Ecclesiastes 6:2 – A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honor, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it:  this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.

 

Thought:  There have been numerous people who have accumulated much wealth but were not able to enjoy it.  They did not enjoy it while they amassed it because of constantly working for it.  Some never enjoyed it because they died young.  Others found themselves in bad health when it was time to enjoy it.  Still others did not enjoy it because they were so covetous that they would not spend it.  It meant more to them stored in an investment account somewhere.  These individuals left their possessions to others.  Solomon saw this as vanity and an evil disease.

 

Psalm 39:5-6

 

Commentary:

 

A.     There are many people who accumulate riches, wealth, and honor, but they never get to enjoy them.

1.       They die young.

2.       When it comes time to enjoy them, they are in bad health.

3.       They are so covetousness that they will not spend their wealth.

4.       Some people just work and work and work without stopping to enjoy.  They die “on the job.”

 

B.      Solomon makes an interesting statement:  “…yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof…”

1.       In what way does God bring this malady upon the individual?

2.       God blesses him with riches, wealth, and honor.

3.       The individual is so consumed by this wealth that he cannot find either the time or the desire to enjoy his profits.

4.       God does not intervene to give him the power to eat thereof.  He allows this man to choose how he reacts to his prosperity.

 

C.     Solomon notes that a stranger eats what they accumulated.

1.       A man labors all of his life to provide a good living for his wife.  He dies.   She marries another who enjoy the fruits of his labors.

2.       Children who do not appreciate the time and labor of wealth and riches received all their parents worked so hard to amass.

3.       Investors and managers enjoy the profits of another while that person uses his/her intellect and talent to create the wealth used in the investments.

 

D.     Solomon affirms that this “is vanity, and it is an evil disease.”

1.       This is the first time Solomon has labelled something as a “disease.”

a.  Strong (2483):  malady, anxiety, calamity

b.  BDB: sickness

2.       This is not a sickness of the body, but a spiritual sickness of the mind.

a.  The mind is so enamored by riches and the processes by which they are obtain that the

      individual is never allowed to enjoy his work.

b.  They love the power, the fame, the work so much that the fruit is never enjoyed.

 

 

 

 

 

Ecclesiastes 6:3 – If a man beget a hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial: I say that an untimely birth is better than he.

 

Thought:  Children should be a blessing to the one who has them.  Living a long life is also a blessing.  But, if one’s life is not filled with good, and, if a person’s children refuse to give him a proper burial at his death, an untimely birth is better.  Sometimes death seems like a better alternative than living.  The writer is not advocating suicide.  He merely states a reality.  Some lives would have been better if they had never been lived.

 

Job 3:1-4

 

Commentary:

 

A.     In Bible times, there were several things that were central to a happy life.  Solomon mentions two of them here.

1.       Having many children (Ps. 127:3-5)

 

Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord:  and the fruit of the womb is his reward.  As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are the children of the youth.  Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them:  they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

 

2.       Living a long life (Deut. 4:40)

 

B.      Solomon, however, notes two things that can happen to such a person.

1.       His long life is “not filled with good.”

a.  Everyone wants life to be filled with good things.

b.  When life is difficult, painful, and filled with sorrow, a long life only makes it worse.

2.       When he reaches the end of life, he has “no burial.”

a.  A burial is for several purposes.  One of these is to honor the person who died.

b.  If there is no burial, it shows that no one in the family desires to honor and remember

      the individual.

c.  If a man has a hundred children, but none of them honor him, there is no blessing for

      him in having them.

 

C.     Solomon’s says that an untimely birth would have been better than this man.

1.       A birth usually happens after nine months of pregnancy.

2.       If a birth happens before this date, we refer to it as a miscarriage. 

a.  Because the baby is not developed, it dies.

b.  Solomon says that the person’s untimely death would have been better rather than

      having a long life of evil and having children who refused to honor him as their father.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ecclesiastes 6:4 – For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.

 

Thought:  In the previous verse, the inspired penman had mentioned one who experiences an untimely birth.  An untimely birth is a miscarriage.  He now describes the infant that was miscarried.  He cometh in with vanity.  Because the child dies in the womb, there is no purpose to his life.  He departeth in darkness, that is, he dies in the womb.  His name shall be covered with darkness.  Often miscarried infants are never named.  Miscarriages happen all the time.  They are extremely sad events.  Fortunately, the infant is known by God in the womb.

 

Psalm 139:15-16

 

Commentary: 

 

A.     Solomon continues with the thought from the previous verse.  Here, he describes the child who was miscarried.

 

B.      Solomon notes three things about miscarried children:  

1.       “For he cometh in with vanity.”  Since he enters the world as a dead child, there is no purpose to his life.

2.       “He departeth in darkness,” that is, he died in the womb and never got to see the light of this world.

3.       Too, “his name is covered in darkness.”  Most children who are miscarried are never named. 

a.  To those in the world, the child does not have an identity.

b.  Aren’t we glad that God was involved in the processes in the womb.  He watched as the

      child was developing.  He definitely knows the identity of this little one.

 

C.     All of these things are deeply troubling and bring sorrow to our hearts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ecclesiastes 6:5 – Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing:  this hath more rest than the other.

 

Thought:  Solomon continues to describe an infant who has been miscarried.  He has not seen the sun and knows nothing.  The child was never given birth.  He never sees this world.  He never grows and learns.  “This hath more rest than the other.”  In the mind of Solomon, the miscarried child is in a better situation than a person who lives his life to its full end, but his life is filled with evil and without any respect from his children.  This man knows more sorrow and heartache than the miscarried child.

 

Job 3:10-13

 

Commentary:

 

A.     The miscarried child “hath not seen the sun.”  He perished in the womb of his mother.

 

B.      He does not get to experience or know anything about this present world.

 

C.     Now, notice what Solomon says:  “This (the miscarried child) hath more rest than the other (the man whose life is not filled with good and has no burial).

1.       The child that experiences an untimely birth resides in a neutral world.  He has not experienced anything good.  Too, he has not experienced anything evil.

2.       Solomon says that this is better than a long life filled with hardship, struggle, and sorrow.  It is better than to come to the end of life without your children being there to honor you in death.

3.       NOTE:  Solomon approaches this subject and others from a purely observational standpoint.  He does not factor in a lot of elements to his conclusions.  He simply sees singular events:  a long life of trouble with no honor at death versus a miscarriage with a child experiencing neither good or bad in this world.