The Rat Race (Meditations in Ecclesiastes, Part III)
Text: Ecclesiastes 2:1-11
In his quest to discover ultimate purpose and meaning in life, Solomon directed his attention toward pleasure. It is easy to understand why. After all, the human heart and mind quite naturally connect pleasure with happiness. And since all men desire to be happy, a life defined by and dedicated to pleasurable experiences seems like one that might just hold the key to the highest existence possible.
Interestingly enough, within his deep, deliberate immersion into all things pleasurable – “hedonism”, we might say – Solomon includes his work among the various activities he indulged in. He describes his labor in terms of construction (2:4-6), acquisition (2:7-8, 10), and toil (2:10-11). In short, he worked to build an empire. And he succeeded. Not only did he become the greatest king Jerusalem had ever known, but also one of the greatest rulers throughout all of human history.
Contemporary readers should take note of the fact that Solomon deliberately devoted himself to his work in an attempt to find meaning in life. In a society where it is considered both common and proper to ask about a person’s vocation immediately after meeting them and learning their name (“What do you do?”), it should be clear why this portion of Ecclesiastes might be so relevant for us in the modern day. It is by no means a uniquely American notion to define yourself by the work that you do. But it is a preeminent one (and, far too often, a completely unchallenged one.)
Solomon’s observations and conclusion about work echoes his first chapter overview of the seemingly cyclical and endlessly repetitive nature of life: we work to profit, we profit to acquire, we work more to profit more, if we profit more, we acquire more, and so on, and so on. Nothing really seems to endure or last. We work until we’re exhausted, then we break or vacation to recharge the batteries so that we can head back to work so that we can keep profiting and acquiring. Maybe we move another rung up a corporate ladder or tack on another zero in front of the decimal on our paycheck. It’s been called a rat race for a reason. Solomon’s sentiments about it should remind us of the disquieting question he considered in 1:3, “What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?”
He answers himself in 2:11, “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 the wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.”
Nothing.
And make no mistake: if anybody was going to acquire enough stuff and have great enough experiences to feel satisfied by them, it was going to be King Solomon of Israel. Such a notion should give us pause: if it didn’t work for him, what makes one think it’ll work for us?
Don’t misunderstand: work has its place and is a requirement of life (we’ll continue to consider Solomon’s analysis in the next post). But what are we hoping to find in it? Are we searching for ultimate meaning through our jobs, our careers, or our acquisitions? Are we trying to define our lives according to what we do and how well we do it?
The Bible reminds us that there is nothing in this but futility and frustration – a never ending cycle that never delivers on what we think it might be promising.
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And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
– Luke 12:13-21