SERIES: “BE SATISFIED”
“THE SEARCH FOR FULFILLMENT”
ECCLESIASTES 2:1-26
Two prisoners are shackled to the wall of a deep dark dungeon. They’re spread-eagled, securely fastened by manacles and chains. Their hanging suspended, side-by-side, a few feet above the damp floor of the dungeon. There is only one small window high above their head. They cannot move, are totally alone, and inescapably stuck. One prisoner turns to the other and says, “Here’s my plan!”
We all make plans for our lives. Sometimes they work out and sometimes they don’t. Solomon tried to figure out a plan for his life. In fact, he tried several different plans. But he found out that nothing worked as long as God was left out of the planning.
Eccl. 2:1-26 – I thought in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But
that also proved to be meaningless. “Laughter,” I said, “is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish?” I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives. I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well—the delights of the heart of man. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly. What more can the king’s successor do than what has already been done? I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness. The wise man has eyes in his head, while the fool walks in the darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both. Then I thought in my heart, "The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?" I said in my heart, "This too is meaningless." For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered; in days to come both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise man too must die! So 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. A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, 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. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
Fulfillment is an elusive dream as long as it’s pursued “under the sun.” Fulfillment means that you find contentment of satisfaction in what you do and how you live. It means that you have found all that you need and that you need nothing else. Fulfillment says that your deepest need is met and that you need look no further. Solomon was looking for fulfillment. We look today at two of his plans to discover fulfillment.
THE PLAN OF ENJOYMENT
Solomon sought for fulfillment in things he could enjoy. He describes to us some of the things that he tried. The first thing he tried was pleasure. Look back at vs. 1: “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” Another translation reads, “Come now, let’s give pleasure a try. Let’s look for the good things in life.”
There was a slogan that was very popular back when I was a young teenager: “If it feels good, do it!” It was on T-shirts, bumper stickers, auto-license plate frames, and signs all over the place.
The second thing Solomon tried was entertainment. Like a lot of people today, Solomon tried to hide his fears and discontentment behind the mask of being entertained. Our society loves and desires entertainment. We believe that if we can just laugh enough or get distracted enough, that empty place in our souls won’t hurt so badly. But like an empty stomach, the wrong thing ingested and digested in our souls only provides temporary relief and causes a greater hunger in the end.
In the early 1800’s in Manchester, England, an unhappy and depressed middle-aged man visited a physician who had been recommended to him. The doctor asked, “What is the nature of your ailment?” The sad-faced man told the physician he was suffering from a hopeless illness.
He was in terror of the world around him and nothing gave him pleasure or amused him or gave him a reason to live. He told the doctor, “If you can’t help me, I’m afraid I’ll kill myself.”
The physician tried to counsel the man. He told him that he could be cured. He encouraged the man to get out of himself, to find things that would amuse him, cheer him up, and make him laugh. The patient eagerly asked, “Where do I go to find such a diversion?” The doctor replied, “The circus is in town tonight. Go see Grimaldi the clown. Grimaldi is the funniest man alive. He will cure you.”
The sad-faced patient looked up at the doctor with tears streaming down his face and said, “But doctor, I am Grimaldi. I am Grimaldi.”
The third thing Solomon mentions is alcohol. Solomon was not referring to drunkenness here. In fact, he clearly states, “I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom” Most commentators say that the reference here is to anything for the table – be it food or drink. Solomon tried to be a connoisseur. He tried all the finest foods. He ate the most delightful of pastries. He drank the most exotic and expensive drinks. Yet, he found them no more filling or no more gratifying than eating common foods and drinking common drinks.
In our minds eye, we can easily imagine Solomon experimenting with the “finer things” in life: the finest food and drink, the greatest entertainers, the most physically attractive women, the most expensive toys, they finest modes of transportation, and the finest clothes.
People are trying to live by this part of Solomon’s plan today. They believe that if they could only experience more pleasure in their life that they would be happy. And the world has gone pleasure mad. We spend millions and millions of dollars every year to buy experiences of pleasure just so we can escape the burdens of life.
All of us like to have fun. Well, almost all of us. But it’s amazing how many people begin to build their lives around the experience of pleasure. It becomes the focus of their lives.
The sad thing is that those who seek to build their lives around pleasure are all disappointed. Why? Because while pleasurable experiences are, well, pleasurable, they don’t bring lasting satisfaction or contentment in the end. Prov. 14:3 tells us, “Even in laughter the heart may ache, and joy may end in grief.”
Pleasure-seeking seems good for a time, but pleasure is elusive. The more we look for it, the less we find it. The irony is that the more we crave pleasure, the less it satisfies. The more people drink, the less pleasure they get out of it and the more drinks they need. The same goes for drugs, sex, money, fame, or any other pursuit of pleasure. When we make pleasure our goal in life, the result is ultimately disappointment and emptiness.
Understand something very important here. Solomon is not saying that those people who enjoy having fun or have a healthy sense of humor are bad people. Solomon is saying that if pleasure is your only reason for living, there’s no lasting satisfaction in it. At best, the satisfaction is short-lived and superficial. It may dull the harsh realities of life, but by itself, it doesn’t truly satisfy.
One of the old mystics, named Julian of Norwich, said, “This is the reason why we have no ease of heart or
soul, for we are seeking our rest in trivial things that cannot satisfy, and not seeking to know God, almighty, all-
wise, all good. He is true rest. It is his will that we should know him, and his pleasure that we should rest in him. Nothing less will satisfy us.”
