The Vanity of Affluence
Ecclesiastes 5:10-20:
10He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.
11When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes?
12 Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.
13 There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, 14 and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. 15As he came from his mother's womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand.
16 This also is a grievous evil: just as he came, so shall he go, and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind?
17 Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger. 18 Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. 19 Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God.
20 For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.
Jesse O’ Neill, a contemporary author, diagnosed the sickness of the 21st century man/woman and called it “affluenza.” She described this contagious disease as “an unhealthy relationship with money.” Some people have either a mild or severe case of this lethal illness or syndrome. So whether you are thank ful or not for what you have, our propensity is to think and desire that which we do not have and how to obtain them. Phil Ryken said that “this explains the sudden pang of discontent we feel when we realize that we cannot afford something we want to buy or the guilt we feel because we bought it anyway, and now we are in debt as a result.”
To help us avoid getting knocked down or knocked out by “affluenza,” the Preacher highlights the danger of “more” and the delight of being satisfied with God.
I. The Danger of “More” (Ecclesiastes 5:10-17)
The way the Preacher talks about the vanity of prosperity or money is stated through a proverb (another reason why the book is part of the Wisdom literature). Qoheleth emphasized a well-known truth in a straight-forward way, “people who love money will not be satisfied with money.” Note that he is not speaking against money, but the “love of money.” What is meaningless is not money itself, but the exces
sive love of it.
A. The more possessions we have, the more people will try to take them.
“When goods increase, they increase who eat them…” The idea here is that our wealth attracts people who consume our wealth (family, friends, government, bills). 1 Kings 4 reveals the enormous wealth Solomon had. It also emphasizes the thousands of people who come to “Solomon’s table.” He certainly needed all the “supplies and provi sions” because of the innumerable people that he had to feed. The more possessions we have, the more stuff you’ll have to deal with.
If you are a homeowner, you know what this means, right? To maintain the house, you must know a trusted carpenter, plumber, electric guy, grass guy, etc.
B. The more possessions we have, the more stuff you’ll have to deal with.
1.`Possessions may keep us up at night.
“Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep…” (Ecclessiastes 5:12)
A good night’s sleep is a blessing. If you work hard, a restful night is not a luxury. It is not carnal, but essential. But for a man/woman who worries about his/her possessions or cannot sleep because of self indulgence, a sound night of slumber is so elusive. Having a lot of money or desiring to have more can be very unhealthy – both spiritually and physically. Refreshing sleep is the gift of God. This kind of sleep is peculi ar to the children of God.
2. Possessions may be here today and gone tomorrow.
“There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is a father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand.” (Ecclessiates 5:13-14)
Talking about temporary prosperity. But note first that the Qoheleth calls this “a grievous evil.” Phil Ryken noted that this means, “that it makes him sick even to think about it.” The Preacher’s observation is well observed in our time. We know of stories of people who suddenly (unexpectedly) lost everything be cause of a tragedy, gambling, stock market crash, economic recession, pyramid schemes, bad business ven ture, or betrayal, etc. Remember Job, he was upright, and yet he lost his family and fortune in one day.
This should not discourage saving money or planning for future. The whole point of the Preacher’s illustration is that counting on possessions or money is vanity. “You’ll never have enough, you’ll attract leech es, you’ll not sleep well, you’ll hurt yourself, you’ll never be truly secure, and you’ll leave it all behind” (Daniel and Jonathan Akin, Ecclesiastes: Christ-Centered Exposition).
3. When you die, you can’t take your possessions with you. “As he came from his mother's womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand.” This alludes to Job 1:21, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return.” and was quoted by Paul in 1 Timothy 6:7, “For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take any
thing out of the world.” Why make possession our God?
Application:
I trust you know that money has power. If you allow money or wealth to dominate you instead of dominating it, it can fuel self-sufficiency, discontent (e.g. John E. Rockefeller was asked, “How much money is enough?” He said, “A little bit more.”), and envy. That’s why inflations, economic recession, a pandemic, a loss of job, failure of a business, dwindling support is an opportunity to reflect on the way we view money and wealth and think about our misplaced trust.
⇒ If we are not careful money can easily become a functional God in our lives. It is so easy to fall into this trap and jeopardize your relationship with your family or other people, draw you away from God (from
following him), friends, and your church family.
⇒ Money or wealth apart from God is burdensome and it hurts (it breeds paranoia, dis appointment, self-sufficiency that leads to isolation, it is a “fiery trial,” etc.)
II. The Delight of being satisfied with God (Ecclesiastes 5:18-20)
Considering the Preacher’s critique of a dysfunctional relationship with money or
wealth, we may raise the questions: What is missing in the quest for more? What is the good life? If money does not satisfy; if possessions disappoint; if wealth ultimately leaves us naked in the face of death, how do we make sense of life and the world around us?
The Preacher’s recommendation is a reiteration of Ecclesiastes 2:24-25
“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 Preacher turned to this again in chapter 5:18-20.
“Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.”
When the Preacher talked about the vanity of affluence in 5:10-17, he hardly mentioned God. Here, in what we call the “enjoyment passage” of Ecclesiastes, he mentioned God’s name 4 times. He emphasizes God’s ownership of all things – What has He given us? Our life (God has given life, v. 18), possessions (God has given wealth and possessions, v. 19) and the POWER TO ENJOY THEM.
Application:
A. Realize life’s brevity
B. Redeem every opportunity to enjoy the small, ordinary things of life.
C. Remember that the ability to enjoy what we have is also a blessing from the Almighty. We can put it this way, enjoyment of what we’ve been given is sold separately (satisfaction is sold separately). Yes, money comes from the hands of God. Possessions are gifts of God. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17).
♦ Possessions and the power to enjoy them are both gifts of God.
♦ Be warned because money or wealth, though it can be a gift from God, “is an awful curse without God and major trial even with Him” (Derek Thomas).
Conclusion: How do we respond? For some, despair or self-indulgence (nihilism, cynicism, hedonism) is the only reasonable to response to the senselessness around us and the emptiness that we feel. What is the proper response?
1. Travel light – You can’t take your possessions with you in the afterlife. You will not need them. When Paul said, “death is gain,” What he meant is that “we lose everything we don’t need, we keep every thing that matters, and we gain what we never had before” (Alexander McLarren).
2. Trust God more – The last portion of our passage (5:18-20) brings to mind the need to for us to recog nize the absolute sovereignty of God in all things. Wealth breaks your heart because it is not God. Wealth cannot and will not fill the void in your heart because it is not God. It cannot be relied on be-
cause it is not God. But God does not disappoint. He can be relied on. Only God enables us to enjoy life (5:18-20).
“For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him
occupied with joy in his heart.”
God delivers and will deliver us from the awful memories of the past and
keeps us looking forward to the future, to our blessed hope.
3. Treasure Christ more – Douglas Sean O’Donnell said, “Money (wealth) is a blessing from God and a bridge to God – who is our highest treasure.”
What we truly need is not more of this or that. What we desperately need is the “power” to enjoy what we have in Christ. Pray for it. Ask God to give you that ability.
I think that the “mores” we seek should be ones that draw us closer to God –
“But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more.” (Psalm 71:14) Let us sing: “Be Thou my Vision”
Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou Art.