FOR WHOM DO YOU LABOR?
BIBLE
PASSAGE: ECCLESIASTES 4:1-12
Picture
taken from Google
Lesson
Prepared by: Krisha of Solomon’s Wisdom FB page
Lesson ideas taken from: enduringword.com/bible-commentary
JANUARY
24, 2021
MEMORY VERSE
Better is an handful with quietness, than both
the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.
ECCLESIASTES 4:6
When I was a child, I had so
many questions in mind: why my mother always cried because of our status, why
we were poor, and why we were oppressed by relatives before? There were so many
“whys” but those are part of God’s plan.
In verses 1 – 6, the writer of
Ecclesiastes speaks about the comfortless oppression of man under the sun. In
the Old Testament there are mentioned different oppression:
·
Oppression of
people by a king (Proverbs 28:16).
·
Oppression of
a servant by his master (Deuteronomy
24:14).
·
Oppression of
the poor by the affluent (Proverbs 22:16).
·
Oppression of
the poor by the bureaucratic (Ecclesiastes
5:8).
·
Oppression of
the poor by other poor people (Proverbs 28:3).
·
Oppression of
the alien, the fatherless, and the widow (Jeremiah 7:6; Ezekiel 22:7; Zechariah 7:10).
·
Oppression by
charging high interest (Ezekiel 22:12, 29).
·
Oppression by
using false weights and measures (Hosea 12:7).
https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/ecclesiastes-4
With these oppression, he said it’s
better off dead (v.2). Solomon could only praise the dead this way
because at his time he had no certain knowledge of the world to come, and he
wrote most of Ecclesiastes with an under the sun premise.
If he knew and accepted what happened to the unrighteous dead, he would never
say such a thing. (Trapp)
Far better than
that, he praised he who has never existed (not born). Jesus Himself said there
was one man for whom it would have been better if he had never been born: Judas
(Matthew 26:24). The Preacher’s great
despair over the injustice of oppression in an under the
sun premise shows the moral necessity of an afterlife and a
coming judgment. Jesus told us that it is those who oppress and misuse their
power who will ultimately endure punishment, not their victims (Matthew 18:6-7).
In
verses 4-5, the Preacher thought of those who
gain success through toil and skillful work – and how it simply brought envy and
sometimes hatred from others. This common jealousy of success made life seem
like vanity and grasping for the wind.
Solomon here
answered the tendency for those jealous of the success of others to be lazy.
Like fools, they fold their hands and do nothing – and so
waste away. Yet it wasn’t the success of their neighbor that made them waste
away; the foolish, lazy man consumes his own flesh.
Without reading
these verses, we can see with our own two eyes how the system of this world
rotates but upon reading these, we can say “that is true”. Whatever labor you
have at the present in the church or outside the church, the question is (taken
from verse 8), “FOR WHOM DO YOU LABOUR”?
Some would answer for the family but search our hearts because in reality there
are only two answers from this question: Do your labor for the world or do you labor
for GOD? Before we answer this question in our mind, there are some points we
need to think about.
LESSON OUTLINE:
1. IN THIS
WORLD, THERE ARE NO ETERNAL ACCOMPLISHMENT AND SATISFACTION (ECC.4:6)
Better
is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and
vexation of spirit.
Like Solomon, Ernest Hemingway said something
about life. “I live in a vacuum that is as lonely as a radio tube when the
batteries are dead, and there is no current to plug into.” Hemingway lived his
life in a way that would be the envy of any person who has bought in to the
values of this world. Who is Ernest Hemingway?
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21,
1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer,
journalist, and sportsman. His economical and understated style—which he termed
the iceberg theory—had a strong
influence on 20th-century fiction, while his adventurous lifestyle and his
public image brought him admiration from later generations. Hemingway produced
most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and he was awarded
the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.
He published seven novels, six short-story collections, and two nonfiction
works. Three of his novels, four short-story collections, and three nonfiction
works were published posthumously. Many of his works are considered classics
of American literature.
He got four wives but
ended up all separated.
Hemingway maintained permanent residences
in Key West,
Florida (in the 1930s) and in Cuba (in the
1940s and 1950s). He almost died in 1954 after plane crashes on successive
days, with injuries leaving him in pain and ill health for much of the rest of
his life. In 1959 he bought a house
in Ketchum, Idaho where, in
mid-1961, he died by suicide with a shotgun (he shot
himself in the head).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Hemingway
That was Sunday morning in Idaho. “Vanity of
Vanities all is vanity.” Life under the sun never satisfies the desires of our
heart.
Now we see how life under the sun is vanity.
That
is the life in this world without Christ in our hearts. So to all who are not
really sure about your salvation, read John 14:6, John 3:16, John 1:12. There
are many devices people think in their way to heaven but there is only one way
– JESUS CHRIST.
To all Christians, we already knew what life in
this world, don’t go back serving the world. It’s lonely out there and though
you have money, still you feel empty. Why I said this? There are Christians who
still don’t prioritize spiritual things. We are envied with hard work and
success by people around us and we want to be satisfied. Ecclesiastes 4:6 says,
“Better is an
handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of
spirit.”
