Preached June 14, 2009
from
Ecclesiastes 4:4-6

Theme: A balanced vocational life is a product of inner-contentedness before God.

(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

I invite you to turn with me to the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes; and to some words of insight from Solomon—the wisest man who ever lived. Some three-thousand years ago, he made this set of observances:

Again, I saw that for all toil and every skillful work a man is envied by his neighbor. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.

The fool folds his hands
And consumes his own flesh.
Better a handful with quietness
Than both hands full, together with toil and grasping for the wind (Ecclesiastes 4:4-6).

* * * * * * * * * *

Someone told me the other day that, according to Jewish tradition, a man shouldn’t be permitted to teach from the book of Ecclesiastes until he was at least forty-years old. The reason was because the rabbis had viewed Ecclesiastes as a dangerously easy book to misunderstand and misapply; and they didn’t want any young or naive person to mishandle it to their own harm. And if what this person told me was true, it was sad. Perhaps a lot of young and naive people could have saved themselves a life-time of misery if they had been exposed to this book more often.

The book of Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon. Solomon was the son of King David; and was the man to whom God had given wisdom above any other man, and royalty and riches beyond any other king up to his time (1 Kings 3:11-13). Ecclesiastes is Solomon’s philosophic ‘diary’—a set of wise ponderings that have been preserved for us by the Holy Spirit—that deals with the meaning, purpose and ways of everyday life.

The reason that some consider it a dangerously easy book to mishandle is because, in it, Solomon is deliberately adopting a worldly viewpoint in his philosophic ponderings. He’s putting an ungodly philosophic viewpoint to the test, to see if it works and can be put into practice consistently in daily life. The question he is seeking to answer is this: Does life make sense if you leave eternity and the day of God’s just judgment out of the picture? He’s asking if life works if you conclude that what you see is all that there is.

It’s truly a remarkable book. Its viewpoint is limited strictly to the meaning of life on the horizontal plain—characterized throughout by his repeated description of life as “under the sun”. And no man was more qualified to write such a book than Solomon. He literally had no limits in his ability to carry on his search for meaning. He was not only given supreme wisdom to conduct such an inquiry, but also all the necessary means to do so. He had unlimited wealth and influence and power. No experience could be denied to him. He could freely sample every portion of life’s banqueting table.

He refers to himself as “the Preacher”—that is, one who stands up and speaks a lecture before an assembly. And he tells us the conclusion that he draws from his philosophic search at the very beginning of his book. In the first three verses, he writes;

The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher;
“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
What profit has a man from all his labor
In which he toils under the sun? (Ecclesiastes 1:1-3).

And from then on, all the way to the end of the book, he describes his thorough examination of one area of life after another. It’s all viewed strictly from the secular viewpoint—that is, with the hope of eternity kept out of the picture. And throughout the book, the word inscribed large over it all is “vanity”—that is to say, it’s all absurdity! It’s all futility! It’s all nonsense! People who live life strictly on the horizontal plain can’t discover life’s meaning! He tells us in verses 12-14 of the first chapter;

I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven; this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind (Ecclesiastes 1:12-14).

Gratefully, however, Solomon doesn’t leave the reader hanging in despair over the meaninglessness of life. At the very end of it all, he writes;

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is man’s all.
For God will bring every work into judgment,
Including every secret thing,
Whether good or evil (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).

Life only makes sense if lived in the hope of eternity, and in the light of God’s just judgment. What an amazing book of the Bible! It’s true that it can be easily misunderstood or misapplied. But if handled carefully and studied reverently, it can be used by God to save someone years and years of fruitless, ‘dead-end’ searches in life!

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; among the many real-life subjects that Solomon explores in this book is one that is very significant to all of us—that is, the whole matter of work, and vocation, and business. And this is the subject of our passage this morning.

Notice what Solomon says in the fourth verse of chapter four. Looking at life as it’s lived out strictly on the horizontal plain, he writes; “Again, I saw that for all toil and every skillful work a man is envied by his neighbor. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind” (v. 4).

In a biblical worldview, work is a gift from God. Our work is our ‘calling’; and we are to do our work “as to the Lord, and not to men” (Ephesians 6:7). But Solomon takes the strictly “horizontal view”; and shows us . . .

1. THE VANITY OF ENVY-DRIVEN LABOR (v. 4).

He speaks of “all toil”; that is, all work and labor. But more than that, he also speaks of “every skillful work”; and is, all achievements that are done in a well-crafted and industrious and artful manner. That pretty much covers the whole vocational aspect of life—the whole business of ‘business’.

But look at the observation he makes about it. He says that all such “toil” and every such “skillful work”—as he saw it—is motivated by a man’s “envy” for his neighbor.

