Bible Men: King Solomon: Notes On the Meaning of Vanity

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. Ecc 9:10

Work and Pleasure

To be halfhearted, said the preacher, is to be unhappy. So we are called to enjoy “whatsoever” we do in life.

Ideally life should be easy. We should enjoy it every time.  

But the heart is a mystical organ. It has a way of devising its own happiness. Take writing for example. A man usually starts knowing what he wants to say and how to say it. But the pen usually has its own ideas. It says what it wants to say. Sometimes it comes up with a complete new idea.

Writing is both a struggle of the will and the spirit. And so is life. We discover very early in childhood that its chief tenor is struggle. Because we live not in a perfect world but in a fallen one, life is actually a curse because of sin. That’s what explains Solomon’s torment in his great sermon. Daily we swim upstream to beat the currents of life.

But life is also a blessing. Though it rears sharp thorns and briars, life is still wonderful. It is full of colour and beautiful people.

It is worth enjoying it with our whole heart. Including work. Every work. Are we lovers? Then we should love with our whole heart. Are we students? Then we should learn with our whole might. And not just because the grave waits hungrily but because God is the chief end. “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Ecc 12:14). 

So how should a man find pleasure in his work? How should he defeat the struggle? I think finding meaning or purpose in life should be the first motivator. It is from that foundation that everything, including work or eating, becomes a delight.

The purpose filled heart works. The grateful heart works. And work becomes a joy and not an encumbrance because behind it is the hand of a loving God and chief worker. Work therefore ennobles or degrades according to what a man believes. Do I believe in God? Then nothing shall ever be absurd again in this life.

That word “grave” Solomon uses is not entirely useless. It gives compass to the whole idea of life. It has a beginning and an end.

By doing work we put something into life before that curtain comes down. And that end according to Scripture is not far. It is very near indeed. So then the urgency for every believer.

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. 1 Pet 1:24

For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better. Phil 1:23

My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? Ps 42:2 

So we struggle, because the soul cries to be released into the eternal rest.

I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. Joh 9:4  

Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. Joh 11:9  

But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him. Joh 11:10  

In the final analysis it’s not the duration of this life which counts, but what is left. Christ lived only for 33 years. His full ministry lasted a paltry 3 years. So get up gang! Let’s be about our master’s business!  

Hope is Not Ashamed

What keeps a man from wholehearted duty? If the body is ailing it will be hard pressed to be whole hearted. If the soul is despondent even the grasshopper will a burden. If there is no peace in the heart it will show in the work.

How did the prophets cope? David praised God. He vented, but in the end he praised God. There’s a school which deems it unfit for a man to vent. May I suggest that is not the school of prophets. Prophets weep. But even more prophets sing. Truth hates darkness. Truth shatters prison walls. So Saul and Paul sang in prison. Venting may actually be a form of prayer. The Psalms are full of it.

Walk But Do Not Run

Life is a journey, with slopes and hills, forests and plains, rocks and rough winds, but in the end it’s a life that breathes sunshine and throws up wonderful sands and vines and music along the way.

Life is poetry. It is a sublime gift from God. Read it. Recite it. Proclaim it on rooftops. Please drink it because it’s healthy.

I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. Son 5:1

Lastly have a ball because nothing can really separate us from the love of God.

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom 8:38-39

It is only in the way of perfect freedom that a man can give his best. God is beautiful, and as his creatures we only give back that beauty to God who deserves it all.  

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 1Cor 10:31

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Joh 8:36 

“Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden” cries Christ. It’s not life which has changed. It’s the heart and the vision. Before I couldn’t see but now I do. And seeing, the work becomes light. The struggle has lifted and gone. The clouds have broken and the sun is out. Christ has come and now nothing shall be impossible ever again.

Bible Men: King Solomon: Notes On the Meaning of Vanity

He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity. Ecc 5:10  

The Peril of the City

Nothing flaunts her beauty like the city. A city, especially at night, is breathtaking. Like a woman, the city struts her stuff in the streets. She stands, and freezes, she runs while she’s walking, and at night she wakes while she’s sleeping. She cries as she laughs.

It is impossible not to covet in the city. It is where everything is happening – and where everybody who matters is. It is a desires galore.

And it is very hard for the Spiritual life to fully take root here. The city is the heart beat of the entire nation. It is where everybody in the village looks up to. What the city does the village imitates.

The Desire of Other Things

The command went forth: “Love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might”. 

But Israel coveted to be like other nations. In the wilderness many coveted to return to Egypt as soon as a small trouble rose up.

The heart craves novelty. It craves ease. But that is an inexhaustible pit. It always ends in misery. “Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us” (Ecc 1:10).   

The spirit of covetousness runs the gamut of scriptures. It’s a killer of faith. For the love of the world Demas renounced his faith, while Asaph the musician nearly suffered a mental breakdown because of it.

These are only a few examples of the damage wrought by covetousness. Jesus rebuked it. Paul bewailed it.

But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 1Ti 6:9-10 

Solomon’s Enduring Truth

Did Solomon suffer covetousness? Yes. It’s what had led him to become idolatrous. He failed to put breaks on it. “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col 3:5).  

Nevertheless God gave him to be an enduring lesson for all mankind on the dangers of runaway desire. It doesn’t lead to happiness but misery instead.

And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live. Deu 8:2-3  

The heart is unruly. Without God it is a city without walls. So Jesus exemplified to us the best path towards an abundant life.  

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Mat 6:19-21 

The city is beautiful. But a lot of muck runs underneath it. The city sprints. And it scorns everyone who cannot catch up. The city is for winners and not losers. And so coveting is fierce, even murderous. That’s why God had warned about it.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's. Exo 20:17  

If a man covet everything his neighbor has the next thing he will covet is murder. That’s how Cain’s murderous spirit was born. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

Covetousness spawns discontentment and fights.

From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?  Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.  Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Jas 4:1-3 

Covetousness destroys faith, heart, and soul.

And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. Mar 4:19 

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Heb 13:5  

Always Look At the Big Picture

“God crieth in the streets.”

 Let’s not miss him.

He may be the woman crawling, the son holding on to her mom’s teat, the boy crying, the old man looking lost, the man sweating, the agony emanating from the market, the thundering scream, the screeching of breaks, the shattering of bones.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Mat 25:34-36  

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Mat 25:40 

The city is a beautiful place. In the city people can get saved completely like Paul while others can get lost completely like Demas. Choose wisdom and live.

Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice? She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths. She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors. Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man… For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death. Pro 8:1-36