Last week, in commemoration of Labor Day,  we looked at how we were created by God to be productive workers and that man was given the command to cultivate the ground and to rule over God’s creatures and to be good stewards of what God made (Gen. 1:27,28; 2:5-7,15).  We saw the emphasis of Scripture on the value of work and how we are to do our work as unto the Lord, not just to please man (Col. 3:17,23,24). We also looked at how work became much more difficult because of sin and the curse God placed on the earth (Gen. 3:17-19), but emphasized that work itself was not part of the curse (as many would like to think!) Working hard at a task, and doing it as unto the Lord is exactly what God purposed for us. As even Solomon acknowledged, labor is actually a gift “from the hand of God” (Eccl. 2:24). 

     But, because of our strong desire for significance and the lure of the old sinful Adamic nature which is in rebellion against God, we have the tendency to look for our purpose, our fulfillment,  and our significance in what we do, how much we make or what we accomplish. The tragic part is that even if we climb the ladder of success, we find it leaning against the wrong wall. It doesn’t promise what we had expected.  The whole reason is that, while created to be workers and to achieve and to accomplish, we are to do it for the glory of God–not for ourselves. If we leave God out of the equation, we find ourselves disappointed and disillusioned because we were created with a God-shaped vacuum in our heart which only Jesus Christ can fill. True significance and satisfaction can only come through an intimate relationship with God through Jesus Christ. No  matter how successful we might be or how much wealth we may accrue because of that success, there is still an emptiness if Christ isn’t first and foremost in our life.  Solomon also said, “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity” (and he should know, as we’ll see in a minute” (Eccl. 5:10). 

     History is replete with examples of those who were great successes in their fields yet remained empty and unfulfilled.  Ty Cobb, one of baseball’s all-time greats, made a revealing admission: “For years I ate baseball, I slept baseball, I talked baseball, I thought baseball, I lived baseball.”  But then he added, “When you get beyond those years of playing professional baseball, you can’t live on baseball.”  Elvis Presley, the “King of Rock and Roll,” sold an estimated one billion records in his short lifetime. He made a fortune from his recordings, films, concerts and spent a sizable chunk of it on a variety of “toys” still scattered around Graceland today. He denied himself nothing that money could buy. But, fame and fortune ended up destroying the “King.” The entertainment world had offered Elvis every material and worldly prize, but it couldn’t provide the meaning and significance for which every heart aches. He tried astrology, numerology, and other occult practices. He joined a Yoga organization.  Then, the use of illegal substances became his eventual undoing, as he searched for a spiritual meaning to life that he never discovered and on August 16,1977 Elvis slipped pathetically into eternity. How tragic is his story, but it has been repeated an untold number of times. 

     Consider Solomon, another “King” who lived nearly 3,000 years before “The King of Rock and Roll.” This king, son of David and Bathsheba, became perhaps the wealthiest, wisest king who ever lived. People, like the Queen of Sheba, came just to observe his wealth and splendor and wisdom. No good thing was withheld from him. He had everything money could buy from horses and chariots to gardens, fountains and women!  So, how did Solomon feel about the abundance and prestige he enjoyed? Well, read the book of Ecclesiastes he wrote to describe his experience.  What an incredible portion of Scripture, coming straight from the heart of an old man who had become disillusioned with life!  No matter what he acquired or what pleasures he tried, he described it all as empty and wearisome (Eccl. 1,2). He even described his own activities and labor as “vanity and striving after the wind” (2:10,11). 

     So, what in the world happened to Solomon? Why had he become so disillusioned with life?  The reason is, he looked for fulfillment and significance in all the wrong places–much like Elvis. Before King David died, he gave his son, Solomon, this charge: “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your fathers, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind…” (I Chron. 28:9). In other words, “Solomon, in all your ‘getting,’ get to know God and live for Him with all your heart.”  Solomon failed to fully follow his father’s advice. He ended up disobeying a clear command given in Dt. 17:14-20 that Israel’s king should not “multiply horses for himself…neither multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself…that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left…” 

     So, how did Solomon do?  Well, “Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen; and he had 1400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen” (I Kg. 10:26). “The weight of gold which came in to Solomon in one year was 66 talents (approximately $20 million)” (I Kg. 10:14). “And the king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem” (v. 27).  And, on top of all that, “King Solomon loved many foreign women…from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the sons of Israel, ‘You shall not associate with them, neither shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.’ …And he had seven hundred wives, and three hundred concubines, and HIS WIVES TURNED HIS HEART AWAY AFTER OTHER GODS; AND HIS HEART WAS NOT WHOLLY DEVOTED TO THE LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been” (I Kg. 11:1-4).  

     Now we see why the defeatest attitude in the book of Ecclesiastes–even regarding work. Solomon had disobeyed God and started looking outside of his relationship with God for purpose and significance, and like Elvis Presley, the “King of Rock and Roll,” he lost all meaning in life. It seems the more he got and the more he accomplished, the more bored he became. He discovered the emptiness of riches, fame, women and accomplishments. He tried to replace an intimate relationship with God with these things and found them empty, vanity, meaningless, and wearisome.  That’s what always happens when we look for fulfillment in God’s gifts instead of in God the Giver.  Work, accomplishments, success, family and friends can never take the place of God in our life.  He is the only significant One in the universe so true significance and purpose in life can only be found in a relationship with Him. Solomon realized that, but only in his old age, when he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes and challenged the reader with these words: “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth…The conclusion is…Fear God and keep His commandments ” (Eccl. 12:1,13). 

     The Apostle Paul discovered that. He said, “For me to live is Christ…”  (Phil. 1:21).  

Unless you make Christ your purpose for living, all your work, accomplishments and success will leave you empty. Work doesn’t ultimately produce anything that lasts. Work was never meant to give us what only God can give us–purpose, meaning, fulfillment, security and hope. How do you view working? Do you view it as an idol you ask to fulfill you, or do you see it as a gift from God to be enjoyed  as you do it as unto Him, with Him as your hope?  How would you fill in the blank: “For me to live is ______________”?

Forever His,

Pastor Dave