What does it mean that "money is the answer for everything" in Ecclesiastes 10:19?

But it had not been our intention to enter upon the details of the epistle. Let it suffice therefore if we pass on to the end of 1 Tim. 6, Timothy is to lay hold of eternal life; the rich on what is really life, because riches seem to give what only can be found in eternal life; "A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things" (Eccles. 10:19). In this passing scene eternal life needs to be "laid hold of." All else soon will pass. But God is about, to introduce the appearing of our Lord Jesus, which will give effect to all that faith and piety have looked for, and bring in through all, things that have been preserved in the meantime. "God Who holdeth all things in life." It is not merely as Israel, who say, "He holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved" (Ps. 66:9). This will doubtless bring them through to the fulness of their blessing. Here it is "all things." It would surely embrace the creature, of which it is said, "For thy pleasure they are and were created;" but it could not be restricted to this. The appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ will bring to full fruition and display the whole harvest of glory, which the God of glory has destined in the ages. We are those upon whom the end of the ages have fallen." Now the "good confession" is just the acknowledgment of this supreme authority, which even enabled Pilate to judge the Saviour, "The Lord of glory" indeed (1 Cor. 2). This, He confessed. Well, God will show His appearing. And who now is He, here spoken of, who will do so? "The blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen." Elsewhere, the Saviour is described as King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 19:16), but here it is One dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen, nor is able to see, who is spoken of as showing the Saviour's appearing. What, indeed, will that appearing be? Let us pause here for a moment. Here is One spoken of as dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen, nor is able to see. How this impresses the gravity also of the revelation vouchsafed to us in Christ. God is alone revealed to us in Trinity, as we speak: The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. Three Persons, but One God. That revelation has been made to us in the Person of the Son, co-equal, co-eternal, with the Father and the Spirit. If we have the Son, we have all: all the fulness (of the Godhead) dwelt, and dwells in Him (Col. 1:19:2: 9). "No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father. He has declared Him" (John 1:18). This revelation in the Son is our present and eternal joy: outside it there is no revelation of God; and, as we have seen, God, otherwise unknown, dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man hath seen, nor is able to see. The thought or desire to so know Him would be but a fallen nature seeking to exalt itself out of creature place, as Adam under the tempting of the serpent. The renewed nature we have, taught of God, shrinks from the bare idea, and clings to the faithful word and the mighty grace which have been vouchsafed to us. In the SON we have all, and infinitely more, than the creature can conceive, now, and for ever. The Father's glory will soon all shine forth in Him: glory be to God.

Considering more closely its practical application, we find in verses 4-12 a solemn portraiture of the world as the enemy of God. Men corrupt themselves under His mercies. Nourishing their hearts as in a day of slaughter, they heap up treasure for the last days (James 5:3, 5). The progress which man is enabled to make in the march of secular improvement and prosperity never fails to harden his heart against God. It is impossible to be rich in one's own esteem, and rich toward God at the same time (Luke 12:21). That which nature regards as wealth and increase, is poverty, and nakedness, and blindness, and wretchedness, in the eyes of Christ (Rev. 3:17). The love of money is opposed perpetually to the love of Jesus. It is called in Scripture a root of all evils (riza panton ton kakon. 1 Tim. 6:10-11), because of its incompatibility with the faith which alone produces fruits of righteousness by Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:11), and because it is the most commanding and enduring of all human lusts. Characteristically the godly and the ungodly are frequently contrasted in Scripture as the poor and the rich; for faith never deems itself rich in its own temporal possessions, its wealth is God. Silver and gold may abound, but if so, they are held by the believer in trust for God. Nature values money in proportion to its estimate of the things which money can accomplish or procure; for wealth is man's omnipotency within the death-drawn circle of this present life (Ecc. 10:19). Hence the native aversion of the heart to God expands into increased boldness of expression, as the self-discovered and self-wrought appliances of man's natural will become multiplied in his hands.

Of wealth he speaks. It has its use. Money is a defence (Ecc. 7:12), it is God's gift; yet how often do men feel the vanity of it all. Coveted, toiled after as the one great good, the man acquires wealth, fills his coffers, and yet is unsatisfied. If childless, we may desire offspring, but children are God's gift, not to be purchased by money. If he loves silver, he will not be satisfied with it. (Ecc. 5:10.) How can things of earth really satisfy an immortal spirit? If he feasts his eyes with his money today, it may vanish away shortly, and he be left with an heir — his own child — born to inherit beggary. (Ver. 13, 14.) Again, if he has been prospered to the last, and his riches have not fled away, he must leave them; for as he entered the world, so must he leave it. Death summons him but not his goods with him. All that he has remains behind him, whilst he, naked as he entered the world, passes out of it by the portal of death. Riches cannot satisfy the soul, they cannot buy off death, nor can their owner insure their retention for the morrow. So Solomon admonishes his fellow-creatures, "What profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?"

