Pray

Read: Ecc 3:9.

Meditation

In the spirit of Ecclesiastes, let me pose a very un-cheerful question to you: If there was nothing good in life, would you really want to be alive? If misery was your only companion, would you want to be here? I think our honest answer to that question would have to be no. If there was no good, no beauty, no satisfaction, peace or joy, if there was only pain, and suffering, and misery and darkness, we would have no reason to live. You see, there is a God-given desire in the human heart, a desire in each of us, a longing to find goodness and joy, to see beauty.

As Solomon has taken us down the pathways of the labyrinth of life, we have considered the frustration of life under the sun. He has shown us the impossibility of understanding all of life’s problems. What is lacking cannot be counted, he said in Chapter 1. He has shown us our inability to fix it. What is crooked cannot be made straight. He has shown us that no matter how much material wealth and pleasure you gain in life, none of it is lasting or ultimately fulfilling. All of the wealth, possessions, power and prestige in the world will come up empty. You cannot hold on to them, and after our few short years of life they will all be stripped away. Our wealth will go to someone else. Our work will be cut short. Beauty will sag and disappear. Music will fall silent as our hearing fades. Everything is temporary and fleeting. Life’s seasons are constantly changing. And so we have seen that there is no permanent and lasting good to be found in what is done under the sun.

Solomon has looked everywhere, and so at last, as he continues on his discourse in Chapter 3, and having considered all the possibilities, he asks the grand question: Is there anything good at all? Is there anything to be gained from life? This is what he is really asking in verse 9: What gain has the worker from his toil?”

Now probably, when you read that question with this particular translation, you think he is talking about work. What gain has the worker from his toil? The idea in your head is likely this: What benefit does a labourer get from all the work that he does? What is the good of work and employment? But that is not what Solomon is asking here. He is asking something much bigger.

There are two words I want to bring to your attention in verse nine. The first is “worker”, and the second is “toil”. That word “worker”, what gain has the worker, is not referring to an employee. Let me give you another word instead: doer. What gain does the doer have in all his doings? Solomon is referring to the general sense in which we are all active. People are always busy doing stuff. Life is full of business and doing things. That is what Solomon is getting at here. For all the business and happenings and movement that there is in this world, what benefit does a person really have?

Now the second word is “toil”. “What gain has the worker from his toil?” Ecclesiastes is a book that echoes Genesis repeatedly, and he does that here. This word “toil” echoes and reminds us of the original curse. In Genesis 3, God said that man would sweat, that he would toil in a fallen world.

So this toil is full of difficulty, anguish and, well, it is toil, isn’t it? That is consistent with the life that we know. We are always toiling. We are often struggling. Getting through life is not a breeze.

And so Solomon’s question here is this: For all of life’s struggles, what good can we gain? He is asking if there is anything good for us in this difficult life. For all of our toil, is there anything of lasting benefit for us?

Maybe you have felt like this before in your life. Sometimes it all just feels like it is too much. The bad things are so numerous and heavy that they seem to block out all the good. Maybe you feel like there is just no real good in life. For all of your struggles and toil, what have you really gained? As you toil along at the daily grind, will anything ever really come of it? After four decades of work. As we are in the trenches of parenthood, and it seems like day after day after day we are struggling along and the end is not in sight. As we walk day after day feeling the constant burden of loneliness. As we sit by helplessly and watch relatives bicker and fight, and we can do nothing. These things are a burden. We struggle to make ends meet. We struggle to find reasons to push on. Life feels like a barren wilderness. Is there anything good?

The world will try to say “yes”, and it will peddle every lie under the sun to try to meet your need. Whether it is drinking, or entertainment, or education. Joining the gym to get the body of a greek god. The endless stream of advertising telling us that this time the new product will make us happy. Whether it is travelling, or voting for the right political party. Even so-called preachers will try to tell you that you can have your best life now. The world will try to sell you the lie that there is something under the sun that can ultimately satisfy you.

But you know it, don’t you, that your hunger is far deeper than any of that. This is why Hollywood superstars, with all the wealth and prestige and opportunity that life can offer, sometimes get to the top and commit suicide. Because none of those things can fill the hole in our souls. The world is full of empty promises and would-be gods.

And so Solomon muses: Is there anything good that will come of our lives? As he ponders his own question, the answer he gives us is quite different from anything the world offers. He does not promise a new car or experience. He does not promise you your dream job or a beautiful spouse.

The path Solomon leads us on in the next part of our text is far deeper than anything like that. What he shows us is that there is something wrong with the question. You do not really need an answer to this question. What you really need is a whole new way of looking at things. I wanted you to feel the weight of the question in this meditation, and consider now the oddity of his answer before we begin unfolding it next time: Is there anything to be gained? Wrong question.

If we’re looking at the world around us, at everything under the sun, and asking: What is to be gained? We are looking in the wrong place for our gain. This question is a set-up to wean us from vanity. It’s the beginning of a call to lift our eyes above that which dwells under the sun, and consider him who dwells in heaven. As an immediate application, this is a reminder of Colossians 3:1, which says: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Christ, he is the one upon whom we must set our attention! Let your mind be occupied with him, let your focus be absorbed with him.

Maybe you do feel the weight of Solomon’s original question. All Christians do at times, which is why God ministers to this need in Ecclesiastes. Maybe your heart does long for something good. But here’s your application for this meditation: park the question. Park the earthly longings of your heart. Forget the dissatisfaction you have with the things in your life for a moment. Suspend everything, and come prepared to see a whole new paradigm in our next meditation. And above all, seek the things that are above. What’s one thing you can do differently today in pursuit of that goal? SDG.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration

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