Lord’s Day, Vol. 11 No. 24

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Lord’s Day, Vol. 11 No. 24

Finding Fulfillment in Life 

  • Ecclesiastes 2

The Book of Ecclesiastes shows THE SEARCH FOR THE MEANING OF LIFE. This search led Solomon farther and farther from his Creator. Then one day, he wakes up and sees that it is all so empty. Solomon sees no purpose in such a life. How sad Solomon became! 

Solomon shows us the unsatisfactory nature of life under the sun and its ensuing labour. In his quest to find fulfilment or satisfaction in life, Solomon in his old age conceded that there is no true happiness without God in the arithmetic of life. 

Solomon teaches us to esteem the spiritual, and to find fulfilment with God is true happiness. He tells us that the wisdom of this world gives us no such happiness. It is barrenness and a sullen cold chill.

He tells us the…

  • The Emptiness of Worldly Pleasures (v1-3)
  • The Emptiness of Worldly Possessions (v4-11)
  • The Emptiness of Worldly Entertainment (v8b-11)
  • Nothing New (v12-13)
  • Inevitable Death (v14-17)
  • The Futility of Accumulating (v18-21a)
  • And Leaving It Behind (v21b-23)

Solomon continues to challenge us to consider and weigh and see in perspective the value system wherein we are building our lives. If God is not there in your building plan, it will be a sore disappointment for you at the end of your life.

He is challenging us to take time out to review what is truly fulfilling in life. 

Solomon shaken by his experience has to accede to his readers that man has to go back to his Creator to find a true perspective to a fulfilled. And he gave us two biblical ideas to a fulfilled life on earth.

  • Enjoy the Fruit of Honest Labour (v24-25)
  • Enjoy the Fruit of Heavenly Blessings (v26)

(1) Enjoy the Fruit of Honest Labour

24 There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God. 

Solomon brings us back to the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. The Bible tells us in Genesis 3:19 the purpose of human labour — “in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread”. Human labour is that which is ordained of God whereby man feeds or sustains himself physically till the day he dies. 

The Bible teaches that man can enjoy the fruit of his labour, such fruit is given to him by God who has enabled him to work (Deuteronomy 8:18). 

And “there is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This … was from the hand of God” (Ecclesiastes 2:24). “And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God” (Ecclesiastes 3:13; 5:19). 

The first principle that we want to understand is the truth that God ordained work. This is a consequence of the fall of man recorded in Genesis 3:19. Man is to work in order to sustain his physical life. So human labour is that which is ordained of God to feed or sustain physically man till the day he dies. From his labours, man shall receive the fruit of his labour to feed and sustain his physical life. This is grace to man as it keeps him away from indulging in further sin as a consequence of idleness. 

(a) Honest Hard Work is God Honouring 

– In the sweat of thy face…

This came in the wake of man’s fall. God said to Adam:

Genesis 3:17-18 …Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

God sent the thorns and thistles as a result of the curse that God pronounced upon the ground that will manifest itself in the thorns and thistles that would impede the growth of the herb of the field so that Adam has to spend time weeding to have a good harvest.

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul wrote a similar thought by applying Genesis 3:19:

2 Thessalonians 3:12 Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.

It is the will of God, the command and exhortation of our Lord Jesus Christ that we are to work and enjoy the fruit of our labour.

2 Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

(b) Honest Hard Work Brings Wages – Biblical Concept of Honest Money

– shalt thou eat bread…

Money is so much part of our daily life. The Bible tells us that the love of money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10). Money itself is not evil. But the love of money is a grievous sin. The Apostle Paul warns, “…which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

The snare of a materialistic lifestyle enslaves God’s people. 

Have you ever wondered how money should be defined? This is a pertinent question to help us understand this money-abusing world that we are living in today. The Bible tells us from Genesis 3:19 the purpose of human labour – “in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread”. 

Human labour is that which is ordained of God whereby man feeds or sustains himself physically till the day he dies. Money has been used to quantify this labour. It is a unit measure of a man’s labour whereby he could use to feed himself till the day he dies.

Savings is the accumulated or stored value of human labour whereas debt is the obligation to serve human labour. This is the biblical concept of honest money.

The Bible’s teaching is that man can enjoy the fruit of his labour. It is given to him by God who has enabled him to work (Deut. 8:18).

