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What if there was a way for marriages to be strengthened, parent-and-child relationships to be healed, and for employees and employers to have a healthy relationship? If a solution existed that could heal and strengthen all these relationships and much more, then wouldn’t we all want it? The wisdom from Solomon in Ecclesiastes 5 provides just the solution we’re looking for. We need to learn to shut our mouths, open our ears, and let our words be few.

In v. 2 Solomon tells his readers, “Do not be quick with your mouth.” We see the same admonition in James 1:19: “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry….” We are to be quick to listen and slow to speak. We typically do the opposite—most are quick to speak and slow to listen. We want to win and be right so we make sure to get our point across by speaking. Instead, do not be quick with your mouth. Today, let’s ask God to help us be quick to listen.

He then tells us in v. 2 that “God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.” His divine wisdom is always greater than ours. We don’t get to tell God what to do or how things should happen. Trying to instruct God is like a 5-year-old telling his parents how to drive or pay their taxes, except there’s an infinitely larger gap between our wisdom and God’s wisdom. We’re fools if we approach the Lord and tell Him what to do! Come to God with open ears to listen.

Lastly, we need to let our words be few. In v. 3 Solomon says, “Many words mark the speech of a fool.” This theme is similar to what Solomon said it Proverbs 18:2 says, “Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions.” When we run our mouths without regard to listening or understanding, we earn the title of “fool.” One reason why marriages struggle, many walk around with wounds from their parents, and relationships in the workplace often struggle because we use too many words.

Today, our challenge is to heed the wisdom of Solomon and apply these words to our own lives. 

King Solomon continues to explore the meaning of life. We’ve seen so far that searching for meaning in wealth, success, power, or education, will fail us. And Ecclesiastes 4 uncovers a few more places that yield no meaning: oppression, achievement, isolation, and advancement. Nothing under the sun has any ability to ever satisfy us. 

Isolation and loneliness are probably not places we’re trying to get to, but sometimes they are the places in which we find ourselves. This is right where the enemy wants us – alone, isolated, and vulnerable to believing his lies. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book Life Together, puts it this way, “Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more attractive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation.” 

One of the best ways to beat the devil’s schemes is by surrounding yourself with other believers – people who know God and love you and love God and know you. Christian community can remind us of truth when it’s hardest for us to believe. That is a gift. And though it takes effort – community is forged, not found – there are many real and practical benefits to living in community with others. Let’s look at some that Solomon outlines for us:

• Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor (v. 9)
• If either of them falls down, one can help the other up (v. 10)
• If two lie down together, they will keep warm (v. 11)
• Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves (v. 12)

God declares, in the midst of creation, that it is not good for man to be alone. In His infinite wisdom, God created us with a need for connection. There is a safety that comes with being in community. Throughout the Proverbs, we see this idea repeated. Proverbs 11:14 (ESV) says, “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.” Solomon got it: Isolation is a danger and community is a safety, both physically and spiritually.

Depending on your age, you may experience some flashbacks reading Ecclesiastes 3 as the voice of Kevin Bacon may echo from the movie Footloose, the movie poster of A Time to Kill may flash in our heads, or “Turn! Turn! Turn!,” sung by The Byrds, may begin playing in the background of our minds. The first eight verses of Ecclesiastes 3 are very well-known. The last several verses of the chapter are not as popular, depicting a grim view of humanity ending in death. Tucked away, hidden between these two sections, are words of comfort and perspective in which we can take joy and find hope: “God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” (v. 11)

First, let’s ask the question, “Does God really make everything beautiful for its own time?” The Hebrew word translated as “everything” is kol. This is the same word used in Genesis 1-3 when God created every tree, every bird, every animal,every thing, and declared it all good. So, yes, God really made everything beautiful for its own time.

Our struggle is that we often interpret this to be in our own time. We see all the pain, injustice, and ugliness in our world and scream, “How is everything beautiful?!” It’s not; God has made everything beautiful for its own time, not ours. We must shake off the temporal confines of our current circumstances and set our minds on God’s grander scheme, which He planted in our hearts. 

