Read | Ecclesiastes 2:12–26
Then I turned to consider wisdom, madness, and folly, for what will the king’s successor be like? He will do what has already been done. And I realized that there is an advantage to wisdom over folly, like the advantage of light over darkness.
The wise person has eyes in his head,
but the fool walks in darkness.
Yet I also knew that one fate comes to them both. So I said to myself, “What happens to the fool will also happen to me. Why then have I been overly wise?” And I said to myself that this is also futile. For, just like the fool, there is no lasting remembrance of the wise, since in the days to come both will be forgotten. How is it that the wise person dies just like the fool? Therefore, I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
I hated all my work that I labored at under the sun because I must leave it to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will take over all my work that I labored at skillfully under the sun. This too is futile. So I began to give myself over to despair concerning all my work that I had labored at under the sun. When there is a person whose work was done with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and he must give his portion to a person who has not worked for it, this too is futile and a great wrong. For what does a person get with all his work and all his efforts that he labors at under the sun? For all his days are filled with grief, and his occupation is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.
There is nothing better for a person than to eat, drink, and enjoy his work. I have seen that even this is from God’s hand, because who can eat and who can enjoy life apart from him? For to the person who is pleasing in his sight, he gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and accumulating in order to give to the one who is pleasing in God’s sight. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
Click here to listen to the Scripture in ESV.
How does the teacher (most likely Solomon) present a different picture from Proverbs about how being wise and working hard often turns out in this fallen, broken world?
Focus
Watch this video from BibleProject (The Book of Proverbs • What It Teaches About Being Good at Life) explaining the genre of this book of Scripture. What is one thing you learned from the video?
Pray
Use today’s Scripture as a model for your prayer. Follow along using the prayer points below and reference the Scripture passages to inspire your own prayer today.
- Take a few slow deep breaths and invite God to help you notice his presence in this moment.
- Name and lament to God how you’ve seen and experienced that being wise and trying to do the right thing doesn’t always bring about the right result in the end (Ecclesiastes 2:12–17).
- Work (the paid and unpaid contributions we make with our time), can be really hard (Ecclesiastes 2:18–23). Recognize and lament before the Lord how your work is hard. Use the categories in this passage (unfairness of compensation, inability to enjoy earning, emotional and physical stress of work) to help you find the words to lament these pains.
- While work is hard and life is often unfair in this broken world, God does give us small gifts of delight and enjoyment (Ecclesiastes 2:24–25). Take some time to thank God for his presence in the small things, express gratitude, and ask him to help you enjoy these things, because without him it would be impossible to do so.
Going Deeper
If you are also following the BibleProject’s One Story That Leads to Jesus reading plan, complete today’s reading.