Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 This Was My Reward for All My Toil

Introduction

Chapter 2 details King Solomon’s exploration of pleasure, wisdom, madness, and folly. Together, these form a two part approach that leads him toward his conclusion about what is good for humanity to do under the sun during the situation in which we find ourselves. The first eleven verses document his pursuit of pleasure and the reward he found at the end of it.

Solomon did not begin this pursuit as a man who lacked wisdom, power, wealth, access, or opportunity. He had nearly every resource a person could desire. He was able to test pleasure at a level that few people before or after him could ever reach. He did not merely imagine what wealth, achievement, entertainment, and unrestricted desire might provide. He obtained them and experienced them for himself.

His conclusion should cause us to consider how we are living now. It should help us recognize false investments and prevent us from demanding that temporary things provide eternal stability. Pleasure can be real. Satisfaction can be experienced. Work can be enjoyable. None of those things, however, can defeat death or provide lasting gain.

Humanity was created by God and made in his image. We were created to live in communion with him and to reflect his glory within creation. Sin broke that communion and separated humanity from the one we were created to know and enjoy. Since that separation, humanity has continued attempting to use created things to satisfy capacities that were created by God and were meant to remain connected to him (Genesis 1–3).

This does not mean every form of pleasure is equally sinful. Some activities are lawful, while others are plainly unlawful. Yet no pursuit is spiritually neutral. Lawful activities pursued apart from faith cannot restore communion with God or provide lasting gain. Lawful pleasure received through faith may be enjoyed as a momentary gift from God, but it still cannot establish eternal satisfaction or stability.

The Pursuit of Pleasure

Solomon begins by speaking to his own heart. He announces that he will test pleasure and discover what enjoyment can provide. He explores laughter, wine, folly, and the satisfaction of the body while his wisdom continues to guide and examine the experiment. His stated purpose is to discover what is good for humanity to do during the few days of life given to us under heaven (Ecclesiastes 2:1–3).

He had already stated that there was nothing to be truly gained from human effort under the sun. Now he begins to explain how he reached that conclusion. He does not expect his readers to accept his verdict without evidence. He describes what he pursued, what he accomplished, what he experienced, and what remained when the pursuit was over (Ecclesiastes 1:12–15).

His conclusion did not grow from the disappointment of a man who failed to achieve anything. Solomon did not stand outside the life of pleasure and criticize what he had never experienced. He possessed the ability to pursue nearly every desire available to a king. His ultimate discovery was not that pleasure could never be felt. His discovery was that nothing produced by pleasure could finally be kept.

Pleasure served as the fuel that moved him forward. The expected enjoyment of the next achievement gave him a reason to pursue it. The satisfaction found in one accomplishment encouraged him to reach for another. Every completed task provided enough pleasure to keep the machine moving, but no completed task provided enough lasting gain to bring the pursuit to a final and satisfying end.

This is where pleasure can become deceitful. It is not deceitful because every pleasurable experience is a complete lie. Solomon truly found pleasure in his work. The experience was real. It is deceitful when a secondary gift is treated as though it were the primary source of life and satisfaction.

God created within humanity the ability to experience pleasure, joy, satisfaction, and fulfillment. Those capacities were intended to remain under our communion with him. Humanity has instead used creation to stimulate those capacities apart from the Creator. We use lawful and unlawful activities to produce feelings that were never designed to carry the full weight of our existence.

Pleasure can temporarily cover the emptiness caused by our separation from God. It can function like pain medicine that masks the pain while it remains in the body. The relief is real, but it does not necessarily remove the problem underneath it. When the effect runs its course, the original condition remains, and another dose is desired.

This is why humanity repeatedly returns to created pleasure. The satisfaction expires. The experience must be repeated, enlarged, or replaced. What felt fulfilling for a moment cannot continue sustaining us forever because it was never created to provide eternal life.

The apostles repeatedly warn about desires that arise within humanity and pull us toward the world. The desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life do not come from the Father. They belong to a world that is passing away (1 John 2:16). Humanity naturally carries out the desires of the body and mind while living apart from God (Ephesians 2:3). Believers are therefore warned to abstain from passions that wage war against the soul (1 Peter 2:11).

James explains that temptation works by drawing a person through desires already present within. Desire conceives and gives birth to sin, and sin eventually produces death (James 1:13–15). The problem is not only found in the objects outside of us. It is also found in the desires arising within us and in the way we seek created pleasure apart from God.

