Wealth and Work in a Vain World (Eccl. 5:8-20)

 

Image from Unsplash

For many years, I have to confess that I had been largely frustrated and confused by the book of Ecclesiastes.  As I had tried to read and understand it, it always felt like putting on a shirt which had one sleeve longer than the other.  There are passages where the Preacher sounds like a skeptic and others where he sounds like a saint.  In some places he seems to be without hope and others in which he seems to be full of hope.  Some verses sound like he thinks the world is meaningless and others in which he sees life in front of a Divine judgment by which all our actions have eternal consequences.  In some verses, he sounds like he thinks this world is all there is to it, and in others that there is life after death.  How in the world do we reckon with the seemingly strange contradictions of this book?

Well, the first thing we need to do is to reckon with the main theme of the book, which is found in the word  translated in the King James Version (and many others) as “vanity.”  Really, this translation goes all the way back to the fourth century Bible translator Jerome, who rendered the Hebrew word here by the Latin term vanitas.  The book of Ecclesiastes begins and ends with this word.  Altogether, he uses it 38 times throughout this rather short book, though this makes up about 44% of its uses in the entire Old Testament.  As the Preacher begins and ends his book, he writes: “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity” (1:2; 12:8).  The fact that he begins and ends this way shows that all the observing and reflecting he does throughout the book hasn’t changed his mind when he gets to the end.  All that he says is meant to teach this lesson: all in this world is vanity.

But what does that even mean?  The Hebrew word here, “hevel,” has been variously translated, not only by the word “vanity,” but also as referring to “absolute futility” (CSB), to something that is “meaningless” (NIV), “pointless” (GW), or “useless” (GNT).   All these meanings can find some support in the Bible.  For example, it’s a word that is used to describe idols (Deut. 32:21) which are futile, meaningless and useless.  However, there is another more basic meaning to the word.  Basically, the word “hevel” conveys the idea of a breath, of brevity.  For example, it’s the word King David uses when he wants to express the brevity and contingency of life: “When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity” (Ps. 39:11).  It’s a reference to something light and fleeting as opposed to something weighty and glorious: “Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity” (Ps. 62:9).  Or: “Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away” (144:4).  What does it mean to be “hevel”?  It means to be like a shadow that passes away.  It’s wind (cf. Isa. 57:13).[1]

Let’s take this back to Ecclesiastes.  I don’t think it is right to interpret the basic meaning of this book as if the Preacher were saying that everything is meaningless.  We’re not looking at a nihilist here.  Rather, we are seeing someone who sees the world and all that is in it as something like a shadow, that is lighter than a vapor that passes away.  As the apostle James put it, “For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (Jam. 4:14).  That is basically, I think, what Solomon the Preacher is saying.  That’s basically the point of his book.

Now the result is that a lot of what he says about this world in Ecclesiastes sounds and feels rather depressing.  But that’s actually the point: we ought to find it depressing because too often we try to make this world more than it is, and the Preacher is going to steer us away from that.  We try to hold on to this world as if it were something really substantial and lasting.  And in fact if we do this, we will end up seeing hevel things as meaningless and futile.  For this world is passing away.  It is the world to come, in sharp contrast, that for the saint is “incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Pet. 1:4), and we are supposed to live in light of that reality (cf. Eccl. 12:13-14).

It is in this frame of reference that we need to consider the passage here in Ecclesiastes chapter 8, where Solomon teaches us about work and wealth in a vain world.  This is about work and wealth in a world that is passing away, and the Preacher wants us to know that, because it is only as we grapple with that reality that we will work as we ought and manage our things as we ought.  Unfortunately, we live in a world where work and wealth are the gods of our age.  One of the new religions of our day is what one man has called workism, which he defines as “the belief that work is not only necessary to economic production, but also the centerpiece of one’s identity and life’s purpose.”[2]  In other words, we have made our toil and our things into our god. 

So we need to hear this.  We can’t escape work and wealth, whether you work a little or a lot, whether you have a little or a lot.  So the question is, how do we deal with it in a Biblical way?  Will me make a god out of it or will we glorify God with it? And I don’t think there is really any other option.  You are either going to worship God with your life or you are going to ignore him with your life.  So here we don’t get a motivational speech that makes us things to our work and worshippers of our things.  Here rather we get the cold water of Biblical reality splashed in our faces, and we need that. 

Unfortunately, one of the reasons we need this instruction is the fact that there is also a lot of superficial and wrong teaching about these things coming from Christian pulpits.  One strand of false teaching is that work and wealth are the enemies of true spirituality, and that if we really want to serve the Lord, you are going to give all your goods away and live in poverty.  In this mindset, simple is spiritual.  They will say that you can’t be a capitalist and be a Christian.  But this is actually nonsense, and the Preacher helps us to see why.

