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Our three-year-old son got a
gift from one of our kind neighbors. I suppose there's nothing better
that you can give an adventurous three-year-old boy than a big,
red, remote control fire truck, complete with flashing lights
and to the dismay of his parents, siren noises. It has a boom ladder
that swings from side to side and elevates up and down. Its
ladder extends and retracts. And to top it all off, and maybe
this is a bit cruel on our part, it even has a fire hose that
shoots out real water. But he just doesn't know that. Now, it's one tricked out, cool
little truck. It's the kind of gift that you
get for your child and you bring it home and your spouse says,
did you get that for yourself or did you get that for him?
But there's a problem with his red firetruck. It has so many
massive motorized parts that it seems after every third use,
it doesn't work anymore. And poor Carson. The most futile
and frustrating thing in his little world right now is to
have the coolest firetruck known to humanity sitting right in
front of him and he can't enjoy it. Because something called
batteries are dead. Dad, the batteries are dead.
And his joy is ended. He has everything he wants right
in front of him. And he can't enjoy it. And boy,
oh boy, does it frustrate him. Now, I don't think that kind
of thing just happens to little boys either. What if you had
everything that you wanted, but you couldn't enjoy it? Maybe
your health prevents you from enjoying something. Maybe your
age. You're at an amusement park and
the coolest roller coaster on the planet is in front of you,
but because you're not 12 or older, you're not allowed on.
Or you're the grandparent accompanying this minor. You don't feel old,
but you know you shouldn't ride the coolest roller coaster in
the world either. Your age, your health prevents
you from enjoying the very thing that is right in front of you.
And we know, just like my three-year-old son, one of the most frustrating
things in life is having everything that you want and no ability
to enjoy it. That's the message of the Old
Testament book of Ecclesiastes. So if you're not there, would
you turn with me there this morning, Psalms Proverbs and then Ecclesiastes. Now, just to set you up, I'll
be reading mostly from the New Living Translation this morning,
but some from the ESV. Ecclesiastes is one of the grittiest
evaluations of life under the sun. If you read it this week,
you kind of know that. I just want to let you know that
if you're here today and you're not a follower of Jesus Christ,
this book may actually surprise you. You might be surprised that
biblical Christianity isn't a pie-in-the-sky fairytale optimism that turns
a blind eye to the harsh realities of life. You might also be surprised
to find a book in the Bible that so accurately reflects some of
your own thoughts and musings about life. And frankly, if you
are a follower of Jesus, and you've been fed a bunch of sentimental
religious triumphalism, this book will surprise you too. You
won't find a verse from Ecclesiastes in any Hallmark card that you
pick up in some Christian bookstore. We're told in Ecclesiastes 9,
here's the kind of cheering up kind of thing we get. The fastest
runner doesn't always win the race. The strongest warrior doesn't
always win the battle. The wise are often poor and the
skillful are not always wealthy ones. Educated people don't always
get ahead in life. Like a fish in a net and birds
in a snare, people are often caught by sudden tragedy. That's Ecclesiastes 9. It will
continue to surprise you if you're here and you think that life
operates off of a purely religious worldview. You kind of do good
things, and you keep your nose clean, and God will bless you.
It's a tit-for-tat, one-to-one kind of universe. Well, it just
isn't true. Good guys don't always win in
this life. Sometimes the cowboys lose, and other wicked teens
prosper. Ecclesiastes 7.15 says this,
Sometimes good people die young, and wicked people live on and
on. You see, friends, it may be a
religious worldview to think that God is obligated to be nice
to people who are nice, but it's certainly not a biblical worldview. The book of Ecclesiastes is a
wonderful whiff of reality. It's like smelling salts to a
slumbering world. For those people who think they
need one more affair, to read one more book, to work just one
more hour, to have one more glass of wine, this book is a dose
of smelling salts to rouse them from their pleasure, intellectually
induced slumber. Now before we open this book
of smelling salts, we need to set the stage. I'm going to take
the first half of our time this morning because part of my purpose
in looking at the book is not just to to tell you what I think
it says, but to orient you to the book so that you'll know
how to understand it, not just today, but every other time you
come in contact with this book. In some ways, this is a very
philosophical, intellectual book. And so for those of you who might
be particularly wired this way, you should make friends with
this book. For those of you who are not, you too should make
friends with this book. Here's how we'll proceed. We'll
talk about a word, about wisdom, A word about the structure and
then a word about words. All of this just setting the
stage, kind of plowing up the ground, giving us the tools that
we need to understand the book. First, a word about wisdom. It's important that you know
that whenever you're reading a part of the Bible, you understand
there are various types of literature that are in the Bible. The Bible
has poetry, it has history, it has apocalyptic, fantastic imagery,
and there's even a type of literature in the Bible called wisdom literature. Ecclesiastes is that type of
literature. Many cultures in the ancient
Near East had wisdom literature as well. This body of literature,
wisdom literature, is not unique to the Bible, and often it took
the form of aphorisms or some type of philosophical inquiry
into the mysteries of life. And wisdom literature tends to
be a rational appeal, an engagement of our intellectual sensibilities
that forces us to stop and think, evaluate the life around us.
