I. Introduction
You’ve been told if you work hard at something, find a calling, uncover your purpose, or other plethora of vague predictions that your work and life will have meaning. You will be peaceful, fulfilled, and happy with what you put your hand to do.
This is not necessarily the case.
We have to work. The Bible tells us that we don’t eat [2 Thess 3:10]. That’s the main idea there.
What it doesn’t tell us is that “true meaning in life is found in work”. While work is necessary, there is no guarantee that you will find any meaning or purpose in it.
How many people do you know who work difficult manual labor jobs?
Do you think they wake up excited to go break their backs for another 12 hours?
Maybe a handful of them but most do the work they have to do for no other reason than they have to do it.
Many people in the undeveloped parts of the world still live very difficult lives. they work long, hard hours just to barely scrape by and survive.
With as much progress as humanity has made in the past centuries, it’s absolutely amazing that some countries still exist like this.
Do you think people who live there have meaning and fulfillment in their work?
Or are they simply doing what’s required to survive?
Even in the advanced and developed parts of the world, we continue to work to survive.
We work to earn money so we can spend it on survival. Whatever money is left we spend to distract ourselves from the meaninglessness of that endless cycle of work, earn, spend.
No matter what part of the world you find yourself in, you will find people doing the work they don’t want to do to pay for lives they don’t want to live.
Yet every now and then someone will come along and tell you that you can find worth and meaning in what you do.
That may be true for some people, but it isn’t true for all people.
The way Solomon describes work casts some doubt on the idea of purpose and fulfillment being found in our work.
II. The Burdensome Nature of Work
“And I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven; this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised.”
Ecclesiastes 1:13
In the first chapter of the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon jumps head first into describing work as a “burdensome task”.
Why is it burdensome? It is simply in the nature or work. It is inherently difficult by design.
Working will challenge your mind and body, leaving you mentally tired and physically exhausted.
Perhaps you want to work to be free one day. You want to escape the endless cycle of work, eat, sleep and repeat.
It is hard to break this cycle when the very thing you are trying to escape absorbs all your physical and mental energy.
It makes it difficult to make any progress outside your day job. It becomes difficult to even find peace in your off hours [as Solomon will confirm in a moment].
If work was fulfilling and purposeful, why would it leave you feeling defeated and exhausted at the end of each day?
And it’s not the exhaustion you feel after doing something effortful that actually provides results like training, but it’s simply exhausting.
III. The Vanity of Labor
“I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind.”
Ecclesiastes 1:14
“Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun.”
Ecclesiastes 2:11
“Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the
Ecclesiastes 2:17
“For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.”
Ecclesiastes 2:23
After identifying the burdensome nature of work, Solomon states that all the work done under the sun is vanity.
It’s an attempt to grasp the wind.
A meaningless expense of effort.
Solomon tries to put this realization out of his mind. When he does so he then puts himself to work.
He works himself to the bone, building an incredibly rich empire with all the luxuries a man could dream of having.
But as our Ecclesiastes 2:11 passage tells us, when he put down his tools, when he stopped working, when he popped his head above water to look at what he had done, he found it empty and meaningless.
All the accomplishment and success in the world was not enough to make him feel fulfilled.
And you would think that if anyone could accomplish enough to make them fulfilled, it would be Solomon.
His laundry list of accomplishments plants him as one of the best monarchs in known history.
Yet despite all this success, he was still empty inside.
Why?
Because work does not fulfill.
Accomplishment does not fulfill.
After this realization, Solomon hates life [Ecc 2:17].
Why does he hate life?
Because his work is distressing. That’s what the verse explicitly states.
The stress of work robbed Solomon from the ability to enjoy life.
Even the highly successful king of Israel with every luxury, convenience and pleasure available to a person was not able to find fulfillment in this physical life.
He later would find out what most people experience: the loss of sleep from work stress.
Loss of Sleep
Ecclesiastes 2:23 is where Solomon expounds on the days of the working man. All his work is empty, his work is distressing, it makes him hate his life, and then even in the night he can find no rest and no peace from this stress.
It is never ending.
Despite this clear teaching from Solomon, people still believe in the fulfillment of work.
Solomon tries to teach us by repetition that “all is vanity”.
The Brevity of Satisfaction
Maybe you’ve had the experience of working extremely hard only to have no satisfaction in your work day.
I remember once at a hospital I worked at where we were supposed to treat 10 patients each day.
I kept working harder to see more people each day and then one day was able to double to my caseload and see 20 patients.
I remember walking out of the building with a feeling of satisfaction at 4:00 PM. And at 4:03 PM that feeling of satisfaction was gone.
It sprouted wings and flew away.
I could work as hard as I wanted, it would never be enough. No sense of satisfaction would ever remain.
This is the modern experience of work.
IV. The Restlessness of Work
This next passage speaks about the life of the working man.
“For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.”
Ecclesiastes 2:23
Some talk about their head hitting the pillow after a hard day of work and being able to go right to sleep. This is a luxury.
For most people, when their head hits the pillow, they are dreading the next day’s work.
They know what is coming for them. Another 8, 10 or 12 hours of the same exhausting, repetitive, meaningless tasks.
Many experience the dread of work. “Sunday Scaries” is the new term for it. Why create a term for a phenomenon unless it was widespread?
Endless goals.
Unfulfilled ambitions.
The waking realization that they might never be able to retire or achieve their financial goals despite years of toil and sacrifice.
This is what keeps people up at night.
This is why “even in the night their hearts take no rest”.
V. Practical Implications
Solomon’s observations teach us important lessons: that there is more to life than work, that if we look to work for any form of fulfillment, we will be sorely disappointed, and that work is little more than a necessary evil we have to endure while we are here.
But that is the story of humanity. We have to endure struggles and difficulty while we are here in exchange for what we hope will be a great reward.
That is more fear-provoking than it is meaningful.
VI. Conclusion
Solomon’s message is simple: work is burdensome and unfulfilling. It is something to be tolerated while we live on the earth.
While his messages change from time to time and he states men are to “enjoy good in their labor”, he is simply talking about enjoying the results of the work, not the work itself.
Don’t put too much stock in your earthly career.
It won’t bring the meaning or fulfillment that you think it will.
