There
are those in my family who’ve struggled with addiction. Addiction’s often
rooted in hurt or discontentment that drives a person to look for something
that will take it away and give them a sense of relief, even if it’s temporary.
We usually associate addiction with drugs or alcohol, but we can also become
addicted to experiences, or anything that promises happiness, security, or
escape. The newest addiction today is not a substance, but the little screens
most of us have in our pockets or purses. Nir Eyal, an expert in “behavioural
engineering,” has advocated the development of programs that turn customers
into addicts through a hook model: a looping cycle of trigger, action, reward,
and continued engagement… the hook model creates craving… what draws a person
back is, Eyal says, “not the sensation we receive from the reward itself,
but the need to alleviate the craving for that reward.” It creates an increasing
sense of discontentment, drawing you away from the people around you and even
more importantly, from God and the joy and satisfaction you can find in him.
Solomon
recognizes that the love of money can become addictive, leading to a lack of
contentment and gratitude for the daily gifts God offers us. This section
begins with a hard reality, Ecclesiastes 5:8–9, “If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and
justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things; for one official
is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still. The
increase from the land is taken by all; the king himself profits from the
fields.” This was first raised by Solomon in 4:1-3; we
shouldn’t be surprised by injustice; sin infects everyone, including those who
rule and have authority.
The scholar Van Leeuwen explains that when Solomon says one official is “eyed
by a higher one,” he’s saying that the high and mighty “look out for”
one another, so the poor have no chance at justice. We get a glimpse of this in
Luke 19:1–10,
“Jesus entered Jericho and was passing
through ... When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him,
“Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came
down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to
mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stood up and
said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to
the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four
times the amount.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house,
because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and
to save the lost.” As a tax collector, Zacchaeus
would take more than he was supposed to when he went to gather the taxes; it
was an expected way of doing things, and the officials higher up overlooked
this theft. Zacchaeus is transformed through his encounter with Jesus and
recognizes that accepting Jesus as his Lord and Saviour is where his hope and
salvation rest rather than his wealth.
There
are two paths we can take: chasing after wealth or anything else that captures our
hearts, or the path of contentment and gratitude for all God’s given us, how we
can use what God has given us to build up and encourage others, and make our
communities places of shalom and fullness. Solomon, a very wealthy person,
warns us, “Whoever loves money never has enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is
meaningless.” Wealth carries temptations, as Solomon observes, if you
love wealth, you’ll always be striving for more, and living a life of contentment
becomes more difficult. Wealth can create worry, stress, hurt relationships,
and a lack of trust in others. As Paul writes in 1
Timothy 6:10,
“For the love of money is a root of all
kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and
pierced themselves with many griefs.”
Ecclesiastes 6:1–2, “I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs
heavily on mankind: God gives some people wealth, possessions and honor, so
that they lack nothing their hearts desire, but God does not grant them the
ability to enjoy them, and strangers enjoy them instead. This is meaningless, a
grievous evil.” Wealth, in itself, does not bring happiness. A
friend once commented that God has blessed him with a lot of riches and he had
always thought it would bring him great happiness, but as God blessed him with
more and more, he began to reflect on the purpose of why he had been given the
ability to create much wealth because it hadn’t made him and his wife any
happier, no matter what the lottery people might tell you.
He and his wife began to quietly invest in people and the church. They quietly paid off some people’s debts so they could
focus on the future instead of just getting by, they helped a number of young
adults go into missions which led to a couple of them staying long-term on the
mission field, they helped set up a scholarship for abandoned mothers so they
could go to the local college and upgrade their skills. Their life theme became
generosity; helping people reach their potential, loving like Jesus, and in
doing so, they found deep contentment in their lives. They experienced the
blessings found in Ecclesiastes 5:19–20, “Moreover,
when God gives someone 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 life, because God keeps them occupied with
gladness of heart.” Wealth is not evil; it’s a gift given by God to be used wisely.
Wealth is a blessing.
God offers us his blessings, and some he blesses with wealth. The issue’s not how much a person has, it’s
whether they place their trust in their wealth rather than in God to save them
or protect them. It’s all about our focus and priorities. Mark 10:23; 25-27 “Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard
it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” … It is easier for a camel to
go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the
kingdom of God.” The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other,
“Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is
impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” Our
salvation is accomplished through the work of Jesus, not through our work. That’s
hard for some to accept, because the more we have, the more we tend to depend
on ourselves to provide for what we need; this can even creep into our
relationship with Jesus, as that same attitude subtly creeps into our thinking
about salvation. We’re called to completely trust in the grace of Jesus rather
than our work; we cannot save ourselves.
Jeus teaches us to trust in God and not worry about our
basic needs, Matthew 6:32–33, “For the pagans run after all these things, and your
heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Instead of worrying about having enough, Solomon encourages us to
enjoy the daily blessings God gives us each day.
God
has placed eternity in our hearts, and because we have eternity in our hearts,
the things of this world will never fully satisfy us, there will always be
sense that there has to be more, a longing for more. Bobby Jamieson writes, “happiness
comes not from trying to make this world satisfy all your desires but from
realizing that that it never will. Happiness begins to glimpse new dimensions
when you discover that everything is never enough.” Happiness comes from
knowing that the creator of the sun knows you, and loves you, and can fill that
longing for more, showing you a way forward into eternity that brings meaning
and purpose; the way of Jesus, accepting him as your Lord and Saviour,
embracing his way as your way.
Solomon
repeats one of his main thoughts in Ecclesiastes 5:18, “it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to
find satisfaction in their toilsome labour under the sun during the few days of
life God has given them.” It’s repeated in a slightly different way in
6:3, “A man may have a hundred children and live
many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy his prosperity
and does not receive proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off
than he.” The main idea in this section is ‘enjoy
God’s daily gifts,’ and after we follow his advice, to acknowledge that
it’s God who gives us this joy. Paul says the same thing in Philippians 4:12–13 “I know
what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned
the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or
hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who
gives me strength.”
Contentment under the sun is hard to find when we keep our eyes focused down here; our eyes are always drawn to
what others have that we don’t have. The call is to keep our eyes on the one
over the sun who lives in eternity and provides for our eternity through Jesus,
and sees what we need and provides, often more than we need, so that we can
bless others. Our lives are merely a moment in the history of the world, and part
of what we can offer is what we contribute to the future in time, energy, or
money, toward developing the potential in others.
