Those who are pleased with God
[Ecclesiastes 2:12-26]
What Scripture passages do you recall if I say, 'A man who is pleasing to God'? What must we do to please God? Look at Hebrews 11:6 – “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” When I think about the Word “without faith it is impossible to please God” God is speaking to us to live by faith in order to please him. When we live by faith alone we can please God. Then what does it mean to live by faith alone when we think in terms of the Ecclesiastes that we meditated? From the point of view of the Ecclesiastes we have meditated so far, living by faith means that understanding that the world in which we live is vain (1: 1-11), the wisdom of this world is vain (1: 12-18), and pleasure of the world is vain (2:1-11), we no longer pursue the vain world, the vain wisdom, and the vain pleasures. Instead, we pursue the heavenly wisdom, consider God as our greatest joy and delight (Ps. 43:4) and live a life of glorifying God and enjoy him forever. God is pleased with those who live by faith. Do we now live by faith? Do we live a life that pleases God?
When we look at Ecclesiastes 2:26, King Solomon the Teacher says that God gives wisdom, knowledge and joy to those with whom he pleased. Then how do they live? Based on Ecclesiastes 2:12-26, I would like to think about it in two ways:
First, they who are pleased with God think of their wisdom in terms of death.
Look at Ecclesiastes 2:12 – “…Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly.” King Solomon already applied himself to the understanding of wisdom and also of madness and folly (1:17). Although he did so to understand wisdom, his conclusion was that this also was chasing after the wind. However, he turned his thoughts to consider wisdom again (2:12-17). Although he said that “with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief” (1:18), he thoughts about wisdom again and we get the impression that he was walking again in the path of despair. In such an agony and anxiety King Solomon threw the question “What more can the king’s successor do than what has already been done?” (2:12). He was pondering the question that after his death his children and descendants would become king of Israel and would follow his wisdom to do much more than what he had already accomplished.
We must also prepare ourselves in mind and pray before we leave this world. And one of the things we hope is to inherit the legacy of faith to our children and descendants. Another, like King Solomon, we must leave the wisdom of life we have learned during seventy, eighty years of our life on this earth to our children and descendants. In other words, in front of death like King Solomon we must also leave the wisdom of our lives to lead our children and their descendants. But here is the question. We can not be sure that our children and descendants will see the value of our wisdom and will follow it or not. For example, let’s say we say to our children and descendants “Do not live like me” after we have realized that experimentally drunk, doing some great projects and satisfying the lust of body and so on are futile and vain. However, who know that our children and descendants hear our instructions and learn the wisdom of life from us and say ‘I will never do what my father or grandfather did in order to enjoy pleasure. Instead, I will consider God as my greatest joy and delight and will enjoy the joy of obedience’ or not. Will our children and descendants be humble and obedient to the wisdom learned in our lives because they value our wisdom? I am afraid that though we teach our children and descendants the lessons we have learned in our lives, they will not listen to us but will experience the pleasure by themselves and will regret by saying ‘Ah. I should have listened to my parents’. The reason I think this way is because of Ecclesiastes 1:9 – “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” When I meditate on this word, I think our children will have to do it again after what we have already done. Even if we teach our children and their descendants what we have learned in the world through our experiences or mistakes without hearing our parents' words, they are more likely to fail to hear and to commit the mistakes that we already made. That’s why King Solomon said as follow: “… What more can the king's successor do than what has already been done?” (2:12)
King Solomon said as follow: “I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness” (v. 13). How is wisdom better than folly? Look at verse 14: “The wise man has eyes in his head, while the fool walks in the darkness ….” How is a wise better than a fool? The wise man wisely lives by thinking about how to live the rest of his life with death perspective, but the fool walks in darkness and does not prepare his death (Wiersbe). Nevertheless, when King Solomon looked at the wise and the fool from the point of view of death, he came to realize that the same fate overtakes both the wise and the fool (v. 14). What does it mean? Look at Ecclesiastes 2:16 – “For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered; in days to come both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise man too must die!” In other words, King Solomon realized that both the wise and the fool will die. And both the wise and the fool will be forgotten after their death. So he thought in his heart that “The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?” (v. 15) He confessed that “This too is meaningless” (v. 15). This means that all things are vain as long as man can not solve the problem of death (Park Yun-sun). So he said, “I hate life” (v. 17). Why did King Solomon lament his life? Why did he hate it? The reason is that King Solomon realized that what he did under the sun was bitterness for him, and that he was trying to catch the wind in vain (v.17). This is surely not the attitude of a wise person who pleases God. He who pleases God never laments or hates life that God gave. On the contrary, he loves life (1 Pet. 3:10) (Wiersbe). In other words, those who are pleased with God love their lives. Those who are pleased with God look at his wisdom in death perspective and do not pursue vain wisdom. Rather, they live wisely to glorify God with the heavenly wisdom, with wisdom that God has given them until the life they have left in this world. And they never walk in darkness like the fools whose eyes are darkened. Instead, they live like disciples of Jesus whose eyes are enlightened and walk in the light. This is how we should live as disciples of Jesus.
