Ecclesiastes 4:8

"There was. certain man without. dependent, having neither. son nor. brother, yet there was no end to all his labor. Indeed, his eyes were not satisfied with riches and he never asked, 'And for whom. am laboring and depriving myself of pleasure?' This too is vanity and it is. grievous task."a certain man without. dependent" -Long before Charles Dickens and the Christmas Carol, Solomon had seen "Scrooge".

Points To Note:

1 "But if anything can be more tyrannous than envy, that thing is habit, when habit has turned into fixation. Verses. and. picture the compulsive money-maker as someone virtually dehumanized, for he has surrendered to. mere craving and to the endless process of feeding it….Although it is for the sake of clarity that we are looking at. man with no family, we may well feel that his loneliness is no accident and that he will have no friends either…. Such. man, even with. wife and children will have little time for them, convinced that he is toiling for their benefit although he heart is elsewhere, devoted and wedded to his projects. This picture of lonely, pointless busyness, equally with that of jealous rivalry in verse 4, checks any excessive claims we might wish to make for the blessings of hard work" (Kidner pp. 46-47).

"without. dependent" -a solitary being, without partner, friend or relation.

"yet there was no end to all his labor" -"He was not gathering. fortune with. view to the security of an heir or companion, not working to provide for. family or share with friends…his sole purpose…'get more'" (Kidwell p. 99).

"his eyes were not satisfied with riches" -(Prov. Ecclesiastes 27:20; Ecc. Ecclesiastes 5:10).

"and he never asked, 'And for whom am. laboring and depriving myself of pleasure?'" -This man has been so caught up in the pursuit of material possessions that he never stopped and realized what his greed had actually cost him. Here is. man blinded by the world's view of success. This question never crossed his mind, he thinks that his fortune will bring him happiness, rather, the truth is that he has actually sacrificed. lot of happiness to gain his fortune. Here we see one of the deceitful aspects of wealth (Matthew 13:22). This man had. lot of stuff, but he also had loneliness, jealousy, frustration, worry and distrust.

"This too is vanity" -This man had sacrificed so much to gain what didn't even satisfy him. Truly, the above miser is very poor in the most important aspects of living. And his whole quest had been vain!

Point To Note:

In contrast to the downtrodden and oppressed, most people would consider the man in Ecclesiastes 4:8 to be. winner or survivor. Kidner notes, "To all appearance they have come to terms with life; but have they won. prize that they can keep? And does their way of winning it bear inspection? Our modern term, the rat-race, sums up the burden of these verses:. frantic rivalry at one extreme,. disastrous opting-out at the other; and for the successful few,. life devoted to acquiring prize after pointless prize." (p. 48)