Money is not Everything
Ecclesiastes 5:10-16
Introduction
As I continue reading our text, I figured out that the root cause of social injustices like oppression,
abuse of authority and inequality, is the love of money. Once more Solomon is telling us about the
vanity of riches. The topic about money is so sensitive, hurtful, and causes a Christian to be ashamed.
Whether we admit it or not one way or another, most of us has not been honest with regards to
money. Let’s see what Solomon thru the Holy Spirit is trying to teach us in this lesson.
I. Money doesn’t bring satisfaction; the person who loves silver never has enough (v.10).
A. Silver in our text is equivalent to our modern-day money. Silver was the medium of exchange in the Old Testament and so is gold. (Gen. 13:2; Num. 22:18)
B. If our life’s objective is just to accumulate wealth, then we can never be satisfied.
C. Money and things money can buy can never give satisfaction and contentment.
D. God has placed eternity in our hearts (Eccl. 3:11). God created a space in our hearts which can never be filled with money no matter how we try. That place belongs only to Him, that’s why without Jesus Christ, our lives are empty and not complete.
E. The Word of God is very clear in telling us that the love of money is the root of all evil (1 Tim. 6:10). Money in itself is not evil but the love of it.
F. There are bodily needs and spiritual needs that money cannot buy or satisfy. You cannot eat your silver and you cannot buy real love.
G. You cannot buy your way to heaven.
H. For the real believer, its very different. We just depend on Christ to provide our needs, and indeed, Jesus Christ is the best provider. Our riches are in Him. If we have Him, we have everything.
I. A faithful Christian can find satisfaction and contentment, even joy in the midst of poverty and want because he looks at Christ and rely on His promises. Our time here is very short and transitory. We are just pilgrims so we are not so concerned about the details of life.
J. Most man spend their life accumulating wealth but Christ’s advice to is, “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: (Mat. 6:20)
Illustration: Our Riches in Christ
1. Romans 9:23, Ephesians 1:18, 3:16 = The riches of God’s glory
2. Romans 11:33 = The riches of God’s wisdom
3. Ephesians 1:7, 2:7 = The riches of his grace
4. Ephesians 2:4 = The riches of his mercy
5. Ephesians 3:8 = The riches of Christ are unsearchable
6. Romans 10:12 = “Abounding in riches for all who call upon Him”
7. I Timothy 6:17 = God gives us richly all things, while the world gives uncertain riches
8. Luke 16:11 = Jesus gives “true riches”
II. Money attracts a larger circle of dependents and results in sleepless nights (vs. 11, 12).
A. The wealthier you are, the more people will be required to handle your possessions.
B. The rich people become the provider of the necessities of life for others who have not help them accumulate their wealth.
C. More money means more properties, more taxes, more servants, more friends, more relatives, and more people who wants some of what you have.
D. Solomon the riches man who ever lived has in his care 30,000 forced laborers, 70,000 transporters or burden bearers, 80,000 hewers of stone in the mountains, and 3,300 chief deputies to rule over the people who were doing the work.(1 kings 5:13-16).
E. More wealth means more worries and wealth brings sleepless nights.
F. The wealthy are always afraid of losing what is theirs, while the poor man is content with what little he has
G. The labouring man is the working man. He works hard so he is tired and can sleep soundly.
H. The working man has little cause to worry. Some days he may have more food to eat, some days he may not but it does not prevent him from getting enough sleep.
I. The rich man can eat all the delicious and expensive food he can buy and fill his stomach to the fullest but still will not be able to get a good and sound sleep.
J. Why? Because he keeps thinking of how to get more money and how to protect his money.
III. Money can harm to the person who hoards it (v. 13) and it can be lost suddenly (v. 14).
A. Wealth can be hoarded by a person to a point that it can make him miserable
B. Some rich people never enjoyed their wealth. They are so scared that their wealth will never be enough or it may be lost or stolen
C. Solomon is implying here that riches can be lost due to bad investment.
D. Our text tells about tells about a man who accumulated riches and hoarded them, but this resulted in great damage to himself. In his attempt to increase his profits and accumulate more money, he made an unwise investment. Rather than compounding his money as he predicted, he lost his entire fortune! In themeantime, he had fathered a son, and now nothing was left to be given the son for an inheritance.
E. It is not riches that are evil but the improper attitude toward riches. Riches must be used for the support of the church, missions, the poor, and not accumulate riches for riches sake.
Illustration 1: Hetty Green
There was a lady who died in 1916 named Hetty Green. She lived in fear everyday of her life. She was called America’s greatest miser. When she died in 1916, she left an estate valued at $100 million. She was so fearful of poverty that she ate cold oat meal in order to save the expense ofheating the water. When her son had severe leg injury, she took so long to find a free clinic to treat him that his leg has to be amputated due to advance infection.
She was so scared of losing her wealth that she never enjoyed her life.
Illustration 2: The Most Miserly People of All Time
John G. Wendel and his sisters were some of the most miserly people of all time. Although they had
received a huge inheritance from their parents, they spent very little of it and did all they could to
keep their wealth for themselves.
John was able to influence five of his six sisters never to marry, and they lived in the same house in
New York City for 50 years. When the last sister died in 1931, her estate was valued at more than
$100 million. Her only dress was one that she had made herself, and she had worn it for 25 years.
The Wendels had such a compulsion to hold on to their possessions that they lived like paupers.
Even worse, they were like the kind of person Jesus referred to “who lays up treasure for himself
and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21).
IV. It can’t be taken with us in the next world when we die (vv. 15, 16).
A. We cannot take our riches with us when we die. Everyone enters the world with nothing and leaves it with nothing (Job 1:21, Ps. 49:17). Riches promises much but cannot fulfil the expectation.
B. Since a person cannot take any fruits of his labour with him when he dies, he really gains nothing from his labour.
C. All his effort is as wasted as if he had toiled for the wind.
V. Bible warnings about Riches
A. Often an obstruction to the reception of the gospel. (Mk. 10:23-25)
B. Cannot redeem the soul. (Ps. 49:6-9; 1 Pet. 1:18)
C. Cannot deliver in the day of God’s wrath. (Zep. 1:18; Rev. 6:15-17)
D. Riches often lead to: Pride (Ezek. 28:5; Hos. 12:8), Forgetting God (Deut. 8:13-14), Denying God (Prov. 30:8-9), Forsaking God (Deut. 32:15), Rebelling against God (Neh. 9:25-26), Rejecting Christ, (Mt. 19:22; 10:22), Self-sufficiency, (Prov. 28:11).
E. Deceitfulness of riches, chokes the word (Mt. 13:22)
F. They who covet riches, fall into temptation and a snare, (1Tim. 6:9), fall into hurtful lusts, (1Tim. 6:9), err from the faith, (1Tim. 6:10), use unlawful means to acquire it, (Prov. 28:20), bring trouble on themselves (1Tim. 6:10), bring trouble on their families (Prov. 15:27).
VI. Conclusion:
Money and possessions can never give us satisfaction. More money means more problems and more sleepless nights, and you cannot bring your riches when you die. Money in itself is not evil but the love for it. If you were given riches by the Lord use it to serve the God and others. Always remember that heavenly treasures are more superior
than earthly treasures.
