Ecclesiastes 5&6. Never Satisfied (Jody Garner)

Posted: Book of Ecclesiastes, Sermons

Ecclesiastes 5:10-20
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

10 The lover of money will not be satisfied with money, nor the lover of wealth with gain. This also is vanity.

11 When goods increase, those who eat them increase, and what gain has their owner but to see them with his eyes?

12 Sweet is the sleep of laborers, whether they eat little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not let them sleep.

13 There is a grievous ill that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owners to their hurt, 14 and those riches were lost in a bad venture; though they are parents of children, they have nothing in their hands. 15 As they came from their mother’s womb, so they shall go again, naked as they came; they shall take nothing for their toil that they may carry away with their hands. 16 This also is a grievous ill: just as they came, so shall they go, and what gain do they have from toiling for the wind? 17 Besides, all their days they eat in darkness, in much anger and sickness and resentment.

18 This is what I have seen to be good: it is fitting to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of the life God gives us, for this is our lot. 19 Likewise, all to whom God gives wealth and possessions and whom he enables to enjoy them and to accept their lot and find enjoyment in their toil—this is the gift of God. 20 For they will scarcely brood over the days of their lives because God keeps them occupied with the joy of their hearts.

Ecclesiastes 6:1-9
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

6 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy upon humankind: 2 those to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that they lack nothing of all that they desire, yet God does not enable them to enjoy these things, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous ill. 3 A man may father a hundred children and live many years, but however many are the days of his years, if he does not enjoy life’s good things or has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. 4 For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered; 5 moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. 6 Even though he should live a thousand years twice over yet enjoy no good—do not all go to one place?

7 All human toil is for the mouth, yet the appetite is not satisfied. 8 For what advantage have the wise over fools? And what do the poor have who know how to conduct themselves before the living? 9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire; this also is vanity and a chasing after wind.