Lesson 7

Dropping Buckets Into Empty Wells

Ecclesiastes 6:1-12

How would you express futility? Uselessness. Worthlessness. Writers, throughout the years have used some vivid expressions for futility. Expressions like "As futile as watering a fence post" or "As futile as plowing rocks" or "As futile as singing to a dead horse". The expression that struck me was in a poem written by the man who wrote the great hymn "There Is A Fountain." His name was William Cowper and he once wrote of "dropping buckets into empty wells and growing old in drawing nothing up."

Do you ever feel like your life is futile, empty, meaningless, useless, without purpose? If you do, welcome to the crowd. At some time or another, most of us are frustrated with the seemingly futility of life. Even a rich and powerful King like Solomon went through a stage when his life seemed to be like dropping buckets into empty wells. The expression that he used over and over was "all is vanity and vexation of spirit." In fact, in the Book Of Ecclesiastes, Solomon used the word "vanity" or "vanities" 37 times in 12 short chapters and the phrase "vexation of spirit" which means "chasing the wind" 9 times. To Solomon life had become empty (vanity) and as futile as chasing the wind (vexation of spirit). In chapter 6, this divinely inspired author describes what it is about life that made him think it futile. What causes life to be empty? There are five things in Solomon's list. Perhaps you can relate to some or all of them.

6:1-2 - Possessions Without Pleasure

Solomon is a great observer of life. He speaks of that which (v.1) "I have seen under the sun." One particular thing he has concluded is "evil" (v. 1). In verse 2, he says that this thing "is vanity and an evil disease." The words used here mean that this is bad, it is a real calamity and very distressful. Unfortunately, is this thing of bad character, it is also "common among men." What thing is he speaking of? According to verse 2, it having wealth without being able to enjoy them. It is possessions without pleasure.

In his only mention of God in this whole chapter, Solomon recognizes that God is both source of blessings in life and of the ability to enjoy those blessings ("God hath given" ... "God giveth."). Solomon sees people who have "riches, wealth, and honour." Solomon had to referring at least in part to himself for in II Chronicles 1:12 God said to Solomon, "I will give thee riches, and wealth, and honour, such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like." Solomon may have had the most of all these but he is not the only one to have them. This is "common among men." The person being described here has riches, resources (wealth) and respect (honour). What more could a person want? What more could you ask for? I'll tell you what more is required. It is the ability to enjoy and appreciate your blessings. Remember the ancient fable about Midas? Midas was granted a wish. He wished that everything he touched would turn to gold. He was instantly fabulously rich. But then he realized that he could never touch his daughter again and more disturbing was it to learn that even his food turned to gold. He had riches but did not have the ability to enjoy those riches. We wouldn't really want the Midas touch, would we? What good is having it, if you can't enjoy it?

And yet real joy is missing from so many lives! Money cannot make you happy. Possessions may bring a few fleeting moments of pleasure, but they are no guarantee of lasting joy. They may even make your life more miserable, because now you have to worry about not losing them. Don't be fooled into believing Satan's lie. Possessions without pleasure is futility. What would keep a person from being able to enjoy his possessions? How about family problems? Prov. 15:16-17 Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. Prov. 17:1 Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full ... with strife.

Perhaps this is what Solomon has in mind because of this next cause for futility. Look at ...

6:3-6 - Relatives Without Relationships

Here is a hypothetical situation. Solomon is purposely exaggerating to make a point. The man whom he uses in his illustration has a hundred children and lives to be 2000 years old. To a Jew, God's favor was demonstrated by a large family and long life. From all outward appearances, he should be a fulfilled man. Yet (v. 3) "his soul is not filled with good and also he hath no burial." That phrase means that when he dies, no one will mourn his death. Jeremiah 22:18-19 says "concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory! He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem." This man has a lot of relatives. Just think of how big his family would have grown with 100 children and 2000 years worth of descendants! Yet when he dies, no one is there to lament for him. You can only lament for those you love. Thus, there is no love in this family for this man. He has a full house but an empty heart. He has many years but not much of a life. He has relative but no relationships.

To such a man, Solomon compares a pre-mature born baby who dies at birth, 3f-5. Better to have died at birth, better to have never seen, to have never been named, to have never known anything than to lived 2000 years and fathered a hundred children but have no love in your home. The 2000 year old man and the stillborn baby have one thing in common. According to verse 6c they both die and are placed in a grave. Relatives without relationships is futility. Make sure that your home is a place where there is love and it is often expressed.

