Ecclesiastes 5:13-20 There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, ¹⁴ and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. ¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶ 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? ¹⁷ Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger.

¹⁸ 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. ¹⁹ 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. ²⁰ For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.

INTRODUCTION

Good morning and happy Mother’s Day.

Moms, the fact that you are here is a big deal.

The most important aspect of mothering well is not fancy clothes, the number of activities your kid is in or how successful they are in them, what grades they get, how many ribbons they have on their chest, what college they into, or how much money they make at their job, or any of the other things that the world around us tends to value most.

The most important aspect of mothering is helping your kids see that God is greater than they could ever imagine. It is helping them know that God is God and thy are not. It is helping your kids see that they need Jesus and that He offers Himself freely to them. It is helping your kids see that they need the Church.

All of those things come together in the gathering of the saints for worship on the Lord’s Day. Again, the fact that you are here means that you believe those things and want them for your kids as well. Whatever else is going on in your life, that you are here is a sweet expression of God’s kindness, your trust in Him, and your love for your kids.

And now, for you, for your kids, and for all who have ears to hear, let’s turn back to Ecclesiastes and the Preacher’s perspective on the good life and the bad life.

In our passage for this morning, the Preacher continued his Sprit-inspired musings on wealth and work and their inability to innately satisfy. Within that we’ll see a few grievous under the sun evils as well as a couple of above the sun goods and the source of each. Almost all of that is familiar, but the Preacher takes us a bit further as well.

In particular, we’ll see the grievous evils of lost riches, the inability to take anything with us into death, and the fact that life under the sun is hard. But we’ll also see the goods of God in eating, drinking and toiling, as well as in wealth, possessions, and power.

This is a message for everyone who longs to be full of joy. It is a message for everyone who struggles with the love of money or with attempting to find genuine satisfaction in something other than God Himself. It is a message for everyone who has felt the inability of the things of this world to bring lasting happiness. It is a message for moms who want to know where to point their kids. It is a message for us all.

The big ideas of this sermon are that God is the only thing that truly satisfies and God’s grace is the only thing that enables us to be satisfied in Him and the things He gives. The main takeaways are to seek our satisfaction in God alone and contentment in all things through Him.

GRIEVOUS EVILS

The larger section this passage falls into begins back in 5:8 and goes all the way to 6:9. As I mentioned in the beginning, the whole thing focuses on the inability of wealth and work to deliver on their promises of lasting happiness. That is, we’ve already seen several evils experienced by those who have not yet learned that lesson. Among them are the facts that the love of money leads to systems of oppression (vs.8-9), it entraps, the one in its trap “will not be satisfied” (v.10), it leads to fake friendships (v.11), and it causes inevitable restlessness (v.12).

Continuing on with and expanding on that theme, our passage opens with the words, “There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun.”

The word “grievous” means sick or painful. The word “evil” means wickedness, depravity, misfortune, or disaster.

Combined, these words paint a picture of something truly deplorable and destructive. Literally, something so bad that it made the Preacher sick to his stomach.

I wonder what kinds of things you consider to be grievous evils; to be deplorable and destructive. What kinds of things truly make you sick to your stomach? Your answer to that question tells a good deal about your heart. Usually, the thing you love most is the opposite of what you dislike the most.

Although the Preacher only used the term “grievous evil” twice in his opening paragraph (in v.13 and again in v.16), he actually names three grievous evils. We’ll consider each in turn.

Riches Lost (13-14)

The first grievous evil, the first thing that made him sick to his stomach, was watching a man who loved and lost his riches. Look at v.13.

¹³ There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, ¹⁴ and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand.

The Preacher saw a man who had acquired a good deal of wealth. He does not say whether the man acquired it lawfully or unlawfully, for himself or by inheritance, through hard work or good fortune. Indeed, he says nothing at all about the manner in which the man came about his riches.

What the Preacher does say, however, is that he held onto his wealth “to his hurt.” That is, it cost the rich man a good deal to keep his riches. We’ll find out more specifically the nature of the cost in v.17, but for now the main thing we’re told is that the cost was steep and to the man’s detriment.

Do you have anything like that in your life? Something that costs you a good deal just to hang onto? An old car? A toy of some kind? A hobby? A relationship?

