Ecclesiastes
Devotions in Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes 2:24 - From the Hand of God
***Ecclesiastes 4:9 - Working Together
***Ecclesiastes 4:9 - Two Are Better Than One
***Ecclesiastes 4:9 - Balanced
***Ecclesiastes 9:10 - With Your Might
***Ecclesiastes 10:1 - That Stinks!!
***Ecclesiastes 10:10 - A Stitch in Time
***Ecclesiastes 12:11 - Like Nails Firmly Fixed
Ecclesiastes 12:13 - The End of the Matter
***Ecclesiastes 12:13 - Our Whole Duty
***Ecclesiastes 12:14 - Nowhere to Hide
From the Hand of God
There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, Ecclesiastes 2:24
Charles Gabriel knew, from the time he was fifteen, that he wanted to write hymns. He would work on the farm all day, make up hymns in his head, and write them down at night. By the time he was in his twenties, he’d published his first hymnal, Gabriel’s Sabbath School Songs. He spent his entire life involved with hymns, working at one time with Billy Sunday’s evangelistic crusades and later as as editor of a publishing house. He is best known for the hymn “I Stand Amazed in the Presence,” but he also set the words to “His Eye is on the Sparrow” to music. Charles Gabriel was blessed to have a job his whole life that he thoroughly loved.
When I was fourteen, I had the delightful job (not!) of detasseling corn. It was hard work. When we started, it was early morning and cool. By the time midmorning came, it was hot. So we dressed in layers, so we could adapt. Additionally, I was allergic to the corn (and some of the weeds growing in some of the fields, i.e. velvetleaf). Not only did the corn cut my hands as I detasseled it, it also caused rashes from the fingertip of my little finger to my elbow. I also helped to alleviate the boredom of the work crew by sneezing my way down the row. It was miserable. There were numerous days when I wanted to quit.
On the other end of the work spectrum was a job I absolutely loved. I’d been working at York Steak House in the mall. During my breaks, I’d walk down to the piano store and work on the piece I was memorizing for an upcoming piano competition. When my manager learned where I was going, he made arrangements with the piano store to have a piano loaned to the steak house. On Wednesday evenings, when the steakhouse was notoriously slow, the manager would prop open the steakhouse door and pay me to play the piano. I played popular songs, movie themes, fun stuff. For three hours, I got to have fun! And I got paid for it! I couldn’t believe they were paying me for doing something I absolutely loved! And it was always fun to see the steakhouse suddenly clear out when I finished!
Having experienced both extremes, I understand Ecclesiastes 2:24. It is wonderful to have food and drink and a job that you enjoy doing. But they don’t just happen: they are from God. In fact, Ecclesiastes 3:13 and 5:19 specifically state that these are a gift from God!
How does that happen? How does the perfect job come as a gift from God? It’s an example of Proverbs 3:5-6 and Psalm 37:4-5 in action:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6
Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. Psalm 37:4-5
There’s the underlying premise that God can direct you in a certain path, but you can choose not to go that way. You can choose something else, something that will not be the best for you ultimately. Or you can choose to trust God with all of who you are and what you’d like to do, and He can bless you far more than you ever expected.
When I was small, I decided I wanted to be a teacher. But more specifically than that, I wanted to teach in a one-room schoolhouse. My one-room schoolhouse doesn’t look like what I imagined it would, but I have to tell you: I have the best job in the whole world. I get to teach my children - not just textbook stuff, but hands-on and Biblical truths too. I feel so incredibly blessed of God to be entrusted with a job that I totally love doing.
When you’re trusting God with your life, trust Him with your livelihood as well. Seek His ways, follow His leading, rely on His faithfulness to give you the desires of your heart. God can give you the desires of your heart - including a job that you want to do. Having a job you love is a blessing, a gift, from the hand of God.
**Working Together
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: Ecclesiastes 4:9
Materials: candles, matches, jar of buttons
I don’t know who first introduced me to the idea of playing 52-Card Pick-Up, but I can remember very strongly my aversion to having to pick up all those cards all by myself - and then to make sure I hadn’t missed any and ruined the deck.
I do know that oftentimes when a particularly tiresome job is on my short-list, the job is much more manageable if several people are working together to get it accomplished. Not only does many hands make light work, many people together also can mean joking and laughter and fun, which also makes a hard job seem less hard and to go more easily.
You know what I mean, right? Imagine there’s a huge container of buttons and I dump it out all over the table. It’s going to take a while for me to pick up all the buttons by myself. But if I have people helping, we’ll accomplish it in a fraction of the time and we’ll likely have more fun doing it.
But, it’s not just making the job go more quickly or more smoothly. There’s another really cool thing that happens when you have a couple of people working together on a task. You get to combine strength - mental or physical. It’s like lifting a log. Something that I can’t lift by myself, I can move if I have someone to help me. Or if I’m trying to figure out a riddle. Having another person working on the same puzzle can help each of us come up with more possibilities. We’re stronger together. We’re able to accomplish more in a shorter period with a much better outcome.
But you know what, we have to work together. I’m not going to be able to move a log if you’re standing on it. We have to have the same goal, the same agenda in mind, otherwise we’re going to accomplish less than if we were all alone.
Oh that we would learn to work together, to encourage each other, to accomplish more and do it more efficiently - all for the glory of God!!!
***Two Are Better Than One
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. Ecclesiastes 4:9
Materials: lazy susan
My favorite glider rocker also has a lazy susan so that it can swivel. A month or so ago, it stopped swiveling. So I turned my chair upside down to investigate. What I found was that the lazy susan had been constructed with a combination of plastic and ball bearings. This means that there were fewer ball bearings doing all the work - and when dog hair and dust bunnies tried to hide under my chair, they got caught and gummed up the works, so to speak. I could have taken all of the plastic out, but then there wouldn’t have been enough ball bearings to carry the load.
