Ecclesiastes 6:7 All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.

Matthew 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Here are two contrasting verses. The only issue contained in both verses is the issue of being filled. The most striking contrast between the two is labor and righteousness. If you were going to pick two verses to compare objects, these two would not be used. But they work together if you are looking to understand the objective, satisfaction.

You can have an appetite even if you are not hungry. That is a comparative of the body and not the soul. The descriptive language used is offered to give us a reference point. It is easier to understand the body than it is the soul. Righteousness is a soul issue, not one of the body. If we are going to use these verses in order to understand the complete comparative, the labor must be seen in terms of a soul issue.

Think of the issue of the mouth as it relates to man’s labor. It is for his own consumption, his own self-satisfaction, and self-effort. Man has an appetite of soul which self-effort can never satisfy. Man will never have enough money, power, possessions or fame. His soul will remain empty. The soul is a bottomless pit that cannot be filled with things.

Ephesians 1:23b the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

Only Jesus Christ can fill a soul.

John 4:13-14 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.