Money Is Meaningless without Jesus

Ecclesiastes 5:15-16 echoes creation and the curse of Genesis 3. We brought nothing into this world, and we will lose everything when we die. After all, Ecclesiastes has made it abundantly clear that we return to the dust. The point is that if we do not lose our money in a bad business deal, then we will certainly lose it at death. Thus, we lose it one way or the other. We enter this world naked, with nothing in our hands. Every parent knows this is true. Babies do not come out of their momma’s stomach holding the cash necessary to pay the hospital bills. And we die the same way—with nothing. Paul says the same thing in 1 Timothy 6:6, and a country song called “Trailer Hitch” makes the same point. You never see a hearse with a trailer hitch, so why spend all this effort to make so much money when death will cancel all of our work and earnings? Jesus asks us why we would kill ourselves to make as much money and accumulate as much stuff as possible when we will lose it all in the end anyway. He calls that foolishness in Luke 12. Steve Jobs (1955–2011) had a net worth of $10.2 billion when he died. We all know how much he took with him. Not a penny.

Solomon’s final point is that the rich man eats in darkness with much sorrow, sickness, and anger. This man does not enjoy life. He is lonely and has no one with whom to share his wealth. Thus, trying to find satisfaction in money and stuff is meaningless. It never truly brings satisfaction, and then you die. This point is illustrated in the poignant story by Tolstoy called, “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” The story is about a content peasant farmer who says that he needs just a little land to be happy. The Devil overhears the man and commits to getting him more land in an effort to destroy him. The peasant farmer gets a little land but is not satisfied, so he trades it for more land but is not satisfied. This goes on repeatedly till the man dies in his quest for a huge chunk of land, and the story ends with the servant burying him and this telling statement: “Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed.” Death is the great equalizer! It cancels out all the earnings we have! Why kill yourself to gain more money, more stuff, and more land, when you are just going to be shoved into a hole in the ground at the end and eaten by worms?!

The author writes this:

Again, I saw futility under the sun: There is a person without a companion, without even a son or brother, and though there is no end to all his struggles, his eyes are still not content with riches. “So who am I struggling for,” he asks, “and depriving myself from good?” This too is futile and a miserable task.

Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts. For if either falls, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up. Also, if two lie down together, they can keep warm; but how can one person alone keep warm? And if someone overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken.

The point is simple: we are made for community and meaningful relationships. Why kill yourself trying to make so much money when you have no one with whom to share it? Meaningful relationships bring more joy than any amount of money ever could. When you are blessed, there is greater joy in sharing that blessing with another. If you stumble and fall, a companion who can lift you up and even save your life is invaluable. A cold winter night and its chill can be overcome by the embrace of your mate. Someone attacks you who is stronger than you? Well, wait until you and your beast of a friend gets hold of him! You struggle to win the battles of life going it alone? A friend on either side will give you the strength to endure and succeed. Of course no three-cord strand is superior to our Triune God! Never forget. Jesus who was sent by the Father and empowered by the Holy Spirit died for a church, not just individual souls. We were created and redeemed for community, a community beautifully displayed in our Triune God.

Solomon follows his condemnation of the love of money with another carpe diem passage. He calls us to contentment during our short life. The key is not how much or how little you have but rather how you view what you do have. The basic idea is to enjoy what God has given you instead of craving more, more, and more. Enjoy food, enjoy drink, enjoy your work, and enjoy your spouse and your family because until you enjoy what you already have, new things will not help or satisfy. Why should God provide more for you if you are not content with what He has already given you (Driscoll, “Redefining Riches”)? You can be so concerned about what you do not have that you fail to enjoy and show gratitude for what you do have!

The end of chapter 5 and the beginning of chapter 6 explain that what you have, where you are in life, and the ability to enjoy those things are all from God. It is not just what you have that is a gift from God; the ability to enjoy it is also a gift. To be able rightly and fully to enjoy the things of this world is a gift of God’s grace (Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, 315). God gives this ability so that you do not remember the misery of this cursed world because time flies when you are having fun. The key factor to all of this is God. One can only enjoy material blessings as rightly intended and designed in dependence on God.

Chapter 6 begins, echoing the curse with the language of “sickening tragedy,” by presenting a man who has everything the world says you need to be truly happy (interestingly, the very things promised to Solomon in 2 Chr 1:12). But God does not give him the ability to enjoy what he has. What makes this situation more awful is that someone else will enjoy that for which the man worked so hard (cf. Eccl 2:18-23). Thus, a man can live the American dream but find it is actually a nightmare!

What should we make of God’s sovereign choice mentioned here? God sovereignly allots things to us, and He even allots the ability or inability to enjoy what He has given to us. God chose what you would get and where you would be stationed in life. He chose the life, family, job, skills, looks, and intellect you have. But why in the world would God give someone something but withhold the ability to enjoy it? Because He knows what is best for us. He gives some the inability to enjoy what they have because in His goodness He will not give you something that drives you away from Him. He knows there is no such thing as happiness apart from Him.

Jesus teaches His disciples that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven—so hard that it takes a miraculous work of Almighty God (Greidanus, Preaching Christ, 144). Perhaps one way He saves the rich is by the meaninglessness of riches that cannot be enjoyed. When you get to the top and get everything you ever wanted but still feel empty inside, then you know that there must be something better and more satisfying out there. God wants to expose our need of Him and show us that riches cannot be ultimate. Disallowing the ability to find satisfaction in stuff is God’s goodness to us because nothing but God can ultimately satisfy!