So I'll just tell you that if you want to explore the intellectual
side of Christianity, if you want to explore it philosophically,
well, wisdom literature is a good place to begin. Now, of course,
there's something distinct about the Bible's wisdom literature
that separates it from the wisdom literature of the ancient Near
East. And that is that the Bible makes a unique claim for the
source of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. That's the unique claim the Bible
makes. So whenever you read a piece
of wisdom literature in the Christian Bible, maybe you've heard of
a book called Psalms or Proverbs or Job. The point being made
is this what I'm telling you is how you skillfully make your
way through life. This is what fearing God looks
like. And while the wisdom books all
have that theme in common, fear of the Lord, they don't all have
the same tone. Proverbs, you're told the righteous
live a long life for fearing God. In Job, you suffer for fearing
God. And in Ecclesiastes, you die
young for fearing God. The point is that we have to
be very careful about isolating the overall message of one particular
book, or even a few verses from one book, from the whole collection,
not just of the Bible, but of the wisdom literature as a whole.
And you know that just like individual notes sound far better when they're
part of a chord or a melody, so the message of any one of
the wisdom books must be harmonized by the tone of the others around
them. That's very important. Ecclesiastes is not the whole
truth, but it's a necessary part of the truth. Now a word about the structure
of this book. Other than the opening prologue
in chapter 1 and the conclusion in chapter 12, nobody really
has a clue how to outline this book. Now that doesn't mean that
the book has no rhyme or reason to it. It just means that it
doesn't rhyme or reason like we think it should. To begin
with, because of Ecclesiastes 12, would you go ahead and turn
there please? We're going to flip for a few minutes between Ecclesiastes
12 and Ecclesiastes 1. To begin with, we know that there
is a rhyme and reason to this book because of how it ends.
We know in Ecclesiastes 12 that he's leading us to a certain
conclusion. And so we read in verse 12, here
is now my final conclusion. Fear God and obey his commandments. This is everyone's duty. So as
we read the book, we're to keep that conclusion in mind. Whatever
else the book is saying, he is making a rational, intellectual
appeal for us to fear God and to keep his commandments. Now the sticky question is, how
does he argue for that conclusion? That's what's confusing. Here
is one small thing that might be of help. Most of us in the
Western world are comfortable following an argument that begins
with one topic, and then works that entire topic through before
it starts another one. The formal outline in that case
is pretty clear. Big number one, A, B, number
two, A, B, number three, A, B, and so on. But that's not how
the author of Ecclesiastes reasons. He argues in a cycle or in a
spiral. So in the opening chapters he
talks about pleasure and possessions, work and wealth. And rather than
deal with one of those topics exhaustively in one place, he
cycles back to those topics again and again and again and again
as his argument proceeds. And each time he brings up an
old topic, we get a little more information, a little more elucidation
as to how to understand his theme. Just realize that if you don't
understand what he's saying the first time, just wait. It'll
probably come around again. And it'll probably make a little
more sense as the argument proceeds. The point is that as confusing
as the organization of this book might appear, it's actually a
well-crafted argument put together by a brilliant author who cycles
through topic after topic, driving us to this conclusion. Now a
word about the words in the book. If you're familiar at all with
Ecclesiastes, you know that two phrases appear again and again.
One phrase is, under the sun. Now if you turn to Ecclesiastes
1, and keep your finger in 12, we'll be back there in a minute,
but Ecclesiastes chapter 1, that phrase first appears in Ecclesiastes
chapter 1 and verse 3. What does a man gain for all
his hard work under the sun? And that question launches the
author into a series of experiments and observations. The phrase,
under the sun, tells us where his experimentation and observation
will take place. It will take place under the
sun, that is, on earth, in this life. The phrase does not mean,
however, this book is giving us a view of life that's simply
man's reasoning. Some of you might have grown
up with the old Schofield Reference Bible. This is in the study notes. The conclusions and reasonings
in Ecclesiastes are, after all, just man's. Or the Bible that
I used for some time, the new Schofield reference Bible. I
had a chance to correct it, and they tried to correct it like
this. The philosophy this book sets forth makes no claim to
revelation, but represents the world view of one of the wisest
men. Now that's poppy crock. being under the sun and apart
from God is not what we have here. This isn't the best bit
of secular wisdom that we have. We know that again because the
end of the book. Ecclesiastes 12, and now I'm
reading in verse 11, this stunning revelation is made to us. The
words of the wise are like goads or cattle prods, like nails firmly
fixed are the collected sayings they are given by one shepherd."
Well, first we learn these words, as painful as they seem, are
meant to be painful. They're like cattle prods, driving
us somewhere, albeit at times depressingly and painfully so.
