Chuck Larsen

In Ecclesiastes 5:8-16 we’ve talked about how money will not bring me love, solve my problems, give me lasting peace, satisfy my deepest need, or return any affection I might lavish on it. In one more verse Solomon adds that it has all the potential to make my life miserable. He writes in verse 17, “Moreover, all his (the man with lots of money) days he eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger.” When we trade relationships with others for profit, when we sacrifice peace with God for personal gain, and when we place our affection on the gifts rather the giver, we forfeit a clear conscience, a sense of personal self-worth and the peace of mind that’s so precious to us all. Solomon says we may gain the world, but we’ll lose our own souls. We will eat our fine meals in darkness – loneliness, guilt, despair and depression. Our hearts will be continually vexed and we will indeed be “soul sick.” When the things we look to for meaning and purpose fall through in their promises, we find ourselves angry. Anger arises out of unmet expectations.

Phil Ryken summarizes this verse by saying, “The miser will end up alone in his misery. Because he lives in spiritual darkness, his soul will be vexed with many anxieties. The ungodly pursuit of wealth will take its physical toll, leaving him in poor health. He will also be very angry—a bitter old man—for who has ever heard of a happy miser? People who live for money try to hold on to as much of it as they can, but when they have to let it go—as everyone does eventually—it makes them angry with everyone and everything.” Anger can destroy our relationships. The word miser comes from the same root word as “miserable.”

I’ve found that one of the major problems in marriages is money. Some couples argue about it. Some fight over it, and I’ve known some to split up over it. I’ve always struggled with why this happens. Husbands and wives yell, swear, and even verbally abuse each other over financial issues. I’ve seen it time and again. Some have even done this in front of me during counseling sessions. They get very angry. If the “love of money is the root of all evil,” maybe we should stop and think about why we’re angry. Ryken suggests that some of our anger might be caused by, “excessive love for the things of this world. When we get angry, what is the reason? When husbands and wives have arguments about how much to spend, for example, and what to spend it on are they disagreeing about the principles of Biblical stewardship, or are they really just fighting for what they want to have? The unsatisfied desire for worldly possessions is one powerful producer of anger.”

In Ecclesiastes 5:13, Solomon says that he witnessed a “grievous evil.” He says, “I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, and those riches were lost in a bad venture.” He then adds in the following verses, “As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand.” This is a truth that’s so simple and yet so profound that it’s repeated in the scriptures several times. When Job lost everything he had, he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). The Apostle Paul took the same truth and applied it to all of us: “We brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world” (1 Timothy 6:7).

You can’t take it with you! Of course you have all heard this and know it and believe, etc. But why do we spend so much more time accumulating things instead of investing in the things that will last? It’s hard! The world is constantly bombarding us with new things that we need and we are nearly helpless to resist. I’m putting together some things from my garage and attic for a garage sale. Wow, I have a lot of stuff! James Boice’s comments on this subject really struck home for me this week. He writes, “The Word of God says, you can lay it up now. But when you die, it will be gone forever; on the other hand, if you live for God now, you will have treasure forever. It is literally true that you cannot take it with you into heaven. But if you are obedient to God and try to serve him wholeheartedly now, spiritual treasures will be waiting for you in heaven when you get there. These treasures are the eternal well-being of the soul, eternal felicity, basking in and enjoying the favor of God forever. Compared with those spiritual treasures the things for which we sell our souls here are worse than trifles. They are nothing. They are literally the refuse of this disintegrating world. Learn to lay up treasures in heaven, as Paul did.”

Even if you could take it with you it wouldn’t be worth anything. I can remember my first trip to Disneyland in 1959. We had to buy tickets for every ride and even to redeem for soft drinks, cotton candy, and whatever else you wanted. Someone told me they were called “Disney Dollars.” We took a handful of them home with us back to Nebraska. They are worthless in Nebraska. You can’t buy bubble gum, you can’t buy bread, you can’t pay utility bills, and you can’t buy anything at all! It’s only good at Disneyland. I was thinking how much our own money is like Disney Dollars. Once we leave this place the same medium of exchange, the legal tender, won’t be worth a thing. It’s only the investments we make in the lives of others and in our own spiritual growth and connection with God that will go on into eternity. This is really a bigger Disneyland. It’s temporary and sooner or later we all will have to go home.

We often think that a sudden influx of money would solve all our problems. The truth is, as Solomon pointed out in Ecclesiastes 5:11, the more money you have, the more problems you have. But wouldn’t it be nice not to have any worries at all? Solomon anticipated that question and in Ecclesiastes 5:12 he answers it for us. He writes, “Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.” Money doesn’t bring the peace that we think it will. Quite the contrary, money always brings turmoil. Actually what happens is instead of you owning it, it now owns you.

Things own us! Ralph Waldo Emerson put it this way, “Things are in the saddle and are riding mankind.” At age 53, John D. Rockefeller was the world’s only billionaire. His income averaged a million a week! But he was a very sick man who lived on milk and crackers and could never sleep nights because of worry. But when he started giving his money away his health returned and he lived to celebrate his 98th birthday. Janis Joplin is right in many respects when she sang, “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.” (Me & Bobby McGee Lyrics) Having a lot of money can be unhealthy. It’s often physically unhealthy. Derek Kidner looks at all our “modern exercise-machines and health clubs” and says it is “one of our human absurdities to pour out money and effort just to undo the damage of money and ease.” Oliver Goldsmith, a 1700s Irishman, wrote, “Ill fares the land, to hast’ning ills a prey, where wealth accumulates, and men decay.”

