Ecclesiastes 5:8-20

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 117
• Hymn — From All That Dwell Below the Skies (#7)
• Ministry Presentation — Daniel Cobbert (RUF at Mississippi College)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Scripture Reading — Ecclesiastes 5:8-20
• Prayer of Illumination
• Sermon
• Hymn — Take My Life and Let It Be (#585)
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: The Miserable Pursuit and the Joyful Gift

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 5:8-20

I. The Miserable Pursuit of Justice (vv. 8–9)

A. Corruption and injustice reach all the way to the top — even to the king

1. A better translation of v. 9 reflects the negative tone continuing from v. 8: "the profit of a land is taken by all officials; a king is served by cultivated lands"
2. Solomon says: don't be amazed — greed and injustice characterize fallen rulers at every level

B. This is the general condition of mankind, as Paul echoes in Romans 3:10 (quoting Psalm 14 and Psalm 53) — none is righteous, not even one

C. Practical application: do your civic duty, vote, contact representatives — but do so according to reality, not illusion

1. Paul appealed to his Roman citizenship; Israel was told to seek the welfare of Babylon
2. Do not let your anger over injustice become consuming; Ecclesiastes frees us from illusory expectations

D. The comfort of the Gospel: the government rests on Christ's shoulders; righteousness will one day rule — our eyes are lifted above the kingdoms of this world to the kingdom of God won in Christ

II. The Miserable Pursuit of Riches (vv. 10–17)

A. Loving money brings no satisfaction (v. 10) — the more wealth increases, the more others consume it (v. 11)

1. The lottery winner illustration: sudden wealth attracts people who only want a share; popularity fades
2. This is not a comparison between two laborers but between one who loves money and one who labors

B. The rich man cannot sleep; the laborer sleeps soundly (v. 12)

1. Satisfaction comes from eating in proportion to one's labor, not from excess
2. Restlessness echoes Augustine: "our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God"

C. Riches squandered leave nothing for the next generation (vv. 13–14)

1. The "curse of the lottery winner" — countless stories of those who win fortunes and die penniless
2. Citizen Kane: Charles Foster Kane's dying word "Rosebud" — the sled of his boyhood innocence — illustrates that all the riches in the world cannot satisfy

D. Mark 10:23-25 — Jesus says it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God

1. Jesus addresses his disciples as children in the context of riches — pointing to helpless dependence on God
2. Life begins and ends in complete dependence; riches create the illusion of independence and self-sufficiency

E. Riches pursued as an end are toiling after wind (v. 16-17) — days filled with darkness, vexation, sickness, and anger

III. The Joyful Gift of Work (vv. 18–20)

A. The key word throughout vv. 18–20 is toil — Solomon calls it a gift (v. 19)

1. The Hebrew word for toil also carries the sense of suffering — one who toils for money knows only the suffering of toil; one who sees toil as God's gift finds joy in it
2. Contrast with Ecclesiastes 1:3 — "what does man gain by all his toil?" — here the perspective shifts from gain to gift

B. Work itself is a creation gift from God — Genesis 2:15: God placed Adam in the garden to work it and keep it

1. The fall makes work toilsome (thorns and thistles), but does not remove it as gift
2. Cain and Abel (immediately after the fall): Abel brings the firstborn and fat portions — giving back to God the rightful owner; Cain withholds the best, treating his labor as his own possession

C. The elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son (cf. Luke 15:29-31) — "I've served you and never disobeyed"; the father replies: "all that is mine is yours" — nothing is earned; everything is on loan from God

D. The secret to contentment in any station of life: seeing all things as gift rather than gain

1. John Owen buried ten children yet wrote extensively of the joy of knowing the Triune God — preoccupied with God, not with loss
2. Philippians 1:29 — it has been granted (given generously) to believe and to suffer for Christ's sake — even suffering is gift, conforming us to Christ

E. Verse 20 — "God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart"

1. The man-centered life is preoccupied with gain; its days are filled with misery
2. The godly person's mind is so enraptured with God the great Gift Giver that there is no room to dwell on miseries — the mouth is open wide in praise

F. Closing call: Are you preoccupied with worldly gain, or with the joyful gift — even the inexpressible gift of God's own Son? (2 Corinthians 9:15)