I couldn’t help thinking about what a great illustration this is of Ecclesiastes 4:9! Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. So many times in my life, whatever task I was trying to accomplish was so much more easily and speedily accomplished when I had someone working with me - everything from hanging drywall, to picking wild grapes, to repainting the house, to designing curriculum. There’s a principle here that the synergism between two people creates more than the sum of the parts creates. That means if I work with someone else, I can hang more drywall than I can working by myself here and my friend working by herself over there. We can get more accomplished, in less time, with less combined effort, and do a better job - if we work together!
Anyone who has had a huge project (or even a small project) knows this is true. We’ve experienced it - over and over. So why don’t we work together more often? Maybe because we don’t communicate our willingness to help someone else; maybe because we don’t communicate our need. Maybe we are too stubborn and independent to ask for help. Maybe we don’t want to be a problem or a burden to someone else.
But, in the end, it becomes so obviously clear: we need one another. We need the help and the encouragement that each of us has the ability to give to one another. We need to build those bonds of friendship in love - and if there’s enough of us working together to accomplish a goal, it will go so much more smoothly, in a shorter amount of time, to the glory of God.
And my chair. We bought a new lazy susan and replaced the old one. It has no plastic and many, many more ball bearings. In this age of division and contention, I don’t think it’s any coincidence that I get to sit in my chair every day and think about about how Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.
***Balanced
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. Ecclesiastes 4:9
Materials: pen, potato, two forks
Let’s say, just for fun, that I have a pen and a potato. The potato and pen represent life and potential for balancing everything in life so that life works. Christopher is the fork and he is going to grab hold of life. He’s going to have a rather difficult time getting everything balanced! We know this because God said that it is not good for man to be alone. Man needs a helpmeet. He needs someone to balance him out. So Alyssa and Christopher, both being forks, are going to grab hold of life. They have a better chance of balancing things out if they work together than Christopher would by himself. We can see that if we stick the forks into the potato so that all three are lined up in a straight line. But if Alyssa and Christopher are grounded in the Lord Jesus Christ, something amazing happens. We see this when we put the forks into the potatoes so that they have a lower center of gravity. The potato is now able to balance on the pen. Christopher and Alyssa can balance all the good and bad, their strengths and weaknesses, and all the things life will throw at them, if their center of gravity is lower - aka, they are grounded on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Being balanced is a very important aspect to consider when beginning a marriage or a work partnership or a group project. Solomon was absolutely correct when he said that “two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil” (Ecclesiastes 4:9). That balance in personality, in goals, in ambitious, in worldview - it’s all so much stronger if Jesus Christ is the center of your relationship.
Something to think about the next time you pick up your fork to eat a potato.
Resource: 77 Science Activities for Illustrating Bible Lessons, Donald B. DeYoung, 2013, pg. 253.
**With All Your Might
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might . . . Ecclesiastes 9:10
Materials: bubble solution, straws, cookie sheets, towels
Bubble solution: 3 c. water; 1/2 c. dish soap; 1/2 T. glycerin
You can make some pretty big bubbles if you have a good bubble solution and a large place to blow the bubble (like a classroom floor 😀). One of the things you have to remember, however, is this: don’t suck in when you put your straw into the bubble solution. It doesn’t taste very well. If you’re careful, you blow slowly, and if you put some effort into it, you can make an amazingly huge bubble.
However, school custodians don’t like this science experiment very much. With all the soap and water all over the floor, it makes a huge mess. Hmm. So do you think Solomon meant everything when he said, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might”?
Like many verses in the Bible, if you pick it out and don’t apply the rest of the Bible, you might end up thinking that Solomon thinks it’s okay to be a bank robber - as long as you are the best bank robber you can possibly be. Or you could think that Solomon believes it’s okay to lie - as long as you make up the best fabrication possible. But this is not what Solomon is saying, and we know this is not what he’s saying because of how he ends the book: Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.
So think about what Solomon is telling us! God is going to judge everything you do. You’re not getting away with anything - even if you think it’s hidden. So logically, find what is right in God’s sight - and then do it to the best of your ability. That means reading your Bible so you know what pleases God.
If you choose poorly, you can find yourself having spent all your energy on something that didn’t really matter. And in the end, it pops like a bubble, or, in King Solomon’s terminology, it was just a chasing after the wind.
***That Stinks!
Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a stench; Ecclesiastes 10:1
Materials: juice, a dead fly, little cups
Ever heard the saying, “There’s a fly in the ointment”? Did you know that it comes from the Bible, Ecclesiastes 10:1? We think of this phrase meaning that there’s some little thing which is ruining our perfect scenario, but the phrase actually has just a little different twist than that. The whole verse from Ecclesiastes says this: Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a stench; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. It’s not that we have a little problem; we have a little thing which ruins it all. A little, stupid thing can outbalance wisdom and honor - completely!
Suppose I pour a glass of pear juice. I worked hard to make this pear juice: picked the pears, peeled and shred the pears, canned the pears. This is from a jar of pears I canned in 2014. There’s years going into this pear juice. So suppose I add a fly. I have ruined the whole glass. I’m not drinking that! In the large scheme of the universe, this is just a little thing because I can wash out my glass and refill it with something else. So what we’re really talking about is doing some stupid thing which ruins everything - maybe like spending all day long cleaning the house for your mom and then throwing the ball in the house (which you KNOW you’re not supposed to do) and it breaks her favorite vase or her laptop! It now no longer really matters that you worked so hard all day long. You’ve ruined it by doing some stupid thing that just wiped out hours of work in a split second.
People do this all the time. They spend years going to school, getting a good job, finding the right person they want to marry - and then they throw it all away because they decide to drive home intoxicated, or they flirt with a coworker, or they run a stop sign and hit another car. Oh, there are lots of stupid things that we do which outweigh the years of work!
