For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Eccles 6:1-6

1 I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on mankind: 2 God gives some people wealth, possessions and honour, 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.

3 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. 4 It comes without meaning, it departs in darkness, and in darkness its name is shrouded. 5 Though it never saw the sun or knew anything, it has more rest than does that man – 6 even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?

A. Find out :

1. What does he see God giving? v.2a
2. But what does God apparently not give? v.2b
3. What does he consider is essential? v.3a
4. How is the still-born child described? v.4
5. Yet what advantage does it have? v.5
6. So what again does he insist is essential? v.6

B. Think:

1. What pleasures does Solomon state here that a man can have?
2. Why does he say all these things may be meaningless?
3. What is the obvious state of his mind here?

C. Comment:

Yet further Solomon complains bitterly about the frustration of achieving “great things” in life and becoming very rich and yet not being able to enjoy it. The word “enjoy” is the key to this passage (v.2,3,6) and it is the inability to enjoy his prosperity that Solomon rails against.

The inference is (v.2c) that he either dies before he is able to enjoy his wealth or they are taken from him by another. The combination of these two possibilities is born out in v.3 with his reference to not receiving a proper burial. Previously he has touched on the inability of the rich to enjoy his wealth because he is never satisfied and keeps striving for more but here we have a further problem of the rich: the challenge of others seeking to overthrow his might and position. In many ways the rich are not to be envied!

This is a highly poignant passage with the comparison to a still-born child. It is clearly an anguish of Solomon’s heart and the lesson to us must be clear: learn to have contentment, with God’s enabling, with whatever you have, else you will fall into the frustration and despair of Solomon.

D. Application?

1. Do I take for granted all I have (as little as it may be), do I grumble over my lot in life?
2. Lord, grant us contentment in you.

Passage: Eccles 6:7-12

7 Everyone’s toil is for their mouth,
    yet their appetite is never satisfied.
8 What advantage have the wise over fools?
What do the poor gain
    by knowing how to conduct themselves before others?
9 Better what the eye sees
    than the roving of the appetite.
This too is meaningless,
    a chasing after the wind.

10 Whatever exists has already been named,
    and what humanity is has been known;
no one can contend
    with someone who is stronger.
11 The more the words,
    the less the meaning,
    and how does that profit anyone?

12 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?

A. Find out :

1. For what does man work? v.7
2. What does he infer is the foolishness of wisdom with poverty? v.8
3. What just produces discontentment? v.9
4. What is new in life? v.10a
5. What is it you cannot do? v.10b
6. What happens with many words? v.11

B. Think:

1. How does this passage seem fatalistic?
2. In what ways does he say life appears meaningless?
3. How would you approach someone who was feeling like Solomon?

C. Comment :

Frustration! A man works for food but it never satisfies him so he needs to continue working to get more food. Frustration! A man tries to be wise but what does it help him when he had no food? It’s better to be content with what is immediately before you than to dream and strive even more. Thus Solomon argues in the first part here.

Life is already decided, nothing new will happen that hasn’t happened before and I have a place in life that is difficult to change. Some people are stronger and mightier than me, so why bother! The more you talk about it the more it all seems pointless. No one seems to have real answers, so what’s the point!

Here is the conclusion of a philosopher, a thinker: it is all pointless and hopeless! That IS the correct conclusion for the man without God! That is exactly the truth, and those of us who are Christians tend to forget that truth and take for granted the wonder of life with a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Solomon helps us see and feel the frustrations of so many non-Christians around us today. They desperately NEED Christ to bring meaning into their empty and fruitless lives.

D. Application?

1. Lord open our eyes to the horror of living without the knowledge of you!
2. No God = no meaning in life!