Fall: Our Problems with Work

God said to Adam, " Because you have listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat from it,' cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground."

Genesis 3: 16-19

God created work to be a good and glorious task for humans. Now, because of humanities rebellion against God, work is now cursed. What do we mean when we say, "work is cursed?"

• • Nothing works quite as it should

  • There is disintegration in every area of life (things break, decay, etc...)

  • There is futility and frustration with our work

"For all creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God."

Romans 8:20-21

The author of Ecclesiastes has tried to find purpose and fulfillment in 1) Wisdom and Learning, 2) Pleasure, and 3) Achievement through hard work and has come to the conclusion that the work of life is meaningless. It is like chasing after the wind.

Learning and Wisdom

I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

What is crooked cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted.

I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.

Ecclesiastes 1: 12-18

Pleasure

I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless. “Laughter,” I said, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?” I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.

I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem[a] as well—the delights of a man’s heart. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.

I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;

I refused my heart no pleasure.

My heart took delight in all my labor,

and this was the reward for all my toil.

Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done

and what I had toiled to achieve,

everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;

nothing was gained under the sun

Ecclesiastes 2: 1-11

Achievement

So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.

So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.

Ecclesiastes 2:17-23

So, what's the author's point? Is it just to make our lives miserable and remind us that our work is toilsome and can feel meaningless? Probably not.

In our modern, developed society the most obvious way we see work destroy relationships is when it consumes our time. This has been well documented in the lives of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. Both men made absolutely phenomenal products that revolutionized the world we live in (iPhone and Electric Car.) But they did it willingly at the cost of relationship with the "other", be it family or friends. The desire for success literally consumed their existence and turned people they could have loved into commodities to be used up for the purpose of developing the next great idea. The writer of Ecclesiastes saw this and warned us in with the following:

There was a man all alone; he had neither son nor brother. There was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth. 'For whom am I toiling,' he asked, 'and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?' This too is meaningless - a miserable business!

Ecclesiastes 4: 7-8

How else does work destroy relationships with the other? We use it as cover to avoid doing what is right for the very people Christ calls us to go out of our way to love. The Bible tells us to care for the widow, poor, crippled, lame and blind. Yet many people allow their lives to be so consumed by work that we do not have time to reach out to the lowest even within our own organization.

If you see poor oppressed in a district and rights being denied, do not be surprised at such things; for one official is eyed by a higher one, and over both are others still.

Ecclesiastes 5:8

What impact do our choices have on our work and the world around us?

• The choices YOU make can take YOU away from the person God has created YOU to be.

  • Work can Isolate us - We can become so consumed by what we are doing we have no regard for who we are doing it with or for.

  • Work can blind us to its negative effects - We can begin to pursue our title and career over time with the family and our relationships.

• The choices WE make take US away from the people God has called US to be.

  • Work can create injustices - When our focus is purely on the individual, we no longer care to see the reality of the world and people around us.

  • Work can make us indifferent to how others are treated

I saw that all labor and achievement spring from man’s envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”

Ecclesiastes 4:4

Humans have a powerful inclination to make our work the basis of our meaning and identity. We have a tendency to seek our satisfaction in what we do as it relates to what others are doing. We post on social media and tell stories of the weekend in hopes that they get more likes or laughs than anyone else's tales. We don't want to drive any car, we want to drive a better car and live in a neighborhood worth telling people about. It is not enough to get a gig at any place in STL, we want to be at Blueberry Hill.

Now what I want you to get clear is that pride is essentially competitive. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good looking but they are not. They are proud of being richer, more clever or better-looking than others.

C.S. Lewis - Mere Christianity

Student Activity

• • Complete the guide and notes for the Fall Section.