Chasing a Carrot on a Stick

Don't equate that ladder with success.

Don't equate success with your address or your VIP access. From the outside, looking on, Solomon would have been the one who would have assumed, you would have assumed, had arrived. If anybody was the man, he was the man. If anybody had made it, he had made it.

If anybody had caught the carrot, it was Solomon. How'd you do that? We want to follow you. We want to imitate you. Give us the secret.

Give us the steps. When you find someone who seems to have made it in life, it's tempting to want to learn the secret. In fact, if that man or woman were to write a book about how they got where they are, it would be a bestseller. Go to your local mall and you'll see dozens of people chasing after things that they think will satisfy. When they get it, they're still unsatisfied. What they truly desire seems just out of reach. So how do we find the satisfaction that truly lasts?

Today, Stephen Davey opens King Solomon's Journal to find out. This is wisdom for the heart and today's message from God's Word is called Chasing a Carrot on a Stick. You've probably heard this phrase before. It has become an expression that's rather common. Chasing a carrot on a stick.

That's actually been around a long time. Picture, of course, that comes to mind is some unfortunate donkey who's motivated to keep plowing by that stick over its head and a dangling carrot just out of reach in front of his nose. The expression, of course, has come to refer in our world to people chasing after something they really want to catch but they can never quite make it.

It's just out of reach. The real issue is more than dollars and cents. The bigger, more dangerous issue at hand is that that carrot happens to be a brilliantly disguised deception, distraction, illusion that if we can just get it, we're going to be happy.

Whatever it is, people are chasing. It has the ability to distract the mind, deceive the heart, waste the energy of life and the reality of meaning and purpose is God intended. In fact, I like to think of the carrot as one of Satan's greatest tools in distracting the human heart from the issues of life and death. He does it for those who do not believe to keep them from thinking about ensuing coming death. And he does it for the believer to get us to waste our time in not bringing God glory in what he does give us. Jesus referred to it as the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the lusting after other things. Mark 4 verse 19. He also warned what benefit is it if somebody wins the whole world but loses their what? Soul.

In other words, somebody made it. They're at the head of the line. They actually won the whole world. They got it all but then lost their soul and that's the bigger issue.

That mattered most. In my studies along this theme, I came across an artist's rendering of this very warning. It was drawn in 1918, I believe. It pictures the great deceiver Satan hidden under a cloak riding on a donkey, holding that stick out in front of the donkey, dangling from that stick a tantalizing carrot. And all the while, the donkey is distracted, if you look carefully, it's moving closer and closer to the edge of a cliff.

That's the human race. It's reaching, it's longing, it's distracted cleverly from the reality. This isn't all there is.

In fact, what we have is just a very, very short prelude to a very long eternity. These are the solemn issues, by the way, that have been on the mind of the author of this journal. He makes a new entry into his diary and he's going to essentially describe chasing a carrot on a stick. And that's why it came to my mind, as I studied this paragraph, the frustration as well of being beaten in the race.

Somebody gets there first or seems to arrive or they have it better, ultimately wasting their lives at the end of the race. These are very serious issues. And I don't believe this is a coincidence that you're here, we're here together and we've arrived at this particular text together to hear the warning from God. So take your copy if you're not already there to Ecclesiastes, we're at chapter 6, let's pick up where we left off, and we're going to tour the next three verses beginning in verse 7. And while we do, I'm going to summarize what he's saying in the form of three warnings, basically one per verse, one per verse of scripture.

They're just, by the way, they're just as true today as they were 3,000 years ago when he wrote them down. The first warning is this, your life can be full, while at the same time your heart can remain empty. Notice verse 7, all the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. Now the word for mouth here is to be understood in terms of the material world, physical needs.

Nothing wrong with them and so much of life goes into physical needs, filling the mouth, necessities of food and clothing and shelter. The word toil, we've encountered this already in this journal, is a reference to your job, the work you do for a living. You work, you work hard, you get paid, you cash that paycheck and it translates into everything from paying the bills to buying the groceries, whatever it is. Nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with succeeding in that. In fact, you may remember that Solomon told us earlier in chapter 5 that our jobs, what God has skilled us with and given us talents to perform, were a gift from God.

Don't shirk that opportunity, invest it and use it for the glory of God and his gospel. But Solomon is referring here to more than a job that pays for physical consumer needs. In fact, you could translate the last phrase in verse 7 where it reads, yet his appetite is not satisfied to read, yet his longing for fulfillment remains empty. So what he's saying is you're working hard, you're giving your life over to temporary things, material things, your schedule never lets up. I mean, look at it, you're busy.

You're busy, you've got things to do as soon as you leave here. The Hebrew word translated longing or appetite is nefesh, it's the Hebrew word for soul. You're working hard, you're trying to get by, you're focused on material things and at the same time you're trying to get by and pay the bills, guess what's happening? Your nefesh, your soul is longing. That's the word in the Hebrew mind for emotion and will and mind. We refer to it in the New Testament as heart. Your heart, the seat of who you are, is longing.