But I suppose one of the stupidest things we can do is to proclaim we’re a christian, work very hard at living a God-honoring life, studying, praying, preserving - and then one day, in a fit of selfishness, we do or say something which completely changes how people view us and our God. The most vivid example is King David. He took Bathsheba (Uriah’s wife) and then arranged to have Uriah killed. Nathan, the prophet, told David that he’d given the enemies of God great occasion to blaspheme. David’s actions didn’t just reflect on himself; they reflected on God because David claimed to worship and belong to God.
I can give you each a glass of pear juice with a dead fly in it. We might laugh and joke about how silly that is. But when you do or say something thoughtless which brings dishonor to God, that’s a true fly in the ointment. It just stinks!!
***A Stitch in Time
but wisdom helps one to succeed. Ecclesiastes 10:10
Materials: a sock/jeans with a hole; a string, matches, a pile of flammable items; a songbook/three-ring binder and hole reinforcers (other items that can be fixed more easily if done sooner rather than later)
Living in Missouri near the Missouri River and Mississippi River bottoms, we have seen what happens when people see a problem coming, but fail to take care of the problem while it is still small. The levees along these two big rivers are a prime example. Inspectors knew that the levees needed repair and reinforcement. When the levees didn’t receive the attention they needed, they were breached during spring flooding, costing billions of dollars in damage to home, roads, and crops, etc. A similar thing occurred with the Taum Sauk Dam in southeastern MO. Inspectors knew it desperately needed repairs. The repairs would have been expensive, but the damage caused by the dam bursting was a whole lot more costly!
But you and I don’t have too much to do with levees and dams. That is, they are not our jurisdiction. No, I have things like my garden, my family’s clothing, and care of our property. I can apply the same idea of seeing something that needs to be done and the consequence of not doing it in my own life. If I know I need to go get the weeds out of the strawberry patch, and I neglect to do it when the weeds are small, I’m going to have a work a whole lot harder to get the weeds out. I may even lose my patch of strawberries and have to start all over again, building a new patch. Or, if one of my kids brings me a pair of socks to mend, I can either do it right then when the hole is small, or I can tell them to wear it again and I’ll fix it next time. Only . . . the next time, that sock can be a lot harder to fix because the hole is much larger! Or I can see that one of my pages is starting to come out of a songbook. If I don’t take the time to fix the page, I can end up losing that page. That’s not a good thing!!!
Benjamin Franklin’s adage was “A stitch in time saves nine.” If you see a problem developing, take care of it right then before it’s a big problem. If you don’t take care of it while it’s small, it will be a lot harder to take care of once it’s bigger. This is just one application of this statement in Ecclesiastes, “but wisdom helps one to succeed.” It is wise to mend a sock while its hole is small. It is wise to pull the weeds out of the garden while they are small - so you don’t damage the plants you want to grow. It is wise to fix a loose page in a book before the page is lost completely. It is indeed wise to see trouble coming and head it off at the pass, so to speak.
And all of these physical occurrences should remind us that it is wise to recognize the sin in your life and deal with it immediately before it becomes a habit and is so much more difficult to eradicate from your life. (At this point, I set up the pile of flammables with a string leading from it. The kids were not quite sure whether I was going to light the string on fire or not.)
. . . wisdom helps one to succeed.
***Like Nails Firmly Fixed
The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. Ecclesiastes 12:11
Materials: nails, hammers, small pieces of wood (When you let the little ones hammer nails into the wood, warn them about hitting their fingers!!!)
Have you ever decided you need to hang a picture on the wall? After finding the perfect picture, you have to figure out where to hang it and then go find the nail and hammer. I usually try my junk drawer first, to see if I can find a good nail. Hmmm. Well, sometimes I can’t find exactly what I had in mind, but I reason that the nail I find will be good enough. The next task is to put the nail in the wall. Have you ever noticed that the studs are not necessarily centered on the wall? Sometimes you’re just going to hang a small picture and the drywall will provide enough support. Other times, the picture (or mirror or shelf) is much too heavy for just a nail in drywall. You really need to find a stud in the wall to provide enough support.
That’s what God’s laws are like. All of God’s words, His decrees, His judgments, His ordinances, His laws - they are like nails firmly fixed into the stud. What a great mental image this gives us!! We, you and I who love God, who follow the Shepherd, are like that picture to be hung on the wall. We want the support. We want to be secure where we live. Solomon gives us a great mental image of just how secure we are, if we are resting our lives, everything we do and everything we are, on God’s words, His laws.
Think about what happens when the nail is not firmly fixed. At some point, that picture (or shelf, or mirror) is in a precarious position. If the house is shaken by a storm or earthquake, the picture will fall. If we try to rest our lives on something other than God’s law, we are in danger of being broken. Our anchor, our foundation will not hold when we encounter storms and difficulties, if we’re relying on anything other than God and His ways, His words, His laws.
How firm is your foundation? How secure is your anchor? How fixed is your nail?
The End of the Matter
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Ecclesiastes 12:13
The end of the matter; all has been heard. It sounds like a judge presiding over a trial. He’s examined all of the evidence; he’s heard all of the testimony. He’s ready to pronounce his judgment in the matter.
Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes almost like a judge’s brief. In it, he explains all of the exploration and research he did in this particular case: what is valuable and worthwhile in life? What makes life work? What is man’s purpose for being here? What should man spend his time doing?