Others will say that work and wealth are the evidences of true spirituality.  This is the message of the purveyors of the prosperity gospel, isn’t it?  If you have enough faith and you wield the word of faith, then you are only going to go from strength to strength.  Are you poor?  Well then, they will say, you need to embrace God’s promises for wealth.  Are you sick?  Same thing.  Material prosperity equals God’s blessing and the lack of it is evidence of the lack of God’s approval on your life.  But again, this is nonsense, and the Preacher helps us to see why.

What are we to say to these things?  Well, this text shows us that work and wealth are not the evidences of true spirituality, and this comes partly from the fact that we live in a vain world, a world that is passing away.  Neither are they the enemies of true spirituality since they are God’s gifts to us.  This text teaches us to learn how to handle work and wealth in this fleeting life in a fleeting world: namely, as gifts from God that point to the Gift of God, Jesus Christ.  In this text, we see basically two things: we see the perceived realities of wealth and work in a vain world (5:8-17), and then we see the believed response to wealth and work in a vain world (5:18-20).

The Realities of Wealth and Work in a Vain World Perceived with the Physical Eye (5:8-17)

Note that the Preacher begins by saying, “If thou seest” (8).  Use your eyes and look around you.  Here he is talking about the perception of the physical eye, and a lot of what he is doing here and in the rest of this book is reflecting on what he has seen.  Later, in verse 18, he is going to relate something else he has seen (18), but this time it’s not so much with the physical eye, but with the spiritual eye.

What does he perceive?  What does he observe?  He is going to make three basic observations in verses 8-17, and as we work through these observations with him, we are going to see primarily how we shouldn’t view and use our work and wealth, namely, as replacements for God.  And the reason we shouldn’t see them as God-replacements is because they are so entirely unsuited to be that for us.  Wealth and work in this fallen world are indeed God’s gifts to us, as verses 18-20 will go on to say, but yet they not God-like, and we see that in three ways.

Observation 1: The Exploitation of Work and Wealth: it gets corrupted (5:8-9)

The passage we are looking at begins this way: “If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they. Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.”  The ones who are being oppressed here are the poor and the ones oppressing them are clearly the rich and the powerful.  What Solomon tells us is that we shouldn’t be surprised at this.  Though wealth and power aren’t evil, neither are they inherently virtuous, and they can be corrupted just like anything else.  In fact, the point here is that this corruption goes all the way to the top.  The ESV translates verse 8 like this which I think gives the right meaning: “the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them.” 

What about verse 9?  Well, one of the things about this book is that it’s not always clear the point that the Preacher is making!  The Hebrew is difficult here.  The ESV puts it this way: “But this is gain for a land in every way: a king committed to cultivated fields.”  I think the overall idea is that even though power (and the wealth that goes along with it) can be corrupted by officials in the government, that doesn’t mean government is bad, and anarchy is never to be preferred to monarchy.  Better to have a king and a central government that provide stability (agriculture is mentioned here because Israel was primarily an agricultural society) even if corruption is inherent to it.

What is the point here?  It is this: the first observation is that work and wealth can be exploited by those in power for corrupt purposes. This is the world we live in; this is the vain world we need to see.  Don’t hide your faces in the sand.  There is no such thing as a utopia, and those who try to create them end up making dystopias that are ten times worse than the problems they were trying to solve. 

But the larger point that we are meant to deduce is that though things in this world can be corrupted, God can’t.  God is the incorruptible God, “the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting” (1 Tim. 6:15-16).  Don’t try to look to this world for what only God can be for us.  Don’t try to seek any kind of lasting significance in the things of this world.  They are corruptible.  They are passing away.  God alone is immortal, invisible, the only wise God.

Observation 2: The Emptiness of Work and Wealth: it never satisfies (10-12)

The Preacher goes on: “He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity. When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?  The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.”   Here we see the thesis that work and wealth don’t satisfy (10), followed by two reasons why they don’t (11-12).

The Preacher tells us that those who covet and love money and things are never going to be satisfied with money and things.  And it’s not because they don’t have them.  That happens too.  But the problem here is not the non-possession of things, but the possession of them in such a way that they make the person who has them miserable.  This is a reality that we are supposed to observe and take to heart.

