Extreme Wealth – The Lowedown

Ecclesiastes 2

¹I said to myself, “Come now, let’s give pleasure a try. Let’s look for the ‘good things’ in life.” But I found that this, too, was meaningless. ²“It is silly to be laughing all the time,” I said. “What good does it do to seek only pleasure?” ³After much thought, I decided to cheer myself with wine. While still seeking wisdom, I clutched at foolishness. In this way, I hoped to experience the only happiness most people find during their brief life in this world.

⁴I also tried to find meaning by building huge homes for myself and by planting beautiful vineyards. ⁵I made gardens and parks, filling them with all kinds of fruit trees. ⁶I built reservoirs to collect the water to irrigate my many flourishing groves. ⁷I bought slaves, both men and women, and others were born into my household. I also owned great herds and flocks, more than any of the kings who lived in Jerusalem before me. ⁸I collected great sums of silver and gold, the treasure of many kings and provinces. I hired wonderful singers, both men and women, and had many beautiful concubines. I had everything a man could desire!

⁹So I became greater than any of the kings who ruled in Jerusalem before me. And with it all, I remained clear-eyed so that I could evaluate all these things. ¹⁰Anything I wanted, I took. I did not restrain myself from any joy. I even found great pleasure in hard work, an additional reward for all my labors. ¹¹But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless. It was like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.

¹²So I decided to compare wisdom and folly, and anyone else would come to the same conclusions I did. ¹³Wisdom is of more value than foolishness, just as light is better than darkness. ¹⁴For the wise person sees, while the fool is blind. Yet I saw that wise and foolish people share the same fate. ¹⁵Both of them die. Just as the fool will die, so will I. So of what value is all my wisdom? Then I said to myself, “This is all so meaningless!” ¹⁶For the wise person and the fool both die, and in the days to come, both will be forgotten.

¹⁷So now I hate life because everything done here under the sun is so irrational. Everything is meaningless, like chasing the wind. ¹⁸I am disgusted that I must leave the fruits of my hard work to others. ¹⁹And who can tell whether my successors will be wise or foolish? And yet they will control everything I have gained by my skill and hard work. How meaningless!

²⁰So I turned in despair from hard work. It was not the answer to my search for satisfaction in this life. ²¹For though I do my work with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, I must leave everything I gain to people who haven’t worked to earn it. This is not only foolish but highly unfair. ²²So what do people get for all their hard work? ²³Their days of labor are filled with pain and grief; even at night they cannot rest. It is all utterly meaningless.

²⁴So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that this pleasure is from the hand of God. ²⁵For who can eat or enjoy anything apart from him? ²⁶God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy to those who please him. But if a sinner becomes wealthy, God takes the wealth away and gives it to those who please him. Even this, however, is meaningless, like chasing the wind. (Ecclesiastes 2:1-26, NLT)

The Daily DAVEotional

Blaise Pascal, the famous 17th century French mathematician and inventor, is often credited with saying,

There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.

Interestingly, Pascal never actually said this exact quote, though he did express the sentiment when he said,

“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself”

As it turns out, this sentiment from Pascal, which has been shortened into the pithy quote that we all see today, was probably derived from Solomon, who explored the nature of meaning and fulfillment in this second chapter of Ecclesiastes.

So what exactly does Solomon say?

It’s important to understand the context on which Ecclesiastes 2 rests. In chapter 1, Solomon is trying to derive meaning and purpose to our existence. His initial position, based on observations and lived experience, is that life is meaningless.

It’s a sad existence indeed if there is absolutely no purpose or meaning in life. Yet that is what Solomon initially concludes.

In this chapter of Ecclesiastes, we’re subjected to a bit of Solomon’s ontological journey.

The first thing he says is that he tried to find meaning and fulfillment in pleasure, or what we call hedonism. But physical pleasure provides no lasting satisfaction. The exhilarating rush that pleasure brings quickly fades, leaving one grasping for the next opportunity to experience that physical and emotional high.

