And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. (Ecclesiastes 4:4; NIV)
In Andersen’s fairy tale, “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” his subjects could not say to the emperor who was actually naked, “the emperor is naked.” However, a little child said clearly, “But he hasn’t got anything on.” For that was the truth.
In the same manner, Solomon clearly said things that we wouldn’t say out loud. He said, “Isn’t it our envy that is driving this world?” Indeed, “comparison” and “envy” are constantly inherent in the human drama that we weave.
These are essential subjects for movies, novels and dramas, but it is not just in the world of created stories, for these are the major driving forces that move people in our world. Today, these things exist in kindergartens as well as in senior citizen facilities.
IS ENVY MOTIVATING YOU?
Sep 26, 2021
We have been looking at the book of Ecclesiastes every other Sunday. Solomon, who wrote this book, was the third king of Israel, and is famous for being a king who was given unparalleled wisdom and wealth by God.
He was a man who stood at the top of all humanity in terms of wisdom and wealth at that time, and he tells us through the book of Ecclesiastes about the scenery he saw from the top.
Since most of us are not standing at the top, we spend our days thinking that if we can just get a little closer to it, if we can just get there, everything will be fine.
Thus, for us, the words by Solomon who stood on the summit, and has spoken from there, are of great value to us.
He says from its summit: “All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure” (Ecclesiastes 2:10).
Maybe these are the words that everyone wants to say at least once. He had the wealth and power to get whatever he wanted, whatever pleased him, whenever he wanted.
But when he actually looked back at “all the things he did with his hands, and he obtained,” he said they were “empty and striving after the wind”.
In other words, it meant the dead ends and failures of his attempts, and he did not hide such failures, but wrote about them in this book of Ecclesiastes.
By learning from his many failures, we who live today can gain wisdom in our daily lives, and clarify the path we should choose from now on. So, today, let’s look at Ecclesiastes 4:4-7.
And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. (Ecclesiastes 4:4; NIV)
There are words here that catch our attention. As it says in verse 4, all the labor and all the skillful work that Solomon saw were done by men envying one another.
The same passage in another version of the Bible says, “I have seen that every labor and every skill which is done is the result of rivalry between a man and his neighbor. This too is vanity and striving after wind” (Ecclesiastes 4:4; NASB).
There are many “skillful works” in our world. This work includes all kinds of techniques developed by people, as well as all kinds of things that come out of these techniques, such as buildings and the swing of a baseball bat.
Solomon must have kept an eye on all the “toil” and “skillful works” around him, while at the same time observing his own heart and the hearts of those involved with these things.
What he found was that envy and competition were the underlying motivating forces behind the creation of the works that people admired.
In Andersen’s fairy tale, “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” his subjects could not say to the emperor who was actually naked, “the emperor is naked.” However, a little child said clearly, “But he hasn’t got anything on.” For that was the truth.
In the same manner, Solomon clearly said things that we wouldn’t say out loud. He said, “Isn’t it our envy that is driving this world?” Indeed, “comparison” and “envy” are constantly inherent in the human drama that we weave.
These are essential subjects for movies, novels and dramas, but it is not just in the world of created stories, for these are the major driving forces that move people in our world. Today, these things exist in kindergartens as well as in senior citizen facilities.
Some people are motivated by this envy and competitiveness, and live their lives driven by it. With this powerful motivation, such people may succeed in various projects. The world may call him or her a success.
However, “envy” has terrible power. Solomon wrote “Wrath is fierce and anger is a flood, but who can stand before jealousy?” (Proverbs 27:4)
This means that once the thought of envy arises in our hearts, it is as if it can no longer be contained or stopped.
James said, “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing” (James 3:16).
And I wonder, is there inner peace here? No, probably, there is fear, and always an anxiety in that heart that cannot be wiped away.
I have heard it said that the most anxious and scared a professional boxer feels is the night they have won the championship belt. It must be true, because from the moment he puts that belt around his waist, he becomes the envy of the world, and has put himself in a position where he has to keep winning over those who are trying to take it away from him.
Cain kills his brother Abel in a fit of rage and jealousy over God’s disregard for his offering.
Joseph’s brothers couldn’t stand the fact that he was the only one who received special treatment from their father, so they sold him off to a Midianite trader.
Saul, the first king of Israel, was God’s chosen king, but he was driven by jealousy and envy of his subordinate David, and suffered from mental illness, living an unfortunate life of constant fear and anxiety. This is not someone else’s problem. How can we deal with this envy?
Jesus Christ once said, “Look at the birds of the air” (Matthew 6:26), “Observe how the lilies of the field grow” (Matthew 6:28).
These words speak to us. Take your eyes off the people and their lives that you are looking at. If you watch and listen to them, your mind will be clouded, and envy and bitterness will rise up in your heart.
So, change your gaze from there, and look at what I want you to see, the birds in the air, the flowers in the field.
You are only looking at how he or she behaves, what they eat, and what they wear. As long as you do that, you will never have the peace that I give you in your heart. Change what you see. Change what you hear.
Lift up your face. Find God’s work that is being done in the heavens at this very moment. Keep your eyes on God’s work in the sky and on the earth. Listen to the words of God’s love and grace that we have already received.
I am caring for you like the flowers of the field and the birds of the air, and I am pouring out my blessings upon you. You should receive that blessing.
Keep your eyes fixed on the work of My hands, and you will be spared from having your heart shaken.