6:7-8 - Sweat Without Satisfaction

Why must we work? Well, that's pretty obvious! We work in order to eat, to put food on our table! "All the labor of a man is for his mouth." Prov. 16:26 He that laboureth for himself; for his mouth craveth it of him. Another Bible verse says that if a man won't work, he shouldn't eat. Eating adds years to our life. But what if I do not add life to my years? Eating will fill your natural body but it will not fill your soul. And even if we work today and can afford food today, we will be hungry again tomorrow. One's appetite is never completely satisfied. "The appetite is not filled."

But there must be more to life than working and eating. We may eat in order to live, but we must not live just in order to eat. If all there is to life is working so that you can eat and eating so that you can work some more, then "what hath the wise more than the fool?" (v. 8a) and "what hath the poor that knoweth to walk before the living?" (v.8b). In other words, Why should a poor person try to be respectable and try to better himself if life is only working and eating?

Solomon is expressing the futility of sweat with satisfaction. If all there is to life is survival, working and eating, if we are just controlled by our appetites, are we any better off than the beasts of the field? There must be more to life than just self-preservation. In the natural world, self-preservation is the first law of life, but in the spiritual world, self-preservation may be the first law of death. Jesus said, (Mark 8:35-36) "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Don't get caught up in a "survival cycle" If you are existing but not really living, if you are working to earn a living, but not ever experiencing a life, you understand the futility of sweat without satisfaction.

6:9 - Prospects Without Possibilities

Notice verse 9. It is Solomon's equivalent of our saying, "A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush." I came up with another one - A Big Mac in your mouth is better than a Montgomery rib in your mind. Or how about this one - A paycheck in you hand is better than Publishers Sweepstakes in your mind. One more - A husband in your hand is better than Robert Redford in your mind. Solomon expresses the vanity, the emptiness, the futility of being only a big dreamer. Some people are just living on dreams. I call it prospects without possibilities. In other words, some people are unrealistic about themselves, their future, what they can accomplish, unrealistic about their goals. But big dreams can become bigger nightmares. Solomon is arguing for some healthy realism about our lives. Work with what you have, not with what you hope to have. Prospects without possibilities, living on dreams, leads to a sense of frustration and futility.

6:10-12 - Arguments Without Answers

There are some aspects to life that nobody can figure out. If you dwell on those things, you are bound to become a cynic, a skeptic, perhaps even an atheist or an agnostic. The Bible warns us to (Col. 2:8) Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Solomon ends this chapter with a series of arguments and questions that have no answers.

Verse 10 - What difference can a man make? Verse 10 is a "Que sera, sera -Whatever will be will be" argument. In the Jewish mind, if something was named then its character was forever fixed. That helps explain the words in this verse. "Man" by any other name would still be man. "Doth not a rose by any other name smell just as sweet?" (Shakespeare). Solomon seems to be saying, "You cannot fight against fate." But this view of fate leads to fatalism, not faith. Fatalism is taking providence too far. It is saying that because God is sovereign and in complete control and because His purposes will ultimately be accomplished, that what we do makes no difference. Though God is sovereign and in complete control, and though His purposes will ultimately be accomplished, we must understand that our world is not a prison and that we have no freedom. Fatalism says, "I cannot make a difference." Faith says, "I will make a difference."

Verse 11 - If, in everything, emptiness increases, what advantage is there to being mankind? Do you see how futile Solomon's words sound? The problem with that statement is that it is built on what he is "seeing". All that Solomon sees is life "under the sun" (v. 1), that is, life without God in the picture. And without God in the picture, everything does indeed seem to increase emptiness. If there is no God, then there is no advantage to being a human over being an ameba. But if there is God ...

Verse 12a - Who really knows what is best for us? If there is no God, no absolute final authority, then we are reduced to human opinions. And one person's opinion is as good as the next, if it's only opinion.

Verse 12b - Who really knows what's ahead? Everybody has their own prediction about what the future holds, but who really knows? Once again, the only answer is God. And if you have eliminated Him from your frame of reference life is a argument without any answers. How futile. Like dropping buckets into empty wells.

But I have some good news! Life doesn't have to empty, meaningless, useless, without purpose. It is God which takes away the vanity and replaces it with fulfillment. It is God who enables us to enjoy our possessions. It is God who puts love in our homes so that we have real relationships not just relatives. It is God makes life more than a cycle of survival and self-preservation -working to eat and eating to work. It is God turns hopeless dreamers into realistic doers. It is God who some day will allow us to see all the answers to life's mysteries, that frustrate us now. You can only experience fullness of life in knowing God. Psalm 16:11 Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. And the only way to know God is by knowing Jesus Christ. If you don't know Christ, if you don't have a personal relationship with Him, let us introduce you to Him today.