We will now begin chapter 6 of the great book of Ecclesiastes.

6:1-2 “There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil.”

• What King Solomon is saying, is that God gives us many blessings, but we take them for granted too often. We must enjoy and thank God every day for all that we have.

6:3 “ If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life’s good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.”

• Solomon continues on with his thought on prosperity, that no matter how long you live, if you don’t enjoy life and the things that are in it, a stillborn child is better off than you because you lived a long and prosperous life and you enjoyed none of it.

6:4-6 “ For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good-do not all go to the one place?

• The “it” in vv.4-5 is referring to the stillborn child mentioned back in verse 3. Solomon makes this reference to make us think about how our lives are a blessing and a gift from God. “All go to the same place”- the grave. All bodies return to dust after their life is over, and those who were not happy with what they received, had a wasted life. All have the same end, so enjoy what you have now.

6:7-8 “All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living?”

• We work to feed ourselves, but we can never have enough. We must be content with what we have. The wise have no advantage over the foolish, and the poor do not have any advantage, unless they use what they have wisely, and they are happy with what they have.

6:9 “ Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind.”

• What the eye sees is the blessings we have. What the roving appetite wants is what we don’t have. So what we have is better than us wanting things we don’t have.

6:10-11 “Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he. The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man?

• These two verses show a lot of characteristics that we need to have. Humbleness, contentment, and the ability to not argue. Arguing has no good results and solves nothing.

6:12 “For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?”

• Solomon asks a few questions in this verse that he will later address in the coming chapters. Ecclesiastes is a journey for Solomon in which he finds the meaning for life itself. Why are we here? Who can tell them what will happen here on earth after they are gone? All these he will answer later.