The Problems of Prosperity
Ecclesiastes 5:10-6:9

“Mr. and Mrs. Thing are a very pleasant and successful couple. At least, that is the verdict of most people who tend to measure success with a “thingometer.” When the “thingometer” is put to work in the life of Mr. and Mrs. Thing, the result is startling. There he is sitting down on a luxurious and very expensive thing, almost hidden by a large number of other things. There are things to sit on, things to sit at, things to cook on, things to eat from, all shining and new. Things to amuse, and things to give pleasure and things to watch and things to play. Things for the big thing in which they live and things for the kitchen and things for the bedroom. And things on four wheels and things on two wheels. And there in the middle are Mr. and Mrs. Thing smiling and pleased pink with things, thinking of more things to add to their things. Secure in their castle of things.”

Every night, they are aware that there are people out there interested in stealing their things. They must lock their doors, arm their system and protect their things. But they can’t keep their things forever.

The problem for Mr and Mrs Thing is that their things will not always be with them. And some day, when you die, they only put one thing in the box….you.

Source – http://www.everydaysteward.com/enewsletter/may04/mrANDmrs_thing.php

Solomon continues to aim his bazooka at the castles man builds. His pen has demolished the castle of godless pleasure, godless philosophy, godless control, godless comprehension, godless justice and equity, godless prosperity, godless popularity, and godless worship. One by one, his words have flown like missiles and collapsed the things men desire apart from God into billowing clouds of dust.

Some of those castles are bigger than others. Some of them need more than one missile. The castle of materialism and wealth-seeking needs several bombs to bring it to nothing. Even when we have heard one truth about the emptiness of placing your hope in riches, we still find ourselves drawn to it like bees to a sweet drink on a hot day. So here, God’s Word launches an all-out assault on the idea that if we are richer and have more things, that we will be satisfied.

Five missiles are going to streak out of Solomon’s pen and explode in the consciousness of the person who listens with an open heart. As the dust settles, he is going to show us the surviving, indestructible bomb-shelter of God’s truth: finding satisfaction in God. Solomon is going to give us five painful problems with placing your hope in wealth. Having done that, he will then show us the place for wealth in God.

I. Problem #1: Wealth Never Satisfies

Ecclesiastes 5:10 ¶ He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; Nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity.

The word ‘silver’ can simply be translated ‘money’. So this is the simple paradox. The one who loves money, will not be satisfied when he gets money. The one who loves a lot of money, will not be satisfied when he gets a lot more money than he has now.

Scripture is not guessing or pretending. God is stating a fact about the human heart. The Divine Doctor is making a diagnosis. You love money, and lots of it, but be assured, when you get it, you will not be happy. You will still want more.

Is that true? Don’t you think there will be a particular amount of money, at which the heart will say, ‘that’s enough’? No, the Bible says that the heart of man, as long as it is seeking satisfaction outside of God, will never be satisfied.

Proverbs 27:20 Hell and Destruction are never full; So the eyes of man are never satisfied.

You see, there is a truth here which the man under the sun refuses to accept. Man is made to find satisfaction in God alone. God is an infinite being. If nothing except an infinite Being will satisfy us, what will happen when we try to find satisfaction in things or people that are finite? They will never satisfy. It is like pouring a can of Coke into the Great Hole in Kimberley. No matter how much you put in there, it still won’t fulfill. Not thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions or billions.

John D. Rockefeller was the world’s first US dollar billionaire. Once he was asked, “Just how much money is enough?” He replied, “Just one more dollar”.

One more. In other words, you never reach it. You are always at least one bit short of your goal. Satisfaction becomes like the rainbow that you see, but can never come to.

Solomon gives us a moving parable about a man who can find no satisfaction in his wealth.

Ecclesiastes 6:3-6
If a man begets a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with goodness, or indeed he has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better than he —

for it comes in vanity and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.

Though it has not seen the sun or known anything, this has more rest than that man,

even if he lives a thousand years twice — but has not seen goodness. Do not all go to one place?

