Ecclesiastes 6: Is Life a Dead End Street
● Overview.
○ In this chapter, Solomon shows that
having the right attitude about God can help us deal with the present
injustices of this world. Prosperity is
not always good if we live to how we want, but if we live according to God’s
will, we can be content.
○ Futility is defined as pointlessness or
uselessness.
■ Solomon states futility as “vanity of
vanities” and “chasing after the wind”.
■ Some sayings that we have heard that
refer to futility are: “As futile as”
● “watering a post”, “plowing rocks”,
“singing a song to a dead horse”, and “carrying water in a sieve”
○ Solomon will look at 3 of life’s
mysteries: riches without enjoyment, labor without satisfaction, and questions
without answers.
● Verses.
○ Verses 6:1-6 Riches without Enjoyment
■ In verse 2, Solomon writes, “God does not
enable him to enjoy them” probably suggests that this person has died. Even if he had lived a long life, it is
ultimately meaningless in itself because all that he has accumulated is left
behind. Everyone dies, both the rich
and poor end up in the grave. Many work
hard to prolong life and improve their physical condition. Yet, people don’t spend nearly as much time
or effort on their spiritual health.
How short-sighted it is work hard to extend one’s life and to not take
the steps God requires us to gain eternal life.
● This verse could easily point to Solomon,
which would make it more meaningful.
God did bless him with riches, wealth, and honor. (2 Chronicles 1:11-12)
● This could also be someone Solomon knew
as well.
■ What a tragedy it is to have all the
resources for a satisfying life and to not be able to enjoy them. How many people have worked hard for their
retirement to live comfortably, only to be left with a life threatening health issue? Some seek peace in their retirement, but to
only have it shaken by a family crisis.
Why do such things happen in life?
(Ecclesiastes 5:19, Ecclesiastes 3:13)
■ Solomon states a basic principle of life:
Nobody can truly enjoy the gifts of God apart from the God who gives the
gifts. To enjoy these gifts without God
is idolatry, which does not satisfy the human heart. Enjoyment without God is entertainment. Enjoyment with God in our life is
enrichment, which brings true joy and satisfaction.
■ What prevents a person from enjoying
life? Could it be trouble at the home,
an illness, or a death? The person
described in verse 2 had no heir, a complete stranger could acquire his wealth
and enjoy it. This seemed futile to
Solomon. (Proverbs 15:16-17, Proverbs
17:1)
■ Solomon writes, “Enjoy blessings of God
now and thank him for all of them. This
could be restated as, “Don’t plan to live - start living. Be satisfied with what God gives you and use
it all for His glory.
■ Verses 3 through 6 deal with a
hypothetical situation, since no one can live 2000 years and no monogamous
marriage is likely to produce 100 children.
Solomon was exaggerating to make his point: No matter how much you
possess, if you don’t have the power to enjoy it, you just as well had never
been born.
● Solomon’s son Rehoboam had 88 children through
18 wives and 60 concubines. (2
Chronicles 11:18-21)
■ Here is a man with abundant resources and
a large family, both would had indicated God’s favor in the Old Testament. The problem is his family does not love him
as indicated from the lack of mourning upon his death. His relatives only stay around because of
his money and they wondered when the old man would die. (Ecclesiastes 5:11) When he did finally die, his relatives would
be eager to hear the reading of his will.
■ The rich mas was really poor in the
things of life. He may have had an
illness, he did not enjoy his money, and the lack of love from his family. They did not weep when he died. Solomon concludes it would had been better
for this man to not have been born.
■ During Jewish times, a stillborn baby was
not always given a name. This was
thought to help the parents get over the sorrow much faster. We often question God on how He could let
this happen if the baby would not live.
Solomon questions God, if the rich man was blessed with wealth and a big
family, why wouldn’t He allow the rich man to enjoy them.
■ In verse 6, “all go to the same place”
means that everyone dies.
■ Some argue that existence is better than
non-existence, a difficult life is better than none at all. Solomon might agree with them based upon
his conclusion later. (Ecclesiastes
9:4) Solomon faced the problem of
whether there is any purpose behind the whole unseemingly unbalanced scheme of
things rather than existence or life’s challenges. He stated he “examined life under the sun”,
he sees there is no reason for a man not to have the power to enjoy the riches
he was given.
■ The ability to enjoy life comes from
within. IT is a matter of character and
not circumstances. (Philippians
4:10-14)
■ The 2000 year old man and the stillborn
child faced the same destination - the grave.