My parents had a cabin. For many years it provided us with a great deal of fun and togetherness. Over time, however, as my sister and I moved further away, as their friends and co-owners passed away, and as they got older, my parents seemed to spend more and more of their time and money on the cabin just to keep it. They went there more often than not just to check on it, mow the grass, get it ready for winter, etc. In fact, by the end, my dad probably spent more time worrying about the cabin (failed furnace, frozen pipes, falling trees, etc.) than enjoying it. In a way, it cost them a great deal to hold onto it and they kept it to their hurt.

The Preacher witnessed a truly grievous situation: A man who loved his money so much that he was willing to make himself miserable just to keep it (think Ebeneezer Scrooge). But as grievous as that was all by itself, it got worse. Eventually, in spite of the high cost the man paid to keep his riches, eventually he lost it all to a “bad venture.”

Just as details are omitted as to how the man gained his wealth, so too are they concerning how he lost it. What exactly is a “bad venture”? We don’t know if that means he lost it to speculation, a bad investment, shady partners, a sunken ship, a natural disaster, or something different entirely. All we’re told is that he paid a steep price to keep it only to have it taken away in the blink of an eye, probably due to some mistake he made. An evil indeed.

The Preacher witnessed the man’s situation go from bad to worse. And yet, the man still hadn’t hit bottom. One more time, the Preacher’s observation took a downward turn. Not only did the man pay a high price to keep his money only to lose it, but worse still—a grievous evil indeed—he had a son whom he had intended to leave it to. His lost riches not only wiped him out, but his child as well.

The man the Preacher saw loved his money and so tried to gain and maintain it, only to lose all of it. He’d put his hope in it only to be thoroughly disappointed by it. He wanted it to be a perpetual blessing not only for himself, but for his heirs as well. And it ended up being a curse for everyone instead.

That’s harsh. It’s one of the worst things imaginable for most men. And it is exactly what happens whenever we put our hope in something that wasn’t designed to carry that weight. The heart of every bad life is exactly that: a life built on hope in something unable to bear it.

Naked In and Naked Out (15-16)

There is a second grievous evil observed by the Preacher; a second stomach-turning thing he saw. He wrote about it in vs.15-16.

¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶ 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?

The grievous, under the sun evil named here is that no matter what we do, we come into the world naked and we leave naked. No one comes into the world with anything. And once in the world, no matter how hard we work, no matter how much wealth we accrue, no matter how much stuff we acquire, no one can take a single thing with them out of the world. Death is the great equalizer and, under the sun, it is a grievous evil to forget that.

Let that sink in a bit, Grace. Everything you’ve worked so hard to collect will, in the relative blink of an eye, no longer be yours—perhaps, as we saw in the last point, in this life, but 100% certainly in the next. We all die with exactly what we were born with and there’s not a single thing we can do about it.

Please consider how much of our lives would we have back if we could learn to be properly sickened by the evil, futile pursuit of happiness through stuff? How much happiness have we actually forsaken by seeking it in things we didn’t come and can’t leave with? What percent of our lives are spent (even if unknowingly) chasing after things that simply will not last? What would Grace Church look like if we all repented of this evil and stopped living as if there was gain for those who toil for the wind?

Life Is Hard (17)

As I said, two grievous evils observed by the Preacher were explicitly named. A third is found (unnamed) in v.17.

¹⁷ Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger.

In vs.13-17, the Preacher has a particular man in mind, a man who acquired a good deal of wealth, who fought hard to hold onto it only to lose it for himself and his son. He had given himself to trying to keep things that can’t be kept—working for wind. And the result of seeking happiness and contentment where it is never long-found was that he was instead filled with loneliness, confusion, poor health, and fury; another grievous evil.

The once-rich man had to work until dark, but didn’t even have enough money for candles. He was, understandably, frustrated because none of what happened to him made sense. His lack of money and need to work continually to barely provide his basic needs wore his body down such that his health constantly failed him. And on top of all of that, certainly as a result of all of that, he became an angry, bitter man.

Life under the sun is really hard most of the time for those who set their affection and hope on money; even for those who actually get it. It is a grievous evil that so many continue to fall into this trap; believing the lie that money can provide what it can’t.

Grace, that is what the love of money does. That’s all it can do; not quite to that degree in every case, but it simply cannot satisfy for long. It always, eventually fails and destroys everyone who hopes in it.