Here is a man who had had a long life, had many children, but he finds no satisfaction. He has had a hundred years to get to the end of that rainbow, but never has. Solomon says a miscarried child is better off. At least the child comes and goes silently, unknown, unaware, never having known about wealth and poverty. That child has never known what it is to chase a desire and never have that desire satisfied, like an itch you can never scratch. The stillborn child does not end his or her life with years of unrealised dreams, wasted joys, missed happiness, unfulfilled hopes. The death of the rich man under the sun terminates a sad story of unrealised joys. (This certainly suggests that the soul of the stillborn child is in a place of rest, not torment). Both the rich man and the stillborn child go to the same place: the rich man ending a life of perpetual irritation, the stillborn goes from no consciousness to eternal rest.

This is a very painful goad. Better to never have lived, than to have chased satisfaction in riches your whole life. Man is not satisfied when he places his hopes in wealth. Look at the paradox of 6:7:

Ecclesiastes 6:7
All the labor of man is for his mouth, And yet the soul is not satisfied.

Man is working to satisfy his mouth and belly, but yet in his heart, this never fulfills him. Like the sad tale of sailors adrift at sea who begin to drink sea-water to quench their thirst. The problem is, the salt-content in sea-water is so high, that it creates more thirst than the water can quench, and those men die of thirst surrounded by water.

The love of money grows by what it feeds on.

Ecclesiastes 6:9
Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.

Far better to enjoy what you have, than to desire more, more, more. Enjoy what is in front of you, rather than forever wishing you had something else. Contentment is based in reality. Covetousness is always a fantasy. This is an empty way of living.

Ever found yourself thinking that a particular salary will mean a whole new life of joy? Ever found yourself thinking that the winner of the lottery must live a life of happiness and satisfaction? Solomon says the desire for wealth, like all idols, is an insatiable desire. It will never satisfy you.

With the explosions rumbling from missile number one, Solomon takes aim and fires again.

II. Problem #2: Wealth Attracts Problems and Parasites

Ecclesiastes 5:11-12
When goods increase, They increase who eat them; So what profit have the owners Except to see them with their eyes?

¶ The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, Whether he eats little or much; But the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.

When you have more, the Bible says, more people pitch up to try to get their share. People are drawn to anyone who can give them a free ride, or at least an easier one. Like ants gather around syrup dropped on the ground, so lazy people are drawn to someone else’s big pile of cash. And they are very quick to try to get their share.

In 1988, William Post won the Pennsylvania State Lottery, of $16.2 million dollars. But the vultures soon came: an old girlfriend sued him for some of the winning, and won. His brother hired a hitman to kill him, hoping to inherit a share of the winnings. His other brothers pestered him to invest in a car business and restaurant that brought no money back. Within a year, he was $1 million dollars in debt. Now he lives quietly on $450 a month and food stamps. (source)

Solomon says what is the point of all that money all you could do was look at it?

Parasites multiply, as do problems. Look again at verse 12:

Ecclesiastes 5:12
The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, Whether he eats little or much; But the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.

The person who works consistently can rest and enjoy the fruit of his labour, whether it is little or much. It sounds like Paul, doesn’t it?

Philippians 4:12
I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

On the other hand, the godless, wealthy man spends so much of his time fretting over his fortune – how to protect it, insure it, increase it, invest it, keep it, grow it. He lives in continual anxiety that someone will steal it, or that it will devalue, or that somehow it will run out.

So our Lord said to us:

Matthew 6:19
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;

The picture in our minds is of the happy rich man. But more often, he is a man who smokes and drinks to calm himself down, who lives on various tranquilizing drugs, who suffers from any number of stress-related physical syndromes – headaches, cramps, tics, ulcers, panic attacks, high blood pressure, heart palpitations and insomnia.

The Bible shows you the simple man snoring soundly under his rather old blanket; and the wealthy man on his R200 000 orthopaedically-approved bed, under the satin sheets and feather pillows, tossing and turning and sighing and taking sleeping pills.

The more money, the more open palms. The more money, the more problems.

If we aren’t running for cover yet, Solomon’s pen fires the third missile.

III. Problem #3: Wealth Abandons You Unexpectedly

Ecclesiastes 5:13-15
There is a severe evil which I have seen under the sun: Riches kept for their owner to his hurt.