But notice the last phrase of verse 11, we're told they're
given by one shepherd. Now, if you've been raised at
all around the Bible, I just ask you, who is the shepherd
in the Old Testament? Psalm 23, the Lord is my Shepherd. Friends, this is a title for
none other than God Himself. He is the Shepherd of Israel,
the one who leads Joseph like a flock, who sits enthroned upon
the chair of Him. The big point is that Ecclesiastes
isn't merely the ruminations of one of the world's wisest
men who lived under the sun apart from divine revelation. On the
contrary, these words are given to us, they come to us by one
Shepherd from God Himself. So when you read Under the Sun,
don't think secular wisdom. Think life on this earth. And
particularly, we know this side of Genesis, the scripture reading
that we read, life on this earth is cursed. Under the Sun simply
refers to the life which is cursed and lived in this fallen world. You want to know what life is
like under the sun in a fallen world? Well, I'll take 12 chapters
to tell you what life is like under the sun as a result of
the fall. That's the first phrase that
appears quite often, under the sun. The second one that most
people know is that word vanity, or vanity of vanities that appears
again and again and again. It appears 38 times in the book
and what we have to ask is what does it mean? Well, I don't think
it's helpful to translate it as vanity of vanities. In legal
terms, we might object and say that's leading the witness, because
vanity actually carries with it largely negative connotations. But the problem is, the word
itself is morally neutral, kind of like our word crooked. Crooked
doesn't have to carry moral connotations, does it? If you get braces because
your teeth are crooked, that's not an indictment of the morality
of your teeth. But on the other hand, you might
say, that politician is crooked. And then you are saying something
about the morality of the politician. How you determine in what sense
to take crooked all depends on the context. The word itself
is neutral. That's the same thing that happens
with the word that's translated vanity, or maybe a translation
you have this morning even says meaningless. But the word is
morally neutral. It simply means breath or vapor. That's what it means. So we mustn't
assume a morally negative meaning, vanity or meaninglessness, every
time the word appears. Only the context is going to
determine whether something being compared to vapor is good or
bad. You have to stop each time and ask. Every time this phrase
appears, you have to ask two questions. What is it that's
being compared to vapor? And in what way is this situation
like vapor? Now, maybe that sounds hard,
but we do it all the time, and often without thinking. This
illustration of Crooked is an example. But what about Robert
Burns' poem, Oh, My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose? You probably
don't mean that she's high maintenance like a rose, or that she's thorny.
The point with word pictures is they force you to stop and
think, in what way is she like a rose? In what way is life like
breath or a vapor? And so by using this metaphor,
this word picture, it becomes an economical way to get his
point across in a memorable way in a variety of contexts. This past week I had lunch with
a pastor in town. who just finished up an advanced
graduate degree from a seminary that's about an hour away from
here in South Carolina. One of his professors that he
sat under was actually on the translation committee for the
English Standard Version. He asked his professor what he
thought was a good way to translate this word. It shows up in the
ESV as vanity, but he said, what would be a good way to understand
that word? And his professor said, I think the best word to
use is actually a word like fleeting. It makes it a little morally
neutral, doesn't it? Well, he followed up and said,
then why did you guys use vanity if you thought fleeting was better?
And he said, I got outvoted because they said it didn't sound poetic
enough. Well, there you go. Biblical clarity, sacrifice on
the altar of poetry. Go figure. Well, having laid all the groundwork
now for the word about wisdom, the word about structure, and
the word about words, we're now ready for the book itself. Now,
I've already told you the book is notoriously hard to outline,
so I'm going to give you what I think more for rhetorical purposes
than really nailing the outline of the book. There are six refrains
that punctuate the book, and they all sound the same. In chapter
2 and verse 24 is the first time the refrain appears, and pretty
much every time after it sounds the same. This is what we read.
2.24, I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and
drink, and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that
these pleasures are from the hand of God, and who can eat
or enjoy anything apart from Him? That, as I say, appears
six times in this book. And they serve to counterbalance
much of the apparent pessimism in the book. And we'll actually
use those six refrains as paragraph markers that end a section and
begin the next section. So, here's what we'll do. We'll
go through it at length this first time, and then quickly
the second time, and we'll see this. The first time through,
what we're to see is this. The God who frustrates. Anywhere
you look, In life, you'll see this, the God who frustrates. We get to the end of that, it's
like coming to the end of a film or a book, and he's like, oh,
that's where we've been heading. Let me go through it again, and
I'll now pick up the clues that anticipate that conclusion. Was
he blind or not? Well, let's go back and see whether
or not he was blind. The God who frustrates, we'll
see the second time through, is the God who fulfills. And
if you don't hear anything else this morning, here is what I
think summarizes the message of Ecclesiastes. The God who
frustrates and fulfills must be feared. That's the outline. That's the theme of the book.
So, let's look now at this God who frustrates. We'll go through
the book. Beginning at chapter 1, I'm going to read the first
11 verses because they introduce us to the author's quest and
his initial evaluation. We're going to read it to get
a sense, the flavor, the feel of the book. So let's read chapter
1, verses 1 to 11. Here is what scripture says.
These are the words of the preacher, King David's son, who ruled in
Jerusalem. Everything is futile, says the
teacher, completely futile or fleeting. What do people get
for all their hard work under the sun? Generations come and
generations go, but the earth never changes. The sun rises
and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. The wind
blows south and then turns north, around and around it goes, blowing
in circles. Rivers run to the sea, but the
sea is never full. Then the water returns again
to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. Everything is wearisome
and repetitious beyond description. No matter how much we see, we're
never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we
are not content. History merely repeats itself.
It's all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly
new. Sometimes people say, here is something new. But actually,
it's old. Nothing is ever truly new. We
don't remember what happened in the past. And in future generations,
no one will remember what we are doing now. Well, that's quite
an introduction, isn't it? Verse 3, as we said earlier,
is the key question of the book. What is the gain man gets of
all his hard labor? He begins by looking at nature
and nothing seems to change. And his point is in verse 8.