Scholars tell us that these words can be legitimately translated in a couple of different ways. First of all, they can be translated in such a way as to express the idea that a man is “envious” over the toil and skillful work of another; that is, that one man’s work is the object of another’s envy. As the King James translation has it, “Again, I considered all travail and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbor.”

Now of course, we should be careful not to take this too far. Solomon would not saying that there’s anything wrong with bettering yourself if you can. But, on a strictly horizontal viewpoint, just stop and think of how many people live their work-lives in frustration because they are envious of what someone else does—or that they do it better than they do? Just think of how many people leave a calling in life that they’re properly suited for because they have a fantasized idea of what someone else’s calling in life must be like. Think of how many people have put themselves through school to enter some particular field, whose only motivation for doing so was ‘envy’ of someone else. Think of how many people then go on to live in bitterness because the work and the successes of someone else has somehow evaded them!

But these words can also be legitimately translated in such a way as to express the idea that it was a man’s envy toward his neighbor that motivated his toil and skillful work in the first place; that is, that a man’s envy toward another is the cause of his work. That’s the way it has been translated in the New American Standard Version; “I have seen that every labor and every skill which is done is the result of rivalry between a man and his neighbor.”

And again, we need to be careful not to take this too far either. Solomon would not be criticizing the idea of labor or industry. Nor is he criticizing the idea of working hard to make a prosperous life for one’s self. But just think of how much labor in the work-world is done out of a motive of rivalry over one’s neighbor. Just think of how hard many people work, and how often they spend their lives away in hard labor, all in order to have a bigger house than their neighbor, or a newer car, or more stuff, or a larger income—longing, the whole time, for everyone else to envy them!

When you put it all together, you have to conclude that behind much of what we consider in everyday life to be “business” and “industry” and “labor” and “toil” and “skillful endeavors” are some very sinister and evil motives—rivalry, envy, jealousy, selfishness, egotism and pride. People will claw at each other, and back-stab each other, and crawl over one another in order to ‘get ahead’ of each other. And what’s more, in the process, people will wear themselves out, work themselves to despair, destroy their families and their reputations and their health and well-being—all to gain an advantage over each other on the strictly ‘horizontal’ plain. They try to achieve a better standard of living than everyone else—and often lose their very selves in the process!

This is something that Solomon observed in his own search for meaning in life, and in his own day. “I saw that for all toil and every skillful work a man is envied by his neighbor.” And his conclusion was that this also is “vanity and grasping for the wind”.

And let’s be honest; it’s hard to think of an observation that could be more appropriate to our own day. How much of our current economic troubles as a nation was caused by just the very thing that Solomon is talking about—one man’s envy of another?

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; someone might be tempted to look at it all and concluded that the best thing to do is to drop-out of the whole system. “It’s a rat-race” they might say; “and since only rats are going to win, I’m out. It’s a dog-eat-dog world; and I’m going to leave the kennel and just let the dogs eat each other.”

Solomon already thought of that. He already considered this opposite extreme. But that proves to be a dead-end too. And so in the next verse, he says, “The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh.” And thus, he comments on . . .

2. THE FOLLY OF INDIFFERENT IDLENESS (v. 5).

To ‘fold one’s hands’, in this context, is to cease from using them in labor. It’s to pull them completely away from either “toil” or “skillful work”, flop them on one’s chest, lean back, and watch the world go by.

Have you ever known anyone like that?—someone who’s checked-out of the ‘system’, and lives off the labors of others? It’s funny how they think of themselves to be wiser than everyone else. After all, they’ve figured-out the game of life and beat the house. But Solomon declares such a person as “the fool”. His observation is that they don’t just plateau-out. Instead, they begin to consume—literally, “eat”—themselves away until there’s nothing left. They fold their hands, and consume their own flesh.

Solomon had something to say about such ‘hand-folders’ in another book of the Bible. In Proverbs 24:30-34, he writes;

I went by the field of the lazy man,
And by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding;
And there it was, all overgrown with thorns;
Its surface was covered with nettles;
Its stone wall was broken down.
When I saw it, I considered it well;
I looked on it and received instruction:
A little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to rest;
So shall your poverty come like a prowler,
And your need like an armed man (Proverbs 24:30-34).

And again—dare I say it?—there are an awful lot of such ‘hand-folders’ who have done much to bring us to the economic conditions we’re in today!

* * * * * * * * * *

So then; they way of relentless, “envy-driven labor” leads to a dead-end street. The ‘dog-eat-dog’ way of life is only “vanity and grasping for wind”. But then, so is the way of the ‘hand-folder’, and the ‘drop-out’, and the ‘do-nothing’.

And this leads Solomon—this wise observer of life under the sun—to consider a third option . . .