But those riches perish through misfortune; When he begets a son, there is nothing in his hand.

Here Solomon describes a man who is hoarding money ‘riches kept’. Hoarding is always harmful. It harms our faith. It blinds us to the truth. It insulates us against reality. But that man loses those riches through ‘misfortune’. The word misfortune translates a word which means bad or foolish. The man took a risk. He gathered wealth, and then he gambled his wealth. He loses it. Now, he has a son, and he has nothing to give the son. All that money and now his child grows up poor.

Ecclesiastes is saying, “Money is temporary. Easy come, easy go. The overnight millionaire with a huge stash, now has nothing.”

We’re living in times where illustrations of this abound. All around us are people whose fortunes were devalued overnight by the worldwide economic collapse. A list given out recently showed that Britain’s billionaires dropped from 75 to 43. Over $200 billion dollars was wiped off the map. Even arrogant Richard Branson has seen his fortune diminish by 56 percent.

Proverbs 23:5
Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle toward heaven.

There is a reason Paul gave this command:

1 Timothy 6:17
¶ Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.

These riches are uncertain.

Do you believe that? If you believed a chair was uncertain, you would be careful before resting your weight on it. If you believed riches were uncertain, you would be careful before resting your life on a particular salary, or insurance policy, or inheritance, or investment, or asset. You would remember the parable of the man building his house on the sand, and the man building his house on the rock of Christ Himself.

Solomon says this is severely evil: to give yourself to storing up and storing up, and then see it wiped out in a moment. That is a waste of your life.

Picture the man who has eaten sumptuously, now staring at his cheap and tasteless meal. Picture the man driving past the mansions of his former friends, as he goes to his little hole-in-the-wall flat. Picture the man looking over at a model of car he used to own, while now driving his rusted and dented throwaway car. This is his life:

Ecclesiastes 5:17
All his days he also eats in darkness, And he has much sorrow and sickness and anger.

Wealth won’t satisfy your heart’s infinite longings. Wealth attracts parasites and problems. Wealth abandons you unexpectedly. Here comes the fourth missile.

IV. Problem #4: Wealth Leaves You as it Found You

Ecclesiastes 5:15-17
As he came from his mother’s womb, naked shall he return, To go as he came; And he shall take nothing from his labor Which he may carry away in his hand.

And this also is a severe evil — Just exactly as he came, so shall he go. And what profit has he who has labored for the wind?

All his days he also eats in darkness, And he has much sorrow and sickness and anger.

The man goes as he arrived – empty handed. Babies never arrive with luggage. Babies never come with cash, assets or anything to repay Mom for carrying them for nine months. And when people die, that’s exactly what they take with them – nothing. Things are just tools to use between birth and death, but you can’t take them with you. There are no pockets in burial shrouds, and no Venter trailers behind hearses. When you die you are put in a box just big enough to fit you, because that’s all the space that’s needed.

So Solomon says if you worked specifically to get these things, and to get this money, what’s the point if when you die you lose it all? You were living for something that could never go beyond your death. And if you are living for something that will not survive your death, you are striving after the wind.

Jesus told us a parable to illustrate this:

Luke 12:16-21
Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.

And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’

So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods.

And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”

But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’

So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

That’s the question: now whose will be those things that you have provided?

What will it profit you to die with a lot of money saved? What will it profit you to die with a large stash of things? If we can die having been faithful stewards of large amounts of things – fine. But if we have merely gathered it all up, we are building massive sand castles at low tide. One wave, and it is all meaningless.

V. Problem #5: Wealth Doesn’t Always Keep Its Promises

Ecclesiastes 6:1-2
There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men:

A man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor, so that he lacks nothing for himself of all he desires; yet God does not give him power to eat of it, but a foreigner consumes it. This is vanity, and it is an evil affliction.

Here is probably the most painful goad of all. God may allow a man to gain riches, wealth and honour, so that from one point of view, he should be content and more than content.

But God withholds the person from actually enjoying it, and someone else does.

