Ecclesiastes 5:8-20

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Ecclesiastes 5:8,9

Verses 8 and 9 serve as a transition from problem of Worship to problem of Wealth.

If you see oppression of the poor and denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be shocked at the sight, for one official watches over another official, and there are higher officials over them.

After all, a king who cultivates the field is an advantage to the land.

Right after these two verses, Solomon will take nearly two chapter to examine wealth, what it can do and what it cannot do.

As a transition to his investigation of wealth he deals in verse 8-9 with three principles regarding authority.

FIRST: There is always an authority over you

SECOND: Authority is not always fair

THIRD: Authority benefits you

Although these last two principles seem to contradict each other, in God's system, in which He is the highest and unparalleled authority, they are compatible for the believer.

v 8 Do not be surprised at injustice even when it comes from people in places of authority.

Man is not perfect, man has authority, authority is not perfect.

If you see oppression of the poor and denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be shocked at the sight.

Man has a sin nature and as we saw in Eccl. 4:1-3 there are those who will oppress and there are those who will be oppressed.

Injustice will come because man is unjust.

INJUSTICE is the Hebrew 'AS-HAQ and concerns itself with the abuse of power or authority.

Authority, as we see in v 7, is good, but whenever you have something that is good, man's sinfulness can make it something bad.

1. God is the absolute authority.

2. Man's nature can be defined by the image of God

3. Therefore, man will naturally, by his nature, establish systems and structures of authority

4. While the system is patterned after the image of God the procedure is not

5. God is the authority over man but in the exercise of that authority He is gracious and forgiving

6. When man is the authority over man he may be gracious or he may be evil.

7. Solomon says: Do not be shocked at this.

Then he tells why.

For one official watches over another official, and there are higher officials over them.

There is a chain of command and this means there is a chain of responsibility. In it we may have abusers of authority but they too are under authority and on and on up the chain of command...all the way up to the very throne room of God.

This verse also tells us that the greater the integrity of those in authority the more just the authority will be. Do not reject one authority watching over the lesser authority.

The tendency may be to throw out authority, but that would not be good. Look at the next verse.

Ecclesiastes 5:9

After all, a king who cultivates the field is an advantage to the land.

When you have land that is owned by the state and the state cares for the land, it is a benefit to everyone.

Illustration: Our lakes in Oklahoma were not built by the Army Corps of Engineers so you could water ski. They were built for the purpose of conserving and controlling water. Flood control, but we benefit.

Principle: Don't reject authority just because a some abuse their authority.

In Eccl. 5:10 Solomon begins an extended examination of money. This continues through to the final verse of chapter six. He considers what the secular world thinks of money. What the world thinks money can do, how the tendency in man is to think that money is a panacea for all the problems of life. How the world thinks money can buy significance, meaning in life, security, and happiness. Solomon is going to examine that secular wisdom and find it lacking.

REMEMBER: Solomon was the wealthiest man of his day and perhaps the wealthiest man who ever lived. He had so much gold that silver was devalued and became a common metal in Jerusalem.

One might think that someone who has all that wealth would not be a good person to talk about the desire that a man, who has no money, has for wealth.

They might say he knows nothing about being in need, who does he think he is to be talking about the need for money and the problems it can solve.

BUT HE IS JUST THE ONE TO DO IT. His wealth makes him objective when it comes to money.

Objectivity comes not in the midst of a problem, but when you are above the problem.

In our society today we have come to value subjective opinion. If someone has a particular problem we think they are an expert.

I do not want the opinion of someone who is having a problem, I want the opinion of someone who has avoided the problem or solved the problem.

When we seek wise counsel, it must be objective counsel.

Solomon, having wealth, is totally objective about it.

In these passages, Solomon examines wealth in four ways.

Eccl. 5:10-17 A Description of Wealth

Eccl. 5:18-20 God gives the Capacity to enjoy Money

Eccl. 6:1-9 Wealth without Capacity

Eccl. 6:10-12 Who knows if money will bring happiness or misery?

v 10-17 A Description of Wealth.

Solomon looks at the unsatisfactory nature of Wealth. Part of the irony of money is that it does not take a lot to love it. Some would think that the vanity of riches referees to rich people. That is most often not the case. Some of the most materialistic people you will ever meet do not have a dime. And some of the wealthiest people you will meet are very giving, and hold their money rather loosely.