Again, that’s not just true of money. It’s true of everything under the sun. Nothing on earth can bear the weight of our hope. Nothing created can fill anything created with lasting happiness. It is a grievous evil to watch people try again and again and again to disprove that in devastating vain.

The Preacher observed the grievous evils of lost wealth, the universal reality of death and the inability to take anything with us when we die, and the severe hardships of life common to all who live entirely under the sun. At the same time, the Preacher observed the source of all these grievous evils: the love of money.

GOD’S GOOD

And yet, Grace Church, even under the sun, that’s not the only option. We need not give into the grievous evils that have swallowed up so many over so many generations. There is goodness and joy to be had for all who will seek it where it is found. The Preacher names two specific, joyful goods, along with their source.

Eat, Drink and Toil (18)

The first good mentioned is found in v.18.

¹⁸ 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.

It is good and fitting, satisfying and enjoyable for mankind to eat, drink, and work.

The Preacher says the same thing in different words at the end of the verse. He wrote that eating, drinking, and working are our lot. Therefore, the key to a life of contentment is coming to find gladness in simply doing what we were made to do. Even as (as in the man of vs.13-17) most discontentment in life comes from ignorance of our lot or trying to bypass or ignore it.

We are made with the need to eat, drink, and work. Those things are essential and inescapable aspects of our personhood. We didn’t make it so and we can’t change it from being so. When we engage in those things, rooted in that revelation, they are is good and fitting, satisfying and enjoyable.

That is, in eating, drinking, not as ends in themselves, but as means of nourishing our bodies for the purpose of living according to our lot in life—working and keeping all that is entrusted to us—there is deep contentment.

OK, but wait a minute. If all we had was v.18, then we’d have a few questions, but no real problems. By itself, v.18 mostly makes sense. But, of course, we don’t have only v.18. We have the passages we just read, as well as everything before it; all of which seems to be in direct contradiction to this.

I’m sure you noticed that the Preacher listed eating, drinking, and working as both grievous evils and as genuine goods. We’re right to wonder how it can be both? We need to wonder how it can be both. What is it that differentiates between those things being evil or good?

We’re given a pretty strong hint of the answer in v.18 and an explicit answer in vs.19-20.

The strong hint in v.18 is the above the sun acknowledgement that our days and our lot are given to us by God. That is, the satisfied and joyful are those who are godward in their eating, drinking, and working. It is those who recognize that all are from God. It is those who eat, drink, and work in the certain knowledge that true meaning and purpose are only found above the sun, in God Himself.

Grace, how easy it is to go to work and eat dinner as a practical atheist; as one who forgets that these things are good gifts from God. How easy it is, moms (and dads), to grow weary in your mothering because you forget that God is with you and the work you’re doing is part of His most fundamental design. There is such great glory in it for all who keep their gaze above the sun.

We aren’t given everything we need in v. 18, but what is subtly implied in it becomes obvious and explicit in the final two verses, which also contains the second good to be had under the sun.

Wealth, Possessions, and Power (19-20)

Look again at v.19, first for the final good and second for its true source. Look again at v.19 for the difference between the grievous evils experienced by the man in vs.13-17 and the great good of the man of vs.18-20.

¹⁹ 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. ²⁰ For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.

The first man experienced grievous evils on account of his money and stuff. The second man experienced great joy in his wealth and possessions. The first man experienced the grievous evil of working for wind. The second man experienced the profound gift of rejoicing in his toil. Wealth, possessions, and power crushed the first man, but were good gifts for the second.

Again, what was the difference? It wasn’t what each man did. It wasn’t what each man had. It was in their understanding of where it all came from and what it was for.

The first man believed that he was free to live the life he chose and that the fruit of it came from his own industry. The first man believed that those things were able to satisfy on their own merits. But the second man knew it was all of, for, and from God. His life and lot were of God, his work was for God, and his reward was from God.

The two men lived outwardly similar lives; at some points, probably nearly indistinguishable. Inside, however, the first man knew nothing but the misery of grievous evil, darkness, vexation, sickness, and anger. While the other man knew a life that was good and fitting, enjoyable, purposeful, full of rejoicing. And the difference, once again, was orientation and aim—under the sun and worldward vs. above the sun and godward.