It can also be bad for us psychologically as well. Just last year Time magazine ran an article on 10 millionaires that committed suicide. The stresses associated with vast wealth can be overwhelming. I’m reminded of Edward Arlington Robinson’s famous poem “Richard Cory.” Here are the last two stanzas of that poem: “And he was rich – yes, richer than a king – And admirably schooled in every grace: In fine, we thought that he was everything to make us wish that we were in his place. So on we worked, and waited for the light, and went without the meat, and cursed the bread; And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, went home and put a bullet through his head.” I found an interesting quote on the New Age site (The Divine Life). They write as if these truths are unique to their religion: “Peace is not in money, estate, bungalows, and possessions. Peace does not dwell in outward things, but within the soul. Money cannot give you peace. You can purchase many things, but you cannot purchase peace. You can buy soft beds, but you cannot buy sleep. You can buy good food, but you cannot buy good appetite. You can buy good tonics, but you cannot buy good health. You can buy good books, but you cannot buy wisdom.” These are found in Ecclesiastes three thousand years ago and endorsed by the New Testament. According to Paul, peace is not of the soul, but of the spirit. The first three fruits of the Spirit are, love, joy and peace…”

Valentine’s Day should be about relationships in general, not just boy and girl. Whether we have a special someone or not we still must live life together. Solomon argues that we need each other for many practical reasons. There are greater results from our work when we do it together. One plus one always equals more than 2 when we work together. When we live life, walk this lonesome valley, side by side, we have others to help us when we fall into trouble or have problems. He says, “Woe to the person who falls when he is alone.” They have no one in their time of need. In Ecclesiastes 4:11-12 Solomon ads two more practical reasons why we need each other. In verse 11 he says that we provide warmth and support and comfort for each other without which we will not survive in the cold harsh world that is unconcerned about our pain and suffering. We need each other.

The Roman Emperor, Frederick the Great who ruled in the thirteenth century wanted to prove that Hebrew was the original language of man. It very well could be, but he went about it in a very crude and cruel experiment. He decided to isolate a few infants from the sound of the human voice. He reasoned that they would eventually speak the natural tongue of man. He assumed that people were born with the ability to speak. Wet nurses who were sworn to absolute silence were obtained, and though it was difficult for them, they abided by the rule. The infants never heard a word—not a sound from a human voice. Within several months they were all dead. According to Dr. Bernie Siegel, “Single men are jailed more often, earn less, have more illnesses and die at a younger age than married men. Married men with cancer live 20% longer than single men with the same cancer. Women, who often have more close friendships than men, survive longer with the same cancers. Married or not, relationships keep us alive.” We need each other for warmth and comfort.

The last reason is in verse 12. He says, “And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him – a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” We are like the Sequoia trees of California. They are incredible in size! But they have real shallow roots. You never find them standing alone. The wind rips them right out of the ground. They only survive when their roots are intertwined with one another. Nothing can uproot them when they cling to each other. The writer of the book of Hebrews tells us “forsake not the gathering of yourselves together.” I get the idea that it means more than just going to church together on Sunday. It means intertwine your roots with each other. Identify with each other. Share our lives with each other. Together we can fight off many a temptation and attack from the enemy that we might not survive on our own. Life lived to the fullest is truly a life shared with others.

We are slaves to time! I set my alarm at a certain time in the morning. I do devotions for about one hour, I exercise for another hour, I shave, shower and dress and try to start my day at a particular time every morning. I go to bed at a certain time. The older I get the earlier that gets! I schedule appointments and meetings all of which make me a slave to my watch and my calendar. The Rolling Stones sang a song entitled, “Time is on my side.” It certainly does not appear to be on my side. Tozer wrote, “We are creatures of time—time in our hands, our feet, our bodies—that causes us to grow old and to die.” Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 teaches us that there is a “time” for every purpose under heaven: “a time to be born, and a time to die.” The five most frequently repeated words in the Old Testament are “and it came to pass.” Everything under the sun is a slave to time.

C. H. Spurgeon wrote, “The more spiritual a force is the less it lies within the chains of time. The electric current, which has a greater nearness to the spiritual than the grosser forms of materialism, is inconceivably rapid from that very reason, and by it time is all but annihilated.” Whether Spurgeon understood electricity or not I like the thought of the Spirit transcending the slavery of time. You see, although we are all slaves to time and actuary time tables, “God has placed eternity in our hearts” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

Tozer goes on to say, “One of our great woes as fallen people living in a fallen world is the constant warfare between the eternity in our hearts and the time in our bodies. This is why we can never be satisfied without God. This is why the question ‘What is God like?’ continues to spring from every one of us. God has set the values of eternity in the hearts of every person made in His image.” The emptiness of the things in this world is the emptiness of time. The fullness of the Spirit through our relationship with the God who made us in His own image is a well spring of thirst quenching water and hunger satisfying bread. Paul explains this struggle of time in our flesh and eternity in our hearts. We can break free from the chains of our temporal limitations only by focusing on the Spiritual. In 2 Corinthians 4:18-5:1, Paul writes, “For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”