Vanity and Vexation under the Sun
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
We shall introduce our study with quotations from our booklet on Ecclesiastes. Solomon had tried everything which his heart could desire; and we find his statement thus: "And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy."
Suppose that the man of today, who can have every wish gratified, should, from his untold riches satisfy his every desire; suppose withal that he had untold wisdom to guide his hand. Would all joy be his? What was Solomon's experience? He spared no pains to satisfy his heart. He drank from every cup of joy that the world affords, drank to the depth, drank till he could drink no more; and what did he find? Was he satisfied? Happy? Alas, no! A thousand times, no! "All was vanity and vexation of spirit."
Solomon found nothing "under the sun," nothing in all that the world of men loves and longs for, nothing but vanity.
Solomon thus sums up the story of his utter disappointment.
1. "Therefore I hated life" (Ecclesiastes 2:17).
2. "Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 2:18).
3. "Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair" (Ecclesiastes 2:20).
Such words are almost the waitings of a suicide I caused my heart to despair! "I hated life!" And in all of this Solomon stands not alone. How many, alas, have found the same bitter dregs at the bottom of pleasure's cup!
Young people, you who are following hard after the pleasant things done "under the sun," beware! There is no enduring rest or peace or joy in them. The moment that you think yourself ready to cry "Eureka I have found it!" that moment comes the great collapse. There is nothing "under the sun" that can satisfy the soul of man. No great works, no wondrous houses, no Edenic paradises, no surplus of servants, no gathering of treasures, no grand operas, no "everything his eyes desire" nothing "under the sun" can satisfy the soul of man.
"All is vanity and vexation of spirit." Come then and join our Christ-bought band and sing with us:
"Take the world, but give me Jesus,
That dear One, who loves me so,
Gladly all I leave to follow Jesus
In the world below."
Moses forsook Egypt, its honors, wealth, and pleasures, that he might "suffer affliction with the children of God" will you? Moses "esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt" do you? Moses "had respect unto the recompence of the reward" do you?
Paul said: "I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord" would you? Paul said: "I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ" Will you?
Remember that only "In [His] presence is fullness of joy; at [His] right hand there are pleasures for evermore."
When all you count as loss,
To gladly bear your cross;
God then makes up to you,
And blesses what you do.
When you leave friends and home,
For God afar to roam,
God will your loss repay,
And prove your friend for aye.
I. A MAN MUST LEAVE HIS LABOR WHEN HE DEPARTS THIS LIFE (Ecclesiastes 5:15-16)
We will here take up the answer to the first question which Solomon asked. That question was: "What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?"
In order to answer this question we are following Solomon's own conclusions. These are given in nine statements. The first statement is the theme ascribed to us. Our Scripture says, "As he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand."
Be a man's labor ever so successful, according to this there would be nothing of it after death, so far as the laborer personally is concerned. Must the man who dies in Christ also leave everything behind him? Can he take nothing of it with him? Of course, language such as Solomon's has no vision of the possibility of laying up treasures in Heaven. The wisdom of this world does not know the meaning of "Great is your reward in Heaven," or, "My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be."
The man "under the sun" recognizes nothing in eternity which can in any way be affected by our present state. Life to him is vanity. He came in naked; he goes out naked. He wins his crowns, and gains his riches, only to leave them. Thus it is that he cried, "This also is a sore evil, that in alt points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?"
A dying man said, "I regret that my life was given over to me to making money." That man felt just as Solomon did: there is nothing beyond the sun as far as our present experience is concerned.
II. THE MAN UNDER THE SUN MUST LEAVE HIS LABOR TO THOSE WHO FOLLOW (Ecclesiastes 2:18-19)
When Solomon thought of this it was too much for him. In fact, he began to hate everything he had ever done, because, as he said, "I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool?"
The fact is that when Solomon died, the great kingdom which he had builded was wrecked and divided between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. As the years came and went, all of his greatness vanished. His temple was thrown down, and it has lain in ruins more than two thousand years. The city in which he moved has been trodden under the foot of Gentiles even to this day.
When we think of him in his mighty labors wrought in wisdom and knowledge and equity, we cannot but bemoan his lot, for those who had not labored, entered into his possessions.
Do you marvel that the wise man cried, "This also is vanity and a great evil"? When the man of this world dies, his children and heirs take over his estate, and all too frequently they throw it to the winds. Such inherited wealth often leads to pampered wantonness, and lustful licentiousness.
Some one has said that riches have been to many a youth no more than a toboggan slide to hell.
III. THE MAN "UNDER THE SUN" FINDS HE IS ENVIED BY HIS NEIGHBOR (Ecclesiastes 4:4; Ecclesiastes 4:3)
We know that Solomon, himself, was greatly envied. He had succeeded beyond the attainments of any who had lived before him. He was the richest man of the world. For all of this he found himself maligned, misrepresented, and, perhaps, despised of many.
"The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh." He who puts forth no pains, refuses to improve his talents, beyond a doubt holds envious derision against the man who financially makes good. We grant there is no reason in many cases for the poor man to criticize the rich. Some rich men have hearts of iron. Some climb to the heights of their success upon their tyranny toward the poor. However, it is not always so. Be the rich and successful true, or be they false, they will find people disputing their rightful heirship. They reach the height of their wealth only to be the target of their neighbors' envy and criticism. As Solomon said, "This is also vanity and vexation of spirit."