Life is very much like a woven tapestry. There are so many pieces that are woven together. It’s as if Solomon wanted to figure out how life was woven together. So he studied, or as Solomon described it, “applied my heart to understand,” wisdom (Eccles. 1:12-18). Then he explored self-indulgence, pleasure, laughter, acquiring possessions - all for self (Eccles. 2:1-11). Next he examined living wisely (Eccles. 2:12-17). Then he looked at work (Eccles. 2:18-26). He discovered that there’s a right time for everything (Eccles. 3:1-8), that God has directed everything that will happen (Eccles. 3:9-15), and that men start as dust and return to dust (Eccles. 3:16-21). He examined evil (Eccles. 4:1-16). He found that God is sovereign and we must be careful what we say before Him (Eccles. 5:1-7). He also discovered that wealth and honor for yourself is not the goal (Eccles. 5:8 - 6:12). His research led him back to comparing wisdom with folly (Eccles. 7:129), and found that it’s wise to keep the king’s commands (Eccles. 8:1-9) and to reverence God (Eccles. 8:10-13). Man cannot know God’s ways (Eccles 8:14-17) and, since death comes to all (Eccles. 9:7-10), wisdom is better than folly (Eccles. 9:11 - 10:20). Solomon concluded that we should consider the consequences of our actions (Eccles. 11:1-10) and seek God all of our lives (Eccles. 12:1-8). Then he sums up all of his explorations (Eccles. 12:9-14) by telling the reader: The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man (Eccles. 12:13).
We’ve heard Solomon’s conclusion: fear God and keep his commandments. We understand the second part of that sentence. We comprehend what it means to keep God’s commandments. We don’t always want to; we don’t keep them perfectly; we might try to find excuses for doing what we know is right, but we do understand what it means to keep God’s commandments.
But what does it mean to fear God? Should we be afraid of God? I think C.S. Lewis did a fantastic job in the Chronicles of Narnia of portraying Aslan as analogous to Jesus Christ. There’s a wonderful exchange between the children and the beavers as the beavers are explaining Aslan. The children ask if he’s safe. The beavers respond that he’s not safe; he’s a lion after all. But he is good. That analogy helps us understand the kind of attitude we should have towards our God. Our great God is good and trustworthy, but he is also to be reverenced. He is all powerful. He will not tolerate pride or sin or disrespect.
It wouldn’t have worked at all for C.S. Lewis to have used a snake or a spider. I fear them because of what they can do to me, but I don’t reverence them. I despise them, even as I try to stay as far away from them as possible. But a lion commands respect and honor. A lion is majestic and commanding. And yet, a lion doesn’t quite convey a true picture of our God either.
So God gives us parents. If you’ve been blessed with godly parents, you have a better heart knowledge of the kind of fear God deserves and requires. Think about it. Your parents love you. They work hard to make sure you have a good life, you are safe, and you are content. But they don’t tolerate disrespect, breaking their rules, or an arrogant attitude. When you’re little, you certainly fear a spanking (a whoopin’, Ken would say) if you do the wrong thing, but, at the same time, you think Daddy can do anything. He’s the greatest. That’s a pretty good description of what our attitude should be towards our Heavenly Father. He can spank us, discipline us, but He’s the greatest and He can do anything.
So we look again at Solomon’s conclusion: The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man (Eccles. 12:13). Having explored everything in life, Solomon concludes that we must reverence God and do what He says. This is our purpose in life. This is why we are here. We’re not here to see how much money we can make; Solomon tried that. We’re not here to eat and drink and have as much fun as we can; Solomon tried that. We’re not here to be as wicked as possible; Solomon explored that avenue as well. We are not here to spend all of our time working or acquiring wisdom and knowledge - although those things have a value and are a blessing from God. Our purpose for existing, the thing we should spend our lives working for, is honoring God with who we are and what we’re doing. Everything you think, say, and do should be pleasing to Him. Everything.
If our life is woven into a tapestry of thoughts and words and actions which glorify our God then we will have something beautiful and worthwhile to present to the One who gave us life, who created and owns everything, and who is worthy of nothing less than our all. And that’s the end of the matter.
Our Whole Duty
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Ecclesiastes 12:13
Materials: blank cards - on one side write “fear” on the other write “obey”
Can you think of anything that comes in twos? Two eyes. Two ears. Two hands. Two feet. Two shoes. Two legs. A husband and wife makes two people. A mom and a dad makes two parents. There are twos everywhere we look. Well, here’s another very important “two.”
Two things. The wisest man ever (outside of Jesus Christ) said that we must do two things. That’s it. We are to fear God and keep His commandments.
The second one we understand. We need to obey God. He tells us to conduct ourselves in certain ways - no lying, no stealing, considering others more highly than ourselves, etc. We need to listen to God. We need to obey what He says. That’s keeping his commandments.
But the word “keep” also means to value God’s commandments, to treasure them, to see them as important. We’re not just obeying God because we are afraid of the consequences; we obey God because we see the good in His commandments.
The first thing Solomon tells us to do is to fear God. This word “fear” can mean to be afraid, but it can also mean “to be in awe of, to respect, to reverence.” Perhaps you can understand what this word “fear” means by thinking of your own dad. You respect and honor him. He loves you and takes care of you. You trust that he wants the very best for you. So you show honor to him by doing what he says.
So you fear your dad in the sense that you respect and honor him, but you also fear him. You’re a little afraid of him - because you know if you don’t do what he says, you’re going to get punished. When I was a kid, that meant a whooping, a spanking, a paddling, the belt.
God is very much the same way. You should honor and respect Him because He is worthy! He is so good. He is so great! You trust God because you know He will never lie. He always wants the very best for you. He has already given you so much!! And yet, you also fear God because He will punish those who break His law. Hebrews says it’s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
So when you know that God wants you to do something, do it!
There’s just two things that Solomon says we must do. It’s our duty! It’s the task that is set before us: fear God. Honor, respect, reverence, and trust Him. But be very aware that He expects us to obey Him. So we do our very best to keep His commandments, treasuring them as God’s way to live.