Everything is wearisome and repetitive. Whatever happened today will
happen again tomorrow. So what's the point of it all?
Why do I have to do it all over again? Even the repetitive cycles
of nature communicate that life under the sun as a result of
the fall is futile and frustrating and temporary. But he's not content
with just observing nature. He now turns to the pinnacle
of creation, mankind himself. He tells us in verses 12 to 16,
he's setting us up. I've decided to make an experiment,
to try something out. So we read in verse 16, I said
to myself, look, I'm wiser than any of the kings who ruled in
Jerusalem before me. I have greater wisdom and knowledge
than any of them. So I set out to learn everything
from wisdom to madness and folly. But I learned firsthand that
pursuing all this is like chasing the wind. What an expression.
I'm not sure where I read it this week, but somebody described
that phrase, chasing the wind, like imagining somebody out in
the field chasing a feather blowing in the wind, or a butterfly.
Now imagine that same person in the field, and there's no
butterfly or no feather to be chasing, and they're just out
there, chasing the wind? Such an empty, futile, frustrating
pursuit. He continues in verse 18, in
fact, the greater my wisdom, the greater my grief, To increase
knowledge only increases sorrow. Life under the sun in this fallen
world is futile and frustrating and temporary. What's the point
of nature that's so repetitive? What's the point of life that
often feels like I'm chasing the wind? One writer commented
that a fool thinks that he is just chained to a dungeon wall.
But the intelligent person knows that life is actually a labyrinth. Pleasures, delights and sensations
and all their cousins will send a man first on this errand and
then on that one all to dead ends in the labyrinth. That's
life. Well, he set us up for the grand
experiment and chapter two, he tells us he gave himself over
to everything that should make life meaningful. So we read in
chapter two, verse one. Come on, let's try pleasure.
Let's look for the good things in life. But I found that this
too was fleeting. So I said, laughter is silly.
What good does it do to seek after pleasure? As if he gives
himself to one high after the next, watches nothing but the
comedy channel, arranges his life to be happy, and finds it
as fake and satisfying and hollow as the laugh track on a sitcom.
Life is so fleeting when you pursue pleasure, he says. Well,
maybe I should add a bit of drinking to my merrymaking. Maybe that
would help. And so, verse 3, after much thought,
I decided to cheer myself with wine. Well, you know the problem
with getting drunk is it doesn't last. So now he says something
else. Well, maybe if I can't find fulfillment
in partying like a rock star or in dry martinis and caviar,
then perhaps I should be a bit more sophisticated in my pursuit.
I'll try a bigger home. more possessions, I'll pursue
the arts, architecture and singing and fine arts. This is interesting. Here's a man who's a king. A
man who already has everything and yet he says, maybe if I just
have a little more possessions and architecture and a little
more fine arts. He already has everything and
he's asking for more. Well, he throws himself into
this grand pursuit, verse 4. I also tried to find meaning
by building huge homes for myself and by planting beautiful vineyards.
He gives his hand in architecture. I made gardens and parks, filling
them with all kinds of fruit trees. I built reservoirs to
collect the water to irrigate my many flourishing groves. I
bought slaves, both men and women, and others were born into my
household. I also owned large herds and flocks more than any
of the kings who lived in Jerusalem before me. I collected great
sums of silver and gold, the treasure of many kings and provinces.
Now the arts. I hired wonderful singers, both
men and women. And now how many one night stands
can I have? And I had beautiful concubines.
I actually had everything a man could desire. Now that's a very
scary place. It's very scary to step back
and say, you know, I have everything I desire. The first time I saw the film
Chariots of Fire, two things struck me. Here is one. Harold Abrams is the opponent
in the 1924 Olympics to Eric Little. Eric Little was a devout Christian
who set the world record that stood for 12 years in that Olympic
contest. He went on to be a missionary
to China and eventually died there in a prison camp. Before
one of his races, his nemesis, Harold Abrams, says this, I will
raise my eyes and look down that corridor four feet wide with
ten lonely seconds to justify my existence. But will I? I've known the fear of losing,
but now I'm almost too frightened to win. And do you know why? Because there's nothing as scary
and frustrating as having accomplished all that you want and not being
able to enjoy it. He has ten seconds to justify
his existence, and he's terrified that if he gets it, he still
won't justify his existence. Somehow Abrams knew when he was
frightened that he'd still be empty even if he got the very
thing he'd been after his whole life. There's nothing new under
the sun. Solomon says the same thing.
To his pursuit of pleasure and wine and wealth, he even throws
himself into his work. It's as if you could hear The aesthetic people who remove
themselves from the pleasures of life. The monks or the academic
people in life who just kind of laugh it off. I could have told you that that
won't satisfy you. So maybe work will satisfy. I
wonder how many of us are addicted to finding our ultimate contentment
in work. The right job, the right client,
the right project, one more hour, one more promotion, one more
vacation. Just listen to where Solomon says putting your ultimate
contentment in work leads, verse 9. I became greater than all
who had lived in Jerusalem before me, and my wisdom never failed
me. Anything I wanted to know, I would take. I denied myself
no pleasure. I even found great pleasure in
hard work. a reward for all my labors. But as I looked on everything
I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so fleeting, like
chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile
anywhere. Now I know that you're tempted to say, like I am, well,
you know, if I could just have what I love, do the job that
I like, then it would be different. But that's his point. His point
is that he had the job he wanted. He had the job he wanted. He
did what he wanted to do, and he found it to be futile, chasing
the wind. It didn't ultimately satisfy.