Solomon then turns his attention to the pursuit of materialism. Perhaps acquiring lots of stuff, overseeing grand construction projects or building tremendous wealth could ascribe meaning and value to life. But Solomon found that lacking as well. The allure that extreme wealth promises is never quite achieved. John Rockefeller, who was the richest person to ever live, was once asked, “how much is enough?” His response was “just a little bit more.” He apparently did not subscribe to Solomon’s conclusion that extreme wealth does not ultimately satisfy.

Perhaps fame and taking pride in one’s work could provide the kind of satisfaction that pleasure and materialism couldn’t. But Solomon ultimately realized the utter futility of that pursuit. Fame is fleeting and whatever work we may accomplish is forgotten as quickly as we are when we die.

Solomon reasoned that hard work and wealth are ultimately meaningless because we all die. What good are those things after you die? Someone else will take possession of and oversee all that we’ve worked to produce. That hardly seems fair. You work your tail off to produce wealth and build an empire only to leave it to someone else who did nothing to earn or produce what you’ve left?

None of this makes sense on the surface. What is the point?

Solomon gives a glimpse into the ultimate purpose in verses 24-25, when he says,

²⁴So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that this pleasure is from the hand of God. ²⁵For who can eat or enjoy anything apart from him?

Is pleasure, wealth, fame and work all meaningless? Apart from God, the answer is yes. But with God, all of these things are meaningful because they are gifts from God, the ultimate gift-giver!

So we’re back to our opening line that is often attributed to Pascal. There is something inside each person that is searching and striving for meaning and purpose. Man, in his fallenness, seeks to satiate this inner desire with all kinds of things – pleasure, power, wealth and fame. But none of these things bring true satisfaction or fulfillment. That’s because God is the only one who can ultimately fulfill our basic human need for meaning and purpose. It’s part of His design.

Apart from God there is no ultimate meaning and purpose. As Christian philosopher and apologist Frank Turek says, we are just “moist robots” who appear one day and then one day we’re gone.

If that is the case, then Solomon’s initial assessment is true – life is indeed meaningless. But with God, life not only has purpose and meaning but work, pleasure and wealth all make sense.

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Reflection

What do you turn to in order to experience purpose and meaning in life?

Which of the following do you struggle with the most: the pursuit of pleasure, wealth, power or fame?

What do you think are the reasons you or people in general pursue other things to satisfy their inner needs rather than pursuing God Himself?

In what ways can you turn to God as your source of true satisfaction and fulfillment?

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Job 1

¹There was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless, a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. ²He had seven sons and three daughters. ³He owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred teams of oxen, and five hundred female donkeys, and he employed many servants. He was, in fact, the richest person in that entire area.

⁴Every year when Job’s sons had birthdays, they invited their brothers and sisters to join them for a celebration. On these occasions they would get together to eat and drink. ⁵When these celebrations ended—and sometimes they lasted several days—Job would purify his children. He would get up early in the morning and offer a burnt offering for each of them. For Job said to himself, “Perhaps my children have sinned and have cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.

⁶One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan the Accuser came with them. ⁷“Where have you come from?” the LORD asked Satan.

And Satan answered the LORD, “I have been going back and forth across the earth, watching everything that’s going on.”

⁸Then the LORD asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and will have nothing to do with evil.”

⁹Satan replied to the LORD, “Yes, Job fears God, but not without good reason! ¹⁰You have always protected him and his home and his property from harm. You have made him prosperous in everything he does. Look how rich he is! ¹¹But take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!” (Job 1:1-11, NLT)

The Daily DAVEotional

What does the Bible say about money and wealth? Actually, the Bible says a lot about money and riches, but what the Bible says may surprise you.

In today’s culture, there are many who decry wealth as being evil. Politically, there is a whole movement that seeks to take from those who have and redistribute it to those who don’t have.

Some have argued that God is “against the wealthy” and “for the poor”. I’ve argued extensively against this thinking in a number of posts that explain key biblical texts on money and wealth. You can read some of my thoughts, here, here, here and here.

So what does any of this have to do with Job?

Job actually provides an interesting example of how God views rich people. Some people assume that God is automatically against the wealthy, because, well, they’re wealthy and God must hate wealth.

But nothing could be further from the truth.

