As everyone comes, so they depart

Ecclesiastes 5:10-20 TNIV

Those who love money never have enough;

those who love wealth are never satisfied with their income.

This too is meaningless.

As goods increase,

so do those who consume them.

And what benefit are they to the owners

except to feast their eyes on them?

The sleep of laborers is sweet,

whether they eat little or much,

but the abundance of the rich

permits them no sleep.

I have seen a grievous evil under the sun:

wealth hoarded to the harm of its owners,

or wealth lost through some misfortune,

so that when they have children

there is nothing left for them to inherit.

Everyone comes naked from their mother’s womb,

and as everyone comes, so they depart.

They take nothing from their toil

that they can carry in their hands.

This too is a grievous evil:

As everyone comes, so they depart,

and what do they gain,

since they toil for the wind?

All their days they eat in darkness,

with great frustration, affliction and anger.

This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for people to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot. Moreover, when God gives people wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God. They seldom reflect on the days of their lives, because God keeps them occupied with gladness of heart.


My thoughts -

I really love Ecclesiastes. There's just something strangely rewarding about reading Solomon, a wise man who had great power and wealth, declaring these things to be meaningless.

What he found was that there was never enough. You can always have more. Everyone complains about what they do not have, even the most wealthy of us. No one can have everything.

The things of this world are just not satisfying. They are meaningless. We get stuck in a cycle of working to get things that don't quite satisfy so we work more to get more things that don't quite satisfy and so we work more and more but never seem to get ahead because there's always something that we don't have.

And what of it do we get to keep? What do we take with us when we depart this life? What of it really lasts? Nothing. It is all meaningless.

Solomon says that what we do have can be a blessing from God if we enjoy it and the labor that produces it and don't obsess about what we don't have. Can we enjoy our labor? Can we find peace and contentment in our lives?

I'd like to but there's a sale at Musician's Friend, and I'm pretty sure I don't have whatever it is they're offering.

Not yet, at least...

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