The Only Way to Love Work

What Solomon teaches in Ecclesiastes is one of the hardest lessons to learn. That pleasure and pursuits of this life cannot fulfill our lives. Why is this hard? Because every stage of life offers us another set of diverse pleasures and pursuits to chase. When we are young it's just fun with friends, then in our teen years, it's romance or partying. Then when we get older it's either harder partying, more serious romance, or professional accomplishment. We settle into marriage and it becomes weekend getaways and raising great kids. We get established in our work and it's a boat, a golf membership, something else we think will surely fill us up. 

Solomon had every opportunity to chase every offering at every stage. Born to the already rich King David, Solomon inherited and increased his father's fortune exponentially. 

Ecclesiastes 2:1–3 (ESV) I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity. 2 I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” 3 I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

It's an interesting term, to "test" one's heart with pleasure. But that is what we do in a sense. We see if this or that will bring long-term enjoyment.

Solomon enters stage two - the pleasure of work and increasing in notoriety in one's professional life.

Ecclesiastes 2:4–6 (ESV) I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5 I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees.

Having achieved that, he enters stage three - amassing incredible amounts of wealth and building an empire of industry:

Ecclesiastes 2:7–8 (ESV) I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. 8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man.

Having gained a foothold in the business world he determined to outdo the competition at every level.

Ecclesiastes 2:9–10 (ESV) So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.

And yet the same result:

Ecclesiastes 2:11 (ESV) Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

In the next pericope we see one of the underlying motivations of all this:

Ecclesiastes 2:14–16 (ESV) The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. 15 Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. 16 For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool!

Solomon wants a life that lasts and avoids turmoil. But he realized the hard way - no amount of pleasure, enjoyment, enrichment, nor enlargement of one's life and reputation can stop pure chance, happenstance, or the normal sorrows of this life. Having come to this conclusion, he's defeated:

Ecclesiastes 2:17–18 (ESV) So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind. 18 I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun...

Yet there is a turn shortly after:

Ecclesiastes 2:24–25 (ESV) There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?

Understand what happens here. It is when Solomon decides to see work as an assignment from God that things change and fulfillment happens. How hard that is for us since many hate their jobs or despise their responsibilities. But perhaps, you've been put there by design, perhaps, the Carpenter has placed you right where you belong for such a time as this. The great heroes of the faith were laborers - shepherds, farmers, fishermen, and businessmen. And in their industry, they eventually met the moment of their assignment. So often they were found in the field, at the desk, or on the boat - working hard all the while not realizing that this very normal place would be where God's supernatural call would meet them.