3. THE BLESSEDNESS OF BALANCED CONTENTMENT (v. 6).

Look at how he puts it: “Better a handful with quietness than both hands full, together with toil and grasping for the wind” (v. 6).

You can’t tell this merely by looking at the English Bible; but in the original language, two different words are being used for “handful” and “hands full”. In the first case, the word refers to the opened hollow of the hand—almost in a calm state—holding what is enough. It’s accompanied with “quietness”—that is, with a restful, comforted, satisfied attitude. In the second case, however, the word refers to the clenched fist—in an almost laborious clutch—clinging ahold of what it has in a desperate and unsatisfied and greedy way. It is accompanied with “toil and grasping for wind”.

And the two descriptions present quite a picture, don’t they? One presents just one hand-full. Certainly, the hand isn’t empty—as it would have been in the case of the ‘hand-folding’ fool. The hand has labored for what it has. But it holds just one handful; and holds it in a state of calmness and peaceful satisfaction with what it has.

The other picture presents two fists-full—certainly more than the hand-folding fool, and certainly more than the one handful. But it holds it all in a clutching state of labor and frustration.

And Solomon asserts to us that—after considering the matter carefully, and examining the affairs of humankind under the sun—the first state of things is unquestionably “better” than the second.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; what Solomon has just told us is an observation made “under the sun”. It’s the view of life strictly from the horizontal plain. What he has said is true—as far as it goes. But we’ve got to look elsewhere to answer the question, “How, then, do I achieve that sense of ‘contentment’ with the one-handful?” And I believe one place we get the answer is in Paul’s New Testament letter of 1 Timothy.

Apparently, Pastor Timothy had to deal with people who had things out of balance. There were some people in his church who were “rich”; and who were tempted to become prideful and untrusting toward God (see 1 Timothy 6:17-18). There were also some who didn’t work; but who sought to be teachers in the church with the thought that ‘godliness’ was a means of ‘gain’ (6:3-5). And Paul wrote;

Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows (1 Timothy 6:6-10).

Work backwards in this passage. You can see many of the things that Solomon himself professed reflected in it. In verse ten, you see that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. He doesn’t say that money itself is the root of all kinds of evil, but only ‘the love’ of it. Such a love for money is a dangerous thing; because some professing Christians have loved it so much that they have strayed from the faith in an effort to gain it—to their eternal loss.

In verse nine, Paul warns that those who make it their desire—their disposition—to be rich fall easily into many of the pitfalls and traps of life. “Foolish and harmful lusts” easily take hold of them; and they fall in ways that have shipwrecked many before them. Paul wrote later to Timothy of his fellow-laborer Demas; who, as he said, “has forsaken me, having loved this present world” (2 Timothy 4:10).

Let me suggest that, from these two verses, we can conclude something that Solomon has already suggested to us—that a dissatisfaction with what we have can be very dangerous. It can cause us to fall into sin; and motivate us to do hurtful things to others in order to gain more of what we want.

Now; in verse eight, Paul urges us, “And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.” There, we see that it’s not wrong to have things. The hand-folders of this world are out of line. It’s good and right to labor in order to have what is needed—and, in fact, to even have enough to spare. In 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, Paul told his Christian friends to “aspire to lead a quite life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.”

And the key to such “contentment” with the work of our hands is to see “money” and “things” in the light of eternity—as God’s basic provision for only a time. “For”, as Paul says in verse 7, “we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” We came from God into this world without any of this world’s things; and that’s how God has ordained that we will leave. True reverence toward God recognizes this; and thus lives accordingly. It learns to see God’s provision of our daily “food” and “clothing” as necessary for live on earth for a short time. True reverence toward God remembers that “one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” (Luke 12:15). It’s found, rather, in a relationship with Him that will last forever.

That attitude is the essence of “godliness”. And thus, Paul says in verse six that “godliness with contentment is great gain”. The appearance of ‘godliness’ without genuine ‘contentment’, of course, is nothing but hypocrisy. And ‘contentment’ without a life-style of ‘godliness’ to go along with it is merely self-deception. But what a powerful combination “godliness with contentment” is! Truly, it is “great gain”.

I believe Solomon—the richest of men—would have said a hearty “Amen” to that!

* * * * * * * * * *

And let’s close our consideration of Solomon’s words with the words of one who was even wiser than he—our Lord Jesus. Jesus showed us how to keep out of the ‘rat-race’ without completely checking-out of the race of life altogether. He revealed to us that true balance comes from having the right priorities in life.

Jesus said;

“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:31-33).

To view the temporal things that God has given us in the light of eternity; and to use them confidently and gratefully to advance that which will last forever—this is the secret to true “contentment”. This is how to having ‘a handful with quietness’.