Devotions in Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes 2:24 - From the Hand of God
***Ecclesiastes 4:9 - Working Together
***Ecclesiastes 4:9 - Two Are Better Than One
***Ecclesiastes 4:9 - Balanced
***Ecclesiastes 9:10 - With Your Might
***Ecclesiastes 10:1 - That Stinks!!
***Ecclesiastes 10:10 - A Stitch in Time
***Ecclesiastes 12:11 - Like Nails Firmly Fixed
Ecclesiastes 12:13 - The End of the Matter
***Ecclesiastes 12:13 - Our Whole Duty
***Ecclesiastes 12:14 - Nowhere to Hide
From the Hand of God
There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, Ecclesiastes 2:24
Charles Gabriel knew, from the time he was fifteen, that he wanted to write hymns. He would work on the farm all day, make up hymns in his head, and write them down at night. By the time he was in his twenties, he’d published his first hymnal, Gabriel’s Sabbath School Songs. He spent his entire life involved with hymns, working at one time with Billy Sunday’s evangelistic crusades and later as as editor of a publishing house. He is best known for the hymn “I Stand Amazed in the Presence,” but he also set the words to “His Eye is on the Sparrow” to music. Charles Gabriel was blessed to have a job his whole life that he thoroughly loved.
When I was fourteen, I had the delightful job (not!) of detasseling corn. It was hard work. When we started, it was early morning and cool. By the time midmorning came, it was hot. So we dressed in layers, so we could adapt. Additionally, I was allergic to the corn (and some of the weeds growing in some of the fields, i.e. velvetleaf). Not only did the corn cut my hands as I detasseled it, it also caused rashes from the fingertip of my little finger to my elbow. I also helped to alleviate the boredom of the work crew by sneezing my way down the row. It was miserable. There were numerous days when I wanted to quit.
On the other end of the work spectrum was a job I absolutely loved. I’d been working at York Steak House in the mall. During my breaks, I’d walk down to the piano store and work on the piece I was memorizing for an upcoming piano competition. When my manager learned where I was going, he made arrangements with the piano store to have a piano loaned to the steak house. On Wednesday evenings, when the steakhouse was notoriously slow, the manager would prop open the steakhouse door and pay me to play the piano. I played popular songs, movie themes, fun stuff. For three hours, I got to have fun! And I got paid for it! I couldn’t believe they were paying me for doing something I absolutely loved! And it was always fun to see the steakhouse suddenly clear out when I finished!
Having experienced both extremes, I understand Ecclesiastes 2:24. It is wonderful to have food and drink and a job that you enjoy doing. But they don’t just happen: they are from God. In fact, Ecclesiastes 3:13 and 5:19 specifically state that these are a gift from God!
How does that happen? How does the perfect job come as a gift from God? It’s an example of Proverbs 3:5-6 and Psalm 37:4-5 in action:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6
Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. Psalm 37:4-5
There’s the underlying premise that God can direct you in a certain path, but you can choose not to go that way. You can choose something else, something that will not be the best for you ultimately. Or you can choose to trust God with all of who you are and what you’d like to do, and He can bless you far more than you ever expected.
When I was small, I decided I wanted to be a teacher. But more specifically than that, I wanted to teach in a one-room schoolhouse. My one-room schoolhouse doesn’t look like what I imagined it would, but I have to tell you: I have the best job in the whole world. I get to teach my children - not just textbook stuff, but hands-on and Biblical truths too. I feel so incredibly blessed of God to be entrusted with a job that I totally love doing.
When you’re trusting God with your life, trust Him with your livelihood as well. Seek His ways, follow His leading, rely on His faithfulness to give you the desires of your heart. God can give you the desires of your heart - including a job that you want to do. Having a job you love is a blessing, a gift, from the hand of God.
**Working Together
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: Ecclesiastes 4:9
Materials: candles, matches, jar of buttons
I don’t know who first introduced me to the idea of playing 52-Card Pick-Up, but I can remember very strongly my aversion to having to pick up all those cards all by myself - and then to make sure I hadn’t missed any and ruined the deck.
I do know that oftentimes when a particularly tiresome job is on my short-list, the job is much more manageable if several people are working together to get it accomplished. Not only does many hands make light work, many people together also can mean joking and laughter and fun, which also makes a hard job seem less hard and to go more easily.
You know what I mean, right? Imagine there’s a huge container of buttons and I dump it out all over the table. It’s going to take a while for me to pick up all the buttons by myself. But if I have people helping, we’ll accomplish it in a fraction of the time and we’ll likely have more fun doing it.
But, it’s not just making the job go more quickly or more smoothly. There’s another really cool thing that happens when you have a couple of people working together on a task. You get to combine strength - mental or physical. It’s like lifting a log. Something that I can’t lift by myself, I can move if I have someone to help me. Or if I’m trying to figure out a riddle. Having another person working on the same puzzle can help each of us come up with more possibilities. We’re stronger together. We’re able to accomplish more in a shorter period with a much better outcome.
But you know what, we have to work together. I’m not going to be able to move a log if you’re standing on it. We have to have the same goal, the same agenda in mind, otherwise we’re going to accomplish less than if we were all alone.
Oh that we would learn to work together, to encourage each other, to accomplish more and do it more efficiently - all for the glory of God!!!
***Two Are Better Than One
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. Ecclesiastes 4:9
Materials: lazy susan
My favorite glider rocker also has a lazy susan so that it can swivel. A month or so ago, it stopped swiveling. So I turned my chair upside down to investigate. What I found was that the lazy susan had been constructed with a combination of plastic and ball bearings. This means that there were fewer ball bearings doing all the work - and when dog hair and dust bunnies tried to hide under my chair, they got caught and gummed up the works, so to speak. I could have taken all of the plastic out, but then there wouldn’t have been enough ball bearings to carry the load.