2. YOU CAN’T DO
IT BY YOURSELF (ECC. 4:9,12)
You cannot separate serving from commitment because if you truly serving
the Lord, you will commit. I remember some members before who had been battling
about commitment because some believe that it didn’t need any more because they
go to church and already serving. What’s the need? They focused on the
“commitment program” not on committing their hearts to the Lord or renewal of commitment. I remember one time there was an evangelism
activity in the church and it was planned by the leaders, the BODY (people who
committed- congregation) and of course the pastor that time and these members I
was referring to, had their own style of evangelism. They didn’t join the
church activity instead they made their own way. You can’t serve the Lord by
yourself and in your own way, you need to submit to the church or in the
authority.
In verse 9 and 10 say, “Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for
their labour. For
if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone
when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.”
1 Corinthians 12:12 For as the body is one, and hath many members,
and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is
Christ.
God uses members of Christ's body to compliment the gifts and graces of
other brothers and sisters and to offer encouragement and support. When Christ
sent his disciples out to minister to the lost sheep of the house of Israel
they were sent two by two - "for two are better than one because they have
a good return for their labour...
As Christians we are all individuals, with our own God-given tasks and
responsibilities, but we are one body that is called to live and work in
partnership with one another, which is much more productive and profitable than
toiling alone.
Source: https://dailyverse.knowing-jesus.com/ecclesiastes-4-9
3. ALWAYS PUT IN MIND THAT LIFE
IS SHORT (ECC. 4:15-16)
I considered
all the living which walk under the sun, with the second child that shall stand
up in his stead. There is no end of all the people, even of all that have been
before them: they also that come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this
also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Let’s paraphrase this verse, if a king finished his
reign and another generation arose or a second child stood up in his stead, the
past has been forgotten or could not rejoice with him (past king) because his
time is done. Therefore, like the writer said, “Vanity of Vanities”. Everything
is vanity.
James 4:14
says, “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life?
It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”
Sorry if I’ll
say this again because FB reminded me of this person (picture memories). It’s
been a year when one of our brothers died and every time I remember him, I
can’t help and think that life is really too short. Sometimes we think we still
have more time serving the Lord. It’s normal to say, “I’ll do it tomorrow” or
“Bukas na lang” in tagalog. Remember he was still young when he died. Sad thing
that when your time was over, God would find you not in God’s service. It could
be that your life ended because your life is not usable anymore or your purpose
ends.
I remember one thing that hurt the professionals
when pastor mentioned that, “You think you are serving the Lord because you are
busy in your work outside the church, actually NO” because most Christians
quote Colossians 3:23. In other hand that is correct but we need to search our
hearts. Is that work really doing work for God? IF so, why sometimes, it’s okay
not to be in prayer meeting or in the church on time because you say you do
something for God. If the work is for God, it doesn’t contrast to God’s word. I
do it for God but you forget to attend services of the church; you just go if
the time is okay (no commitment). Another thing, you say “This work is for God
but you don’t give your tithes”. Don’t get mad but sometimes we need to really
search our hearts. Life is too short to be idle in this life. The world offers so many
things in order your time to be filled up with so many things and it would be
hard for you to insert time for spiritual things. That’s one of the reasons you
need to commit because Christians are stubborn. Unless they are forced, they
wouldn’t do anything outside their comfort zones.
4. YOU HAVE A REWARD
FOR YOUR LABOR (ECC. 4:9, HEB.10:12)
“… because
they have a good reward for their labour.”
“For God is not unrighteous to forget your work
and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have
ministered to the saints, and do minister.”
It is only
through God that our toil, our work, our enjoyment of life can have meaning and
purpose. It is in that relationship with God then, that we can be free to work,
free to use the fruits of my labor to serve God and the people around us. It is
in that relationship with God that we can be free to love, free to care, free
from the bonds of greed to enjoy life, to discover the beauty of relationships,
the joy of a person who truly cares for us as we are, and the thrill of knowing
that when this life is ended, we will be given a mansion for eternity (John
14:1-2) and Hebrews 4:12 says, “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work
and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have
ministered to the saints, and do minister.”
CONLUSION:
"A
pastor in a very large congregation gave a rousing sermon on how we view our
possessions one Sunday.
"Nothing
we have is ours," he told the relatively wealthy members of the
congregation, "all belongs to God."
One
wealthy member of the congregation, a surgeon, took offense at what the pastor
had to say. He invited the pastor to his lovely suburban home and it’s
beautifully landscaped yard and pool area.
As
the doctor took the minister on a tour of the estate, he asked pointedly,
"Did you mean what you said in your sermon Sunday? Do you mean, the doctor
said, with a wave of his hand, "that all these are not mine?"
The
pastor simply smiled and replied, "Why don’t you ask me that question
fifty years from now?"
Isn’t
that the point? It really doesn’t matter
what we have now, because in the end, what really matters is our relationship
to God.
Deuteronomy
8:18 - But thou shalt
remember the Lord thy
God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish
his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
Colossians
3:23 - And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and
not unto men;
We really can
determine if we work for God. Check your
priorities, check your walking, check your time, check your budget and check
your heart.
For those who
give their commitment in God’s service, I hope this verse would remind us, Ephesians 6:7 - With good will doing
service, as to the Lord, and not to men.
