“If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them. But this is gain for a land in every way: a king committed to cultivated fields. He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep. There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. This also is a grievous evil: just as he came, so shall he go, and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind? Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger. Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.”

No Peace in the Work of Man

1. The Disquiet of the Unjust

“If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them.”

We sometimes struggle in modern times with the rulers and authorities we have over us. Within the western world, even where there exist what are arguably the most balanced and prosperous systems that have ever existed, there is corruption and injustice. Outside of this sphere of influence there are far more overt examples of brokenness and evil in leadership – dictators and warlords, brutal cultures and ideologies that oppress and literally enslave, and entire systems that are still resting upon a foundation of what we may think of as unimaginable degrees of greed and savagery. But as we can see from the way in which Solomon begins today’s passage, this isn’t something that should come as a surprise. When God says in Leviticus 18:26–28,

“But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.”

He’s not speaking about a made up people, or in some general, hypothetical sense. These were real people who committed a host of atrocities and were judged for them. When Paul, collectively citing the Psalms, Proverbs, and Isaiah, writes in Romans 3:10–18,

“‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’ ‘Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.’ The venom of asps is under their lips.’ ‘Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.’ ‘Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.’ ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’”

He again is not speaking in a vague or general sense, but is addressing the pervasive stain of sin that rests upon all humanity. Unpleasant as it may be, we should not be surprised when we come face to face, or even witness from afar the wickedness and malevolence that is found on the earth. But what Solomon also reminds us of is not just that this shouldn’t take us by surprise, but also that we shouldn’t look upon injustice without hope. It would be easy to look up at the highest echelon of worldly power, to the rich, the famous, the politically powerful, those who seem to sway the world, and think them untouchable in their wickedness. For even in the worldly hierarchy there is always someone superior to another, an overseer that is responsible for those under them – and above them all, always seeing, and knowing, and understanding the thoughts and hearts of men is God. Yet even in knowing this we can find facing injustice a challenge. How is it that despite persecution, violence, and injustice, Paul could write in Romans 13:1–2,

“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.”

Paul didn’t write this at a time when he was facing some social pressure at work or from his family, he wrote as a man who had been severely persecuted. He tells us in 2 Corinthians 11:24–28,

“Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.”

Yet for all this, he continues on to say in the following verses 29–30,

“Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.”

Paul’s eye was not fixed on his own suffering, though he was certainly intimately aware of his own trials, rather he continually looked to God. He could do this for the same reason he could counsel people to be subject to governing authorities who were so often seeking their lives, and the same reason that Solomon writes that we should not be surprised when we see the powerful oppress the weak. 2 Peter 3:9–10 tells us,

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”

And again looking to Paul’s writings, we see the instruction in Romans 12:18–21,

“If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ To the contrary, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

We don’t have to be surprised, distressed, or worried when we encounter evil, because justice rests in the hands of the Lord. This doesn’t mean that we should treat wickedness with indifference or approval, or neglect to stand against it where we can, but we should not assume that it’s the position of the Christian to overthrow the tyrant or strike down the evil man. It may so happen that we are placed in positions to do these very things, but we must always acknowledge that justice and vengeance belong to God and are not things to be sought and claimed as our own. Isaiah 59:1–2 tells us,

“Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.”

God doesn’t treat evil with indifference, He hates and judges it. But we in the shortsightedness of our mortality can’t forget that God is not just glorified in the prosperity of righteous rulers, but also in the judgment and justice leveled against wicked ones, as we see with Pharaoh in Exodus 9:16,

“But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”

In this we can take heart and know that the throne of the unjust is not a place of peace or comfort, but a resting place where they await the condemnation they continually accrue against themselves.

“But this is gain for a land in every way: a king committed to cultivated fields.”

While there’s a clear case made that we’re not to be surprised in the face of injustice, or doubt God’s ultimate prevalence against it, there is an honest acknowledgement that what is far better is a just king, a peaceful king who is committed to the good of his people rather than love of power. While this is fairly obvious, there’s a quick test we can run to verify the observable truth of this claim – who was the most prosperous king of Israel to ever live? It’s Solomon without question. 1 Kings 10:27 tells us,

“And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah.”

The prosperity of Israel showed a sharp rise from Saul, to David, to Solomon, which was followed by an almost continual decline. Solomon was not a king of war or conquest, though Israel’s military might was far from toothless during his reign. In many ways he could be seen as a king whose attention was “committed to cultivated fields,” whose spiritually sharpened mind was turned to the prosperity of his kingdom, the good of his people, and the right handling and proper order of the blessings that God had blessed them with. With this aim and under this commitment the Lord provided and the nation prospered like none before it, and when his aim faltered and his heart turned from fully following God the seeds were sown that would lead to the nation’s destruction.

