Episode Details

Pray

Read: Ecc 2:24-26.

Meditation

We see a change in Solomon starting at verse 24, because in God’s plan of redemption our labour may become fruitful again. So let us take a quick look at verses 24 and 25: “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?”

The first thing to see here in verse 25 is that although we now live in a fallen world, and although we no longer have endless time to work and develop the earth, still something of the goodness of work endures. It really is amazing what can be achieved in one lifetime, and even in the mundane everyday of work there is enjoyment to be found. It is satisfying to work on a project and bring it to completion. It is satisfying to labour for a day, earn money, and enjoy a good meal at the end with friends or family. These are good gifts of God and they should still lead us into thanksgiving and worship.

Life is short, and yet while we are here God has given us these things to enjoy, to give thanks. The taste of a hearty meal at the end of the day is an opportunity to taste God’s goodness in a very tangible way, and it tastes like a well-cooked steak with mushroom sauce and mashed potatoes. As we taste we give thanks to our Maker. He loves to give us good gifts, and he still gives us gifts, abilities, and talents, and he expects us to use them to serve Christ.

Even in a fallen world the workplace is still a place to worship, serve, and enjoy God. That is what it is supposed to be. And as a word of application, while we may not have forever to develop our gifts and abilities, we should still use what we have to develop and subdue the creation to God’s glory. If you have natural, God-given abilities in a certain area, why not develop them? Why not find ways to use them in his service? Use them for the extension of his kingdom. Everyone will be different here. Some will be mathematicians, some artists, some builders, and some doctors. The way we all contribute in different areas is part of the glory of it all. It is a good thing to use your particular God-given talents and develop them to serve others, including in the marketplace. If you did not do this you could not provide for your family, and there would be no tithes to bring into the church. As a word to parents, it is good to keep an eye on our children, seeing the areas they enjoy most and are gifted in, and perhaps encourage them to develop those areas.

But redemption in the workplace is not just a personal redemption. We have seen that God created work with a grand vision, a cosmic vision that encompassed all humanity. The final thing we need to see is that Christ’s redemption also redeems work in a cosmic sense as well. That is what we see in verse 26.

The original design for work may have been lost at the fall. We cannot live forever. We cannot escape the effects of sin on work: greed in the marketplace, a world full of darkness, creation groaning, workplaces corrupted and barely a shadow of the glory of what might have been. And yet in Christ there is hope and redemption.

When Christ came to earth he came to save sinners. He came to undo the works of Satan. When he saves a sinner he does not just save their soul. Faith in Christ is not a purely spiritual thing. Christ did not spill his blood to deliver only our souls from hell. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Redemption has a very earthy aspect. Christ forgives a drug addict for sticking a needle into their arm and committing actual physical acts of violence. He forgives adulterers for what they did with another person who was not their spouse. Sin works itself out in very tangible ways, and so does salvation. Christ’s work of redemption, our salvation, will unfold in the workp