MAKING SENSE OF THE UNFULFILLED LIFE
Ecclesiastes 6
I want to begin by reading you the lyrics from one of my favorite U2 songs.
“I have climbed the highest mountains. I have run through the fields only to be with you. I have run, I have crawled, I have scaled these city walls only to be with you. But I still haven't found what I'm looking for.”
Let me ask you, "Have you found what you are looking for? Have you found that special something, whatever it may be, that gives you that sense of satisfaction long term?" One thing I know for sure is that each and every one of us are on the same path to find that one thing that is going to bring us lasting satisfaction.
Today we are going to be in Ecclesiastes 6. We are at the halfway point of the book and in the text for today what Solomon is going to do is summarize some of what he has already said. Now why does he do this? Why does he just sound like a broken record throughout this book? I believe he does it for emphasis. Many of us, even after hearing Solomon’s teachings over the past couple of months that life under the sun is Hevel—it’s fleeting, futile, meaningless, useless and aimless, still continue day after day to pursue those things in hopes that lasting satisfaction will follow.
So Solomon is going to remind us again in this text, just in case we haven’t gotten it, that this pursuit is empty. He is going to remind us again this morning that we can climb the highest mountains, we can run through the fields, we can run we can crawl we can scale the city walls in pursuit of these things but we will not find what we are looking for, because it is not to be found under the sun.
This morning Solomon is going to help us make sense of the unfulfilled life.
First he tells us,
OUR RICHES UNDER THE SUN ARE NOT ALWAYS REWARDING
Like we have said already, when we are asked what’s it going take for us to be truly happy many of our minds become fixed on a dollar amount. Look at what Solomon says in vv. 1-2.
There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: 2 a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, 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.
Twice in the previous chapter, we saw this phrase, “grievous evil.” The word evil used here is not describing something that is morally wrong, but something that is tragic. Solomon is saying here, “There is something extremely tragic that I have seen happen under the sun.” What’s tragic according to Solomon is, “A man could have all the gifts this world has to offer and not be happy.”
Before going into ministry I worked at a place called Golden Living, which is a corporate office for various nursing facilities in and around the country. One year they had an office Christmas party in the lobby of the building and allowed for employees to come and bring their kids to get pictures with Santa.
When the families came, they had the entire lobby decorated for Christmas. They had Santa and his setup and also had a huge Christmas tree that was surrounded with beautifully wrapped gifts. As the kids would walk in, at first their eyes would go to Santa and then they would become fixated on those gifts under the tree. A few of them even ran to the tree to look at the gifts. Upon picking them up, however, their smiles and excitement soon faded because the gifts were just props--they were nothing more than beautifully wrapped empty boxes.
Solomon’s point in v. 2 is this, “When thinking about what brings true happiness, those who become fixated on a dollar amount find that though they might get all they think they ever wanted, they find those things ultimately empty—nothing more than beautifully wrapped empty boxes." Why? Because like I said last week, "The enjoyment to be had in money and possessions is always outweighed by our desire for more of it."
Now notice in v. 2 that wealth in it of itself is not a bad thing. We talked about this a bit last week. God is not concerned with our socio-economic status, but is concerned with our spiritual status. It’s not a rich/poor thing with God, but a righteous/unrighteous thing.
One man could have a ton of wealth and if his wealth is his servant and not his master and if he uses his riches to bring glory to God, he can in turn be happy in this life. On the other hand, you could have a man with the same amount of money and if money is that persons master and not his servant and instead of being charitable he or she hoards wealth and does not use it for God’s glory, what they will experience is not happiness and satisfaction, but misery and frustration.
Notice what Solomon says in v. 2. He says, "A man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, 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."
It is God who gives wealth and it is God who grants us with the grace needed to make money our servant and use it in a way that honors Him. Let me challenge you, if this is a struggle of yours, get before God and prayerfully express your need of Him to grant you the strength and the grace needed to make money your servant so that you can use your wealth to honor Him.
