10 He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. 11 When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? 12 Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.
Ecclesiastes 5:10-12 (ESV)
“Everyone wants more.” That’s the answer a former corporation head gave Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan after he told her he had just successfully sued his former company for $5 million. What puzzled Noonan is that the fellow admitted that he did not even need the money. The blind pursuit of more for more’s sake unsettled Noonan: “The idea of getting into a struggle to squeeze out another $5 million when you have $100 million seemed to me absurd, a misallocation of energy and interest. It’s not as if you can buy a better steak if you’re already that rich. It’s not as if you can buy a better anything. So why fight for another five?”
The Bible provides an answer to that question. Lovers of money are never satisfied (v. 10). By themselves, possessions merely “increase those who eat them” (a pun on expanding waistlines), or serve as cold and distant trophies (v. 11). In the end they are meaningless, a nothingness which never delivers joy. Conversely, Solomon observed that the true delights of one’s work do not arise from riches, but rather from a job well done.
Those who continually lust for money fail to satiate their appetites, because God did not create people to take ultimate pleasure in anything save Him. Money, after all, is an artificial construct of human society. Instead, God made man to enjoy work. This is why “[t]he sleep of the laborer is sweet” (v. 12 NIV). He receives the reward of the work of his hands by seeing a job well done (Ecclesiastes 5:18-19; 2:10, 24-26). Material blessings are but dim reminders of the glory of hard work. If a man labors for nothing more than a paycheck, however, he will never be able to rest (v. 12).
God placed man in creation to work, but the Fall diverted him from true happiness. Although one’s efforts may produce wealth, financial gain is not the final goal of one’s labors. The joy gained through our stewardship of God’s creation is. The gift of God in work may be as simple as a good night’s sleep.
//