By James Riley Strange, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of New Testament, Samford University
The Problem with Wealth
Ecclesiastes 5:10–20
In Ecclesiastes the “teacher” or “preacher” asks what brings prosperity during the short span of life. Living like a king? No. Acquiring wisdom? No. Work? Also no.
In today’s passage he returns to what he said in chapter 2 in the persona of King Solomon. Now he speaks as an ordinary Israelite. Hence his accomplishments lie within the reach of his readers, for whereas only the king commands the country’s resources, many amass wealth and many die as paupers. The link between wealth and enjoying life forms the passage’s theme (for context, read Eccles. 5:8–6:9).
Although it is the last in today’s lesson verse 20 contains the passage’s central statement: God gives joy. While reading remember that “vanity” in most Bibles is proba-bly better translated “breath,” and “chasing after the wind” can be “herding the wind.” The teacher is saying that all things are as fleeting as vapor and while they exist we do not control them.
Pursuing wealth never brings the satisfaction we think it will. (10–12)
No matter how high a person climbs on the economic and social ladder, and no matter how willing someone is to oppress the poor and to violate justice on the way up, someone always sits one rung higher.
In 1 Timothy 6:10, Paul reminds us the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils. Here the teacher explains why: the one who loves money is never satisfied with it. Neither is the person who acquires goods.
Why not? The only gain the owner has is “to see [the things owned] with his eyes.” That is, no one truly possesses anything. We can add this: from experience we know that neither wealth nor what we buy with wealth pleases us so much as anticipation does. Once we gain things we no longer anticipate them, and we must pursue new money and new things in order to feel pleasure. Shopping is mood-altering, is it not?
In the teacher’s day “laborers” possessed little beyond what was necessary to sustain their needs for food, shelter and clothing.
What they thought of as luxuries we might regard as trifles. Yet the teacher says, laborers sleep sweetly in comparison to the wealthy who have no satisfaction.
Wealth offers no guarantee of security. (13–17)
The teacher addresses the case of the rich person who loses everything. This is horrible to contemplate and worse to endure, but it turns out that no one takes a penny beyond the grave. One and all we will lose everything we have gained in this lifetime.
Furthermore in verse 17 the teacher states a great irony: while we are alive we cannot enjoy what we do possess. Or can we? The teacher is about to answer that question.
Find contentment in God who provides. (18–20)
The word “good” is the same as in chapter 2:3, where the teacher spoke not of what is morally good, but of what is “effective” in gratifying us. So it is here.
What causes us pleasure is to be satisfied with our lot: “to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of the life God gives us” (compare Eccles. 2:24).
That sounds like a contradiction of verse 17. What is the difference? This joy is as much a gift of God as life itself is.
God, not wealth, is the source of joy. Amen?
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