And yet still, we tend to think, well, that may be his experience,
but just give me a little more money or the right kind of job
or the right kind of lover or spouse or whatever, and it'll
be a little different. But he's already addressed that. There's
nothing new under the sun. If I had a little more fun in
life, if I were able to check off the things on my bucket list,
if I had a little wine and wealth, things would be different. Ah,
but you'll be a fool to think that. There's nothing new under
the sun. And again, you can hear the intellectual
scoffing now. We could have told you the pursuit
of things in life are worthless. What you need is to pursue wisdom,
academic pursuits. Well, he does that too. He gives
himself to wisdom in verse 12. He tried to pursue the path of
enlightenment for satisfaction. And he admits that it's better
to be wise than stupid in this life. In the end, he says, it
really doesn't matter very much. Because in verse 14, he says,
excuse me, in verse 15, both will die. So I said to myself,
since I, as a wise man, will end up the same as a fool, what's
the value of all my wisdom? It's all so fleeting. for the
wise and the foolish both die. The wise will not be remembered
any longer than the fool and the days to come both will be
forgotten. Death is the great equalizer
and happens to those who live with wisdom or to those who live
the life of a fool. In the rest of the chapter he
starts to cycle back to his theme of work and he wonders what's
the point of hard work when you can't guarantee that your fortune
will outlive you or that your children won't spend everything
that you gave to them and be poor by the time they're dead.
You know what people get for hard work? Chapter 2 verse 22
and 23. The days of their labor are filled
with pain and grief, and even at night their minds cannot rest.
It all seems so futile, frustrating, and temporary. So chapter 2 ends. Solomon has indulged himself
in every area of life under the sun that we typically think will
bring satisfaction. And when he finally bites into
it, he's got a mouthful of gravel. Go ahead, he says. Go give yourself
to pleasure, to wine, to wealth, to women, to the arts, to your
work, to intellectual pursuits. There'll be a dead end. Life
on this earth is frustrating and futile and temporary. And
I think the older that we get, the more we realize this. When
we're young, there are countless things out there that can make
us happy. And as we get older, we've actually tried some of
those things. You get some age under your belt and you get a
little scared because the naive optimism of youth is slowly choked
by the demands of life under the sun. My life will be great
when I graduate high school, when I get married, when I get
a job, when I have a kid. And then you have a midlife crisis
and you think, really? What's the point? It all seems
so futile and frustrating and temporary. We heard that very thing this
morning from Jesse's friend David, the gentleman from England who
just stopped in life and wanted to know what's the purpose of
life? And then we become nervous and
we get scared when we settle into life and we wonder, or you've
said to yourself or your close friend, is this really all there
is? Or you've said, like Harold Abrams, I just want my life to
count, and I'm afraid that it won't. The point of Ecclesiastes is
that that experience isn't unique at all. All of us have thought
that. Some of us think that a lot.
Life is futile and frustrating. I've shared this illustration
with you before, but how about a modern Solomon of sorts? quarterback
of the Patriots, Tom Brady, who won three Super Bowls and two
MVPs by the time he was 30. And added to that, he dated two
supermodels in his life. And that 2007 60 Minutes interview,
he looks at the interviewer and he says, why do I have three
Super Bowl rings? I'm 30 and I still think there's
something greater out there for me. A lot of people would say,
hey man, this is what it is. I reached my goal, my dream,
my life, and for me, I think, it's got to be more than this.
I mean, this isn't, this can't be what it's all cracked up to
be. The interviewer pursues him and says, well, what do you think
the answer is? I wish I knew. I wish I knew. And as the interview
ends, the interviewer asks Tom Brady, well, which of the rings
do you like the best? Which ring is your favorite?
My favorite ring? I've always said, you know, I
always said the next one, the next ring will be my favorite
one. There's nothing new under the
sun. That ending and Wilder's Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory, when he goes up in the glass elevator
and he says, you hear about the guy who got everything he wanted,
he lived happily ever after. It's not true. You get everything
that you want in this life, and you'll find it like Tom Brady,
and you'll say, I mean, this isn't it. This can be what it
is. This can be what it's about,
isn't it? Well, the first section ends
with that refrain, to eat, drink, and be merry. And the second
section ends with 322, to eat, drink, and be merry. Quickly, just surveying now the
rest of the book, what you saw in the first section happens
in the next five sections. In chapter 3, he laments injustice
in the courtroom, and he says, doesn't injustice make life frustrating? In chapter 3, verse 18, he laments
that people and their dogs actually share the same fate, and he wonders
then if there's really a difference at all between people and animals.
Both go to the same place. They came from dust and they
return to dust. How fleeting and futile. Then
there's that third refrain. And the third section opens up,
chapter four, and we have four more observations about life.
Solomon, the possible author of the book, says that many people
in the world are under severe oppression with nobody to help
them. Then he notices that many people seem to be motivated by
covetousness and envy. And how futile and frustrating
life can be when he works and amasses great wealth but has
no brother or child or family member to share it with. Chapter
4, verse 8. That's all so futile and depressing.
