Mar 28, 2018
They say money can’t buy happiness. But Solomon would add that money can’t purchase contentment either. And nobody knew that fact better than Solomon. He was wealthy beyond belief and surrounded by every imaginable luxury and convenience that money could buy. He had slaves and servants, singers and musicians, palaces and vineyards, the latest chariot model and the finest food cooked by the world’s greatest chefs. But he was deficient in contentment. In Ecclesiastes 5:8-20, Solomon continues to share his time-tested proverbs, hoping to shed some light on the grievous evil he has seen under the sun. The gap between wealth and poverty was narrow and the potential for material goods to bring spiritual well-being was negligible. Solomon had first-hand experience with the failure of self-gratification to provide any hope of true satisfaction. It never worked. He had learned the hard way that the more you owned, the more it tended to own you. Wealth comes with baggage. Like golden handcuffs, materialism may look attractive, but it can end up holding you captive. We can easily find ourselves lying awake at night, grieving over what we don’t have, and worrying over losing what we do have. In Solomon’s words, it’s a grievous evil. So, about all you can do is make the most of it by enjoying what you have as long as you have it. For Solomon, life had boiled down to a moment-by-moment experience, where satisfaction was short-lived and contentment was a long shot. And while he recognized that the ability to enjoy what you owned came from God, he wasn’t overly enthusiastic in his expression of thanks.