IV. THE MAN "UNDER THE SUN" WHO LOVES MONEY; HIS LABOR IS NEVER SATISFIED (Ecclesiastes 5:10)
"He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity."
Did you ever meet a man who had enough? If you did, he was some one who had but little. The more we obtain of wealth, or of honor, the more we crave.
We who are poor think, perhaps, that if we had a good job with a fine income, we would be content. However, when we get a good job, we want a better one. When we have a lucrative wage, we long for a larger, and so it goes.
When once the love of money begins to grip us, we will never be satisfied. We want to mount higher and higher in the airship of our ambition until we have passed over all others around us.
Here is the expression of Solomon, and it is worth reading: "There is no end of all his labour, neither is his eye satisfied with riches; * * This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail."
V. THE MAN "UNDER THE SUN" FINDS IN ALL HIS LABOR SORROW AND TRAVAIL (Ecclesiastes 2:23)
"For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night."
God told Adam, "in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." The fool may refuse to sweat, but the man who succeeds never folds his hands. He never allows the grass to grow under his feet. He is full of travail. From morning until night he is struggling on his way toward the cherished goal of his labor "under the sun." He knows that riches and idleness do not go together. He knows that wealth and weariness are not companions. On and on he moves putting every other thing under his feet, that he may attain the quest of his spirit, even the success of his labors.
Commercialism is ruled by greed and gain, therefore, the man who enters it and begins to slave, will sooner or later find himself convinced that every word which Solomon said is true. All his days will be full of sorrow, and grief.
VI. THE MAN "UNDER THE SUN" NEVER HAS TIME TO REST IN THE NIGHT (Ecclesiastes 2:23)
"Yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night." He may go to bed, his body may succumb to weariness, but his heart will not be at rest.
The rich man usually holds in his hand, and under his power, the fate of many a widow, and of many a struggling investor. Every one wants to invest a little money with him. No wonder the rich cannot sleep. He knows there are thousands depending upon him. He fears that the markets may fall. Famine, fire, and flood are ever specter-like hovering over him.
It was for this cause that Solomon wrote, "The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep."
VII. THE MAN "UNDER THE SUN" DISCOVERS WHEN GOODS INCREASE THEY INCREASE THAT EAT THEM (Ecclesiastes 5:11)
Let any poor man inherit a fortune, or let him through his labors pile up a fortune, he will not only find himself envied on the part of many. Withal, he will find that scores are hovering around his door seeking to partake of his riches, and to eat at his table. If some one courts his daughter, he cannot but fear that he is courting his bank book. If some one is exceptionally nice to him, he will wonder if they love him, or his wealth. So it goes, day in and day out, He is pursued by those who seek his patronage and his favor, this also is vanity.
VIII. THE MAN "UNDER THE SUN" OFTENTIMES CANNOT ENJOY HIS OWN WEALTH (Ecclesiastes 5:11)
When we watch the rich we will often find that all the benefit they get out of their money is "the beholding of them with their eyes." They cannot convert their wealth into food or raiment, for who could wear, or eat, all that their money stands for? What is their advantage over the poor? The rich man cannot sleep; the poor man can. The rich man is envied because of his wealth; the poor man is not. The rich man must leave his all; the poor man has nothing to leave.
Do you wonder that a man of wealth cries out with Solomon, "All is vanity"?
IX. THE MAN "UNDER THE SUN" WHO IS RICH HAS NO POWER TO ENJOY HIS RICHES (Ecclesiastes 6:2)
"A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease." We have known this to be true of more than one rich man. For awhile he lived sumptuously every day, but soon he was a dyspeptic.
His arduous toils, his irregular appetites, his careworn brain, his high-tensioned nerves, all caused his heart to succumb. He found himself traveling the way of "Les Miserables," holding his stomach in his hands.
With this lesson before us, and with Solomon's conclusions of his own life, and the lives of others who are rich, shall we also seek after vanity? If so, let us remember that the love of money is the root of all evil, which, while some have coveted it, they have brought upon themselves much sorrow.
Think you that it is worth the strain,
The turmoil and the strife,
Though all the world should be your gain,
If you should lose your life?
Your days on earth will soon be gone,
The future now you face,
What will you have when night comes on,
And you have closed your race?
What will it profit by and by,
The things which you have done,
Unless, beyond the deep blue sky,
You meet them one by one?
Begin to lay up treasures now,
Where ne'er the thief breaks through;
Then, sorrow will not cloud your brow,
When earth you bid adieu.
AN ILLUSTRATION
Vanity. Oh, vanity, how little is thy force acknowledged or thy operations discerned! How wantonly dost thou deceive mankind under different disguises! Sometimes thou dost wear the face of pity; sometimes of generosity; nay, thou hast the assurance to put on those glorious ornaments which belong only to heroic virtue. Fielding.
Vanity. It was prettily devised of Aesop, the fly sat upon the axletree of the chariot-wheel, and said, "What a dust do I raise!" So are there same vain persons that, whatsoever goeth alone or moveth upon greater means, if they have never so little hand in it, they think it is they that carry it. Bacon.
Vanity. I would much rather fight pride than vanity, because pride has a stand-up way of fighting. You know where it is. It throws its black shadow on you, and you are not at a loss where to strike. But vanity is that delusive, that insectiferous. that multiplied feeling, and men that fight vanities are like men that fight midgets and butterflies. It is easier to chase them than to hit them.