We exchange our lives for the things we buy. But is what we buy worth the price we pay in terms of the time we spend accumulating it? Every verse in Ecclesiastes 2:4-8 begins with "I". By adding every occurrence of I, my, myself, and me, we arrive at a total of 16 references to self in the Holman Christian Standard Bible, and actually 19 in the Hebrew. Solomon was evaluating a time in his life when he was centered on self. He had such an "I" problem this passage is called the "gospel of selfishness".
In verse 10 he states "All that my eyes desired, I did not deny them." Can the same be said of us? Look at the following graphic, taken from USA Today:
We live in an era where storage is big business. We have so much that we refuse to release, we have to pay others to store it for us, or buy a building ourselves to house our trinkets. No one ever had more than Solomon, and after piling it all up he said, "When I considered all that I had accomplished and what I had labored to achieve, I found everything to be futile and a pursuit of the wind" Ecclesiastes 2:11(HCSB).
What benefit is the over-accumulation of worldly possessions? The old popular bumper sticker that said, "He who dies with the most toys - wins!" is a gross lie! He who dies with the most toys, still dies, still must face God in judgment, and leaves the toys for the relatives to fight over. "What will it benefit a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life?" Matthew 16:26 (HCSB) My pastor used to say "There is nothing wrong with having things, so long as things do not have you". That statement is true; but the difficulty is possessing things and not allowing them to possess you.
We must find our sense of sufficiency and self-worth not in the amount of things we possess, but in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. "As he came from his mother's womb, so he will go again, naked as he came; he will take nothing for his efforts that he can carry in his hands" Ecclesiastes 5:15 (HCSB). Only when we invest in what is eternal will we find wealth that lasts. Only three things in this world are eternal: Christ's Kingdom, the Word of God, and people. Only what is invested in those three will last for eternity.
In Philippians 4 the Apostle Paul wrote the most powerful words on contentment from a prison cell. He wrote that he had learned a secret all of us should learn. Learning contentment (4:10-13) can only be done through Kingdom investment (4:14-18) and trusting completely in God's promised endowment (4:19). When our lives are fully and completely in His hands, we stop worrying about what we have or do not have, and we begin enjoying the abundance He provides!
BSFL Sunday School commentary for the week of January 24, 2010
Wrestling With Stuff Ecclesiastes 2,5
We exchange our lives for the things we buy. But is what we buy worth the price we pay in terms of the time we spend accumulating it? Every verse in Ecclesiastes 2:4-8 begins with "I". By adding every occurrence of I, my, myself, and me, we arrive at a total of 16 references to self in the Holman Christian Standard Bible, and actually 19 in the Hebrew. Solomon was evaluating a time in his life when he was centered on self. He had such an "I" problem this passage is called the "gospel of selfishness".
In verse 10 he states "All that my eyes desired, I did not deny them." Can the same be said of us? Look at the following graphic, taken from USA Today:
We live in an era where storage is big business. We have so much that we refuse to release, we have to pay others to store it for us, or buy a building ourselves to house our trinkets. No one ever had more than Solomon, and after piling it all up he said, "When I considered all that I had accomplished and what I had labored to achieve, I found everything to be futile and a pursuit of the wind" Ecclesiastes 2:11(HCSB).
What benefit is the over-accumulation of worldly possessions? The old popular bumper sticker that said, "He who dies with the most toys - wins!" is a gross lie! He who dies with the most toys, still dies, still must face God in judgment, and leaves the toys for the relatives to fight over. "What will it benefit a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life?" Matthew 16:26 (HCSB) My pastor used to say "There is nothing wrong with having things, so long as things do not have you". That statement is true; but the difficulty is possessing things and not allowing them to possess you.
We must find our sense of sufficiency and self-worth not in the amount of things we possess, but in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. "As he came from his mother's womb, so he will go again, naked as he came; he will take nothing for his efforts that he can carry in his hands" Ecclesiastes 5:15 (HCSB). Only when we invest in what is eternal will we find wealth that lasts. Only three things in this world are eternal: Christ's Kingdom, the Word of God, and people. Only what is invested in those three will last for eternity.
In Philippians 4 the Apostle Paul wrote the most powerful words on contentment from a prison cell. He wrote that he had learned a secret all of us should learn. Learning contentment (4:10-13) can only be done through Kingdom investment (4:14-18) and trusting completely in God's promised endowment (4:19). When our lives are fully and completely in His hands, we stop worrying about what we have or do not have, and we begin enjoying the abundance He provides!