So what Solomon is saying is that life down here under the sun, and keep in mind now, this is the expression for life without fellowship with God. It's life living only for this life. A person can be busy and productive and get all wrapped up in consumer purchases, everything that satisfies their mouth, so to speak, without ever finding satisfaction in their heart. And you know it as well as I do. Your life can be full and you can be running on empty.

Here's the second warning. Improving your station in life doesn't mean you're succeeding in life. The world says what you need to do is get a little higher on that ladder and then you're going to get that carrot. Well, Solomon asked two rhetorical questions here in verse 8 to prove his point.

Notice. He writes, for what advantage has the wise man over the fool, and what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? Let's sort of unpack this. Solomon is expecting us to say no, none, none of these individuals have any advantage. In other words, if somebody lives just to satisfy their mouth, their physical appetites, consumable things, even the wise man doesn't have an advantage over the foolish man.

He's not any happier. And the poor man, he doesn't have an advantage even though he doesn't have all the distractions, perhaps, or all the pressures. And even though he's figured out how to make it by his wits, you notice he expresses that he knows how to conduct himself before the living.

He knows how to work the crowd, even though he doesn't have any money. Solomon asks and answers the question with this hard-hitting reality, does anybody have any advantage over anybody else in this race for the carrot? And his answer would be nobody does.

And he uses these two illustrations to prove his point. What about, Solomon suggests, what about the smartest guy in the class? What about the valedictorian? What about the 4.0 grade point average person? Is that equal to happiness and contentment?

Then the answer is no, not at all. Our world is filled with brilliant college graduates and PhDs who are unhappy. Happiness wasn't attached to the diploma.

In fact, somebody who thinks if I just get there, I'll be happy realizes it isn't true. What about the poor man? The implication in the text is the poor man didn't have a chance to get an education. He couldn't afford to go to UNC or NC State or Campbell or Wake Tech or Wake Forest.

Am I leaving anybody special out here in this list? What about the guy that couldn't afford that? But he's got street smart. He knows how to conduct himself among the living. He makes connections. He seems to be getting ahead. So that guy, that's the guy with the advantage.

No. That's not equivalent to happiness either. In fact, he's going to get frustrated. He's not moving fast enough and not making enough good connections. And then somebody else is going to get the raise or somebody else is going to get the promotion or somebody else is going to get the better deal and this poor guy can't get a break. But Solomon is illustrating here people on both ends, opposite ends of the spectrum. And he's essentially saying that the carrot isn't any closer to that brilliant member of the academy than it is to that poor man who never got an education.

Neither one of them have any advantage over the other. And everybody in between. And his point is, just because you're going to try to improve your station in life, don't think for a moment that when you get one more rung up whatever that ladder happens to be, that you are succeeding. And with that comes happiness.

There are plenty of CEOs and celebrities to prove this point. Here's another warning. It's closely tied to the others but it gives a little insight into what's really going on. Warning number three, there will always be something above and beyond what you already have. He's addressed this before.

He says it a little differently here. Look at verse nine. Better is the sight of the eyes. That is, better is what you can see, what you have in your hand.

Better is that than the wandering of the appetite. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. So what do you see? In other words, what do you see in your hand right now?

What does God allow you to have right now? Well, you want to chase the wind? You want emptiness? You want resentment?

You want joylessness? Then chase after things that you can only dream about and ignore what's in your hand. That's his point. Now he's not telling you to not dream big or attempt something ambitious or accomplish something impactful in life. He's simply saying that it's better to have a little and enjoy it than dream about what you'd love to have if you could just edge the other guy out.

Oh, that's just empty utility. He's simply saying that it's better to have a little that God has given you than pursue that carrot. By the way, the words here translated, the wandering of the appetite is literally the traveling nefesh. There's that word again, the wandering heart, the wandering soul, the heart that keeps on wandering in its travels for satisfaction. What came to my mind as I read that text was that song about the rambling man. Why don't you settle down?

You've got to be over 50 to appreciate that illustration. Unsatisfied, restless, call it whatever you will. Call it the seven year itch. Call it that the grass is greener on the other side. Call it a midlife crisis. Whatever you want to call it, it is simply a reflection of the same issue. An empty heart built around selfish desire for things we don't have. There's no need to have a midlife crisis.

There's no need to pursue the grass on the other side. All that is, is simply the culmination or the arrival of the point in a person's life where they say, I don't like what I've got and I want something above and beyond, whatever it might be. These expressions betray our fallen hearts.

By the way, it began as early as preschool and it's going to dog our heels. This is Solomon, frankly, to a T. Solomon, you read his biography of discontent in 1 Kings. He didn't have a seven year itch, he had a seven minute itch. He could never, ever settle down.

He could never, he never settled down with one wife. I want one more. How many you got? 699.

I want 700. He could never settle down with one shipment of gold and ivory and wildlife and greenery. I got to have one more shipment. In fact, his tribute and his taxes wore the people out and when he's coming to the end of his life, people beg for relief. No, I got to get one more shipment of gold. He never had enough houses.

