The Gift of the Can Opener Text: Ecclesiastes 5:18-20
Introduction: The War on Joy
We live in an age that is desperately, frantically, and joylessly pursuing happiness. Our culture is saturated with the demand for entertainment, for distraction, for pleasure. And yet, true, deep-seated joy is a rare commodity. The world offers two basic paths to what it calls happiness, and both are dead ends. The first is the path of the hedonist, the frantic pursuit of pleasure, which inevitably ends in the ditch of addiction and despair. The second is the path of the stoic, the grim-faced renunciation of all desire, which ends in the equally bleak ditch of loveless duty and gray self-righteousness. Both are rebellions against the created order.
Into this confusion, the Preacher in Ecclesiastes speaks a word that is at once profoundly realistic and shockingly joyful. He has spent the first part of his book dismantling every idol that men build for themselves under the sun. He has shown that wisdom, wealth, pleasure, and labor, when pursued as ultimate things, are nothing but vapor, a chasing after the wind. But this is not the nihilistic despair of a modern existentialist. This is the holy realism of a man who fears God. The Preacher tears down our man-made shelters of meaning precisely so that we might find our only true shelter in God Himself.
The world believes that joy is something you find by looking for it. The Bible teaches that joy is a gift you receive while you are busy serving God. The world thinks joy is the goal. The Bible teaches that joy is a byproduct of faithfulness. And here in our text, the Preacher, having surveyed the vanity of a life lived apart from God, pivots to show us the beautiful, God-given alternative. It is not a complicated formula. It is not a secret technique. It is a simple, profound, and glorious gift: the ability to enjoy the life God has given you, right where you are, right now.
This is a frontal assault on both the gnostic who despises the material world and the materialist who worships it. The gnostic says, "These earthly things are bad; true spirituality is found in escaping them." The materialist says, "These earthly things are all there is; grab all you can." The Preacher, speaking for God, says, "These earthly things are good gifts from My hand, and I alone can give you the power to enjoy them."
The Text
Here is what I have seen to be good, which is beautiful: to eat, to drink, and to see good in all one’s labor in which he labors under the sun during the few days of his life which God has given him; for this is his portion.
Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to take up his portion and be glad in his labor; this is the gift of God.
For he will not remember much the days of his life because God allows him to occupy himself with the gladness of his heart.
(Ecclesiastes 5:18-20 LSB)
Your God-Given Portion (v. 18)
The Preacher begins by declaring his conclusion, based on his inspired observation of the world.
"Here is what I have seen to be good, which is beautiful: to eat, to drink, and to see good in all one’s labor in which he labors under the sun during the few days of his life which God has given him; for this is his portion." (Ecclesiastes 5:18)
Notice the language: "good" and "beautiful." This is not a grudging concession. This is a positive, aesthetic affirmation of ordinary life. The world, corrupted by the fall, is still shot through with the goodness of its Creator. To eat your sandwich, to drink your coffee, to find satisfaction in a job well done, these are not small things. They are beautiful things. They are sacraments of common grace.
This is a direct refutation of a false spirituality that seeks to find God by despising His gifts. Some people think they are being pious by being miserable. They walk around with a sour face as though that were a mark of holiness. But that is not Christianity; it is an insult to the Giver. God does not give us gifts so that we can ostentatatiously refuse to enjoy them, like a pouting child who won't open his presents. That is a form of pride, a refusal to let the Giver be a Giver. True piety receives God's gifts with gratitude and enjoys them to His glory.
But this enjoyment is framed by two crucial realities. First, it happens "under the sun." This phrase, used nearly thirty times in Ecclesiastes, refers to our life in this fallen, vaporous world. The Preacher is not talking about some idealized, pie-in-the-sky existence. He is talking about finding joy in the midst of the repetition, the futility, and the daily grind. This is a battle-hardened joy, not a superficial cheerfulness. Second, this life is for "the few days...which God has given him." Our lives are short. They are a breath. This finitude is not a reason for despair, but a call to faithful stewardship. You don't have forever. Therefore, receive today's portion with today's gratitude.
And that word "portion" is key. This is what God has allotted to you. Your specific life, with its specific labors, its specific meals, its specific relationships, this is your assignment from God. Contentment is not found in getting what you want, but in wanting what God has given you. This is your portion. Your task is not to covet your neighbor's portion, but to receive your own with thanksgiving.