Growing up in Scottsdale Arizona I could always tell those who had true wealth. They wore it well, faded jeans, boots, a pick-up. But then we were invaded by what one newspaper man back in the 60s called the ten thousand dollar a year millionaires. Clothes bought on credit, cars that leased, and living day to day just to get more. Yet they had nothing.

So in this examination of money we are not talking about any specific people on any economic level. We are talking about those who value money more than their relationship and dependence upon God.

We need to be profited by understand that in money or even in great wealth, there is nothing can replace God in our lives. Solomon gives us five reasons for this.

The more we gain the more we want: To pursue wealth is an addiction. It feeds upon itself and will consume us if we are not careful.

Ecclesiastes 5:10

He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity.

Solomon sees what we can see today. When material things are the focus of life, our desires always outrun our ability to acquire or to enjoy.

Someone once asked John D. Rockefeller how much money he wanted, he answered, "Just a little bit more."

This is a problem for the whole human race. They get, they want more, they get more, they want more. I am sure that we do not have to look any farther that our own life experience to see that this principle is true.

BUT FOR THE BELIEVER, it is even more true.

Remember Eccl. 3:11 God has put eternity in our hearts.

That God shaped hole in every man is even more defined for the believer. We are aware of our need for God to fill our lives.

But then we try to fill it with material things, things that money can buy. And we get addicted to this gain, we want more and more. Never satisfied.

Principle: A life built upon the pursuit of wealth will never being satisfaction, no matter how much is gained. It is vanity, it is empty.

The more we have the more we spend: As wealth increases, so do the people who want a slice of our pie.

Ecclesiastes 5:11

When good things increase, those who consume them increase. So what is the advantage to their owners except to look on?

More earning, more taxes, more insurance to cover the things that money has bought. A bigger place to keep more stuff. More money means more people to manage our money and more who want it.

And then there are the hangers on. The ones who want some of what you have.

Illustration: When a person wins a lottery they usually find out they have more relatives than they ever dreamed of. And all their casual friends become best friends.

So Solomon asks: Is it all worth it?

Additional Wealth Brings Addition Worries: Wealth may lead to sleepless nights.

Ecclesiastes 5:12

The sleep of the working man is pleasant, whether he eats little or much. But the full stomach of the rich man does not allow him to sleep.

The primary reason people in our culture cannot sleep is tension. And the primary cause for tension is worry over money.

The WORKING MAN is the laborer, his sleep is pleasant.

First: He has worked hard so he is tired.

Secondly: He has little cause to worry. He has a job, he does it, and he leaves it.

Some days he may have more food, more abundance than other days, but even this does not prevent him from sleeping well.

However, the man who pursues wealth does not sleep so soundly. Even those who have a correct view of wealth, who see it as a details of life, have to concern themselves with so much more than the laborer.

What is the stock market doing, how is the economy effecting sales, how can I keep good people and get rid of those who I do not want? How about OSHA? the IRS? Government regulations?

My brother was developing Strawberry Reservoir in Utah and had been at it for two years. Then Jimmy Carter became president and remember one of his first decisions? Stop all the western water projects. A presidential decision is not something the laborer had to directly worry about. The rich do have to concern themselves with it.

The rich man is said to have a full stomach, but that fullness does not bring him a good nights sleep.

Principle: A good night's sleep comes from a relaxed mental attitude on the inside, not a fullness on the outside.

Our Wealth may Vanish, therefore, wealth does not guarantee security.

Ecclesiastes 5:13,14

There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt. When those riches were lost through a bad investment and he had fathered a son, then there was nothing to support him.

Solomon is looking at two problems.

FIRST: Wealth that is hoarded to the point of making the person miserable.

No enjoyment of wealth. Instead a fear that it is not enough, that it will be lost or stolen.

SECONDLY: Solomon is looking at business ventures that go bad.

The word MISFORTUNE in v 14 refers to misfortunes related to our work, our businesses or professions.

Solomon sees this business venture going so bad that the man ends up broke and has nothing to give to his heirs.

WE ALL KNOW THE STORIES of situations in which this was exactly what happened.

I heard of one guy who got into the silver buying frenzy when the Hunts of Texas were trying to corner the market. This guy saw silver go up, and up, and up, and took all his capital and bought silver, at $49.00 an ounce. Remember how fast it fell? He was wiped out, totally.

The economy can change, money can be devalued. Inflation can destroy currency.

The best investment can end up being the worse investment.

We see this, Solomon saw it 3000 years ago. But do we learn from what we see?