This actually is not a one-off thought experiment with the Preacher.  Actually, the whole book is an exploration of this theme: “What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?” (1:3; cf. 3:9; 5:16).  He keeps coming back to it.  And one of the reasons he keeps coming back to it is his own experience; because, despite all the work he put in[3] and all the riches he possessed, it left him feeling high and dry.  He will say, after surveying all his effort and his enrichment: “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun” (2:11).  He continues: “Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit. Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me” (17-18).  He observes elsewhere, “Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind” (4:4, ESV).  The point is not that work is bad in itself.  The point is that work and wealth can never satisfy a person.  But we tend to try to extract the juice of satisfaction from the stone-dry well of worldly achievement and affluence.

It is this theme that here in chapter 8 the Preacher comes back to.  Here, he wants us to ask the question: What often happens when a person does strike it rich?  Well, first of all, when riches increase, so do those who take them, which is the point of verse 11.  This is just a fact of life.  So Solomon imagines a man who has accumulated a lot of money, but only to watch it go away to others. He sees it for sure, but only to see it be enjoyed by others.  The other thing that happens is that even if people don’t multiply around the new-found wealth, worries do, which is the point of verse 12.  “The abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.”  He has more to worry about because he has more to try to keep.  It’s strange; we want wealth to give us a sort of feeling of security.  In fact, we call it “financial security,” but what kind of security is it, really? 

On the other hand, “the sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much” (12).  Now we must remember that this is Wisdom Literature, and Solomon is not speaking in absolutes here.  These are general principles.  He’s not saying that every poor man is happy, and every rich man is not.  We know that’s not true either!  But he is pointing out something that we all know is true: riches don’t necessarily make you happy.  They don’t because they can’t ultimately satisfy.

Who or what can satisfy? 

“Nothing of earth is sure

Vain hope soon dies

Things of the Lord endure

Christ satisfies.”

God will always satisfy those who seek him through Christ.  He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him (Heb. 11:6).  King David put it well when he said, “There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety” (Ps. 4:6-8). 

Observation 3: The Elusiveness of Work and Wealth: it hurts those who have it (13-17)

The Preacher continues: “There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand. As he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand. And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind? All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.” 

Here we are told that riches hurt people (13).  But how do riches hurt people?  Aren’t they supposed to make life easier?  Well, often that does happen.  Wealth can give you opportunities that others don’t have.  There’s nothing inherently wrong with that either.  Again, this is not some communist screed against wealth.  But what the Preacher is saying is that wealth doesn’t guarantee that.  Wealth is like a man on a ladder, and as you get more wealth you climb higher and higher.  But if you get pushed off the ladder, the higher you are the harder you will fall. 

I think that is the point here.  He portrays for us the picture of a man with great wealth who had imagined giving it all to his son.  But he loses it all in a “bad venture “ (ESV, “evil travail”: KJV), and dies without anything.  The loss of the riches that he had leaves him bitter and angry and even sick (17).  Note verse 15; I think there is a tip of the hat to Job there: “As he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.”  Job said something similar when he saw all his wealth melt away in a few moments: “And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). 

The Preacher is warning us that no matter how much you have, you can never guarantee that it will stick with you.  One of the reasons we want riches and work for it is that we think that once we have it all we will be able to control our lives.  But the Preacher tells us that this is an illusion and those who live their lives this way are only fooling themselves.  Riches are not eternal.  As the apostle Paul puts it, “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Tim. 6:6-10).  Riches can pierce people through with many sorrows, especially when we put them in God’s place.  The Preacher is helping us to see that it’s a mistake to do that.

Brothers and sisters, don’t look to wealth and work for what only God can give.  Only God can give you eternal blessings.  He is the one “who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3).  He is the one “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (1:11).  He is the one  who “in the ages to come …[will] shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (2:7). 

Again, the Preacher is not telling you to go live in a garbage can.  He is not saying that you can’t get all you can.  But he is saying that you should see it for what it is.  It is not eternal.  It is not satisfying.  It is not incorruptible (in fact, didn’t our Lord call it “unrighteous wealth”? Lk 16:9).  Only God is eternal, incorruptible, and satisfying for all who belong to him in Christ. 

Beware of turning God’s gifts into gods or imagining that we can use God’s gifts to turn ourselves into gods. Don’t make the mistake of Romans 1:25 and become like those who “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”  Don’t exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for that of the corruptible creature (23). That’s the point of Ecclesiastes 5:8-17.  Now let’s turn to see how we ought to view them instead.

The Response to Wealth and Work in a Vain World Believed with the Spiritual Eye (5:18-20)

This section begins with another reference to seeing: “Behold that which I have seen” and the word “behold” is an invitation for us to see too (18).  But this is a different kind of seeing.  The kind of seeing we were invited to in the previous verses was the plain observation of the eyes.  But this is an invitation to look at things from a different perspective.  It is an invitation, I think, to see this world through the eyes of faith. 

How do we look at things through the eyes of faith? 