“He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.”

This all brings us back to the simple truth that there is no true rest or peace, but only disquiet for the unjust. The one who places his faith in the volume of his bank account or the height of his walls will be rewarded only with a constant, nagging feeling of lack. Solomon wrote in Proverbs 18:10–12,

“The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe. A rich man’s wealth is his strong city, and like a high wall in his imagination. Before destruction a man’s heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.”

Imagine for a moment that you want to feel truly secure – what means can you take to achieve this on your own? You could accrue wealth, but how much money do you need to have to hold back the dark violence of the world or stay the hands of death? You could amass great power and hold dominion over many people, and yet those you lord your power over hold the power to rise up against and displace you. You could build high walls, but again, how high do your walls have to be to keep out the world? And even if you could somehow construct this impenetrable fortress, you can’t escape the fragile impermanence of your own flesh – you will expire all on your own, slain by the passage of time. But to the one who trusts in the Lord – your foundation is established, your armor is lovingly provided, the strong fortress of God will never fall. The love of wealth is a rooted nest of unrighteousness that yields only the pain and anxiety of vanity, but in God there is true, eternal rest that cannot be moved or shaken.

2. The Disquiet of the Secure

“There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand.”

It’s not as though the world doesn’t seem to have a general sense of predictability. The sun rises and sets, the moon and stars move across the sky, we rise, we work, we eat, we sleep, and the cycle repeats.  Based on the seeming predictability of our lives we make plans – not only do we map out our weekends, holidays, and vacations, some people will go so far as to map out every aspect of their lives. There’s nothing wrong with having an aim or sense of direction, but every so often you’ll meet that person who will present their “five-year plan” as if they’re reading you something that has been set in stone. Jesus gives a parable in Luke 12:16–21 saying,

“… The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

And He teaches in Matthew 6:34,

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

Again, I’m not condemning having an aim for the future, but James 4:13–17, which carries a similar theme to Jesus’ parable from Luke, gives us the right perspective on the matter,

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

“If the Lord wills.” I can’t present an ironclad five-year plan – I can’t even guarantee that I’ll see the sunrise tomorrow (though I certainly hope to). I can only say, “if the Lord wills,” and have complete confidence that whatever the world may plot or scheme, it will not obstruct the hand of God. Now, to this matter that Solomon addresses, the “grievous evil” he has seen unfold, we have to take a moment to appreciate just how bad the scenario he’s laying out is. The man he speaks of was saving his money, which we could imagine as the responsible thing to do, but his savings backfired on him. He staked the money on a bad venture, a poor investment, and not just some, but all of it was lost. This is a bad situation, but then we read that the man was the father of a son – it would be bad for any parent to be utterly penniless, but there could be some hope that a daughter could marry a man who would provide for her. For a son however, who would have been dependent upon an inheritance, this bad venture has likely ruined his future as well. As Solomon drives home the tragedy of the man’s condition, we read this,

“As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came…”

This adds to the tragedy, that the man will leave this world destitute and stripped – an acceptable way for an infant to enter the world, but a shameful way to leave it. But then we read,

“… and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand.”

This is given almost as a sort of capstone to the tragedy of the man’s story, and yet this part is true for everyone who has ever and will ever die. There is nothing that I can produce in my mortal toil that I can somehow take with me into eternity. We get a clear picture of this from Jesus’ account of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16:19–23,

“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.”

Neither man’s condition after death was somehow based around what they could bring with them, but was the inverse of what they knew in the world. And so while this man that Solomon writes of certainly suffered a tragedy to lose everything, impacting not only his own life but the legacy he would leave after him, part of the problem seems to be that this is what he’d placed his faith in, what he had staked his hope upon, and so when his worldly security fell apart, he truly lost everything.

“This also is a grievous evil: just as he came, so shall he go, and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind? Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger.”

If all you have is material wealth, if that’s what makes up the center of your existence, the focus of all your pursuits, and then you lose that, then you have literally nothing left. Your foundation cannot be made of temporary, vaporous things, and yet be treated as if it’s going to provide eternally without an eventual catastrophic failure. This doesn’t mean that it’s not a trial for a servant of God to lose all their worldly blessings, but even from the lowest possible point we’re not entirely destroyed because the One who is our Foundation remains with us. We can see this in the condition of Job – his wealth is gone, his children are dead, and his body is covered in sores from head to foot. And yet in Job 2:9–10 we read,

“Then his wife said to him, ‘Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.’ But he said to her, ‘You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?’ In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”

Now, it’s not as though Job’s disposition was all sunshine and rainbows throughout his ordeal – not long after this in Job 3 we read as he curses the day he was born, lamenting that he was ever brought into the world. And yet, while this season of Job’s life brought a degree of suffering that most of us could scarcely imagine, we cannot say that he was a man of whom all his days were spent in darkness, with vexation, sickness, and anger. There was deliverance for this man, a return of his prosperity – both in the world, and eternally. Job was not established by his worldly security, and so he was not plagued by the uncertainty and disquiet of a man who has set himself entirely upon a foundation of sand and mist.