Finally, the chapter ends reflecting on the futility of wisdom in
popularity. He tells the story of a rags
to riches story. It's a poor man who goes from
poverty to the palace. The text tells us everybody's
eager to help him. He becomes a leader of millions
and he's very popular. What a great story, right? But
guess what happens to him? Here's a man who goes from poverty
to the palace and here's what we're told. The next generation
grows up and rejects him just like they did before him. So he concludes that pursuing
popularity and approval of people is all so futile and frustrating
and temporary. You know this, right, Christian
friend? You know this. You know that last week of Jesus's own
life, they're hailing him as king of the Jews. At the end
of the week, they're shouting to crucify him. Friends, defining
morality based on a ballot box or making your decisions ultimately
based on what others think about you is so futile and fleeting. The fear of man brings a snare. The beginning of chapter five
is important that we'll return to at the end. In the middle
of five, the author is again bemoaning injustice in this life
and the futile pursuit of making it up to the next tax bracket.
The problem is that you can make as much money as you want, but
when you come to the end of the life, you'll be as naked and
as empty handed as you were on the day that you came into the
world. And once again we have a refrain
and the fourth section ends and the weight continues to build.
I hope that we're getting buried
beneath this realistic portrayal of life and we're also starting
to wonder, well how in the world do these refrains to eat, drink
and be married fit in with this futile, frustrating, temporary
display of life? The next two chapters in this
fifth section gives us the first clue. Chapter 6 and 7 should
be taken together. We often think that the wealthy
people have it easy in life. We might even think that prosperous
people, successful people in life are blessed by God. But
it's not true. Being wealthy can be a sign of
being cursed. Chapter 6, verse 2. God gives
some people great wealth and honor and everything they could
ever want. but then He doesn't give them
the power to enjoy these things. Did you hear that? It's what
we've been saying all along. The most frustrating thing in
life is to have all you've ever wanted only to find out you can't
enjoy it. And this passage is so bold to
suggest that God does it on purpose. Why? Why would God give you everything
you've ever wanted and then withhold the ability to enjoy it? Things aren't always as they
seem, being wealthy can be a curse. And chapter seven actually says
that suffering can be a blessing. Chapter six ends by saying, who
knows what is good for man? Chapter six, verse 12, chapter
seven tells us a whole bunch of things that are good for man.
If you want to know what's good to pursue in this fleeting life,
here's a list. If you want to make life better,
spend your time at a funeral rather than at festivals. Sorrow
is better than laughter, verse three. It's better to listen
to the music of rebuke than the music of praise. You see the
point he's making? Adversity can be far better than
prosperity. And you know why? Because you're
going to die and you should think about it while there's still
time. When is the last time, I don't mean in any macabre sense,
but when is the last time you thought about your death? You're
going to die. You will die by cancer, by heart
attack, by old age, by an accident. You will die. Suffering helps us get used to
the thought of it and awaken us to what matters most, smelling
salts. to a pleasure-induced slumber. And you know what the real problem
is, friends? We might be tempted to think the final problem is
this world. Boy, that donut didn't taste
good. Give me another one. I'll try that. We think if only the batteries
lasted longer, I could enjoy things more. No, that's not the
problem with the world. The problem with the world is
us. Chapter 7 and verse 20, there's
not a single person on the earth who does good and doesn't sin.
Chapter 7, verse 29, I discovered that God created people to be
upright. But they have each turned to follow their own downward
path. God has designed this world,
the delights of creation for one purpose to aid our enjoyment
of him, but we have used the creation to enjoy ourselves,
and that's our great problem. God views us as idolaters. And our dissatisfaction with
life proves that we're idolaters. We worship everything but God
and we're left with nothing but this futile, frustrating, fleeting
life. God created people to be upright,
but they've each turned to follow their own downward path away
from Him. Chapter eight, he comes back
to the evaluation of oppression and injustice, and he laments
the use of living a righteous life. I mean, after all, I've
seen wicked people buried with honors at their funeral. Wicked
people are often treated as though they were good, and the good
are treated as though they were wicked. This life is so futile,
frustrating and temporary. And then the fifth section ends
with the refrain again, eat, drink and be married. Finally, we're in the final section,
chapters 9 to 11 of the sixth section, and we're reminded again
that death is the great equalizer. Chapter 9, verse 2, the same
destiny ultimately awaits everyone, whether you live righteously
or wickedly, good or bad, ceremonially clean or unclean, religious or
irreligious. Good people receive the same
treatment as sinners, and people who make promises to God are
treated like people who don't. It seems so tragic that everyone
under the sun suffers the same fate. Chapter 10, we're told
that in spite of the harsh realities of life, it is better to go through
life wise. That's the point of all the weird
sounding Proverbs in Chapter 10 that's summarized in verse
10. Using a dull act requires great strength. So don't be a
moron, sharpen the blade. That's the value of wisdom. It
helps you succeed. Being wise won't make life any
less temporary, but it can make it a little easier. And if you
don't think so, try chopping down a tree with a dull axe.
You'll wish you'd been wiser. Chapter 11 finally rounds out
all those refrains and brings the last section to a close.
And in doing so, it starts to anticipate the conclusion. Verse
9, young people, it's wonderful to be young. Enjoy every minute
of it. Do everything you want to do.