Love may be blind but investing is blind and deaf.

Principle: There is not security in wealth. We cannot take our wealth with us, therefore we must trust in God not in Riches.

Ecclesiastes 5:15-17

As he had come naked from his mother's womb, so will he return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand. And this also is a grievous evil, exactly as a man is born, thus will he die. So, what is the advantage to him who toils for the wind? Throughout his life he also eats in darkness with great vexation, sickness and anger.

Here the wind analogy is used but in a different way. It is not chasing after the wind but working for wind.

We see also where materialism can lead:

He eats in darkness, no fellowship with others, after all, they may take you wealth.

Great Vexation, this is great sorrow

Sickness, this is anxiety, worry

Anger, as a life style. Anger settles down just under the surface of the life that want more and more.

WELL, ENOUGH BAD NEWS, NOW GOOD NEWS: There is a divine prescription for achieving satisfaction, security, significance in life.

Ecclesiastes 5:18

Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one's labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward.

While this parallels what Solomon concluded in Eccl. 2:24-25 there is one added dimension . . .

God empowers us to enjoy the blessings He gives. The ability and capacity to enjoy whatever amount of prosperity or lack there of is a gift from God.

BUT FIRST WE SEE the orientation we are to have towards material things.

Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one's labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward.

While we toil, work hard in earthly things, our attitude is to be one that allows us to enjoy the food we eat and the beverage we drink.

We have only a few years in this life and we have already seen that we cannot take it with us.

So enjoy what God gives.

This is his reward: The reward is not in what is possessed but in the ability to enjoy whatever you have with a relaxed attitude.

REWARD is the Hebrew HA-LAQ and is a legal term for an allotment but not one that is based upon division of a set item to many people. Rather, it is a term that looks at what is granted by grace from a God whose grace can never run out.

NOW THEN, WE SEE WHAT WE are to do. We are to have a relaxed and trusting attitude towards what we have at any given time. This sets up the next verse.

Principle: You cannot receive what God what to give you if you are trapped into thinking that wealth and prosperity will solve your problems and will make you happy.

God wants to give you something but we too often are going to every other source to find the things that only He can provide.

Ecclesiastes 5:19

Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God.

Here is the principle: If God has given the riches He has also given the gift of enjoyment of riches. If, on the other hand, man has hustled for wealth, then there is no divine gift of enjoyment.

Here the word GIFT is different than REWARD. It is the Hebrew NA-TAN and is a simple word for gift but can also be used for a gift that empowers or enables.

That is the way it is used here.

LET'S BROADEN THIS OUT WITH SOME OBSERVATIONS.

1. God is good and the giver of good gifts.

2. We want the good gifts God wants to give us.

3. However, we often seek the gift but do not seek the capacity to enjoy the gift

4. Job observed that in Job 1:21 that The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

5. Job was able to say that because what God had given him as a gift of capacity was more important than the gift of prosperity itself.

6. When we ask God for blessing we should also ask Him for the gift of capacity so we can the blessings He gives.

7. Our recognition of God as the one who gives the capacity to enjoy His blessings allows us to relax and enjoy whatever He gives.

Principle: We must be more occupied with the giver than with the gifts.

Ecclesiastes 5:20

Provides a conclusion on the part of the one who is oriented to God as the giver of both the gifts and the capacity to enjoy the gifts.

For he will not often consider the years of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart.

As this man looks at his life he is not consumed with the pain of the past. In the past times may have been better or may have been worse, but that is not what is important.

What is important is God keeping him occupied with the gladness of his heart.

One of the ways GLADNESS is used in its Hebrew root is for Joy that is a result. And here it is a result of the priority in life of knowing God and trusting Him.

We are glad because we know God and know of His goodness and thus, whatever He gives us is great and can be enjoyed.

QUESTION: What makes your heart glad. We have been saved to have a relationship with God. Our purpose in being is to come to know Him.

And we will never have true lasting gladness of heart until we get on with that over riding purpose of our lives.

SUMMARY.

1. Wealth and riches are not a panacea for the problems of life

2. Wealth and riches cannot make us happy, give us security, or add to our meaning in life or our significance in life

3. We can hustle for blessing or God can give us blessings. Only when God gives the increase can we be confident that we also have the capacity to enjoy it.

4. When we trust God we will be occupied with Him rather than with what He gives

5. This allows us to enjoy life at any moment and to know that whatever He has for us is His highest and best.

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