The Lord Jesus taught the seriousness of desires that lead us into sin. He explained that it is better to lose something valuable in this life than to allow it to lead us toward eternal destruction. Entering life is better than preserving every desired experience while moving toward judgment (Matthew 18:7–9).

Solomon observed that pleasure could not provide lasting gain. Jesus revealed the full eternal significance of that truth. The apostles then taught the church to understand the desires of the flesh in light of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.

The receipt at the end of Solomon’s pursuit read, “Nothing to be kept.” The pleasure was experienced, but the experience could not be stored. It could not be carried through death. It could not restore communion with God. It could not provide eternal life.

The Fruit of His Labor

Solomon then describes the full reach of his efforts. He made great works. He built houses, planted vineyards, developed gardens and parks, planted fruit trees, and constructed pools to water forests. He expanded his household, increased his livestock, gathered silver and gold, obtained treasures from kings and provinces, surrounded himself with singers, and multiplied concubines. He became great and surpassed those who came before him in Jerusalem (Ecclesiastes 2:4–10).

Nothing his eyes desired was kept from him. He did not lack access. He did not lack resources. He did not lack intelligence. He did not lack the authority to act. He did not lack the freedom to pursue what he wanted.

His efforts reached into personal wealth, seductive pleasure, political power, large scale development, agriculture, entertainment, public honor, and economic growth. He pursued what could be built, collected, experienced, controlled, and enjoyed.

This removes the easy accusation that Solomon simply did not understand how to enjoy life. He understood pleasure and possessed the ability to maximize it. He did not fail to obtain what he desired. He obtained it and then discovered what it was actually worth.

The accounts of Solomon’s greatness were so remarkable that people from other kingdoms struggled to believe them. The Queen of Sheba traveled to Jerusalem to test the reports for herself. She examined his wisdom, his house, his table, his officials, his servants, and the order of his kingdom. After seeing it, she admitted that the reports had not told even half of what Solomon had achieved (1 Kings 10:1–10).

Solomon excelled the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom. People from the nations sought his presence and brought gifts of silver, gold, garments, spices, horses, and mules year after year. His greatness was not merely his own private opinion. It was visible to the world around him (1 Kings 10:23–25).

This is important because Solomon’s conclusion cannot be dismissed as the bitterness of an unsuccessful man. His success was witnessed by others. Royalty traveled great distances to inspect it. The nations honored the wisdom God had placed within him.

Yet Jesus later spoke of someone greater than Solomon. The Queen of the South traveled from the ends of the earth to hear Solomon’s wisdom, but Jesus stood before his own generation as the greater King and greater revelation of God (Luke 11:31).

Solomon could explain the limitations of life under the sun. Jesus came from above and revealed the way into eternal life. Solomon could tell us that pleasure and achievement could not defeat death. Jesus entered death, rose from the grave, and demonstrated that death would not hold him.

The proper response to Christ is therefore greater than the response given to Solomon. Knowing Christ should cause us to release our confidence in everything we possess or could potentially achieve. The reward Christ offers and the work he has completed on our behalf are better than anything we could obtain for ourselves.

The Apostle Paul understood this. He possessed religious credentials, social standing, knowledge, zeal, and a reputation for righteousness. Yet everything he once counted as gain became loss when compared with the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. Paul did not merely seek a better earthly experience. He desired to gain Christ, to be found in him, to know the power of his resurrection, and to attain the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:4–11).

Solomon accumulated everything he could reach and discovered that death would separate him from it. Paul was willing to lose everything because Christ had given him a gain that death could not remove.

The Reward of His Effort

Solomon finally explains the reward of his work. His heart found pleasure in all his toil, and that pleasure was his reward. He then examined everything his hands had accomplished and all the labor required to complete it. His conclusion was that all of it was vanity, a striving after wind, and that nothing had been gained under the sun (Ecclesiastes 2:10–11).

Solomon does not deny that he enjoyed the experience. The pleasure was genuine. His work produced satisfaction while he was doing it and when certain tasks were completed. That was the reward.

The failure appeared when he asked what remained.

Pleasure succeeded as an experience but failed as an investment. It paid in the moment and left nothing in the account. It could make the journey more enjoyable, but it could not change the final destination. It could not add days to his life, protect him from death, or allow him to keep what he had built.

This conclusion can create several responses within us.

It can be joyful because it is good to enjoy our work while we live under the sun. God created humanity with the capacity to receive satisfaction from labor. We should not assume that faithful living requires us to reject every form of enjoyment.

It can be sobering because the pursuit of pleasure and achievement can consume our lives. The constant movement of work, goals, entertainment, and ambition can keep us from considering where all of it is going.

