Living With Purpose and Joy (Ecclesiastes 6–9)

A donkey chases a carrot toward a cliff—that’s the picture Solomon paints as we walk through Ecclesiastes 6–9. We explore how a life built on appetite can look full from the outside yet feel empty at the core, and why promotions, knowledge, or polish can’t satisfy a hungry soul. Instead of racing after the next thing, we talk about the surprising wisdom of enjoying what’s already in front of us and letting God reshape our desires.

From there, we tackle one of Scripture’s most misunderstood lines: be not overly righteous and be not overly wicked. We pull back the curtain on two dangerous detours—self-righteous performance and reckless indulgence—and lay out the humble, honest middle path of wisdom. Along the way, we wrestle with the frustration of slow justice. Why do some hypocrites receive praise and respectful farewells? We revisit a striking example in Al Capone, “Mr. Gooddeed,” and reflect on how delayed accountability invites cynicism, yet never cancels the certainty of judgment.

Finally, we face the inevitability of death without despair. The grave is impartial, but that reality frees us to live fully now. Solomon’s invitation is bold and practical: eat your bread with joy, drink your wine with a merry heart, and let white garments and oil mark your days with celebration. Joy becomes a daily act of faith—evidence that we trust God’s approval and goodness in ordinary life. If you’re tired of chasing wind, come reconsider what it means to pursue Christ, receive today as gift, and practice resilient joy.

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Chapters

• 0:00 The Donkey And The Cliff
• 1:55 Three Warnings From Ecclesiastes 6
• 5:08 Overly Righteous, Overly Wicked
• 7:08 Hypocrites, Slow Justice, Sure Judgment
• 9:50 Death’s Certainty And Daily Joy

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:26

Some years ago I came across an artist's rendering of Satan. Satan was portrayed as riding on a donkey, holding a stick just in front of the donkey's face with a carrot dangling from a string. In pursuit of the carrot, the donkey was shown moving closer and closer to the edge of a cliff. Well, as we arrive today at chapter six of Ecclesiastes, Solomon is going to describe what amounts to chasing a carrot on a stick, and ultimately the wasted life that results. And he's going to give us in this text three warnings for today. And the first warning is this your life can be full and your heart remain empty. Now in verse 7, Solomon writes All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. In other words, all the work that you do provides for your needs, needs of your body, like food, but it it cannot satisfy your soul. And what Solomon is saying is that people can be wrapped up in everything that satisfies their flesh without allowing God to satisfy their soul. And with that, there's a there's a second warning here. Being promoted in life doesn't mean you're succeeding in life. Solomon now asks two rhetorical questions here in verse eight to prove his point. For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what advantage does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? Well, who has the advantage in life? The smart man over the foolish man, or the poor man over the rich man? And Solomon is saying neither one has the advantage, no matter what end of the spectrum they're on, educated or uneducated, wealthy or poor, if they're living merely to satisfy their physical appetites, they're like that donkey chasing a carrot on a stick. They're never going to reach fulfillment. They'll never be satisfied. In fact, they're gonna fall off the cliff, so to speak, as they waste their lives without God. Now, with that, here's a third warning. Don't focus your attention on what you don't have. Solomon teaches this truth by delivering a proverb over here in verse 9, where he writes, Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. You want to chase the wind? You want to end up with your life empty and resentful and joyless. Well, Satan has a plan. He'll tempt you into chasing after things you want, and he's never going to let you enjoy what you already have. Beloved, life isn't about some carrot that grabbed your attention. Life is about following Jesus Christ. A fulfilling life is all about the Holy Spirit transforming our minds and our hearts and our desires and giving us purpose and meaning as we focus on Him, pursue Him. Now, here in chapter 7, we find one of the most misunderstood passages in Solomon's journal here. Verse 16 says, Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Well, understand that overly righteous here describes a religiously arrogant person. One author calls them sanctimonious saints. They're self-righteous. And they present themselves as always having it together. I mean, just listen to them and you're going to be convinced their marriages are always wonderful and their children are always superior. Well, Solomon is telling us to get real. Don't present yourself to others as if you've already arrived. First of all, it's dishonest because we haven't arrived, none of us. And second, it's very discouraging to everybody else. Well, Solomon delivers another warning here now in verse 17. Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? Well, in other words, a wicked life is probably going to lead you to the grave a lot faster than a godly life. So don't be overly righteous, that is self righteous. And by the way, don't try to be overly wicked. Either person is living an unwise, dangerous life. Well now here in chapter eight, Solomon writes about some puzzling mysteries of life down here under the sun. One of the more common mysteries is recorded here in verse ten. Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. Well, this also is vanity. Well, Solomon must have just gotten back from a funeral. The implication here is that this person was well respected in the community and praised for his deeds. But Solomon evidently knew that this man was a hypocrite. He he stayed one step ahead of the law. He managed to die without being exposed for who he really was. And Solomon wonders here why God lets hypocrites get away with it. And frankly, beloved, I think we all wonder the same thing. I couldn't help but think of a man who lived in Chicago back during the Great Depression of the early 1900s. He was a wealthy man, he was generous to other people, he considered himself, and he would say that he was blessed by God. Well, during the Depression, he provided free food that fed literally thousands of people in Chicago. The newspapers even referred to him as Mr. Gooddeed. That was his nickname. Well, it was near the end of his career that the law finally caught up to why he was so wealthy. His name was Al Capone, a gangster, a killer. He was a hypocrite of the worst kind. Now, you would expect the world to punish all these wicked people instead of giving them nicknames like Mr. Gooddeed, and if you expect that, you're going to be disappointed. Solomon says this also is vanity, that is, this is an empty hope. He goes on in verse eleven to say, because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. In other words, they seem to be getting away with it. Justice seems to be moving so slowly. Well, Solomon ends this thought, however, by reminding us that while the justice of God might be slow, it is sure. It's coming. Judgment will be delivered in the end. Well, the subject of coming death now seems to be on Solomon's mind as we enter chapter 9 here in his private journal. The first six verses deal with the reminder that death is coming for the believer and the unbeliever alike. He writes here in verse 2 the same event, that is death, happens to the righteous and the wicked. My friend, the the the graveyard is totally impartial, it's unprejudiced, it's unbiased. And let me add this, it is inevitable. And if you haven't put your faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sin, I I urge you to do that today. You have no idea how much time you have left before it's eternally too late. But I also want you to listen to what Solomon has to say about those who follow the Lord. He writes here in verse 7, Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. In other words, if you're walking with the Lord, you have his approval to live your life. And not only that, to live it with joy. In fact, don't hold back, enjoy every bit of it that you can. Solomon adds here in verse eight, let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. He's referring here to the white garments and oil that people put on during days of festivals or on a wedding day or at family reunions. These garments and these fragrant oils represented joy. And here they represent fellowship with God. In fact, we're told one day we're going to be dressed in white garments in heaven. Revelation chapter 3, verse 5. That doesn't mean that we're only supposed to wear white clothing now and will only wear white garments in heaven. That's an expression that communicates living to the fullest today. And knowing we're going to live that way in that eternal day, because that's going to be a never-ending festival of joy. That's a never-ending family reunion. So Solomon is effectively saying here, well, don't wait till heaven to enjoy living. I think of more than 100 years ago, evangelist Dio Moody, he sort of got a sense of Solomon's wisdom here when he wrote this. Why shouldn't a believer play baseball or tennis? Don't imagine you have to live in a cave to be consecrated. Whatever you take up, take up with all your heart. In other words, as you walk with the Lord, get out there and live life to the fullest. Joy ought to be the advertisement of the Christian life. So live your life today with joy. Until our next lesson together, beloved, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.