Take it all in. But remember, you must give an
account to God for everything you do. And if you do that, refuse
to worry. Keep your body healthy. But remember
that youth, with a whole life before you, can be fleeting. Do you see what he's just said?
He's just anticipated his conclusion and given us a key that enjoying
life now, you can enjoy life now. You enjoy life. Just remember
that you must give an account to God. And if you don't remember
God, you'll fail to enjoy life, you'll waste it, and you know
that's the right reading because it's exactly how Ecclesiastes
chapter 12 opens. Remember now the Creator and
the days of your youth. Think about Him before evil days
come and the years draw near of which you will say, I've lived
my whole life and now I have no pleasure in it because I've
not feared God. Then there comes this beautiful
but harrowing poem in which old age is compared to an old worn
down house. And then the urgent appeal is
renewed in chapter 12, verse 6. Yes, remember your creator
while you are young, before the silver cord of life snaps and
the golden bolt is broken. Death happens. Don't wait until
the water jar is smashed at the spring and the pulley is broken
at the well, for then the dust will return to the earth. The
spirit will return to God who gave it. And everything is fleeting,
absolutely fleeting. And if we're still dense and
missing the point, he takes one more shot at us in 1213. Fear God and obey his commandments. This is everyone's duty. That's the God who frustrates.
You see what he's been doing? The only way that you can make
any sense out of this futile, frustrating life is to live in
the awareness of God. That's what you do when you fear
man. Your every move and thought is
dictated by what other people think of you. Your awareness
of them alters your behavior and your thoughts. Same thing
with the fear of God. The only way to enjoy life is
to live in the awareness of the God who made you. And if you
do, You can eat, drink, and be merry. Let me put it like this. Ecclesiastes says that life under
the sun is cursed. It means that life is futile
and temporary. And because it's futile and temporary,
it will never satisfy you the way you want it to. Why? Because God designed this life
to be futile and frustrating and temporary. Why? So that we
might see how fleeting this temporary life is, that we might fear him
instead. This is a masterful piece of
argumentation that the writer has just taken us through to
show us this is the God who creates life to frustrate. Maybe you
remember the film Pirates of the Caribbean, the first one.
The first film, the antagonist is a pirate named Barbossa. If
I remember right, the basic gist of the plot is that he and his
pirate horde have gained what every pirate wants, immortality. That's what they want. They finally
have it. But there's a catch. The moment he and his pirate
buddies gain immortality, they're also cursed. They're granted
eternal life and access to everything they want, but the curse is they
don't have the ability to enjoy either pleasure or experience
pain. And the whole plot then revolves
around Barbossa wanting to give his mortality back so he can
enjoy life. What irony to be able to live
the life of a pirate, but have no ability to enjoy what pirates
do. Utterly frustrating and futile. and temporary. That at one level
is the frustrating point of Ecclesiastes. God has made you immortal, but
he has cursed the universe so that you'll never be able to
find ultimate satisfaction here. Never. What a mercy of God. What a mercy of God that when
he cursed the earth in his mysterious, redemptive providences, it would
turn out for man's blessing. In other words, the pleasures
of life, the stuff of life, and the ability to enjoy the stuff
of life are two distinct gifts from God. And part of the curse
was to give man everything in life without the power to enjoy
anything in life. That's the point of Ecclesiastes
6.2. God gives wealth so that he lacks
nothing of all he desires. That's one gift, yet he withholds. He does not give him the power
to enjoy them. It's led Doug Wilson to say,
a can of peaches and a can opener are two distinct gifts. Only
the first is given to the unbeliever. And that's utterly frustrating,
futile, and temporary. This is the God who designed
life under the sun to be frustrating, and He's designed it so that
we might fear Him. For when God first made a man
having a glass of blessing standing by, let us, said He, pour on
him all we can. Let the world's riches, which
disperse at lie, contract into a span. So strength first made
a way, then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honor and pleasure. When
almost all was out, God made a stay, perceiving that alone
of all his treasure rest in the bottom lay. For if I should,
said he, bestow this jewel on my creature, he would adore my
gifts instead of me, and rest in nature, not the God of nature,
so both should losers be. Yet let him keep the rest. but
keep them with repining restlessness. Let him be rich and weary, that
at least if goodness lead him not, yet weariness may toss him
to my breast." This is the God who frustrates that we might
fear Him. It's only part of the message. The other part of the message
and here's the point of the six epicurean sounding refrains.
God has designed life to be frustrating that we might fear him. God has
designed life to be fulfilling for those who fear him. I'm not going to take the time
to read the poem in Ecclesiastes three. You know what this is
time for this and a time for this and a time to this 14 pairs
of contrasts. These two points, that God frustrates,
that we might fear, and God wants life to be fulfilling for those
who fear Him, are wedded together in that poem in Ecclesiastes
3. I want you to read the conclusion of that. What do people get for
all their work? Chapter 3, verse 9. I have seen
the burden of God has placed on us all. Chapter 3, verse 11. Yet God has made everything beautiful
for its own time. Beautiful, complete, perfect.
That is to say, that's the point of this times poem. God has ordained
every area of life. He has infused every area of
life for meaning. From times of war to peace to
death to birth, everything has been ordained by God, and God
looks at it and says, that's just perfect. That's not a to-do list for us.
