MAY 17

Ecclesiastes 6:7-9
Memorise Ecclesiastes 6:9
“Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire”

The third example is of a man who labours, but his focus is not on God, but on his own fleshly desires and appetites. Solomon says that for this man, his appetite can never be filled, for man will eat one day, and the next day he will be hungry again. A man can eat the best food that life can offer, but the next day his appetite will return, and needs to be fed once again. And so if a man’s labour is to satisfy on the mouth, it will be to no end.

Indeed to this end, the fool and the wise are the same, in that they must both labour to feed their mouths, with an appetite that can never be fully satiated. Likewise the poor, who knows how to conduct himself in life, and earn an honest living, his fate is the same, in that he too has an appetite that he has to continually try to fill.

Therefore the focus of man’s labour should never be just for the fulfilment of our physical needs, for that is an appetite that can never be fulfilled. So what Solomon encourages here is a life of contentment, for that is true wisdom. It is far better to have eyes content with that he can see before him and rejoice in what the Lord has blessed him with, than to have eyes that wander about with desire, always desiring things that he can never attain. This is an important lesson that we all must learn. If our minds and desires are constantly seeking for the physical things of this world, it is an appetite that will never be filled. However, if our desires are focused on the things of God, and always fixed on thoughts of the things above, this is the right spiritual desire that the Lord will delight in feeding. As a preacher once quipped, ‘better want what you have, than to have what you want’. Remember, the Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want!

Thought: A life of covetousness is always vain, but a life of contentment will never vex your spirit.
Prayer: Lord, help me to turn my eyes from coveting the temporal things of the world, and to fix them upon Thee and Thee alone.