UNROLL
A low table laid with bread, figs, olives and a full cup in a stone courtyard at evening, one stool pushed back and no one there.

The search

Ecclesiastes 6

You finally got it. So why doesn’t it feel like enough?

12 verses≈ 3 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

  1. 1Everything is futileThe Teacher states his case
  2. 2–6The searchPleasure, work, time, power, wealthChapter 6
  3. 7–8What wisdom can and can't doNo one can find out what is coming
  4. 9–11Live while you liveDeath comes to all, so take the gift
  5. 12Remember your CreatorFear God and keep His commandments

The Futility of Life

The Teacher

There is another evil I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily upon mankind:

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God gives a man riches, wealth, and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires; but God does not allow him to enjoy them. Instead, a stranger will enjoy them. This is futile and a grievous affliction.

A man may father a hundred children and live for many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he is unsatisfied with his prosperity and does not even receive a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. For a stillborn child enters in futility and departs in darkness, and his name is shrouded in obscurity. The child, though neither seeing the sun nor knowing anything, has more rest than that man, even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity.

Do not all go to the same place?

At dusk in a village lane a plank door is shut, an old man’s staff leaning on the wall beside it and worn sandals on the step.

Reflect

Too restless to enjoy it

What have you been given that you are too restless to enjoy? What would receiving it look like today?

The Teacher
The Teacher

All a man’s labor is for his mouth,

yet his appetite is never satisfied.

What advantage, then, has the wise man over the fool? What gain comes to the poor man who knows how to conduct himself before others?

Better what the eye can see than the wandering of desire.

Ecclesiastes 6:9

This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

Question

Quick question

Look back at the rich man at the start of the chapter.

What was missing from the rich man in verse 2?

The Teacher
The Teacher

Whatever exists was named long ago, and it is known what man is; but he cannot contend with one stronger than he. For the more words, the more futility—and how does that profit anyone?

The thin shadow of a man walking by slides along a long fieldstone wall in late light; the man himself is out of frame.

For who knows what is good for a man during the few days in which he passes through his fleeting life like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will come after him under the sun?

0:11

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

You’ve experienced

Ecclesiastes 6

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A verse to carry with you

Better what the eye can see than the wandering of desire.

Ecclesiastes 6:9

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