Here, Solomon confronts the listener to the certainty of death and the
futility of life without God. He was
preparing them for his final conclusion.
(Ecclesiastes 11:9-12:14).
○ Verses 6:7-9 Labor without Satisfaction
■ After speaking about the rich man,
Solomon now looks at the poor man.
Whether rich or poor, people still labor to stay alive. We must either earn money to buy food or we
must be able to produce food. The rich
man can use his money while the poor man labors for food to feed his
family. Even after all his labor, the
appetite of neither man was satisfied.
■ Why does a person eat? So that he can add years to his life. What good is it for us to add years to our
life if we don’t add life to our years?
We are like the birds we can watch in our backyards. They spend their waking hours either looking
for food or escaping enemies. The birds
are not really living, but, only existing.
Yet the bird fulfills the purpose for which the Creator made them - and
they sing about it.
■ Solomon is not saying that it is wrong to
either work or eat. Most people enjoy
doing both. If life only consists in
working and eating, people are being controlled by their own appetites. We are then put on the same level as animals
then, our nature turns to self-preservation as the first law of life. We are made in the image of God and we must
live for something higher. John
12:20-28, Mark 8:34-38, 2 Corinthians 5:17)
■ Both questions being asked in verse 8 can
be answered by saying “None.” If all
we live to do is satisfy our appetites, the wise man has no advantage over the
fool and the poor man has no advantage trying to better his situation and
learning to get along with the rich.
Solomon is not belittling education or self-improvement, he is saying
that these things of themselves cannot make you richer. We must have something greater for which to
live.
■ Henry David Thoreau warned men were
“devising means to unimproved ends.”
What can he say about today’s culture?
● We can send messages around the world in
seconds, but do we have anything significant to say?
● We can transmit pictures from the moon,
but our TV screens are stained with violence, cheap advertising, and sex.
■ In verse 9, “the roving of the appetite”
refers to wasting time dreaming and wishing for what one doesn’t have.
● This verse is similar to say ‘A bird in
the hand is worth 2 in a bush.” The Greek biographer Plutarch wrote, “He is a
fool who lets slip a bird in the hand for a bird in the bush.” Solomon is stating, ‘It’s better to have a
little and really enjoy it than to dream about much and never attain it.” Dreams can become a nightmare if we don’t
come to the grips of reality.
● Solomon is not stating that it is wrong
to dream great dreams or to have a burning ambitions to accomplish something in
life. We need to make sure our
motivation be to the glory of God and not the praises of men. We must want to serve others and not promote
ourselves. Our achievements will not
bring us true satisfaction unless we do the will of God from the heart. (Ephesians 6:5-8, John 4:34)
○ Verses 6:10-12 Questions without Answers
■ So far in Chapter 6, Solomon sees life is
a dead end street for 2 kinds of people: those who have riches without
enjoyment and those who labor without satisfaction. He has tried to show that true happiness is
not an automatic result of making a good living, it is blessed by the
by-product of making a good life. You
should not devote your life only to the pursuit of happiness, which can make
you feel miserable; however, if you devote your life to doing God’s will, you
will find happiness.
● In Jesus Christ we can find: something to
do, someone to love, and something to hope for. These are the grand essentials to happiness
in one’s lives.
■ Solomon looks at a third person who is
living a dead-end life: the person who requires answers to all of life’s
questions. Solomon is not condemning
honest inquiry as Ecclesiastes is Solomon’s own record of his investigation
into the meaning of life. Solomon is
stating there are some questions about life that we cannot answer. We should not be using ignorance as an
excuse for skepticism or unbelief.
Instead, our ignorance should encourage us to have faith and trust
God. We do not live on explanations, we
live on promises.
● Most explanations don’t solve problems or
make people feel better.
○ Explaining an X-Ray to a patient does not
bring healing, but it is an essential step toward recovery.
○ Job’s sufferings from God caused Job to
argue with God and he also demanded an explanation, which did not provide his
healing. This illustrates that
knowledge in hand does not guarantee the healing of the heart. This healing only comes when we put faith in
the promises of God.
■ In verse 10, we learn that God knows and
directs everything that happens; He is in complete control of our lives even
though at times it may not seem like it.
