Ecclesiastes 3:18

The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:18-22, “I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.[19] For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.[20] All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.[21] Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?[22] Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?” Sometimes human beings have too high of an opinion of themselves. And there are some people who act as though they are going to live on this earth forever. They are not. What they need is that God might manifest to them their mortality: the fact that they are no different than an animal that lives for a time, and then dies. One would think that such a truth would be obvious to everyone, but even that basic truth needs enlightenment from God. As far as our physical existence is concerned, it says about man and beasts in verse 20, “All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.”

But man is not only made of flesh and blood. The life force within a human being does not die when the body dies. Of course, Solomon recognized this and he wrote in verse 21, “Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward.” The importance and the existence of the spiritual life are what many people are totally unaware of. That is why Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:5-8, “Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.[6] That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.[7] Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.[8] The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” Jesus taught us that there must be a spiritual birth in order to have eternal life and enter into the Kingdom of God. The physical birth comes when each person is born into the world. The spiritual birth comes when a person bows before Jesus Christ and receives the forgiveness of sins. The spiritual birth is called the second birth or the new birth. When you experience the spiritual birth through faith in Christ, you are born-again.

The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 4:1-3, “So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.[2] Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive.[3] Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.” Solomon gets on the subject of human suffering at the hands of those who oppress them. The result of such suffering is “tears.” O how terrible life has been for some of the people born on this earth. Man’s inhumanity to man has caused such suffering. It is one of the things that can make life horrible for some people. Even in our day we are seeing a turn to violence that is very sad and disturbing. Jesus said it would be like the days of Noah in the end-times. Describing the days of Noah, the Bible says in Genesis 6:11-13, “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.[12] And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.[13] And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”

Concerning those who were oppressed and persecuted, in describing their suffering, Solomon mentioned in verse 1 that “they had no comforter.” It is bad enough to suffer, but to suffer without a comforter would be even worse. One of the benefits of being a Christian is that we always have a Comforter with us. Jesus said in John 14:16, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.” Jesus said in John 15:26, “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.” Jesus said in John 16:7, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.”

The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 4:4-8, “Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.[5] The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.[6] Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.[7] Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun.[8] There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.” In verse 4 Solomon tells us one more reason that he felt that the efforts of a man could be entirely in vain: the jealousy that such a person might suffer when others see what he accomplished. Jealousy is directly related to one of the Ten Commandments that says, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant nor his maidservant, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s.” If someone is blessed and has some good thing happen to them, the right attitude would be to rejoice with them that they were blessed and to pray that they would be thankful to the Lord for what He has done for them.

One of the sources of jealousy is the wrong type of competitiveness. Human beings can be very competitive. Not all competition is wrong, but competition can have a bad side to it. One way to avoid the abuses of mean-spirited competition is to compete with yourself instead of with others. You were born with certain God-given abilities. You will be judged on what you accomplished with those abilities. The question is: are you performing according to your abilities or not? Compete with yourself and with what you should be able to do at your highest level of performing. For example, in the grading system in school, we would hope that everyone would strive to get A’s, in order to learn as much as they can and in order to please the instructor. It is a good system. But suppose one person gets a B and another person gets a C in a given class. From a practical standpoint, the person who got a B is higher up than the one who got a C. But from a spiritual standpoint, that is not necessarily the case. Perhaps the one who got a C performed at his or her best ability and trusted in the Lord and did everything right. And perhaps the person who got a B could have done better, but did not really work hard and did not dedicate their work to the Lord. The person who got the C actually far outperformed the one who got the B. You will be judged by what you were capable of doing, but did not do. Do not compare yourself to others. Compare yourself to your own abilities and calling.

There is another reason that people do not accomplish as much and it is because they do not do the work that is necessary for success. This is stated simply in Ecclesiastes 4:5, “The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.” But even if you do not accomplish much, there are situations where there are benefits to that. Solomon wrote in verse 6, “Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.” Many people think that if only they were rich, their troubles would be over. But often the opposite is true. Why do you need to be rich anyway? If you believe in the Lord Jesus, He has promised to supply all your needs. And the more that you have, the more will be expected of you to use what you have for the glory of the Lord.

In Ecclesiastes 4:8 Solomon writes about one situation that can happen when someone works very hard and dedicates themselves to their work and their career. Even if they are successful in their work, they may lose in other ways. He wrote, “There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.” They may lose by ending up “alone.” What good is all their work if that happens? What good will it do to work night and day on some project or on your career if you have no spouse or child to share the results with or to leave it to? Riches alone will not satisfy the needs of a human heart and soul. That is why Solomon said in verse 8, “neither is his eye satisfied with riches.”

The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, “Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.[10] For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.[11] Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?[12] And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” Verse 9 sums up the last verse and the next several verses very well: “Two are better than one.” We have a similar saying in our culture: “Two heads are better than one.” That is one of the main benefits of marriage. God said in Genesis 2:18 when He invented marriage between a man and a woman: “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make an helpmeet for him.” It says in Genesis 2:22, “And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from the man made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.” It also says in Genesis 2:24, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”

The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 4:13-16, “Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished.[14] For out of prison he cometh to reign; whereas also he that is born in his kingdom becometh poor.[15] I considered all the living which walk under the sun, with the second child that shall stand up in his stead.[16] There is no end of all the people, even of all that have been before them: they also that come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and vexation of spirit.” In the first part of verse 13 Solomon is talking about just one of the advantages that a child can have over an adult. Actually, there are many advantages that children have over adults. One advantage is that children tend to be happy and to know how to enjoy life. But something happens to many people as they get older and they lose that youthful joy and wonder at life. A child has a future before him or her full of possibility and opportunity. A child has nothing to look back on and regret. Adults have a lot that they could learn from children. If only we could be like children again in many ways. We can be. It is just a matter of attitude. We can have joy and enthusiasm and a positive nature if we want to and if we learn how to control our minds.

A child has no power and probably no money, but Solomon said that “Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king.” That is a very revealing statement concerning the importance of wisdom. Solomon has something to say about an old and foolish king. As we would expect, those who live under a “foolish” king will not prosper. The citizens will become “poor.” Solomon also said about the foolish king in verse 16, “they also that come after shall not rejoice in him.” One ruler who does not have wisdom can do a lot of damage to a nation. No wonder that the Lord tells Christians to pray for those in authority. We need them to do a good job for all of our sakes. We will rise and fall together, so let us do our part to make things work.

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