INTRODUCTION:

King Solomon was the wisest and quite possibly the wealthiest man this world has ever seen.  At the dedication of the temple, he offered to the Lord 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep and goats.  After the temple was built, Solomon had a palace built for himself.  Solomon’s daily provisions were thirty cors of fine flour (185 bushels) and sixty cors of meal (375 bushels), ten head of stall-fed cattle, twenty of pasture-fed cattle and a hundred sheep and goats, as well as deer, gazelles, roebucks and choice fowl. 

^All King Solomon’s goblets were gold, and all the household articles in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold.  Nothing was made of silver, because silver was considered of little value in Solomon’s days.  Annually, Solomon received 25 tons of gold – at today’s prices that’s $27,650,000 per year.  And that was just part of his income.  The man was well off. 

But for a good part of his life he was way off track.  He strayed far, far away from God.  Ecclesiastes was written toward the end of his life, after a very gracious God had brought him back to trusting that what he received from the Lord was worth more than anything.  When you read Ecclesiastes, you have the pure and shining wisdom of the Holy Spirit delivered to you through the experiences of a man who tasted all that this world has to offer.  It’s great reading about practically everything that goes on under the sun.  Today wraps up our two week look at the Christian view of money.  Last week we studied how money really belongs to God and he lends it to us.  Today…

Divine Wisdom From The Richest Man In The World

As he looked back on building projects and pleasures of every kind and amassing incalculable amounts of money, one word came to mind again and again – breath (sigh), wind.  It had all been as meaningless as chasing after the wind.  As you listen to some of the descriptions he gives, see if it doesn’t have something to say about how you view these same things.

The American worker worked hard this year – the food preparation industry, the healthcare industry, the automotive industry.  It is true that people in management were partially paid by what the people in labor were doing.  And all the while, the wages withheld by the federal government was the way that the worker gave Uncle Sam another 12 month interest free loan.  Everyone gets a cut, right up to the president.  Doesn’t seem right, does it!

When John D. Rockefeller was asked, “How much money does it take to satisfy a person,” he quickly replied, “Always a little more.”  If you love money, you’ll never have enough of it.  But where does it get you?  I’m guessing that eight people in Nebraska are finding that they have a pretty good number of new friends.  So they can now buy themselves six cars and six houses if they want.  You know what Solomon found?  At any given time, five cars and five houses are going to sit around unused. 

Win a bunch of money or work to save up a bunch of money and then, Solomon notes, it easily happens that you end up devoting yourself to managing the money.  Will it always be there?  Will it stay around?  Will it grow?  Will the portfolio perform?  In 1929, a lot of money disappeared.  March 10, 2000, the “dot-com” bubble burst and smiles changed to tears.  A large number of employees thought their retirement accounts were as sound as they could be.  But they worked for Enron, and their hopes and dreams disintegrated. 

If it should happen that you can make some money and live off it comfortably till the end of your life, what then?  Solomon’s accountants couldn’t even figure out his net worth, but he knew it.  What you had in your hands on the day of your birth is what you’ll have in your hands on the day of your death.  Everyone ends up with nothing.  All that money-chasers get themselves is a good dose of frustration, affliction and anger.

Work for wealth’s sake is a waste of time because what you get won’t be able to do anything for you and then it will be gone.  For how long have we been craving and pursuing what God describes as meaningless?  How corrupt does that make us before God?

There is this other description, isn’t there!  When you’ve worked or been busy all day and the coming sleep at the end of the day is one of the most welcome things of the whole day, things are good!  Busy days during which you can never seem to get everything done are nothing to grumble about.  When you can enjoy and use the things you have (instead of stockpiling money and possessions that you couldn’t use anyway), when you can enjoy whatever your work is (student, workforce, work in the home, retired), you’ve received a great gift from God.

The gift is this: You don’t need to worry about money or wealth or how any given day is going to go when God gives you what Solomon described as gladness of heart.  For many years that man had everything any person could possibly acquire but not an ounce of gladness in his heart.  A fat 401K or a cool $15 Million after taxes cannot provide peace and joy, so unload those wicked, twisted, idolatrous, “money-could-solve-all-my-problems” delusions before the throne of God and say it: “God have mercy on me, a sinner.”  Stop chasing the wind.

Load up with the only thing that will stay right with you as you pass through the gates of death (because worldly wealth won’t) – the forgiveness and the holiness of Jesus, secured for you and given to you and guaranteed to you by God himself.  The outstretched hands on the cross, the curse of God coming crashing down on Jesus (not you), the angels’ earth-shattering statement, “He is not here; he has risen,” John’s statement, “Whoever has the Son has life,” – these are the things that light up your life because they’re the only things that will stay with you as you draw your last breath.  That’s where the gladness of heart is.  I can eat and drink what God provides each day and be happy to work on what I have to work on today because I a wretched sinner have a glorious Savior, and today’s blessings and today’s tasks come to me straight from him.  There is fulfillment and there is satisfaction in today’s net worth and today’s schedule because Christ loves me and God has a home for me, so I truly have nothing to complain about.  I don’t work to gain wealth.  I work for Christ’s sake.  The things on my plate right now are the things he’s given me to do, and after what he has done for me, what he’s given me to do is just fine.

At the end of his life, an obscenely wealthy king named Solomon was directed by the Holy Spirit to teach us some things.  He learned these things the hard way; we can know them now.  With God’s love and Christ’s forgiveness, you can stop wishing for tomorrow and you can stop working for an ever bigger bank account.  Be thankful for what you have today and enjoy it, and joyfully do whatever it is you have to do today because with Jesus, YOU are the richest person in the world.

(Top Of Page)

(Back To Archive)

(Current Worship Page)