THE PLAN OF EMPLOYMENT
Eccl. 4a – “I undertook great projects…” What kinds of great projects did Solomon attempt to find fulfillment? Eccl. 4:b-10 – “I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and
planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well—the delights of the heart of man. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.”
Solomon built and cultivated houses, cities, gardens, vineyards, orchards and forests. He built the water systems needed to service all these grandiose projects. He supervised the building of the Temple, one of the greatest buildings of its time. He hired workers, including 30,000 Jewish men to work on his projects. Solomon bought slaves and had slaves born to those slaves already working for him. He accumulated unprecedented wealth in flocks and herds and in gold and silver. Solomon planned and coordinated both architectural and agricultural businesses that flourished. We saw him looking for fulfillment as a connoisseur. Now we see him looking for fulfillment as an entrepreneur.
Yet, with all of his work – and the riches and the lifestyle that came with the success of his work – Solomon could find no fulfillment. Eccl. 4:11 – “Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” It was time to face the truth: success does not satisfy. Henry Ward Beecher said, “Success is full of promise until men get it, and then it is last year’s nest from which the birds have flown.”
Most “overachievers” are miserable people. Riches do no not bring happiness. Success in your career, by itself, does not bring happiness.
One person writes:
If lasting happiness could be found in having material things and in being able to indulge ourselves in
whatever we wanted, then most of us … should be delirious with joy and happy beyond description. We
should be producing books and poems that describe our state of unparalleled bliss. Our literature and art
should rival that of the ancient Greeks and Romans and of the Renaissance craftsmen.
Instead, we find those who have “things” trying to get more of them, for no apparent reason other than to
have more. We find high rates of divorce, depressions, child abuse, and other personal and social problems
beyond description. We find housewives trading tranquilizer prescriptions. All this is surely proof that
happiness is not found in the state of having all we want and being able to get more.
Solomon spends the rest of Chapter 2 saying that no matter what he tried, there was no fulfillment. In vss. 12-16, he even declares that he could find no fulfillment in his wisdom. He could help others with their problems but could find no relief for himself. And the worst part of all, Solomon says, is that whether I’m foolish or wise, I’m still going to die. There’s nothing I can do to get around that.
Listen to Solomon’s assessment of life in Eccl. 2:17-23 – “So 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.”
Just remember that life is like the game of chess in that all the pieces end up in the same box. King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook, Pawn. They all go into the same box at the end of the game. And so do we as humans. No matter what level of society we live in, no matter how much wealth we accumulate, no matter how much power and prestige we wield, the coffin awaits us all.
CONCLUSION
Human beings have pursued fulfillment in every avenue imaginable. Some have successfully found it while
others have not. Perhaps it would be easier to describe where fulfillment cannot be found: Not in Unbelief -- Voltaire was an infidel of the most pronounced type. Toward the end of his life, he said, “I wish I had never been born.” Not in Pleasure -- Lord Byron lived a life of pleasure if anyone did. He wrote: “The worm, the
canker, and grief are mine alone.” Not in Money -- Jay Gould, the American millionaire, had plenty of that. When dying, he said: “I suppose I am the most miserable man on earth.” Not in Position and Fame -- Lord Beaconsfield enjoyed more than his share of both. He wrote: “Youth is a mistake; manhood a struggle; old age
a regret.” Not in Military Glory -- Alexander the Great conquered the known world in his day. Having done so, he wept in his tent, because he said, “There are no more worlds to conquer.”
But wait just a minute. There is something very important coming up. Solomon begins a different direction. He says that there is something that made a difference in his life. Eccl. 2:24-26 – “A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him,
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. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”
Solomon’s viewpoint and life begin to change around when he allowed God back into the picture. When Solomon allowed God to be the focal point of his life, everything became fulfilling. Solomon is saying in these last three verses of Chapt. 2: “Yes, life under the sun is meaningless. If you leave God out of the picture, life is just a bubble that will surely pop. But when God is at the focal point of your life, you remember that your food and drink and work is really a gift from God and then it becomes something to be enjoyed.”
Myra Brooks Welch, The Touch of the Master’s Hand:
’Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
Thought it scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin,
But held it up with a smile:
“What am I bidden, good folks,” he cried,
“Who’ll start the bidding for me?”
“A dollar, a dollar”; then, “Two! Only two?
Two dollars, and who’ll make it three?
Three dollars, once; three dollars, twice;
Going for three----“ But no,
From the room, far back, a gray-haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow;
Then, wiping the dust from the old violin,
And tightening the loose strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet
As a caroling angel sings.
The music ceased, and the auctioneer,
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said: “What am I bid for the old violin?”
And he held it up with the bow.
“A thousand dollars, and who’ll make it two?
Two thousand! And who’ll make it three?
Three thousand, once, three thousand, twice,
And going, and gone,” said he.
The people cheered, but some of them cried,
“We do not quite understand
What changed its worth.” Swift came the reply:
“The touch of a master’s hand.”
And many a man with life out of tune,
And battered and scarred with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd,
Much like the old violin.
A “mess of pottage,” a glass of wine;
A game--and he travels on.
He is “going” once, and “going” twice,
He’s “going” and almost “gone.”
But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd
Never can quite understand
The worth of a soul and the change that’s wrought
By the touch of the Master’s hand.
