Pleasure, Wisdom, and Toil

Ecclesiastes 2:1

“I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with…..”

In the movie “The Toy,” Richard Prior plays a man who becomes a rich little boys toy. This rich little boy had everything at his fingertips. He always got whatever he wanted. Rooms full of toys, games go carts, you name it, this kid had it all. While he was away from the mansion, he sees Richard Prior, a janitor at a local store, playing around while he was cleaning the store. The famous Wonder Wheel scene catches the eye of young Jeffrey. Right then and there, little Jeffrey wants Richard Prior as his own real life toy. Richard Prior goes along with it because he is getting paid quite handsomely. I won’t give away the story, but young Jeffrey learns a great lesson from a janitor.

After Solomon writes down his take on wisdom in chapter 1 verse 18 “For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief,” he starts in on pleasure, wisdom/folly, and toil. In verse 3 of chapter 2 Solomon writes that “my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.” We can all stop here and proclaim that this statement sums up most of our thinking on life. All we hear is… “plan for the future with this special retirement plan,” or “carpe diem , just seize the day and have fun while you can.”

We seem to be torn between two things, work like crazy and retire with tons of money when you get old, or throw caution to the wind and live it up. Solomon was able to do both of these things, have a ton of money and live it up, the good life right?

Solomon writes that he undertook projects, built houses, vineyards, gardens, parks, orchards, lakes. He even acquired all the slaves he wanted from foreign countries as well as from his own house. He had the greatest harem, the delights of mans’ heart (verse 8). He became the greatest in Jerusalem and during all of this he writes that his wisdom stayed with him. His resume must have been a best selling novel.

Shocking to hear, this same man says in verse 17, “So I hated my life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me.” What is even more shocking is when he writes in verse 26 “For to the person who pleases Him, God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and heaping up, that he may give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after the wind and a feeding on it.” So what is it then? Striving after money and power or building, or becoming the smartest person in the room? How about going after pleasure, all you can get from it. Sadly enough, we have all fallen into this trap.

Hollywood has survived making movies and TV shows about these topics for decades. What draws people to this is the fact that all these things promise everything but deliver nothing. If I can only get that car or build that house or have that girlfriend or boy friend, things would all be great. So we pursue, chase, plot and even strive to get these things. For some of us, we get all we have been striving for. For others, no matter how long we chase those things, it is always out of our grasp. Little Jeffrey set no boundary in his greed and took to a new level wanting a human toy. How classic.

The question is how long will you keep striving and plotting to achieve the things this world deems to be the highest achievements? Matthew 13:44 says, “The holy nation of heaven is like a box of riches buried in a field. A man found it and then hid it again. In his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” In this little parable, Jesus tells us that we should strive, plot, yearn, go after all that Christ has for us instead of the all the world has to offer.

Things will never satisfy what only God can do. Jesus is the only thing that fills that hole in your life. You were made with a God sized hole inside of you. Only Jesus can fill it and give us fulfillment. Stop chasing after this world. Pursue God every day all day!

Prayer: Father we can get caught up in striving after things in this world. Solomon, in all his wisdom, writes down for us to read how meaningless all this stuff is the world has to offer. I pray that we would turn our eyes on you and go after you with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. In Jesus name, amen.