ECCLESIASTES: WORDS OF WISDOM FOR LABOR DAY

I decided to do a Bible search on the word “labor.” When I got to Ecclesiastes and read what Solomon had to say about work and labor, I knew I had the Bible reading I needed.

As Solomon meditates on the subject of labor, he is in turmoil and struggles to understand its role in life. He starts out disheartened by the emptiness it brings. In the end he sees that labor does have some value, but that value is not in the material things that money can buy.

I will list in succession all the verses from Ecclesiastes that has to do with work and toil. Pay attention to the end of my reading to see what Solomon decides IS the most important thing.

(Eccl 2:10-11)  I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.  Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.

(Eccl 2:20-25)  So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun.  For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it.  This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.  What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun?  All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.  A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work.  This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without HIM, who can eat or find enjoyment?

(Eccl 4:4)  And I saw that all labor and all achievement spring from man's envy of his neighbor. (Today we call that “keeping up with the Joneses.”)

(Eccl 4:6)  Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.

(Eccl 6:2)  God gives a man wealth, possessions and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires, but God does not enable him to enjoy them, and a stranger enjoys them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil.” (God gives man all his possessions, but God does not mean for them to provide fulfillment in a person’s life for they are not what is most important.)

And the final verse that tells us what is most important:

(Eccl 9:9)  Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun--all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun.

 God’s message to us, through Solomon, is that labor is important and from it we are able to gain possessions and honor, but family comes first.

--Becky Wall