A heavy thing for a person
[Ecclesiastes 6:1-6]
What is making your heart heavy these days? What is s thing that weigh your heart down? Yesterday Tuesday, I took my children to the academy for their lessons. And when they were getting lessons, I went out to make a phone call. Then after the conversation was over my youngest child, who came out of the room, talked with me. When the phone call was over, she said to me ‘let’s go and sit down under the tree’. So we sat down under the tree and I asked her, "How is your life?" Ans she said, "Good". So I asked her, ‘What is good?’ And she said: ‘Actually I am tire’. Even six years old kid’s life seemed to be tiresome. Haha. How about you? Aren’t your lives tiresome too? Don’t you have burden in your hearts? If you do, I hope that you can response to the invitation of Jesus who says in Matthew 11: 28-30 as follow: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
According to Ecclesiastes 6:1, this is what King Solomon says: “I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on men.” We have already thought about the fact that King Solomon saw “a grievous evil under the sun” in Ecclesiastes 5: 13-20 during the last Wednesday night prayer meeting. The grievous evil was “wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner” (v. 13). What King Solomon saw in this world was that it was the grievous evil that the owner of the wealth tried to keep his wealth to the point of even harming himself but eventually lost all his wealth due to the calamity and thus he had no wealth to pass on to his own son. So King Solomon said, “This too is a grievous evil” (v. 16) that “Naked a man comes form his mother’s womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand” (v. 15). What does it do when you keep all your riches to such an extent that it harms you? What good is it if there is no wealth to pass on to your son because of the disaster and the loss of it? Indeed, it is the grievous evil that our lives come with empty-handed and depart with empty-handed. And in Ecclesiastes 6:1, King Solomon saw another grievous evil in this world, which weighs heavily upon man [“… though a man’s misery weighs heavily upon him” (8: 6)]. What is that grievous evil that weights heavily upon man? Look at Ecclesiastes 6:2 – “God gives a man wealth, possessions and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires, but God does not enable him to enjoy them, and a stranger enjoys them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil.” The grievous evil that weights heavily upon man is even though he received wealth, riches, and honor from God, and thus is not lacking in the wishes of the heart, but has not been able to enjoy all of them. Rather, God has made others to enjoy all of them. To whom does God make to enjoy all his wealth, riches, and honor? Look at Ecclesiastes 2:26 – “To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, ...”. God causes sinners to labor, to gather them up to build up wealth, and eventually to give all that wealth to those whom God is pleased with. King Solomon said this is meaningless (6:2) and "evil of affliction" (Swanson).
Moreover, the grievous evil that King Solomon saw was a man with all these possessions, riches, and honors as well as he had hundred children and lived many years; yet no matter how long he lived, he could not enjoy them (v. 3). Please think about it. What evil of affliction is this if you have received the blessings of wealth, riches, honor, children and long life from God and you cannot enjoy them all? Furthermore, not only can he not enjoy all these blessings, but if his body can not be properly buried at the time of death, what kind of grievous evil will this person suffer? At that time in the East, it was the most humiliation if the dead body could not be buried properly. So King Solomon says that “the miscarriage” is better off than” those who can not enjoy all the riches and who can not be buried properly at their death (v. 3). How can the miscarriage is better than those who cannot enjoy all the riches and who are not buried properly at their death? Look at Ecclesiastes 6:4-5: “for it comes in futility and goes into obscurity; and its name is covered in obscurity. It never sees the sun and it never knows anything; it is better off than he.” According to Pastor John MacArthur, no matter how long a person lived and how many children there were, if there were no one who was saddened when he died which honor, then he was considered worse than a miscarriage baby. Although the miscarriaged baby in his mother's womb comes in futility and goes into obscurity (v.4), the baby is better off than those who have all the wealth, riches, honor and blessings of children who have not enjoyed all these blessings and are not buried properly in their death because the miscarriaged baby has peace. In other words, the miscarriaged baby is better off than all those who have all the wealth, riches, honor and blessings of children who cannot enjoy all these blessing and are not buried properly in their death because the baby has never seen the evil activity that is done under the sun (4:30). No matter how long they live in this world, they will not be able to enjoy all the wealth and riches, but they will see the wickedness, sorrow, and suffering of all the evil done in this world. And they won’t be buried properly in their death. But the miscarriaged babies are better because they are free from the worries and pain of this world and from their hardships and sufferings. In this way King Solomon asks the conclusion question in Ecclesiastes 6:6 – “Even if the other man lives a thousand years twice and does not enjoy good things--do not all go to one place?” Eventually whether the miscarriaged baby or those who were blessed with all the wealth, riches and honor and live thousand years but cannot enjoy and die aren’t all of them go back to the same place that is dust? Therefore, King Solomon says this is the grievous evil and burdensome.
One day, when I praised “I must tell Jesus all of my trials” in my church, I remember that one of my members told me that if I singed that hymn, he felt a little sinking. In fact, one of the reasons I am singing this hymn is because my heart is heavy. So I praise it so:
1. I must tell Je-sus all of my tri-als, I can-not bear these bur-dens a-lone;
In my dis-tress He kind-ly will help me, He ev-er loves and cares for His own.
2. I must tell Je-sus all of my troub-les, He is a kind, com-pas-sion-ate Friend;
If I but ask Him, He will de-liv-er, Make of my troub-les quick-ly and end.
3. Tempt-ed and tried I need a great Sav-ior, One who can help my bur-dens to bear;
I must tell Je-sus, I must tell Je-sus, He all my cares and sor-rows will share.
4. O how the world to e-vil al-lures me! O how my heart is tempt-ed to sin!
I must tell Je-sus, and He will help me O-ver the world the vic-t'ry to win.
{Chorus}
I must tell Je-sus! I must tell Je-sus! I can-not bear my bur-dens a-lone;
I must tell Je-sus! I must tell Je-sus! Je-sus can help me, Je-sus a-lone.
When I did so, I focused on my heavy burden instead of laying down my heavy burden before the Lord. So while singing this hymn, I often had a heavy heart. However, when I went to the mission field, where my father was several years ago, I fell asleep in the room around 4:00 am and heard my father singing this hymn in the morning prayer with disabled people. And there was power in his voice when was singing this hymn. It was a strong praise and I could not feel the heaviness at all in his voice. So I thought about how he could praise God with such strong voice without any heaviness in his heart. My conclusion was since he laid down all his burden before the Lord humbly in obedience to Jesus’ invitation of “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-burden, and I will give you rest” (Mt. 11:28) so that he was able to enjoy rest and peace in the Lord. I hope that all of us can humbly receive Jesus’ invitation and go to Him when we are weary and heavy-burden. And let us lay down all our weariness and heavy-burden before the Lord so that we may enjoy God’s given rest and peace in our hearts.