Vanity Fare (4)

Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity. Ecclesiastes 2.18, 19

Double-minded
The secular world expresses a divided mind about work. On the one hand, work is regarded as a necessary evil, an inescapable feature of the human experience. When we meet someone new, the first thing we ask is, “What do you do?” Meaning, “What’s your work?” We all work. Work is just what humans do. No one’s going to hand us on a platter, free and clear, all we need to survive and flourish. Everybody needs to work, if only to maintain a level of existence that’s not slipping into squalor, degradation, and despair.

But just as soon as it’s possible, we’ll put this work thing behind us and go into retirement, when we’ll finally be free to do as we please, without the necessities of punching a time clock every day.

On the other hand are those who consider work as a way of carving a niche for themselves, establishing an identity, or achieving certain objectives in life. Work offers an outlet for creative energy, a framework for satisfying labor, the ability to make meaningful contributions to others, a context for establishing status, and a variety of material rewards. Since everyone needs to work, in some form or another, we should find the work we’re most suited for, or that we most enjoy, or that holds out the most promise for personal success, and devote ourselves to it for as long as we can.

Each of these views of work achieves the same outcomes – material benefits and other rewards – and ends up in the same place – with the workers in the grave. Some insist that work isn’t worth the effort, and look for ways to avoid it as much as possible. Those who must work, or who choose to, look upon those who don’t with a mixture of scorn and envy.

The value of work
In a secular world, where no eternal horizon orients our work, the real value of work is measured by its material contribution, both for the worker and for those he serves. What does our work contribute to the economy? And what reward comes to us from our work? American education is aimed at this objective, to prepare students to take their places as contributing members of a materialist economy.

But work is hard and often tedious; the rewards can be fleeting and even uncertain; and under the sun, people find it difficult to attach enduring meaning and significance to their labors. You work all your life to get the stuff you think will make you happy, then you die. How meaningful, really, can that be?

Work thus understood can have dehumanizing effects. We sense that we are merely cogs in some machine. We don’t matter as persons – with longings, fears, and hopes – but only as contributors to various bottom lines, ours and the entity for which we work. Increasingly we have seen that, once it is determined that machines can do the work of humans, or that human work can be done more inexpensively in other locales, workers are discarded, jobs are eliminated, and government steps in, if only temporarily, to ease the economic crisis such transitions can create.

We work like dogs, and yet our work is at best only partially satisfying. Surely there’s something more?

Work requires dedication, but it carries with it a great deal of uncertainty. Solomon understood that, for this reason, putting too much stock in work be like feeding on the wind.

Observations on work
Solomon was a hard and productive worker all his life, and he employed many laborers in his numerous and varied projects. He understood that work is the way men must secure the goods they need to survive; yet merely meeting our material needs doesn’t satisfy the appetites men feel within them (Eccl. 6.7-9). We spend most of our waking hours toiling at our jobs, struggling to make a living (4.7, 8), but the material rewards our work produces cannot give us the satisfaction we require for consistent happiness.

Yet for most of us, finding happiness in work and family is about the most we can hope for (5.18, 19), which is not all that encouraging a prospect, given the many uncertainties that swirl around our relationships and our jobs (9.11). You might work and toil all your life, only to see your job transferred overseas or your retirement squandered by foolish executives. Work can be a most unpredictable source for happiness, given its difficulty, uncertainty, and limited rewards.

Plus, a man works all his life to accumulate things and wealth, but when he’s gone, what’s to become of the fruit of his labor? It could be as easily wasted by a fool as conserved and enlarged by a wise executor or heir (2.18-23).

In a secular world, work cannot fulfill the need for deep-seated affirmation that every worker longs to know. When we’ve achieved as much as we can through our work, we’re still left wondering whether life isn’t bigger than work, more significant than things, and more enduring than a job.

Work matters, because human beings were created to work (Gen. 1.26-28; 2.15). But when the goal of work is only maximizing life under the sun, rather than serving the eternal purposes of God, satisfaction can be fleeting, significance elusive, and rewards just another entrée in our vanity fare of secular cuisine.

For reflection
1.  God created human beings to work. Why? What is so important about work that God considers it vital to human experience?

2.  Do you think that work can become an idol, promising our highest hopes and demanding our greatest devotion? How would you know if your work was beginning to become an idol?

3.  Work can create a certain amount of uncertainty, anxiety, and worry. Explain. How do people who work deal with this?

Next steps – Conversation: How do your non-Christian friends and coworkers feel about their work? How would they explain the purpose of work? What frustrations do they feel about their work? What do they hope to realize from their work? Does their work satisfy their deepest longings and hopes?

T. M. Moore

For a more complete study of the book of Ecclesiastes, download our Scriptorium series on Ecclesiastes by clicking here. Ecclesiastes is an excellent book to share with an unbelieving friend, as it confronts all the idols and vain hopes of unbelief, exposing their folly and holding out the hope of life in God alone. We’ve prepared a verse translation of Ecclesiastes which is suitable for sharing with believers and unbelievers alike. Order your copy of Comparatio, by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.