Ecclesiastes 10:16-20

"Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, and your princes feast in the morning! Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility, and your princes feast at the proper time, for strength, and not for drunkenness! Through sloth the roof sinks in, and through indolence the house leaks. Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, and money answers everything. Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom curse the rich, for a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter." (Ecclesiastes 10:16-20, ESV)

Bad leadership makes for bad nations. Such advice is rather obvious and hardly needs to be stated. Almost everything the Preacher says here all would agree with. An immature king who fills his official positions with drunkards and pleasure-seekers will bring ruin to the land. How much better a noble king with officials who eat for strength and not in gluttony. The laziness of the glutton and sensualist destroys the house. The Preacher mocks their thoughts with his sarcastic refrain “bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, and money answers everything.”

It is this last refrain that stings most in our affluent American context. “Bread is for laughter” is a phrase not that far from modern advertising slogans. We hardly even consider food a source of strength and life. Food exists to make us happy. Who cares if masses are starving to death. Who cares if I’m a going to die and have no real hope. I’ll just have my glazed donut with chocolate icing and multi-colored sprinkles, and I’m happy. There is nothing wrong with enjoying good food, but when enjoying good food becomes one of the chief pleasures of life, then there is a problem. Foolish rich kings get detached from the reality of suffering and death due to their abundance. So do Americans.

But it is not just food. “Money answers everything.” No need to do hard work. If you have money, you have all that you need. Whereas the apostle Paul says, “Money is the root of all kinds of evil,” the foolish affluent say, “Money is the root of all kinds of good.” How do you raise good kids? You buy them stuff. How do you help poor nations? You give them money. How do you get personal joy and satisfaction? You spend money. I think perhaps we are so flooded with abundance we cannot even begin to comprehend life, meaning, and joy a part from it. That’s a problem, because money doesn’t have all the answers. In fact, it doesn’t have any of them.