Ecclesiastes 6:3-6 shows that a man can have the blessed life of the Old Testament—wealth, kids, and long life—yet not be satisfied. If you cannot enjoy life, then a stillborn baby is better off (6:3). Why? Because the rich man is all alone. He does not get a proper burial (6:3), which means he is unlamented and no one misses him (Hunt, Ecclesiastes, 28). People might be at your funeral to fight over your money, but they do not shed tears of sorrow for you. People will deeply grieve over a miscarried baby but not this man. And the stillborn baby at least gets to rest like the laborer in chapter 5, and the baby does not know the pain of this world. On the other hand, this man experiences the misery of no rest or satisfaction. Again, death is the great equalizer that makes all of the wealthy man’s accomplishments as null as a miscarried child who did nothing and had nothing.

All the work a man does is for his mouth, but his appetite is not satisfied (6:7). Life is a treadmill; we work so that we can eat so that we can have the strength to work so that we can eat (Kidner, Ecclesiastes, 61). We have uncontrolled appetites to consume food, money, technology, and so much more, but the problem is the “more” we get is never enough because the human heart was made to be satisfied only in God alone. Thus, no amount of money or things will ever fill our void (Hunt, Ecclesiastes, 22). Interestingly, the wise really have no advantage over fools, and the poor wise man cannot get a leg up either (6:8). The problem of dissatisfied appetites affects every station of life, and even if the poor man figured out how to make his way in the world and get some success, he would be as unsatisfied as the rich man. Therefore, Solomon concludes that the sight of the eyes is better than the roving appetite, and he writes “futile” over the whole section (6:9). It is better to be content with what you have—what is right in front of your eyes—than constantly crave more!

All of this misery is to expose our need for God and drive us to contentment in Him (Kidner, Ecclesiastes, 60). That money and things are fleeting and fail to ultimately satisfy reveals our need for God and shows that everything is meaningless without Jesus, who is the final antidote to materialism. “I am satisfied with Jesus” has always been the song God desires to be the theme of the human heart. This is the focus of our final section.

Duane Garrett helpfully points out that the final verses of Ecclesiastes 6 are a reflection on the early chapters of Genesis and the fall of mankind (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, 317–18). It repeatedly references Adam and even the naming of things (6:10; cf. Gen 2:19). It is known what man is, and Ecclesiastes has consistently said that man is “dust” (3:20). The words Adam and dust are semantically linked because man was made from the dust and is heading back to the dust due to the fact that in Eden he tried to contend with God, who is stronger than man! Who knows what is good for Adam (6:12)? This phrase calls us back to the time before the fall when everything was pronounced good. Now, however, fallen Adam’s days pass like a shadow. Only God can tell what will happen after we pass off the scene.

Recalling the curse and how things were “good” prior to the fall causes us to long for the promised Savior implied in Genesis 3:15 who is to come and reverse the curse. That is exactly what Jesus came to do. This is illustrated so beautifully by the “3 Circles” gospel presentation (Scroggins, “3 Circles”). The first circle shows that God has a design for everything in His world. God intends the material gifts He gives us to be used in certain ways that will cause us to flourish. Thus, he has a design for sex, food, relationships, work, and yes, money. These things are not “good” or “bad” in and of themselves. They can be used in good and godly ways that benefit us or in evil and sinful ways that harm us.

The second circle shows that our departure from God’s design, which the Bible calls “sin,” inevitably leads us into brokenness because we are not using things as God designed them to be used. For example, God gave us food as a gift to be used for nourishment, pleasure, and fellowship. But when we overindulge, which the Bible calls “gluttony,” it causes brokenness in our lives, like body-image problems or health problems. Or if we misuse food in terms of anorexia or bulimia, brokenness looks like health problems or psychological problems. The same is true of money. When we do not use money as God designed—for provision, contentment, and generosity—then we become broken. Thus, love of money, hoarding, and failure to be content causes all of the harm we have seen in Ecclesiastes 5–6. It makes us miserable, lonely, insecure, and distrustful.

The problem is that we try all kinds of things to get out of the brokenness, but we just end up more broken. Some think they are empty and broken simply because they do not have enough things. They try to make more money and consume more goods, but it never fills the void. We cannot get out of the brokenness ourselves, and that is where the good news comes in. The final circle shows that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, taking on Himself all of our sin and brokenness so that He could secure forgiveness, freedom, and a new start for us (2 Cor 5:17). We are called to recognize that we are broken, to repent of our sin and brokenness, and to trust in Jesus. When we do, He then makes us new creations who are filled with the Spirit and now have the ability to recover and pursue God’s original design for our lives.

What this gospel transformation looks like with money is that now, instead of being miserly and stingy, we are content and generous. Paul points this out when in Ephesians 4 he talks about putting on the new man. What does that look like in regard to money? Ephesians 4:28 says, “The thief must no longer steal. Instead, he must do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need.” Made new in Christ, we are now free to recover God’s design for our money, which means we are no longer stingy, but we work hard to provide for our families and to give generously to others. The gospel motivates all of this, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 8:9: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: Though He was rich, for your sake He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich.” The gospel transforms us into people who deeply enjoy what we have and generously meet the needs of others. When we see our hearts pulled away from that story, let us repent and find satisfaction in Christ!