Ecclesiastes 5:14

"When those riches were lost through. bad investment and he had fathered. son, then there was nothing to support him."

"Here, then, is. man who loses all his money at. single blow, leaving his family destitute" (Kidner p. 57). In fact, is appears that this is the same man who worried about his money (Ecclesiastes 5:12-13), and was unhappy even when he had it all (Ecclesiastes 5:10). This man had put all his trust for happiness in having things (Ecclesiastes 5:13 "hoarded"). Unlike the man in Luke 12:20-21, this man's life was spared, but all his things were taken. Greed has the power to burn you numerous times. It makes waiting for wealth painful, it makes acquiring wealth painful, once you have it you can't really enjoy it, and then it can hurt you again if you lose it all!. "grievous evil" is. great evil,. deep hurtful evil,. severe wound.

"lost through bad investment" -And we cannot arrogantly say, "Well, this won't happen to me". For this man appears to have been. very good businessman,. very shrewd investor (his money was constantly on his mind). But all material wealth has that element of uncertainty (1 Tim. Ecclesiastes 6:17; 1 John 2:17; Matthew 6:19-20; Prov. Ecclesiastes 23:5; Ecclesiastes 27:24).

Point To Note:

Just one more vanity for the man to face who insists on trusting in material possessions. We may have accepted the fact that we can't take anything with us, but the person who gets our "stuff" maybe the wrong person and the intended inheritor may starve! (Ecclesiastes 5:14)