Theme: What does a man gain for his toil
Text: Eccl. 1:2, 2:21-23; Col. 3:1-5, 9-11; Lk. 12:13-21
Read Eccl. 2:21-23 “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. What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labours under the sun?”
There are many sad things happening around us that are now so common that they no longer affect us, as they should. The newspapers recently carried the story about a man who had left Accra for London. According to the story he met his sudden death outside a London hotel when one of the 46 cocaine pellets he had swallowed burst in his stomach. What could have made the man do such a reckless thing without any regard for his life? There was another recently carried story about four men who robbed a woman from a moving vehicle. Two managed to escape, one was lynched and another severely beaten. What could have made these men risk their lives in such a way? In one of his books Leo Tolstoy tells the story of a young Russian who inherits his father’s small farm. He immediately starts dreaming of how to expand his property when one morning a well-dressed stranger visits him and makes him an offer that is too good to be true - he could have free of charge all the property he could walk around in one day. The only condition was that he returns to the same spot from which he started, the grave of his father, before the sun went down. Seeing the rich fields in the distance, he sets out without taking any provisions or saying goodbye to his family. He figured he could cover six square miles in a day. After a short while he decided to make it nine, then twelve and finally fifteen square miles. By noon he makes it to the halfway point. Though hungry with his legs aching he continues. He was near the point of exhaustion but the obsession to own the land drives him on. With only a few minutes left before the sun went down, he gathers all his strength, stumbles across the line, the new owner of fifteen square miles of land, and then collapses on the ground, dead. The stranger smiles and said, “I offered him all the land he could cover. Now you see what that is, six feet long by two feet wide, and I thought he would like to have the land close to his father’s grave, rather than to have it anywhere else.” Having said that, the stranger whose name is Death vanishes saying “I have kept my pledge.” Each one of us will come face-to-face with the same stranger and must begin to ask ourselves “What does a man get for his toil?”
We must toil for what has value. Jesus was one day teaching about those things that have value - about the Kingdom of God, about the care and love of the Father, about the importance of fearing God and confessing Him before others when someone from the crowd interrupted him with a request to resolve a family dispute over an inheritance. The man was counting on Jesus to get him his money. This prompted Jesus to teach about the dangers of covetousness and placing one’s confidence in earthly riches. In our materialistic society, what Jesus had to say is especially relevant today. For most people their main priority in life is to accumulate wealth. Money in itself is not bad; it is the greed for money that is so destructive. Greed simply wants more, it is having a desire that cannot be satisfied.
The destructiveness of greed is seen in the frequently narrated story of a beggar found dead on the streets of New York. His death was not due to crime, nor to disease but due to starvation and freezing in the cold weather. He had lived as a homeless man on the streets in a cardboard box. The curious thing was that the man died holding a copy of the Wall Street Journal, a newspaper usually read by those in the financial and business world. This beggar had been checking his stocks and bonds. He died with a key tightly clenched in his fist, which was later identified as a key to a safety deposit box in a local bank. When the box was opened it was discovered to contain over $10 million worth of stocks and bonds. He had so much money but it was not enough to prevent him starving and freezing to death. Life consists of far more than just obtaining and possessing things. God wants us to enjoy a full, complete and balanced life, and He has made provision through His Word for us to be fulfilled in that way. He has promised to fulfil the desires of our hearts, but He also wants us to toil for the things that have value. We can only do this by putting off the old man with his deeds. Before we can put on a new set of clothes we have to remove the old set. We are to put off the filthy garments associated with the flesh and to put on the clean garments associated with righteousness. We are to set “our affections on things above, not on things on the earth.” Toiling for what are valuable results in a growing relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. The more we spend time with Him in prayer and the reading of His Word the more we will understand Him, see as He sees, hear as He hears and live out the truths of His word. What we believe should determine the way we behave.
Our toil should be seen as that of a steward. The landowner in today’s parable was diligent but Jesus points out that he was not the one who produced the crop. True, he planted and tended and harvested. But he did not make the rain to fall, or the sun to shine. He did not make the seed to crack open, sprout and multiply. He could not even explain the process. If he were honest with himself he would acknowledge God as the provider. If we view our wealth as the result of our own talent and effort we will, without doubt, think of ourselves as owners rather than as stewards. In reality we are all stewards of what God has provided. Whether we are into farming or into manufacturing or into business it is God who provides. He gives us the ability to do whatever we are doing. He gives us the ability to walk around, to calculate numbers and make recommendations, to speak and to breathe. All of us earn our wealth with borrowed abilities.
