God who is able to give riches and enjoy them
[Ecclesiastes 5:13-20]
Do you know who is the richest person in the world? Last week, I saw the internet news titled ‘Bill Gates step down as the richest person in the world according to 2010 World Rich Rankings’. So when I read the article, it said ‘the world's richest man in 2010 is Carlos Slim Helu in Mexico (Net Worth: $ 53.3 billion) (Internet). Carlos Slim Helu earned his money through his entrepreneurship at age 70, and he has the largest telecom company in Latin America. According to Forbes, Carlos Slim Helu, chairman of Telmex, has grown its net worth by $ 18.5 billion to a total of $ 53.5 billion. It has been 16 years since 1994 that the richest man came from a country other than the United States. By region, Asia has the most number of new billionaires that were born in 2010 this year, with 97 people. It is also said that China has emerged as the number two billionaire country for the first time. South Korea, which had only four billionaires last year, has increased to 11 this year. Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun-hee’s total assets surged more than twice to $ 7.2 billion so his rank went up from 205 to 100. How did they become so rich?
Today, in Ecclesiastes 5:19, the Teacher King Solomon says: "Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work--this is a gift of God.” Here, we must receive three lessons that God gives to us:
First, God is the God who gives us wealth and riches.
Here, "us" does not refer to ‘those who love money’ (Eccles. 5:10). God never gives wealth and riches to those who love money. Even if it is given, it is not a blessing but a curse. How can wealth and riches be a curse for those who love money? One of those curse and punishments is the desire of greed. If there is more money to those who love money, then they will not be satisfied with it because they will end up getting greedier. This is curse and punishment. How curse is it to have desire of greed that cannot be satisfied? For those who love money and have desire of greed that cannot be satisfied, there is no peace in their hearts. Sp here, "us" refers to those who love God, rather than those who love money. In other words, God gives wealth and riches to those who love Him. Those who love God here refer to those who fear God and keep his commandments. Look at Psalm 112: 1-3, "Praise the LORD. Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who finds great delight in his commands. His children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.” God blesses those who fear him and keep his commandments by giving them wealth and riches. How then does God give blessings of wealth and riches to those who fear God and keep his commandments? According to Deuteronomy 8:18, the Bible says that God blesses them with wealth and riches by giving them the “the ability to produce wealth”. Those who do not fear God do not think like this. They do not think that God has given them the ability to produce wealth. But they think they have made a lot of money with their own power. To those who think like this, wealth and riches are not a blessing, but a curse.
Second, God is the God who enables us to enjoy the wealth and riches that He has given us.
I think the foolish people in this world are the ones have abundant wealth but is unable to enjoy it. How foolish are those who enjoy using their wealth in vain pleasures. Why can’t they enjoy their abundant wealth? I find the reason in Ecclesiastes 5:13 – “I have seen a grievous evil under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner.” Why can’t they enjoy their abundance riches? The reason is because they try to keeps their wealth even by harming themselves. How foolish is this? Why are they keeping their abundant wealth to harm themselves? The reason is because they love money (wealth) more than themselves. How can money be worth more than man's life? Dr. Park Yun-sun said: "It is harmful to offer one’s life for what you can not have forever.” This is a grievous evil under the sun (v. 13). What King Solomon saw in this world was that the owner of wealth who hoarded his wealth even to harm himself lose all of his wealth through some misfortune, “so that when he has a son there is nothing left for him” (v. 14). Therefore, this is what King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 5: 15-16: “Naked a man comes from his mother's womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand. This too is a grievous evil: As a man comes, so he departs, and what does he gain, since he toils for the wind?” Indeed, naked we came from our mothers’womb, so we will depart. Although we gain a lot of wealth through our hard labors, we cannot take it to our graves. What good it is to accumulate a lot of wealth by even harming ourselves? What good it is to lose all our wealth through some misfortune even without enjoy it? As a result, King Solomon says, “All his days he eats in darkness, with great frustration, affliction and anger” (v. 17). In the end, the foolish rich people are nothing but the vain laborers who are only chasing wind. But God gives wealth and riches to those who love God and actually those whom God loves and make them to enjoy wealth and riches. Here, there is an important truth that we must keep in mind. Not only that God has give to us ability to produce wealth so that we can have abundant wealth and riches but also God has make us to enjoy our abundant wealth and riches so that we can enjoy them.
Third and last, God is the God who makes us to rejoice in labor.
The grievous evil that King Solomon saw under the sun was not only that the owners trying to hoard their abundant wealth to harm themselves (v. 13) but also to lose all their wealth through some misfortune (v. 14). In other words, the grievous evil that King Solomon saw was people are laboring in vain to catch the wind (v. 16). In addition to that, there was something good and beautiful that King Solomon saw (v. 18). It is written in Ecclesiastes 5:18 – “Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him--for this is his lot.” What King Solomon saw that it is good and beautiful is to eat and drink and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor. In other words, King Solomon came to realize that it is good and beautiful to enjoy the pleasures of eating and drinking and working (Park Yun-sun). And King Solomon says that this is his reward that God gives to those who labor. The important thing is that whether we have joy in our heart while we are working, laboring, and even suffering or not. Do you have joy in your heart while you are working, laboring, and suffering? Whether God gives you wealth and riches and lets you enjoy them, or give you your reward to rejoice in your labor, do you have joy in your heart? According to Ecclesiastes 5:19, this joy in your heart is the gift of God. And verse 20 says, God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart. Are we enjoying the joy that God has given us as a gift? The important thing is not whether we have a lot of wealth of not. What really matters is whether there is a lot of joy in our hearts or not. If we have the joy in our hearts that God gives, we will not often consider the years of our lives (v. 20). I hope and pray that we may experience the divine joy that God gives to us as a gift, and that we may do good and beautiful things in the sight of God.
We have received three lessons from God from Ecclesiastes 5:13-20: (1) The fact that God is the God who gives us wealth and riches, (2) The fact that God is the God, who gives us wealth and riches, enables us to enjoy them, (3) The fact that God is the God who makes us rejoice in labor. Now how shall we live? Ecclesiastes 3: 12-13 comes to my mind: “I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one's lifetime; moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor--it is the gift of God.” There is nothing better for us than to rejoice and do good in our lives. And there is nothing better for us than to eat and drink and see good in all our labor. So let us rejoice and do good. And let us eat and drink and see good in all our labor. I hope that you and I can receive this gift of God.