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How Should I Respond When Wicked People Get Ahead in Life?
Have you ever thought, “If I had to do life over, what would you do differently?” Most people answer, “I would not have overlooked so many ‘todays’ because of my ambitions for tomorrow. I wish I had smelled the roses more. I wish I hadn’t worried so much because I’m so old I can’t even remember all the things I worried about.”
Be Cautious About Impertinence Toward God (Ecclesiastes 5:1-7)
Be careful how you approach, speak to, and “bargain with” our mysterious God.
Attitude
Solomon tells us we need to be careful about our attitudes when we come to God.
Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.
Do not be quick with your mouth,
do not be hasty in your heart
to utter anything before God.
God is in heaven
and you are on earth,
so let your words be few.
– Ecclesiastes 5:1-2
Look at verse 3—this is brilliant:
A dream comes when there are many cares,
and many words mark the speech of a fool.
Just as hard work produces sleep, so a fool produces many words and much pontificating. In contrast, Solomon says that men of effort are known for their dreams. They work hard and they are silent.
Solomon recognizes that sometimes we want to bargain with God.
It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, “My vow was a mistake.” Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands?
– Ecclesiastes 5:5-6
Verse 7 is phenomenal –
Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore fear God.
Anyone who wastes a lifetime accusing and questioning God is a fool, but someone who continually whines about life is morally at odds with God.
Be Correct in Perspective (Ecclesiastes 5:8-6:12)
Don’t be deceived when the wicked increase; wealth won’t satisfy.
In the next section, Solomon deals with the frustration we feel when we see wicked people succeeding and accruing wealth and “crooked guys getting ahead.”
If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things; for one official is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still.
– Ecclesiastes 5:8
Don’t be shocked and surprised. Don’t throw your hands in the air and say, “Alas, there is no God.”
Psalm 73:18 says that God sets the wicked in “slippery places.”
The increase from the land is taken by all; the king himself profits from the fields.
– Ecclesiastes 5:9
At the end of the day, the King—the most powerful of all—is fed by the land; and God produces the rain that yields the crops…He is in control!
The Problem with Wealth
The sleep of a laborer is sweet,
whether they eat little or much,
but as for the rich, their abundance
permits them no sleep.
– Ecclesiastes 5:12
The man who loves money is a Catch-22—he wants something that will never satisfy him. Desire always outruns possessions.
Not only does wealth not satisfy, but it also complicates your life. And even if wealth doesn’t change you, it will change everyone around you.
Proverbs 14:20 says, “Those who love the rich are many.” Everybody’s your buddy.
Solomon also says that wealth distracts you.
Wealth Weakens You
Not only does wealth complicate your life, it can also weaken you.
I have seen a grievous evil under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owners,
– Ecclesiastes 5:13
Have you ever considered that one of God’s great mercies toward you is that He restricts the amount of money you make? Solomon gives an illustration:
Wealth can be lost through some misfortune,
so that when they have children
there is nothing left for them to inherit.
– Ecclesiastes 5:14
Riches don’t last.
The only time in the Bible that God personally calls a man a fool is in Luke 12:19-20: “And I [a rich man] will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?”
If you’re a person who lives for accruing wealth—thinking that it will give you status, significance, and happiness—it will actually be a blessing if God halts your progress. Otherwise, at the end of your life, you would have to hear the soft laughter of your money as you leave everything behind.
This too is a grievous evil:
As everyone comes, so they depart,
and what do they gain,
since they toil for the wind?
All their days they eat in darkness,
with great frustration, affliction and anger.
– Ecclesiastes 5:16-17
The pressure of wealth produces worry, sickness, and anger. Riches can ruin your life if you let them. The daydream of wealthy men is quite often earlier days of simplicity where things were less complex and worrisome.
They seldom reflect on the days of their life, because God keeps them occupied with gladness of heart.
– Ecclesiastes 5:20
Solomon says that we shouldn’t see wealth as the goal of our lives; rather, we should see wealth as a means to do good and bring enjoyment. Don’t let what you don’t have take the joy away from what you do have.
