Good Gifts of God
The Gifts of God
Ecclesiastes 2:12-2:26
Have you ever lost your phone? Our phones have become the main essential worker for our lives. We do not just use them to make phone calls, but to order our groceries, update our social media feeds, quick texts to check on family, track our calorie count, deposit our checks, map our travel, or listen to our favorite podcasts. Our phones are essential for our lives so when we cannot find it, it is maddening. The search begins like normal. You check the frequent places you place it and then you may question your spouse or your children (possibly in an accusatory tone) on its whereabouts. You begin to feel a little panic and you may say something like, “Am I going crazy? I just had it.” You recheck the same places and still nothing. Then, as the panic grows, you start to think every possible place it could be. Did I leave it at the store? Maybe I left it in the car? Did it fall out of my pocket when I went to check the mail? Did I accidental put it in the fridge when I was getting creamer for my coffee? You are searching and searching and searching, but still nothing.
After all that searching, we typically go back to the first places we started looking, and at least for me, it is right where I thought I left it just slightly covered up by papers or a book. The search is maddening, but there are only so many places one can look. The Preacher in Ecclesiastes is on his own maddening search. He is looking for the meaning of life; the purpose of existence. He began his search looking into human wisdom only to be left to be sad. Ecclesiastes 1:18, “For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.” Vexation is a state of being worried or annoyed. It is constant frustration. The Preacher’s quest continues and turns to laughter and then wine and then all sorts of pleasure. He tries to find his purposes in the building of great houses and parks and gardens and wells. He searches for purpose in music and sex and strives after his best life now in living the American mantra, “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” After his frantic maddening search, he says in Ecclesiastes 2:10–11,
[10] And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. [11] Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
He search was causing nothing but frustration. What does he do next? He turns back and looks at the most common places people find purpose and meaning, human wisdom.
The Limited Gain of Wisdom
The Preacher is dogged in his pursuit of meaning. Many of us would not continue to search for the meaning and the purpose of life as long or as diligent in searching for our phones (even though we are searching for meaning and purpose with our phones more than we realize). The Preacher, who I believe is King Solomon, turns back to wisdom and folly and finds a little bit of positivity in wisdom. Ecclesiastes 2:12–13
[12] So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. [13] Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness.
Solomon offers himself as the ultimate example of one who searched in all the human wisdom and pleasure of life only to come to the conclusion that this has been done already.
When he writes that he considered wisdom and madness and folly, he is implying that he searched both ends, wisdom on one and folly on the other, and everything in between. He then makes this confusing statement, “For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done.” He is offering himself to everyone, including us who live thousands of years after him, to learn from his search. So, what did he find? Well, living in wisdom is a better than living in folly.
The wisdom he is referring to is not ultimate wisdom as in the fear of the Lord, but in human wisdom more like common sense. I like to think of it as Benjamin Franklin wisdom; a commonsense view of the world. Ecclesiastes 2:13–14a,
[13] Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. [14] The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness.
This is not a profound discovery, but an obvious conclusion. One who works diligently and saves their money will be prepared for the famine or a global pandemic. The one who spends all their money on food and drink will come to ruin. Comparing the life of an alcoholic who has destroyed his brain cells, ruined his family, and wasted all his money to one who is faithful at his job, eats and laughs with his family every night and lives in moderation will lead everyone to the same conclusion; it is better to live in wisdom and folly. And both the alcoholic and the faithful worker could both be living with an under the sun prospective, meaning living without any influence of God. Human wisdom may not lead you to God but will most likely lead to a better human experience than the fool. Light is better than darkness.
And yet, that’s not the end of the preacher’s discover with human wisdom. The Preacher focuses on that cloud that hangs over every life; death. Ecclesiastes 2:14–16,
[14] The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. [15] Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. [16] For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool!
Death comes for us all. Death is the end of every life. The rich and poor, the wise and foolish, the strong and the weak, all will die. This idea is woven through the Holy Scriptures, the Psalmist writes, Psalm 49:10-12,
[10] For he sees that even the wise die;
the fool and the stupid alike must perish
and leave their wealth to others.
[11] Their graves are their homes forever,
their dwelling places to all generations,
though they called lands by their own names.
[12] Man in his pomp will not remain;
he is like the beasts that perish.
Friend, human wisdom is better than folly, but it is only temporary.
Our culture tries to use wisdom and innovation and “progress” to find happiness, but for all our “progress” have we become more happy? In his book, How Life Gets Better but Feel Worse, Greg Easterbook writes, “people grow steadily better off, yet seemingly no happier, because there is a baseline anxiety in all our hearts, and that anxiety is the fear of death.[1]” No matter how much innovation and technology improves our 80-90 years, it will end. Then what? Living your best life now is a fool’s errand. It will not last. It is a mirage; a vapor.
Have you been like the Preacher? Searched and searched for meaning only to come back to the same place that we all will die. So why am I working so hard? Why am I busting my tail every week to build this life if I will only die and leave it all to someone else? When Solomon thought long and hard about death and its equalizing its effect on all humanity, he said, Ecclesiastes 2:17, “So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.” Maybe that’s where you are today. You hate life and don’t see the point. Hang in there, for Solomon is not done. First, he is going to give more bad news, but then he is going to provide a framework that may transform your view of everything.