God can do this in two ways:

• He can remove the opportunity. God can simply make it impossible for this person to ever get to spend his wealth. We all know of the people who are so busy running their businesses, they never have a free day to spend. They accumulate money and more money, but they never really get to spend it, because their business so consumes them. So that growing bank balance just tantalises them, but they are always at work, making sure the whole thing doesn’t collapse.
• He can remove the appetite. God can simply make the person experience no joy in what he does. He might be spending the money, but it doesn’t satisfy. The food tastes ordinary. The entertainment is boring. The travelling gets tiresome. The cars and houses and gadgets seem empty. The success seems unfulfilling.

Either way, the person has all this wealth, but no power to turn the pile of cash into personal pleasure. Like a boy gaping at the window of a bakery, it looks good, it seems to promise much, but he remains hungry and empty. He can’t get at it. There is this invisible barrier between him and joy. He sees all he has, and he feels none of its effects. The frustration grows with the increasing bank balance.

Many times this tragically ends in suicide. A person reasons that if he finally got the key to pleasure – a lot of money – only to find that the key doesn’t work, and the door of fulfillment remains firmly shut – they take their lives in despair.

The truth is what Solomon has already shown us. Satisfaction is a separate gift, given by God in addition to the gift of wealth. If you seek wealth as your god, God will never grant satisfaction with it.

That leads us to the alternative. These five goads have hopefully pushed us now to the Shepherd’s Tent, where He is once again nailing in the truth.

I. The Promise: Satisfaction is a Gift Received Humbly From God

Ecclesiastes 5:18-20
Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage.

As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor — this is the gift of God.

For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life, because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart.

This is what is good; this is what is better. This is man’s portion – his heritage. If you seek this, you are seeking what God has allotted you.

It is good to work hard and enjoy the results of your hard work. God is not against rewarding hard work. In fact, God is not against wealth, because verse 19 says that God actually gives riches and wealth to some.

But this is the fork in the road where the Christian goes the opposite direction from the unbeliever.

The Christian believes that work, the reward of work, and the power to enjoy that reward are all gifts from God, which must be sought, asked for and gratefully received.

Notice, God gives at least four things:

• He gives you the power to work and labour, which is implicit in this verse.
• Second he gives the reward “God has given riches and wealth”.
• Third, he gives the ability to experience it “given him power to eat of it”.
• Fourth, he gives the ability to receive it and enjoy it “to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labour”.

Once again, the gift and its joys are not one gift – they are two. God can give you the car, but not the keys. He can give you the toys, but not the batteries. He can give you the cup but no coffee.

God withholds and reserves the right to supply joy only to those who are in a relationship with Him. He reserves the right to allow the gifts of this abundant world satisfy only the hearts of those who have received a new heart at salvation and are seeking Him as the satisfaction of their hearts.

If you knew that a certain man had a tendency to spend all the money you gave him on drink, it would be foolish to give him money. You would rather give him a gift voucher to a shop that doesn’t sell alcohol. You would make sure that your gift could not be perverted. Well, God knows that the hearts of all humans are idol factories. We make gods out of just about anything. So the one way God makes sure that we come back to him with our malfunctioning toys, is by only supplying joy to those who have submitted themselves to Him.

God is not stingy with joy! Verse 20 means that God keeps His faithful children so occupied with joy and gladness, that they do not even remember that they forget about their own mortality. God supplies His children with joys unspeakable.

John 15:11
“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

This is not a circumstantial joy, or a temporary joy. This is indestructible joy. This is the kind of joy that Habakkuk spoke of:

Habakkuk 3:17-18
Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls —

Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

The reason is simple: your joy is in God. You rejoice in who He is. You rejoice that the God of the Bible is your Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. All His attributes are exercised towards you graciously.

But, here is the turning point. You can’t have it both ways. You cannot find your satisfaction in things and wealth and money, and find it in God. Our Lord taught us that.

Matthew 6:24
No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Now the missiles have landed and exploded. You can either choose to live in those ruins, telling yourself that it will be different for you, or you can dust yourself off, and head out to that inviting tent, where the Shepherd Himself awaits. And if you are reconciled to Him through the cross, and will come to Him, the words of David will become increasingly personal:

Psalm 23:1-6
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. …

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.