Pray

Read: Ecc 2:24-26.

Meditation

We see a change in Solomon starting at verse 24, because in God’s plan of redemption our labour may become fruitful again. So let us take a quick look at verses 24 and 25: “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, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?”

The first thing to see here in verse 25 is that although we now live in a fallen world, and although we no longer have endless time to work and develop the earth, still something of the goodness of work endures. It really is amazing what can be achieved in one lifetime, and even in the mundane everyday of work there is enjoyment to be found. It is satisfying to work on a project and bring it to completion. It is satisfying to labour for a day, earn money, and enjoy a good meal at the end with friends or family. These are good gifts of God and they should still lead us into thanksgiving and worship.

Life is short, and yet while we are here God has given us these things to enjoy, to give thanks. The taste of a hearty meal at the end of the day is an opportunity to taste God’s goodness in a very tangible way, and it tastes like a well-cooked steak with mushroom sauce and mashed potatoes. As we taste we give thanks to our Maker. He loves to give us good gifts, and he still gives us gifts, abilities, and talents, and he expects us to use them to serve Christ.

Even in a fallen world the workplace is still a place to worship, serve, and enjoy God. That is what it is supposed to be. And as a word of application, while we may not have forever to develop our gifts and abilities, we should still use what we have to develop and subdue the creation to God’s glory. If you have natural, God-given abilities in a certain area, why not develop them? Why not find ways to use them in his service? Use them for the extension of his kingdom. Everyone will be different here. Some will be mathematicians, some artists, some builders, and some doctors. The way we all contribute in different areas is part of the glory of it all. It is a good thing to use your particular God-given talents and develop them to serve others, including in the marketplace. If you did not do this you could not provide for your family, and there would be no tithes to bring into the church. As a word to parents, it is good to keep an eye on our children, seeing the areas they enjoy most and are gifted in, and perhaps encourage them to develop those areas.

But redemption in the workplace is not just a personal redemption. We have seen that God created work with a grand vision, a cosmic vision that encompassed all humanity. The final thing we need to see is that Christ’s redemption also redeems work in a cosmic sense as well. That is what we see in verse 26.

The original design for work may have been lost at the fall. We cannot live forever. We cannot escape the effects of sin on work: greed in the marketplace, a world full of darkness, creation groaning, workplaces corrupted and barely a shadow of the glory of what might have been. And yet in Christ there is hope and redemption.

When Christ came to earth he came to save sinners. He came to undo the works of Satan. When he saves a sinner he does not just save their soul. Faith in Christ is not a purely spiritual thing. Christ did not spill his blood to deliver only our souls from hell. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Redemption has a very earthy aspect. Christ forgives a drug addict for sticking a needle into their arm and committing actual physical acts of violence. He forgives adulterers for what they did with another person who was not their spouse. Sin works itself out in very tangible ways, and so does salvation. Christ’s work of redemption, our salvation, will unfold in the workplace. It will unfold in grace to graceless colleagues, and in loyalty, honesty, and hard work towards our bosses. And it will also unfold cosmically as well.

Death robs us of any lasting benefit from our work. So we must ask: Is it all for nothing? Is it all lost? A pipedream? Are we doomed to work for a lifetime and then watch our labours crumble to dust and become nothing? The answer to that question, according to verse 26, depends on whose side you are on. Are you with God, or are you playing life for yourself? Are you for Christ, or against him? That is the ultimate issue at stake.

Verse 26 says: “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 the one who pleases God.” Do you see what is happening in that verse? To the sinner, the sinner is doomed to the despair that Solomon has been talking about, doomed to work for a few short decades and then watch it all slip away. But to the one who pleases God there is blessing and knowledge and joy.

And you see it there, do you not? All the wealth of the wicked flows into the coffers of the righteous. This is why Christ said that the meek shall inherit the earth. This is why Proverbs 13:22 says: “the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the righteous.” In Christ, as we waltz out of Egypt dancing at our redemption, as they did with Israel at the Exodus, so always the Egyptians will pile up wealth and gold on God’s people.

We see this principle at work even in this life. Many godless men made contributions in shipbuilding in years gone by, and yet it was the missionaries who used those ships to bring the gospel to the Pacific Islands. Many godless people contributed towards the invention of the iPhone, and yet we can use it for eternal gain, to spread the gospel, to publicise and listen to sermons, to access thousands of Puritan books. All the wealth of the wicked will ultimately be stripped from them. It will do them no good unless they turn to Christ, and in Christ we will benefit from it to the glory of God.

The final thing to remember is this: in our labour and work we must always depend on Christ. Verse 26 twice mentions the one who pleases God, and it is this one who will benefit. Now let me ask you, who has ever pleased God? Not me. Not you. At Christ’s baptism God himself declared: “Behold my son, in whom I am well pleased.” It is only in Christ.

In Christ all the promises and wisdom and joy of God are given to us. True meaning in work is restored. 1 Corinthians 15:58 says it plainly: brothers and sisters, be “always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.” Without Christ all our labour and toil will be in vain. In Christ we will find meaning and purpose and eternal reward for our labour. It will endure across the generations and it will echo into eternity.

So go in Christ. Go to your workplace in his grace and strength, and consider how you may use your gifts and talents and opportunities best to honour him who saved us.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration

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