The Limited Gain of Work
Work is difficult and toilsome. Some of our greatest anxiety and frustration come with dealing with our jobs. We are stressed that we have too much work that is possible in 40 hours a week. We are stressed and bored when we do not have enough work to fill those 40 hours. How many hours of sleep have been robed from us as we lay in bed mulling over all the things that our work brings? Problems with a supervisor. Unappreciation. Potential furlough. Downsizing. The big presentation that is coming. That unexpected meeting with your boss. Work is hard and it causes vexation; a constant frustration (even if your like your job). The Christian worldview offers the reason for this frustration. God cursed our work as a result of the fall, Genesis 3:17–19
[17] And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
[18] thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
[19] By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.” (ESV)
God cursed the ground and our labor. Work will be done by the sweat of our brow and the anguish of our hearts. And the cloud that overhangs all our labors is how temporary and fleeting it is. Our fleeting labors cannot escape our fleeting lives. God says to Adam, ‘You are dust, and to dust you shall return.’ It is fact. We all shall return to dust.
Solomon discovered this in the futility of his possessions. He labored under the sun only to give all that he earned to someone else. And sadly, Solomon handed 40 years of peace and rest and a vast empire to his son, Rehoboam, who lost ten twelves (10/12) of it in his folly. Can you relate to Solomon? Ecclesiastes 2:18–23
[18] I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, [19] and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. [20] So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, [21] because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. [22] What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? [23] For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.
Walk through your house and look at all your possessions and think about all the hours and hours and hours of your labor those possessions and realize that most of the stuff you see will end up in a landfill or to be picked up at a yard sale or an estate sale for a tenth of what you paid for it. Your work and your possessions cannot provide ultimate meaning.
Christianity does not avoid the tough questions and the harsh realities of life. Most people do not want to think about the end, but merely want to distract themselves with all the diversions of life. The Bible gives perspective on the end of life so we can truly find joy in the midst of it. Life does not consist in the abundance of one’s possessions. We cannot take our possessions with us. We cannot try to find ultimate joy and happiness in what we have. Life is not about gain; it is a gift. Embracing death and the reality of our possessions is the only way to look beyond them to find true and lasting joy in the God. Life is about God and enjoying the good gifts he has given.
The Little Gifts of God
Solomon does not leave us without hope. He actually wants to burst the bubbles of all the false hopes in our lives. He wants to take a pin and pop all the ways you are trying to find your meaning without God. Living your best life now is not in finding satisfaction in the amount of your possessions but hope and everlasting in God and his Son, Jesus Christ. Ecclesiastes 2:24–25,
“[24] 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, [25] for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?”
The Preacher finally brings God into the equation. The key to life is realizing that all of life is a gift from the hand of God. The preacher makes it clear that apart from God no one can eat and find enjoyment in our toil. God is what gives life meaning and helps us find joy in his everyday gifts.
In Living Life Backwards, David Gibson makes this point profoundly and if we embrace, it may help transform your life from saying, “All is Vanity,” to “All is Joy.” He writes,
Some say “eat, drink, and be merry” because that’s all there is; the Preacher says “eat, drink, and be merry” because that’s what there is. God has given the good things of this world to us, and they are their own reward. When we accept in a deep way that we are going to die, that reality can stop us expecting too much from all the good things we pursue. We learn to pursue them for what they are in themselves rather than what we need them to be to make us happy. Death reorients us to our limitations as creatures and helps us to see God’s good gifts right in front of us all the time, each and every day of our lives. Instead of using these gifts as means to a greater end of securing ultimate gain in the world, we take the time to live inside the gifts themselves and see the hand of God in them. Ordinarily, we eat and drink simply as fuel to enable us to keep going with our work. Ordinarily, we work not just to earn a living but to find satisfaction and purpose and very likely to make a reputation for ourselves and to achieve success. What if the pleasure of food is a daily joy that we ungratefully overlook? What if our work was never intended to make us successful but simply to make us faithful and generous? What if it is death that shows us that this is how we are meant to live?... And the way God gives us enjoyment in his gifts is by giving us perspective on ourselves. When we know that the gift is not meant to be a stepping stone to greater things, when we realize we are not meant to rule the world, or master our destiny, or achieve ultimate gain through our careers, then we discover that enjoyment or joy is “itself the reward that we may expect from life and all our effort expended in living it. . . . There is no surplus to joy beyond joy itself. There is indeed no pathway to joy except by refusing to pursue it and to grasp at it.” God is also the one who gives “wisdom and knowledge and joy” (2:26). It is so striking that now, at the end of the Preacher’s epic quest through life for happiness, he discovers where it comes from. Not from his striving, but from God’s giving. God gives these things to the person “who pleases him.”
Life is a gift.
