Ecclesiastes 6 — A Common Evil Among Men
There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men. A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof. If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years... and his soul be not filled with good... I say, that an untimely birth is better than he. What hath the wise more than the fool? All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled. That which hath been is named already.
“All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.”
— Ecclesiastes 6:7
- v.1-6 Wealth without enjoyment
- v.7-12 Appetite unfilled; man's ignorance
The body works to feed itself, and the appetite resets. The cycle suggests something larger is wrong.
The verse points beyond the mouth. The soul's deeper hunger is not satisfied by anything that fits in it.
Verse 7's unfilled appetite is a signpost. If everything you put in your mouth still leaves you hungry, the hunger is for something the mouth cannot reach. Look upward.
Christ is the bread of life (John 6:35). The chapter's diagnosis of the unfilled appetite finds its cure in Him who satisfies the deepest hunger.
A diagnosis of unsatisfying abundance. To have everything and not enjoy it is a misery the poor cannot imagine.
God giveth him not power to eat thereof. The capacity to enjoy is itself a gift. Without it, the resources gather dust.