Upon completion of his study, the Teacher of the Book of Ecclesiastes claimed all of man’s labor was for his mouth (Ecclesiastes 6:7)! “Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats…” (1Corinthians 6:13a), an echo of the Lord’s punishment for man’s rebellion: “Because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field. Upon your belly you will go. And, dust you will eat all the days of your life…” (Genesis 3:14). Even if a man has everything he could ever want, still his appetite isn’t quenched. His mouth is full today, yet it desires more tomorrow, and life goes on repeating itself ad infinitum. However, since Christ has come, something new has entered our lives, and we are told that the Lord intends to do away with our natural desires, or the value we place upon things we labor for now: “God will make them both unnecessary…” (1Corinthians 6:13b). Nevertheless, this is not the theme of the Teacher’s thesis. From the very beginning he had made it clear that he set his mind to understand the sore labor the Lord had given man to be exercised therein (Ecclesiastes 1:13).
In the final analysis of this sore labor the Lord had given man to do (cp. Genesis 3:14, 17-19), the Teacher found that nothing mattered, as far as profitability is concerned. If one were wise and gathered wealth and power to himself, it was found that the fool could do likewise, yet nothing one did in his life could prevent the two from inheriting the same ultimate end, death. Death is simply too powerful for the fool and likewise for the wise. Therefore, neither righteousness nor evil was able to profit the man who devoted his life to the same. Moreover, even the common person, the poorer class of folks, couldn’t change the conclusion of the matter, even if he were wise enough to know how to live life. Nothing mattered! The wise and the fool, the righteous and the rebel all inherited the dust, from which they were made (Genesis 3:19; Ecclesiastes 6:8)
Put another way, in the vast scheme of things, if man were rich or poor, intelligent or ignorant, wise or foolish, it didn’t make any difference. Everyone is subject to the necessity of keeping one’s body fed and clothed, and all the labor of mankind is conducted to achieve this goal, and a temporary goal at that! A man’s needs can only be temporarily satisfied. Yes, and it is really a daily chore to which he must faithfully commit himself, because to delay doing so only makes one weaker and less able to achieve his goal later, when the necessity becomes more pronounced. Moreover, even when their common goals are met (viz. the rich and the poor, the wise and the foolish, the intelligent and the ignorant), each one will, without fail, succumb to death, and no matter how faithful one is to his daily chore, he will die, and all labor in which he was engaged was only able to delay his ultimate end.
The Teacher’s conclusion of it all is expressed in his repeated description of man’s life and labor, namely: it’s all “vanity and a vexation of spirit.” Nine times he used this phrase, including here in Ecclesiastes 6:9. First, from the very beginning of his thesis, the Teacher offered his overall conclusion of his study. He claimed that all of man’s labor was unprofitable and meaningless, and he was powerless to change that conclusion (Ecclesiastes 1:14, 17). Secondly, he investigated the lives of three kinds of people, the fool who ran from one good time to another, the wise man who built wonderful projects and gave other folks meaningful employment in doing so, and finally, the powerful man who was able to amass great wealth for himself. Nevertheless, none of these life pursuits were able to profit a man in the grave. No matter what was done, all of it came to an end, the good times, the great accomplishments and the great wealth and power. Everything a man experienced or accomplished in life lost all meaning and profit once the one who had it died (Ecclesiastes 2:11, 17, 26). Finally, Solomon studied the lives of oppressors and the lives of those who were oppressed. Yet, neither of these life pursuits could change the Teacher’s ultimate conclusion about what men were able to do in life. It is all meaningless, unprofitable and nothing more than striving after the wind (Ecclesiastes 4:4, 6, 16).
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