It Pays to Work Hard
February 27, 2022
Commentary
As Christians it is easy to be persuaded that success is measured in the world’s terms. The more we get the more successful we will be. Henry Ford said, “Success is a matter of adjusting one’s efforts to overcome obstacles and one’s abilities to give the service needed by others.” In other words, success begins by giving and not by getting. Perhaps giving was Henry Ford’s key to success. His quote was very similar to what Jesus said, that success is service and leadership is servanthood.
Solomon urged his readers in this passage not to sit around looking for the most opportune time to work but to be diligent constantly (vv. 3,4). The future is out of one’s control as much as the falling of rain and the uprooting of a tree. He urges the farmer to sow the seed all day long, because they do not know which sowing will succeed. He uses two examples, one from the maritime trade (vv. l,2) and one from farming (vv. 3,4,6). He urges people to make diligent, prudent, diversified investment of their energies and resources, recognizing that all is in God’s sovereign control.
In the first ten years of the twentieth century, the U.S. government officials temporarily closed the patent office because they thought nothing else could be invented. At that time two million patents had been issued. By l96l we had passed the three million mark and by l977 we had passed the four million mark. From this scripture Solomon is simply saying that there is room for new ideas and new ways to serve Christ.
Application
I hope to enjoy life now, but not do anything physically, morally or spiritually that will prevent me from enjoying life when I am older.
Ecclesiastes 11:1– 10 (NET)
1 Send your grain overseas, for after many days you will get a return.
2 Divide your merchandise among seven or even eight investments, for you do not know what calamity may happen on earth.
3 If the clouds are full of rain, they will empty themselves on the earth, and whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, the tree will lie wherever it falls.
4 He who watches the wind will not sow, and he who observes the clouds will not reap.
5 Just as you do not know the path of the wind, or how the bones form in the womb of a pregnant woman, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.
6 Sow your seed in the morning, and do not stop working until the evening; for you do not know which activity will succeed — whether this one or that one, or whether both will prosper equally.
7 Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for a person to see the sun.
8 So, if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all, but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many—all that is about to come is obscure.
9 Rejoice, young man, while you are young, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes, but know that God will judge your motives and actions.
10 Banish emotional stress from your mind. and put away pain from your body; for youth and the prime of life are fleeting.
Illustration: Producing Squashes instead of Oak Trees
When James Garfield (later President of the U.S.) was principal of Hiram College in Ohio, a father asked him if the course of study could be simplified so that his son might be able to go through by a shorter route. “Certainly.” Garfield replied. “But it all depends on what you want to make of your boy. When God wants to make an oak tree, He takes a hundred years. When He wants to make a squash he requires only two months.” We are producing too many squashes and not enough oak trees in our day. (Source Unknown).