Life is about God giving good gifts to his creation. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 4:4–5, “[4] For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, [5] for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.” Everything God created is good and should be received with thanksgiving. We have a hard time enjoying life because we are looking at the gift for our joy not at the Giver of the gifts. James 1:16–17, “[16] Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. [17] 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.” We have to train our eyes to see and our hearts to feel joy in God’s gifts.
I have always been a hard worker. I am driven and task oriented. I love to achieve one thing and move on to the next. It has served me in being productive, but it has also blinded me to the gifts that God has given right in front of me. A couple of months before Ellen and I started dating she made me dinner for my birthday and then took me to a fancy restaurant for dessert. We were going to share a dulce de leche crepe. We got our coffee first since all dessert tastes better with coffee. The waitress brings the dessert and I start woofing it down. In a look of sheer horror, Ellen gasped and said, “What are you doing? That’s no way to eat a dessert.” A dessert this good needed to be savored. One needed to slowly experience every morsel and the combination of flavors and the texture and heat. In essence, Ellen was teaching me to receive that dulce de leche crepe as a gift from the hand of God. I needed to savor it.
Friends, God wants you to savor life. He wants you to slow down and experience the gifts he has given you not as the end, but as a means to worship him. The sweet laughter of your children playing a game, the vibrant colors of flowers in a garden, the smile of your wife, the sharing of struggles with a friend, the ability to form thoughts and words and sentences, the variety of animals in nature, the mind of a child that creates social distancing Lego creation, feeling of a finished jog, the beauty of a freshly cut grass, the smell of brownies. Life is not about gain it is a gift. And all good gifts come from above from our good, good Father. Learn from King Solomon, “[24] 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, [25] for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?”
All the little gifts are windows for us to see the ultimate gift. The ultimate gift is Himself. God gave us his Son, Jesus Christ, and we must put our faith in him and all he gives to us. We are sinners and deserve death, but God gives life. Romans 8:32, “[God] who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” God gave us his Son. We are sinners deserving of eternal death and instead of giving us what our sins deserve, God gave us his Son. Jesus is the greatest gift that must shape every other gift. If you stop trying to find ultimate joy in the creation, you will be able to experience the ultimate joy in the Creator. We must turn from our sin and our life without God (under the sun) prospective and give thanks to God for the ultimate gift of life in Jesus Christ.
It is only when we see the gift of the Son and savor him and the salvation he offers that we can truly experience an everlasting, full life. Jesus went to the cross to pay for your sins. He was dead and buried and God raised him from the dead. He is now at the Father’s side ready to send eternal life to all who turn to him in faith. Friend, God do not spare his own Son but gave him up for all who would turn from their sins and trust in him. And if God gave us his Son how will he not reward us with all things? Jesus came to give us life and life more abundantly. Or put another way, if you reject God’s Son, all that you have, will be given to another, the one who pleases God.
Solomon does not want you to only savor life here and now, but for eternity. He does not want you to strive after the wind in gathering and collecting; he wants you to please God. Ecclesiastes 2:26, “For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.” The only way to please God is to believe in him and that he rewards those who seek him. (Heb 11:6)
We need to learn from the Preacher, the Son of David, king in Jerusalem but even more so we need to learn from another King, the King of kings, the Son of David, Jesus Christ, God’s gift, who illustrates Ecclesiastes 2:26 in parable he shared with his disciples. Jesus shared a story of a landowner and his servants. The master gave all the servants gifts or talents, one was given five talents, to one two, and to another one. The master went away and when he came back, the first servant said, “Master, you gave me 5 talents, here I have made 5 more,” and the second likewise said, “Master, you gave me 2 talents, here I have made 2 more.” And Jesus responded to both, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” Praise God for those who please their master who use their talents for God’s glory and not for our gain. Life is a gift, not gain.
The third servant took his gift and was afraid. He provides a counter example for all of us, he said, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.” Heed the Master’s words, he said,
[26] But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? [27] Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. [28] So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. [29] For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. [30] And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (Matthew 25:26–30)
Solomon was right. He who gathers and scatters for himself and not for God will only give all he has to another and be left with nothing. Friends, we cannot escape death. We are dust. Those who are afraid of death and try to avoid it will end up like the last servant and cast into outer darkness.
We may mask our fear of death by chasing after wisdom and folly or running after pleasure or in gathering and collecting stuff. We cannot avoid death. It is the great equalizer. Instead of running from death, embrace it. We do not have to fear death. Hebrews 2:14–15
[14] Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, [15] and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
Jesus lived and dead and rose again to destroy power of death and to free us from fear. We don’t have to fear death, because God offers life. Romans 6:5 “For if we have been united with Christ in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” Death in Christ leads to life in Christ. Friend, do not live in fear. Do not distract yourself with diversions. Turn to Christ and live.
Life is not about gain but is a gift. Embrace the good gift of a good father, who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, and if he has given us Christ, how will he not also graciously give us all things. Embrace the death of the Son so you may find true and everlasting life and one day hear, “Well done my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
[1] Ryken, P. G. (2010). Ecclesiastes: Why everything matters (p. 62). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.