Vincent Van Gogh, The Potato Eaters, 1885 

Van Gogh said he wanted to depict peasants as they really were. He deliberately chose coarse and ugly models, thinking that they would be natural and unspoiled in his finished work: “You see, I really have wanted to make it so that people get the idea that these folk, who are eating their potatoes by the light of their little lamp, have tilled the earth themselves with these hands they are putting in the dish, and so it speaks of manual labour and — that they have thus honestly earned their food. I wanted it to give the idea of a wholly different way of life from ours — civilized people. So I certainly don’t want everyone just to admire it or approve of it without knowing why.”[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Potato_Eaters – cite_note-1#cite_note-1

In order to facilitate a store for man’s labour, money is introduced. We received wages or remuneration for labour rendered in the form of wages. 

Bridges observed well, “This pleasure of eating and drinking is totally distinct from animal appetite. It recognizes the Christian principle – “Whether ye eat or drink – do all to the glory of God.”[1]

The man who knows God is contented and thankful for the blessings of divine goodness that flow from the love of God to him for the portion he receives in this life.

1 Timothy 6:17 Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;

Psalm 40:4 Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.

Psalm 62:8 Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.

God gives a legitimate cause for taking a part of your wages to “pamper” yourself having worked hard to earn your keep. Matthew Poole said similarly, “That he should make his soul enjoy good; that he should thankfully take, and freely and cheerfully enjoy, the comforts which God gives him. That it was from the hand of God; that this also is a singular gift of God, and not to be procured by a man’s own wisdom or diligence.”

As the Christian enjoys the good of his labour, he gratefully remembers his good God in making this possible. John Baillie (1741-1806) said well, “A true Christian is a man who never for a moment forgets what God has done for him in Christ, and whose whole comportment and whole activity have their root in the sentiment of gratitude.”[1] This included his recreation and leisure.

But there is a Christian decorum in his recreation. It is not the wantonness of the past –

1 Peter 4:3 For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:

We need to know what is healthful and right and what is hurtful and wrong. What every Christian may do and what a sinner ought not to do. We need to discern the healthful and innocent enjoyment. God need not create us to be wretched but gave us possibilities of enjoyment and ten thousand good things to enjoy.

He gave us a taste for pleasant food and fruit to taste. A taste for refreshing fruits and juices and not for destructive alcoholic drinks!

He gave to us Christian recreation that is proper, commendable and beneficial but sinful pleasures that are dangerous to the body and damning to the soul. God’s Word does not forbid rightful enjoyment that is God honouring.

Cuyler observed, “Biographies of the most healthful Christians as unbending to an innocent sportiveness. Their grave faces sometimes relax into what the old Puritan used to call “The Christian liberty of laughing”. Their over-active brains were regaled with a healthy holiday. When at work they work like men and Christians. When at play, they unbend and sport like little children.”

25 For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I?

Solomon conceded that God has endowed him with all the good things of his life to enjoy. In the sober state of his life, he acknowledged God and enjoyed the good that he received out of the good hand of God.

(2) Enjoy the Fruit of Heavenly Blessings (v26)
26 For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.

Solomon acknowledges the spiritual blessings that God gives to him through His Word and the joy and peace that comes from obeying it.

For the sinner who refuses God, there is but a fearful awaiting of judgment.

Matthew 7:13-14 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

There is only one entrance that leads to life and it is through the strait gate. As we have mentioned, this narrow and restrictive gate is the gate of salvation, conversion and of regeneration. All who would enter must be Born Again! The change must come from within, old things are passed away and all things become new. The old man is put off and the new man is put on. There is a new heart and a new spirit. 

The gate is strait because it also expresses the difficulty in finding it. Why is it difficult to find? Because only Jesus saves! There is no other gate to salvation except in Jesus. The Bible tells us in Acts 4:12, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Jesus Himself says in John 10:9, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” In John 11:25-26, Jesus says, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” Truly, the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness but unto us who are saved, it is the power of God. 

Jesus says in a parallel passage in Luke 13:24, “Strive (agonise, it speaks of a conflict, a struggle) to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” 

Why is this so? Because it will cost us our pride. Jesus tells us at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). 

We need to have a poverty of spirit as opposed to a proud spirit to enter this gate. This is the struggle against the “I”, “me”, and “mine”, the self in us which is self-seeking, selfish and self-righteous. 

We have to surrender our fallen self so that it may be crucified with Christ on the cross. All who stand tall and proud cannot enter. We need to be lowly bent in humbleness of heart to enter this narrow gate. 

The wisdom of God’s Word leads us to Christ wherein we find salvation and eternal life. This is the ultimate fulfilment of life, having eternal life in this physical life.

CONCLUSION

  • Enjoy the Fruit of Honest Labour (v24-25)
  • Enjoy the Fruit of Heavenly Blessings (v26)

Yours lovingly,

Pastor Lek Aik Wee