I couldn’t help thinking about what a great illustration this is of Ecclesiastes 4:9! Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. So many times in my life, whatever task I was trying to accomplish was so much more easily and speedily accomplished when I had someone working with me - everything from hanging drywall, to picking wild grapes, to repainting the house, to designing curriculum. There’s a principle here that the synergism between two people creates more than the sum of the parts creates. That means if I work with someone else, I can hang more drywall than I can working by myself here and my friend working by herself over there. We can get more accomplished, in less time, with less combined effort, and do a better job - if we work together!
Anyone who has had a huge project (or even a small project) knows this is true. We’ve experienced it - over and over. So why don’t we work together more often? Maybe because we don’t communicate our willingness to help someone else; maybe because we don’t communicate our need. Maybe we are too stubborn and independent to ask for help. Maybe we don’t want to be a problem or a burden to someone else.
But, in the end, it becomes so obviously clear: we need one another. We need the help and the encouragement that each of us has the ability to give to one another. We need to build those bonds of friendship in love - and if there’s enough of us working together to accomplish a goal, it will go so much more smoothly, in a shorter amount of time, to the glory of God.
And my chair. We bought a new lazy susan and replaced the old one. It has no plastic and many, many more ball bearings. In this age of division and contention, I don’t think it’s any coincidence that I get to sit in my chair every day and think about about how Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.
***Balanced
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. Ecclesiastes 4:9
Materials: pen, potato, two forks
Let’s say, just for fun, that I have a pen and a potato. The potato and pen represent life and potential for balancing everything in life so that life works. Christopher is the fork and he is going to grab hold of life. He’s going to have a rather difficult time getting everything balanced! We know this because God said that it is not good for man to be alone. Man needs a helpmeet. He needs someone to balance him out. So Alyssa and Christopher, both being forks, are going to grab hold of life. They have a better chance of balancing things out if they work together than Christopher would by himself. We can see that if we stick the forks into the potato so that all three are lined up in a straight line. But if Alyssa and Christopher are grounded in the Lord Jesus Christ, something amazing happens. We see this when we put the forks into the potatoes so that they have a lower center of gravity. The potato is now able to balance on the pen. Christopher and Alyssa can balance all the good and bad, their strengths and weaknesses, and all the things life will throw at them, if their center of gravity is lower - aka, they are grounded on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Being balanced is a very important aspect to consider when beginning a marriage or a work partnership or a group project. Solomon was absolutely correct when he said that “two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil” (Ecclesiastes 4:9). That balance in personality, in goals, in ambitious, in worldview - it’s all so much stronger if Jesus Christ is the center of your relationship.
Something to think about the next time you pick up your fork to eat a potato.
Resource: 77 Science Activities for Illustrating Bible Lessons, Donald B. DeYoung, 2013, pg. 253.
**With All Your Might
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might . . . Ecclesiastes 9:10
Materials: bubble solution, straws, cookie sheets, towels
Bubble solution: 3 c. water; 1/2 c. dish soap; 1/2 T. glycerin
You can make some pretty big bubbles if you have a good bubble solution and a large place to blow the bubble (like a classroom floor 😀). One of the things you have to remember, however, is this: don’t suck in when you put your straw into the bubble solution. It doesn’t taste very well. If you’re careful, you blow slowly, and if you put some effort into it, you can make an amazingly huge bubble.
However, school custodians don’t like this science experiment very much. With all the soap and water all over the floor, it makes a huge mess. Hmm. So do you think Solomon meant everything when he said, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might”?
Like many verses in the Bible, if you pick it out and don’t apply the rest of the Bible, you might end up thinking that Solomon thinks it’s okay to be a bank robber - as long as you are the best bank robber you can possibly be. Or you could think that Solomon believes it’s okay to lie - as long as you make up the best fabrication possible. But this is not what Solomon is saying, and we know this is not what he’s saying because of how he ends the book: Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.
So think about what Solomon is telling us! God is going to judge everything you do. You’re not getting away with anything - even if you think it’s hidden. So logically, find what is right in God’s sight - and then do it to the best of your ability. That means reading your Bible so you know what pleases God.
If you choose poorly, you can find yourself having spent all your energy on something that didn’t really matter. And in the end, it pops like a bubble, or, in King Solomon’s terminology, it was just a chasing after the wind.
***That Stinks!
Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a stench; Ecclesiastes 10:1
Materials: juice, a dead fly, little cups
Ever heard the saying, “There’s a fly in the ointment”? Did you know that it comes from the Bible, Ecclesiastes 10:1? We think of this phrase meaning that there’s some little thing which is ruining our perfect scenario, but the phrase actually has just a little different twist than that. The whole verse from Ecclesiastes says this: Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a stench; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. It’s not that we have a little problem; we have a little thing which ruins it all. A little, stupid thing can outbalance wisdom and honor - completely!
Suppose I pour a glass of pear juice. I worked hard to make this pear juice: picked the pears, peeled and shred the pears, canned the pears. This is from a jar of pears I canned in 2014. There’s years going into this pear juice. So suppose I add a fly. I have ruined the whole glass. I’m not drinking that! In the large scheme of the universe, this is just a little thing because I can wash out my glass and refill it with something else. So what we’re really talking about is doing some stupid thing which ruins everything - maybe like spending all day long cleaning the house for your mom and then throwing the ball in the house (which you KNOW you’re not supposed to do) and it breaks her favorite vase or her laptop! It now no longer really matters that you worked so hard all day long. You’ve ruined it by doing some stupid thing that just wiped out hours of work in a split second.
People do this all the time. They spend years going to school, getting a good job, finding the right person they want to marry - and then they throw it all away because they decide to drive home intoxicated, or they flirt with a coworker, or they run a stop sign and hit another car. Oh, there are lots of stupid things that we do which outweigh the years of work!