Pastor Tommy Nelson explains, “Every time we have made more money, my wife and I have made sure to do a couple of things. First, we always take a portion off the top of our income and give it to the Lord’s work. Then, we hold the rest of our funds with a loose hand and use them for good. Give money way. Use it to help people. Also, we use some of it for pure enjoyment—to go someplace or see something.”
You can have an abundant life whether you have a little money or a lot.
In chapter 6, Solomon shows us that prosperity is not always good. In chapter 7, he will tell us that affliction is not always the worse thing. “Those whom the Lord loves He disciplines” (Hebrews 12:6).
Proverbs 20:21 says, “As inheritance gained hurriedly at the beginning, will not be blessed in the end.” Too much good is often a bad thing.
Some of us may be stuck in the mind-set of “since bad things are happening to me, God doesn’t love me.” Solomon challenges this idea by saying that bad things sometimes are really for your good.
The Greatest Generation book highlighted boys and girls in the depression, raised by parents who went through World War I. When those kids went through World War II, they already knew how to sacrifice. They were willing to sacrifice their lives and their children. They learned how to pray because they knew the most evil man of our century was running amuck.
These depression kids who went through World War II were shaped by struggle, heartache, and poverty. They were the backbone that preserved America and kept democracy alive in our world.
This generation went through an incredible amount of pain. And what was the result? They ended up (for the most part) God-fearing, economical, persevering, prayerful, courageous, tough, and strong. They’re the greatest generation this country has ever produced. Why? Because of the pain, poverty, disaster, war, death, blood, tears, and all that stuff they endured.
But a lot of them made a mistake with us—their children—bless their hearts. They said, “I want to make sure my child never goes through what I went through.” So the country produced a generation that skipped the same struggles.
To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, “Maybe God will teach you to get rid of all your toys and grow up.”
Wealth Without Wisdom
Solomon challenges our assumptions in chapter 6. Here he describes a man with wealth but no capacity to enjoy it.
I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on mankind: God gives some people wealth, possessions and honor, so that they lack nothing their hearts desire, but God does not grant them the ability to enjoy them, and strangers enjoy them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil.
A man may have a hundred children and live many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not receive proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. It comes without meaning, it departs in darkness, and in darkness its name is shrouded. Though it never saw the sun or knew anything, it has more rest than does that man—even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?
Everyone’s toil is for their mouth,
yet their appetite is never satisfied.
What advantage have the wise over fools?
What do the poor gain
by knowing how to conduct themselves before others?
Better what the eye sees
than the roving of the appetite.
This too is meaningless,
a chasing after the wind.
– Ecclesiastes 6:1-9
Solomon had more money than you can even comprehend and said wealth is not worth anything if you can’t take a drive in the country, enjoy a piece of cheesecake, or watch a baseball game on a cool autumn night.
Solomon says we should celebrate and enjoy life for what it is—a precious gift from God.
Whatever exists has already been named,
and what humanity is has been known;
no one can contend
with someone who is stronger.
– Ecclesiastes 6:10
God made life to be enjoyed, not to be collected. God will not let us be happy through things.
In fact, The Westminster Shorter Catechism states that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
The more the words,
the less the meaning,
and how does that profit anyone?
– Ecclesiastes 6:11
God has stacked the deck of life and is the dealer. He has determined that “life is to know Me.”
For who knows what is good for a person in life, during the few and meaningless days they pass through like a shadow? Who can tell them what will happen under the sun after they are gone?
– Ecclesiastes 6:12
Solomon says we spend our lives like a shadow. The sun comes up and creates a shadow, then the sun goes down and the shadow is gone. Compared to God’s existence, our lives are as momentary and fleeting as a shadow.
Solomon is very dogmatic in this section because he wants to put us in our place. The only choice we have is to be miserable or happy.
As Pastor Tommy puts it, “Let God shape you through the chisel and hammer of adversity.”