OUR PROSPERITY IS NOT ALWAYS PLEASING
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. 4 For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. 5 Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. 6 Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good—do not all go to the one place?
Many think, “If I can just live a long and prosperous life then I’ll be good—I’ll be happy.” Solomon explains in this passage that a long and prosperous life in it of itself doesn’t lead to lasting happiness.
Now for us to truly understand this passage, we have to take off our shoes so to speak and put on some Hebrew sandals. In other words, we need to leave our western mind set behind for a moment and enter into their world to understand what prosperity meant for the Jewish people. Solomon is very much speaking the language of his Hebrew readers from 3000 years ago, but there is clear application for us today.
First he talks about a man fathering a hundred children. Now some of you hear that and think to yourself, “Yeah, I could have told you that would not lead to happiness because it’s mad around my house with 2 or 3 kids.”
But times were different then. The Israelites wanted to have as many children as possible because in their day kids were not seen as “a financial burden.” Children were their livelihood. The more you had, the better your life was going to be in the future. Kids in their day grew up to take care of their family and were celebrated. So to say a man had 100 kids was to say a man was extremely prosperous.
Solomon also says, “Though a man live many years.” Once again in the Old Testament, long life was esteemed just in a different way than it is today. Though many of us want to live a long life, we want to continue to look young while we are growing older. For the Israelites, grey hair was a crowning achievement. It was an indication of wisdom. Solomon goes on to say, “If (this) man should live 2,000 years.” Once again, he is talking about a person who has reached the highest level of prosperity.
Solomon also mentions the importance of having a burial because again in ancient Jewish culture a good funeral was a sign of prosperity. The Israelites emphasized the importance of their dying day and based upon how they died and what their funeral was like was an indication of the kind of life they lived.
So in that day, the prosperous man was one who lived a long life, had many kids and a good funeral. If you had that, many would say you had it all. Solomon says all that to make the point that “Even if you have the greatest of blessings, even if you reach the highest level of prosperity—if you had a hundred kids and live for 2000 years, without God your life would ultimately be meaningless and miserable.”
Solomon’s point in this passage of Scripture is that all of those things—all of them are absolute vanity apart from enjoying God and being satisfied with Him in this life. Look at the phrase in v. 3 that says, “His soul is not satisfied.” There is no satisfaction in prosperity under the sun—apart from God. Solomon wants us to understand that it is pointless to add years to our life and add life to our years if we don’t make the giver of life the center of our life.
In v. 3, Solomon again uses hyperbole when he compares a prosperous man with a lot of years under his belt and a lot of kids in his family to a still born child. This is an intentional exaggeration to make the point once again that you can live to be 2,000 years old and have 100 kids, have a great life and a great funeral, but if you don’t find happiness in God—if you never reach the point where you give your life to Him and find satisfaction in Him then your life is worse than that of a still born child.
Solomon is not saying that a miscarriage is a good thing. He is saying that a much greater tragedy is for one to waste his/her life by seeking after and investing in temporal things that do not satisfy and by refusing to acknowledge God and live for Him in this life.
OUR WORK IS NOT ALWAYS WORTHWHILE
7 All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied.
Here in this verse, once again Solomon returns to the topic of work. Like I said earlier, he is giving a review here in chapter 6 so his being repetitive with these topics is for the purpose of emphasis. He wants to make sure that we understand the fact that our work and the fruits that come from our labor do not satisfy. I mean let’s be honest, we need to hear this don’t we because work is a big part of who we are?
Solomon says, “All the toil of man is for his mouth.” In other words, one of the main reasons we work so hard is to put food on the table. It doesn’t matter if you work at Burger King or if you are a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, both work for this reason. And Solomon says in v. 7 that this is an endless task because our appetite is never satisfied. We work so hard to quench our thirst and fill our stomachs, but it does not satisfy long term.
He goes on to say in vv. 8-9
8 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 9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind.
