Ecclesiastes 2 -- Enjoyment and Employment

My commentary said that in this chapter Solomon “decided to test his own heart to see how he would respond to enjoyment and employment.  “He did not consider God a celestial spoilsport, who watched closely to make certain nobody was having a good time.”  He found that in general, pleasure leaves the heart dissatisfied and empty.  That’s because “it usually becomes a selfish endeavor and selfishness destroys true joy … the sad result is desire without satisfaction… When pleasure alone is the center of life, the result will ultimately be disappointment and emptiness.”  It also “appeals to only part of the person and ignores the total being.”

Solomon decided to try work as means of happiness.  Solomon knew that work is a blessing from God, but it seemed only that “the journey was a pleasure, but the destination brought pain.”  Solomon wasn’t condemning work itself, but “work alone can’t satisfy the human heart, no matter how successful that work may be.”  Oftentimes achievers are unhappy people because “achievement can become the death of endeavor and the birth of disgust… Workaholics try to escape themselves, leading to disappointments.

Solomon finally concluded that he needed to accept life as God’s gift and that enjoying life is God’s will.  “He wants us to enjoy His blessings and please His heart.  If we rejoice in the gifts but forget the Giver, then we are ungrateful idolaters.”

There is another thing to employment that I don’t think Solomon ever experienced – the oppression of government has the real ability to inject futility into employment.  When regulations become so onerous that complying with them supersedes the original job itself, all hope can be crushed and desire is strangled from work.  That is an evil produced from Satan when all of his other efforts fail.

Father, I can related to Solomon here.  I need restoration and relief in order that I can find enjoyment again in the tasks You have given me.  Please change things as only You can, so that I can find enjoyment as I once did.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford