The Fool's Inheritance and the Father's Gift Text: Ecclesiastes 2:18-26
Introduction: The Anxious Grind
We live in an age of frantic legacy-building. Men work sixty, seventy, eighty hours a week. They pour their lives into a business, a portfolio, a reputation. They do this, they say, for their children. They are building something that will last. But deep down, in the quiet hours of the night when their heart will not lie down, a gnawing question surfaces: what for? What if, after all my striving, all my wisdom, all my sleepless nights, I hand the keys to the kingdom over to a fool who will drive it straight into a ditch? What if my life's work becomes the seed money for my son's profligacy?
This is the despair of the secular man. He is trapped in a closed system, a world "under the sun." In this world, all his labor seems to evaporate like a puff of smoke, the Hebrew word hevel, or vanity. He works, he sweats, he builds, and then he dies. The story ends. Someone else takes his stuff. This is the Preacher's point. He is not a nihilist; he is a brutal realist. He is forcing us to look at the world as it actually is, apart from God, so that we might see the absolute necessity of looking at the world through God.
This passage is a tale of two worldviews. First, we see the bitter despair of the man who works "under the sun," for himself and his own name. Second, we see the shocking, simple joy of the man who receives his work, his food, and his drink "from the hand of God." The difference is not in the work itself, but in the source and the goal of that work. The difference is between grasping and receiving. The difference is between anxiety and gratitude.
The Text
Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a man of simpleminded folly? Yet he will have power over all the fruit of my labor for which I have labored and for which I have acted wisely under the sun. This too is vanity. Therefore I turned my heart to despair of all my labor for which I had labored under the sun. When there is a man who has labored with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, then he gives his portion to one who has not labored with them. This too is vanity and a great evil. For what does a man get in all his labor and in the striving of his heart with which he labors under the sun? Because all his days his endeavor is painful and vexing; even at night his heart does not lie down. This too is vanity.
There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and have his soul see good in his labor. This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God. For who can eat and who can have enjoyment outside of Him? For to a man who is good before Him, He has given wisdom and knowledge and gladness, while to the sinner He has given the endeavor of gathering and collecting so that he may give to one who is good before God. This too is vanity and striving after wind.
(Ecclesiastes 2:18-26 LSB)
The Despair of the Materialist (vv. 18-23)
The Preacher begins with a raw, honest confession. After surveying all his accomplishments, a profound hatred and despair set in.
"Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a man of simpleminded folly?" (Ecclesiastes 2:18-19)
This is the crisis of succession. The man who builds an empire under the sun has no control over what happens to it after he is gone. He spends his life wisely, but his heir may be a fool. Think of the proverbs: a wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother. Here, the sorrow is compounded by the fact that the foolish son will inherit and control everything the wise father built. This is not just an inconvenience; it is a profound vanity. It renders the original labor absurd.
The Preacher is not just talking about money. He is talking about "all the fruit of my labor." This is his wisdom, his skill, his reputation, his life's project. And it will be handed over to someone who may not understand it, value it, or preserve it. This is the ultimate loss of control, and for the man whose identity is tied up in his work, it is a kind of death before death.
This leads not just to frustration, but to a deep, existential despair.
"Therefore I turned my heart to despair...When there is a man who has labored with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, then he gives his portion to one who has not labored with them. This too is vanity and a great evil." (Ecclesiastes 2:20-21)
Notice the escalation. It is not just "vanity," it is a "great evil." It strikes the heart as a fundamental injustice. The skilled man works, and the unskilled man receives the benefit. This is the world "under the sun," a world warped by the Fall. It is a world where things are not as they ought to be. The connection between work and reward is severed by death.
This despair produces a life of constant, grinding anxiety. The work itself is not the problem. The problem is the "striving of his heart."
"For what does a man get in all his labor and in the striving of his heart...all his days his endeavor is painful and vexing; even at night his heart does not lie down. This too is vanity." (Ecclesiastes 2:22-23)
The man laboring under the sun never rests. His body may stop working at five o'clock, but his mind does not. He lies awake at night, vexed and worried. His work owns him. He is a slave not to a master, but to his own ambition and the fear of its futility. He is trying to secure an eternal legacy in a temporal world, and the impossibility of the task eats him alive. This is the logical end of all work that is not done for the glory of God.
The Gift of the Theist (vv. 24-26)
Just when the despair seems absolute, the Preacher pivots. He does not offer a new philosophy or a seven-step plan for success. He offers something far more radical: a change in perspective. He moves from "under the sun" to "from the hand of God."
"There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and have his soul see good in his labor. This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God." (Ecclesiastes 2:24)
This is not hedonism. It is not "eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." It is the exact opposite. It is "eat, drink, and enjoy your work, because it is a gift from the living God." The secularist grasps for these things as his ultimate reward, and they turn to ash in his mouth. The believer receives these same things as daily graces, and they become sacraments of joy. The ability to enjoy your lunch, to savor a cold drink, to find satisfaction in a job well done, these are not human achievements. They are divine gifts.
God gives all men cans of peaches, but He only gives the can opener to those who fear Him. The enjoyment is the gift, and it is a gift He reserves for His own.
"For who can eat and who can have enjoyment outside of Him?" (Ecclesiastes 2:25)
This is the central question of the book. The answer is, of course, no one. True, deep, lasting enjoyment is a divine monopoly. All other pleasures are fleeting, borrowed, or stolen. They are attempts to find satisfaction in the creation while ignoring the Creator, which is the very definition of idolatry. And idolatry always ends in slavery and despair.
Finally, the Preacher reveals the great covenantal reversal that is at work in the world. God is not a passive observer of human labor.
"For to a man who is good before Him, He has given wisdom and knowledge and gladness, while to the sinner He has given the endeavor of gathering and collecting so that he may give to one who is good before God." (Ecclesiastes 2:26)
Here is the secret providence of God. The righteous man, the one who is "good before Him" by faith, receives not just the work, but wisdom, knowledge, and gladness in it. His work is blessed. But the sinner? He gets the "endeavor of gathering and collecting." He gets the anxious grind. He accumulates wealth, power, and resources, but he cannot enjoy them. And for what purpose does he do all this? So that, in the end, his accumulated wealth will be given to the one who is good before God. As Proverbs says, "the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous" (Prov. 13:22).
This is the ultimate vanity for the unbeliever. His entire life of striving, his whole legacy, is nothing more than a tool in the hand of God to bless the people of God. He is working for the kingdom he hates. He is building a barn that God will give to another. This is God's great joke on the proud.
Labor Not In Vain
So what is the Christian response? It is to see that in Jesus Christ, this entire dilemma is resolved. Christ is the truly wise Son who has inherited all things from His Father. He will not squander the inheritance. And we, as co-heirs with Christ, are brought into His inheritance.
Because of the resurrection of Jesus, our perspective on labor is completely transformed. We are no longer working "under the sun," but rather "in the Lord." And the Apostle Paul tells us the glorious result: "Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (1 Cor. 15:58).
In Christ, nothing is wasted. Every faithful act of labor, whether changing a diaper, writing a report, or building a house, is an act of kingdom-building. It is not left to a foolish heir; it is presented as an offering to a wise King. It is not vanity; it is an investment in eternity.
Therefore, we are free to receive the simple gifts of the day with joy. Eat your bread with gladness. Drink your wine with a merry heart. Find satisfaction in your toil. These are not distractions from our spiritual life; they are the very substance of it. For they are all gifts from the hand of a good Father, given to be enjoyed by His children, for His glory.