must not give authority of your life to anyone. No one has the right to tell you how to live. You need to be in control. You need to be free!” And to some extent, we believe this. We would be fooling ourselves if we believed that we were impervious to our culture’s influence.
But Jesus says, “If you want inner freedom, if you no longer want to feel the weight of having to prove yourself, if you want to be at completely peace with yourself, if you want to be happy with your life, you will never obtain that unless you yoke yourself to me.” Our culture hears this, we hear this, and we say no thanks. How do you get it?
“Take my yoke upon you” implies that you are already yoked to something. As with all burdens, you can’t get rid of them. We must live for someone or something. That’s in our very nature. Jesus offers us an easier yoke than our world.
Famous Christian thinker F.B. Meyers says this about God’s rest. “To all of us Christ offers ‘rest,’ not in the (next) life only, but also in this life. Rest from the weight of sin, from care and worry, from the load of daily anxiety and foreboding. The rest that arrives from handing over all worries to Christ and receiving from Christ all we need.”
“rest for your souls” What does this look like?
Assurance of a securing standing before God because of what Christ has done. Many Christians live the under fear that God is not pleased with them. This makes them anxious. But God tells us that there’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ. That means, we can rest assured Christ’s work was sufficient to pay for all of our wrongdoing. That means we have can have bold access to God.
Relief that our sense of identity has been anchored in Christ. We naturally try to anchor our sense of identity to something or someone. People define themselves by all sorts of things by their money or possessions, the kind of car they drive, the designer clothes they wear. These all come together to represent who they are as a person. But when a recession rocks the economy or they get laid off, the very core of who they are is threatened.
Set stark relief to this, the person who enters God’s rest has a firm foundation for their identity. According to the Bible, God adopts us as his sons and daughters in Christ. That means, we don’t have to grope around searching for the meaning and value of our life. We are valuable because God purchased us through the death of his son. That means we have incredible value, separate from the things we have or do. Once we embrace our new identity, we can experience the type security and significance that people in our culture yearn for.
V. Conclusions
You can actually enjoy work when you don’t take your identity from your work.
Work’s most basic function is to provide for yourself and your family’s basic needs, not a means of manufacturing an meaning.
There’s a kind of work that will endure. Paul the Apostle says, in 1 Corinthians 15:18: Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. But the fallen human heart knows no bounds in its search for meaning apart from God. A friend of mine who serves oversees said recently, “It's important to have a calling to be a missionary, but it's devastating to make an identity out of being a missionary.”
There’s a fascinating figure in the Old Testament named, King Omri. Very little mention of him is made in the biblical record after this. There’s virtual silence about him in the Bible. And yet, the voice of biblical archaeology screams his name.
Some of the greatest finds in biblical archaeology make mention of his name. For instance, the Mesha Stone talks about how King Omri kept Moab, a surrounding nation under subjection for many years. Omri was such a prominent king of his time that later archaeological sources referred to Israel as the "House of Omri." Yet, there are only a dozen references to him in the Bible.
If Omri was such a great figure in the ancient world, then why is there so little about him in the Bible? And after pondering this for a while, I have started to wonder if it is because much of what he did in his life had little spiritual value. I wonder if there are two histories that are being written: one by us, the other from God. We write about the things are of value in this life. And God is documenting the things that will be of value forever, things that will never be forgotten.