Solomon’s point here is that it is better to be content than to always want what you don’t have. We have a tendency to be the exact opposite of this don’t we? Are you satisfied with your place in life financially and physically or do you always want more and more? Are you working yourself to death to acquire new things in hopes that in and through these things you are going to find lasting joy and satisfaction?" Solomon says, “Our souls cannot be satisfied in food and possessions.”
SO OUR WORK IS NOT ALWAYS WORTHWHILE
OUR KNOWLEDGE GAINED IS NOTHING NEW
10 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. 11 The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? 12 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?
There are people from each generation who rise up and seek to find answers to life’s tough questions. Questions like, “What is the meaning of life?” and “What happens to a person when they die?" Do you know what those asking questions and seeking answers under the sun often end up with? The same conclusions about life that everybody else has always had because ultimately, under the sun, nothing changes from one generation to the next?
Our knowledge that we gain as we examine this life under the sun is nothing new. It’s the same observations—the same conclusions that people have had in generations past.
Notice again what Solomon says in v. 12,
12 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?
Solomon wrote this roughly 3000 years ago and is asking in this verse here (v. 12) the same questions that people are still asking today. “What’s the meaning of life” and “What happens to a person when they die?”
And you know what conclusions people have about life today who truly examine it? The same as Solomon when giving his limited and horizontal perspective. #1 That no one knows what happens to a person when they die and #2 that life is pointless.
Solomon would say, “That is accurate with God removed.” Once again Solomon doesn’t believe this; he is simply considering these questions empirically using his senses and his three pound brain. With just the facts before us in this life under the sun, we can’t prove a thing when it comes to our purpose in life and what happens to a person when they die. If we could, we would not still be asking these questions 1000s of years later.
Without special revelation, without God breaking into human history, without the prophets and apostles being carried along by the Holy Spirit, without Christ coming in the flesh to show us the Father, how can we know the answers to these things? At best we are left to nothing more than a guess. Philosophy is a guess. Atheism is a guess. Can they prove their view of the meaning of life and what happens to a person when they die? No. There has to be an element of faith, even for them.
Trying to answer questions about life and about what awaits a person after death apart from the God who created us and knows all things, we are left with nothing more than a guess. Once again, what Solomon is trying to accomplish here is he wants you and me to feel the weight of the hopelessness of life under the sun. And as we have explained in previous sermons, that's what God wants as well. He wants you and me to become disillusioned and discouraged by the hopelessness and purposelessness of life under the sun so that we would in turn be drawn to Him.
A very important realization that we must come to in Ecclesiastes is that we don’t have the answers to life’s tough questions therefore we need to seek out the God who does.
CONCLUSION
Let me end with an illustration.
The other day I was looking for my keys. I searched the whole house for them even looking in spots I had already looked. I just knew they had to be in the house because I drove my car home the night before. After a couple of hours I began to have my doubts because I still could not find them. You know why? They were in my car.
What if I would have said, “I know that my keys are in the house because I drove home last night so I am going to continue to look in the house no matter what and will not stop until I find them?"
Several years from now, I would still be looking and asking the same questions with no answers growing more and more frustrated by the moment. The same is true for those seeking to find satisfaction and the answers to life’s tough questions under the sun. People for generations have been looking for the same things in the same place and are coming up empty.
Maybe your soul is restless because you want to be happy in your life and want to have answers to life’s tough questions but so far have come up empty.
Let me share with you some words of comfort.
Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-29
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 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.
Notice what Jesus says in contrast to Solomon. Though Solomon mentions several times in this text that those seeking lasting happiness and satisfaction under the sun are restless and their souls are not satisfied, Jesus says “Come to me and you will find rest for your souls.”
If you are restless because you have searched for fulfillment and the answers to life in the wrong places, I invite you to place your faith and trust in Lord Jesus because only through HIM can you come to know the God who has all the answers and who is able to grant lasting satisfaction to a restless soul.