Of wealth he speaks. It has its use. Money is a defence (Chap. 7:12); it is God's gift; yet how often do men feel the vanity of it all. Coveted, toiled after as the one great good, the man acquires wealth, fills his coffers, and yet is unsatisfied. If childless, he may desire offspring, but children are God's gift, not to be purchased by money. If he loves silver, he will not be satisfied with it (Chap. 5:10). How can things of earth really satisfy an immortal spirit? If he feasts his eyes with his money today, it may vanish away shortly, and he be left with an heir - his own child - born to inherit beggary (vv. 13-14). Again, if he has been prospered to the last, and his riches have not fled away, he must leave them; for as he entered the world, so must he leave it. Death summons him, but not his goods with him. All that he has remains behind him, while he, naked as he entered into the world, passes out of it by the portal of death. Riches cannot satisfy the soul; they cannot buy off death, nor can their owner insure their retention for the morrow. So Solomon admonishes his fellow creatures, "What profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?"

Verses 10-17. He speaks now of wealth and of earthly prosperity. Silver does not satisfy, nor is he that loveth abundance satisfied with the increase. It is vanity. Earthly happiness in the things under the sun is a vain hope. The reasons why riches, and what goes along with them, cannot give true enjoyment have been searched out by the wise king and the results of his observations are given in these verses. "As he came forth from his mother's womb naked so shall he go again as he came, and shall take nothing for his labor, which he may carry away in his hand ... and what profit hath he that he laboreth for the wind?" (See 1 Timothy 6:7).

A natural division begins with chap. 5, which may be said to stretch over the following chapters also. It has the form of exhortation at the start, but soon passes into the prevalent character of the book. The first of rights is that God should have His; all is wrong when God is left out; and this is quite the root of the misery in man and the world. Yet neither the house of God, nor utterance before Him, nor vows to Him, can rescue from folly or vanity. Hearing from God takes precedence of speaking to Him. The weakness of man, fallen as he is, pursues him everywhere. The sole resource for the wise man is to fear God. Without this the religious effort but increases the danger. And the conviction of One higher than the high preserves from wonder. As yet all is out of course. So far is rank or wealth from Him all. A king depends on the field; and no resources satisfy the possessor, but fall to others; so that the labourer's lot is often preferable, and riches a hurt instead of a comfort, and no permanency either, and thus he goes as he came naked. Where the profit of such labour? When things are received from God as His gift, how sad to see riches, possessions, honour, with incapacity to enjoy! Long life, and numerous offspring, in such a case do not extract the sting: he is worse off than an abortion. Insatiable desire ruins all. Contention is vain with Him that is mightier than he. God, not man, knows what is good for him, and God reveals an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and unfading reserved in heaven; but till Christ died and rose, it was comparatively hidden. Misery here was plain, especially to the wise.

"He that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loves abundance with increase: this also is vanity. When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what advantage is there to the owner thereof, save the beholding of them with his eyes? The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the fulness of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.

He has used his highest power of reasoning in reaching these conclusions, similar to the conclusion of other wise men, moralists and philosophers among the pagans. The different "sacred writings" of other nations, the Greek, Roman, Persian, Hindu, Chinese, etc., poetry and ethics as well as philosophies of all these nations give a definite proof that Ecclesiastes is the book of the natural man, that reason speaks and not revelation. For these "sacred writings" and philosophies are on the same line as our book. But does this satisfy? Can man thereby attain perfection? His heart has passions which man cannot control. Oppression makes a wise man mad (verse 7); anger is in his bosom (verse 9). Again he mentions wisdom. It is a good thing, just as good as an inheritance; it profits to see the sun, but not above the sun. Wisdom and wealth are both good as a defense; both give life, animate the person who possesses them, give a certain amount of enjoyment. But can both wisdom and wealth give a solution to man's problem? Who can make that straight which God hath made crooked? His ways are mysterious, unsolvable as far as man is concerned; man cannot solve the providential dealings of God. Prosperity is followed by adversity and adversity by prosperity; He sets one over against the other. But who by his reason, by his wisdom, can find out what God will do in the future, what His dealings will be? In the very reading of all these statements one feels like walking in a dense fog. Some statements are beclouded so that it is difficult to ascertain the correct meaning that the searcher is really aiming at. Perhaps this is the case to teach the lesson how man, with his finite reason searching for light, apart from revelation, wanders in darkness and ends in confusion.

It is a great Supper because of the cost of it, and this is the very heart of the subject. What will God give to make men happy? What price will He pay? He gives life, but the shadow of death lies on it. He gives health, but sickness is never far away. He could give money, but what is money? A North of England newspaper offered a prize for the best definition of money, and the definition that won the prize was a great one. I do not think it could be bettered. Here it is. "Money can purchase everything but happiness, and open every door but the door of heaven." But if a man is not happy in this world and does not reach heaven in the next, what has he that is worth having? He must have both if he is to be a blessed man, and not life or health or wealth can give him either; but God can give him both, but — at what a cost!

Money will build churches, will buy Bibles, will support ministers, — true. Will it buy a new Pentecost? or bring in the millennium? Will you bribe the blessed Spirit to work for you thus? or make sheer will and animal energy do without Him? Alas! you pray for power, and dishonor Him who is the only source of power!