Second, they who are pleased with God think of their labor in terms of death.
King Solomon lamented his life by considering his wisdom from the point of view of death (v. 17) and hated all his labors under the sun (v.18). Look at verse 18: “I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun ….” Why did King Solomon hate all the things he had toiled for under the sun? Pastor Warren Wiersbe says there are three reasons:
(1) First reason is that he could not have the wealth he had gained through all his labor.
Look at Ecclesiastes 2:18 – “… because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.“ When King Solomon thought about all the wealth that had labored in his perspective of death, he knew that he who came to this world with empty-handed he would leave with empty-handed as well. So he hated his life because he knew that after his death he had leaved all his wealth to his successor.
Last week, when I saw the Korean news, I heard about the suicide of one of the big company in Korea. The news of his death reveals that the president of a large corporation, which had once been wealthy, eventually left the world with only debt, rather than leaving wealth to his children. I think that the relationship between the siblings was not so good. And I heard what happened when the younger brother became the chairman of the big corporation. Through the news, I thought about what this dead person left behind to his children at the end of his life. What will we leave behind to our children and descendants? When we look at life in terms of death, what do you think we can take and leave this world?
(2) Second reason is that he could not protect his wealth that he had gained through all his labor.
Look at Ecclesiastes 2:19 – “And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.” When King Solomon thought of all the troubles he had suffered under the sun from the point of view of death, he thought that not only could he not had all the wealth he had acquired in this earth, but also that if he dies he had to hand all his wealth to his children and leave this earth. So he hated his life. Think about it. If you think that you foolish children waste all your wealth that you have achieved for seventy or eighty years of your life, how vain that is and wouldn’t you lament your own efforts? King Solomon made this lament. The materials he had obtained with all the labor he could not even protect them. And after all, he had to pass on all his wealth to his son Rehoboam. But as we know, after King Solomon’s death, at the time of his successor King Rehoboam, his kingdom was divided into two. The northern kingdom was reigned by Jeroboam and the southern kingdom by King Rehoboam. And they wasted all of their opportunities (MacArthur). Can you imagine? When King Solomon knew that his kingdom which he had done for a lifetime would be divided into two at his son Rehoboam’s time due to his sins, what would King Solomon’s heart be like? What would his heart be when he thought of all the hard work he did under the sun knowing what was going to happen in this future that could not be reversed? We cannot protect what we earn in our lifetime that we inherit to our children when we leave this world. We don’t know whether our children are wise or not. And we don’t know when our children manage all of our materials after we die (v. 19) whether they will waste all the materials we have left for them or to glorify God through them. That’s why this is what King Solomon said in verse 20: “So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun.” After all, King Solomon was disappointed when he thought of all his labor under the sun from the point of view of death.
(3) Third reason is that he could not enjoy the wealth he got from all the labor he had worked for.
King Solomon would have enjoyed the wealth he gained through all his labors in his life. However, he is very pessimistic when he reads the verses from verses 21 to 23. For example, although he worked with his wisdom and knowledge and skill, and then he had to leave all he owned to someone who had not worked for it. “This too is meaningless and a great misfortune” (v. 21). And he said “What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun?” (v. 22). This he concluded: “All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless” (v. 23). What does it mean? All his days his work is pain and grief. King Solomon said, ‘This is also vain’ because the result of working diligently at all the time without resting at night was pain and grief (vv. 21, 23).
King Solomon confessed that his wisdom and his efforts were vanity when he considered his wisdom and his labor in terms of death. What is the lesson that he learned here? Look at Ecclesiastes 2:24 – “A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God.” When King Solomon confessed that his wisdom and his labor were in vain, the lesson he learned was that ‘Satisfaction a man find in his work does not come from himself but from God’. It is a gift from God that we eat and drink and find satisfaction from our works and enjoy them. If we can enjoy the joy of material life on this earth, it is also a gift of God’s grace and not enjoyment from our wisdom, knowledge and skill. So King Solomon said “for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?” (v.25) In conclusion, to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness (v. 26). To what extent does he enjoy? To the sinner God gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to had it over to the one who pleases God (v. 26). For those sinners who live in a life of unbelief and disobedience and do not please God, they can not enjoy even the material that they have labored on this earth, but rather those who believe in God and please God, who obeys the Word of God, they enjoy it. I hope and pray that we may be able to please God so that we may enjoy the wisdom, knowledge and joy that God gives to those who please him.