Part 4 of 4
Over the last few weeks, we have been studying Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:26. We have seen that these four things cannot truly satisfy, namely, wisdom and knowledge, wealth and pleasure, success and preeminence, and hard work and labour.
In this article, we will consider a fifth thing that cannot satisfy and then conclude with where true satisfaction can be found.
Satisfaction cannot be found in a future time
Satisfaction cannot be found in a future time. By future time, I’m not referring to the life to come but to a period that we call “retirement” or sometimes “the golden years.” This is the period of one’s life after retiring from work. In the past, it used to be 55 but now, it is 63 and it will only go up in the years to come.
There are many young and not so young people who are looking forward to their retirement or golden years. They think that at that time, they can really begin to enjoy life. Today they slog and slave away in order to save up enough money for that great day when they can truly relax and enjoy themselves.
Many of them hate their work and their life today. They call it a rat race, but they are willing to put up with it and endure it because a time is coming when they will retire and “life” will truly begin.
Is that you I am describing? You have placed all your hopes and dreams of a good life in your retirement years and you are just waiting for it to come?
Now there are a couple of things you need to be aware of. First, retirement may never come! The classic example of that in the Bible is the rich fool in Luke chapter 12, whose life was cut short by God on the eve of his retirement. So for some people, retirement may never actually come. You may die before you retire.
But a second problem is that even if you do retire, you may not be able to enjoy it. In Ecclesiastes 12, the preacher gives us that famous but sad metaphorical description of old age and the aging process, and eventually of death itself.
Now it is true that not everyone will age in the same way. Some will do much better than others, but even the very best will experience the inevitable deterioration of both physical and mental faculties. That is one of the sad realities of life in this fallen world.
So if you think that your retirement years will necessarily be the best years of your life, think again, and consider very carefully that you may not actually be able to enjoy them.
Now I say these things not to put a damper on any hopes and dreams that you may have for the future but to remind us all that we should not take for granted or assume that we will get to those golden years or that they will be our best years.
This brings us to the sixth and final thing to know about seeking satisfaction from this passage and it is this, “Satisfaction can and should be found in God right now.”
Satisfaction can and should be found in God right now (2:24-26)
What Solomon is saying in these verses is basically that there is no satisfaction apart from God. True satisfaction is possible, yes, but it is not in the power of man to obtain it. It is something that God alone can give.
Verse 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 is saying that life is meant to be enjoyed and to be satisfying, yes even in the simple things like eating and drinking and working. And life is meant to be enjoyed and to be satisfying right now, and not merely at some future time after you’ve retired.
But what is the key to life’s true enjoyment and satisfaction? It is found in God, which is what Solomon says in the last part of verse 24. No one is able to enjoy even these simple pleasures unless God enables him to do so. And no one will truly enjoy them unless he recognizes that they come from the hand of God.
Solomon goes on to strengthen his argument in verse 25, “For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I?” What he’s saying is that no one can compete with him in terms of eating and enjoying things. But if he failed to obtain true satisfaction in them apart from God, then who else can?
We can imagine Solomon saying something like, “Trust me, I’ve been there. I tried to obtain meaning and delight in these things without God, and I couldn’t get it, and I’m telling you that only God can give it.”
He goes on to say in verse 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.” God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to the man who is good in His sight, that is, to the man who pleases Him. But on the other hand, God gives travail and a life of futility to the sinner or the man who misses the mark and is offensive in His sight.
The phrase “this also is vanity and vexation of spirit” applies to the one who offends God and is made to gather and collect only so that he can give it to him who is good before God.
Now the preacher does not tell us who the one who is pleasing in God’s sight is. We need to turn to other parts of scripture for that. But what he does tell us is that true satisfaction, true wisdom, true knowledge, true joy and so on is possible and it is found in the hand of God.
Only when God gives these things that a person can possess them. If you try to grab them for yourself by whatever means and if you try to pursue after them in your own power and strength and wisdom, then you are headed for certain failure and disappointment.
Conclusion
Dear friend, if you are an unbeliever and a stranger to God, then all that Solomon says concerning the futility and meaninglessness and vanity and frustrations of life belong to you.
Wisdom, wealth, pleasure, success, fame, and hard work will not bring you true and lasting satisfaction. And worst of all, you are under the wrath of God because of your sins, and you are offensive in His sight.
God alone can give true joy and peace and enjoyment, and He will not give it to you so long as your sins are not forgiven and you are not right in His sight. Your only hope is found in Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Saviour of all who come to Him by faith.
May I urge you to humbly seek Him by freely confessing and acknowledging your sins against God, and pleading with Him for forgiveness, and for the gift of eternal life. And do not rest until you have obtained them from Him.
But finally, a word to you who are in Christ. It’s easy, isn’t it, to get caught up in the pursuits and pleasures of this world, to lose sight of life’s true meaning and purpose, and to replace true satisfaction with countless counterfeits that will only disappoint in the end?
As we look back at the past year, let us take stock of the road that we have traveled thus far. Where has Christ been or not been on this road that you have travelled?
And then as we look ahead to the new year that has just started, let us remember that only a God-centered life will truly satisfy. Only through Christ can we see the world around us in the right way. Only in Him can we find contentment and peace and joy even in the most basic and simple things of life such as eating and drinking and working.
Christ calls us not to worry or be anxious about our life, what we will eat or what we will drink for our heavenly Father knows that we have need of them. Instead, He calls us to seek first His kingdom, not ours, and His righteousness, not ours; and then all these things will God freely give us out of His gracious hand.
May the Lord open our eyes so that we would be able to see clearly that all the pleasures and riches and glories of even Solomon’s kingdom are nothing compared with the unspeakable delights and pleasures and joys of the kingdom of Christ.
May He cause the light of eternity to shine upon us so that we may walk constantly in that light, and arrive joyfully and safely in glory!
And meanwhile, may we continue to live gratefully each day for every good gift that we receive, and to enjoy them as good gifts from God to us through Jesus Christ. Amen.