Instrument-4-Christ

In this passage there is a contrast between two men. The first man works and presumably enjoys the benefits of his work. The second man is lazy and simply looks at the first man’s work with envy. “This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.” Why? Because no one gains anything by just looking at the labor of others and envying them.

In fact, as verse 5 says, “The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh.” He sits there and does nothing while his life wastes away. What a miserable way to spend one’s life.

Verse 6 confused me until I also looked at Proverbs 15:16. Solomon says in verse 6, “Better a handful with quietness than both hands full, together with toil and grasping for the wind.” Previously in Proverbs, Solomon said, “Better is a little with the fear of the LORD, Than great treasure with trouble.” So Solomon is contrasting contentment with little to trouble with riches.

So in this passage, a person should do his own work instead of wasting his life envying those who work and have profit. But it’s pointless to work too much or dedicate one’s self to obtaining too much wealth. Both the lazy man and the man who work too much waste their time on vain exploits.

What about me? Do I waste my time by not doing anything? Or do I waste my time by doing too much unnecessarily? As with many areas of life, it’s all about balance and seeking God’s will in everything I do.

Better to work than to rest one’s eyes,
Better to work than to fold one’s hands.
But those who have little are also wise,
And fools are they who exceed life’s demands.

This is about as depressed as I’ve heard Solomon so far. He begins by lamenting over the oppressed who have no comforter, and he ends by expressing gratefulness over those who have never even been born.

How low can he get? His sorrow is understandable because it is true that many people are mercilessly oppressed by people more powerful than them. As Solomon said in verse 1, “On the side of their oppressors there is power, but they have no comforter.”

Yet Solomon looked at everything and concluded, “Yet, better than both is he who has never existed, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.”

I don’t know how bad things were when Solomon looked around his kingdom and the rest of the surrounding country, but apparently things were pretty bleak. In fact, he concludes that life isn’t worth living because of all the evil: “Therefore I praised the dead who were already dead.”

It’s somewhat difficult to pull a challenge from this passage, and even harder to find any form of encouragement. But it does remind me to look realistically at the world around me in its deprived state. The world is full of evil, and it’s sometimes easy for Christians to overlook it. It’s especially easy for me when I’m at FBBC during the school year, at IRBC during the summer, and at my house during all the times in-between.

I need to be aware of what is going on around me and do my part as light in this darkness to illumine the Truth, magnify Christ, and point the way to the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Look, the oppressed are full of tears,
Naught can relieve their sorrow.
The lives they live are full of fears,
Oppressed both today and tomorrow.

Better are those who are already dead,
Better are those who have never been born.
Better are those who o’er the earth will not tread,
For they never shall see evil or over it mourn.

Woe to a world that is known by its sin,
Woe to the sinners who have all gone astray.
Let the world know that God loves all men,
And to be freed from sin, He’s provided a way.