Where Your Treasure Is... (Ecclesiastes 6)

Why is shopping so much fun? Have you ever bought something and just felt good afterwards? Why does it feel so good to bring home new stuff? And why does that good feeling disappear so quickly?

In my own life I have been very blessed, I’ve usually been able to get what I want when it comes to things. Throughout my (short) life there come times when I get very excited about purchasing a particular thing. For example, I love making movies and as a kid I dreamed of owning animation software so I could create CG effects just like Hollywood. Well, at some point in high school I did some shopping around and found an industry standard program, Maya, on sale with a student discount. Animation software (good software) is very expensive and way out of a high schooler’s budget (or his parents’ budget, in my case) but the student discount made it affordable. I got very excited and set my hopes on that software. Eventually I got it, and although I did use it a lot, I can see what Solomon’s frustrated about in this chapter:

There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. (Ecc. 6:1-2)

Things ultimately don’t satisfy, and this frustrates our logic. Maybe its built into us or maybe its worse today because every day we are being bombarded with advertisements telling us product X will satisfy. We are frustrated when we consume and then find out we are still hungry.

All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. (Ecc. 6:7)

The point Solomon hits repeatedly in this chapter and throughout Ecclesiastes is “Stuff doesn’t satisfy”. So what’s the point? He laments the human life:

Even though he [a man] should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good – do not all go to the one place? (Ecc. 6:6)

And:

For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun? (Ecc. 6:12)

If the Bible ended here I think few would disagree with its ideas, especially those of Ecclesiastes. Here we get a truthful, grim portrait of what it means to be human, and if we’re honest I think most people see life in this way.

I remember feeling this way before I became a Christian. Material things in which I was not lacking did not satisfy, things in life don’t satisfy because when we put them in perspective we see our lives “pass like a shadow”.

Needless to say every human being on the planet is still interested in their happiness. We struggle for it. I think we all have our own set of “things” we strive for in life that we think will bring happiness – whether they are daily events or actions or things further down the road. Of course, many people’s are similar, but I think we all have our own set. What are yours?

For me, the small stuff is daily things – I like certain foods, eating a certain amount; I like to be comfortable, I like to have a hot shower every day. These are daily things that I (consciously or unconsciously) strive for because I know they make me happy.

I like watching movies, playing video games, reading a book. I get into these phases where I strongly desire to watch a move again, or maybe I want to play a video game – I get a longing to experience those things, and in my head I am promised bliss. The funny thing is I do them and then time seems to begin to fall through my hands like sand, and before I know it I’ve played the computer game for three hours and I still haven’t satisfied that longing, that instinct that told me it would me happy.

But those are just examples of fleeting, materialistic desires, right? That’s why they don’t satisfy. What about “important things”? For me the “important things” are like most people’s: friends, family, and “achieving my potential” or “doing something with my life”. It’s very true that these things, mainly the first two, satisfy in a much deeper way than material pleasures. It is more rewarding to visit an old friend than to buy a DVD. It just is. God has made us relational in nature just as He Himself is (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) so naturally such things satisfy deeper.

If you were to ask people what are the best parts of life, nearly all of them would say friends and family. It also feels nobler, too, to place our joy in other people rather than in our selfish needs. What’s interesting about this passage in Ecclesiastes is it asks to imagine carrying out these attempts at happiness to the umpteenth degree. Let’s say you do live a long, healthy, life, with many grandchildren – wouldn’t that put you at peace? Look at what Solomon says:

If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his life are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life’s good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. (Ecc. 6:3)

What an incredible claim. If you could imagine a dream life, a life filled with people you love and enjoy, there would still be something missing.

In his book “Desiring God” John Piper argues that we are not satisfied in life NOT because we are selfish and seek after our own happiness, but rather, we don’t seek after it enough! If we truly long to be happy, we should search for that which satisfies the most! The problem is in our lives we keep “striving after the wind” (to borrow a phrase from Solomon). We chase fleeting pleasures and joys. Some people party and find that the joy in a party is very fleeting – it is not still with them when they wake up in the morning. The happiness an alcoholic or drug addict seeks is very fleeting and the appetite is never, never satisfied. What alcoholic did you ever meet who had joy in abundance? It doesn’t happen.

Jesus tells us where to find happiness:

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in or steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

That’s our problem! All of our treasures – the thing we look to for joy – are on earth. They do not compare at all with “treasures in heaven”, namely, Jesus. We were made to be in relationship with Him and unless He’s in our lives we will not be satisfied.

“I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)

King David wrote of the joy of knowing the Lord:

Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
my flesh also dwells secure.
For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption.

You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:9-11)

God is full of love and pleasures forever more. Just knowing Him is enough! If we were serious joy seekers, we would seek Him first in everything. Jesus puts it beautifully:

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (Matthew 13:45-46)

If we could only imagine a tenth of the pleasure of being with Christ it would be enough to make us sell all that we have because in comparison our stuff is nothing. That doesn’t mean you need to sell all of your stuff now, or even hate it, because the things we have now are blessings. What it does mean is do not place your treasure in your stuff – place it in Jesus. And where your treasure is, “there your heart will be also”.