In chapter four of Ecclesiastes, Solomon explains another way in which people vainly chase after the wind by always trying to “keep up with the Joneses” rather than encouraging one another and being happy for each other’s successes. As Pastor Sonny explains in this week’s sermon, life is not about competition, we each have our own race to run, and if we can see the value of contentment, humility, and love in Christ we can more effectively work together to help those who are oppressed in this world.
The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh.
Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.
Again, I saw vanity under the sun: one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, “For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?” This also is vanity and an unhappy business.
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.