Work is a good thing; it was instituted by God at creation before the fall (Genesis 2:15). But one of the effects of the fall is that we take good things and turn them into bad things; we seek to find our value and identity in created things rather than in the Creator. So while work itself is good, so many people—including many Japanese people—seek to find their value and identity in their work rather than in the God who created them.
The speaker in the book of Ecclesiastes—known as “the Preacher” (1:1)—has a lot to say about work in this regard. He observes that a person may work hard to toil and strive throughout their life, but in so doing “all his days are full of sorrow” and “even in the night his heart does not rest” (2:23). Apart from a life-giving relationship with our Creator, all of our work is “vanity and a striving after the wind” (v. 26). Trying to find our value and identity through our work is like trying to grasp hold of smoke rising from a candle; just when we think we’ve got it, we watch it disappear.
This is why the Preacher says that joy in our work must come “from the hand of God” (v. 24), that “apart from him” we will never find it (v. 25). God is the only true source of value and identity that won’t evaporate with the next gust of wind that life brings. As the Japanese return to their work, let us pray that they would seek him alone for their joy.
Bible Reading
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
Genesis 2:15
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, 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. So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, 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. This also is vanity and a great evil. What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.
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, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 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.
Ecclesiastes 2:18-26
Prayer Prompts
Pray that Japanese people would
- Recognize the vanity of work apart from God.
- Repent from seeking value and identity in one’s work.
- Reorient their life under the Lordship of Jesus
The ESV Bible. Crossway, 2001, www.esv.org/.