Ecclesiastes Chapter Five Series

Ecclesiastes 5:10 He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity.

We always want more than we have. Solomon observed that those who spend their lives obsessively seeking after money never find the happiness it promises. Wealth attracts freeloaders and thieves, causes sleeplessness and fear, and ultimately ends in loss because it must be left behind. No matter how much you earn, if you try to create happiness by accumulating wealth, you will never have enough. Money in itself is not wrong, but loving money leads to all sorts of sin. Whatever your financial situation, don't depend on money to make you happy. Instead, use what you have for the Lord.

Ecclesiastes 5:11 When good things increase, those who consume them increase. So what is the advantage to their owners except to look on?

Clarke has said: “An increase of property always brings an increase of expense, by a multitude of servants; and the owner really possesses no more, and probably enjoys much less, than he did, when every day provided its own bread, and could lay up no store for the next. But if he have more enjoyment, his cares are multiplied; and he has no kind of profit. “This also is vanity.”

Ecclesiastes 5:12 The sleep of the working man is pleasant, whether he eats little or much; but the full stomach of the rich man does not allow him to sleep.

Trapp has said: “Sleep is the nurse of nature, the wages that she pays the poor man for his incessant pains. His fare is not so high, his care is not so great, but that without distemper or distraction he can hug his rest most sweetly, and feel no disturbance, until the due time of rising awakeneth him. These labouring men are as sound as a rock, as hungry as hunters, as weary as ever was dog of day, as they say, and therefore no sooner laid in their beds but fast asleep, their hard labour causing easy digestion, and uninterrupted rest. Whereas the restless spirit of the rich wretch rides his body day and night; care of getting, fear of keeping, grief of losing, these three vultures feed upon him continually.”

Ecclesiastes 5:13 There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt.

Hoarding can lead to hurt. That which arises from this practice of hoarding is - selfishness, greed and pride. If I have an abundance of wealth – why would I need anyone else?

Ecclesiastes 5:14 When those riches were lost through a bad investment and he had fathered a son, then there was nothing to support him.

That which is gathered can often be lost. A bad investment can wipe out a bank account. If the stock market should crash – one day a prince the next a pauper. What then will have left to leave your children?

Ecclesiastes 5:15 As he had come naked from his mother's womb, so will he return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand.

Job said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD." Job 1:21 (NASB)