The Advantage of Being Satisfied with God
The book of Ecclesiastes is a handbook on joy. Its entire purpose is to instruct us on how to have joy and satisfaction in life. It seems depressing because it describes life without God from a godless worldview. The reality of creation, as presented in Ecclesiastes and echoed in Romans 8:20-21, is that creation was subjected to vanity—not willingly, but by God in hope that it will be set free from slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Ecclesiastes exposes the godless worldview as depressing. Once it has depressed our hearts toward that life, it rebuilds a godly worldview. Our text shows how life is miserable without God and enjoyable with Him. Life without God is vain and pointless. The purpose of our text is to reveal how to be satisfied with God and why that is a huge advantage in life.
Three questions illustrate this advantage.
What Is the Purpose of This Life?
Looking at Ecclesiastes 6:1-12, the immediate answer seems to be there is no purpose, no point. Our scriptures confirm there is no purpose to life—it is vain and even evil, a grievous evil that lies heavy on mankind.
There is an evil which I have seen under the sun and it is prevalent among men. A man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor so that his soul lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God has not empowered him to eat from them. For a foreigner enjoys them. This is vanity and a severe affliction.
This describes a person with wealth, possessions, and honor—lacking nothing he desires. These are the same things given to Solomon. Everything he desires, he has, provided by God. That should be satisfaction. Yet what is lacking for the person who lacks nothing? He lacks the power to enjoy it. Without God empowering enjoyment, it results in moral weakness and disadvantage. When God does not give joy, material advantage means nothing; one is spiritually and emotionally disadvantaged.
This is the godless man. The opposite is the godly man, as in Ecclesiastes 5:18-20:
Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him. For this is his reward. Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God. For he will not often consider the years of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart.
The godly man forgets the world because God occupies him with heart gladness. The key to life is being Christ-centric, God-fearing, and cosmically amnesic—you would be exceedingly joyful. Circumstances are the same, but God's involvement makes the difference: satisfaction with Him versus deprivation without.
The preacher compares a 2,000-year life with 100 children and life's goods to a miscarried infant, saying the infant is better off. Why? The long life is pointless, frustrating, dissatisfying, ending in meaningless death with no burial or impact. Even abundance means nothing without God's empowering joy. Everyone goes to one place: death.
The only thing making a 2,000-year life worth living is enjoying God. Through the gospel, God secures involvement in our lives, preoccupying our hearts with joy. As Job 3:16 expresses preferring miscarriage amid suffering, Solomon shows suffering is God's absence for our good. Without God, better not to be born.
What Is Practical About This Life?
Life with God is far better. Ecclesiastes 7:1-13 shows it: a good reputation, wisdom, heart joy, slowness to anger.
A good name is better than a good ointment, and the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth.
Death becomes good; birth less so. Your death has meaning. Death, once an executioner, is now a gardener by the gospel. A good name comes from Christ's righteousness, not our works. Guard your reputation in Christ.
It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, because that is the end of every man, and the living takes it to heart.
The living—spiritually alive by God's joy—are far-sighted, considering the end. Not near-sighted feasting, ignoring destiny. Death comes quickly; be ready in Christ's righteousness.
Sorrow is better than laughter, for when a face is sad a heart may be happy.
Be internally happy by God, externally sad toward worldly things. Ecclesiastes depresses us toward godless pursuits to free us for permanent satisfaction in God. Sorrow comforted by God yields greater joy. Evil proves God exists—He breaks hearts to maximize eternal joy.
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, while the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.
Fools chase vain pleasure—a judgment (Romans 1:21). Wise live soberly toward death, thrilled internally by God. Do not emulate the world; see it as what not to do.
It is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise man than to listen to the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorn bushes under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool; this too is vanity.
Rebuke stings but endures; fools' joy crackles briefly, pointless like thorns under a pot.
Oppression makes a wise man mad, and a bribe corrupts the heart. The end of a matter is better than its beginning. Patience of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit.
Avoid extortion and bribes. Patience—long-winded spirit—opposes pride (James 1). The end of adversity is better.
Do not be eager in your heart to be angry, for anger resides in the bosom of fools. Do not say, “Why is it that the former days were better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this. Wisdom along with an inheritance is good and is an advantage to those who see the sun. For wisdom is protection just as money is protection, but the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the lives of its possessors. Consider the work of God, for who is able to straighten what He has bent?
Anger is willing, zealous—be slow (James 1). Fools reminisce foolish pleasures; wise look forward to greater enjoyment of God through sanctification. Wisdom, our inheritance in Christ (1 Peter 1:4), preserves life.
What Is God’s Plan for This Life?
In the day of prosperity be happy, but in the day of adversity consider—God has made the one as well as the other so that man will not discover anything that will be after him.
God crafts prosperity—be happy. He also crafts adversity for purpose. The wise, occupied by God's joy, endure somewhat forgetfully. Adversity completes life; nothing more to discover. God sovereignly plans it for your good, making the post-adversity you greater, equipped for eternal joy. Without the gospel, all is vain; with it, we are rich in Christ.
