CHAPTER 1:3-4
3. What profit has a man from all his labour in which he toils under the sun?

The Koheleth now explains the reasoning behind his assessment that everything is utterly vain -- completely empty, unsatisfactory and futile – reducing it down to a matter of personal profit.

The Hebrew word rendered profit was a business term, meaning the return on an investment -- and what Solomon seems to be suggesting is that no matter how much fame and fortune anybody can achieve in this life, in the end, at death, it will all be lost -- and there will be no ultimate profit. Nevertheless, despite Solomon’s warning, many people still make money their goal and their god. One British billionaire, for example, was said to have an "incandescent desire for money” -- money that financed a fine funeral, purchased an expensive grave plot and built an impressive tomb for his physical remains.

Solomon mentions the profit motive very deliberately and the inspired intention must be that we consider its opposite as a possible philosophy of life. Reversal is one of the most powerful techniques in creative thinking, often revealing new and much better ideas -- and what God wants us to learn from the disappointing experiences of the Koheleth is the need to turn from striving for personal profit, from making Gathering, Accumulating and Getting our goal, and to live instead lives of Giving, helping, supporting, caring, assisting and encouraging. That way lies true happiness, fulfillment and, finally, eternal profit.

In writing to the Corinthian Christians about spiritual gifts, Paul employs the very same metaphor as Solomon when he stresses that without love and a desire to help and serve others, whatever we achieve in this life will profit us nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-7). He goes on to stress that the very purpose of the spiritual gifts is to help other people, rather than to show off, impress and aggrandize those who possess them.

Notice also the use of similar financial metaphors when Paul says to Christians at Rome that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life (Romans 6:23). Although all man's toil and striving to gain fame and fortune for himself result in zero profit in the end, sin does make a final accounting -- but it is a total loss, spiritual insolvency, Death! Notice however that eternal life is a gift from God, something freely given, not earned.

Although Paul tells us that all scripture is useful for instruction in Godly living, Ecclesiastes is unique in the whole Old Testament as the only book that directly addresses the purpose and apparent futility of human life on Earth, intended to make us stop, step back and question our goals, actions, attitudes and values -- which explains why Jesus alludes so often to the words of Solomon.

Jesus, in fact, poses the very same question as Solomon, but goes on to reveal a deeper dimension when he says, Quote: "What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his own life [soul, being, existence]?" (Matthew 16:26). How terrible it would be not only to lose our physical possessions but also our soul, our ultimate existence as well!

We hear of people selling their soul to the Devil, and in the temptation in the wilderness, fame and fortune, even world rulership, were among the lures Satan offered to Jesus in return for simply bowing down to worship him (Matthew 4:8-9). A moment's reflection suggests that the glory of the kingdoms offered to Jesus no doubt included not just treasures of silver and gold and precious stones in vast amounts, plus fabulous palaces and fine things of every kind, but also the most beautiful women the world could offer.

Jesus curtly refused those temporary treasures and pleasures -- but ambitious people continue to desire and pursued them ruthlessly. Solomon, however, actually acquired, gathered and accumulated those things for himself in abundance -- but found, in the end, that his selfish success was empty and completely un-satisfying!

Jesus may also be referring to the message of Ecclesiastes when he warns, Quote: "Do not store up [Gather, Accumulate] treasure on Earth, but store up for yourselves treasure in heaven . . . for where your treasure is, there you heart will be also . . . You cannot serve God and Money" (verses 19-24). Apparently, there is earthly treasure and heavenly treasure, human life and eternal life, the shadow and the eternal reality.

But how do we store up real treasure in heaven? The answer again is a paradox, a creative reversal --because it is by working to help others rather than by striving to get all we can for ourselves, by giving rather than getting. In fact, Jesus seems to be articulating Solomon’s key lesson in this section when he says, in the only quotation of his words not found in the gospels, Quote: "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).

Notice another reference to this verse of Ecclesiastes when Jesus exhorts his disciples not to toil and wear themselves out in the pursuit of transient possessions and security, but to make the Kingdom of God their goal.

And notice also the reference to Solomon himself, Quote: ": "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them . Are you not more valuable than they? . . . See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not toil or spin. Yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his splendor was not arrayed like one of these . . . The pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matthew 6:25-34). Once again, the Truth is found in a creative reversal of what is humanly assumed to be the right way.

Finally, Solomon points out that no matter how much we toil and strive, and no matter how much fame and fortune we might acquire, we are nothing more than insignificant entities in yet another passing generation. We need, therefore, as Jesus teaches, to look beyond the pleasures and treasures of the transient human life and see a much bigger picture and purpose.