People > Money - Ecclesiastes 4:4-16 Series

Ecclesiastes 4:4 I saw that all labor and all skillful work is due to a man’s jealousy of his friend. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind. 5 The fool folds his arms and consumes his own flesh. 6 Better one handful with rest than two handfuls with effort and a pursuit of the wind. 7 Again, I saw futility under the sun: 8 There is a person without a companion, without even a son or brother, and though there is no end to all his struggles, his eyes are still not content with riches. “So who am I struggling for,” ?he asks,? “and depriving myself from good?” This too is futile and a miserable task. 9 Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts. 10 For if either falls, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up. 11 Also, if two lie down together, they can keep warm; but how can one person alone keep warm? 12 And if someone overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken. 13 Better is a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer pays attention to warnings. 14 For he came from prison to be king, even though he was born poor in his kingdom. 15 I saw all the living, who move about under the sun, follow a second youth who succeeds him. 16 There is no limit to all the people who were before them, yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

Introduction

The Importance of Money

Think of how much of your life is devoted to making money and spending money. Even if you don’t make any money, all day long you are spending money – either your money or someone else’s money. You are spending someone’s money every time you eat or drink or use plumbing or heating. You are spending around the clock – even while you sleep. Your whole existence is made up of making money and spending money. No matter what kind of lifestyle you live, money is a huge part of your life.

Review

We have been studying the book of Ecclesiastes, which is a wisdom book designed to teach us how to deal with life in a fallen, cursed, futile world. And we come to a section today dealing with this topic of finances. A quick review: The writer of the book (who calls himself the Preacher) begins by warning us about the folly of trying to do the impossible. If you put your energy toward gaining control of life so that you are in charge of what things come your way – your life will be an exercise in futility. Just trust God with all that and enjoy whatever God brings your way. How do you do that? By trusting God, fearing God and living for His pleasure. That is the recipe for enjoying life.

Trust that what God is doing is always beautiful. He controls everything and He only does good things. But in this life it is impossible to see most of that beauty, so instead of wasting your time trying to figure it all out – just enjoy whatever God brings your way. So enjoy life, but always keep Judgment Day in mind, because the gift of enjoyment only comes to those who please God.

And that brings us up to where we left off at chapter 4 verse 4. The rest of chapter 4 sounds like something right out of the book of Proverbs. He gives us wisdom principles because if you are going to enjoy life by pleasing God, you are going to need wisdom.

Ecclesiastes 2:13 There is an advantage to wisdom over folly, like the advantage of light over darkness. 14 The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness.

Wisdom and knowledge can be misused. If you try to use them to gain control over providence or figure out what God has not revealed, that is a waste of time. But there is most definitely a place for wisdom, so sprinkled all through the book are these sections where he just stops and says, “Here are some principles for living wisely and making good decisions.”

Relative Value

One of the most important principles when it comes to living wisely is the principle of relative value. If you are trying to make a hard decision, it is not going to help you to just know which things in life are valuable and important. That does not help because most of the time the reason a hard decision is hard is because it is a choice between options that are all good and important. In order to make wise decisions you have to know not only what is important in life, but also relative importance - which things are more important than other things. Is your time important and valuable? Yes. Is your health important and valuable? Yes. So what if you have to make a choice between option A that will cost you a lot of time but preserves your health, or option B that will harm your health but will save you time? You cannot make that decision unless you understand the relative value of health and time – which one is more important and valuable than the other one. That is why when you read Proverbs there are so many statements about, “This is better than that.”