God created humans to live forever with Him, so we are designed to have an eternal perspective. Genesis 2 describes how God planted the Tree of Life, which allowed those who ate from it to live forever, in the Garden of Eden and placed the man and woman there. Once they chose sin, humans were removed from the garden and access to the Tree of Life was barred. Why was God so concerned about humans having an eternal perspective once they knew good and evil? God wanted to protect us. When sin entered our hearts, we no longer focused on God’s good but believed the lie that the things around us (like a yummy-looking fruit tree) are what matter most. We still believe this lie today. 

But Jesus came as our path back to the Tree of Life. Jesus stands in the gap between the activities of our time–the laughing, the grief, the death, the births–and the pain and injustices of our time. This is where God intentionally positions His hope: Jesus. In the middle of the activities and injustice, God wants us to experience the joy and comfort of resting in His plan for our good and His glory through Jesus. 

Solomon isn’t looking to pull any punches. Throughout the first section of this chapter, Solomon is presenting us with his résumé. He gives us a run down of who he is, what he has built, and what all he has accomplished during his time on earth.  Despite his many efforts, he comes up unsatisfied. 

We often think or pray to God for that one more thing to be satisfied. We think, “God if only you gave me _______, I would be happy” or,“God please let _________happen and then everything would be okay.” Solomon got every wish he could possibly imagine and ended up emptier than ever before. In verse 10 he goes so far as to say he denied himself nothing his eyes desired and refused his heart no pleasure. Imagine all the desires you have over the course of a day being fulfilled. Every want. Every dream. Nothing is out of your reach. This is Solomon’s life every day! Yet he finds that this didn’t actually solve anything. It just left him feeling more empty than before. You can really feel Solomon’s despair  when he considers that no matter how you live your life, all will die and be forgotten.

It is no wonder then that Solomon hated his life and everything he worked for. Work provided him no hope either. All it brought him was stress and no actual rest or quality of life. Even what he did accomplish while working he must give to those who follow him (who will eventually ruin it). But in verse 24 we see a brief glimpse of hope from the hand of God. Solomon encourages his readers to enjoy what God provides in our lives, enjoy the work laid out for us, and to please God.

Good news! This chapter does a great job of tearing up false hopes and idols we have in our lives, but we know the answer that Solomon lacks. We know that because Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins, we are right before God, therefore we can spend eternity in heaven with Him. Our lives on earth have eternal ramifications for ourselves and others. We shouldn’t live our lives as if nothing matters but instead attempt to glorify God in everything we do (1 Cor. 10:31). 

The book of Ecclesiastes begins with an introduction to “the Teacher” (also known as “the Preacher”), King Solomon. Solomon, the son of King David, was both the wisest and wealthiest man to ever live. A lot of us would take that trade, no questions asked, wouldn’t we? But we see in the first few verses that all of the money and all of the wisdom in the world isn’t enough to satisfy Solomon. He finds himself coming up empty in this life, dissatisfied because everything around him lacks meaning. How’s that for inspirational?

Early on, we’re introduced to the phrase “under the sun,” which is used 28 different times throughout this book. Every time we see that phrase, Solomon is referencing the world—the here and now. In this first chapter, Solomon gives us a high level overview of how the rest of the book will unfold. Everything we see under the sun? It’s all temporal. The daily grind that you find yourself in? Everybody feels that way. And that name you’re trying to build for yourself? It will be forgotten. 

When you read these words on the page, it all sounds sort of hopeless. But the crazy thing is this: Solomon was right. He had been there, done that, and still found himself wandering through life feeling discontented emptiness. However, we have the ability to view this through a different lens. When Solomon writes these words, all he can think about is his present life. His eyes aren’t set on eternity. Little did Solomon know, over 900 years later, out of the same family lineage that he himself came from, Jesus Christ would come to make the hope of eternal life a reality. 

When we read this chapter (and the rest of this book) through the lens of eternity, everything looks differently. If what we see under the sun today is all there is, then of course we’ll feel hopeless and like life is meaningless. But if Solomon is misguided and there’s reason for hope, then everything does matter because how we live on earth carries over into eternity. All of a sudden, that daily grind presents us with opportunities to share Jesus with our co-workers or classmates. Worries about making our names memorable fade because we’re focused on making Jesus’ name memorable instead. Life lived through the lens of eternity, focused on glorifying God and showing others who he is, is meaningful. Our entire perspective shifts when we view life through the right lens.