Elementary school teacher who said there's a time for everything
it's time to get out your paper and do your homework That's not
the point of the poem. It's not a to-do list for us.
It's telling us what God has done He has created everything
for its purpose And then we're told in verse 11 again he has
planted eternity in the human heart and But even so, people
cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to
end. He has put eternity in their
hearts. God hasn't designed this life
to give us the satisfaction we crave. This life is temporary
and can never satisfy an eternal being. That's the problem. You're asking the creation, wine,
women, pleasure, mirth, to do something it can't do. Because God designed you to be
eternal. Verse 12, so I concluded there's
nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as
we can. And people should eat, drink,
and enjoy the fruits of labor, for these are gifts from God.
Well, how does that follow? I thought you just said it can't
ever make us happy. Well, keep reading. Verse 14,
I know that whatever God does is final. See, that's the point
of the poem as well. He's done it. Nothing can be
added to His times that He's ordained or taken from it. And
God has ordained everything that people should fear Him. See, that's the conclusion and
now the penny drops. People who fear God realize that
God has ordained every part of life and are able to enjoy life
for what it is. Not as something ultimate, but
as a gift from God. It's the fear of God, awareness
of His absolute sovereignty that enables me to drink down life
with both hands. When sorrow comes, I can run
to it with joy-filled tears because it's from His hand. When laughter
comes or when it's time to party, I enjoy it more than anyone else
because I know this too is from the good hand of God. But here's
the twist. Because I fear God, I won't overreach. That's the problem with most
people. They ask this life to do something it was never designed
to do, to give them ultimate satisfaction, and they overreach. But because I fear God, I won't
overreach and expect more out of this life than God intends.
What I'm saying is that no one should enjoy a vacation at the
beach, a fall day, a glass of wine more than a Christian should. No one. But every Christian knows the
enjoyment that comes from a vacation and a fall day is temporary and
limited. And so when suffering comes to
a Christian he can run to it with joy because he knows that
it too is from God and it's only a vapor. It's only temporary. The fear of God allows me to
enjoy life to the fullest, even sorrow, without despair. This
life is fleeting, but I can enjoy it. It's a gift from God. It frees me. Fearing God frees
me to enjoy this life more than anyone else, and at the same
time it moderates my joy and my expectations because I know
this is only temporary. So when your spouse dies, You're sorrow, you're sad, but
your life isn't ended because you say, well, what did you expect?
What did you expect? When you're treated unjustly,
Ecclesiastes says, well, what did you expect? That's what life
is like here. There's another twist as well.
Fearing God tempers my pursuit of joy in this life because I
know that God will judge and evaluate my life in the end.
That's the last verse of this entire book. 1214. Fear God. Verse 14. God will judge us for
everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or
bad. So because I know life is temporary,
I won't overreach and seek more satisfaction out of it than I
should. Because I know that God will
evaluate me, I won't overreach and indulge in this life more
than I should. The fear of God frees me to enjoy
life, and it also puts a limitation and boundaries on my enjoyment
of life. Fearing God allows me to live
with the mysteries of life, the injustices, the wicked living
long and the righteous dying young. It allows us to enjoy
life to the fullest without overreaching because he will judge us and
it's only temporary. Now let us hear the conclusion
of the matter this morning. What will it be for you, friend? The fact that he says the conclusion
of the matter is to fear God is also a call out to all of
us. You must fear God. Will you let the futility and
frustrating aspects of life lead you for the first time or again
and again back to this all-satisfying God? You see, fearing God and
keeping His commandments is not the way to please God. It's a
way to respond to everything that God has done in this life. And what He's done in this life
ultimately comes to us through His Son, Jesus. I don't fear
Him to get Him to love me. I fear Him because He has loved
me. And that, friends, is the whole
surging, pulsating motion of Ecclesiastes as it moves forward
to the cross. Summarizing and paraphrasing
how one writer comments on Ecclesiastes, The despair of Ecclesiastes is
experienced by Jesus' despair on the cross. Jesus has redeemed
us from this futile, frustrating, temporary life by entering into
it and subjecting himself to it. He is the Son of God, but
nevertheless, he came to experience the vanity of the world so he
could free us from it. As he hung on the cross, his
own father deserted him. He is the righteous man in Ecclesiastes
that dies young before his time. At the very moment he was on
the cross, he experienced the frustration of the world under
the curse in a way no one else ever has. Christ redeemed us
from the curse of the law of life under the sun by becoming
a curse for us. And as a result, Jesus has restored
meaning to wisdom, to labor, to love, and to life. And now
we can enjoy it for what it is and to the fullest. Because after
all, by facing death, Jesus conquered the biggest frustration in Ecclesiastes. Death happens to us all, sooner
or later. But for the believers, death
is not the end of all meaning. but the entrance into the very
presence of God. The cross and empty tomb redeem
us to enjoy life and not to set our hope in this
futile, fleeting, temporary life. Fear Him. Fear Him and keep His
commandments. or you will die in this futile,
frustrating, temporary life.
Message of Ecclesiastes: The God Who Frustrates and Fulfills
Series OT Book Overviews
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. – Macbeth
| Sermon ID | 8210110145965 |
| Duration | 1:03:32 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Ecclesiastes |
| Language | English |
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