How many do you need? He got bored with one and he built another. He was the ultimate wandering soul and he's honest in writing really what's a self-portrait. He calls it what it is here in verse nine. Notice it's vanity. You come across that word again. It's emptiness. It's futility. It's striving after wind. He's saying I couldn't catch the wind in this analogy.

He says, even with everything I had, I couldn't quite catch that carrot. This is the human heart. This is your heart and mine. Apart from being satisfied with Jesus Christ, it is earthbound instead of heavenbound. And for the believer here, there's certainly the warning and this is the remembering daily that Christ is to be enough if the will of God is not interesting enough and if the word of God isn't good enough and if the presence and the pleasure of God isn't satisfying enough, nothing will ever be enough. There's always going to be something, even for the believer above and beyond, something you don't know, something you want, some approval, some accomplishment.

You didn't win the race. It seems like everybody else around you is. In fact, church can be incredibly discouraging if we come here to compare ourselves to each other. Somebody's going to have it better. Somebody's going to seem happier. Somebody's going to be more accomplished.

That's why Paul says when we compare ourselves with one another, we are not wise. I came across a fascinating study along this theme of research done, kind of amazing. I love reading research and what people do and it amazes me what they research, but this particular research was a study of Olympic medalists and their attitude while standing up there on the stand.

I mean, who studies that? But they did. They discovered the bronze medalists were happier than the silver medalists and here's why. Silver medalists were focused on how close they came to winning gold and they weren't satisfied with silver. The bronze medalists were focused on how close they came to not winning anything at all.

They were really happy just to be there. We need to be bronze medalists just happy to be there. So here are three warnings from a man who lived through all of these, repeated the same mistake over and over again for decades. Let me go through them again and just add another touch of warning as we wrap it up. Warning number one, your life can be full while at the same time your heart can remain empty so don't be deluded. Don't be duped into thinking that because you're busy you're involved in things that are essential. We're all busy and busyness is not sinfulness. But what I mean is the point Solomon is attempting to make here, let's make sure that what God is doing with our lives is to be the overflow of what he is doing in our hearts. In fact, the priority of God's work in your life and mine is in our hands, it's our hearts. And I don't know about you but I need that reminder. I like to be busy with my hands, my life.

I get away from the schedule for about three days and my wife says okay honey I can see it coming here, you're wanting to get back. God wants to be busy in my heart. Don't pursue a full busy life while ignoring the transforming work of God's spirit in your heart. Warning number two, improving your station in life doesn't mean you're succeeding in life. So don't be deceived. Don't equate one more rung up that ladder with success.

Don't equate success with your address or your VIP access. And from the outside looking on, Solomon would have been the one who would have assumed, you would have assumed had arrived. If anybody was the man, he was the man. If anybody had made it, he had made it.

If anybody had caught the carrot, it was Solomon. How did you do that? We want to follow you. We want to imitate you. Give us the secret.

Give us the steps. Yesterday in the mail I got my copy of Time magazine. I subscribe to Time magazine so I can stay irritated in life at some point.

Actually I kind of want to know what the perspective of the world out there is and what they're doing. This issue listed the 100 most influential women in the world. I have seen the list of the 100 most influential men in the world. Several of them I knew openly defied, denied the gospel of Christ. I grieved my heart because I pitied them.

Can you imagine and I thought as I stood there having your name listed in the 100 most influential women or men in an internationally acclaimed publication to have a name that's a household name of influence but not have your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life. The tragedy too, and this is why I felt so sorry for them, many of them, is because they're applauded. The world is cheering them on. The deception is even that much more tragic along the way. Imagine being applauded on earth and miss heaven. This is what the Lord said.

You got the world and you lost your soul. Don't be deceived. Especially if the world is applauding. That might even add to the deception. Warning number three, there will always be something above and beyond what you already have.

It started early. It isn't going to go away until you and I are home with Christ perfected and glorified in holiness. Won't that be great? Won't that be great? I'm not going to look at your crown and go, man, I wanted that gem. Isn't that great?

I'm going to be so glad you have one. Don't be distracted. Don't be blinded. Don't get enamored. Don't become engrossed. Life isn't about a carrot. It's about Jesus Christ.

His will, his word, his pleasure. We need the wisdom of Solomon gained at the end of his life as the Holy Spirit spoke through him and he turned around and he tells us, oh look, don't chase those. Don't chase that.

Don't do that. Find your satisfaction as he will wrap up his journal eventually with us in pursuing fellowship with God. If you've already spent a portion of your life chasing after what the world has to offer, you know that what Solomon discovered and wrote about is true.

Those things don't satisfy. Thanks for joining us today here on Wisdom for the Heart. Stephen Davey is in a series from Ecclesiastes called Surviving Evil Under the Sun.

The lesson you just heard is called Chasing a Carrot on a Stick. You can send Stephen a note if you address it to Wisdom for the Heart, PO Box 37297, Raleigh, North Carolina, 27627. You can also send an email to info at wisdomonline.org. Once again, that address is Wisdom for the Heart, PO Box 37297, Raleigh, North Carolina, 27627. Thanks for spending the last half hour with us. Please join us next time for another Bible lesson right here on Wisdom for the Heart. I'll see you next time.