But I suppose one of the stupidest things we can do is to proclaim we’re a christian, work very hard at living a God-honoring life, studying, praying, preserving - and then one day, in a fit of selfishness, we do or say something which completely changes how people view us and our God. The most vivid example is King David. He took Bathsheba (Uriah’s wife) and then arranged to have Uriah killed. Nathan, the prophet, told David that he’d given the enemies of God great occasion to blaspheme. David’s actions didn’t just reflect on himself; they reflected on God because David claimed to worship and belong to God.
I can give you each a glass of pear juice with a dead fly in it. We might laugh and joke about how silly that is. But when you do or say something thoughtless which brings dishonor to God, that’s a true fly in the ointment. It just stinks!!
***A Stitch in Time
but wisdom helps one to succeed. Ecclesiastes 10:10
Materials: a sock/jeans with a hole; a string, matches, a pile of flammable items; a songbook/three-ring binder and hole reinforcers (other items that can be fixed more easily if done sooner rather than later)
Living in Missouri near the Missouri River and Mississippi River bottoms, we have seen what happens when people see a problem coming, but fail to take care of the problem while it is still small. The levees along these two big rivers are a prime example. Inspectors knew that the levees needed repair and reinforcement. When the levees didn’t receive the attention they needed, they were breached during spring flooding, costing billions of dollars in damage to home, roads, and crops, etc. A similar thing occurred with the Taum Sauk Dam in southeastern MO. Inspectors knew it desperately needed repairs. The repairs would have been expensive, but the damage caused by the dam bursting was a whole lot more costly!
But you and I don’t have too much to do with levees and dams. That is, they are not our jurisdiction. No, I have things like my garden, my family’s clothing, and care of our property. I can apply the same idea of seeing something that needs to be done and the consequence of not doing it in my own life. If I know I need to go get the weeds out of the strawberry patch, and I neglect to do it when the weeds are small, I’m going to have a work a whole lot harder to get the weeds out. I may even lose my patch of strawberries and have to start all over again, building a new patch. Or, if one of my kids brings me a pair of socks to mend, I can either do it right then when the hole is small, or I can tell them to wear it again and I’ll fix it next time. Only . . . the next time, that sock can be a lot harder to fix because the hole is much larger! Or I can see that one of my pages is starting to come out of a songbook. If I don’t take the time to fix the page, I can end up losing that page. That’s not a good thing!!!
Benjamin Franklin’s adage was “A stitch in time saves nine.” If you see a problem developing, take care of it right then before it’s a big problem. If you don’t take care of it while it’s small, it will be a lot harder to take care of once it’s bigger. This is just one application of this statement in Ecclesiastes, “but wisdom helps one to succeed.” It is wise to mend a sock while its hole is small. It is wise to pull the weeds out of the garden while they are small - so you don’t damage the plants you want to grow. It is wise to fix a loose page in a book before the page is lost completely. It is indeed wise to see trouble coming and head it off at the pass, so to speak.
And all of these physical occurrences should remind us that it is wise to recognize the sin in your life and deal with it immediately before it becomes a habit and is so much more difficult to eradicate from your life. (At this point, I set up the pile of flammables with a string leading from it. The kids were not quite sure whether I was going to light the string on fire or not.)
. . . wisdom helps one to succeed.
***Like Nails Firmly Fixed
The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. Ecclesiastes 12:11
Materials: nails, hammers, small pieces of wood (When you let the little ones hammer nails into the wood, warn them about hitting their fingers!!!)
Have you ever decided you need to hang a picture on the wall? After finding the perfect picture, you have to figure out where to hang it and then go find the nail and hammer. I usually try my junk drawer first, to see if I can find a good nail. Hmmm. Well, sometimes I can’t find exactly what I had in mind, but I reason that the nail I find will be good enough. The next task is to put the nail in the wall. Have you ever noticed that the studs are not necessarily centered on the wall? Sometimes you’re just going to hang a small picture and the drywall will provide enough support. Other times, the picture (or mirror or shelf) is much too heavy for just a nail in drywall. You really need to find a stud in the wall to provide enough support.
That’s what God’s laws are like. All of God’s words, His decrees, His judgments, His ordinances, His laws - they are like nails firmly fixed into the stud. What a great mental image this gives us!! We, you and I who love God, who follow the Shepherd, are like that picture to be hung on the wall. We want the support. We want to be secure where we live. Solomon gives us a great mental image of just how secure we are, if we are resting our lives, everything we do and everything we are, on God’s words, His laws.
Think about what happens when the nail is not firmly fixed. At some point, that picture (or shelf, or mirror) is in a precarious position. If the house is shaken by a storm or earthquake, the picture will fall. If we try to rest our lives on something other than God’s law, we are in danger of being broken. Our anchor, our foundation will not hold when we encounter storms and difficulties, if we’re relying on anything other than God and His ways, His words, His laws.
How firm is your foundation? How secure is your anchor? How fixed is your nail?
The End of the Matter
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Ecclesiastes 12:13
The end of the matter; all has been heard. It sounds like a judge presiding over a trial. He’s examined all of the evidence; he’s heard all of the testimony. He’s ready to pronounce his judgment in the matter.
Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes almost like a judge’s brief. In it, he explains all of the exploration and research he did in this particular case: what is valuable and worthwhile in life? What makes life work? What is man’s purpose for being here? What should man spend his time doing?