You try to get that peace by what you want. However, I am going to draw My conclusion to that, so you should take it to heart.
You will never have peace of mind from that. You will never be able to. You already have in front of you the words of Solomon, who tried it all and stood on the summit.
He is telling you the view from the summit. Take him at his word and learn from it.
Do not spend the limited time of your life that I am giving you on a race without a goal that Solomon once aimed for. There is no need to sicken your body and mind to obtain them.
Do not let this end the one precious life I have given you. I do not see your life as a competition with someone else. I want you to run through this life together with Me.
My love and grace have already been fully poured out on you. You should not compare yourself with others, and get high or depressed because of it. Nor should you be envious of someone else, and covet someone else’s things, and lose your life because of it.
I have not made you that way. There is nothing that will truly make you happy outside of my will.
As we have seen, for Solomon who has poured out much energy into a variety of ventures, his realization regarding this matter must have been great, and he must have thought to himself, “What have I been doing all of these years?”
Thus, he says his usual phrase here too, “This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”
It is very regrettable and sad to realize that we have been living and spending our lives driven by envy. All of this brings us back once again to the conclusion of the book of Ecclesiastes.
“Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, ‘I have no delight in them’; 2 before the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are darkened, and clouds return after the rain” (Ecclesiastes 12:1, 2).
Generally speaking, as people age, they have fewer opportunities to envy and fewer people to compete with. As a result of their own efforts, the number of situations where they compete with others will be greatly reduced, and instead, they will pay more attention to their own physical and mental health.
In those later years, when we lay before us the things we once gained through envy and competitiveness, our hearts will not find joy in them.
This is because, just like our bodies, they grow old and are eventually lost. And needless to say, you cannot bring them with you to the Lord. The hearse will not be followed by a U-Haul.
Birds and flowers do not live their lives driven by envy or competition. They rely only on what God has given them, do what they have to do, end the day, and face tomorrow.
And it is not just the birds and flowers, all created things are full of God’s grace, and we live in the midst of it. Only humans are driven by envy and competitiveness.
Once, before Jesus went to the cross, He prayed to God the Father, “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:15, 16).
Jesus did not want us to live in isolation from the world, but to live in the midst of it. However, He said that just as He is not of the world, we do not belong to the world.
If I am able to get into a university, if I am able to get a promotion in a company, it means that there is someone else whose wish was not fulfilled because of me.
We cannot just not go to school or work because we cannot bear that. We have to know what we as human beings have to carry on our shoulders.
If we take Solomon’s words together with Jesus’ words, this is what we get. In other words, if this world is a society full of envy, we must live in the midst of it as if we were not of this world.
So, what should we do? In order to prevent our lives from becoming meaningless and chasing after the wind, we must become aware of this, and live with this in our minds. To that end, here’s a suggestion.
In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 14, verses 28-30, we find this parable by Jesus Christ.
28 “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’”
Jesus Christ asks us, that when we build a house, do we not consider if we can do it with what we have on hand.
Otherwise, during the building process, we will lose our strength, and will not be able to finish construction of the house.
We are now, given the opportunity to think for ourselves through Solomon’s unreserved confession. What are we to think about? The plan for our life.
If it is ruled by the principles of envy and competition, then it is the envy and competition in our hearts that controls the plan of our life.
To be controlled, to be ruled, is to make us slaves to envy and competitiveness. As a “slave,” it goes without saying that it is a suppressed way of living. Will we live with that suppression, or will we choose another way of living? Paul said.
“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1)
People in the Lord, earlier I told you about the words of the Lord Jesus, “Look at the birds of the air and the flowers of the field.” And, now, I say to you. Look up at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Is there anything in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ that reminds you of “envy” or “competitiveness”? There is none.
Indeed, in order to give us true freedom, Christ’s unconditional love on the cross freed us from the yoke of our envy and the sins that come from it. In exchange for His life, He has set us free.
People in the Lord, put everything that is in your heart out on the table, and ask yourself if this way of living is truly the way you should live.
Is this motive worth risking my life for, is it right to put my time and effort into it, and, in the first place, could I finish the race fueled by this “envy” and “competition”?
I wonder if I won’t run out of steam halfway through, ending up not being able to do anything, not only affecting myself but dragging many others along with me.
And then we ask. When we face our last day on earth, will we be able to say, “My life has been truly blessed”?
People in the Lord, we have been in the coronavirus pandemic for a year and a half so far, and it still continues. Many of you have been staying at home, refraining from going out. Therefore, some of you may be walking to compensate for the lack of exercise.
If you are not aware, you may not notice it. However, if you look around, you will see that there are always birds that God is feeding. You will find a unique and beautiful flower sprouting from a gap in the concrete.
And the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is always before us, whether we are walking, or lying down in bed. The Lord says, “Look at the birds of the air, look at the flowers of the field, and look up at My cross.”
I am sure you have a table and chair in your home. And I am sure you have a Bible close at hand. Why don’t you sit down and think about the way you have lived your life, and pray and think about how you will live the rest of your life.
And what better time to do it than now? If during this coronavirus pandemic we can receive the message from heaven, and start a new life, then we call that the best harvest the coronavirus has brought us.
Even if we receive testing through the coronavirus, we will get some change through it. God has given to each one of us the responsibility for our own lives. The fact that we are given responsibility is proof that we are given freedom and that we are loved by God.
And, this life of ours is a series of daily decisions. And, the one who makes those decisions, is not that person, or this person, but it is you. Let us pray.
