CRITICAL NOTES.—
Ecclesiastes 5:13. To their hurt] Inasmuch as they, at length, lose those possessions (Ecclesiastes 5:14). The owner is more unhappy than if he had never possessed at all.
Ecclesiastes 5:17. Eateth in darkness] A spirit of melancholy darkening the whole life.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Ecclesiastes 5:13-17
THE MISERIES OF HIM WHO SURVIVES THE WRECK OF HIS FORTUNES
“There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. But those riches perish by evil travail, and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand. 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. And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind? All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.”—Ecclesiastes 5:13-17.
In these reflections upon the vanity of riches, the Royal Preacher is supposing the case of one who has no internal consolations. When riches are flown, how is it with such a man?
I. He is placed in a Worse Position than if He had never been Prosperous. (Ecclesiastes 5:13-14.)
1. There is the painful sense of failure. He rejoiced in his treasures, made them his stronghold and boast; but now they have perished, and he is left without defence. The results of his labour and anxieties are lost. What he had lived for is now vanished from him. He is oppressed with the distress of failure.
2. There are the sorrows of memory. The remembrance of the past deepens the gloom of the present and turns it into pain. It is an unspeakable sorrow for a man to be forced to look at his greatness and prosperity only through the aid of memory and long reflections. Riches, when they have departed, are not absolutely hidden in the buried past. The memory of them arises to hurt and afflict the mind. How can a man in the land of poverty, where he is a stranger and an exile, sing the song of prosperity? He must hang his harp upon the willows, and weep the tears of memory.
3. There is the oppressive feeling of impotency to satisfy his ambitious desires. When he possessed wealth, he formed bright designs for the future which that wealth could accomplish. Reckoning upon the stability of his riches, he thought to build up his house; and, through the flourishing generations of his family, transmit his splendour and magnificence to posterity. But now the time has come when his favourite child is there, but no splendid mansion is for him. The heir is present, but the heritage has gone. (Ecclesiastes 5:14.) There is a sense of departed power which is altogether overwhelming, and which is unknown to those who never possessed it. To be unable to perform what was once easily within our power is vexation and sorrow.
II. He is brought Face to Face with the most Solemn Aspects of Life. If we direct our attention to the two extremes of human life, we are made to front facts of dread solemnity. Our utter nakedness, both upon our arrival here and our departure hence, is one of the saddest facts of existence. (Ecclesiastes 5:15.) Death strips us of all our time-garments, and we go naked into eternity. Thus the grandeur of the world is but a vain show—the passing shadow of a cloud! This solemn truth is forgotten in the excitement of pleasure, quite inaudible amidst the tumult of the passions. But when a man is stripped of his fortune, the solemn facts of life assert themselves and he is forced to listen to their voice.
1. How near are the fountains of sorrow! In the midst of worldly enjoyments, if men only reflected deeply upon the solemn aspects of existence, how soon would the heart heave with emotion! The fairest pleasures of the world are but hastily snatched from the borders of misery and pain.
2. What a teacher is adversity—imparting a due solemnity to the mind! Affliction gains audience for truths which failed to secure a hearing in the time of prosperity. Death is indeed the great teacher, opening the eyes of man upon the higher mysteries; yet death is only the completion of that entire stripping of all earthly possessions which process adversity had begun.
3. How great the folly of trusting in wealth! It may depart long before us, thus afflicting us with the memory of joys now no longer ours. Or, if it stays, yet we must be rudely torn from it, and go into eternity with nothing in our hand. (Ecclesiastes 5:15.) It is unwise to put our entire trust in that which must fail us it the last necessity.
III. He becomes a Prey to Melancholy. (Ecclesiastes 5:17.) All what he trusted and delighted in is gone, and having no inward sources of comfort, a thick gloom settles upon his soul. It may be said of this inward condition,
1. That it darkens for him the scenes of life. There is light on every side, yet the darkness within him spreads itself over the whole scene of his life. The outward world takes the mood of our soul, be it merry or sad. In the gloomy seasons of our temper, it is in vain that nature strives to please. The darkness of the soul can overwhelm the light and glory of the world.
2. That it is moral disease. It is a sorrowful portion—the sickness of the soul. In health, all the bodily organs work together in harmony, and we are not directly conscious of the process. The man is said to be whole. But in disease, one or more organs, by becoming a seat of pain, assert their separate existence. Thus disease is disorder—a want of wholeness. This fact holds strict analogy with moral unsoundness. When some painful truths are forced upon the soul without any countervailing good, it indicates moral disease. In this soul-sickness, there is “sorrow and wrath.” There can be no health in the soul when there is no peace.