Life is very much like a woven tapestry. There are so many pieces that are woven together. It’s as if Solomon wanted to figure out how life was woven together. So he studied, or as Solomon described it, “applied my heart to understand,” wisdom (Eccles. 1:12-18). Then he explored self-indulgence, pleasure, laughter, acquiring possessions - all for self (Eccles. 2:1-11). Next he examined living wisely (Eccles. 2:12-17). Then he looked at work (Eccles. 2:18-26). He discovered that there’s a right time for everything (Eccles. 3:1-8), that God has directed everything that will happen (Eccles. 3:9-15), and that men start as dust and return to dust (Eccles. 3:16-21). He examined evil (Eccles. 4:1-16). He found that God is sovereign and we must be careful what we say before Him (Eccles. 5:1-7). He also discovered that wealth and honor for yourself is not the goal (Eccles. 5:8 - 6:12). His research led him back to comparing wisdom with folly (Eccles. 7:129), and found that it’s wise to keep the king’s commands (Eccles. 8:1-9) and to reverence God (Eccles. 8:10-13). Man cannot know God’s ways (Eccles 8:14-17) and, since death comes to all (Eccles. 9:7-10), wisdom is better than folly (Eccles. 9:11 - 10:20). Solomon concluded that we should consider the consequences of our actions (Eccles. 11:1-10) and seek God all of our lives (Eccles. 12:1-8). Then he sums up all of his explorations (Eccles. 12:9-14) by telling the reader: The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man (Eccles. 12:13).
We’ve heard Solomon’s conclusion: fear God and keep his commandments. We understand the second part of that sentence. We comprehend what it means to keep God’s commandments. We don’t always want to; we don’t keep them perfectly; we might try to find excuses for doing what we know is right, but we do understand what it means to keep God’s commandments.
But what does it mean to fear God? Should we be afraid of God? I think C.S. Lewis did a fantastic job in the Chronicles of Narnia of portraying Aslan as analogous to Jesus Christ. There’s a wonderful exchange between the children and the beavers as the beavers are explaining Aslan. The children ask if he’s safe. The beavers respond that he’s not safe; he’s a lion after all. But he is good. That analogy helps us understand the kind of attitude we should have towards our God. Our great God is good and trustworthy, but he is also to be reverenced. He is all powerful. He will not tolerate pride or sin or disrespect.
It wouldn’t have worked at all for C.S. Lewis to have used a snake or a spider. I fear them because of what they can do to me, but I don’t reverence them. I despise them, even as I try to stay as far away from them as possible. But a lion commands respect and honor. A lion is majestic and commanding. And yet, a lion doesn’t quite convey a true picture of our God either.
So God gives us parents. If you’ve been blessed with godly parents, you have a better heart knowledge of the kind of fear God deserves and requires. Think about it. Your parents love you. They work hard to make sure you have a good life, you are safe, and you are content. But they don’t tolerate disrespect, breaking their rules, or an arrogant attitude. When you’re little, you certainly fear a spanking (a whoopin’, Ken would say) if you do the wrong thing, but, at the same time, you think Daddy can do anything. He’s the greatest. That’s a pretty good description of what our attitude should be towards our Heavenly Father. He can spank us, discipline us, but He’s the greatest and He can do anything.
So we look again at Solomon’s conclusion: The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man (Eccles. 12:13). Having explored everything in life, Solomon concludes that we must reverence God and do what He says. This is our purpose in life. This is why we are here. We’re not here to see how much money we can make; Solomon tried that. We’re not here to eat and drink and have as much fun as we can; Solomon tried that. We’re not here to be as wicked as possible; Solomon explored that avenue as well. We are not here to spend all of our time working or acquiring wisdom and knowledge - although those things have a value and are a blessing from God. Our purpose for existing, the thing we should spend our lives working for, is honoring God with who we are and what we’re doing. Everything you think, say, and do should be pleasing to Him. Everything.
If our life is woven into a tapestry of thoughts and words and actions which glorify our God then we will have something beautiful and worthwhile to present to the One who gave us life, who created and owns everything, and who is worthy of nothing less than our all. And that’s the end of the matter.
Our Whole Duty
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Ecclesiastes 12:13
Materials: blank cards - on one side write “fear” on the other write “obey”
Can you think of anything that comes in twos? Two eyes. Two ears. Two hands. Two feet. Two shoes. Two legs. A husband and wife makes two people. A mom and a dad makes two parents. There are twos everywhere we look. Well, here’s another very important “two.”
Two things. The wisest man ever (outside of Jesus Christ) said that we must do two things. That’s it. We are to fear God and keep His commandments.
The second one we understand. We need to obey God. He tells us to conduct ourselves in certain ways - no lying, no stealing, considering others more highly than ourselves, etc. We need to listen to God. We need to obey what He says. That’s keeping his commandments.
But the word “keep” also means to value God’s commandments, to treasure them, to see them as important. We’re not just obeying God because we are afraid of the consequences; we obey God because we see the good in His commandments.
The first thing Solomon tells us to do is to fear God. This word “fear” can mean to be afraid, but it can also mean “to be in awe of, to respect, to reverence.” Perhaps you can understand what this word “fear” means by thinking of your own dad. You respect and honor him. He loves you and takes care of you. You trust that he wants the very best for you. So you show honor to him by doing what he says.
So you fear your dad in the sense that you respect and honor him, but you also fear him. You’re a little afraid of him - because you know if you don’t do what he says, you’re going to get punished. When I was a kid, that meant a whooping, a spanking, a paddling, the belt.
God is very much the same way. You should honor and respect Him because He is worthy! He is so good. He is so great! You trust God because you know He will never lie. He always wants the very best for you. He has already given you so much!! And yet, you also fear God because He will punish those who break His law. Hebrews says it’s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
So when you know that God wants you to do something, do it!
There’s just two things that Solomon says we must do. It’s our duty! It’s the task that is set before us: fear God. Honor, respect, reverence, and trust Him. But be very aware that He expects us to obey Him. So we do our very best to keep His commandments, treasuring them as God’s way to live.