3. The Disquiet of the Busy

“Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.”

There is a clear Biblical implication that we are to enjoy the worldly blessings that God provides and praise Him for His kindness, but that whatever worldly gifts we’re given are supposed to point us toward what God has done for us eternally. If you’re trying to find somewhere to stay the night after a long day of driving, the sign that points you toward a hotel is a welcome sight – but you don’t stop your car at the sign and sleep there. You treat the sign with the appreciation that it’s due, and you proceed to the hotel. Jesus points to this connective, guiding quality between God’s work in the world pointing toward His provision in eternity when He says to the ruling Jews who are seeking to kill Him in John 10:37–38,

“If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”

And He echoes this same sentiment under very different circumstances, as He speaks to His disciples in the upper room in John 14:10–11,

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”

When Jesus healed a blind man He was literally giving that man physical sight, but He was also pointing to His offering of true sight through the illuminating Light of the Spirit. When He cleansed a leper or healed someone who was crippled He was truly delivering a physical transformation to a sick and broken person, but He was also showing the spiritual cleansing and restoration He had come to deliver. One of the greatest illustrations of this comes after Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000 as it’s recorded in John’s gospel. The next day the crowds come following Him, and we read in John 6:26–27,

“Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

But the crowd pushes back against Jesus’ words – despite the signs they’ve seen, despite the miracle they witnessed and partook of firsthand, they question Him – their interest is ultimately hung up on material food instead of eternal teaching. The matter begins to come to a head when in John 6:48–51 Jesus says to them,

“I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

It is after this that many of His followers turn away and depart from Jesus. But in John 6:66–69 we read,

“After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.’”

The twelve disciples may not have understood everything – Peter, speaking for them here, certainly missed the mark on more than one occasion – and yet guided by the Spirit they understood the connection. They grasped, at least to some extent, that the bread wasn’t about the bread, that the blessings of life weren’t just about this life, and that there was an eternal calling, a lasting, spiritual work to which they’d been called. Now, to address what Solomon says here, we’ve already looked at how he wrote in Ecclesiastes 2:10,

“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.”

Only to shortly after write in Ecclesiastes 2:18–19,

“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, 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.”

There is joy to be had in work, in the toil that leads to the accumulation of worldly things – but it is a vain, vaporous thing. It’s a fleeting joy with no substance, no endurance to it – and this matter is ultimately readdressed in today’s passage. If you have no eye for the Lord, if your mind is only concerned with today and has no thought or regard for the eternal, then whatever lot God has given you, you might as well enjoy. Is there toil before you to busy yourself with? Then you might as well enjoy it, because that toil is all you’ve got. Do you hold wealth, possessions, lands, or powers? Then delight in these blessings as much as you can, busy yourself with these amusements to your heart’s content (though your heart will never be content), because they’re all you have. What Solomon writes can sound fine enough if we read past without thinking too hard about it, but if we missed the others, a final warning sign sits bold and glaring in the last verse,

“For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.”

You won’t remember the days of your life. Why? Because God has made you occupied, He has given you over to the thing that brought you joy, to that which owned your heart. Paul writes in Romans 1:21–25, 28–32,

“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” … “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”

Here’s the simple truth – you don’t want to be in a position where God “gives you over” to anything. You don’t want to be in a state where the Lord has kept you occupied with the desires and joys of your own heart. What you want is His name filling your eyes, you want His Law written on your heart, and upon your hand, and as a frontlet between your eyes. What Solomon writes of – making the best of your days under the sun, because that’s all you’re going to have, is a terrifying, terrible prospect. To be in such a position that it can be said,

“For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.”

Means that the days of your life were spent pursuing vapor, that there was nothing that was done that was of any merit, worth any degree of remembrance. It is a life that was devoted to busyness instead of the lasting and eternal work of the kingdom. This is the theme that Solomon has explored again and again as we see his outline of a world filled with cyclical futility – but all this points to our great hope, our calling, our purpose, that the work of our hands, and hearts, and minds be devoted to the Lord, and that His name be glorified in all that we do.