In this opening chapter of Job, we find out some interesting things about the man. The first thing stated about him is that “he was blameless, a man of complete integrity.”

The second thing we learn about Job is that he was extremely wealthy. He owned land and livestock and the text says that “He was, in fact, the richest person in that entire area.” In today’s vernacular, we might say that he was INSANELY rich!

Another thing we learn from this passage is that God does not consider wealth evil. Notice in verse 8 that God tells Satan that Job is “the finest man in all the earth – a man of complete integrity.” God continues, saying that Job “fears God and will have nothing to do with evil.”

If God opposes wealth because it is evil, He could not claim that Job, who was in fact the richest man in the entire area, will have nothing to do with evil.

It’s clear from this passage that God does not consider wealth to be evil.

It’s also interesting to note that Satan himself recognized that Job was wealthy because God had made him prosperous.

For those who consider wealth to be bad or even evil, how is this explained? How is it that God could make Job the most prosperous man in the entire area and yet call him blameless – a man of complete integrity who will have nothing to do with evil?

Clearly, wealth is not evil.

I sometimes encounter others who will stipulate that wealth is not evil but what they really believe is that having SOME wealth is ok but having EXTREME wealth is bad. They may hesitate to call extreme wealth evil, knowing that nowhere in the Bible does God condemn wealth but they’ll use other words such as insane, outrageous or even “filthy rich”.

The truth is that we don’t understand what we haven’t experienced ourselves. I think it’s common for people to want to make themselves the norm and anything that is outside that norm is an easy target for criticism.

For example, I live in a South Orange County, an area that is known for it’s wealth. That doesn’t mean everyone who lives in this area is extremely wealthy but there are many communities in this area that are known to be areas where extremely wealthy people reside.

I find that it’s easy to criticize the person who lives in the “extremely wealthy” community and ask questions like, “why does that person need to drive that expensive kind of car when a less expensive car will do just fine?” Or, “why does a person need a house with 7 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms?” Or, “why does anyone need to own a vacation home, or a boat, or a yacht, etc.?”

This line of questioning and reasoning is senseless and meaningless. It tells us nothing about real people. After all, while you are questioning why a person in that rich community needs to live in a 4000 square foot house with 7 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms and a 4 car garage, there’s another guy, in the next town over, who is questioning why you need to live in a 2500 sqare foot house with 4 bedrooms and 3 baths when he himself is only living in an 1850 square foot house with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths.

The truth is that nobody really NEEDS to own those things. Plenty of people get along just fine without them.

I think our sin nature causes us to view those who have more than we do as ostentatious and we can question their motives and integrity.

Job teaches us a valuable lesson about this. First off, Job certainly didn’t NEED all the things he owned but God blessed him in such a way that he was EXTREMELY wealthy. God gave him way more than he actually needed and didn’t consider it bad or evil. Apparently, God doesn’t evaluate our integrity based on how much. or how little we have.

This was actually the nature of the the challenge Satan posed to God. He insisted that Job’s integrity was a result of his wealth. He contended that Job was not righteous at his core but it was simply an act based on the fact that he was well off. God allowed Satan to test Job in order to demonstrate that Job’s integrity was not dependent on his wealth and his circumstances.

So where does that leave us?

It leaves us with this conclusion: wealth is not bad. And EXTREME wealth is not bad either. Our integrity is not determined by how wealthy or poor we are.

Hence, there may be some extremely wealthy people who lack integrity and demonstrate an evil heart, but it is not the wealth that made them that way. At the same time, there are plenty of people who are extremely wealthy who have integrity and are blameless, wanting nothing to do with evil, just like Job.

Reflection

What are your thoughts and feelings towards people who are EXTREMELY wealthy? Do you have a hard time thinking that they could be godly people who are blameless and have integrity? If so, why do you think you struggle with those views?

Why do you think God would allow people to have enormous amounts of material possessions well beyond what they actually NEED?

If God doesn’t evaluate integrity based on wealth, how do you think He makes that determination?

What do you think are the reasons that many people (Christians included) oppose those who are rich? What are some possible reasons driving those views?

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