Ecclesiastes 5:8-12: a reflection

8If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent taking away of justice and righteousness in a district, don’t marvel at the matter, for one official is eyed by a higher one, and there are officials over them. 9Moreover the profit of the earth is for all. The king profits from the field. 10He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity. 11When goods increase, those who eat them are increased; and what advantage is there to its owner, except to feast on them with his eyes? 12The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not allow him to sleep.

The Preacher looks honestly at the world of money and power. He notes the layers of officials watching one another, the grinding of bureaucracy where justice is bought and sold, and he counsels us not to be shocked by it. Then he turns to a truth about wealth itself: whoever loves money will never have enough of it, and whoever loves abundance is never satisfied with his gain. The appetite for more grows the more it is fed. It cannot be filled.

He adds a sharp observation. When your goods increase, so do the people who consume them, and what does the owner gain except to look at his wealth? Meanwhile, he says, the sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not let him sleep. There is a quiet irony here: the one with less often rests better than the one with more, whose very abundance breeds anxiety. Wealth promises peace and often delivers restlessness.

This is worth sitting with in a culture that equates having more with being better off. The love of money is a thirst that increase cannot quench, and piling up possessions can rob you of the very rest you were seeking. Ask God to free you from the endless appetite for more and to give you the contentment that sleeps soundly. A life anchored in him, not in accumulation, is the one that finds rest.

Lord, the love of money is a thirst that more can never satisfy, and abundance often steals the rest it promises. Free me from the endless appetite for more. Teach me contentment, the kind that sleeps soundly whether I have little or much, because it rests in you and not in my possessions. Be my treasure, and let me find my peace in you. Amen.