3. It forebodes the last gloomy days of one who is entirely devoted to the present life. For the soul without the comforts of religion, this darkness is but the shadow of death. Without God, there cannot be the light of joy, truth, and love.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Ecclesiastes 5:13. Wealth is often the ruin of its possessor. Like that king of Cyprus who made himself so rich that he became a tempting spoil, and who, rather than lose his treasures, embarked them in perforated ships; but, wanting courage to draw the plugs, ventured back to land and lost both his money and his life. So a fortune is a great perplexity to its owner, and is no defence in times of danger. And very often, by enabling him to procure all that heart can wish, it pierces him through with many sorrows [Dr. J. Hamilton].
The base love of gain, when long indulged by success, multiplies the snares that will entrap and even fatally injure the soul.
The worshipper of Mammon will in the end be crushed beneath the fall of his idol.
Continued prosperity exposes a man to the vices of luxurious indulgence, neglect of religion, and a foolish confidence in his own greatness.
He whose heart has been bound up with his wealth can ill bear the loss of it. Having no inward resources, his condition is poor indeed. He is cast into the roaring tide of adversity; and he has no courage, strength, or skill, to stem the danger and gain a place of safety.
It is the highest wisdom to seek the true riches, which place a man above the accidents of life.
Ecclesiastes 5:14. The Lord hath many ways to blast covetous men’s idols. He can make use of the injustice and avarice of spoilers and oppressors, the deceitfulness of friends, and the prodigality of children to make their riches perish [Nisbet].
The memory of vanished joys is a bitter draught to those who have no spring of heavenly life and consolation within.
All earthly supports of the heart may soon fail us, and they must fail in the last extremity.
Virtue and knowledge are the best heritage we can leave to our children. In all things else, they may be but the heirs of misery and disappointment.
Riches give a man power to command the service of many, and to summon the ministers of comfort. But how soon may the sceptre be snatched from his hand. His necessities and ambitious desires continue, but the power is gone.
Ecclesiastes 5:15. At both ends of human life, all social distinctions are levelled.
The hand of death rends away our time-garments. We must leave here, on these shores of life, all the outward circumstances of wealth, and the soul be stripped for her last voyage.
He who by the stroke of adversity is denuded of his fortune, is hereby reminded of that utter desolation to which he shall be brought by the rifling hands of death.
Mental wealth, spiritual character—all that is truly within us, we can take away when we part for ever from the world. But our environment of wealth and grandeur must be left behind.
Alexander the Great is said to have ordered that, as he was carried forth to burial, his hands should “be exposed, that all mankind might see how empty they were.”
Adversity clears a man’s view of the most solemn and saddest facts of our nature. It is well if we lay them to heart, so that we may be rich in the wealth of immortality when death robs us of the passing treasures of this life.
Seeing that we go away naked, and can carry nothing hence with us, we should look upon nothing as our own; we should be careful to go away clothed with Christ’s righteousness, and adorned with His grace, which is the durable riches, which whosoever hath shall not be found naked in death nor after it [Nisbet].
Here, we walk beneath appearances; but in eternity, we must stand forth in our true reality.
Ecclesiastes 5:16. The thought of the preceding verse is here repeated, but with greater emphasis. The spiritual teachers of mankind find it necessary to repeat great truths.
The covetous man when life is ended is reduced to his first condition; he possesses absolutely nothing.
The riches of selfish and covetous men,
1. Give them anxiety and vexation in life;
2. Forsake them in death;
3. Accuse them before the bar of God.
The labours of man without God have no solid worth—no lasting profit. When at the close of life he looks upon them, he finds that they vanish into thin air. They were but appearances under the hollow image of a form.
If covetous worldlings would commune often with their own hearts, they could not but see their way to be no less unreasonable and unprofitable for attaining to happiness, than if a man would make it the business of his life to gather wind, which cannot be held though it be among his hands, nor can satisfy him though he could hold it [Nisbet].
Ecclesiastes 5:17. When the power to enjoy is gone, and increasing infirmities produce fretfulness and inward misery, how vain are all the circumstances of wealth and grandeur!
Through the medium of our melancholy feelings, the fairest scenes of life appear to be overspread with gloom, True joy is within. The sun only shines for the happy.
As years roll on, the present world does not grow brighter and more joyous to him who lives entirely for it. Days of darkness await him.
You pass a staiely mansion, and as the powdered menials are closing the shutters of the brilliant room, and you see the sumptuous table spread and the fire-light flashing on vessels of gold and silver, perhaps no pang of envy pricks your bosom, but a glow of gratulation for a moment fills it. Happy people who tread carpets so soft, and who swim through halls so splendid! But, some future day, when the candles are lighted and the curtains drawn in that self-same apartment, it is your lot to be within; and as the invalid owner is wheeled to his place at the table, and as dainties are handed round of which he dares not taste, and as the guests interchange cold courtesy, and all is stiff magnificence and conventional inanity—your fancy cannot help flying off to some humbler spot with which you are more familiar, and “where quiet with contentment makes her home” [Dr. J. Hamilton].
Fretfulness and vexation wait on avarice.