"Safety is not for sale.
(You can not buy peace of mind)
Earthly defenses fail
(There's nothing new under the sky)
Build your kingdom all your life
And say goodbye
In the end, in the end"
Here is a few verses from Ecclesiates that relate to this song:
18 I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, 19 and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. 20 So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, 21 because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. (Eccles 2)
This is such a sad passage to me. Here on earth we work and set goals, but ultimately one day anything we gained will be lost to someone after us. And this person will either work just as hard to hold onto whatever it is, or hardly work and lose it all to a third party. How interesting to think that when I die, all that I have accumulated with be split among others. And sooner or later it will be lost. Essentially this says to me that no matter how hard I work for things, it won't matter after I die. Because then it becomes someone else's property.
But then I continued on and read this passage from the same chapter:
24 There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26 For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. (Eccles 2)
These verses give hope! It says God is the one that gives enjoyment, even while working! And that we receive joy and knowledge as we please God. But the sinner, the one living apart from God does not receive the joy that we Christians do. They have no true purpose apart from God. And because of this, the things the sinner seeks to accomplish on earth results in joyless toil. Work insinuates progress. Work is what we do for the Lord. But toil is useless repition with no eternal effects.
This reminds me of Matthew when he says
19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (6:19)
When we make Jesus our treasure, we could never be dissatisfied. And we could never get caught up in the middle of pointless toil. It becomes fruitful work that will never go to waste. Because what we work for as Christians is not earthly things, but ways to glorify God.