It can also feel defeating because it challenges every claim we make concerning the permanent significance of our achievements. Whatever we accomplish cannot keep us from dying. Our greatest works cannot secure eternal life. The satisfaction produced by them will eventually run out of what is needed to sustain us.

Lawful pleasures may be received as momentary gifts from God. We may enjoy our families, work, food, rest, relationships, and accomplishments with gratitude. Yet none of those gifts can establish eternal stability. They were never designed to replace communion with God.

The problem begins when the gift is separated from the Giver and expected to become the source of life. Pleasure was always intended to remain secondary to knowing and glorifying God. When it is lifted into first place, it is forced to promise something it cannot provide.

This should cause us to ask whether there is anything more than what can be obtained under the sun.

Because of the gospel of Christ, the answer is yes.

Death is not the final end for those who belong to Christ. Jesus of Nazareth atoned for sin, rose from the dead, and freely gives mercy to those who come to him. He restores sinners to the God whose communion was lost through sin. He provides life that pleasure could never create and a kingdom that death cannot remove.

Jesus described the people of his kingdom in ways that confront the world’s understanding of fulfillment. The poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those persecuted for righteousness may not appear successful under the sun. Yet Jesus promises them comfort, satisfaction, mercy, the sight of God, and an inheritance in his kingdom (Matthew 5:1–10).

Solomon’s world says that the person who gathers the most should be called blessed. Jesus says that true blessing belongs to those who belong to his kingdom.

We can continue pursuing the desires of the flesh and attempting to make a name for ourselves. We can spend our days filling a box that death will eventually empty. We can continue using created things to stimulate capacities that were created for communion with God.

Or we can receive the truth revealed through Jesus Christ.

Our work cannot defeat death, but Christ has defeated death. Our pleasure cannot establish eternal satisfaction, but Christ restores us to God. Our achievements cannot secure a lasting name, but Christ gives his people a place within his coming kingdom.

This does not mean our work no longer matters. It means our work must be placed under Christ. We can labor, build, serve, give, teach, raise families, care for others, and enjoy the gifts God provides while refusing to make those things our source of life.

Pleasure gives a reward that lasts only while it is being experienced. Christ gives life and reward that remain after this present world has passed away.

Conclusion

Pleasure can be a deceitful experience when it is not examined properly. The satisfaction is real, but it is momentary. It becomes dangerous when we demand that it provide what only God can give.

We should seek avenues of work that we can enjoy and receive that enjoyment as a gift from God. Yet we must remember that the pleasure found in our work cannot defeat death or provide eternal gain.

Only what is done in service to Christ and for the glory of his gospel carries reward into the coming kingdom. The value is not found merely in the activity itself. It is found in the risen Lord whom we serve.

No pursuit of pleasure is spiritually neutral. When pleasure is pursued apart from faith, even through outwardly lawful activities, it cannot please God or provide true gain. When lawful pleasure is received through faith as God’s gift, it may be genuinely enjoyed, but the experience itself still cannot be retained or defeat death.

Solomon followed pleasure to the end of its road and found that it paid only in the moment. Jesus Christ reveals and provides something pleasure never could: reconciliation with God, life beyond death, and labor that is not in vain.

Scripture References

Genesis 1–3
God created humanity in his image and for communion with himself. Sin brought separation, death, and disorder into humanity’s relationship with God and creation.

1 Kings 10:1–10
The Queen of Sheba travels to examine Solomon’s wisdom and prosperity and discovers that his greatness exceeded the reports she had heard.

1 Kings 10:23–25
Solomon surpasses the kings of the earth in wisdom and riches, and the nations seek his presence and bring him gifts.

Matthew 5:1–10
Jesus describes the people who are truly blessed and promises them comfort, mercy, satisfaction, and an inheritance in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 18:7–9
Jesus warns that desires leading into sin must be treated seriously because entering life is more valuable than preserving temporary pleasure.

Luke 11:31
Jesus declares that someone greater than Solomon has come and that his revelation demands a response.

1 John 2:16
John identifies the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life as belonging to the world rather than the Father.

Ephesians 2:3
Paul explains that fallen humanity naturally lives according to the passions of the flesh and the desires of the body and mind.

Philippians 3:4–11
Paul counts every former gain as loss compared with knowing Christ, being found in him, and attaining the resurrection from the dead.

James 1:13–15
James explains that temptation draws people through their own desires, which give birth to sin and eventually produce death.

1 Peter 2:11
Peter urges believers to abstain from passions of the flesh because those passions wage war against the soul.