1 I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on mankind: 2 God gives some people wealth, possessions and honor, so that they lack nothing their hearts desire, but God does not grant them the ability to enjoy them, and strangers enjoy them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil. 3 A man may have a hundred children and live many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not receive proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. 4 It comes without meaning, it departs in darkness, and in darkness its name is shrouded. 5 Though it never saw the sun or knew anything, it has more rest than does that man— 6 even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?
We work for ourselves, but in the end we cannot satisfy ourselves. There is no advantage for the wise over the fools. It is better to be content with what you have. But even these things are meaningless.
Whatever exists has already been named, and what humanity is has been known; no one can contend with someone who is stronger. 11 The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone? 12 For who knows what is good for a person in life, during the few and meaningless days they pass through like a shadow? Who can tell them what will happen under the sun after they are gone?
There is nothing new. Nothing new to learn. No one can overcome someone stronger. The more we try to learn, the less we comprehend. Can’t know what’s good for a person in life. Can’t understand what happens to a person once they’re gone.
Pretty bleak. When Solomon comes to the end of these chapters, we find that there isn’t much the temporal life offers. But there is an eternal component to this, and we’ll have to go back to chapter 5, verse 1-7 to understand.
1 Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. 2 Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. 3 A dream comes when there are many cares, and many words mark the speech of a fool. 4 When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. 5 It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it. 6 Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, “My vow was a mistake.” Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands? 7 Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore fear God.
Solomon’s eternal musings are important, because when we drop back into the eternal we see a stark contrast. Against the cold and indifferent guise of the temporal world, there is a call to seriousness in finding God.
Guard your steps: First, if you are to reach out to God, he implores that your motives are pure in it. In other words, be serious and authentic in reaching out to God. The question is, how many of us are?
Do we truly understand the serious nature of following God? Is God the nucleus of our being, or simply an element of our lives? This is at the heart of what Solomon is getting at. He says when you go near the temple don’t speak, but listen. The Hebrew word that is used has a dual meaning: to listen and obey. So in other words, be serious about coming to God. Make sure your motives and thoughts are pure.
Sacrifice of fools: When we offer sacrifices without thinking about them, we are essentially giving an empty gesture to God. God doesn’t want empty religious gestures. This is a very important point, because we are all guilty of this in degrees. “I need to go to church because I haven’t been in awhile.” “I want to make sure Bill sees me put some money in the offering basket.” “It’s important that people in the church know how many committees I’m on.” Although we may associate empty gestures with many different things, the problem is that our motives are the culprit. Because we accomplish something “I went on a mission trip” and that may be a good thing, our motives could have been corrupt “I wanted to go to Mexico.” Yes, it may have accomplished some good, it also was an empty gesture to God. It looks good to others, but the real motivation behind it was corrupt.
In 1 Samuel 15:22, Samuel addresses this very thing:
Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
To obey is better than sacrifices. To follow with authenticity is the path.
2 Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. 3 A dream comes when there are many cares, and many words mark the speech of a fool.
Don’t speak without consideration (James 1:19-21). Solomon warns us, in a serious attempt to understand and follow God, we have to be serious first about our motives, but secondly about our words. Be concise, serious and focused in our petitions.
Focus is important. We can all say “I am a sinner” without ever going any deeper than those words. The words are true, but there is no focus to them. It’s like saying “I have problems.” What are the problems? Until we articulate what those problems could be, we can’t ever solve them, right? So focus is important in this walk.
A dream comes: When we are obsessed with things, it is difficult to focus. Therefore, one thing that could happen when overwhelmed with problems is this: we could make a rash decision, a vow, and shipwreck ourselves further. This too is a problem of focus.
4 When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. 5 It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it. 6 Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, “My vow was a mistake.” Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands? 7 Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore fear God.
When we make vows, we have to understand the importance of them. A vow honors your word and also honors God. The bible tells us it is better not to make a vow than to break one, so we have to be serious about what we say and do before God. We have to make a valiant effort to keep our promises.
For the close of these chapters, I like to bring it back to a passage in Luke:
Luke 14:25-35 New International Version (NIV) The Cost of Being a Disciple 25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ 31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. 34 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
What Solomon is getting to is a very important matter. He talks about the seriousness of coming to God. Jesus talks about the same thing in this passage. In verses 25-27, Jesus says that we must hate mother and father, hate even our lives in order to follow him. Jesus, of course, is using hyperbole to make an important point: the serious matter of following Jesus means you must put him first, above all else. Even the good stuff, like family and relationships. He says that we have to take up our cross, which means, if we truly want to follow, we have to be willing to go, even to death, to follow him.
Verses 28-33:
Jesus doesn’t want us to simply follow without understanding the implications. Like the builder or the king going to war, they both have to understand the reality of what they propose to do. One has to have enough money and building material to complete the tower, the other enough soldiers to win the fight. If either does not have the capacity to complete, then they must abandon it. Christ wants us to understand what we are getting into. Following is not for the timid or flippant. It is for those who understand the seriousness.
Verse 34-35:
Christ again talks about salt. Salt in the old world was very important. It was used in preserving food. When salt does not have the chemical compounds to do its job, then it is considered useless. It is thrown out. So what does Christ mean?
As Christians, Christ wants us to be useful. If our entire dedication is not to him, then how useful can we be? Let’s go back to Matthew 6:24:
24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
In this verse, Jesus is talking about money. His point is this: if our interests are split between two things, can we give a dedication to either? The answer is no; the dedication is minimized between both. If we are not solely dedicated to God, then can we truly follow? Again, the distinction Christ makes is no. Our allegiance must be singular, and everything else in our life a subset of this relationship.
So getting back to salt, if we are divided between our allegiance to God and something else, then our usefulness is minimized. And if we cannot be useful to God, then can we be effective for him? If our hearts and minds reside elsewhere, how can we bring ourselves to the useful spot God wants us to be in?
Again, it all comes back to focus. Focus on God first. Make your dedication to him authentic. Walk that walk each day, developing yourself into the strength God needs you to be fitted with. If you strengthen the relationship, then everything else that is good will flow from it.
There is a path to follow, however. James 4:7-10:
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
First, we as Christians need to submit (or resubmit) ourselves completely to God. What happens in our life, over and over is we slip back into a temporal way of thinking, we look for satisfaction away from the true foundation, and find ourselves in the weeds. Submission, true submission, comes along with repentance, and when both are true, we make a life change that is obvious and strengthened over time.
Resist the devil: James implores action, not passivity. Resistance means to oppose when sin and darkness rise in our lives. These things are inevitable, but taking the action to oppose sends the devil elsewhere.
Come near to God: Again, action. We are to draw near, which implies a willingness. God wants the willing, not those who believe they must (1 Peter 5:1-4). So our willingness, out true motives play a large part.
Double-Minded: This is the central idea. When we are double-minded in our walk, then are we truly following? If we are giving power to something else in our life, something that crowds God out and dilutes our walk, then is God our focus?