O, the lessons that are ours here, Grace. From an under the sun perspective the difference between a God-honoring life and one of complete emptiness and destruction rests on a razor’s edge. If you only knew the pain the most put-together looking people are experiencing. If you only knew the loss that was right around the corner for those trusting in themselves. If you only knew the peace of those who have little but work honestly, love faithfully, and hope continually in God alone.

There is a great gap between those two kinds of people. Indeed, there’s a vast chasm between the two, and it is bridgeable by the glory and grace of God alone.

The goods mentioned in vs. 18-20 are, once again, eating, drinking, working, money and possessions. Those things are the lot of some such that through them they find genuine joy. The source and difference is God. Wealth is different when it is recognized as given by God. Possessions are different for those who see them as coming from the hand of God. Toil is different for those who work as unto God. Simple sustenance is different for everyone who knows that it is God who sustains and satisfies.

Ultimately, as the Preacher wrote, the difference is that for some, God “has given…the power to enjoy them,” to accept them as their lot, and rejoice in their work. This is God’s gift. It can’t be earned or demanded. It is God’s to distribute as He sees fit. And for all who receive this gift at the hand of God, days go by with a kind of contentment that keeps their heart occupied with joy.

Remember, as we saw earlier in Ecclesiastes, we need two gifts, not one. We need the gift of work and wages, but we need a second gift from God to enjoy and be satisfied by them.

The Preacher came to recognize in a powerful way that contentment in whatever lot God has for you is a gift from God. Joy in the things of earth is a gift from God. The ability to have and enjoy food, drink, work, money, and stuff, while not loving them or hoping in them is a gift from God. Contentment through the loss of the things of earth is a gift from God. Peace in the knowledge that we will all die some day is a gift from God.

CONCLUSION

The big ideas of this sermon are that God is the only thing that truly satisfies and God’s grace is the only thing that enables us to be satisfied in Him. The main takeaways are to seek our satisfaction in God alone and contentment in all things through Him.

And what the Preacher knew in shadow form, we know in the light. All of these things are ours ultimately through Christ alone. God distributed His gifts to His people in the Preacher’s day, only because He had predetermined to send His one and only Son, in love, to reconcile mankind to Himself—His greatest gift.

I want to close, then, with a few, simple ways to put this into practice. Given all we’ve seen, how to we seek satisfaction in God alone? How do we find contentment, whatever our God-given lot? How do we come to receive these awesome gifts of God?

1. Pray. Above all, humble yourself before God in acknowledgement to God that He is God and you are not and that you know you need His help. Ask God to grant you grief over and repentance of your sins. Ask God to help you see His infinite glory and yourself in light of it. Ask Him to help you receive the gospel in faith. Ask Him to help you see that He alone can satisfy; and that only by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
   
2. Forsake. Forsake every component of a life of grievous evils—love of money, fighting to hang onto all that cannot be kept, and placing your hope in things that cannot bear its weight. Repent of whatever ways you are seeking your joy in the things of earth as if they could provide it all by themselves.
   
3. Trust. Mankind has been seeking ways to manipulate God into answering prayers, granting certain experiences of His presence, and giving certain gifts from the beginning. There is, in way too many of us, a kind of distain for the ordinary means of grace and the perfect timing of God. We want what we want, when we want it. We believe we know what God should give us, what He does want for us, and when we need it. But God’s ways are always immeasurably higher than ours. Trust God for the gift and the timing.
   
4. Obey. While we cannot manipulate God’s works or timing, He has told us certain areas He’s especially pleased to be and bless. Give yourself to those things. Give yourself to the Spiritual disciplines established by God. Bible intake, prayer, worship, evangelism, serving, stewardship, fasting, silence and solitude, journaling, and learning.
   
5. Gather. One of the clearest of all of God’s means of grace is gathering with other believers in order to be built up, corrected, mutually encouraged, focused, instructed, and loved. God’s gifts rarely come apart from God’s people.

God has told us, in His Word, that these are His primary means of distributing His ongoing grace. These are His primary means of bringing joy and encouragement, contentment and peace, in Him and in the lot He has for us. These are the primary means by which we are able to recognize and forsake the hollow promises of created things to provide what only the Creator can. It is primarily in continued prayer, repentance, trust, obedience, and fellowship that God is glad to rescue His people from the perpetual temptation toward grievous evils and grant us His gracious goods.