How foolish is it to contend with our Creator, who knows us completely
and who can see the future. (Jeremiah
18:5-10, Romans 9:14-24)
■ In verse 12, Solomon is stating the
profound truth that we cannot predict what the future holds, the only one who
knows what will happen after we are gone is God. No human knows the future, so each day must
be lived for its own value. Solomon is
arguing against the notion that human beings can take charge of their own
destiny. In all our plans, we should
look up to God, not just ahead to the future.
■ Solomon touches upon 5 questions that
people often ask.
● (1)
Since “What’s going to be is going to be, why bother to make
decisions? Isn’t it predestined
anyways?” (Verse 6)
○ In the Jewish culture, giving a name to
something was the same as fixing its character and stating. From the beginning of creation, God has named
things, names which have not changed over time. (Genesis 2:7, Genesis 3:19, Isaiah 5:20).
○ The fact that God has named everything
doesn’t mean that we live in a prison, and we have no freedom to act. God can accomplish his purpose without us
and our cooperation. We cooperate with
God by accepting his names. We lose
touch with reality if we try to alter these things: sin is sin, truth is truth,
and obedience is obedience. This is the
tendency of our culture today.
○ We are free to make choices, but those
choices contain consequences that we cannot change. If we chose the world’s illusions, we start
living on substitutes, which do not provide true satisfaction. (John 17:3, I John 5:20)
● (2)
“Why disagree with God? We can’t
oppose Him and win, can we?”
○ Solomon appears to be saying in verse
10b, it doesn’t pay to fight or argue with God. This is the way of life, so just accept it
and let God have his own way. You can’t
win if you think you can win because you ultimately lose.
○ This is a negative view of God’s
will. This make it appear as God’s will
is difficult and a painful thing that should be avoided. What God wills for us, is best for us. The will of God comes from the heart of God
and it is an expression of God’s love.
(John 4:32-34, Psalm 33:11)
○ Why would anyone want to have his or her
own way just for exercising freedom?
Insistency on your own way is not freedom, but eventually leads to
bondage. (Romans 1:24-28)
○ God is free to act as He sees best. God is not a prisoner to his own attributes,
His creation, or His eternal purposes.
We may not understand how God exercises His freedom, and it is not
necessary for us to know all. Our
greatest freedom comes when we are lovingly lost in the will of God. So long as we love God and want to please
Him, God does not feel threatened when we question Him, debate Him, or even
wrestle with him.
● (3)
What do we accomplish with these words?
Does talking about it solve the problem?
○ In verse 11, it appears the more we
discuss a subject, the less we really understand it. Words do not always bring light, they can
also cloud the issue. This is where we
need the Word of God and the wisdom He only can give us. There are times where a discussion appears
useless and produces “vanity”, but there are also other times where a
conversation leads us closer to the truth of the Lord.
● (4)
Who knows what is good for us?
○ In verse 12, Solomon states God
does. The wise person is the one who
takes the time to listen to what God has to say. Yes, life may seem to be fleeting on
illusively like a soap bubble or a shadow, but God provides the answers. (I John 2:15-17)
● (5)
Does anybody know what's coming next?
○ In spite of what astrologers, fortune
tellers, and prophets claim, nobody knows the future except God. It is futile to speculate. God gives us enough information to encourage
us, but God does not cater to our curiosity.
One thing is sure: Death is coming and we need to make the best of our
opportunities.
○ Life is God’s gift to us. In order to live a life that is not worth
living, a life of monotony, or the futility of wealth; all of which are life
under the sun, we need to include God in our lives.
● Conclusion.
○ Is life a dead end street? It may seem so at times. There are times we don’t reach the goals we
have set and times when we do not feel fulfilled when we do achieve a goal.
■ Men in the Bible who came discouraged
with life:
● Moses - Numbers 11:10-15
● Elijah - 1 Kings 19:1-4
● Job - Job 3:11-26, Job 7:11-16
● Jeremiah - Jeremiah 15:10
● Jonah- Jonah 4:1-3
● Apostle Paul - 2 Corinthians 8-11
○ Our biggest problem in life is that we
face many mysteries we cannot fathom or too many puzzles that we are unable to
solve. To be satisfied in life, it
needs to make sense. We get frustrated
when life does not make sense. People
begin to question God and wonder if life is worthwhile if they go through deep suffering
and they don’t see a purpose in their life.
○ There can be riches in enjoyment and
labor with satisfaction in God’s will.
We need to accept God’s plan for our lives, receive his gifts
gratefully, and to enjoy each day as He enables us. (Psalm 16:11)
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