Pastor's Corner 9/27/23
Can you guess, Which Animal Has Four Noses? Slug, Octopus, Ant, or the Mosquito? Right now, a mosquito is buzzing around my head and she makes me prone to think it she has 4 noses. If you guessed a mosquito, you are wrong. The correct answer is a slug. Ha! Fooled you. Now on to our challenge...
ECCLESIASTES 5:10 "Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness!"
This is a repeat of the insight of past verses such as Eccl. 2:1–11, but it is also the continuing insight to warn us due to Solomon's firsthand knowledge. Solomon, the wisest man on earth, experienced this same failure himself. You see, it is one thing to make these statements while at the same time attempting to achieve these efforts, and yet it is another thing once someone has achieved that goal.
In Proverbs, Solomon left behind 375 bits of insight & wisdom. Now here in Ecclesiastes he is adding additional evidence to the wisdom he left us in the book of Proverbs.
Unfortunately, wealth doesn't buy contentment. Profits, dividends, interest payments, and capital gains whet the appetite for more continuing efforts, but finally they fall far short of happiness and joy.
Investigation regarding this topic of an insatiable appetite for wealth is now being addressed for the third time (refer to Eccl. 1:8; Eccl. 4:8, and Eccl. 5:10). We learn that the desire always outruns possessions. No matter how much a person can acquire or even expand and grow, still it is empty in the end.
In short, the limits in the value of money are being succintly demonstrated. They are: it cannot satisfy the covetous (vs 10), it attracts a circle of dependents (vs 11) and it disturbs one’s peace (vs 12).
In fact, silver or whatever trinkets, toys, or hobbies we’re looking to for satisfaction will never fulfill us. They’ll never bring about the benefits that we may hope for.
I think that this conclusion is very important to recognize early on in life, rather than a person wasting away their whole life and then finally coming to that conclusion when it is too late to change course. Though Solomon was wise, even he almost got caught in this trap!
SO GO WITH GOD for He will steer us away from these worldly and wily traps of earthly life. In short, riches and trinkets aren't evil of themselves, rather it is the turning of our lives from walking with our Heavenly Father that causes difficulty. Whenever we move away from His care, guidance, and discernment it will prove to be harmful, disappointing, and destructive. Seek to find true value in spiritual endeavors and you will never be sorry.