Just imagine your child asks you for money to buy you a present. You would gladly give the money and be pleased that your child wants to give you something. But would you say that the child was the owner of the money? Everything we have comes from the Lord as the Scriptures teach saying ‘every good and perfect gift comes down from above’. As we grow in Jesus He begins to challenge and reshape the fundamental attitudes of our heart. Growing in discipleship means moving on from the basic outward areas of cleansing such as lying, stealing, cursing, and adultery to changing the way we think about life and time and possessions. The wealthy landowner in today’s parable had not robbed anyone. He wasn’t dishonest but he was sinful in the way he viewed what God had given into his stewardship. God calls this man a fool. A fool in the Scriptures refers to someone who behaves as if there is no God. The rich landowner had no sense of receiving his goods from God, so he had no sense of responsibility in the use of those goods. Many of us behave in a similar way. No matter how much we read the Scriptures, how often we go to church, or how often we pray and worship, we often find ourselves living as if there is no God when it comes to our wealth. In a sense the way we use our wealth is the greatest test of our discipleship. If we acknowledge that we are stewards of what God has given us we would use our wealth to promote His kingdom by helping the multiplying and dying lost world around us.
Toiling as stewards means we know we are accountable to God. None of us is immortal and our existence on earth is temporary and we will be held accountable for the way we use our material goods. Giving to God helps us hold our greed in check. It adds an element of richness to life, which is far more gratifying than money. We should not be so concerned with temporal comforts that we forget to make room for God. The rich fool did not care about other people. His remarks are full of himself. Not once does the man look toward heaven and give thanks for God’s provision or seek the Lord’s guidance with how to spend his surplus. Not once does he look toward other people and think of their needs. He can only see himself. When we are blessed with much we need to realise that it is God who blesses us and respond by also giving generously. Generosity puts a joy in one’s heart that riches cannot buy. It is investing in eternity, laying treasures in heaven. We cannot squeeze a briefcase full of money through the gates of heaven and angels won’t accept credit cards. But we can take with us the testimonies of the people whose needs we met and whose lives we touched with the gospel.
For our toil to be meaningful we need to put God first. It is the only way to experience all His promises and blessings in our lives. The story of Abraham and Lot illustrates what a man gains for his toil. They were both rich in this world’s goods, but they had completely different attitudes toward their possessions. Abraham was heavenly minded, whereas Lot was earthly minded. When the time came for them to separate, Abraham, although the elder and the one who had brought Lot along, gave Lot the first choice. Lot chose all the plain of Jordan because it was well watered everywhere. It would seem that Abraham came out second best because of his unselfish spirit in letting Lot have first choice. But God honours those who are unselfish, trust Him and put Him first. Abraham trusted God to give him his portion and he responded to God’s blessing by building an altar and worshipping Him. Lot eventually lost everything he owned which makes us realise that those who seek the things of this world end up empty handed. Some do not necessary end up empty handed in this world, but they do in the world to come. It is heartbreaking to think of what happened to Lot, but it is also heartbreaking to think about many present-day believers who are more concerned about the things of time than about the things of eternity. They give God very little place in their daily lives and are more concerned about pleasing themselves rather than pleasing God. When we allow greed to dictate our lives it will inevitably lead to self-destruction. We need to look at life with eternity in mind. The rich fool in the parable is overcome by greed. He was not a fool because his fields produced a bumper crop. Success does not necessarily indicate greed. Neither was he a fool because he decided to build bigger barns. He was simply planning ahead. His greed is revealed when he tells why he is building his barns. He intends to hoard his wealth for himself, banking his future on his possessions. He thinks a full barn will guarantee a full and satisfying life. Greed tries to convince us that life consists of what we own, the clothes we wear, the cars we drive and the houses we live in. The more we own, we think the happier we will be. God called the rich man a fool, and so is everyone who substitutes temporal treasures for a relationship with God. What appears most valuable in the here and now, barns packed full of grain, will collapse and rot, but a heart overflowing with love for God and kindness toward others will endure forever.
Advertisers spend millions to entice us to think that if we buy more and more of their products we will be happier, more fulfilled and more comfortable. Planning for retirement, preparing for life before death is wise, but neglecting life after death is disastrous. If we accumulate wealth only to enrich ourselves, with no concern for helping others, we will enter eternity empty handed. A life of contentment can be found in those things that we can take with us when this life is over. If the desire of our heart is to gain more of this world then we will never be satisfied and we will never be content. We will always want more, but will never get enough. True contentment, contentment in our heart and in our soul is found only in those things that do not perish, that are eternal. A life of contentment can only be found when we live our life for the one who transcends this physical world, who can offer us eternal riches, and not merely physical riches. Life is not about possessions and material goods but about our relationship with God and about our commitment and faithfulness to Him. What have you been toiling for? Let us toil for what has value. Let us toil for a relationship with Christ. Amen!