The Divine Empowerment (v. 19)
Verse 19 goes deeper, explaining the divine mechanics behind this joyful contentment.
"Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to take up his portion and be glad in his labor; this is the gift of God." (Ecclesiastes 5:19 LSB)
Here we see two distinct gifts from God. The first is the gift of "riches and wealth," the external blessings. The second, and far more crucial, is the gift of the power to enjoy them. This is a central theme in Ecclesiastes. God frequently gives men many external blessings without giving them the spiritual taste buds to enjoy them. This is a severe judgment.
Think of it this way. The blessings of this life are like cans of peaches. To His beloved, God gives both the can of peaches and the can opener. To the unregenerate, He often gives just the cans, sometimes thousands of them. And so you have the miserable millionaire, the lonely celebrity, the powerful politician who is eaten up with anxiety and bitterness. He has all the cans in the world, but no can opener. He can lick the label, he can stack the cans in impressive pyramids, but he cannot taste the sweetness inside. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and have no ability to enjoy any of it?
This power to enjoy is explicitly called "the gift of God." It is not a natural human capacity. Left to ourselves, we are experts at ruining God's gifts. We either turn them into idols and worship them, or we receive them with grumbling and discontent. The ability to receive a gift as a gift, and to enjoy it without worshiping it, is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a believer. It is grace. This gladness in your labor, this satisfaction in your portion, is not something you work up. It is something God works in.
Occupied with Gladness (v. 20)
The final verse describes the practical effect of this divine gift in a person's life.
"For he will not remember much the days of his life because God allows him to occupy himself with the gladness of his heart." (Ecclesiastes 5:20 LSB)
This is a remarkable statement. The man who has received God's gift of joy is not morbidly introspective. He is not constantly navel-gazing, taking his spiritual temperature, or obsessing over the vanity and brevity of life. Why? Because God has given him something better to do. He is "occupied" with the gladness of his heart.
This doesn't mean he is thoughtless or shallow. The Preacher has already called us to think deeply. But it means his thoughts are not turned inward in a cycle of self-pity or anxiety. He is too busy gratefully engaging with the life God has given him. He is occupied with his work, his family, his food, his duties, all received as gifts. The days fly by, not because they are meaningless, but because they are full. He is not anxiously counting his days, but rather making his days count.
This is the opposite of the man described elsewhere in Ecclesiastes who is so consumed with the vanity of it all that he can't enjoy anything. He is the man who sees the dirty dishes in the future and so can't enjoy the meal in the present. But the man who fears God is empowered to live in the present. God keeps him so pleasantly occupied with present graces that the anxieties of the past and future lose their grip. This is a profound form of spiritual liberty.
The Gospel Can Opener
So where does this "can opener," this supernatural ability to enjoy life, come from? The Preacher tells us it is a gift of God, but the New Testament tells us the name of the package it comes in. That name is Jesus Christ.
Apart from Christ, we are alienated from God, the source of all joy. We are trying to drink from broken cisterns that can hold no water. We are trying to get from the creation what can only be found in the Creator. This is why all non-Christian attempts at joy ultimately fail. They are trying to enjoy the gifts while being at war with the Giver. It cannot be done.
But in the gospel, we are reconciled to God through the blood of His Son. When we are justified by faith, we are adopted into God's family. The Giver of all good gifts becomes our Father. And this changes everything. It reframes our entire existence. Our labor is no longer a cursed striving after the wind, but a joyful service to our King. Our daily bread is no longer just fuel for the machine, but a token of our Father's care. Our relationships are no longer a source of ultimate meaning, but an opportunity to reflect the love of the Trinity.
The Apostle Paul says, "Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already accepted your works" (Ecclesiastes 9:7, with a Pauline gloss). Because of Christ's perfect work, which is credited to us by faith, God has already accepted us. We are not working for acceptance; we are working from acceptance. This is the secret. This is the can opener. When you know that your ultimate standing before God is settled and secure in Jesus, you are liberated to truly enjoy the simple, beautiful, good gifts of life. You can eat, drink, and work with gladness because you know that these are not the things that save you. They are simply the good portion your Father has given you to enjoy on the way home.
Therefore, do not despise the small things. Receive your portion. Take up your labor. Eat your meal. Drink your drink. And do it all with a glad heart, for this is the gift of God, purchased for you by the blood of Christ, and given freely to all who believe.