Ecclesiastes chapter 2 is almost the definition of a man’s mid-life crisis. Rather than buying himself a toupee and a sports car, Solomon methodically tested every form of self-satisfaction. He told himself, “I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good“. This was not a weekend in Las Vegas; it was a well funded, multi-year research project. “I tried cheering myself with wine… my mind still guiding me with wisdom“. There is a sense that he became a connoisseur, but apparently that was not enough. “I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them … I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself… a haremas well the delights of a man’s heart… I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me“. Again, he was clearly the designer, architect and director of every aspect of these projects, “In all this my wisdom stayed with me“. This was a scientific exploration with unlimited funding, with the purpose of discovering how to fully satisfy a man’s heart. Understand, he examined every option, “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure“. This was not drudgery, “My heart took delight in all my labor“. He was a success at everything he attempted. Have you noticed the one missing word?
Solomon continues the observation, “Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done… everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind“. Interestingly, his notation centers on something left out of his hypothesis, “What more can the king’s successor do than what has already been done?“. Who will take over what he leaves behind? Comparing the wise to the fool, “I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both“. He asks, “What then do I gain by being wise? Like the fool, the wise too must die!“. He has a new realization, “So I hated life… I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me“. Surrounded by every manner of success and prosperity, he is miserable and alone. Self-satisfaction has left him by himself.
Solomon begins his results section with a summary, “So my heart began to despair… For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another“. He postulates a question for the seeker of knowledge, “What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun?“. His answer leads him to a more piercing question. “A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This… is from the hand of God, for without Him, who can eat or find enjoyment?” Here is Solomon’s final conclusion, “God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness“. Solomon spent a fortune focusing on “I and Me” to discover that there is no joy without a “You, We and Us”. Philippians 2 offers this advice for making your joy complete, “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ… Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others“. Friend, real satisfaction begins by inviting God to be at the center of all you do. His joy and His peace will make everything more pleasurable.