Everyone searches to find meaning for their lives. And many of them, especially men, but women as well, seek for it in their work. For many, that’s where there self-esteem comes from.
And for the career-minded, that’s where they seek to make their mark in the world. They want to be remembered for what they’ve done. And so they pour a lot of their time and effort into their work.
Solomon did too. But what did he find?
I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool?
Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun.
This too is meaningless.
So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun.
For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it.
This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.
What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun?
All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest.
This too is meaningless. (Ecclesiastes 2:17-23)
Solomon found despair in his work, because his goal was to make a name for himself. To do something that was lasting, and would make an impact far into the future.
But he realized that once he was dead, he had no control over all that he had built. The person who succeeded him could easily tear down all that he had worked so hard to build.
This in fact is exactly what happened. Solomon’s son Rehoboam, through his own foolishness and stubbornness, caused Israel to split into two, with Rehoboam getting the much smaller part.
All that Solomon had done to forge a strong country, was undone shortly after his death.
But Solomon could see that possibility while he was still alive. And so he went from despair to resignation, saying,
So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him? (3:22)
In other words, “All of us are going to die. We can’t control what happens to all we built in our lifetime. So we might as well not worry about it. Just enjoy your work as much as you can.”
But there is an alternative way to see our work. That all we do has its place in God’s tapestry of all he’s doing in the world. And that God will weave what we do into something that has an impact on this world.
That is in fact what chapter 3 is all about. There is a tapestry in life. There is a time for everything.
A time to be born, a time to die. A time to plant, a time to uproot. A time to kill, a time to heal.
Some of these things we look as good, others as evil. Others are just a natural part of the cycle of life.
But what Solomon realized is that they all have their place in what God is doing in this world. Even the things we see as evil, God can in the big picture, turn into something good.
I really do believe, for example, that Satan has over the years tried to get rid of the Jewish nation, God’s chosen people.
The most notorious example in modern history was the Jewish holocaust. It was pure evil what happened to the Jews.
But what was the result? The Jewish state of Israel was reborn. God turned something evil Satan tried to do, wove it into the tapestry of his overall plan for the world, and turned it into something good.
And that’s why Solomon could say in verse 11,
He has made everything beautiful in its time.
Even if we never see how everything works out in our lifetime, we can know that God will work everything out as he plans.
Even the injustice that Solomon saw, and that even we see today in our courts, that too will be worked out in God’s courtroom on the day of justice. (3:15-17)
But getting back to work, Solomon writes again,
What does the worker gain from his toil? (3:9-10)
If our life and work are self-centered, if we’re only concerned about what we do, and what we accomplish, then ultimately, we’ll end up like Solomon despairing that all we worked for will be wasted by another or forgotten altogether after we die.
But if our life and work are God-centered, if we are focusing not on what we hope to accomplish, but on what God wants to accomplish, then we start to realize that what we’re doing will last because it’s part of the tapestry that God is weaving for this world.
As Solomon wrote,
I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. (3:14)
In other words, God has a plan, and nothing, not even the plans of man, can shake it. He just weaves whatever we do into what he’s doing.
The only question we need to ask ourselves is whether God is using us because we’re cooperating with him, or using us in spite of the fact that we’re ignoring him or even fighting against him.
With the first path comes joy, with the latter, only frustration and ultimately despair.
As Solomon wrote,
Without God, who can eat or find enjoyment?
To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. (Ecclesiastes 2:25-26)
Moment to Moment (Bible blog) 