Ecclesiastes 2:4-11--The Emptiness of Possessions

Ecclesiastes 2:4-11
Christian Standard Bible
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The Emptiness of Possessions
4 I increased my achievements. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5 I made gardens and parks for myself and planted every kind of fruit tree in them. 6 I constructed reservoirs for myself from which to irrigate a grove of flourishing trees. 7 I acquired male and female servants and had slaves who were born in my house. I also owned livestock—large herds and flocks—more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. 8 I also amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I gathered male and female singers for myself, and many concubines, the delights of men. 9 So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem; my wisdom also remained with me. 10 All that my eyes desired, I did not deny them. I did not refuse myself any pleasure, for I took pleasure in all my struggles. This was my reward for all my struggles. 11 When I considered all that I had accomplished and what I had labored to achieve, I found everything to be futile and a pursuit of the wind. There was nothing to be gained under the sun.

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We started with a summary statement of everything being meaningless, but now we're going to go through systematically as Solomon talks about all different places he tried to find meaning and joy that failed him.  The first major passage will discuss his pursuit of acquiring things, that is, material possessions

Solomon was by far the richest man who ever lived once inflation is accounted for.  He built houses and planted many vineyards that were his own.  His properties were full of every kind of tree that bore all kinds of fruit, even things not native to that region.

Building so many gardens, groves, and vineyards required a large amount of irrigation and a huge water supply, so he built reservoirs so that all of his properties could be well-watered (this probably affected the water supply of others who used to have a natural water supply and had their supply dammed up and diverted to take care of Solomon's properties.  He has had a large number of male and female servants that belonged to his household to work and manage these properties.  The king reaped all the benefit of their work without ever having to stop taking care of his royal duties.  This just added to his wealth.

Wealth was also measured in the number of livestock you had in agrarian cultures and Israel was still agrarian enough for this to be one of the kinds of wealth that Solomon reported.  He didn't even count the number of his herds and flocks because they were so numerous, but he knew they were larger than anyone else's who came before him.  It is said that the LORD owns the cattle on 1,000 hills to tell that He has innumerable means and resources, but Solomon probably would say much the same about himself even though God's resources are truly infinite.  Solomon's resources just seemed to be infinite because they were so large.  Even so, all this could not make him happy or satisfied.

Since also acquired large amounts of precious metals and gems from all over the world.  God was so plentiful in his time that silver lost its value.  He had the wealth of many nations combined as so many of the surrounding nations paid large amounts of tribute to him so that their entire treasuries were paid to him to buy peace (Solomon had a very large army at his disposal that he never had to use--the LORD just caused people to fear that he might use it against them, even though Solomon was a man of peace).

Solomon also acquired many singers to entertain him and concubines and wives to give him sexual gratification.  He defied the will of God in this matter that one man was to be married to one woman in a covenant bond that lasted as long as their natural lives.  They were yet another one of his possessions that he counted and though he probably thought he treated them well, they were largely ignored.

Though he acted foolish in all these ways, the LORD allowed him to keep the wisdom that He had given to him.  The LORD allowed Solomon to receive everything that he saw and desired--to test him and let him learn even more wisdom about how Solomon had everything he ever needed when He had the LORD and His unfailing love.  He didn't need houses, vineyards, groves, servants, wives, concubines, gold or silver to try to fill the emptiness that these things could never fill.  Only the LORD Himself could satisfy that deepest longing and need we have as human being who are made in His image and desire communion with Him.

Solomon said he struggled hard to acquire all this wealth (with the LORD's help of course since this is an unnatural amount of wealth for someone to acquire), but when he examined everything, he found no meaning or purpose in any of it.  He had more money and stuff than any of us will probably have (as we aren't going around just plating stuff in gold because we have so much of it and counting silver as completely worthless to us).  He calls this pursuit futile and like the folly of chasing after the wind.  It is striving for something that you can never catch.  There was nothing to truly be gained by this because eventually he would die, and he could not take his stuff with him, and he would have to leave all his stuff to another who did not work for it.  He'll speak more to this fact of how death is the great equalizer and, apart from God, makes everything in this life look void of meaning.  Eventually, no one will know or remember us.  Even the wealthiest man in the world could not buy eternal life or salvation, which were his greatest needs that so far were left unfulfilled by everything he sought after.