Let me begin by saying how we should not interpret this.  Don’t look at this and think, “Oh the world is vain, work is vain, riches are vain; therefore, I’m not going to worry about making something of myself in this world.  I’m not going to worry about a job and supporting a family.”  That is not right, either!  It is a wicked attitude, in fact.  We know that the Preacher doesn’t intend this, because he will say, in the next chapter, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest” (Eccl. 9:10).  I say this to young men, especially: there is such a thing as sinful ambition, fueled by pride, by which we make our life all about self-promotion.  That is wicked, too.  But there is also the sin of no ambition!  You ought to make it your ambition to find work that glorifies God and serves others.  Paul didn’t just tell thieves to stop stealing: he also told them to go out and get a job, in order to love others with it: “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth” (Eph. 4:28).  And how do you work?  With all your might!  As Paul will say to the Colossians: “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men” (Col. 3:23).  Do it with your heart and soul put into it!

But let’s look at this from the positive side, which is what we find here in Ecclesiastes 8.  The Preacher makes two points, the first about work (18) and the second about wealth (19), but they are really the same point.  Note what he says: “Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion. Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God. For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of his heart (Eccl. 5:18-20).

He tells us that we are to enjoy the work God gave to us (18) and that we are to enjoy the riches and wealth that God has given us (19).   We are to find enjoyment in our work and wealth.  Why should we, especially when they can be corrupted, leave us high and dry, and can even hurt us?  We should because they are God’s gifts to us.  In fact, it is our portion and our lot.  God gave these things to you to enjoy.  There is nothing wrong with that.  Work and wealth are not the enemies of spirituality; they are gifts from God to be enjoyed. 

But they are to be enjoyed as gifts from God.  These are gifts from God, not something we can demand of God.  He can give and he can take away (Job 1:21).  And they are gifts from God, which are to be enjoyed in a way consistent with his will and his being the Greatest Good for us. 

Paul put it this way: “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life” (1 Tim. 6:17-19).  Note that he doesn’t tell the rich to give away all their wealth.  Like Solomon, he says that God “gives us richly all things to enjoy.”  But wealth is not to be enjoyed as a God-replacement, and we are not to “trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God.”  We are to live, not with an earth-only perspective, but “laying up in store . . . a good foundation against the time to come.”  Having this mindset will also be accompanied with a spirit of generosity, not because we think things are bad, but because we have received them as gifts, and we want to share God’s generosity with others.  I think John Wesley’s advice is relevant here: “Get all you can; save all you can; give all you can.” 

Do we look at wealth this way?  This is the only appropriate way to view it, especially since the world we inhabit is not only a fleeting world, but it is also God’s world.  But it is also the way to enjoy these things without making ourselves a slave to them.  Because we receive our work and wealth as gifts from God, and because our trust is ultimately in him, we don’t look to it as a God-replacement.  In particular, our trust and our hope is in God, and that means our ultimate joy is in God, not in our things. And that is something no one can take away.  It means that we can enjoy our things when we have them without worrying if we are going to have them tomorrow.  For though our things can be taken away, God can’t.  On the one hand, this kind of person is not constantly thinking about what he or she once had and no longer has.  On the other hand, they aren’t worrying about whether or not they will keep them in the future.  They can enjoy them right now without letting the past or the present rob them of their delight.  I think this is the point behind the last verse: “For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of his heart” (Eccl. 5:20).  What does it mean for God to answer us in the joy of our hearts?  It means, as the ESV puts it, “God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.”  We are occupied with the joy of our heart and not with the worries about the rest of our lives because we have learned contentment in God.

Ultimately, the point of Ecclesiastes to show us the folly of finding glory in this present world, whether through our work or our things or pleasure or even the pursuit of knowledge.  But that doesn’t mean that this world is meaningless.  That is not the point of the word vanity.  The point is that this is all passing away.  But these things that are passing away are still gifts of God.  They point us away from themselves to the Giver who is not only the Giver but the greatest Gift.  The gospel is the good news that God gives himself to us through faith in the person of his Son so that we may have something that never passes away, an eternal relationship with God that is characterized by never-ending, ever-increasing joy.  This is the point of John 3:16-17, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”  May we all know that Gift.

[1] I am particularly indebted to Brian Borgman and his book Don't Waste Your Breath: Ecclesiastes and the Joy of a Fleeting Life (Free Grace Press, 2024), for this insight.

[2] Derek Thompson, quoted in Everything Is Not Enough, by Bobby Jamieson (Waterbrook: New York, 2025), p. 29-30.

[3] And Solomon’s work was not insubstantial.  He built things that lasted.  Just as one example, consider the Temple, which he completed around 950 BC, and which lasted until its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BC.