The Peril of an Empty Life - Ecclesiastes 2:1-13

by David Woods

Someone has calculated how a typical lifespan of 70 years is spent. Here is the estimate:

Sleep................23 years...........32.9%
Work.................16 years...........22.8%
TV....................8 years...........11.4%
Eating................6 years............8.6%
Travel................6 years............8.6%
Leisure.............4.5 years............6.5%
Illness...............4 years............5.7%
Dressing..............2 years............2.8%
Religion............0.5 years............0.7%

Total................70 years............100% (Our Daily Bread, November 25, 1992)

Discussion: What is the most rewarding thing you have ever done? How much did it cost you?

Tennis star Boris Becker was at the very top of the tennis world -- yet he was on the brink of suicide. He said, "I had won Wimbledon twice before, once as the youngest player. I was rich. I had all the material possessions I needed ... It's the old song of movie stars and pop stars who commit suicide. They have everything, and yet they are so unhappy. I had no inner peace. I was a puppet on a string."
Becker is not the only one to feel that sense of emptiness. The echoes of a hollow life pervade our culture. One doesn't have to read many contemporary biographies to find the same frustration and disappointment.
Jack Higgens, author of such successful novels and The Eagle Has Landed, was asked what he would like to have known as a boy. His answer: "That when you get to the top, there's nothing there." (Our Daily Bread, July 9, 1994)

Today, we are studying some of one of the, if not the, wisest and richest men ever to live. Yet this man says in our scripture text that he found his life to be empty.

Read Ecclesiastes 2:1-13

List: Solomon's achievements, wealth and entertainment.

Discussion: Is this scripture suggesting that the accumulation of wealth is sinful? Why or why not?

Discussion: Is pleasure and wealth that empty? If so, why do so many live pleasure- and wealth-driven lives?

Discussion: Do you live a life that is not bound up in having fun and gaining and spending money?

Solomon was a person who had been extremely blessed by God. God had given him tremendous wisdom, so much that Scripture says Solomon was the wisest person who ever lived. Yet Solomon pursued many things that he later recognized were foolish.

I personally find that astonishing. I consider it even more amazing when I consider his actions in the light of the biblical definition of wisdom: wisdom is living life from God's perspective.

Discussion: Why do you think Solomon stopped living life from God's perspective and began living life from a worldly perspective?

Discussion: How do you think Solomon's trade of godly wisdom for worldly foolishness occurred?

Not much is said in the Bible concerning Solomon's death. We are not really told whether or not Solomon repented of his sins of idol worship, pride, greediness, etc.

Exercise: Let us prepare an epitaph for Solomon's tomb. What would you suggest we write?

Let's not end this lesson on a negative note. How can we avoid the perils of an empty life?

Big Question: How can we experience an abundant life?

The key verse for our lesson points us in the right direction, but I think we do not get a complete picture of how to have an abundant life by simply focusing on Matthew 6:19. Therefore, I would like us to read Matthew 6:19-25.

Read Matthew 6:19-25

Verses nineteen through twenty-one give us the answer to the question, "What should we do in order to experience abundant life?"

Discussion: What exactly does it mean to "lay up treasures in Heaven?" How have you, or will you, lay up treasures in Heaven today?

Discussion: How does securing our inheritance in Heaven give us abundant life for today?

To store up treasures in Heaven implies, even necessitates, a faith that one will receive those treasures. Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not yet seen."

Garethh L. Cockerill in Hebrews: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition writes, "… faith is the means by which God's promised rewards become a 'reality' in our lives. It is by trusting God that we begin to experience them now and will experience them ultimately at Christ's return." (pp. 230-231)

Discussion: What does it mean for our faith to make that, which is not yet reality, a present reality?

Verses twenty-two and twenty-three give us the answer to the question, "How can we experience abundant life?" The KJV says, "If therefore thine eye be single…." The ESV translates the phrase, "So, if your eye is healthy…."

Discussion: What does it mean to have a "single" or "healthy" eye?

Discussion: What is the alternative to having a "single" or "healthy" eye? (consider also James 1:8)

Verse twenty-four answers the question, "Why should we seek the abundant life?" The Bible teaches we can either choose to live abundantly in Christ or experience the emptiness that Satan offers.

Discussion: What are some ways people try to enjoy the world's pleasures while holding on to heavenly treasures? Can a person truly live for God and the world at the same time?

Earlier, we prepared an epitaph for Solomon's tomb. We don't want our tombstone to bear such somber words. We want our tombstones to reflect a life lived abundantly in and for Christ.

Exercise: What would you like your tombstone to say about your life?